Has India arrived as a superpower? There are enough indicators to suggest that we are no better than any (other) third-world country on several parameters ranging from corruption to malnutrition. However, here is one robust indicator of our superpower ambitions: Environment minister Jairam Ramesh’s suggestion to metals and minerals firms that instead of spoiling our pristine forests, they
You are certain that a government is drifting when it actually thinks the drift is a mere public perception that can be countered through media campaigns. The prime minister’s decision to set up a GoM for better PR of the government is a fine example of this. We are told that home minister P Chidambaram will head it and the members would include Ambika Soni, Ghulam Nabi Aza
Six months after environment minister Jairam Ramesh launched a diatribe against those who drive diesel-powered sports utility vehicles (SUVs), a planning commission committee has backed his call for higher taxes. "We have suggested that there should be higher tax on diesel and diesel-run SUVs," Kirit Parikh, head of the government-appointed panel has said. The suggestion is misdirecte
We were in Deval, a small town in Uttarakhand located picturesquely amid forests of blue pine at the confluence of the river Kail with the Pindar. Originating from the Pindari glacier, which is a popular trekker destination, the river Pindar forms a distinctive 115 km long valley of its own before it merges with the Alaknanda at Karnaprayag. Our reason for being in Deval was, to
Government’s interim report on low carbon economy fails to set a clear vision for country, said Greenpeace India. “The interim report is an incomplete first step. Not only does the interim report ignore renewable energy but also credits coal and nuclear energy as low carbon. The interim report is highly unsatisfactory from the options it lays out,” said Siddharth Pathak, polic
Rukmini Devi Salvi is the sarpanch of Vijapura panchayat in Rajsamand district of Rajasthan. She was recently honoured at the Outstanding Woman Panchayat Leaders Awards held in Delhi by the think tank Institute of Social Sciences (ISS). She was elected as sarpanch in 2010 with just Rs. 2,000 as campaign expenses. In little over a year, she has brought her panchayats solutions for many longrunni
Pinki, a young girl studying in a government school in Uttarakhand, came to Delhi to speak to the media about the condition of schools in her village. This class ninth student in a press conference organised by World Vision India said, “I feel sorry to see the state of education there." At the press meet, there were many other schoolchildren from different parts of the
Sudhir Chandra, chairman of the central board of direct taxes (CBDT), occupies a room in North Block whose balcony overlooks the majestic Rashtrapati Bhavan. The centrality of its location is symbolic of its significance to governance. Since time immemorial revenue collection has been crucial to sustain any form of governance. And it is the office of the CBDT chairman that devises and
The 10-day strike of Air India finally came to an end on Friday and the maharaja has limped back to normalcy but I disagree with news reports that say that the striking pilots emerged victorious in the overall drama. I see the whole issue through a different lens. The pilots may have resumed work but the question remains: what did the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA),
The world can move towards renewable energy dependence if governments across the globe followed the right policy, said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its latest report released on Monday. “Close to 80 percent of the world’s energy supply could be met by renewables by mid-century if backed by the right enabling public policies,” said IPCC special report
Under pressure for permitting projects in violation of environment and forest laws, minister Jairam Ramesh played the victim the other day. He said: “I am completely against regularising an illegality. But sometimes I am forced to. A steel plant has been built or a power project has been constructed… violations are detected afterwards. I cannot shut them down. Hundre
Manohar the chaiwallah has been grounded, literally. His kiosk is gone. Now, he sits on the road - two steps from the spot where he used to have his kiosk in Noida’s Film City, the home to many national TV channels. He sells cigarettes, gutkha and namkeen. The 2x2 feet space on the road is too less to make tea, Maggi noodles and bread-omelette selling which used to form the major share of
The message on my phone was clear and unambiguous, almost poetic although clarity is not necessarily a must-have for poetry. “The government of India is providing every resident of India a free unique identification number – Aadhaar. Please call (and there was a telephone number here) for enrolment details in your area.” Two things struck me immediately. The use of the word &l
In the previous column, I wrote about techpedia.in, a portal of tech projects by students which brings together industry, grassroots innovators and the youth, and promotes collaborative research. If various technical universities continue to take interest as is evident now, it won’t be difficult to imagine that such a platform may have more than a million projects and ideas in a few years
Fresh after paying a penalty with afterthoughts amok, it was not long before I realised my senses` improved ability to appreciate the colour "green". It all happened in the newsroom. And who else could take a journalist to task in his own den, except the editor? My editor made me pay a Rs 100 fine for leaving my computer switched on the previous evening after I had called it a
Even as the governmnet mulls a hike a in diesel prices to tame inflation, the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) brought out by the UN has made gloomy forecasts for India`s growth in the current fiscal year. It has blamed rising oil prices for the rising inflationary pressure on the country`s economy. “The impact of high oil prices would also be evid
In getting to where it is today, Facebook has been attacked by many, from the Winklevi to its own former CFO. But, for the last one year, it has been battling Greenpeace, the environmental watchdog. The global green NGO has taken Facebook to task as the engineering powering the social networking site uses thermal power of coal-origin. In April, a record 70,000 comments hit Facebook afte
According to a World Bank study, 35 percent of e-governance projects are total failures, 50 percent are partial failure and only 15 percent have achieved success. Experts, for long, have stated that most project failures are routed in improper project development. This was the reason that the government of India and state governments engaged top consulting organizations to conceptualise e-gover
No love at first sight in Delhi University (DU) will be shown in Hindi movies from now on. The scene in which the boy meets the girl has to be reworked because DU will not be issuing pre-admission forms for undergraduate colleges from this year. So, now, scenes of the heroine perspiring under a blazing sun and is almost about to faint or is being eve-teased by a boy while standing in a
Civil society groups have voiced their scepticism even as the government readies a revised approach paper to the 12th five-year plan. Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA), Delhi-based civil society group which tracks government policies in the social sector released the civil society`s inputs for the 12th five-year plans`s approach paper. The report titled, “Approaching eq
