Much debate as taken place on the way forward of ‘Net Neutrality’ in India following the issue of the consultation paper by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for inviting stakeholder feedback which comes to a close this week. The need of the hour is to address all stake-holder concerns. This discussion paper tries to deal with some of the key issues relevant for the w
After stalling and procrastinating for countless times in the last five years the Brihanmumbai municipal corporation (BMC) finally unveiled in February its development plan, or DP, that it confidently claimed will hold the financial capital in good stead at least till 2034. Following widespread criticism,
Network neutrality is all about keeping the internet free and open from the clutches of telecom operators/carriers. The government is expected to finalise a policy on net neutrality in a month’s time. When it actually does, it must keep in mind a few things to protect cons
India is the fifth largest generator of e-waste in the world. The country discarded 1.7 million tonnes (Mt) of electronic and electrical equipment in 2014, said a United Nations report. Most e-waste in the world in 2014 was generated in Asia at 16 Mt or 3.7 kg per inhabitant. The top three Asian nations with the highest e-waste generation in absolute quantities are China (6.0 Mt
As parliament resumed its budget session after a break, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, minister of state for parliamentary affairs speaks to Sweta Ranjan on the business and the challenges. Excerpts: What important legislations are lined up for remaining part of the budget session? One is the land bill and tho
Rajeev Chandrasekhar has an unusual CV for an MP: he worked in Intel and founded BPL Mobile, before joining politics – and has been twice elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka as an independent member supported by all parties. In an email interview with Shishir Tripathi, he comments on his PIL and free speech in the digital age.
Bank account penetration in India has increased from 35 percent in 2011 to 53 percent in 2015, which means as many as 175 million new bank accounts were opened in these three years, says a World Bank report on measuring financial inclusion across the world. The report also says that the country also suffers from high dormancy rates. As mentioned in the report, the Pradhan Mantri
When the Bamian Buddhas came crashing down like an avalanche, the first person I called was my maternal grandfather. On deputation to the Kabul press in the 1960s, he was lucky to have seen the imposing sixth century monolithic statues that stood guard on the edge of the Bamian valley. He often told us gripping stories of his time in Afghanistan and through his eyes we saw a once flourishing ci
Born in Sylhet, Bangladesh, Zia Haider Rahman moved to London as a baby soon after the 1971 Bangladesh war of liberation. In London, his father, a bus conductor and waiter, and mother, a seamstress, struggled to make ends meet during his growing-up years. He studied at Balliol College of Oxford University and pursued further studies in Germany and at Cambridge and Yale universities. He has
It is one of the most unforgivable incidents, yet it is one in many. This week a child fell to her death in a sump at school because she had to go to fetch water. The government primary school that Susanna studied in is not in the rural interiors of India, but in a bustling, modern city – India`s IT capital Bengaluru. Yet it doesn`t even a have tap for children, let alone purified drinkin
From the archives: Narayan Desai spoke to Ashish Mehta in November 2010, when he was in Delhi for the 88th Gandhi Katha. Excerpts from the interview: You started doing ‘Gandhi Katha’ in Gujarat in June 2004, two years after the communal violence in the state. What prompted you to take this innovative way of propagating Gandhi’s
It took nearly 15 minutes to write this story and as many minutes for tobacco to kill 30 people. Tobacco kills one person in 32 seconds. The real time data records over 23,200 tobacco related deaths since April 1, 2015. At the same time, the tobacco companies across the globe made a profit of Rs 6,50,900 lakh.
Recipient of Padma Shri and the Sahitya Akademi award, novelist, poet and critic Bhalchandra Nemade has taught English, Marathi and comparative literature at various places, including the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Before retirement, he held Mumbai University’s Gurudeo Tagore chair for comparative literature studies. A proponent of ‘Deshivad’, Nemade
The week ending March 5 acquired significance indicating the direction we, as a country, seem to be heading in. In the preceding five days, there was a ban a day in the country, including the one on beef in Maharashtra and on the screening of the BBC documentary, India’s Daughter. The documentary is detrimental to the nation’s reputation abroad – the nation was told by one of
In one of the biggest auctions of mobile spectrum the government has fetched a whopping sum of `94,000 crore at the end of the fifth day of the sale process, on March 9. Industry watchers say that if the robust bidding continues the government may touch the `1 lakh crore figure. This is certainly good news for the health of the exchequer. And the telecom industry can pat itself on the back for
`No toilet in school, UP girl out to relieve herself gangraped by seniors,` read a newspaper headline on March 30. The class V girl student was allegedly raped by two seniors from her school, when she went out to relieve herself in a field outside her school. This government school in Rae Bareli district of Uttar Pradesh has no toilets. This state of affairs prevails despite
Krishan Pal, union minister of state for social justice and empowerment, represents Faridabad in the Lok Sabha. In an interview with Sweta Ranjan, he speaks about development plans for the bustling city that is part of the national capital region (NCR). Edited excerpts: Faridabad has a tremendous potential for development. As MP, what are your p
India needs to develop its own comprehensive policy and regulatory framework for drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) not only for operational clarity but also for developing a manufacturing base for an indigenous drone industry. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are basically pre-programmed aircrafts that are controlled from the ground. Currently India operates more th
In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act as being unconstitutional and violative of Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(2) of the Constitution of India. The now defunct Section.66A of the IT Act, read as follows: “Punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service, etc.66A. Any pers
Finance minister Arun Jaitley has set a disinvestment target of `69,500 crore for 2015-16. Disinvestment secretary Aradhana Johri, the 1980-batch IAS officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre, calls it an ambitious target. The disinvestment revenue in 2014-15 has been the highest so far, but Johri is confident of meeting the even higher target for the coming fiscal. In an interview with Jasleen
