Travelling somewhere with my small cousin, Prabha Prakarshiki, is a nightmare for my uncle and aunt. She doesn’t sit still, runs in the train compartment, screams a blue streak in the airplane and asks her parents to sing songs to her until she is asleep. Looks much like any normal kid in the house. But autism makes Prabha special. Drooling, crying and responding in a spec
The silly season is upon us, again. Policy makers and experts have taken their positions debating threadbare whether the planning commission’s recent report claiming that poverty has fallen on the basis of NSSO data for consumption expenditure between 2004-5 and 2009-10 in consonance with the Tendulakar committee’s poverty line prescription – Rs 28 per capita per day in urban
Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University was established by the government of NCT of Delhi in 1999. It is an affiliating and teaching university and awards degrees like BTech, MTech, MCA, MSc (environment management), MSc (forensic science) and MSc (criminology). Its registrar, Dr Bhaskar P Joshi, has done his masters and doctoral degrees in anthropology from Lucknow Unive
Strange things are happening in the defence administration of the country. The dead past is now being dug up from the back of the graveyard just like the future was being fought tooth and nail in the court until sometime ago. The present tense is simply the writing on the wall. When an army chief crosses swords with a defence minister, perhaps such is the order of the day (the use of oxymoronic
The common man is likely to trust non-governmental organisations (NGOs) more than his government, says a report published last month. The Edelman Trust Barometer survey found that NGOs are the most trusted institutions in the world, including India where they have faced charges of opaque funding and misuse of funds from foreign donors. Governments, across the world, were in disfavour of their p
As managing director of Accenture’s health and public service business in India, Krishna Giri is responsible for all of the firm’s work for the national and regional governments of India. He discusses the potential of mobile governance in an interview with Samir Sachdeva. How do you see the emergence of mobile governance as an extension of e-governance, globally and
In 2009, four members of British Parliament`s upper house — the House of Lords — were accused of accepting bribes to introduce motions for amendments that would have helped change the law to benefit a Chinese businessman wanting to expand a chain of stores in the country. Later, it was found out that the `Chinese businessman` was a front for another party and was completely fictitio
Just about a year ago, when Anna Hazare started his anti-corruption movement from Jantar Mantar, few would have predicted the reception he was to get: passionate support from masses across the country along with fierce criticism from some commentators. The movement became a platform for the expectations of the common man. Be it at the India Gate or at the Ramlila Maidan, the huge support the Ga
The recent 28th shodhyatra in Mizoram has been quiet cathartic for me. I had been aware of the need to conserve water and the proper practices we should follow in our daily life. But I must confess when I washed my hands in the morning, the tap used to remain open while scrubbing soap. It is difficult to do so now. I want to share the experience which has made me feel embarrassed about my own b
Indian cities lose almost 45 percent of their water supply, thanks to huge distribution and transmission losses, says a new study. “Rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge, protection of existing local water bodies, relocation of non essential water intensive activities (e.g. soft drinks or water bottling plants),” are the need of the day in cities, according to the study
The supreme court on Tuesday dismissed the union government’s petition seeking review of its judgment in the Vodafone tax case - giving the much needed consistency and finality to its earlier said judgment. The fine print of the newest order is not yet available and thus reliance has been placed on newsreports. Following the verdict of the supreme court on January
A disconnect runs through the nomenclature, preamble, objectives and content of the National Food Security Bill, 2011. The Preamble goes beyond the Title and states that the Bill provides “for food and nutritional security in human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable price….” Even on cursory reading, it is clear that
Going by the controversial daily consumption number of Rs 28.65 per day, one out of every three Indian is poor as per the new Planning Commission`s estimates which has pegged the poverty ratio in 2009-10 at 29.8 per cent, down from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05. An individual above a monthly consumption of Rs 859.6 in urban cities and Rs 672.8 in rural areas (at per 2009-10 prices) is
Justice Pranab, in the budget 2012, proposes clarificatory and retrospective amendments to Sections. 9 and 195 as if to restate the legislative intent regarding the scope and ambit of these provisions, thus far not expressed in the language/text of the provisions. Following are the proposed amendments to Sec 9 and other related sections of the income tax act:- (i) Amend section
A disconnect runs through the nomenclature, preamble, objectives and content of the National Food Security Bill, 2011. The Preamble goes beyond the Title and states that the Bill provides “for food and nutritional security in human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable price….” Even on cursory reading, it is clear that thes
India is losing thousands of crore per year due to illegal or unreported fishing from its water by foreign vessels, said a report released by international NGO Greenpeace. “India’s lucrative commercial fish resources, including one of world’s last healthy tuna stocks are being systematically exploited by fishing vessels of foreign origin as a result of the letter of pe
The Election Commission of India as an institution enables the people of India to exercise their right to choose a government of their choice through free and fair elections, held periodically. The underlying assumption being that the participation of people in adequate numbers is guaranteed and the role of the commission is merely to facilitate and administer the election process. The reality
In the last few weeks, the international media has been flooded with articles asking "What is Iran thinking?” This is indeed an important question and I certainly don’t have an answer nor does my article intend to provide one. However, this article suggests that somewhere debates have lost sight of what I believe is the core problem and therefore to even try and understand what
Dr. Manmohan Singh Prime Minister of India &nbs
When union steel minister Beni Prasad Verma was booed in Rahul Gandhi`s presence in his constituency in Gonda during the campaign, I asked a senior journalist friend who belongs to the city if he found it surprising. ‘No,’ he said matter-of-factly. “Had Rahul not been there, Beni would possibly have been roughed up,” he added. The poll results have reflected
