Category Archives: Governance
‘Democracy Doesn’t Start In Parliament, But In Panchayat’
South Africa’s foreign minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, visited India recently for the India-South Africa joint ministerial commission and IBSA ministerial meeting. She spoke to Faizal Khan about Arab unrest and South Africa’s historic and contemporary relations with India.
Uncovering Women’s Work
A substantial amount of women’s time is devoted to unpaid labour. Yet, much of women’s work is invisible. The productive contribution of household maintenance, provisioning and reproduction is ignored. As a result, inadequate attention is paid to the conditions of … Continue reading
The Road Map To The 2G Spectrum Scam
The ABC Of The 2G Scam
THE INCREDIBLY fast expansion of mobile telecommunications in India has been accompanied by a series of scandals that are a consequence of poor regulatory oversight and deliberate manipulation of policies to favour a select clutch of companies. The biggest and … Continue reading
Power Of New Nationalism
The spark that was lit in Tunisia has now spread the brushfire to four countries after consuming Egypt’s long-time president Hosni Mubarak. Coming days will show if the Tunisian uprising will become the Arab equivalent of the 1980 Gdansk strike in Poland that … Continue reading
Domestic Violence Outlawed
Although the Domestic Violence Act mandates certain mechanisms to be put in place in order to protect the rights of women facing violence, in most states, neither have the functionaries under the Act been appointed nor have the required services … Continue reading
2010 Human Development Report Analyses Long-Term Development Trends
Most developing countries made dramatic yet often underestimated progress in health, education and basic living standards in recent decades, with many of the poorest countries posting the greatest gains, reveals a detailed new analysis of long-term Human Development Index (HDI) … Continue reading
Killing Democracy Slowly
While there has been a furore over the Women’s Reservation Bill, the government has been attempting to push through the Nuclear Liability Bill, Communal Violence Bill and Biotechnology Regulation Bill without the discussion and consultation that are mandatory in a … Continue reading
Is This RP2011 All Over Again?
The Regional Plan (RP) stipulates that zone changes approved, conversions sanctioned and licenses issued in the areas now classified as ESZs shall hold good and that those areas will be appropriately mapped. Considering that the state-level committee (SLC) has approved, … Continue reading
‘ESZ Policy Useless Sans Mining One’
The Regional Plan 2021 has been notified for Pernem and Canacona talukas. Barring a few policy statements and the VP status, the plan relates only to these two talukas. The plan is a confusing compromise between the recommendations of the Task … Continue reading