The Planning Commission drew flak when it calculated that if an urban person spent 28 per head every day and someone in rural areas spent 22, that was enough to consider them to be above the poverty line. These figures are based on consumption expenditure data collected in the 66th round of NSSO for 2009-10. From these new estimates, using the Tendulkar Committee methodology, the number of poor in 2009-10 was...
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Vinod Mehta, Editorial Chairman, Outlook Group interviewed by Hartosh Singh Bal
Q The idea of regulating the media is very much in the news. What are your views on the matter? A Obviously, the ideal way to do this would be self-regulation. I don’t think anyone in the profession has any doubt about that. Everybody agrees that self-regulation is a very good thing, but we don’t seem to move beyond that. And we are consequently opening a window for people who want...
More »RTE Act can be a model for the world: Kapil Sibal
-The Times of India The RTE Act is an opportunity to break gender, caste, class and community barriers that threaten to damage the social fabric of our democracy and create fissures that could be ruinous to the country, writes Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal. The Supreme Court judgment upholding the constitutional validity of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act has once again focused public attention on education....
More »Threat to ordinary civic life-Supriya Chaudhuri Speaks
I had walked at the Nandigram rally. I walked again on this issue — twice, yesterday and today (Tuesday and Wednesday). The students approached me for their rally yesterday and today I was approached by members of JUTA, of which I am not a member. But since my own principles are involved, I did not hesitate to take a stand and join the rally. All of us have felt very deeply worried...
More »Fear of Freedom by Rudrangshu Mukherjee
There is nothing more frightening than being frightened. Fear takes away the powers of rational thinking. It makes one pause before one performs acts that were previously considered routine. Does one forward an email containing a cartoon or a joke about a political leader who holds the most important job in the state of West Bengal? As a journalist, does one dare to write an article that is critical of...
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