What is our national aim? To my mind, our national aim must be to make India a highly prosperous country for its citizens, and for that it is necessary to have a high degree of industrialization.  Even setting up and running a single primary school requires a lot of money, e.g. for buying land, erecting the school building and providing for the recurrent expenditure for salaries of teachers, staff, etc. We...

The Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry has moved the Cabinet note on the revised Sports Development Bill for inter-ministerial consultations. The Bill seeks to bring about accountability and transparency in the administering of sports. Dissent note The Bill, which has drawn support from various quarters including eminent sportspersons and members of the civil society, is aimed at bringing about efficiency and transparency in the working of the national sports federations and seeks...

-DNA   The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) might be doing good for the rural poor in helping them boost their income, but the scheme has emerged as a big threat to the traditional arts and crafts, said Jaya Jaitley who has pioneered handicraft movement in India. Jaitley, head of Dastkari Haat Samiti, is in Ahmedabad with around 90 artisans from different pockets in Indian states to exhibit their...

‘There is no such thing as self-regulation, every institution is accountable to the people.' We publish here an edited excerpt from a clarification issued by Press Council chairman Markandey Katju. The full text of his clarification can be read at www.thehindu.com. ‘No doubt, the media should provide some entertainment also to the people. But if 90 per cent of their coverage is devoted to entertainment, and only 10 per cent...

-The Hindu   Justice Markandey Katju, Chairman, Press Council of India, has issued the following clarification on his critical observations of the Indian media.   I have expressed my views relating to the media in several T.V. interviews I gave as well as in my articles in some newspapers. However, many people, including many media people, wanted clarification and amplification of some of the issues I had raised. Many media people (including several T.V. channels)...