The human race (that means you) does incredibly stupid things. A friend of mine is stuck in India because his passport has expired. You nitwit, didn’t you see the date? How do you travel without checking your passport? Very easily. Like him, there are thousands every day caught in their own ignorance. We even lose the document. Every time I read in the classifieds co
Even though Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM’s) budget allocation for education has doubled between 2009 -2015, there is a drop of 11 percent students from municipal schools during this period. Despite education budget increasing from Rs1,255 crore in 2009-2010 to Rs 2,870 crore in 2014-2015; 51,649 students have dropped out of municipal schools. While per chil
I had been racking my brain all day today trying to pinpoint what exactly led to the tragic Uber cab incident in which a professional was raped by the driver of the cab she had hired through the aggregator. I made hectic calls to Meru, Mega and Easy cabs trying to find out, both as a concerned woman passenger and a curious journalist, what their safety policies are. In between I indulged in cur
It must be wonderful to sit behind a counter and accept and reject applications made to your country by people who want to go there and you don`t particularly want them to come. The power and the glory, for a brief shining moment I am a better man than you, Gunga Din. I am so pleased that Mr Modi has given the citizens of 53 countries the okay to pop in to India and get a visa on
The Subramanian Panel has made some path-breaking recommendations, but, unfortunately, has not followed the sound dictum of ‘maximum governance, minimum government’, and the work of new regulator should draw upon those recommendations. For example, recognise the potential of the digital transformation by providing clarity on the facts in resolving the inherent tensio
Kumi Naidoo, in his late 40s, is the first African to head Greenpeace International, the pre-eminent global green group of our times that is increasingly hogging headlines in India too. During his New Delhi visit recently, he sat down with Shreerupa Mitra-Jha to discuss the perspectives behind those headlines. Excerpts from the interview: What is the India conne
The world is now in an era where warfare will be asymmetric in nature and will be conducted using non-traditional means. Such means include, but are not limited to, cyberwarfare, economic warfare, food security warfare, water warfare, and information and social media warfare. Each of them can severely impact the efficacy of the traditional military capability. Each requires a different kind of
An estimated 35.8 million men, women and children around the world are today trapped in modern slavery, 20% more than previously estimated, whether through human trafficking, forced labour, debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, or commercial sexual exploitation. This is according to the 2014 Global Slavery Index (GSI), the flagship research report published today by the Walk
“Jo Kaha So Kiya (we did what we promised).” That is the slogan on posters prominently bearing the picture of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal. These are signs of the poll fever which is set to return to the national capital in a virulent form. While driving from Ghaziabad to Delhi one gets slightly distracted by such tall claims. What did he exactly do in
By 2025 India will be 38% urbanised 79 metropolitan districts will account for 50% of India’s income pool, with the top quartile accounting for about half of it 49 metropolitan clusters will account for about 77% of incremental GDP These 49 clusters will provide acc
From teaching chartered accountancy to running a textile weaving unit, real estate baron Niranjan Hiranandani has rich experience. He has been part of different state and national bodies for habitat and low-income housing for long, besides drafting Maharashtra’s slum rehabilitation policy. After their state-of-the-art mixed-user townships across 200 acres in Powai and Thane, the Hirananda
One of the most recurring motifs in the legal academy is the potential of travesty inherent in judicial systems. The prison statistic released by the national crime records bureau (NCRB) for 2013 bears solemn testimony to this fact. India is still governed by the Prisons Act of 1894 in which imprisonment seems to be the raison d’etre of the penal system. With a peculiar mix of colonial la
The prime minister’s call to 77 secretaries to the government of India to support a transformation as they prepare their budget proposals is timely. Linking it with ‘outcomes’, identifying deliverables and regular review meetings will not, however, lead to a transformation in the absence of hard political choices, identifying national priorities and re-allocating budgetary res
Conservation architect, author, consultant to international and national bodies on heritage preservation and winner of multiple awards, including the largest number of UNESCO Asia-Pacific awards for heritage conservation, Abha Narain Lambah wears many hats. Her vast repertoire spans preparing plans for restoration of ancient to medieval sites, regional and urban conservation plans, urban
Jual Oram, the union minister for tribal affairs, is a veteran Odisha politician who created history when he became the first tribal affairs minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. He was a face-saver for the BJP in Odisha in the recent Lok Sabha elections, winning the lone seat in the state. Oram discusses the Naveen government and the Odisha BJP with Shreerupa Mitra-Jha
Earlier this year, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement [LARR] Act, 2013 was brought into force, replacing the archaic Land Acquisition Act of 1894. The new legislation, in the works for several years, is an effort to address the historical injustice dealt upon land owners facing unscrupulous agencies of acquisitio
Amit Jain was just another young Indian, working in an IT firm in the millennium city – Gurgaon – who dreamt of a decent life and sought a house for himself. And that decision – to buy a house – turned his life upside down. In 2010, Jain, then in his late 30s, waged a battle against “corrupt developers” after his apartment was “wrongfully” cancell
Petronet LNG Limited (PLL) is a joint venture of the government of India and leading oil and natural gas industry players – GAIL (India) Limited, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL). Tasked with importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) and setting up LNG terminals in the country, Petrone
The old boys know it and so do the young upstarts. The world of the internet is never going to be the same. That’s the gist of two fascinating days of debates, discussions and breakout sessions at CyFy 2014: The India Conference on Cyber Security and Cyber Governance. Every single expert from almost every single corner of the networked world said the nuts and bolts of the internet governa
The Global Gender Gap Report, introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006, provides a framework for capturing the magnitude and scope of gender-based disparities around the world. The index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, political, education- and health-based criteria and provides country rankings that allow for effective comparison across regions and income groups and over tim
