Despite Pakistani government’s tall claims about reining the terror structure in the country, it continues to grow, as its leaders continue to support militancy as a tool of its foreign and domestic policy, says a new US study. The study done by the prestigious think tank Rand says that a rising number of terror plots in the United States have links to Pakistan. “The militan
The UB’s group chairman Vijay Mallya is the richest person with Rs 615 crore net worth to enter the Rajya Sabha in the recently concluded elections for 55 seats. He also admitted to having criminal cases against him. “Dr Vijay Mallya (IND from Karnataka) has declared cases related to FERA act and cheating and dishonesty pending against him,” said the survey conducted by Associ
In recent years the love affair of the public with the higher judiciary seems to be coming to an end. From tainted judges to resisting the public declaration of assets, the role of the higher judiciary has come under intense scrutiny. The common perception is that the judges are retreating behind a cloak of secrecy and refusing to abide by the very standards that they set for others. This is qu
All of us have a Right to Livelihood. Millions of us are without one. We have a Right to Education. About half the country is illiterate. Tribals have a Right to Forest Land. Acres of forests are disappearing. We really don’t know the right figures but anywhere between 27 percent to 77 percent of the country is poor, craving for food. About 46 percent of our childr
One memory that the border security force (BSF) has completely deleted from its records pertains to the killing of nearly a dozen soldiers by the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) along with some villagers. A patrol party of the BSF had inadvertently strayed into an area which fell under the territory of Bangladesh. Much before the party members could realise their mistake, a posse of BDR jawans along wi
The melting of the Himalayan glaciers does not bode well for the Indus, Ganga, Bramhaputra, Yangtze and Yellow rivers as their water supplies could fall by as much as 19.6 percent by 2050 if it continues unabated, says a study. The study, published in the latest issue of Science journal, said that more than 1.4bn people depend on water from rivers of Indus, Ganges and Brahamaputra, Yang
Dr Alok Shukla is among those civil servants who received awards for excellence in public administration from the prime minister on April 21. As secretary, food and civil supplies department, Chhattisgarh, he, along with two of his colleagues, has been credited with turning the much-maligned PDS into a success story. So much so that a sample survey of four districts by the Righ
Cultivating organic cotton gives higher financial security to farmers over the cultivation of Bt cotton, says a Greenpeace report. The report said that in the year 2009-10 farmers in the South India cultivating cotton through organic practices earned 200 percent more net income than farmers who grew Genetically Engineered cotton (Bt cotton). According to report ‘in the reg
Ram Jethmalani’s candidature has so rattled the Bharatiya Janata Party that the party with a difference has holed up all its 79 legislators in Rajasthan in a five-star hotel on the outskirts of Jaipur—a practice so far reserved only for making or breaking a governments and not for winning a Rajya Sabha seat as is the case now. Worse, the party has the required numbers to ensure vict
A report by the UN body forecasts that food prices all over the world are likely to rise by as much as 40 percent in this decade. The report titled OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2010-19 said that rise in prices of wheat and coarse grain will go up by 15 to 40 percent than their average levels between 1997 to 2006. According to report, “Real prices for vegetable oils are ex
The new world is not structured around the United States; it is multipolar, heterogeneous, global, and has different centres of power, says Thierry de Montbrial, president of French Institute of International Relations, a leading French think-tank, in a conversation with Trithesh Nandan. About India, Montbrial feels that the country is growing economically, which is good, but lacks the aspirati
Ask not what your government can do for you; ask what you can do for your government. If you live in Delhi, in fact, this year you don’t even need to ask. Your government has not only pre-empted your query but also has been answering it repeatedly, even long after satiating your inquisitiveness. In the process, it has forced you to pay more for just about every public service and to bear
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is optimistic about the wealth creation in Asia’s two biggest countries - India and China. In its latest global wealth report titled –Regaining Lost Ground: Resurgent Markets and New Opportunities - 2010, it named India and China as being faster in wealth creation than any other countries in the world. The report revealed that the two Asian giants w
Think of all possible ways to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi. Your list is not likely to include a big-budget, grandiose ‘temple’ that will also be a sort of club for industrialists. And that’s what is coming up in the capital of Gujarat. But, then, this is none other than chief minister Narendra Modi’s way of paying tribute to Gandhi. The 34-acre project is going
Minister for communication and IT A Raja was to travel to Estonia to learn lessons in e-governance with a 26-member delegation but he had to cancel his trip as he did not get permission from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The delegation had three MPs and 22 officials as well. It was strange that the minister who had no time to attend the 13th annual conference on e-governance
Indian immigrants have surpassed the Chinese to become the third largest (after Mexican and Filipino) immigrant group in the United States, a Washington based think-tank said in a report. The US is now home to 1.6 million (16 lakhs) people mainly concentrated in California and New Jersey, said the report. According to the study by the Migration Policy Institute “Indian immigratio
The first commissioned survey on the government civil servants reported that one-third of the officers wanted to quit their jobs. The civil servants also said that corruption exists in the system. The survey was based on a questionnaire sent to 18,432 civil servants across the country. Only 4808 responded which is 26 percent of total work force. The Centre for Good Governa
If the future is bleak, turn to history. That seems to be the only intellectual diversion the BJP leaders have these days, that is whenever they are free of internecine feud. In a gathering of some BJP chief ministers and senior leaders in Mumbai, ostensibly to attend a workshop on good governance, it was the turn of the redoubtable Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi to give delegates a lesso
If Bollywood mirrors popular culture, trigger-happy cops backed by an insidious state have always been portrayed as saviours. Consider the plot of any movie like ‘Ab Tak Chhappan’ or ‘Wednesday’: a meticulous conspiracy to promote violence is not only regarded as an effective antidote to rising criminality or extremism but also finds approval of the state and society. Th
The condition of sanitation arrangements in Mumbai`s local trains` network offers no comforts to its to its citizens, says an Observer Research Foundation (ORF) report. The recently released study shines the light on the appalling condition of sanitation at Mumbai’s 109 suburban railway stations where people – especially women commuters – often are forced to avoid going to
