Now go and bury it,” said major general Ian Cardozo, then a major with the 5 Gorkha Rifles, during the 1971 Indo-Pak war that led to liberation of Bangladesh. He had accidently stepped on a mine that had blown one of his legs. Aware that the wound may spread fast and cause more damage he chopped off the mutilated leg using khukri and handed it over to his batman to bury it. He was operate
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), where I spent a decade studying and researching history, is in the news all over again. I remember, in those days, a leading English language national daily would advertise itself as being an indispensable part of the breakfast served at JNU every mo
Are you shocked that police are on the campus, somebody is behind bars without clear evidence and somebody else is not behind bars despite clear evidence? Are you shocked that after intolerance led to a killing and discrimination to a suicide, there is no end in sight for the harvest of hate? Ashis Nandy, our preeminent critic in the public sphere, did foresee a difficult times w
In 1991, the Reserve Bank of India had to open its vaults and allow 67 tonnes of gold to be airlifted out of India, which was pledged with different banks abroad to raise a loan of $600 million. The money was meant to save the country from defaulting on repayment of the IMF loan. Also, at that time, Delhi had foreign currency reserves to cover just three weeks of imports. The gol
Eminent Odissi danseuse Sonal Mansingh is also proficient in other dancing styles like Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi and Chhau. Besides, she is a well known choreographer and social activist. Her dancing career began in Mumbai in 1962. Over the years she won international recognition and was conferred with many awards including Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1987), Padma Bhushan (1
Allowing only odd- and even-numbered cars on odd and even days respectively was one of the most disruptive policy interventions by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) . The success or failure of the 15-day pilot is argued with less evidence. The emotional tone is rather high when one talks about reduction of traffic and air pollution due to this formula. Though the pollution level remained constant, it r
Tamil Nadu has managed to prevent any outbreak of epidemics after the once-in-a-century kind of floods in Chennai and neighbouring parts. Dr J Radhakrishnan, a 1992 batch IAS officer who is the state health secretary, was well prepared for the task, with his much-praised work as collector of Thanjavur and Nagapattinam in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami. Former US presiden
In October last year, the Akhilesh Yadav government faced a major embarrassment when the Allahabad high court annulled the appointment of Anil Yadav as chairman of the UP public service commission. It was acting on a PIL that brought to light his criminal antecedents which had been suppressed by police. This, however, failed to stop Akhilesh’s penchant for placing people of his comm
It’s a disturbing sociopolitical vacuum that he is trying to fill – a void that has been created after the demise of farmer leaders like Charan Singh and Mahendra Singh Tikait. For Yogendra Yadav, former Aam Aadmi Party member, this is the moment in history when farmers need to be organised more than ever. In an interaction with Shubhendu Parth he talked about the severity of th
Status Paper on government debt has been released. According to it the overall liabilities of the central government are on a medium-term declining trajectory with the governments debt portfolio characterized by prudent risk profile. The fifth edition of the status paper was released on Wednesday. Since 2010-11, the central government has been bringing-out an annual
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) finally confirmed on January 25 that 2015 was the warmest year since record-keeping began in the late 19th century. The confirmation came five days after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the US, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the UK Met Office released their data declaring that last year smashed a
The debate on our national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, has started once again. Controversial BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in December wrote to prime minister Narendra Modi urging him to replace the wordings of the anthem with what Subhas Chandra Bose had incorporated in the Indian National Army anthem. According to Swamy, the national anthem was originally composed to praise the British king
The ministry of earth sciences (MoES) is one of the youngest – and one of the least talked about – wings of the government. It looks after a myriad of scientific and technical activities, mostly dealing with earth system science. Its scientists and officials rarely make headlines, but their apparently obscure work often matters to all of us in our day-to-day lives. For example,
Kavita Krishnamurty Subramaniam is a renowned playback singer credited for singing some of the very popular Bollywood songs. Born in Delhi in a Tamil Iyer family, Kavita began her vocal training under Sri Balram Puri (in the Hindustani music) at a very young age. She began her recording career in 1971. At a very young age, she got the opportunity to record a song with Lata Mangeshkar and mu
The growth rate of GDP in the country was 7% during the second quarter of 2015, lower than the 7.5% growth recorded in the preceding quarter. It was also lower than government estimation of 7.4% in the current financial year but higher than the 6.7% growth logged in the corresponding quarter of 2014. Even the government had started spending in the beginning of this fiscal year but the GDP numbe
The ‘United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967’, Dr Makarim Wibisono, submitted his resignation to the president of the Human Rights Council (HRC) on January 4, and it will be effective from March 31. Wibisono cited the non-cooperation of Israel for his resignation. He stated he had deep regrets that thr
After a break they are back. aliens, ghosts, cobras, witches and haunted houses have occupied a lot of space on a section of news channels. Thanks to modern technology, TV editors can create news on editing machines. It is not that professional editors are not around, but they too are less bothered about checking facts and sticking to truth. Their primary duty, it seems, is to deliver televisio
‘Governance’ consists of traditions and institutions by which authority is exercised in a country. This includes the process by which governments are selected, monitored and replaced; the capacity of the government to effectively formulate and implement sound policies; and the dignity of citizens and the state for the institutions that govern economic and social chemistry among them
Prime minister Narendra Modi has identified eight key thrust areas for governance. In a year-end meeting, he gave the secretaries to the government of India two weeks to translate that political vision into an action plan. The defined objective is to bring about ‘breakthroughs rather than incremental change’ by encouraging convergence and breaking down silos. Execution is to be impr
How do you define net neutrality? Internet is a platform where (access) ISPs provide no competitive advantage to specific apps/services, either through pricing or quality of service (QoS). It is important to note that net neutrality is not about how you treat individual packets, but how you treat competition. Internet provides a platform where ideas can compet
