Sixty-seven years ago when the drafting committee led by Dr BR Ambedkar suo motu introduced the phrase ‘other backward class’ (OBC) in the constitution, questions were raised as to who would be grouped in these classes. While Dr Ambedkar convinced the constituent assembly members that the decision be best left to the discretion of governments in future, the Patel-like agitations for
Makarand Deshpande is a phenomenal actor who is also involved in writing, direction and production of plays and films in Hindi and Marathi. Known for his quirky and eccentric personality and roles to match, he gave impressive performances in Hindi films like Jungle, Sarfarosh, Swades, Makdee, and Darna Zaroori Hai. He also has 40 original plays to his credit and be
Old computers, mobile phones, refrigerators, television sets, all need to be discarded at some point. The end-of-life of such products needs proper waste management system. This is important since such devices contain over 50 types of hazardous materials. These include heavy metals like lead, cadmium, mercury and toxic chemicals like poly chlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and brominated flame retarda
A veteran of Bihar politics and a central minister, Giriraj Singh, talks to Sweta Ranjan about the role and initiatives of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) ministry. Excerpts from the interview: What is your ministry’s role in boosting the country’s economy? After agricul
Elhadj As Sy is the secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) since August 2014. IFRC is the world’s largest humanitarian network, comprising 189 member National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, a secretariat in Geneva and five zone offices. A Senegalese national, Sy has more than 25 years of experie
In the midst of the 2014 election campaign, a ‘new’ information was being widely circulated on social media: the ancestors of the first Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, were Muslims. According to this ‘revelation’, Nehru was the great-grandson of one Ghiyasuddin Ghazi who apparently took a Hindu name during the 1857 uprising to save his life. It was a clear attem
Tariff and taxes on liquor are extremely high in India. Liquor prices are higher than 95 percent of the countries in the world. At the same time, consumption of imported and domestic liquor has been on the rise over the past five years. An average Indian liquor consumer pays five to six times the manufacturing cost of the drink. Furthermore, farmers and small businesses also suff
With the NDA government’s focus on skill development, job creation and small-scale industry, union minister Kalraj Mishra has a tough task cut out for him. In an interview to Sweta Ranjan, he talks about the challenges and opportunities before his ministry. India is struggling to get rid of unemployment but creating jobs i
With death sentence becoming an exception, there may be an urgent need to revisit the scheme of punishments to keep deterrence intact, as the next most stringent sentence of life imprisonment generally gets reduced after remission to a jail-term of mere 14 years or a little more.
The big cogs in the Digital India juggernaut have started to move. As a great first step, 100 smart cities have been identified. For the number enthusiasts, the five states with the largest number of future smart cities would be Uttar Pradesh at 13, Tamil Nadu (12), Maharashtra (10), Madhya Pradesh (seven) and Karnataka and Gujarat at six each. And yes, as one would already know, each state and
Saroja Vaidyanathan is a well-known Bharatanatyam danseuse, choreographer and author. She is the recipient of several awards including the Padma Shree in 2002 and Padma Bhushan in 2013. She was also awarded the Sahitya Kala Parishad Samman by the Delhi government apart from the Kalaimamani title and Sangeet Natak Akademi award. She was conferred the title of &lsquo
Tragedies make for great stories and they can hardly escape drama. Greek philosopher Aristotle while revealing the defining elements of a tragedy said that tragedies should be “expressed in the form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear”. When tragedies are punctuated with sub-plots, where people are killed by their own families and that t
We live in a time where technology becomes outdated with the blink of an eye. With purchasing power turning stronger, and technology becoming economical, lifecycle of the product is shortened. Hence handling disposed electronic items, commonly called e-waste, is getting tougher and challenging. E-waste management is going to become a major problem in the country and yet the issue lacks seriousn
He acquired interest in analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies very early in his career while leading a team that was developing and implementing one of the first commercial AI systems for Digital Equipment Corporation (the company that was renamed as Compaq and later acquired by HP). In 2001 he set up iOmniscient, a video analytics company along with Ivy Li, as an offshoot
In 1974, engineering students in Ahmedabad protested a mess fee hike. They came out on streets, and they started receiving widespread support – against the backdrop of runaway inflation and an allegedly corrupt state government of Chimanbhai Patel. In no time, the protests snowballed into a statewide agitation, called Navnirman Andolan, which Wikipedia claims to be the only protest of its
Vincent Cochetel is the director of the Bureau for Europe at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He joined UNHCR in 1986, initially working as a legal/protection officer in various duty stations, mainly in Eastern and Western Europe. He subsequently managed UNHCR field offices in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Cochetel pa
Increasingly governments worldwide as well as in India are focused on providing citizen services and safety in the most seamless manner that can assist in development. The other name to this can be given as smart cities. An important aspect however remains the reach and coverage of government systems to the masses. While in the past, physical limitations (number of personnel or
The question of economic inequality was always a pressing one, but last year it threw up an unlikely best-seller, Capital by Thomas Piketty. Before and after Piketty, there has been a growing body of literature on the theme (a long list can be found at: inequality.org/books-inequality), including Joseph Stiglitz’s Price of Inequality and Angus Deaton’s The Great Escape for non-exper
Alyque Padamsee, the adman who has built over 100 brands, is also a bestselling author, actor and a great orator. He has 70 major English theatre productions to his name. Famous for his portrayal of Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Richard Attenborough’s film Gandhi, Padamsee has won many awards and is regarded as a genius. He is the only Indian to be voted into the International Clio Hall of F
Uttar Pradesh has performed veyr poor in centre’s Swachh Bharat test. In a ranking of 476 cities conducted by ministry of urban development, only one UP city, Etawah, has figured among the cleanest 100 cities. In fact prime minister’s constituency Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh is among the bottom few cities with poor sanitation practices. The temple town ranks 418 among 476 cities. Bula
