The other day, on Twitter, former chief of army staff VK Singh saluted our fallen soldiers in ‘Sudan’. Since I track the region, I questioned the general, requested him to respect the difference between two sovereign nations: ‘Sudan’, which he had absent-mindedly referred to, and ‘South Sudan’, where two Indian peacekeepers serving the UN Mission in South Sud
Women have always been sound financial managers and yet they own only 1 percent of the individual assets in the country. In an interview with Srishti Pandey, Usha Ananthasubramanian, CMD of the newly opened Bharatiya Mahila Bank, the country’s first all-women public sector bank, talks about why it is important to bring out the money kept in the ‘masala dabbas’
Satyapal Singh wanted to become a scientist – he did his MPhil in chemistry – before he joined the IPS (Maharashtra cadre, 1980 batch). Singh’s first posting was assistant superintendent of police of Nasik. He then went on to become the superintendent of police of Buldhana. Prior to taking up the very critical assignment of heading the Mumbai police, he was Maharashtra
The state finance commissions (SFCs) have been considered important institutions in strengthening and financing local governing bodies (LGBs). Yet, even 20 years after the 73rd and 74th amendments to the constitution the SFCs are rudimentary bodies in many states, and some have not even formed them, a new release by New Delhi-based policy think-tank National Social Watch highlights.
Most employees at Noida Sector 16 A, a media hub in Noida and popularly called ‘Film City’, return to their homes in Delhi on cabs returning after ferrying IT sector employees to their offices situated in Noida. Most of these cabs charge Rs 15 to 20 per passenger to take them to places like Lajpat Nagar, South Extension, AIIMS. They are fairly regular, comfortable and of course fast
The writ petitions before the Delhi high court had challenged the validity of section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the petitioner was an organization representing LGBT persons. It alleged harassment, distress and injury as a result of the penal provision. It invoked their fundamental right to life and personal liberty guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution. It was asserted that
In the capital, a higher voter turnout is the combined result of the two-year continuous mobilisation of people, first by Anna Hazare against corruption and then due to the ‘Nirbhaya’ tragedy. Then, there were protests by Arvind Kejriwal of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The party’s strategy of door-to-door campaign and decentralised manifestos also contributed to the higher turnout.
In an exclusive interview with Trithesh Nandan,VS Sampath, chief election commissioner explains how the election commission (EC) has ensured that. He also assures us that the EC is not going to lose momentum, and plans are already afoot to ensure more voter participation in the coming Lok Sabha elections. Edited excerpts from the interview: Recent years have witnessed a heart-wa
Surat Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana is today known as the man who’s made the city a safe place to live. Earlier he was known in the bureaucratic circles as the man who supervised the investigations in the fodder scam cases as the SP CBI, and DIG of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The 1984 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the Gujarat cadre became Surat’s t
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the last of the giants who led South Africa’s struggle against colonialism, is no more. “White supremacy implies black inferiority.” His words were truth to the powers and he devoted his life to opposing systems that protect and abet this superiority. It made him the most recognisable icon of struggle against oppression, injustice and discrimination
You cannot paint over it. The Congress was decimated by the BJP which is led by the controversial but increasingly high profile Narendra Modi, like it or not. He is the flavour. The rest of it is semantics. Whether it was an anti-incumbent defeat or a call for change or a warning flare to the Congress for next year’s general election, the fact is the country was sick to its guts of the sc
I had the privilege of meeting Nelson Mandela in an elevator in Cape Town when the Khaleej Times sent me to South Africa to track the changeover from the apartheid era to a more equal one in racial terms. Couldn’t find him. From Jo’burg to Durban to Cape Town, the ANC kept him well hidden from anyone who was a guest of the government. I remember meeting Chris Hani, his able
3,75,76,324 the number of missing toilets in rural and urban India, according to a report collated by the Right to Sanitation Campaign based on government figures in the report titled ‘In Deep Shit’. What is a ‘missing toilet’? As the phrase suggests, it is a toilet that exists on paper but not on ground. So these missing toilets a
These are excerpts from the judgement on the high profile Arushi murder case. Imagine being judged by someone who has the power to put you behind bars for the rest of your life and yet, makes no sense in his judgement. These bites are out any legal realm and would be fodder for a stand up comic if it wasn’t all so tragic. Go on read it, then shudder with the fear of it…and thank Sl
After reading the Delhi Durbar piece on the Tehelka incident in the morning, I unknowingly blurted out, "That is why this industry is sick!" My senior editor countered, saying that I cannot generalise the whole industry because of this one incident. The whole world is full or perverts, so saying that the media is full of sickos is going a bit too far. I thought over it
Set up in 1988, Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) is a miniratna public sector enterprise under the ministry of railways. It provides multi-modal logistics support for domestic and external trade. Its core businesses are cargo carriers, terminal operations and warehouse operations. In an interview with Puja Bhattacharjee, CONCOR chairman and managing director Anil Gupta
Sadanand Dhume, a resident fellow at the Washington-based conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute (AEI), has co-authored a working paper on the Indo-US relationship – ‘Falling Short: How Bad Economic Choices Threaten the US-India Relationship and India’s Rise’. As the title explains, his argument is that India made some bad choices in the last couple of yea
India’s large rural and semi-urban population is still out of banking fold, according to the latest report released by McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm. “Despite, the presence of nearly 90 scheduled commercial banks, the extent of access is still low, with around 35 percent of India’s population financially excluded, and only 28 percent total
In the violence affected areas, it is the education of children that is the worst hit, as many schools have been destroyed due to fight between Maoists and security forces, says a report released by Save the Children, an international NGO working for the upliftment of under privileged children. Jairam Ramesh, minister of rural development released the report titled ‘Caught in Cros
As the Campa Cola compound in Mumbai’s upscale Worli area simmered for the last couple of days, with the supreme court on Wednesday putting a stay on razing of the illegally raised floors and finally putting a temporary lid on the scalding issue, what came to the fore were brazen apathy of the administration and lack of faith in rules among both the builders and the authorities of the tim
