A recent Bombay high court judgment has emphasised that the right of women to make motherhood choices – whether or not to get pregnant and stay pregnant – is an inalienable natural right. This has given strength to the demand for changes in the law regulating termination of pregnancy to give more autonomy to women over their bodies. Though pregnancy can be terminated
India’s leading water expert and president of the South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies, S Janakarajan, wonders why Chennai, a city that receives 1,250 mm rainfall, is called a thirsty city and goes on to explain to Shivani Chaturvedi what went wrong among the southern states that led to a water-war like situation. But, he warns that such a scenario
The time has come for India to announce to the world that India can no longer be transgressed or trespassed with impunity. And there couldn’t have been a more telling way of doing so than by unleashing the special mission operations, with the brilliance and precision of an experienced surgeon’s scalpel, and spread across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir. This retaliation to the unprovok
Is the way MCI being run the only problem or the issue is about its rules, regulations and mandate? It was both. There were structural problems in MCI’s composition in that there was an inherent conflict of interest when the regulators were elected from amongst those who they were supposed to regulate. It became an exclusive domain of
The political career of home minister Rajnath Singh’s elder son, Pankaj Singh, has not been free of controversies. It is alleged that his father’s influence has helped him rise through the ranks of BJP. In conversation with Governance Now, Singh talks about dynasty politics, his political ambitions and the prospects of BJP in the upcoming UP assembly elections. &n
Tamil filmmaker GNR Kumaravelan was nominated for Filmfare award for the best Tamil director for his art film Haridas in 2013. The film, based on the story of an autistic child, received several positive reviews. Kumaravelan is the son of filmmaker GN Rangarajan. He made his directorial debut in 2009. Earlier he had worked as assistant director with Balanathan Benjamin Mahendran, popularly
For the first time, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have been included by the government in the draft national health policy, 2015. However, efforts to battle this threat remains largely shapeless and lacks monitoring of clinical care. As per recent reports by the ministry of health and family welfare, NCDs contribute to 53 percent of the total disease burden in the country, resulting in 6
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) general secretary Ravi Kumar spoke to Shivani Chaturvedi on the issue of discrimination against dalits in Tamil Nadu. In which parts of Tamil Nadu are dalits facing more discrimination? There are 36,500 temples and mutts under the control of Hindu religious and charitable endowments (HR&CE) departme
When Portugal’s former prime minister António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres succeeds Ban Ki-moon as the next UN secretary-general, he will find himself pitted against a host of challenges, particularly reforming the international organisation that was set up way back in 1945. UN’s membership and working systems are from an era that is bygone. It looks ill-suited
The world will observe the fourth universal health coverage day on December 12, urging governments to ensure universal access to quality healthcare without financial hardship. India, a signatory to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has a challenging task ahead to universalise its healthcare. In spite of several strides in health services, the country is still reeling under heart
Traffic conditions in Indian cities are among the worst in the world. I thought it was a case of a developing country – till I found that India is very peculiar in this regard. Traffic is as bad if not worse in Yangon, Lima, Kampala and Nairobi. But Delhi and Mumbai face an issue which none of these cities has, that of drivers not following lane rules. I argue that the problem we face is
On Independence Day, we heard the PM saying that his government’s motto is to reform, perform and transform. Also, on September 1, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace wrote, “India’s economy has grown rapidly in recent years, but the country’s bureaucratic quality is widely perceived to be either stagnant or in decline.” It is time to relook at overhauling t
Why is the national commission for women weak? Is it because its mandate is unclear? I don’t know why there is a fallacy about the Act being weak. There are sections in the mandate which have not been put to ideal use. I think we have not examined our mandate to the extent it can be stretched. NCW is a statutory organisation, so a lot lies in the int
The waterlogged roads and huge traffic jams witnessed in Delhi in August hogged the headlines in the media, with the high court judges hitting out at the Delhi government. Even the US secretary of state, John Kerry, joked about the situation in his address at IIT Delhi the same month, by asking the audience whether they had all come by boat. The comptroller and auditor general o
Public-private partnerships (PPPs), the preferred way these days to develop infrastructure like highways and airports, is a curious thing: it is both public and private. Thus, the Delhi airport is on public land, but developed and maintained by a private party. Should the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) check its finances, the way it does for all departments and schemes involving
At a time when the government is trying to shore up its revenues so that it can carry on its ambitious projects, a key sector that has been left out of taxation is agricultural income. Policy makers need to take a sharp look at exempting agricultural income from taxation as there is a possibility of the well-heeled taking this route to pay less tax. The comptroller and auditor ge
Hardeep Singh Puri, one of India’s ablest and most outstanding diplomats, has served as India’s representative to the UN. His first UN posting came in 1981 when as first secretary he was a member of India’s delegation to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Thereafter, he served as ambassador and India’s permanent representative (PR) to the UN in Geneva
Ten years of competitiveness in India’s GDP per capita in PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) terms almost doubled between 2007 and 2016, from $3,587 to $6,599. Growth slowed after the 2008 crisis, hitting a decade’s low in 2012–13, said the Global Competitiveness Report 2016–2017, World Economic Forum. This experience triggered India to rethink its policies and
The KVIC has taken a serious note of an article entitled ‘Khadi: Time to revive the nation’s cloth’, by Lekshmi R Nair and D Dhanuraj published in Governance Now (September 1-15 edition). It is very unfortunate
HLL Infra Tech Services Limited (HITES), a wholly owned subsidiary of public sector firm HLL Lifecare Limited (HLL), has recently secured its first global contract to offer consultancy services for the construction of two hospitals in the Republic of Guinea. The company is spearheading experiments to find the best suited model for healthcare infrastructure for rural India. SN Sathu
