Thomas Friedman in `The World is Flat` talks about how laying down of optical fiber across the globe has provided people in developing world with level playing field, to stand at par, to share, to collaborate, to compete with their counterparts in the West. He lists ten factors which have led to the flattening of the world which, summarily, could be described as the innovation and advance
Anna Hazare and his team of civil society representative’s ongoing fight against corruption can on various levels be compared to the popular television show Bigg Boss. Let us assume the Bigg Boss house as a microcosm of democratic India. The lead actors in this house can be identified as the mainstream political parties being the Congress and BJP, with the smaller/regional political parti
After great expectation comes great disruption. This unenviable cycle of economy seems complete when there is a raging debate in the world over validity of the growth model. The wealth generated by the aggressive growth model may have led to expectations of comfortable and uncompromising rich lifestyle. But it entails a heavy cost on society. A World Bank report released in Octob
The sculptors in Uttar Pradesh are at peace now. They don’t need to see any goddess in dreams for inspiration. They see one in person: a goddess with a handbag. The innumerable statues ordered in bulk of the fastidious deity have honed their dexterity to a clinical precision, reducing the whole creative process to a matter of an indolent ease for them. If the luck favours them in the asse
Panic seems to have gripped the people who have purchased their long-cherished homes through power of attorneys and wills following the news about the ruling of the supreme court and its observations concerning the fate of immovable properties sold vide general power of attorneys and wills. Some common issues of concern and effect of the supreme court ruling are discussed here.
Let the crowd carry you to wherever it is headed. No rules apply if you are on the road. The crowds would have taken up the road entirely, a mile of which would have been closed for security reasons anyway. You may not be able to walk on the left side, something that you have known since elementary school as THE rule for pedestrians. So, don’t try and observe such rules. Let the crowd dir
You need political will, not huge funds, to fix social sector problems like maternal mortality, says a new report from the World Bank. This should serve as a timely reminder for the Manmohan Singh government that seems to consider the GDP growth as panacea to all developmental hiccups. The Bank has cited the examples of Malaysia and Sri Lanka, where political will and not shootin
Ramra is a typical west Uttar Pradesh (UP) village some 20 kms east of Panipat and lies on the left bank of the river Yamuna. Some 5, 000 voters (kudos to the democratic identity that rural India today prefers) strong, it is a good religious mix of Muslims and Hindus living in a single village spread over three identifiable hamlets. We were in Ramra to facilitate two back to back
The Mahatma Gandhi national rural employment guarantee scheme (MNREGS) is one of the few central schemes that have a large number of monitoring agencies keeping an eye on implementation. From the centre to the state to the district to the panchayat level, there is some agency or the other appointed to look into any allegation of irregularity in the scheme. However, call it the sheer brazenness
If you are feeling on top of the world, certain that whatever happens you inhabit this, the best possible of all worlds and feel convinced that you wear a rainbow around your shoulders, there’s an antidote. Just call up an insurance agent. He is guaranteed to de-rainbow you without even trying. And I am not talking about the kind of thing that happened to the poet Coleridge who had to lea
India stands at the 67th spot among 81 nations listed (in the decreasing order) by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in its recently released global hunger index (GHI) report 2011. However, a poverty of statistics could be responsible for India`s poor showing as the government has failed to update the child malnourishment figure which is considered in calculating the
India stands at the 67th spot among 81 nations listed (in the decreasing order) by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in its recently released global hunger index (GHI) report 2011. However, a poverty of statistics could be responsible for India`s poor showing as the government has failed to update the child malnourishment figure which is considered in calculating the inde
Penfriends are rare in this age. However, wherever there are two of them still exchanging letters; surprisingly, rules are the same old-school type. A veil of secrecy, a matador-like finesse in selection of words and an occasional, but deliberate, dropping of a surprise. In short, you have to go on in your preferably cursive longhand — like a ballerina on a pink sheet — without reve
A part of the Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture delivered in the national capital on Tuesday by union minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh is reproduced below: I am not just privileged but also truly humbled to be part of this prestigious lecture series launched a half century and six years ago by none other than C. Rajagopalachari. Many distinguished personalities have pre
First, some exhibits. Today’s edition of the business newspaper Mint carries a small announcement on the front page: Note to readers Dear Reader, The Media Marketing Initiatives on Pages 13 and 29 are the equivalent of paid-for advertisements, and no Mint journalists were involved in creating these. Readers would do well to treat them as adverti
Our union law minister Salman Khurshid made some breathtaking observations that reflect how this government is fixated on growth at any cost. First, his take. Speaking to the Indian Express on Sunday, he said: “What will affect the functioning of the government is if other institutions do not understand the kind of political economy we are faced with today: what is needed t
No government in the past had been even subject to the enormous and multiple challenges in governance that the present dispensation faces. Issues and concerns making the challenges monumental include the perceived low public confidence and credibility in the government, instances of corruption of never-heard-before proportions inflicting numerous sections of the dispensation, inept handling of
Literacy and employment - two crucial indicators of socioeconomic well-being - are critically low in Muslim communities of Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, two of India`s largest states. According to a new report brought out by Abusaleh Shariff, member secretary, Sachar committee, “The literacy level of Muslim OBCs in urban areas in Andhra Pradesh, has not increased at the matric
When I logged on this Vijayadashami morning, the apple.com home screen announced the demise. My next stop was facebook. Several friends had already pasted the piercing black and white picture on their homepage. Twitter had thousands of tributes; President Obama’s and Bill Gates’s among them. The speech at Stanford had been delivered six years back, but its
Even as the top economists in the government concern themselves with 8 percent growth, they seem to be missing the urgent concerns. Health and human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen talks of India`s nutritional failure and the ramifications it could have in an interview with Governance Now. Dr Sen says that large parts of the country are under the grip of a stable famine
