Indians continue to live in a corruption ridden society with incidents of bribery, abuse of power and unethical dealings on the rise. In 2012, the country stood at 94 out of 176 countries surveyed by the Transparency International`s (TI) annual corruption report. “India ranks 94 on corruption perception index (CPI) this year with a score of 36 on a scale from 0 (highly corr
Locking up this Indian couple, the Chandrashekhars in Norway for over a year each because they supposedly whupped their kid is laughable to most of us. There has to be some sense in all this. You can give the parents community service or something but not jail sentences that destroy the family forever. This is not justice. None of us condone child abuse and, in fact, the punishment for
A couple of months before the assembly elections in Gujarat, the main opposition Congress started a gimmick of sorts. It promised an affordable housing scheme, in the unlikely case of the party coming to power. It didn’t end there: it started distributing application forms for this promised scheme, called Ghar-nu Ghar, a Gujarati idiom meaning one’s own house. It was former CM Shank
A lot has been said, discussed, debated over and argued on regarding free speech over the last few days. Last month’s arrest of two young women in Palghar, Maharashtra, over a Facebook post following Bal Thackeray’s death was the incident that really broke the camel’s back. What civil society has been fussing over for a long time culminated in an incident where everyone got a
It was a week when I had a feast of ideas in a wide range of domains across the country. It was apparent that despite all the cynicism that headlines in newspapers may generate in the mind of common people, the effort to create new performance benchmarks continues. The indefatigable spirit of those who believe in the future of the country deserves to be appreciated. When Rajeev Chawla,
Every morning I check to see how I can contribute to making our lives richer, more rewarding and useful to future generations. In recent years I have, on the recommendation of various scientists, given up smoking, using the car when a bicycle is available, sold the refrigerator, air conditioner, washing machine and other ozone-depleting devices (I still have my chair, though). In fact, on a goo
India ranks 78th among 97 countries in guaranteeing access to all civil justice, a latest report released today said, while its neighbouring country Sri Lanka leads the South Asian nations in most dimensions of the rule of law. The `Rule of Law Index 2012` report by World Justice Project`s provides country-by-country scores and rankings for eight areas of the rule of law. India,
The acts of lawlessness by the miscreants in the funeral procession of late Brahmeshwar Mukhiyajee in Patna, last June, raised some issues which any detailed theory of police inaction needed to address: how does the concept of police function in our polity? What is the relation between the government and its police force? In a situation of conflict of interest between the people and the governm
A lot has been happening in India since the past two or three months. Sena Supremo Bal Thackrey died; Kasab was finally sentenced to death though secretly; liquor baron Ponty Chaddha was killed in a freak shooting incident; the LGBT community took out a queer pride procession where they celebrated their being and amid all this Arvind Kejriwal launched his new political
I am three decade younger than octogenarian Ram Jethmalani and still do not qualify to be called young. Hence forgive me if I recount the past while exploring strange relationship between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the eminent lawyer. In 1989, the role of the visual media was confined to occasional photographs captured in cameras by intrepid press photographers. One such photograph tha
Once known as garden city, Bangalore, with about 8 million population is now known for stink, shit and garbage thrown around in the nook and corners of the city where stray dogs (estimated around 30,000) pick up the leftover’s and when hit bite the innocent kids going to school. The two-wheelers and three-wheelers hit the innocent people moving on the walking tracks and the traffic police
Last year a country holding almost 40 percent of the world’s known uranium reserves decided to review and consequently lift its ban on nuclear trade with India recognising it as a responsible nation with an impeccable record of non-proliferation. Indeed, it was a remarkable policy U-turn for a nation that held a very conservative view on both nuclear energy as well as nuclear weapons. Aus
As the world gears up for the next climate change talks from November 26 in Doha, the newly released report on Wednesday says that greenhouse gas emissions levels are now around 14 percent above where they need to be in 2020, a much needed warning to the negotiators. The report says that the countries around the world have not been able to meet their stated goal of limiting global warming to be
Armani suits, a fleet of high-end cars, a luxurious ten-acre farmhouse in Delhi`s posh Chhattarpur boasting the mandatory aviary and a life-size gold-plated statue of Bajrangbali; Ponty Chadha exhibited all the lifestyle markers of a man who built a 10-billion dollar empire from scratch. Naturally, this incredible wealth had to be protected from foes, of which the liquor baron-turned-real estat
The death by hanging of Ajmal Kasab for his orgy of violence unleashed on Mumbai sends out three major messages. One, that Indian justice may be slow and ponderous but it does finally balance out the scales. But, equally important it gives closure to all the scores of families of the victims who have waited three years for some sort of vindication and often wondered if it would come at
It seems outlandish that Sony’s iconic gaming console Play Station 3, Hallmark greeting cards and smartphones should have anything to do with India’s social welfare programmes. But they do. Technology has an amazing ability to overturn stereotypes and open up new possibilities by meshing together disparate things. A standard birthday card that plays the familiar tune when yo
More than 2.5 million people who came down on the streets of Mumbai like swarms of flies to attend the funeral of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray on November 18 demonstrated a remarkable sense of order throughout the day. The rest of Mumbai’s population, who were under an undeclared but fiercely enforced house arrest, did not have a choice and demonstrated a similar sense of order throughou
The World Bank has warned that global temperatures could rise by four degrees this century without immediate action, with potentially devastating consequences for coastal cities and the poor. Issuing a call for action, the World Bank tied the future wealth of the planet — and especially developing regions — to immediate efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions from sources su
When the central bureau of investigation (CBI) arrested the then head of the medical council of India (MCI) and the don of medical education in India, Ketan Desai, on corruption charges in 2010, the health ministry had a golden opportunity to bring in much-needed reforms in the system. On the other hand, the health ministry also fought a hard battle with the human resource development
The recent electricity grid failure and severe power shortage due to rising electricity demand is a constant reminder that coal and other fossil fuels have no future, according to Greenpeace-India senior energy campaigner Abhishek Pratap. Addressing a programme to launch the second edition of Indian Energy Revolution in New Delhi on Friday (November 16), Pratap said, “Fossil fuel
