The imminent sell-off of Air India (AI) has evoked a wave of nostalgia, particularly in people of the older generation. There was a time in the 1950s and 1960s when Air India and its country cousin, Indian Airlines, were the pride of the nation; AI was our own airline which was giving tough competition to first-world airlines. Though few Indians could afford to fly then, all Indians took immens
Ram Nath Kovind is widely tipped to get elected as the 14th president of India. His elevation will not be without surprise. Prior to his nomination as the NDA’s candidate, few in the political circles had any idea that he would emerge as the final choice for the office of the president. The entire process leading the election of the president brings out the manner in which Narendra Modi
Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya speaks to Governance now on how the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh has fared so far: You have come up with a report card of your 100 days in office after a humungous victory in Uttar Pradesh. Please share with us some of your experiences and achievement. I can
What is the biggest crisis India’s health care sector is going through? It is a loaded question. As you have seen in my book [‘Do We Care: India’s Health System’ Oxford University Press, 2017], whichever party that has been in power at the federal or at the states level has not given due attention to health. The doable thing within the cons
At its most basic level the union budget is a laundry list of the government’s projected receipts and expenditure – just like a typical household budget. But it is a document which all Indians eagerly wait for because everyone expects a discount, an exemption or a freebie. If you are slightly more curious and want to know the rationale behind the budget you would refer to the econom
The debate, arising out of the apprehensions regarding the imposition on our country of a code of conduct prescribed by the nationalist right-wing elements of society which has so far described itself as a proud, plural and diverse society, is not new. It is closely related to the movement for the creation of a Uniform Civil Code for the country that has been debated and discussed for over a hu
What is the role of CVC in curbing corruption and black money? Unlike many things in life, corruption is not episodic. It is not possible to talk of a completely corruption-free society. Corruption is an aspect of human nature which needs to be controlled and tackled. In India, corruption stems from various sources like systemic corruption – certain departments&
After the Narendra Modi government was formed in 2014, a series of measures have been introduced, like the legislative initiatives of amendments in the Prevention of Corruption Act, which are very encouraging. Today, a public servant finds corruption a risky proposition. Let us not forget that the CVC is only one of the many institutions in India with a defined charter. I am confident that we a
Here’s a quick brainteaser. Where is the world’s largest mass migration ever in human history taking place? No, it’s not from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan to Europe. No again. It’s not from the climate distressed African countries or from a destroyed Libya. No, yet again. It’s not from the seemingly volatile Latin American countries and Mexico to the United States an
How can we ensure that children taken away from labour will have a better future? By making education a fundamental right. After enacting the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act), it is a state obligation to do all that is necessary to get a child to school. Indeed, the amendment to the Child Labour Act, 2016 complemented the RTE Act in
President Pranab Mukherjee, who demits office in July, has been known as a man “of the constitution”, a believer in it, and was called to be its custodian during the last five years. His familiarity with the country’s constitution, as also the constitution of the Congress, was legendary and ‘Pranab da’ was the man to go to if any clarity was required on a provision
The seventh round of the Syria peace talks will begin on July 10 in Geneva which will be convened by the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura. Violence and persecution in places like Syria and South Sudan have displaced a record 65.6 million people worldwide who are either refugees, asylum seekers or internally displaced, the UN refugee agency said in June. In the meanwhile, t
In our system, the president is the head of the nation and the first citizen; his role and powers are almost akin to that of the queen of England or, say, kings in some other countries – ceremonial duties and safeguarding the constitution. Very often he is a public person with experience in politics, education (such as S Radhakrishnan) or maybe science (like APJ Abdul Kalam), who the ruli
At a conference high tea, a participant said, “It is scientifically proven that boys have monthly mood swings.” When probed about the source of this fact, he mentioned Google. Google, as a search engine, is accepted as the most reliable source of information, requiring no proof of credibility. Furthermore, words like “scientifically proven” or “scientifically estab
Ramin Jahanbegloo is a renowned philosopher who is now associated with the Jindal Global University. His latest work, The Decline of Civilization, calls for countering the ‘decivilising’ tendencies of our times by returning to Gandhi and Tagore. Jahanbegloo answered some questions on this subject in an email interview with Yoshika Sangal.
From the 1990s, a large number of engineering institutions were opened in India. Most of these institutions were churning out engineers specialising in information technology and electronics and telecommunications. Over the last decade, there was a hude demand for IT professionals for routine coding jobs. So these engineers were finding employment in the many software companies that were thrivi
What ails engineering education in India? Fifteen or 20 years back, a large number of industrialists and businessmen started engineering colleges, looking at them as a business opportunity. A large number of engineering colleges came up in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and also in Tamil Nadu. However, when the IITs – which pay teachers well and have a
In the 1990s in Kashmir, one could meet a militant (back then we didn’t call them terrorists) as easily as perhaps one’s neighbour. Hordes of them were returning from Pakistan, where they had gone to learn how to use a Kalashnikov and lob a grenade, many of them carrying the gun and the ammo in their backpacks. Women sang songs to welcome their ‘ghazis’ (warriors), not u
In a world that sees far-from-perfect global healthcare systems, lack of access to cancer treatment – a disease which currently is the second leading cause of death – is the most unjustifiable fissure in the global health terrain resulting in more than 8.2 million deaths every year. The inhumanity of the situation apart, where a person dies even when medicines for her cure exi
We have recently seen farmers from Tamil Nadu protesting in the national capital. Then Maharashtra farmers protested, deciding not to send their produce to cities. The agitation has now reached Madhya Pradesh, leading to killings. Why there is sudden farmers’ unrest in the country? I think we tend to miss the real point behind these episodes of farmers unr
