The hospitality industry is one of the areas which were hit worst due to the Corona pandemic. Even then, the operators as well as owners in this field deserve congratulations for successfully overcoming the unimaginable impact of the pandemic. The fact that not only the industry has survived the crisis but is also hopeful of resuming all pre-pandemic activities with vigour indicates strong spir
It is believed that Otto von Bismark, the first Chancellor of the German empire from 19th century, was often quoted as saying, “Laws are like sausages. It is best not to see them being made.” The idea is that one tends to lose trust and confidence in proportion to the knowledge one has of how the law was made. One wonders if the same is also true for policy and the policy-making pro
Amid the campaign for building a temple in place of Babri Mosque, India in 1991 passed a law, the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, to prohibit the conversion of places of worship – like temples, gurudwaras, mosques, and churches – into different places of worship for other religions. The Act clearly mentions that “the religious character of a place o
The Singapore-based Chandler Institute of Governance recently released its Good Government Index 2022. The Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI) measures Government capabilities and outcomes across 104 countries covering roughly 90% of the world’s population. The Index comprises seven well-constructed pillars of good governance, built up on extremely relevant key parameters
Every month the Reserve Bank of India releases figures of Deployment of Gross Bank Credit by Major Sectors. While going through the recent release as on April 22, one striking feature was unmissable. While Gross Bank Credit registered 11% Year on Year Growth, consumer loans recorded a whopping 65% growth during the same period. And while the detailed official analysis is not available, it can b
MODI @ 20: DREAMS MEET DELIVERY Edited and Compiled by BlueKraft Digital Foundation Rupa Publications, 418 pages, Rs 895 PRIVATE ENTERPRISE AND NATION-BUILDING By UDAY S. K
Our hearts almost skipped a beat when we heard community health officer (CHO) Dr. Sandeep Kakuste’s success story with baby Pinki Lakhan Patil, who was born underweight in a brick kiln. Pinki weighed 1.7 kg at birth. As she was on exclusive breastfeed she could not have gained weight by any other method. However following the techniques of ‘Health Spoken Tutorials’ of IIT Bomb
The Government of Gujarat had set up a task force committee in February 2022 under the chairmanship of Dr. Hasmukh Adhia, former union finance secretary, to work out a strategy for the state to contribute in making India a USD 5 trillion economy, as per the vision of the prime minister. In three months, the task force committee submitted its final report to chief minister Bhupendra Patel this w
This time it was not Lord Hanuman, but the poor decision-making of the political leaders combined with several global economic factors that set Sri Lanka in flames. A state of emergency was declared in Sri Lanka. This month, after the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka resigned from his post, the Sri Lankans went on a rampage across the nation and set the PM’s residence and the g
The Congress is scheduled to hold a Chintan Shivir (meaning, ‘introspection camp’) from May 13th to 15th in Udaipur and it has identified six specific areas for introspection. These are 1. Political 2. Social Justice and Empowerment 3. Economy 4. Organization 5. Farmers and Agriculture and 6. Youth and Empowerment. Around eight to 10 leaders have been entrusted each of these six are
India has the largest share of the deprived and the marginalized among the 1.3 billion-plus, out of the 7.9 billion-plus inhabitants of the world, who are said to be living without shelter or basic amenities required for human existence. Clearly, we need to introspect as to why despite being the fourth or sixth biggest economy in the world alongside our highly acclaimed democratic governance st
On April 4, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its 6th Assessment Report that discusses its findings to mitigate the impact of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The report brings to our notice that a global temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius in the near future will constitute a “critical level”, leading to significant risk to humans and ecosystems and h
The Sri Lankan economy is undergoing a twin crisis: debt and foreign exchange crisis. The total current external debt for Sri Lanka stands at $45 billion. However, in February 2022, the country only had $2.31 in foreign exchange reserves. Due to low foreign exchange reserves, the country is unable to pay for essential commodities and is hence enduring shortages of food, medicine, fertilizer, an
Merger as a corporate strategy involves two companies coming together to form a new legal entity under a common corporate name. Mega merger deals have always attracted considerable attention from all stakeholders including customers, employees, and investors. Never mind the scale and magnitude of merger, the prime objective of such an activity always revolves around these major areas: Greater a
Merger is a corporate strategy involving two companies to combine and form a new legal entity under a common corporate name. Merger deals between industry rivals have always attracted considerable attention from all stakeholders including customers, employees, and investors. Stakeholders place special emphasis on issues like expected synergies, economies of scale, increased market share and the
I remember in 2013, the highlight of the Oscar ceremony was the accidental fall of Jennifer Lawrence, as she was climbing the steps to receive an award. What was remarkable was the way she graciously made fun of herself while collecting the award. Her conduct was humbling and is still remembered fondly. Coming to 2022, this incident seems to be a blip compared to the Will Smith-Chris Rock contr
In the early days of human civilization, man had to work all seven days a week as a hunter-gatherer in order to meet his basic needs. As time went on, man developed tools and machinery and with the rise in capitalism came the age of the industrial revolution. During this time, factory workers were required to work for about 16 hours a day, six days a week. A couple of centuries and a good deal
The Swachh Bharath Abhiyan was launched in 2014 to eradicate open defecation (OD) by 2019 and make India open defecation free (ODF). The program focused on providing subsidies for the construction of toilets to remove the financial constraint faced by the households as well behaviour change communication (BCC) campaigns to help people recognize the harms of OD. One of the less di
Raphael Lemkin`s discourse on genocide followed by a UN debate on issues like Nazi offences against Jews, the sordid tale of Bosnian Serb aggression against Bosnian Moslems, and details of the Jewish Holocaust had exposed me to such crimes against humanity in my student days. Incidentally, when I joined the Indian Police Service and was allotted the Bihar cadre, I was faced with commonplace cri
The World Happiness Report 2022 ranks India at 136th position, or tenth from the bottom of the list. Among 146 countries, Finland tops the list, followed by Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Luxemburg, according to the report released recently. India’s performance created a stir as it was widely criticized by the opposition parties. They attributed the low ranking to grow
