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On budgeting and food security, courtesy CBGA

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday that the government will introduce a Food Security Bill that promises cheaper food grains to low income groups at the earliest in parliament which will help ease a prolonged pricing pressure that has battered low - income groups. While New Delhi-based think tank Centre for Budget and Government Accountability (CBGA) acknowledged the governm

Better change the prime minister...

Natural death comes as an unspectacular, unrevolting, inevitable end. It lacks the additional sensational dimension of untimely, forced or assisted demise. That is why it does not provoke quite the same reactions among those who survive the deceased. That is why it is easier to live with. In democratic politics, as in life, there is a natural order of a ruler’s ascent a

Facebook for governance

"What is wrong with your facebook?" was the first thing my long-lost friend asked  when we met recently. To match her level of amusement, I asked with mock  concern, "What is wrong with my facebook?" In reply, she consumed much of our conversation time over coffee. "You have the Delhi traffic police, the Mumbai traffic police, Jammu

Inflation marring India’s growth story: World Bank

India’s economic growth seems to be back to the pre-crisis trend, but inflation is worrying, says World Bank in its report titled ‘India Economic Update, December 2010’ released today. “Inflation came down to 7.5 percent in November but then accelerated again to 8.4 percent in December because of a renewed food supply shock,” said World Bank data based till

Godhra truths

Fifty-nine people, many of them VHP activists returning home after campaigning for the Ayodhya temple, were killed as the S6 coach of the Sabarmati Express burnt. How did it happen? Take your pick: * According to the U C Banerjee committee (set up by the railway ministry when none other than Lalu Prasad was rail minister), there was no external input which led to the burning of the trai

Letter and spirit of another era

In the age of twitter, written words run the risk of getting distorted. Ask Shashi Tharoor how he faced flak for describing general category air passengers as “cattle class”. He was rapped on the knuckles by his boss – Sonia Gandhi. But the twitter generation is irrepressible in not only giving expression to its feelings through smart usage

Just what the JNNURM needed

Urban development minister Kamal Nath’s assurance to members of parliament (MPs) and members of legislative assembly (MLAs) that they will have a greater say in the implementation of the second phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) is a welcome step.  Even a cursory reality check will reveal that the scheme has at best been a partial

Oh, for a spoonful of Lalit

The problem with opening ceremonies is that there have to be closing ceremonies and that means more canned culture, corporate cupidity and mind-numbing visuals of boys and girls running aimlessly with coloured pieces of cloth. And what could be worse than all this? Lots. As the World Cup opening ceremony wound down (not that it ever would up) I was le

CSR as compulsion

The parliamentary standing committee on finance was tasked to examine the changes proposed by The Companies Bill, 2009. The committee made various recommendations, one of which relates to mandatory corporate social responsibility by companies. Stemming from a concern for a comprehensive CSR policy, the committee’s report states that the bill  may now include a mandatory provision tha

Gandhi in Egypt

Is Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi, that is) relevant today? To that clichéd question that pops up twice a year, Narayan Desai’s answer is: he remains as relevant as you want him to be.  Last year, there were reports from West Bank, which has been witnessing one of the  most violent conflicts of our times, that Palestinians were trying o

The state is killing Yamuna. So what?

Watching ‘No One Killed Jessica’ is not like viewing any other film. One, it deals with too recent a history. Secondly it leaves one kind of confused. Whose tale is it? The fighter Sabrina or the foul mouthed TV anchor? Does it convey the victory of truth over evil or the result of a master con game played by a rising media star out to prove a point to her peers? Whatever, the film

"Singapore got over its water crisis, so can India"

India can learn a thing or two on water recycling from Singapore and better combat its own worsening water crisis. That`s because Singapore, when faced with diminishing freshwater sources, successfully revived its water bodies with the help of technology. Tan Thai Pin, director of Singapore`s Water Supply (Plants) Department, tells Trithesh Nandan in an exclusive interv

Walk like an Egyptian

Forty days before anti-Mubarak slogans rented the air at Cairo’s Tahrir Square on January 25, India’s Supreme Court passed a stricture against a cabinet minister. The court slammed Vilasrao Deshmukh for abusing his power as Maharashtra chief minister by shielding a Congress MLA, doubling as dubious money lender and accused of squeezing debt-ridden Vidarbha farmers dry, against crimi

India`s growth fails to tackle poverty: Social Watch

The immediate challenge in front of India may have to do more with the distribution of the benefits of growth rather than driving growth itself, international NGO Social Watch contends. The civil society organisation has tabbed India orange in its report `Slowing Down`, a colour code for very low progress in sectors of development. In maternal health, India is tabbed red, `criti

When nobody seems in charge

The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform itself.” Alexis de Tocqueville, the French political thinker, may have altered his views if he could have taken the Manmohan Singh government into account. This government not only lacks the courage to even go through the charade of reforms but also buries its head deep in the sand in the face of the gathering stor

Visionary Talk: Amitabh Gupta, Pune Police Commissioner with Kailashnath Adhikari, MD, Governance Now


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