Blogs
Xiamen breakthrough: Brics declaration condemns Pakistan based terror groups for very first time
The big job interview: Sat in on one the other day, it’s just the same as in one thousand nine hundred seventy 😜
Sat in on a corporate interview the other day and the questions were exactly the same as were asked in 1970. Banal, pointless and clichéd. Everyone lies and no one truly cares what is being…
Musical chairs: Don’t permit sacking of chief coach Roelant Oltmans to affect Indian hockey’s two thousand eighteen medal prospects
Sackings are always abrupt in the sporting world and hockey is no exception. Chief hockey coach Roelant Oltmans became the 23rd casualty in as many years. The Dutchman’s exit from Indian hockey affairs was overdue…
Bit tragedy, empty rhetoric: To prevent more Gorakhpurs, wiggle off the apathy and fix India’s cracked public healthcare
In the wake of over seventy encephalitis-afflicted children dying after the oxygen supply at Gorakhpur’s Baba Raghav Das Hospital was cut off following a payment dispute, the stage has been set for a rigorous debate…
The age of the private army
The mayhem whipped out by the supporters of Ram Rahim is an emphatic reminder of how a parallel structure is building legitimacy, and finding ways of challenging the state with impunity. What we spotted in Panchkula…
Eliminate the barriers: Go after Niti Aayog recommendations on higher education, give students a chance
The Union government has just twenty months left to redraw the higher education landscape. Wallowing in a sea of mediocrity no sector is more ripe for reform, yet the chokehold of politicians and bureaucracy has…
Fresh Beginnings Are Disguised As Painful Endings
By Sumit Paul A commonly quoted aphorism says, “New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” We stand against and often resent the switches. But switch is the key to life, because, despite switch being seemingly…
Shuffling the pack: Cabinet reshuffle banks on administrative practice to improve governance delivery
There’s little doubt that the latest Cabinet reshuffle was effected keeping in mind the two thousand nineteen Lok Sabha polls. With just two years to go, the Narendra Modi government is clearly keen to concentrate on delivery…
‘School enrolment numbers high in the last decade … but there is a learning crisis here. Students in schools but not learning skills’
Earlier this year India announced that it would be ending its almost decade-long boycott of the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA), organised by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to rank countries…
Legalise hook-up by consent: Section three hundred seventy seven has become untenable in the light of Supreme Court’s historic privacy judgment
By Ajit Prakash Shah and Vrinda Bhandari In its historic judgment in ‘Justice Puttaswamy vs Union of India’, the Supreme Court held that privacy is a fundamental right. In doing so, it also eliminated the basis for…
Dong of a Fresh Era: North Korea goes ballistic after Uncle Sam chooses dong-ask, dong-tell 😜
North Korea has gone ballistic in more than one sense. With a series of provocative tests that have made its nuclear-capable missiles more potent and taken them further, the regime of Kim Jong-un has signalled…
Starlet India bags global rights for IPL in most expensive deal in cricket broadcasting history
By Boria Majumdar The suspense is eventually over; Rs 16,347.50 crore ($Two.55 billion) is the magic figure that has won Starlet India the IPL rights for the next five years. But, can this humongous amount…
India’s treating of Dokalam shows us the way to talk harsh issues with China
By Pranab Dhal Samanta How to deal with China? This is lightly the thickest foreign policy question for most governments in today’s global power order. And that’s precisely why the resolution to the Doklam stand-off…
Don’t be a triple talaq pony
By Rakesh Mohan Chaturvedi The latest Supreme Court verdict making instant triple talaq illegal is a big step towards ensuring gender justice. But those who claim it will sway Muslim women votes to the BJP…
Fierce contest over competition
By MM Sharma The ongoing turf war inbetween the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), triggered by CCI chairman Devender Sikri writing a letter to Trai chairman R…
The purpose of education
By J Krishnamurti Why are you being educated? Your parents send you to school. You attend classes, you learn mathematics, you learn geography, history. Why? What is the point of your passing examinations and getting…
Court hurdle in insolvency’s path
The Supreme Court has erred in putting on hold the insolvency proceedings against real estate stiff Jaypee Infratech. It shows an ongoing resolution process can be stymied if sufficient number of people raise their voice….
For BRICS beyond mere sweet nothings
As the largest beneficiaries of globalisation, the five nations, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, which constitute Brics have come out strongly in favour of an open and inclusive world economy. They champ inclusive…
Pyongyang Nuke Test: It’s time to accept North Korea can’t be made to fully give up its nuclear programme
Continuing to defy American threats and pressure, North Korea has conducted another nuclear test – purportedly a hydrogen bomb – to showcase its growing nuclear prowess. Combined with its intercontinental ballistic missile test launches in…
Why even demonetisation’s influence on interest rates cannot offset banks’ bad loan problems
Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) annual report for 2016-17 brings out the extent to which Indian banking system’s bad loan problem is gasping the transmission of switches in the central bank’s policy rate. Since January…
Woman on top!
Remarkably, the appointment of Nirmala Sitharaman as Defence Minister of India has turned into a gender dialogue. A woman at helm, women empowerment – all such became matters of prime discussion. This happens every time,…
Anitha might be alive doing MBBS if state had set up coaching centres for poor toppers
If the politicians of Tamil Nadu especially those in the AIADMK ruling party had not been preoccupied with their factional feuds, they would have realized that there was no way the Supreme Court mandated NEET…
Cabinet reshuffle: Onus on Narendra Modi to produce till 2019
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s latest cabinet reshuffle is being touted as the coming of age of the next-gen leadership within BJP. The elevation of Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan, Piyush Goyal and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to…
War for talent in startups & organizational culture
Let me share an interesting incident. It is common knowldge that many people in the public sector banks in India were not very work-oriented and efficient. These banks suggested a voluntary retirement scheme to improve…
‘Improving’ flood situation is a myth
The popular media paints a picture that the flood situation in Assam is improving. An improved situation can only mean receding water levels, not necessarily a situation of diminished or alleviated impacts. It will be…
Live in the present wisely and earnestly
You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too utter to embrace the present.
Jan Glidewell Do not mourn the past, says Buddha. That is the secret of…
PM Narendra Modi and Myanmar: In search of fresh opportunities
By: Sanjay Pulipaka Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting Myanmar in a few days. His earlier visit was in two thousand fourteen to attend the ASEAN-India summit meetings and, therefore, this can be considered as his…
Why rote learning makes state’s education system hollow
Anitha scored 95.6% in Class X and 98% in Class XII examinations. Her scores were a proof of her excellent academic spectacle. But a competitive exam shattered her fantasies of being a doctor — she…
Is NEET a stab or a timely stitch?
Death Of Medical Aspirant Anitha Sparks Debate On Repercussions Of NEET On Poor Students & Quality Of State Board Syllabus ‘Like Sanskrit imposition, TN should fight NEET, ask for more autonomy’ Seventeen-year-old Anitha took her…
How a cash-strapped BCCI in the early 90s became the world’s wealthiest board
By Boria Majumdar Today, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is expected to be richer by approximately Rs 15,000 crore ($Two.35 billion) and with that the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be…
Government of India’s uchit shiksha yojana
On a sleepy Sunday morning in Modistan, a prize distribution ceremony was underway. The reason there was a school prize-distribution ceremony quality about Sunday’s Cabinet expansion was that it was a school prize-distribution ceremony. Prime…