Saroja Vaidyanathan is a well-known Bharatanatyam danseuse, choreographer and author. She is the recipient of several awards including the Padma Shree in 2002 and Padma Bhushan in 2013. She was also awarded the Sahitya Kala Parishad Samman by the Delhi government apart from the Kalaimamani title and Sangeet Natak Akademi award. She was conferred the title of &lsquo
Tragedies make for great stories and they can hardly escape drama. Greek philosopher Aristotle while revealing the defining elements of a tragedy said that tragedies should be “expressed in the form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear”. When tragedies are punctuated with sub-plots, where people are killed by their own families and that t
We live in a time where technology becomes outdated with the blink of an eye. With purchasing power turning stronger, and technology becoming economical, lifecycle of the product is shortened. Hence handling disposed electronic items, commonly called e-waste, is getting tougher and challenging. E-waste management is going to become a major problem in the country and yet the issue lacks seriousn
He acquired interest in analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies very early in his career while leading a team that was developing and implementing one of the first commercial AI systems for Digital Equipment Corporation (the company that was renamed as Compaq and later acquired by HP). In 2001 he set up iOmniscient, a video analytics company along with Ivy Li, as an offshoot
In 1974, engineering students in Ahmedabad protested a mess fee hike. They came out on streets, and they started receiving widespread support – against the backdrop of runaway inflation and an allegedly corrupt state government of Chimanbhai Patel. In no time, the protests snowballed into a statewide agitation, called Navnirman Andolan, which Wikipedia claims to be the only protest of its
Vincent Cochetel is the director of the Bureau for Europe at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He joined UNHCR in 1986, initially working as a legal/protection officer in various duty stations, mainly in Eastern and Western Europe. He subsequently managed UNHCR field offices in Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Cochetel pa
Increasingly governments worldwide as well as in India are focused on providing citizen services and safety in the most seamless manner that can assist in development. The other name to this can be given as smart cities. An important aspect however remains the reach and coverage of government systems to the masses. While in the past, physical limitations (number of personnel or
The question of economic inequality was always a pressing one, but last year it threw up an unlikely best-seller, Capital by Thomas Piketty. Before and after Piketty, there has been a growing body of literature on the theme (a long list can be found at: inequality.org/books-inequality), including Joseph Stiglitz’s Price of Inequality and Angus Deaton’s The Great Escape for non-exper
Alyque Padamsee, the adman who has built over 100 brands, is also a bestselling author, actor and a great orator. He has 70 major English theatre productions to his name. Famous for his portrayal of Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Richard Attenborough’s film Gandhi, Padamsee has won many awards and is regarded as a genius. He is the only Indian to be voted into the International Clio Hall of F
Uttar Pradesh has performed veyr poor in centre’s Swachh Bharat test. In a ranking of 476 cities conducted by ministry of urban development, only one UP city, Etawah, has figured among the cleanest 100 cities. In fact prime minister’s constituency Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh is among the bottom few cities with poor sanitation practices. The temple town ranks 418 among 476 cities. Bula
Service tax is a tax levied on providers of certain service transactions (excluding specified exempted categories). Service providers pay the tax and recover it from customers. It is charged to individual service providers on cash basis, and to companies on accrual basis. This tax is payable only when the value of services provided in a financial year exceeds `10 lakh. As has been mentioned in
A short tract by Michael Walzer, a leading political theorist better known for his masterpiece ‘Just and Unjust Wars’, should be of interest to the Indian readership. The American public intellectual poses the question that has become all the more relevant lately: How do we explain the shift from the values and ideals that won India independence to a different set of ideals that too
Dr Lakshminarayana Subramaniam is a well-known violinist trained in Carnatic as well as western classical music. His career in music started in 1973 and ever since he has amassed over 200 recordings to his credit. He has worked with renowned musicians Yehudi Menuhin, Stéphane Grappelli, Ruggiero Ricci, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Herbie Hancock, George Harrison and
As I leaf through ‘Nature Without Borders’, I am reminded of my visit to the Velavadar national park in Gujarat a few years ago. For a small national park of only 29 sq km, Velavadar packs a punch. It harbours the endemic blackbuck, the endangered Indian wolf; is the largest roosting sight for Montagu’s harrier in the world and the finest place to see one of the rarest –
India has 1,80,657 manual scavengers, reveals the socio-economic caste census. Going by the SECC data it is evident that Maharashtra has the highest number of manual scavengers with 63,713 people still engaged in the practice of cleaning human excreta manually. Following Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh
Soon after the downfall of the USSR, American political scientist Francis Fukuyama theorised in his book ‘The End of History and the Last Man’ (1992) that the age of communism was over and the western capitalism was now going to be the permanent feature. Four years after this proclamation of the ‘victory’ of capitalism, however, the tiny Himalayan nation of Nepal was
Founded in 2009, the AGI aims to address the concerns and interests of the Indian geospatial industry. In conversation with Ridhima Kumar, AGI’s executive director Bharti Sinha talks about the changing attitudes of the government towards the industry and its willingness to encourage the use of geospatial technology in India.
The pre-1993 executive-led system of appointment of judges lost favour with people for trampling upon judicial independence. The post-1993 judiciary-led collegium system faced criticism for lack of transparency and accountability. The trust deficit continues to be a challenge with the new system under the national judicial appointments commission (NJAC) raising fears on both counts.
Do we in India have the concept of privacy? The supreme court is hearing a bunch of petitions that have objected to Aadhaar because it infringes on citizens’ privacy. The government has said ‘right to privacy’ is not a fundamental right. It does not figure in the constitution, of course, even if the apex court has read ‘right to privacy’ as part of the all-importan
Established in 1996 as a joint venture between Esri Inc of USA and NIIT Technologies of India, Esri India is the country’s leading GIS software and solutions provider. In an interview with Ridhima Kumar, Esri India’s president, Agendra Kumar gives a brief overview of the GIS industry in India, its challenges and the future prospects.
