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And still we lost at Lords?!

Some years ago, Amitabh Bachchan was voted the Greatest Actor Ever to Wear Greasepaint in the History of Cinema on Planet Earth, or something like that. Sir Lawrence Olivier came second in this selection on the BBC website open to all citizens of the world. And Govinda made it to the Top Ten ahead of Marlon Brando. Mickey Mouse didn’t make it, Homer Simpson did. Last week came the cheerfu

Towns are small, not minds

One of the most important characteristic features of the innovation ecosystem emerging in India is that a lot of good ideas are found in small institutions in small towns. The connect between the real-life problems and the pursuit of their solutions seems quite high in such places. In Gujarat, the cooperation between techpedia.in of the Society for Research and Initiatives for Su

"We do not need economists, but philosophers to run the country"

India is big on theory when it comes to development and poverty reduction, says international political economist professor Jean-Pierre Lehmann. He says the approach should be pragmatic, not theoretical. The French economist, working in Switzerland for over 13 years, favours philosophers running the country - in line with philosopher Plato`s beliefs. In an interview with Trithesh Nandan

Don’t dump NREGA yet Mr Ramesh

His focus, he said, would be a successful rollout of the national rural livelihood mission (NRLM), a restructured form of rural development ministry’s Swarnjayanti Grameen Swarojgar Yojna (SGSY) and an effective implementation of the rural development ministry’s schemes in the left wing extremism (LWE) affected regions. No doubt, NRLM, with stated objective to reach out to

Transparency by default

Broadly speaking, there are two categories of information which a public authority has to provide under the Right to Information (RTI) Act - information sought by the applicant by filing application under the act and information made available suo-moto (without somebody asking for it). While the situation appears to be somewhat fine with the former category, it is the latter whic

Caste, religion-based inequity begins at village level

A new social audit belies the government`s claims of working towards social inclusion. A study by Delhi-based Social Equity Watch claims that dalits, tribal people and minorities are denied key infrastructure facilities at the village level itself. It also says that these facilities generally serve the general and backward castes (BC) people better. “The schedule castes (SCs), sch

Gita for dummies

An afternoon class is on in a primary school. Children are reciting the second chapter of Bhagvad Gita, in the Gujarati poetic translation by Kishorelal Mashruwala, a close associate of Gandhi. I am not sure if it was the third standard or the fourth, but much of the details are fresh in my mind. The music teacher’s voice, the rhythmic recitation, all of us getting supremely bored and wai

Not ABC but OBC

Some girls are special, not because they have special abilities, but because they learn what is OBC before ABC. Other backward classes. Like my domestic help’s daughter who thought, this was a class just like classes in school, which would get over once school did. But it didn’t. After she finished class 10, she learnt that OBC was more important than ABC. While apply

AI should learn from SAIL

There is a little bit of SAIL in everybody’s life. This line from Steel Authority of India Ltd’s ad campaign is now familiar to most of the Indians. The share sale of the state-run firm is expected to mop up Rs 6,000 crore at then current market prices around Diwali. Unbelievable! SAIL is the same PSU that in February 2000 posted losses of around Rs 1,500 crore but the government ca

Polytechnics deserve more attention

I mentioned in a previous column how small towns were producing big innovations, how small institutions were producing big minds and even bigger hearts. Concern for social needs, whether of small industry or the informal sector, is not found universally among all social, professional or educational segments. But those who have it often are motivated by the urge to produce innovations for larger

A letter to Aruna Roy

Dear Arunaji, Since the day Anna Hazare sat on fast at Jantar Mantar demanding the passage of a strong Lokpal bill, you have emerged as one of the most vocal critics of the anti-graft ombudsman proposed by Team Anna. You have expressed your disagreement through various newspaper articles and TV interviews. In this scenario, I doubt if many people know that it was y

Raining e-gov awards

When the Gyandoot project won the prestigious Stockholm Challenge Award in 2001, it was the first e-governance initiative that caught the attention of the whole nation. Dr Rajesh Rajora, the then district magistrate of Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh, became the e-governance champion of the nation. But a decade later no one is talking about the project or the champion behind its success. It is

Saving the dialogue

India’s financial capital, Mumbai, experienced yet another terrorist attack today that initial estimates say killed at least 20. Terrorists detonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in three separate locations of the city almost simultaneously. The first two blasts occurred at around 6:55 pm, one in a jewelry market and one in a business district in southern Mumbai. The third

Planning as if people mattered

The planning commission’s efforts to make a more participatory plan have received wide coverage. Its work with civil society organisations; its dedicated website, backed by a Facebook page—all these have been written about. This article explains what was done and how. In the last decade, fewer citizens, especially Gen Y, have had to remember that India still follows five-yea

Watchdog or a lapdog?

Just as it went after Team Anna for daring to question the government on its will to fight corruption vis-à-vis the Lokpal bill, a good section of the English media is now cross with the

Grassroots innovation challenges

A large number of grassroots innovations and traditional knowledge practices have been scouted through the Honey Bee Network. And yet, many everyday life problems still remain unresolved. The list below gives an idea of some such unsolved problems which are in need of urgent solution. We have to parameterise the problems, contextualise them and then pose a national challenge to address them in

CBI and RTI: why Vahanvati is wrong

An 11-page note dated May 9, prepared by attorney general Goolam E Vahanvati, has all you want to know about the exemption of the central bureau of investigation (CBI) from the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. CBI had sent its request for exemption from the RTI Act to the Department of personnel and training (DoPT) which forwarded it to the department of legal affa

Grassroots innovation challenges

One of the most important characteristic features of innovation eco system emerging in India is that lot of good ideas are found in small institutions in small towns.  The connect between the real life problem and the pursuit of their solution seems quite high in such places.  In Gujarat, the cooperation between SRISTI’s techpedia.in and Gujarat Technical University has une

Making it to a dream college

Atithi devo bhavah (Guest is God), for me, hold true as long as guests come for a short stay - unlike this distant cousin of mine from Bokaro, who had to stay with me for almost a month trying to land a Delhi University (DU) admission. I had no recollections of who she was and how we were related, but I was told that I had to take her around Delhi for four weeks. DU, after a

New Delhi and nuclear regime

In recent years, specifically after the civil nuclear deal with the US, India seemed to have emerged with a validated nuclear identity and was seen as being on the right side of the nuclear regime. This was a result of intense negotiations and particularly a great deal of effort put in by the George W Bush administration that not only acknowledged India’s so-called “responsible nucl

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


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