India has made best progress in terms of sending children to school in the last five years, according to a recent report of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) “India has made the largest progress in absolute terms of any country in the world over the past five years, reducing out-of-sc
With all Congressmen and women waking up to realise the real value of LK Advani ever since he is said to have said that Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s humility reminds him of Vajpayee, and is said to have been quiet on Narendra Modi’s humility, Digvijay Singh is the man of the moment for all reporters on the BJP beat. As of Monday afternoon, within an hour or two after Advani
The ‘caged parrot’ has suddenly acquired the claws of a crouching tiger, the central bureau of investigation, that is. And all it took for the investigating agency to discover it had a spine was harsh words from the supreme court. The swift action on railway minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and his nephew in the cash for post scandal is a case in point. In continuing wit
The government sees in the yellow metal a detriment to the nation’s economy. Addressing a meeting of Indian Banking Association’s annual general meeting in Mumbai on Thursday, finance minister P Chidambaram urged banks to discourage their customers from investing in gold. He also said that banks should stop selling gold coins. “Banks have a role to play in dampeni
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently issued a set of clarifications on the numerous queries that had flooded its mailbox, 443 to be precise, following its announcement of the guidelines on issuing fresh banking licences in February this year. It has been a decade since RBI issued banking licences in the country (the last two being issued in 2002-2003) and keeping in mind its financi
When I met Jiah Khan for a film interview segment I hosted as the programming head of Janmat (now Live India), I was rather surprised by the innocence sitting so cheerfully on her face, almost teasing her naughty image. Bubbly, attractive, sultry, giggly and full of life, the 19-year-old gulped down Red Bull, can after can. “I cannot live without Red Bull,” she told me. She was at e
Tribal affairs minister Krishan Chandra Deo speaking to Business Standard urged that his ministry be taken on board before any “knee-jerk reaction” is taken on the Chhattisgarh killings. Deo, for long, has been a votary of grassroots development to tackle the Naxal menace. And being the minister in charge of the tribal affairs, it is only logical to take into account his poi
“I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet,” said Mahatma Gandhi, who laid great emphasis on the righteousness of means and not just on the goals. Unfortunately, however, for e-governance in India and the national e-governance plan (NeGP) that completed its seventh year on May 18, there have been instances of the means being questionable. While
The companies, which are under scanner after common investors complained of irregularities, are not chit funds at all, going by their filings with the registrar of companies (RoC), says a report in the Mint. All these firms, including Saradha, were registered with the RoC as commercial and industrial enterprises. So they are not essentially chit funds. Had they been chit funds, they wo
As the Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) 15-year deadline to eradicate poverty will miss the target, a new report by the 27 eminent citizens of the world has set a new deadline – 2030 – to end extreme poverty. The new report has set up the target of reducing poverty through sustainable development. “This report sets out a clear roadmap for eradicating extreme
With the demise of professor Vina Mazumdar in the early hours of May 30, an era in the history of women’s movement in India has come to an end. She was 86, and was probably the last of a generation of women’s movement leaders that includes professors Lotika Sarkar (who passed away a few months ago) and Neera Desai (who died in 2009). Mazumdar was a national research professo
On Wednesday evening, with an A-lister audience breaking into applause, three aspiring gladiators in the national arena vowed to join forces. It was hard not to egg on such an instinctive, if romantic, compact; harder still as I found myself on the perch of moderator. For those just joining in, Arvind Kejriwal of Aaam Admi Party (AAP), the best known among the three political st
I have not seen a better devil-may-care performance before a national audience as when I saw N Srinivasan tackle an aggressive media on Sunday, May 26. This person is the president of the board of control for cricket in India (BCCI). The BCCI is neck deep in trouble over spot-fixing, betting and for running the cricket administration of the country like a mom-and-pop store, which is being rathe
A few months back I found myself in Jagdalpur, 242 km from Chhattisgarh’s capital, in Maoist territory. Until then, and I am ashamed to admit this, I had never been beyond Raipur, the capital of the state of Chhattisgarh. So it felt good to make amends, meet dozens of people wedded to the ground, driving past some of the best plantations of sal in our country. Read ground repo
Shortly after we hit our first wedding anniversary, the questions started. First it was family, asking us for the euphemistic ‘good news’. Then, it was ‘just curious’, well-meaning friends: “When are you guys planning kids?” Soon, Facebook too jumped on the bandwagon, and started targetting me for maternity wear and baby product ads. To its intuitive algorith
Nitish Sengupta, a renowned economist and a career bureaucrat, is at present chairperson of the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE), which is mandated to examine cases of sick central public sector enterprises (PSEs) and recommend their revival or closure. The board is also mandated to monitor emerging sickness in PSEs. Out of 248 central PSEs, 67 have been ref
The month of May is very hot in most parts of India. This year, it has been unusually hot for the Indian banking and the IT services industry too. Leading Indian banks (ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, AXIS Bank etc) exposed by Cobrapost have been accused of serious violations of norms. IT companies involved in card payment processing services (ElectraCard Services, Enstage Inc) have been in news for com
Jugaad is originally a Punjabi term that is widely used across India. Jugaad is "good enough" or a "quick fix". Jugaad is functionality without optimality. Jugaad is one of those terms that has many meanings. It can be an apology. It can be an insult. It can be an act of surrender. It can be a frustrated acceptance. Jugaad is what my father calls "close enough for gover
The IT Act 2011 gives the government and its agencies multiple tools to address issues related to cyber security, online gambling, betting, international money laundering and financial fraud amongst many others. The government with its misplaced priorities has misused certain provisions to curb freedom of speech, remove politically inconvenient content and harass young netizens of India through
Hahahahahahaha….no revelation. Cricketers cheat. Big deal, not as if we didn’t know that! The circus has been in town for years. So why the howl of anguish and surprise that there is a new and sordid chapter being written in this saga? Do you really watch the IPL for skill and truth and the holy grail? Please. Get a life. The IPL is a set of performing seals doing just that
