Talk to Pakistan, we must. We are neighbours, after all. We are the bigger nation, in any case. We have our own Muslim population to take into account, as Digvijay Singh seldom lets us forget. So we must not let occasional, even frequent, acts of aggression from the other side shake our resolve to talk. We can always make a distinction, can’t we, between Pakistani
Tomorrow, on May 5, something unprecedented is happening in the UK. For the British citizens, it is their chance to vote in a referendum on the voting system used to elect MPs to the House of Commons. The question is straight and simple: "At present, the UK uses the `first past the post` system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the `alternative vote` system be used instead?"
Talk to Pakistan, we must. We are neighbours, after all. We are the bigger nation, in any case. We have our own Muslim population to take into account, as Digvijay Singh seldom lets us forget. So we must not let occasional, even frequent, acts of aggression from the other side shake our resolve to talk. We can always make a distinction, can’t we, between Pakistani army
Wu Qing, now serving her seventh term as an elected representative in a district People`s Congress in Beijing, feels that the biggest problem in Chinese model of development is Beijing`s top-down approach. In an interview with Trithesh Nandan, she said Chinese government should bring more women into the decision making process. She says that China has a long way to go when it comes to e
If one wants to learn how not to run a company, Air India makes the best case study. Government, effete bureaucracy and the spineless management at the top have missed out on no opportunity to feast on the national carrier. The rust covering all the departments of the national carrier has crippled the Maharaja. In 2009, the merger of the erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India was
Posco got its “first” final clearance from the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) on December 29, 2009, which came attached with 28 conditions. The “second” final clearance was received on January 31, 2011, which came attached with “additional” 61 conditions. The “third” final clearance has been given today (May 2, 2011). T
A survey by the NGO Save the Children says there are 50,923 street children in Delhi one-fifth of them being girls. These children constitute 0.4 percent of city`s total population. According to the study, which is the first of it`s kind, “One out of every five (20.3 per cent) of the street children are involved in rag picking. This is followed by street vending (15.18 per cent),
Osama bin Laden is dead. Much before the news broke, his spectre haunted the world - feeding our collective imagination of terrorism. The 9/11 attacks demonstrably proved that no one was immune, not even the might US of A. He mocked us from news broadcasts (via the imfamous videotapes) even as he reiterated his "Death to US, Israel" sermon. Sometime, Kashmir and India found mention in
Discrimination can take many forms. An opinion piece in the New York Times some time ago spoke of the gender discrimination at the Oscars since there are separate categories for men actors and women actors. Why not bring them together, suggested the writer, because after all, no one would take kindly to another kind of discrimination which pit Morgan Freeman, for example in a group comprising W
Given the diversity and plurality of Indian society, Indian models of innovations cannot but reflect its culture of resistance, redefining the context and rebuilding the connections among different streams of ideas. Akbar tried to synthesise the good practices of different religions in what he called as ‘deen-e-ilahi’ and he failed. Maybe, if he had tried to nurture the secular inst
The UPA has succeeded in putting the draft report of the public account committee (PAC) in limbo. That was only expected: after all, the committee headed by BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi had focused on the role of the prime minister’s office (PMO) in the 2G scam. No wonder, then, that the Congress and DMK members in PAC did what they did – with or without the help of SP and BSP.
C1 India has become synonymous with e-procurement in the country. How did you manage this feat? We started off as a franchisee of Commerce One, a $30 million American company focused on private sector procurement automation. When we came to India, we saw that the private sector was still not geared to automate and make its procurement system transparent enough. But we sa
It has cost and continues to cost the economy tens of billions of dollars. It has immiserated the poor. It should come as a surprise to no one, and yet, with each revelation, senior officials express consternation. Federal min
I feared this ever since Anna Hazare started mobilising us against corruption. It has happened to all previous torchbearers against any kind of corruption in India. Those who showed courage to question the powerful have ended up on the side of sufferers. Be it the Tehelka expose, cash-for-votes revelations in parliament, the L N Mishra whispers, the Bofor issue, the fodd
Discrimination can take many forms. An opinion piece in the New York Times some time ago spoke of the gender discrimination at the Oscars since there are separate categories for men actors and women actors. Why not bring them together, suggested the writer, because after all, no one would take kindly to another kind of discrimination which pit Morgan Freeman, for example in a group comprising W
Two Indian cities have made it to the list of top global cities index by the Annual Citi/Knight Frank Wealth Report and the next decade is likely to witness significant improvements from emerging market cities particularly in the Asian behemoths. New York has topped the overall cities index ranking, followed by London and Paris. New Delhi and Mumbai were ranked 37 and 38 in the c
So now girls have to wear skirts to play badminton. The Badminton World Federation (BWF) expects Saina Nehwal to do a Maria Sharapova and Jwala Gutta to do a Serena Williams for the sport. It is quite a peculiar situation where women, instead of being asked to dress `conservatively` as they usually are especially in India, are being asked to dress, ah
