It is the 21st century version of the classic rabbit and tortoise story. Last weekend, a group of cyclists decided to race against Jet-BlueAirlines in Los Angeles when one of its busiest highways was shut down for construction and renovation. To help people get across the town fast, JetBlue started a special flight service. A group of cyclists decided to challenge the airlines to a bikeversus-airlines race. It turned out...
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Construction works destroy amission, bleed health funds by Pravin Kumar & Shailvee Sharda
The flexipool of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) funds has been the juiciest target for fund plunderers. The head under which huge budget was earmarked for activities like construction and strengthening of healthcare facilities, provided ample scope for pilferage. The pattern of spending on infrastructure building and maintenance proves how extravagant UP has been on this count. Every single year, since the inception of the NRHM in 2005-06, the state...
More »Our Self-righteous Civil Society by Pranab Bardhan
Over the last few decades thenon-party volunteer organisations have been much more effective in Indian public space and more articulate in policy debates than the traditional Left parties. This essay, while recognising the manifold achievements of these organisations, reflects on the serious limitations of the activities of the voluntary sector and argues that when they usurp certain roles they can become a threat to representative democracy. [Pranab Bardhan (bardhan@econ.berkeley.edu) is at...
More »The Institutions of Democracy by Andre Beteille
This essay describes and compares Parliament and the Supreme Court and examines the relationship between them. Parliament may still be a great institution, but its members are no longer great men. How long can a great institution remain great in the hands of small men? The SC has held its place in the public esteem rather better than the Lok Sabha, despite the occasional allegation of financial impropriety. Parliament, the...
More »PPP projects out of RTI, CIC knocks on PM door
With the government serving a severe blow to transparency in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects worth one trillion rupees the Central Information Commission has decided to seek Prime Minister’s Manmohan Singh’s intervention. “We will be writing to the Prime Minister that there should not be a blanket ban on making RTI applicable to PPP projects,” said an Information Commissioner, following a decision at the commission’s last meeting. The CIC wanted the...
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