A recently published Airports Council International (ACI) report says that Mumbai`s Chhattrapati Shivaji International Airport is the fourth-best in the world after Seoul`s Gimpo International, Canada`s Vancouver and Taiwan`s Taipei International Airport. Read the report
When I look back on all the events pertaining to the Bhopal gas leak disaster in their synergic perspective, I get inclined to cast verdict on ourselves in words I borrow from G K Chesterton: “These are peoples that have lost the power of astonishment at their own actions….They have grown used to their own unreason; chaos is their cosmos; and the whirlwind is the
“India is fifth worldwide in total existing wind power capacity and is rapidly expanding many forms of rural renewables such as biogas and solar PV,” said United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in its report titled ‘Global Trends in Green Energy 2009’. The report also lauded India’s effort for giving incentives to renewable energy through its m
It’s been five years since the centre launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and sought to change the way India developed and governed its cities. Some cities have availed of funds under this mission. But, as a recent nationwide survey of sanitation facilities across urban centres revealed, India is yet to have even a single clean, green city. In an intervie
Foreign Minister Krishna had an epiphany. He woke up one morning and decided that unless he chastised the home secretary publicly life would be incomplete, no birds would sing and his inhouse astrologer would not be able to charm the stars out of their hostile houses. Yes sir, there was still unfinished business over the fiasco called the Indo-Pak talks. So, in his profound wisdo
“Low-carbon FDI is significant and its potential huge,” says the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in its latest report, released on Thursday. The World Investment Report-2010, had a special focus on ‘investing in a low-carbon economy’. It estimates that ‘FDI flows into three key low-carbon business areas -- renewables, recyc
“Show me the face, I will show you the rule.” This popular bureaucratic adage proved to be prescient for a 1974 UP cadre IAS officer Pulok Chatterjee who is tipped to be the next cabinet secretary. Decks are virtually cleared for Chatterjee to get an unhindered four-year term as the Union cabinet secretary when the present incumbent retires next year. Chatterjee’s
Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) has projected India`s growth at 8.2 percent in the current fiscal, which is lower than International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) revised prediction of 9.4 percent for India this year. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had said that the govt was sticking to a more conservative 8.5 percent growth at the CII summit on Monday. While
Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit has learnt a bitter lesson in the interlink between the tax rates and the revenue raised. Believing in the dangerous myth that higher taxes means higher revenues, she raised the value-added tax (VAT) on diesel from 8.5 percent to 20 percent in Delhi in April. She hoped that the higher tax on diesel in the seemingly affluent capital would get more revenue for
“Inflation would settle in the 6 percent to 8 percent range by end of the year against the government’s projection of 5 percent,” said Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in its latest economic outlook survey. “The only difference being that primary inflation will start to cool down from August 2010 onwards as the ‘negativ
In accepting the recommendations of the Planning Commission on the Food Security Bill, the National Advisory Council (NAC) has acknowledged what the government has been saying all along, that food entitlements cannot stretch beyond the food supply. Thus, the food security coat must be cut according to the available cloth. At this point, agriculture cannot sustain universalise
In June, 2010, temperatures soared to a new high making the month as the warmest ever in recorded history. A study released by the America’s climate agency the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said, “Last month’s combined global land and ocean surface temperature made it the warmest June on record and the warmest on record averaged for any April-June and
Driving at 110 kmph on the Jaipur-Ajmer highway is hardly the place to carp about the decisions of the almighty babus managing our national highways strategy. But apart from the smooth ride on some select highways, whim and nepotism is fast becoming the rule of the game. So much so that the babus seem callous about the obsession of their boss, minister of road transport and highways Ka
There are more poor in eight Indian states tahn there are in 26 African countries, according to a report brought out by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Oxford university. The study says that there are more poor people as per Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) in eight Indian states - a total of around 421 million in the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Mad
Not only is the Indian quality of life lamentable, we as a nation suffer from low end-of-life care also, says a new survey. It placed India at the bottom of the table of 40 nations surveyed. The report - “Quality of Death” index was prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Shamingly, India is placed below Uganda in the list of 40 countries. The report mentioned th
The newspapers, sometime back, carried the picture of a security personnel, lying on the ground and half a dozen young hooligans beating him with sticks, in Srinagar. Nobody was trying to stop such elements from thrashing the helpless policeman. I was reminded of my tenure as inspector general of police, in Srinagar, during the worst period of 1988, when the terrorists had kidnapped the
Indian metros - despite their sheen inside India - have not found a spot among the top 20 cities to live in globally. None of the Indian cities did well on any of the five key indicators considered in a study, whose eresluts are reflected in the rankings. The study took stock of five key livability indicators – good governance, urban infrastructure, environmental friendlin
Unspeakable - that`s how bad the state of the preparations for the Commonwealth Games is, as the Delhi chief minister has rightly realised. So, Sheila Dikshit has asked her ministers to keep their comments on the same to themselves if the media were to bait them for a byte, according to a Hindustan Times report. It is a very, very sensible move given that it offers us an escape from having to l
There is no escape from the reservation genie. The Supreme Court has, by allowing Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to continue with their 69 percent and 73 percent quotas, respectively, for another year, created an opportunity for other states to exceed the 50 percent ceiling that it had laid down earlier in the Indira Sawhney case in 1992. The apex court has now asked these two state governments to pr
Let me begin with a caveat. It is no one’s case that sporting events are unnecessary. But when a sporting event becomes a vehicle for misinformation and meeting questionable ends, one can’t help but sit up and take notice. We as part of our ongoing research and advocacy for the revival for the river Yamuna got unwittingly embroiled in challenging the wisdom of the powers th
