By all accounts, Rahul Gandhi’s campaign from Phulpur in Allahabad on Monday proved to be a tame affair. His diatribe against Mayawati sounded like a usual political parody which is being drummed into the ears of the state’s electorate for years on end without any result. He expressed his anger against rising corruption in UP and increasing backwardness. But his silence on the corru
Professor Thomas Pogge of Yale University is leading a team of experts commissioned by the Oxfam to design an alternative index for calculating the number of poor people. Pogge, who believes most poverty figures calculated around the world are flawed, is also critical of the World Bank and the millennium development goals (MDGs) on extreme poverty concept. In an interview with Governance Now, h
The recent DLF order of the competition commission clearly brought into focus the plight of the real estate consumers who have long been grappling with the twin-challenges of one sided contracts favouring the developer/builder on the one hand and endless delays in legal proceedings on the other. The model Real Estate (Regulation of Development) Act (“the Real Estate Bill” for short)
First, a confession. I haven’t watched Big Boss 1 through 5 (faults on both sides, no doubt). Then, another: I am not likely to watch now that Swami Agnivesh has been paid or has paid up (depending on whom you believe) to become a part of it. Agnivesh means bright as fire, and some of his house mates certainly dress and act in a manner that suggests a fiery brightness or a bright fierines
After a failed visit to Delhi wherefrom he was expected to bring back his daughter and trying unsuccessfully to stash away a few tears, Muthuvel Karunanidhi is suddenly worried about the future of Indian democracy. In DMK mouthpiece Murasoli, he has written about his concern over the continued incarceration of his daughter Kanimozhi in connection with the 2G spectrum case. &ldqu
After much persuasion, the assistant commissioner of police at the Parliament Street police station calmed down a little. “Do whatever you want... but do not put our jobs at risk," said the ACP, after gulping a glass of water and adjusting himself in his chair. “Do the protest against increasing power tariffs or on any other issue. But remember two things: do not
Don’t trust economists! This is the underlying message currently echoing in several parts of the world. Leading the pack are economists themselves, call them ‘dissident economists’. Professor Joseph Stiglitz, world acclaimed economist and Nobel Prize winner, recently said in a talk in New Delhi, “I blame the economists. They provided some of the arguments that led people
India has the world’s largest number of poor people in a single country, according to the new report by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The report says that in a population of 121 crore, India has more than half of its population living below the poverty line. “India has the world`s largest number of multidimensionally poor, more than half of the populati
When it comes to companies bribing public officials when doing business overseas, India`s score has improved the most in a global index, rights group Transparency International said. Nevertheless, India continues to be ranked near the bottom of the global Bribe Payers Index, as there was a high likelihood of Indian companies paying bribes abroad. In a list of 28 countries, India
As the good word of Ram spread across centuries and continents, its narrative changed. It crossed the Vindhyachal, for example, and the Ramayana absorbed elements and motifs of the south Indian folklore. The language in which the epic was translated also made its presence felt: Sita in Sanskrit and Sitamma in Kannada have different shades of meaning which lead to different stories about her bir
The prime minister’s last letter to Anna Hazare wherein he had reiterated his commitment to deal with the issue of graft seriously wasn’t mere lip service. Just that his government seems to have begun it from Team Anna members only. In April, father-and-son lawyers Shanti and Prashant Bhushan faced allegations, long since discredited, that they undervalued property to
Kiran Bhatty is the national coordinator of the Right to Education Act with National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). She has worked in the field of education for several years and was earlier associated with the UNICEF. In an interview with Jasleen Kaur, she talks about the post-facto social audit, a pilot project, which is being conducted in 10 states, and of implementat
Justice (retired) Markandey Katju, the new chairman of the Press Council of India (PCI), is unhappy with the state of the India media – both the print and the electronic ones. In his interview with Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN, he says the media is not working for the interest of the people; is very often anti-people; sometimes it divides people; promotes superstitions; publishes paid news and
Since May 15, the ‘Indignants’ movement in Spain followed by ‘Occupy Wall Street’ demonstrations in the US, street protests have spread and plans are afoot to take them to 951 cities in 82 countries. It is against corporate greed and biting cutbacks in welfare measures. The root cause is really the increasing disparity in income and blatant display of unproductive expend
I must admit that I have found the intent of AK Ramanujan’s essay patently un-Indian not only because of the tone set by the Romila Thapar’s undesirable comments quoted by Paul but also because it seems that there is a sinister design to place a few exceptions and rare extremes in such a manner that they just appear to be five simple examples and thoughts on the 300 Ramayanas. After
The approach paper for the 12th five year plan (2012-17) has come under sharp criticism from the civil society groups, led by New Delhi based civil society organisation, Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA), which tracks government`s social sector policies. “The approach paper fell short of expectations. There is a sense of discomfort and a sense of dissatisfaction. We again went to GDP le
The slugfest between the centre and the Uttar Pradesh government continues on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MNREG) scheme in the state. After Jairam Ramesh’s letter to the UP government last week, Mayawati has accused the rural development minister of playing politics. With the state elections around the corner, Mayawati has rubbished Ramesh`s allegations by attribut
Despite Gujarat`s impressive growth rate, the state trails less developed ones like Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam when it comes to malnutrition. A new report places Gujarat at the thirteenth position on a list of states based on hunger. “Among the industrial high per capita income states, Gujarat (69.7 per cent children up to age 5 anaemic and 44.6 per cent malnouri
Anna Hazare has announced that he will continue with his maun vrat, vow of silence, citing health reasons for his decision. The veteran Gandhian has said that silence helps him recover from swelling in his feet. No, Digvijay Singh hasn’t issued a comment on Anna’s statement yet. But he will. He always does. Nobody knows what his real job is, but this one he performs w
The equations of electoral arithmetic can confound even the most profound of mathematical geniuses. Numbers are the bedrock of any exact science and there is no science as precise as mathematics. That is till it mingles with the rough and tumble of the dust bowls of heartland politics. Then blurriness replaces precision, numbers throw up unexpected combinations and bizarre marriages get pulled
