-The Indian Express Congratulations to the IMD which sounded out the country on below-normal rainfall at 93 per cent of the LPA and then downgraded it to 88 per cent. Skymet’s forecast for 102 per cent of the long period average (LPA) of the southwest monsoon was wrong. On September 30, the monsoon ended at 86 per cent of the LPA, leading to a second consecutive season with deficient rainfall (mild...
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India's Handloom Challenge Anatomy of a Crisis -Ashoke Chatterjee
-Economic and Political Weekly The Indian weaver is dismissed in high places as an embarrassing anachronism, despite demand for his or her skills and products. In the new millennium, globalisation and a mindless acquiescence to imported notions of a good life threaten to take over, even as the West looks East for better concepts of sustainable living. Analysing today's crisis in the handloom sector, plagued by low-cost imitations from power looms,...
More »Need to improve primary school education
-The Hindustan Times All is not well on the education front, especially in the quality of state-run schools. This is clear from the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), which is facilitated by Pratham, a non-governmental innovative learning organisation. The key findings of its 10th year report, which was released in New Delhi on Tuesday, was not different from the earlier ones. The enrolment levels are 96% or higher for the...
More »Unlearning undemocratic values-Sukhadeo Thorat
-The Hindu India's long-standing legacies of caste, gender and class antagonism replicate on campuses as well. As higher education moves forward, it does so on these social cleavages The brutal sexual attack on a young woman in Delhi, in 2012, and a savage attack on a girl student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on its campus this year are just two examples of extreme violence that have shocked the nation. Acts of...
More »A sugar rush that could fuel the economy -R Viswanathan
-The Hindu India should take its cue from Brazil and invest in ethanol as a viable commercial substitute for costly petrol The public and media were outraged recently after a suggestion that petrol stations could be closed from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. to curb consumption. Oil import is the heaviest burden on India's foreign exchange, at $144 billion last year. The situation could get worse, given the potential for an increase...
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