The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies fought the 2014 Lok Sabha elections on the plank of good governance and development. The country gave the party an overwhelming mandate and people believed in the vision and Narendra Modi’s pro
For some time now, higher(est) judiciary in India has been groping for a toehold to tide over unsavoury controversies it has found itself involved in. Back to back accusations have been flung at its face that significantly mars its holy cow image.
The terms of the chiefs of top 100 public sector units (PSUs) will be based on their record of showing profits instead of just expanding their turnover, according to a plan drafted by the government. The prime minister’s office has instructe
Genetically modified (GM) food crops and products will finally make their way out from labs to the fields of India, something quite unthinkable in November 2013. This is just the beginning, by all indications. While GM soybean and canola oil may s
A nondescript colony in north-west Delhi is quietly experimenting with privatised water supply while the jury is still out on privatisation of essential services. Savda Ghevra, which started off as a resettlement colony to ta
The trajectory of Mansoor Khan’s life has defied a predictable journey. Best known for his Bollywood blockbusters and for directing the debut movie of his cousin Aamir Khan, Mansoor today is preoccupied with his cheese farm in Coonoor and wr
It would be naive to reduce the Modi-Kerry meeting to a trade facilitation agreement (TFA) success/failure talk. The build-up to the meeting was as palpably significant in diplomatic posturing as the meeting itself. Beginning
Something unexpected, if not unprecedented, happened on July 19. Delhi lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung, in news of late more for animation over the suspended animation of the assembly, issued an order, asking agricultural produce market committee
Should I have a right over my own life? Not in a metaphorical or imagined sense. Not even in the modern and democratic nature of fundamental rights that several of us take for granted. Should I be able to decide when to end my life in a real and p
Do you want to know how all the statistics and figures you see tossed around by the government every other day are collated? Think of the people you see roaming around with huge sheafs of paper, ticking off responses as they move from home to home
The average expense of winning candidates in the recent Lok Sabha elections was Rs 40.33 lakh, according to an analysis carried out by the National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). Going through the
The ministry of urban development is drawing a policy paper on smart cities and may present it in one month`s time. The ministry also plans to set up a special purpose vehicle to oversee setting up of smart cities. According to Shankar Agg
The department of electronics and IT has moved a note on the next phase of national e-governance plan (NeGP) for inter-ministerial consultation. After incorporating the feed back, the department will send a note to the cabinet for its approval. Th
After whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka, who was targeted by the Congress government of Haryana for cancelling a land deal between DLF and Sonia Gandhi`s son-in-law Robert Vadra, it is bureaucrat Pradip Kasni’s turn to be at the receivi
To start with, let us rephrase the statement made in the headline for the sake of clarity: what new is Natwar Singh, a former external affairs minister and Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, saying in his much-touted “tell-all” auto
India and Uganda share very strong relations for the past two centuries and the Indian community has been a part of the African nation’s development story since the last part of the 18th century, Ugandan foreign minister Sam Kutesa said at t
CHENNAI: Mumbai resident Hvovi Minocherchomji is a lucky young woman. On June 16, the 21-year-old’s mother, Amaity Aspy Minocherchomji, couldn’t stop thanking and blessing all the people who helped save her daughter’s life. She t
By the time this issue of Governance Now hits the news stands, I would have, let us hope, received a response to an RTI query I filed on July 3. What is this RTI query about? Readers may be aware that on June 23, several newspapers carried a PTI r
With the Rajya Sabha TV into its second rerun of the Samvidhan serial and the constitutional debates on affirmative action and Dr BR Ambedkar’s resolute stand playing out in our living rooms, it is good time to take a long, hard look at the
