Many people may not know that there is a National Debt Clock of India, which gives second-by-second details of the overall position of India’s debt. At 11 am on August 19, when I started writing this article, the clock’s readings were as follows: National debt of India: a mind-boggling figure of Rs 57,021,582,965,509 Interest per year: Yet anot
Prime minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day address to the nation with references to Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) set the cat among the pigeons. Ever since, there are as many opinions as the number of reviews, analyses and articles on the issue. It helps prove just how little the strategic community of India and the world had earlier focuse
Mir Mazdak Dilshad Baloch is one of those who have been spearheading an independence movement in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province. The freedom movement received a shot in the arm when prime minister Narendra Modi referred to it during his Independence Day speech. Baloch spoke to Aasha Khosa about the aspirations of the region’s people and their in
Switzerland continues to be the most innovative country while India comes 66th in a new UN report that ranks 128 countries on their annual innovative capabilities. The ninth edition of the global innovation index (GII) co-published by the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Cornell University and INSEAD shows that the rich nations still dominate g
It’s different this time.” Jignesh Mevani also repeats that adage, that the dalit agitation in Gujarat this time is different. That it is unlike several campaigns in the state’s recent history that had briefly succeeded but did not have a long-lasting impact. “This is not your typical ‘dalit agitation’. We are taking both caste and class together,&rdq
On October 16, the supreme court quashed the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act but set the ground for reform in the judiciary-led collegium system of appointment of judges. Though the question as to who enjoyed primacy in the appointment of judges stood answered by the verdict, the ongoing executive-judiciary tussle has kicked off a second round o
The editors of Water: Growing Understanding, Emerging Perspectives faced a considerable challenge in selecting 29 articles that were published previously in the journal Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) on the theme of water. While they claim that “from being virtually absent from EPW till the 1980s, water emerges as a growing concern in the decades to follow, with the number o
What inspires you? I take inspiration from my failures. When people tell me, ‘you can’t do this’, or ‘you’re not eligible to do this, or ‘it is not meant for you’, these things incite me to prove myself. It’s better to have tried and failed than to never try at all. Wha
Digital India may be in full swing, but the events around it expose the lack of control and carefree nature of social media. BJP with its full might is taking credit for pushing India to the digital age but its vice president in Maharashtra does not seem to understand the way Twitter works as he simplistically questioned as to how Pankaja Munde’s tweet was available to the media!
The recently released ninth edition of the Global Innovation Index (GII) co-published by the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Cornell University and INSEAD, shows that India ranks 66th out of 128 countries in terms of its innovative capabilities while Switzerland remains the world’s most innovative country for the sixth consecutive year. Soumi
As the government plans to build 12 crore toilets by 2019 under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, the Magsaysay award winner questions who will clean these toilets and how many people will die cleaning them. Explaining how manual scavenging is actually a problem arising out of caste, class and patriarchy, Wilson says that the government has failed to address either of these concerns in its cleanl
Charlie Chaplin, the world’s most well-known comedian, hated Christmas – it reminded him of the grueling poverty of his childhood. As if by touch of a self-fulfilling prophecy, he died on the Christmas day in 1977. “He was obsessed with the poverty he came from,” Michael Chaplin, the 70-year-old son of Charlie Chaplin, told this reporter. Pe
When a group of upper-caste ‘cow protection’ vigilantes flogged four dalits for skinning a dead cow (and went on to even record a video clipping of the beating) in Mota Samadhiyala village near Una town of Saurashtra on July 11, it triggered an impromptu reaction across the state, now turned into an agitation led by Jignesh Mevani, a 35-year-old journalist-turned-social activist
I was still in civil services when economic reforms were introduced in 1991. A more dramatic event around that time [1992] was the demolition of Babri Masjid. In retrospect, one realises how important 1991 was and how much it would transform the destiny and course of this nation. The idea of a good state, when I joined IAS in 1980 and right up to the mid-1990s, was that it stood
The 122nd Constitutional Amendment (GST) Bill 2014, cleared on August 4 in the Rajya Sabha subsumes all other indirect taxes at the central and state levels to create one single tax – the goods and services tax (GST). The introduction of GST is claimed to be a significant step towards creating a ‘common national market’ and creating a harmonious tax system. This begs the
A mass mobilisation of dalits is now taking place across the country, a move that may well change the way they have been treated over the years. The dalits are upset, particularly after four of them were ruthlessly beaten up by cow vigilantes in Gujarat’s Una town. “We will be congregating in Delhi during the winter session of parliament. We will tell the national lea
The Rajya Sabha passed the Mental Health Care Bill, 2013, on August 8. While the proposed law would usher in landmark changes in healthcare and rights of the mentally-ill, if cleared by the Lok Sabha, the endeavour to shield the mentally ill against prosecution under section 309 of the IPC (attempt to suicide) may ironically restrict the application of the penal provision mainly to acti
What is your assessment of the situation in Kashmir? The situation is very bad. What we see today is a complete breakdown of governance and law and order. We have an artificial sense of control over the areas where we have deployed security forces. The moment the forces are out, young people come from nowhere and set up their own nakas and security barrie
Mehbooba Mufti’s close political aide and education minister Naeem Akhtar spoke to Aasha Khosa in Srinagar. Excerpts from the interview: How do you see the current situation in Kashmir? It is a very sad but familiar turn of situation in Kashmir. We have passed through so many dark tunnels in the past;
PM Narendra Modi finally spoke about Kashmir. He talked of Insaniyat, Jamhooriyat and Kashmiriyat. How do you view it? I wonder if the PM said anything important at all. It is all the old rhetoric about development, misguided youth in Kashmir etc. The reality is that the Valley is up in arms against India. There is a clear writing on the wall – lite
