Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will go to the Supreme Court-appointed panel on March 21 and answer questions about his alleged role during Gujarat riots. Beyond headlines in newspapers and talking heads on TV channels, do not expect much. Law is taking its course, and so is politics. In the eight years since the communal violence, Modi has offered no specific comments on what he d
For somebody who fails to summon enthusiasm over reservation or so-called positive discrimination anywhere, the fracas over women`s quota bill in Rajya Sabha proved a curiously captivating affair. If the Congress party had indeed orchestrated the entire show to deliver a bravura performance in what would otherwise have been a dull numbers game, it could have scarcely hoped to do better. As the
Almost half of the adult women are illiterate in the South Asia, says a UN Development Programme (UNDP) report. The gender gap indicators for South Asia are often close to or lower than those in sub-Saharan Africa. Some of the key findings of the report are: More women die in childbirth in South Asia – 500 for every 100,000 live births – than
Almost half of the adult women are illiterate in the South Asia, says a UN Development Programme (UNDP) report. The gender gap indicators for South Asia are often close to or lower than those in sub-Saharan Africa. Some of the key findings of the report are: More women die in childbirth in South Asia – 500 for every 100,000 live births – than
In one of his moments of candour, the legendary Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, India`s first civil supplies minister said, “We want legislators as political goondas.” Though Kidwai, himself a no-nonsense minister and a crusader against hoarders, might have said this in jest his words proved to be truly prophetic. The manner in which certain regional leaders are trying to bully the dominant view
The commercial division of high courts bill, 2009, already cleared by the Lok Sabha, has finally been posed before the Rajya Sabha select committee. The buzz is that the MPs found merit in arguments posed by Sunil Munjal of Hero and Manoj Kumar of Hammurabi & Solomon. The argument that our courts should take much less time to adjudicate commercial disputes is crucial to our competitiveness.
Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor....bureaucrat, politician, the rich and the powerful, they are the worst. Have you ever been in this position? You have an appointment in someone’s office and you make the effort to fetch up on time and you enter his office after the a mandatory wait outside and shake hands and sit down all cordial and pleasant and then he gets a phone call and sudd
The budget presented by Pranab Mukherjee on February 26 has shifted focus from ‘inclusive growth’ to economic growth, says a report prepared by the Centre for Budget and Government Accountability (CBGA). The report also points out how the budget missed out on the most cri
The Maoists now claim to have developed an “alternative development model”. If you remember, while dubbing the Maoists as the biggest internal security threat since 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has also been taunting the rebels and their civil society sympathisers by saying that they didn’t have an alternative vision or development plan. More than four years lat
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh`s repeated intervention to LK Advani`s contestation on the motion of thanks is rather unprecedented. Though Singh`s new-found belligerence vis-a-vis Advani has much to do with the muscles he acquired after the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and diminished stature of the BJP stalwart, his interventions singularly lacked merit. In fact, Mamohan Singh
When a ceasefire was announced with the most violent and dominant Naga insurgency group, the Nationalist Social Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah), in 1997, it was hailed as a big step to bring peace to the region and eventually integrate the fiercely independent Naga tribes into the national mainstream. Barring minor incidents of violence and violations of ceasefire agreements, peace has prevai
India cannot eradicate poverty by 2015: that is the assessment of the Social Watch, an NGO which monitors governance across globe. Its Basic Capabilities Index (BCI) was released in February. Social Watch coordinator Roberto Bissio told Governance Now that India’s progress has been fast in the recent years, but the poor are becoming poorer since the launch of economic liberalisation. Exce
Jeffrey D. Sachs, among the most influential voices on developmental matters, is the director of The Earth Institute, teaches sustainable development at Columbia University and is also special advisor to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. During 2002-06, he was director of the UN Millennium Project and special advisor to then UN secretary-general Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals th
It has indeed become clichéd to say that India is a land of paradoxes. However, the contradictions in Indian society and polity continue to baffle many scholars across the world. We are one of the few post-colonial countries that have witnessed successful functioning of democratic institutions over six decades. On the other hand, there are glaring deficiencies in our democracy and we hav
Over the past few years, parliament and MPs have faced continued criticism. There are a number of things that ought to be better with our national law-making body. But before launching into a tirade, it might be useful for us to pause and understand some of the issues and constraints that prevent parliament and MPs from delivering to their fullest potential. The constitution fram
It was the rarest of rare sights to see Lalu Prasad and Sharad Yadav proclaiming their unity against the Congress party. Sharad Yadav heads a party, Janata Dal (United), which is determined to wipe out Lalu Prasad`s Rashtriya Janata Dal from the face of Bihar. Then what could have brought these leaders together? If the proclamation of unity by disparate opposition leaders is to be taken serious
The four states in the south have performed better than the northern states on a variety of economic, social and political indicators, according to a report by the Bangalore-based Public Affairs Centre. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh are doing better on human development indicators compared to Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, it says. The report says
For the past few months, education minister Kapil Sibal has kept the nation enthralled with a slew of proposals to reform the education sector. Some are aimed at doing away with multiplicity of courses and entrance exams (core curriculum, single entrance test); some others with taking away pressure on children (raising age of admission to pre-school to 4 years, grading system for class X) and y
Dear Pranab-da, You will get this missive just as you are readying to present the budget and so may not have the time to read it. Not that it matters for even if I had sent it earlier, you wouldnt have had the mind. For I am not one of those elite Bombay Business Club wala or member of any big industry association or a pushy moneybag or part of any other powerful lobby who all have the
The practice of union railway ministers using the annual budget to please their states/constituencies is too common to merit comment. As with many other practices in the governance of our country, we have come to accept it as a given. We have also come to reason that there is nothing wrong in ministers showering goodies to specified voters if indeed the region they live in requires development.
