As a humble cog in the vast and wondrous machine of the Indian media, I want to extend my personal thanks to Justice Markandey Katju for his recent comments. He has been berated by the Editors Guild for his ‘tendentious and offensive’ remarks, but my own view is that we owe the new Chairman of the Press Council a small debt of gratitude. It is true that in his interview...
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Why our media is anti-people by Markandey Katju
To understand the role which the media should be playing in India we have to first understand the historical context. India is presently passing through a transitional period in its history: a transition from a feudal agricultural society to a modern industrial society. This is a very painful and agonising period. The old feudal society is being uprooted and torn apart; but the new, modern, industrial society has not yet been...
More »Not BPL but Basic Income by Meghnad Desai
The fracas over R32 per day was amusing and sad. Obviously, none of the journalists and politicians had known that the level used to be even lower in previous years. In 2004-05, the level was R552 per person per month for an urban person and R363 for rural. So, that is about R17.5 (R12) per day. The stylised anger only revealed that India’s elite may protest about poverty but they...
More »Addressing India’s hunger gap by NC Saxena
The word ‘hunger’ does not appear in the 12th Plan Approach Paper even once, whereas according to the latest Global Hunger Index Report, India continues to be in the category of those nations where hunger is ‘alarming’. What is worse, India is one of the three countries where the hunger index between 1996 and 2011 has gone up from 22.9 to 23.7, while 78 out of the 81 developing countries...
More »High food price, a crisis on our plate by Brinda Jagirdar
To control inflation and ensure long-term economic growth, India needs to harness the creativity of the large number of its farmers and entrepreneurs, especially in rural areas. The latest WPI inflation data show primary articles inflation in double digit, driven mainly by food inflation which remains stubbornly high at over 9 per cent. The high food prices are the result of structural factors with shortages getting aggravated as demand continues to outstrip...
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