-The Indian Express Patton Boggs, one of the lobbying firms which represented global retail chain Walmart, was hired by the Indian embassy in the US in 2008 to help clinch the India-US nuclear deal. News of Walmart spending Rs 125 crore in the last four years to lobby with US lawmakers disrupted the Rajya Sabha Monday, with MPs alleging that the company had indulged in corruption to enter India. Patton Boggs’s web site...
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People of no fixed address-Sunil Sethi
-The Business Standard Are these people expected to return to their villages and hometowns to hang around waiting for the Unique Identification Authority of India to set up shop? Workers returning to their jobs in metros from remote villages in Bihar and Jharkhand have lately been complaining that they are barred from boarding trains unless they show sufficient identification, including proof of residence in cities. Whether this is a run-up to the...
More »Growthwallahs need to pause and reflect-Anil Padmanabhan
-Live Mint The solutions to India’s growth problems require a more holistic approach Whether rightly or wrongly, there is a growing critique of India’s current development strategy: of a top-down, trickle-down theory that rides on an extraordinary growth momentum. They are disparate, but when the dots are connected they do present a coherent reminder that this strategy may not be the best and, worse, it is not sustainable. To a large extent this...
More »Sleep on RTI queries, babus tell juniors -Christin Mathew Philip
-The Times of India CHENNAI: Seeking and giving information under Right to Information Act has been a cat-and-mouse game for citizens and officials since the legislation came into effect in October, 2005. Now, senior bureaucrats are giving crash courses to public information officers (PIOs) on how to delay or deny information to applicants. At informal sessions, officers coach PIOs - responsible for giving information under the act - how to redirect queries...
More »Lost in caste politics: a woman’s right to choose her partner -PV Srividya
-The Hindu NAGAPATTINAM: When PMK launched its tirade against inter-caste marriages involving Dalit men, political parties came on board to criticize the statements by Ramadoss. Activists and feminist intellectuals say that what was lost in the melee was the voice of Dalit and Vanniyar women, rendered silent by the confines of caste. “Cast in caste, they have become prized trophies to be owned, regulated and guarded by the menfolk of the respective...
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