Chennai comes up with innovative ideas. ‘Prime Point,' set up by a gentleman known in true Tamil Nadu-style as ‘Prime Point Srinivasan,' has instituted a set of awards for parliamentarians called Sansad Ratna Awards. ‘PP' felicitously chose Ambedkar Jayanti for the conferment ceremony this year and conferred the honour on four MPs: Anand Rao Adsul — Number 1 in Questions (754). The total tally of debates, private bills and questions raised...

The common man, whose concerns were at the heart of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s two successful Election Campaigns, doesn’t seem to be the focus of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s budget. Experts and political analysts say the aam admi doesn’t appear to be the dominant concern anymore, prompting speculation about Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi’s role. She has thus far been setting the UPA’s social agenda through the National Advisory Council...

Taking strong exception to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks against NGOs who opposed genetically modified crops and nuclear power plants, a group of eminent citizens said that it was a “highly inappropriate misrepresentation of facts.” In a strongly-worded letter to him, the group led by the former Supreme Court Judge, V.R. Krishna Iyer, and including the former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, A. Gopalakrishnan, said it was the government...

-DNA A discussion launched on chief minister Narendra Modi during the question and answer section after the screening of the film Jay Bhim Comrad, saw vitriolic attack about the portion of the film which showed Modi's visit to Mumbai for Election Campaigns. The film is mainly focused on the cultural movement by dalit youths called Kabir Kala Manch and deals about atrocities on dalits and their struggle to sustain cultural revolution in...

The right of women to participate in political life is guaranteed by several international conventions, but transforming an abstract right into a reality requires hard work on the ground, says a new study released here. Published jointly by the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) for International Affairs, the 118-page report points out that although 40 to 50 percent of members of political parties globally are women,...