If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it,' quipped Charles F Kettering , the famous American engineer and inventor of the electric starter. Well, the government has done just that! It has appointed an eight-member committee to examine ways to tackle black money. Perhaps that is too cynical! After all, the flurry of activity (the committee is only one of a series...
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Swami, Anna and Baba
-The Business Standard Swami Agnivesh with his Swami Vivekananda-style turban, Anna Hazare with his Gandhi cap, Baba Ramdev with his yogi’s beard...Who next? Time for a Maulvi? The voices from India’s civil society are getting curiouser and curiouser. Time was when gurus and yogis like these worried about the after life, or about the environment and vegetarianism. But today they have come to the centre-stage of Indian politics. Is it...
More »Citizen Cane Vs King Canute by Saikar Datta
No one’s buying the government’s desperate arguments to keep the prime minister above Lokpal scrutiny Points Of Friction Government and civil society representatives have sparred on the question of including the prime minister in the proposed Lokpal Bill on seven key grounds: Point: The Prime Minister is accountable only to Parliament, and to the people of India Counterpoint: Does this mean a PM can never face action for criminal liability, however serious the charge,...
More »Crop losses rising as nearly 40% of pesticides spurious : ICAR
-The Financial Express THE rising sale of spurious pesticides in the country is resulting in crop damage, top agricultural scientists said on Wednesday. S Ayyappan, director general, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), said around 40% of pesticides used in the country is spurious. “Research and development needs to be given a boost in this field (pesticides) and for this the main participation should come from the private sector, and a...
More »A tale of two dams by V Venkatesan
Jairam Ramesh's order of May 6 rescinding his earlier stop-work notice with regard to the Maheshwar dam surprises many. ON May 6, Jairam Ramesh, the Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests, made a confession while responding to a questioner at a public meeting. He said he had been under “pressure” to overlook environmental violations while clearing certain projects. “Regularisation of illegality is a peculiar Indian characteristic. First you...
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