This time it was not Lord Hanuman, but the poor decision-making of the political leaders combined with several global economic factors that set Sri Lanka in flames. A state of emergency was declared in Sri Lanka. This month, after the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka resigned from his post, the Sri Lankans went on a rampage across the nation and set the PM’s residence and the g
The Congress is scheduled to hold a Chintan Shivir (meaning, ‘introspection camp’) from May 13th to 15th in Udaipur and it has identified six specific areas for introspection. These are 1. Political 2. Social Justice and Empowerment 3. Economy 4. Organization 5. Farmers and Agriculture and 6. Youth and Empowerment. Around eight to 10 leaders have been entrusted each of these six are
India has the largest share of the deprived and the marginalized among the 1.3 billion-plus, out of the 7.9 billion-plus inhabitants of the world, who are said to be living without shelter or basic amenities required for human existence. Clearly, we need to introspect as to why despite being the fourth or sixth biggest economy in the world alongside our highly acclaimed democratic governance st
On April 4, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its 6th Assessment Report that discusses its findings to mitigate the impact of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The report brings to our notice that a global temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius in the near future will constitute a “critical level”, leading to significant risk to humans and ecosystems and h
The Sri Lankan economy is undergoing a twin crisis: debt and foreign exchange crisis. The total current external debt for Sri Lanka stands at $45 billion. However, in February 2022, the country only had $2.31 in foreign exchange reserves. Due to low foreign exchange reserves, the country is unable to pay for essential commodities and is hence enduring shortages of food, medicine, fertilizer, an
Merger as a corporate strategy involves two companies coming together to form a new legal entity under a common corporate name. Mega merger deals have always attracted considerable attention from all stakeholders including customers, employees, and investors. Never mind the scale and magnitude of merger, the prime objective of such an activity always revolves around these major areas: Greater a
Merger is a corporate strategy involving two companies to combine and form a new legal entity under a common corporate name. Merger deals between industry rivals have always attracted considerable attention from all stakeholders including customers, employees, and investors. Stakeholders place special emphasis on issues like expected synergies, economies of scale, increased market share and the
I remember in 2013, the highlight of the Oscar ceremony was the accidental fall of Jennifer Lawrence, as she was climbing the steps to receive an award. What was remarkable was the way she graciously made fun of herself while collecting the award. Her conduct was humbling and is still remembered fondly. Coming to 2022, this incident seems to be a blip compared to the Will Smith-Chris Rock contr
In the early days of human civilization, man had to work all seven days a week as a hunter-gatherer in order to meet his basic needs. As time went on, man developed tools and machinery and with the rise in capitalism came the age of the industrial revolution. During this time, factory workers were required to work for about 16 hours a day, six days a week. A couple of centuries and a good deal
The Swachh Bharath Abhiyan was launched in 2014 to eradicate open defecation (OD) by 2019 and make India open defecation free (ODF). The program focused on providing subsidies for the construction of toilets to remove the financial constraint faced by the households as well behaviour change communication (BCC) campaigns to help people recognize the harms of OD. One of the less di
Raphael Lemkin`s discourse on genocide followed by a UN debate on issues like Nazi offences against Jews, the sordid tale of Bosnian Serb aggression against Bosnian Moslems, and details of the Jewish Holocaust had exposed me to such crimes against humanity in my student days. Incidentally, when I joined the Indian Police Service and was allotted the Bihar cadre, I was faced with commonplace cri
The World Happiness Report 2022 ranks India at 136th position, or tenth from the bottom of the list. Among 146 countries, Finland tops the list, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Luxemburg, according to the report released recently. India’s performance created a stir as it was widely criticized by the opposition parties. They attributed the low ranking to grow
The PEW Research Center released a report on the Indian attitudes towards gender roles, at home and at society at large. The findings are based on a survey of around 30,000 people conducted in 2019-2020 or pre-COVID-19 period. [Read the report here: https://www.pewforum.org/2022/
After the results of the five state assembly elections were announced on March 10th, there has been so much analysis from several perspectives. But if it is to be summed up in just one word, it is ‘Labharthi’, either actual or latent, who have called the shots. ‘Labharthi’ is a Hindi word, which means ‘beneficiaries’ of welfare schemes of the government.
The tensions between Ukraine and Russia are seeing new heights. All the media outlets, leaders of powerful countries, social media users and citizens all over the world are witnessing, and talking about, the historic and horrific progression of Russia’s invasion on Ukraine and the subsequent military events and evacuation stories that have taken place in the most recent days. Even though
India is likely to be the most impacted country by the effects of climate change and the most impacted large country.The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report on Climate Change (2021) outlines speed of environmental damage and global warming is far starker than visualized earlier, thus calling for immediate and transformative actions that have wide ramifications for the female population in Indi
A few days to go, when results of elections to five state assemblies will be announced on March 10th. At stake are 689 assembly seats, in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur. BJP has the most at stake, in retaining 405 seats it won in last 2017 elections, while Congress won 140 seats last time. AAP which won 20 seats in Punjab faces a moment of reckoning: can it taste power beyo
The ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis, which has resurfaced the dirty WW (world war) word to the horror of a world just trying to come out of a crippling pandemic Covid-19, has reached a stage where next 24 hours are critical in many aspects and will shape the contours of international relations. First, the encouraging news. Ukraine and Russia have agreed to talks at a venue n
Gladstone, the well known British Prime Minister observed in the 19th century, “Here is my first principle of foreign policy; good government at home.” How interesting and how cherish-able, but alas, how impractical for our brand of political classes! Presently we are gripped with election mania in the country and the flavour of the season is freebies. So ask for anything, it will b
On February 11, 2022, a 190-page SEBI final order was issued in relation to governance issues at India’s largest stock exchange, National Stock Exchange (NSE), particularly during the tenure of and relating to the conduct of the former MD & CEO Chitra Ramkrishna, who held the topmost office in the NSE from April 2013 to December 2016. The findings of SEBI relate to the functioning of
