Core Values can Hold the Centre Together
The quality of our expectations is being perpetually set off by contrasting categories. The definitions are relative but even in their breach (or incompleteness) contain tangible difference. Thus, for...
View ArticleNew Sojourn
India is heralded for a new sojourn. The new Railway Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda recently tabled the Railway Budget which is said to herald a new era in the realm of transport in India. It is being...
View ArticleBudget and Vulnerable Sections of Society
The annual Budget of the Central Government should always reflect high levels of concerns for weaker sections and rural areas, but this year there are additional reasons why the newly elected...
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Seven Key Economic Challenges before the New Government
by Vinay K. SrivastavaThe results of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections have come out and the BJP-led NDA has come to power under the leadership of Narendra Modi. I take this opportunity to congratulate him...
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Emergence of Mini Actors and Decline of the Left in Kerala
by K. HaridasKerala might have been among those States of the country where Modi and his brand of politics were discussed least favourably. As a State that has until this point of time denied even an...
View ArticleHas Government a Kashmir Policy?
From N.C.'s WritingsThere is no dearth of serious thinking in this country over the festering crisis in Kashmir. Perhaps no other issue in our polity since independence has stimulated so much...
View ArticleWhy Article 370 Should Not Be Abrogated
by Simple MohantyDespite its overtly moderate positioning over development in these elections, the BJP manifesto still panders to its Hindutva constituency by promising to build the Ram temple in...
View ArticleBroken Promises on Sachar Report, ‘Rape' as Everyday Affair
MUSINGSSeven years back, Justice Rajindar Sachar and his team had brought out the Sachar Committee Report, focusing on the rather dismal situation of the largest minority community of the country—the...
View ArticleSwitching over to Hindi?
I am convinced that the Narendra Modi Government is guided, if not goaded, by the Hindi chauvinists. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has several liberal leaders who realise that the pace of...
View ArticleWhy Haste for Policies that can Wait? Like Hindi. Who is pushing Agendas that...
IMPRESSIONSThe Prime Minister complains that he did not get a honeymoon period of even a hundred hours. True. But why? For so careful and calculating a political leader, he allowed too many crisis...
View ArticleHarder Options for Pakistan
As Islamic jihadists in the arc comprising West Asia, northern Africa, Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan grow more resourceful and aggressive, the inherent threat to the stability of the Pakistan...
View ArticlePakistan: Civil Society versus the State
by I.A. RehmanCivil society is once again facing the awkward question as to whether it must always support an elected civilian government, regardless of its performance, to avoid the collapse of the...
View ArticleCentral Asia Changes
Major changes are going to take place in India's northwest. Most American and NATO troops will withdraw from Afghanistan by the year-end, leaving behind 8000 to 12,000, to “train, assist and advice”...
View ArticlePromise and Pitfalls of BRICS' $ 100 billion CRA
Brazil will host the leaders of Russia, India, China, and South Africa for the 2014 BRICS Summit on July 15-17, 2014. This BRICS Summit is expected to launch the $ 100 billion Contin-gency Reserve...
View ArticleRape and the Politics of Hate
WOMEN‘S WORLDNirbhaya in December 2012 and Badaun in May 2014 are nothing less than landmarks for women in India,—landmarks in their conscious-ness of what men do, and can do, to them. But the...
View ArticleAnalysing Economic Survey 2013-14
Normally, the Economic Survey is presented during February, a few days before the General Budget, but this time it has been brought in the second week of July. Not only this, but there has been a...
View ArticleUnion Budget 2014-15: A Quick Overview and Some Questions
The Government in India seems to be on the cusp of a watershed in many different dimensions. This seems to be so not simply on account of a new government assuming office but on account of the...
View ArticleNo Manna will Fall from Heaven
POLITICAL NOTEBOOKDuring his poll campaign Narendra Modi wanted the people to vote for a Congress-mukt Bharat and make him the Prime Minister. In return he promised to bring them manna from heaven. On...
View ArticleDisturbing Trends in Governance — Timely Warning by Citizens' Report
The latest Citizens' Report on Governance and Development prepared by the National Social Watch has drawn attention to several disturbing trends. The findings of this report are supported by a wealth...
View ArticleSufi Message of Universal Love as Reflected in Urdu Poetry
by Naresh NadeemIt was a long time back when Pope Gregory VII compelled the German king, Henry IV (1050-1106), who acceded to the throne in 1084, to walk barefoot all the way from his kingdom to...
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