The comptroller and auditor general (CAG) of India has pulled up the environment ministry for failing to implement its projects of afforestation, biodiversity, pollution control, environmental education, besides its lack of monitoring mechanism. The thrust of the report, tabled in the parliament on Friday, was to highlight issues relating to the adequacy and effectiveness of prog
I was struggling to make space between two seats in an overcrowded ladies compartment of the Delhi Metro for a little girl to sit when my phone beeped. It was my mother. The message said: Women are beating men in the ladies compartment of the Guragon-bound train. They are showing this on TV. Policewomen are making them do sit-ups. The text was followed by a smiley. My mother hardly tr
Dimming the euphoria over the JD (U) and BJP combine sweeping the Bihar assembly election, a new report says that the number of candidates with criminal cases filed againt them and crorepatis has increased in the 2010 assembly elections. Leading the list of fielding maximum number of MLAs who have criminal cases pending against them is JD (U). “141 newly elected MLAs (59 p
Long considered unsafe for women, Delhi is seeking to change its image with the government partnering the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). “As Delhi is the destination point for number of problems, focus is on safety of women in the city,” Rajiv Kale, Director, Delhi government`s department of women and child development told Governance Now on the s
"Yahan se pachaash- pachaash kosh door gaon mein jab bacha raat ko rota hai to maa kehti hai bete so ja, so jaa nahin to Gabbar Singh aa jayega.” This immortal dialogue of Gabbar Singh, one of the most popular villains of Hindi cinema, remains firmly etched in our minds. As Nitish Kumar is applauded for his hard fought and well-earned victory
For the past four decades, Barauni assembly constituency of Begusarai district in Bihar was held as an impregnable communist bastion. Not so any more. The CPI’s citadel fell this morning in face of a saffron surge. The BJP won this seat by a huge margin. The fall of Barauni assembly signifies many things. The assembly segment known as industrialised segment of Bihar was the cr
Pneumonia claims the lives of 3,70,000 children aged under five in India, according to a survey by the International Vaccine Access Centre (IVAC), on behalf of the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia thus putting the country`s pneumonia-related deaths figure at the top across the world. The report also said that 1.6 million children under five die every year worldwide due to
Bhupinder Singh Hooda is one of those leaders who have a 360-degree understanding of politics and governance. He was a member of the Lok Sabha for four terms, leader of opposition in the Haryana assembly for one term, and now he is in his second term as chief minister. In this interview with Sweta Ranjan, Hooda discusses his plans for industry as well
As the microfinance institutions (MFIs) in India are facing rough weather due to allegations of suicides after defaulting on high interest rates charged on the loans, the rating agency, Crisil has given further blow to the MFIs by downgrading status of 12 MFIs. Crisil has put 12 MFIs on ‘Rating Watch with Negative Implications’. “Six of these MFIs have ratings
For many, many of us, the nightmarish picture Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman present in their book “Manufacturing Consent” is a bit outlandish. They argue that many respected and liberal news media organisations actually work in cahoots with corporates to control public opinion. But, we think of our favourite newspaper (or news anchor) and their scoops and stings and it is
[Nikam published this column on May 12, 2010 on his website. See the original here.] For the last nearly a month, the name of Niira Radia has been in circulation. Two publications, Outlook and The Pioneer, raised the issue first almost simultaneously. While Outlook concentrated on th
The spectrum scam is not just about A Raja. To believe that he could have single-handedly caused a loss of Rs1.76 lakh crores is to overstate his capacity and calculating abilities. Nor is this a system failure: On the contrary the system that includes various ministries, departments, official watchdogs like CAG and the judiciary has actually worked. The media again did its bit while whistleblo
India has performed poorly in providing social security protection to its people until recently with "very high vulnerability" to poverty and informal labour practices in the world, according to the International Labour Office. In its first comprehensive `World Social Security Report`, which was released yesterday, the ILO has suggested that India has not done enough in
The annual temperature in some parts of India is set to rise by 1.7 degree Celsius-2.2 degree Celsius (with 1970s as base year) by the year 2030, affecting the four sectors, namely, water, forest, health and agriculture, a report prepared by India’s network for climate change assessment (INCCA) said. The ‘Climate Change and India: a 4x4 assessment’ report, which was re
The corrupt have drained India of $462 billion (about Rs 20.8 trillion) between 1948 and now, says a report by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based think-tank. The report mentioned that India’s aggregate illicit flows are more than twice its current external debt of US $230 billion. “The report finds that the poor state of governance is reflected in a
The Gate is back, long live the Gate! One of the enduring rules of the media teetered on the verge of being abandoned this fortnight before the right thinking restored it to its primacy. Headline writers and TV anchors seemed to have shut the gate behind them when ‘Kargilgate’ erupted. “God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world” about sums it up. Or if
Sleaze sells. Makers of reality shows such as Bigg Boss and Rakhi Ka Insaaf know this well. So do those who run the so-called news channels which keep decrying such shows only because that gives them an excuse to play the visuals from these shows, mount protracted discussions and draw viewers to their own channels. It is manifestly clear that nobody in the media has been interested in self-regu
As the controversy surrounding microfinance companies in India refuses to die down, a new report scalds the sector saying that it has drifted away from the focus of its work - social good. “The poor do not seem to figure highly in their scheme of things,” the report says. The report titled ‘Microfinance India: State of the Sector Report 2010’ also question
The man may still not be the foreign office’s answer to E Sreedharan. He certainly deserves the MVC for bravery. His mission is to do “strange” things like listening and engaging with people across the world. Strange because most rational diplomats would think Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are either for their kids or radioactive no-brainers for trouble. Some maintain dis
In its latest report, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) paints a bleak picture of global unemployement rceovery, calling it ‘volatile and uneven.’ The report says, “In 2010, the global economy seems to have entered into a new stage where divergence and volatility in number of labour markets have significantly increased and uncertainty over the stability of recovery r
