An ambassador might be an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country, but lower down the food chain the definition of the diplomat seems to be undergoing a change. If recent revelations are to be believed, diplomats are sent abroad to speak their version of the truth, and express it in as undiplomatic a language as possible. Thus we know what diplomats think of world lea
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee skimmed lightly over the problems afflicting the agricultural sector – food inflation, inadequate agricultural production, declining soil fertility, massive food wastage – and made no mention of agrarian distress or debt-driven farmers’ suicides. Those expecting reforms in agriculture and the public distribution system were doomed to disappoin
While India touts its youth population as its biggest resource, the condition of adolescent girls in the country in the world, according to a Unicef report. "Almost 47 percent of the girls in the age group of 11 to 19 years are underweight in India, which is the highest in the world," says the report which considered three criteria -health, nutrition and education - to
I recently met a number of village community leaders and innovators who had achieved remarkable results in collaboration with the Water and Sanitation Management Organisation in Gujarat in dealing with the problems of drinking water and sanitation. If through transparency, honesty and self-critical attitude, public officials can achieve so much in this programme, then lessons need to be
What makes the work on Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) appear in a different genre of scholarly work on gender, is that national budgets, policies and budgetary processes come to the centre stage of feminist scrutiny—an area that has hitherto been on the periphery of the gender agenda. Yet the gap between the pitch of the current spate of work on GRB and the potential that this line of
The media leaves little doubt about the dire straits that we find the tiger in today. Millions of dollars are raised at home and abroad to secure the future of this magnificent beast. But the people who are paying dearly for the conservation of the charismatic big cat are the unglamorous local people who have had to quietly forsake their homes and tradi
With opacity being de rigeur when it comes to state budget details, it is no surprise that the citizens remain dissatisfied with the spending heads public money goes down on. It is time that states stopped shrouding their budgets and allowed for greater access to the details for the public, Amitabh Mukhopadhyay, a director general at the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) of India tells
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday that the government will introduce a Food Security Bill that promises cheaper food grains to low income groups at the earliest in parliament which will help ease a prolonged pricing pressure that has battered low - income groups. While New Delhi-based think tank Centre for Budget and Government Accountability (CBGA) acknowledged the governm
Natural death comes as an unspectacular, unrevolting, inevitable end. It lacks the additional sensational dimension of untimely, forced or assisted demise. That is why it does not provoke quite the same reactions among those who survive the deceased. That is why it is easier to live with. In democratic politics, as in life, there is a natural order of a ruler’s ascent a
"What is wrong with your facebook?" was the first thing my long-lost friend asked when we met recently. To match her level of amusement, I asked with mock concern, "What is wrong with my facebook?" In reply, she consumed much of our conversation time over coffee. "You have the Delhi traffic police, the Mumbai traffic police, Jammu
India’s economic growth seems to be back to the pre-crisis trend, but inflation is worrying, says World Bank in its report titled ‘India Economic Update, December 2010’ released today. “Inflation came down to 7.5 percent in November but then accelerated again to 8.4 percent in December because of a renewed food supply shock,” said World Bank data based till
Fifty-nine people, many of them VHP activists returning home after campaigning for the Ayodhya temple, were killed as the S6 coach of the Sabarmati Express burnt. How did it happen? Take your pick: * According to the U C Banerjee committee (set up by the railway ministry when none other than Lalu Prasad was rail minister), there was no external input which led to the burning of the trai
In the age of twitter, written words run the risk of getting distorted. Ask Shashi Tharoor how he faced flak for describing general category air passengers as “cattle class”. He was rapped on the knuckles by his boss – Sonia Gandhi. But the twitter generation is irrepressible in not only giving expression to its feelings through smart usage
Urban development minister Kamal Nath’s assurance to members of parliament (MPs) and members of legislative assembly (MLAs) that they will have a greater say in the implementation of the second phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) is a welcome step. Even a cursory reality check will reveal that the scheme has at best been a partial
The problem with opening ceremonies is that there have to be closing ceremonies and that means more canned culture, corporate cupidity and mind-numbing visuals of boys and girls running aimlessly with coloured pieces of cloth. And what could be worse than all this? Lots. As the World Cup opening ceremony wound down (not that it ever would up) I was le
