The BJP has wrenched power in “yet another state”. The Congress is looking at long-term gains by refusing to back Shibu Soren. But the Jharkhand verdict has also opened the eyes of the two mainline parties to a disturbing realisation: their failure to “nurture” tribal leaders. “Both of us stand exposed as out-and-out upper caste parties who have failed to create, and worse, nurture tribal leadership. The mandate’s message is the...
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Medical degree in 3.5-year for rural docs by Dhananjay Mahapatra
A medical degree in 3-1/2 years? This could soon be a reality with the health ministry and Medical Council of India (MCI) planning a shorter medical degree for rural students who would exclusively serve the rural populace. The hinterland, where few doctors want to serve, could soon have a dedicated corps of medical practitioners drawn from among students raised in rural areas. After incentives failed to lure doctors to practise...
More »Toward Greater Transparency through Access to Information: World Bank Finalizes Landmark Policy
The World Bank today finalized its Access to Information Policy, which makes the Bank a transparency leader among international institutions. The policy was approved by the Board of Executive Directors on November 17, 2009 and will become effective July 1, 2010. The final text of the Policy paper reflects the comments and requests for clarifications sought by the Board during the November 17 discussion. “With the adoption of a progressive disclosure...
More »Resistance a strategy for staying alive: Binayak by Rahi Gaikwad
One-third of India is starving. In fact, this population has been in a state of chronic hunger, a factor which should be taken into account while evaluating the poverty situation, human rights activist and eminent doctor Binayak Sen said in a lecture at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences here on Monday. As a physician, “it’s been my privilege to read the politics of the bodies of my people,” said Dr....
More »In familiar books, a battle over electronic rights by Motoko Rich
A rising source of conflict in one of the publishing industry’s last remaining areas of growth. William Styron may have been one of the leading literary lions of recent decades, but his books are not selling much these days. Now his family has a plan to lure digital-age readers with e-book versions of titles like “Sophie’s Choice,” “The Confessions of Nat Turner” and Styron’s memoir of depression, “Darkness Visible.” But...
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