-Hindustan Times New Delhi: She greets you with a ‘Good morning’, then puts on her gloves, apron and a mask, and immediately gets down to mixing chemicals and cleansers in exact proportions. She is no paramedic. Meet the new-age Indian bai, who now accepts all sorts of assignments, right from cleaning and cooking to babySITting and eldercare, via an app on her smartphone. This professionalisation of your regular bai is a result of...
More »SEARCH RESULT
The reality of school closures -Anurag Behar
-Livemint.com The claims that Right to Education is forcing the closure of thousands of schools is false or ludicrously exaggerated Most of us who work with school education have been completely mystified by media reports and related opinion pieces which claim that thousands of private schools are being shut down because of the Right to Education Act (RTE). We (Azim Premji Foundation) conducted a field study to investigate this matter. Getting valid and...
More »Insurance sop -TK Rajalakshmi
-Frontline The new crop insurance scheme introduced by the NDA government in an election year does not provide for a comprehensive coverage of all crops, against all forms of damage and at all stages of the crop cycle. IN AN election year, it is but natural that incumbent governments will introduce welfare policies and schemes. But the problem is that distribution of such largesse in a neoliberal dispensation can only be...
More »Obstacles to cooperative federalism -Pradeep S Mehta
-The Hindu Business Line The bureaucracy has been unable to take it forward, thanks to its reluctance to share information and ideas Having been a chief minister for long, Narendra Modi as Prime Minister has rightly put his weight behind cooperative and competitive federalism. In March last year, I had elaborated in this column the relationship between the two in the context of development and growth in India in an article ‘What sort...
More »Yogendra Yadav, leader of Swaraj Abhiyan, interviewed by Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta
-Frontline Former psephologist Yogendra Yadav, now a member of the political collective Swaraj Abhiyan, recently toured India’s drought-affected districts. He called it a Samvedna Yatra. During the tour, he took note of the agony in rural areas affected by what he calls “one of the worst droughts in independent India” The drought, according to him, has left farmers and the larger rural community in extreme distress, leading to damaging changes in...
More »