The towering statues of Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant, Uttar Pradesh’s first chief minister, and his disciple Chaudhary Charan Singh on the front lawns of the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha are unique reminder of the state’s distinct political culture and legacy. Pant had also served as the prime minister of the United Province in the pre-independence era and wielded considerable influence
Every word is deeply marinated in history. Peel it and you will uncover a spell-binding story. Emden is a city in Germany best known for Volkswagen’s factory producing its high-end car Passat. Emden is as German as Bavarian sausages Weisswurst. But when you hear many a grandmother in Tamil Nadu warn prospective victims about their particularly destructive grandchild saying “Paar Emd
Call for Articles, Innovative Ideas on “Mobile Application for Public Services” for publication in special issue of Governance Now on mobile governance to be released during e-GovWorld 2012 scheduled on January 19-20 at New Delhi, India Dear Stakeholders, As you are aware, department of information technology, government
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati has disarmed her opponents, leaving them with no other option than saying "touché". The UP cabinet has endorsed a proposal for the division of UP into four smaller states: Poorvanchal (eastern UP), Bundelkhand, Awadh Pradesh (central UP) and Paschim Pradesh (western UP). This is being seen as her masterstroke to beat t
Till the media was praising F1, giving acres of free publicity to his team, Sahara Force One, Vijay Mallya, was an indulgent accomplice. No sooner the spotlight shifted to disastrous Q2 results of Kingfisher Airlines, the embattled king of good times can’t stop his tweeting diatribe. On November 14, as the tax payer worried whether her money would be thrown into the voracio
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. So had Alice down a rabbit hole to reach a phantasmagoric world she truly belonged to. But both their falls had nadirs. There was a thud and it ended. But the UPA government’s fall into the spectrum of the 2G scam is unending. There have been several lows and none the lowest. What began with just the government’s hesitation in auctioning the 2G spectr
NC Saxena, a highly influential member of the national advisory council (NAC), has criticised the planning commission for ignoring the issue of hunger in the draft approach paper of the 12th five year plan (2012-17). “If you look, hunger does not exist in the draft approach paper, basically ignored by the planning commission for the next plan,” Saxena said at a national cons
By all accounts, Rahul Gandhi’s campaign from Phulpur in Allahabad on Monday proved to be a tame affair. His diatribe against Mayawati sounded like a usual political parody which is being drummed into the ears of the state’s electorate for years on end without any result. He expressed his anger against rising corruption in UP and increasing backwardness. But his silence on the corru
Professor Thomas Pogge of Yale University is leading a team of experts commissioned by the Oxfam to design an alternative index for calculating the number of poor people. Pogge, who believes most poverty figures calculated around the world are flawed, is also critical of the World Bank and the millennium development goals (MDGs) on extreme poverty concept. In an interview with Governance Now, h
The recent DLF order of the competition commission clearly brought into focus the plight of the real estate consumers who have long been grappling with the twin-challenges of one sided contracts favouring the developer/builder on the one hand and endless delays in legal proceedings on the other. The model Real Estate (Regulation of Development) Act (“the Real Estate Bill” for short)
First, a confession. I haven’t watched Big Boss 1 through 5 (faults on both sides, no doubt). Then, another: I am not likely to watch now that Swami Agnivesh has been paid or has paid up (depending on whom you believe) to become a part of it. Agnivesh means bright as fire, and some of his house mates certainly dress and act in a manner that suggests a fiery brightness or a bright fierines
After a failed visit to Delhi wherefrom he was expected to bring back his daughter and trying unsuccessfully to stash away a few tears, Muthuvel Karunanidhi is suddenly worried about the future of Indian democracy. In DMK mouthpiece Murasoli, he has written about his concern over the continued incarceration of his daughter Kanimozhi in connection with the 2G spectrum case. &ldqu
After much persuasion, the assistant commissioner of police at the Parliament Street police station calmed down a little. “Do whatever you want... but do not put our jobs at risk," said the ACP, after gulping a glass of water and adjusting himself in his chair. “Do the protest against increasing power tariffs or on any other issue. But remember two things: do not
Don’t trust economists! This is the underlying message currently echoing in several parts of the world. Leading the pack are economists themselves, call them ‘dissident economists’. Professor Joseph Stiglitz, world acclaimed economist and Nobel Prize winner, recently said in a talk in New Delhi, “I blame the economists. They provided some of the arguments that led people
India has the world’s largest number of poor people in a single country, according to the new report by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The report says that in a population of 121 crore, India has more than half of its population living below the poverty line. “India has the world`s largest number of multidimensionally poor, more than half of the populati
When it comes to companies bribing public officials when doing business overseas, India`s score has improved the most in a global index, rights group Transparency International said. Nevertheless, India continues to be ranked near the bottom of the global Bribe Payers Index, as there was a high likelihood of Indian companies paying bribes abroad. In a list of 28 countries, India
As the good word of Ram spread across centuries and continents, its narrative changed. It crossed the Vindhyachal, for example, and the Ramayana absorbed elements and motifs of the south Indian folklore. The language in which the epic was translated also made its presence felt: Sita in Sanskrit and Sitamma in Kannada have different shades of meaning which lead to different stories about her bir
The prime minister’s last letter to Anna Hazare wherein he had reiterated his commitment to deal with the issue of graft seriously wasn’t mere lip service. Just that his government seems to have begun it from Team Anna members only. In April, father-and-son lawyers Shanti and Prashant Bhushan faced allegations, long since discredited, that they undervalued property to
Kiran Bhatty is the national coordinator of the Right to Education Act with National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). She has worked in the field of education for several years and was earlier associated with the UNICEF. In an interview with Jasleen Kaur, she talks about the post-facto social audit, a pilot project, which is being conducted in 10 states, and of implementat
Justice (retired) Markandey Katju, the new chairman of the Press Council of India (PCI), is unhappy with the state of the India media – both the print and the electronic ones. In his interview with Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN, he says the media is not working for the interest of the people; is very often anti-people; sometimes it divides people; promotes superstitions; publishes paid news and
