The story of every Kumbh mela, where a colossal tented city springs up on the banks of a sacred river every 12 years, is simultaneously the story of the eternal and the ephemeral, the mundane and the magnificent. It is the story of saints and moksha-seekers who are joined in their belief that, at a certain time of year, the holy waters contain the nectar of divinity that can free them from the
The Public Affairs Centre, a not for profit organisation, assessed states and union territories using data available in the public domain in key areas of governance and came out with ‘Public Affairs Index’, presenting an inter-state comparison. The states were compared on 10
An estimated half of India’s 1.2 billion people do not have access to toilets, forcing them to defecate in the open. Ram Kripal Yadav, minister of state for drinking water and sanitation talks about the challenges as well as the efforts to turn India into an open defecation-free country. What is being done for half of India which does not
In 1992, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Mexico City as the world’s most polluted city. After that, the Mexican government enforced stringent pollution control measures. Two decades on, it is still struggling to invent and reinvent policies to decrease vehicular and industrial pollution. In 2014, WHO described Delhi as the most polluted city in the world. In an email conv
On August 4, 1949, Dr BR Ambedkar, while brushing aside the objections that were raised in the constituent assembly over adoption of emergency provisions, such as the president’s rule in states, stated that “every part of the Constitution” could be abused for political purposes. He was right but no other topic has probably kept the nation as engrossed as finding ways to guard
Porbandar is a small city with narrow and congested lanes, bustling with people, shops, cows, and children. Amid this hustle and bustle is a beautiful big white building, Kirti Mandir – where Mahatma Gandhi was born. In sharp contrast to the chaos and noise outside, there is a sense of peace and calm inside the gates of Kirti Mandir. The place houses a museum that is 79 fe
Every few days one more child dies after receiving the pentavalent vaccine… Yet as these deaths mount, it has been announced that pentavalent vaccine is to be introduced in 3 more states… “These deaths have become so frequent that in Tamil Nadu, in spite of official denials, people have stopped going for vaccination and the immunization uptake has fallen by 2
Regional communications specialist at the World Bank, Vandana Mehra, on Thursday said that India is 32 years behind schedule in attaining its sanitation goal. “World Bank study shows that there is a gap of Rs. 2.5 trillion in sanitation cost in India. Twenty three percent of girls drop out of school only because they don’t have toilets. Over 60 percent of the population defecates in
The debate on what indeed is a ‘smart city’ continues to reverberate even almost a year after the mission on smart cities was launched in June 2015. Environmentalists keep insisting on clean and green dimensions as the key themes for smart cities, while sociologists talk of social equity, architects of signature structures, technologists of ICT as the main driver and town & coun
A staggering 72 percent of the respondents believe that management is likely to cut corners to meet targets, said the The Global Fraud Survey by Ernst & Young. Also, 70 percent of India respondents to the survey think that bribery and corruption are widespread in the country. Even allowing for a recent slowdown, the Indian economy continues to grow faster than many other G20
Gujarat witnessed violence in 2015 when the Patidar community stood together to demand reservation for Patels in OBC (Other Backward Class) quota. It’s been nine months since then but the simmering tension is failing to get doused. Still to find a silver bullet to deal with the ongoing Patidar agitation, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led Gujarat government was once
As the battle rages on and security forces and Maoists have sharpened their attacks on each other in recent times, there have been rumours and stray reports of excesses, in particular of an incident of mass rape. Now there’s official confirmation of it: seven tribal women were sexually assaulted by security personnel in one incident. National Commission for Scheduled Tribe
The great revolutionary Bhagat Singh is often remembered as shaheed-e-azam (king of martyrs) not just because of his supreme sacrifice, but also for his ideas. He was one revolutionary who gave a clear picture of his dream of a free India and wrote a lot to explain the philosophy of his organisation, Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. He was not fighting for political freedom only; his
The world over, we are struggling to make healthcare cost-effective, accountable and outcome-driven. But so far, it has been far from success. The Commonwealth Fund Report 2014 (‘Mirror-Mirror on the Wall’) analysed the top 11 healthcare systems. According to the report, the US is number one in healthcare spending but 11th – right at the bottom – in overall rankings. The
Like hundreds of other villages in its vicinity, Khushiyari in Varanasi district, was another village lost on the map of India, until a group of women popularly known as Green Gang brought it to public attention. Dressed in green sarees, these women took the pledge to eradicate drug and liquor addiction from their village. Starting this drive from their homes,
Oppression of the common man at the hands of the high and mighty was a central theme in many of the thought-provoking stories written by literary legend, Premchand. One such story was ‘Thakur ka Kuan’ (landlord’s well). The ambience, in the narrative, is set in a village where a man named Jokhu is shown to be pretty ill and yearning for water. There is a common
She still remembers that warm day in May in 2011, when the unimaginable happened and the bastion of the left rule came crashing down. One woman almost single-handedly achieved this feat. Sharbani, a housewife in south Kolkata, says she could not imagine such a day would ever dawn. For her college-going daughter Mou, that day had been awe-inspiring. “We saw Mamata-di walk, yes, walk all th
Delhi, a city with the foulest air in the world and currently home to an estimated 17 million people, will see a second round of road rationing during April 15-30. However, opinions are sharply divided on whether such a move will actually lead to cleaner air. One group of experts is all for a repeat of the scheme for the relief it gives to people from road congestio
Jehangir Khan is the director of Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF) and the UN Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) in the Department of Political Affairs (DPA) in the UN Secretariat. The plan of action (PoA) that UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon submitted to member states has been developed through the CTITF. Khan spoke to Shreerupa Mitra-Jha on the recently-held Geneva confer
It is a pity that caste even today has its defenders. The defences are many. It is defended on the ground that the caste system is but another name for division of labour; and if division of labour is a necessary feature of every civilized society, then it is argued that there is nothing wrong in the caste system. Now the first thing that is to be urged against this view is that the caste syste
