When a top legal eagle does sabre rattling for India, he’s expected to be super sure. This column is devoted to how an overexcited Kapil Sibal, driven purely by a courtier’s instinct, has jumped into a royal mess in his battle with Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Yahoo! But first a point on Politics 101. Sibal’s department of information technology has called re
The people have been facing different kinds of deprivation and inequality in the Indian cities, according to a UNESCO study on the India urban policies. “There are inequality, ghettoisation, apartheid and segregation across the cities in India,” said Miloon Kothari, former UN special rapporteur on adequate housing, while releasing the study in Delhi on Friday. He has
The officials in the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) are anxiously awaiting some communication from the government on the National Identification Bill 2010. Sources within UIDAI claim that any action on the bill will be taken only after the government’s decision to accept or reject the
No, the Justice is not the frog prince who turned into an editor soon after he sat on his new chair in the press council of India office. People with such perverted imagination should remember that he wielded a gavel not long ago and could have hammered them to death. It’s just that such talents cannot remain hidden long. And that he loves playing ‘order, order’, a wont which
Assembly elections are due in Uttarakhand early next year. The Bharatiya Janata Party dropped Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, who remained in news for all the wrong reasons, and brought in BC Khanduri to win the next term. The 77-year-old former army general (he was honoured with an Ati Vishisht Seva medal), known for his no-nonsense administration, had led the party to victory in F
Something extraordinary happened on November 25. Our democratically elected representatives actually conducted some parliamentary business, only for a little while though, without bringing the houses down – something that hadn’t happened before and wouldn’t for the next five days of the winter session. That day the presiding officers began the day’s proceedings b
What does it mean when a country holding almost 40 percent of the world’s known uranium reserves, decides to review and consequently lift its ban on nuclear trade with India? This suggested policy u-turn on part of Australia, has been viewed as a result of the political influence and visit of US president Barack Obama, who was in Canberra recently. While Obama has denied putting any press
A while ago, sports minister Ajay Maken asked the International Olympic Committee to keep the sentiments of the Bhopal gas tragedy victims in mind and drop Dow Chemicals from the list of sponsors for the next year’s London Olympics. Dow Chemicals, which in July last year signed an agreement with the IOC, is the company that took over Union Carbide, responsible for the Bhop
The United Nations has warned that the world is on the brink of another recession, projecting that global economic growth will slow down further in 2012 and even emerging powerhouses like India and China, which led the recovery last time, will get bogged down. The UN `World Economic Situation and Prospects 2012` report has cut the global growth forecast for next year to 2.6 per cent fro
Book Review Infrastructure at the Crossroads: The Challenge of Governance By Gajendra Haldea Oxford University Press, Rs 575 I’ve never been to a book launch where the anchor described the author as “insufferable”, and got away! Only because the elegant la
The democratic society can measure its success in decentralising and opening up the decision making processes by the extent to which it invites and welcomes open social criticism. Unfortunately, the team of Anna Hazare, the government, other institutions and everybody seems to believe that the entire truth is on their side. Willingness to discuss, debate and learn to create innovative solutions
Governor Martin Joseph O’Malley of Maryland, United States witnessed some of the fiery debate on FDI in multi-brand retail while he was in India on a seven-day visit. The governor was here leading a 100-member delegation for initiating business and economic development ties. The group consisting of businessmen, educationists and elected officials was the largest ever in it league to have
India scores a stinking, low rank of 95 in the list of most corrupt nations, released by Transparency International. This comes against the backdrop of a series of scandals and the heated debates over Lokpal. “India is perceived to be getting worse … more and more people are willing to speak out against it,” said the report released on Thursday. However,
Last week, hundreds of students and faculty from diploma engineering students from Parul Polytechnic Institute, LCIT Bhandu, Hashmukh Goswami college of Engineering, Govt polytechnic Surat etc., part of GTU were provided a national platform to showcase their talent through SRISTI`s techpedia.in. DG CSIR, Dr Samir Brhamchari, VC GTU and many other senior colleagues interacted with the students a
In an article dated July 18 in the New York edition of The New York Times — an American newspaper of global repute — the reporter wrote of Kerala chief minister Oomen Chandy: “In an India beset by kickback scandals at the highest reaches of government, and where petty bribes at police stations and motor vehicle departments are often considered a matter of course, Oommen Chandy
Renewable energy may be the light at the end of the tunnel for 1.4 billion people who have no access to electricity, according to an UN agency. It also states that 85 percent of this 1.4 live in rural parts of developing countries. In South Asia alone, 42 percent of the population lives in the dark. The `Technology and Innovation report 2011`, released on Tuesday by the United Nati
The slap on Sharad Pawar’s face reverberated in parliament last week. Before the Lok Sabha met on Friday last, several members went across to Pawar, who was seated in his usual first-row chair, as a gesture, which looked weird, more like him taking a guard of dishonour. Speaker Meira Kumar said the house strongly condemned the unfortunate incident of assault on the agricult
The union government’s insistence on keeping the names of 700 entities holding secret accounts in HSBC Bank in Geneva close to its heart reflects how sincere it is about fighting the black money menace. Not only did it grudgingly admit to having received the information from the French government after the media went public, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee justified it saying that the g
It’s like broth you serve after agonizing for too long. Or having several cooks for the job but none really in charge. In cricketing terms, a bit like Tendulkar now having to face a billion of us after making 94. Therefore, to be fair, a huge legislation of this nature was thus bound to fall short of expectations. As cleared by the union cabinet on November
At a time when a minister gets slapped for high inflation and the government faces daily flaks for doing nothing to bring the prices down for three years in running comes the hoopla over FDI in multi-brand retail. The cabinet, in a late night decision on Thursday, cleared
