The Indian tiger`s roar wil drown out the Chinese dragon`s in 2012, if the latest forecast by the World Bank is anything to go by. The Bank predicts a higher growth for India vis-a-vis its neigbour in its economic outlook report, 2011 released on Thursday. China`s growth will lose steam in 2012, according to the Washington based international bank. “India will grow at 8.7 percent
Delhi Police is on way to giving Scotland Yard a run for its money. Or, is it? At least, the alacrity with which it made an incident of road rage in which a café manager was crushed to death by a Jet Airways pilot on Tuesday – an open and shut case, makes it appear so. The pilot’s car ran over the victim as he drove away after a heated argument following over
Recently, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit proposed a way to get homeless children off the streets. She had been on a visit to Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences in Bhubaneswar, Orissa. The institute run by Achyutananda Samanta, an entrepreneur, houses over 12,000 homeless children from the state`s 30 districts. The children cook their own food, have been taught to stitch their own uniform
India’s healthcare structure is best summed as inadequate and it eludes poorest of its citizen, says human rights activist and paediatrician Dr. Binayak Sen in an article in the Lancet journal, now jailed on the charge of sedition. “In India, we have gross inequity in health-care delivery, Sen wrote in the medical journal titled ‘Securing the right to health for
When I was at school, evenings always meant playtime, at the community park playground. Only when there was a local football orcricket tournament were we kids shooed away from the grounds. Even then the colony`s bylanes or someone`s courtyard were a tailormade substitute. But today, many children, my seven-year-old niece included, stay indoors. There is a dearth of community space, play
Many a time I have been asked whether women are allowed in mosques and whether they can pray like their male counterparts. The fact is that there is no verse in the Holy Quran that prohibits women from praying in mosques. Neither is there any authentic Hadith (anecdotes of Prophet Muhammad) on the same. In fact, there are various Hadith which prove that Islam allows women to pra
Pace of development in India is coming at a cost - to its forest and the people whose survival depends on it. These are people who live in the fringes of the society and the much-touted development has hardly touched their lives. And quite understandably they feel let down. As a result, they oppose the model of development which we celebrate. The indigenous people and the tribals are thus locke
China has proved it once more that it is always a step ahead of India. This time, the leap is in the healthcare sector. Recently, Chinese legislators were allowed to grill the ministers on issues of public hospitals’ reform and the session was made public through the Xinhua news agency. This was least expected of the communist China, which is facing problems in the healthcare not
Trudging through the treacherous, pock-marked road winding amidst the majestic Aravalli ranges, our ramshackle Tata Sumo took about three hours to reach Madri, a picturesque village in the Tribal Udaipur district of Rajasthan. Setting out from Udaipur we had travelled to this far flung region to meet Jagdish Meena, the sarpanch of Madri panchayat of Jhdol block, 50 km from the city.
Illegal working women hostel and paying guest accommodation have mushroomed in the city in the past few years. All thanks to the so-called strict policy and regulations of the authorised hostels for providing accommodation. Take for instance, All India Women Conference (AIWC) hostel on Bhagwan Dass road. Out of the several policies they have one is that they don&rsqu
The Radia tapes has once again thrown open the debate on privacy. Ratan Tata has approached the Supreme Court seeking to protect his privacy but the subject is not new to India. The apex court has dealt with the issue of privacy and phone tapping in a number of cases. It has also given guidelines on phone tapping which have taken the form of rules under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.
Struggling to bring down the whopping over 3 crore pending court cases in the country, the Law Ministry proposes to soon place before the Union Cabinet a comprehensive National Litigation Policy which aims at disposing of cases within three years. The proposed policy aims at reducing government litigation which forms a substantial chunk of pending cases. "The
The corporate world has donated to all the major parties and the BJP received the highest amount, Rs 297 crore, during 2007-08 and 2008-09, according to data obtained by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). “Bharti Electoral Trust has contributed Rs 17 crore to the parties, which is the highest amount by any of the corporate houses. In total they have made five co
The curtains may have come down on year 2010 but it has not done any good to my sense of anguish and hopelessness as a citizen of India – India that apparently has become corrupt to the core. Year 2011 may have dawned but it has not helped my new found belief that my country has lost its conscience completely. Wait. It has nothing to do with the rise of the Rajas and the Radias. T
Pune streets fall woefully short on pedestrian infrastructure, managing only a score of 54 out of 100 points, says a new survey prepared by Parisar, an NGO working for the sustainable development of the Maharashtra city. The report notes that footpaths of Pune, where available, are unwalkable and crossings difficult. According to the report, “It scored poorly on availabilit
Sitting here in Dubai I am stunned to hear that a person in New Delhi suffered a cardiac arrest and could not reach the hospital because they closed the roads for the PM’s cavalcade. Awesome. Technically, under any law of jurisprudence, the PM and his convoy are accessories before the fact and guilty of contributing to a death that may or may not have been avoided. Ergo, th
