Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Media: News Medium and the Stereotypes

  6 April 2014

  by Anil Chamadia
  The Hindu, a leading English daily newspaper, carried a report on December 20, 2013 about the suicide of Dr Khurshid Anwar, an Executive Director of an NGO. He had committed suicide on December 18. In the report its correspondent mentioned that Dr Anwar was buried on December 19. As per the reporter, “Dr Anwar was buried here on Thursday after the post-mortem.”(http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/ngo-director-tried-to-contact-girl-before-suicide/article5482107.ece, (…)

• Kashmir: Modi’s Fantasies and Article 370

  6 April 2014

  by Imran Ahmad Kichloo
  “The time has come for at least a debate to find out whether Article 370 has benefited the common man in Jammu and Kashmir or not,” Narendra Modi stated recently while addressing a rally in Jammu. This reminds us of the famous statement of the Indian representative to the UN that “sinners are trying to teach the lesson of chastity”. Modi might have got great applause for this which was nothing but a new stunt in the politics of populism. Before engaging in arguments (…)

• India: Growing Importance of Fruits and Vegetables

  6 April 2014, by Gilbert Etienne

  Fruits and vegetables (F/V) have been quite a luxury in many countries in Asia and elsewhere for centuries. When travelling from Lebanon to the border of Bengal, kitchen gardens, so widespread in Africa south of the Sahara, were not common, although some fallow lands could have been devoted to F/V.
  Milk was widespread but with low yields. There was a combination of agriculture and animal husbandry which was not the case further east. The famous French geographer, Pierre Gourou, called (…)

• Our Leaders Ignore the Rules of Democracy and Play by Religion, Caste and Roguery

  6 April 2014, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Politicians’ shenanigans are getting bolder and nastier by the day. The Narendra Modi personality cult is raised to the level of equating him with the revered Mahadev himself (Har, har, Modi!); P. Chidambaram threatens to turn Gandhian and devote himself to “serving my people” in Sivaganga; Sharad Pawar shows no shame in asking his followers to break the law and vote twice; Dhananjay Munde boasts that he organised one lakh bogus votes for his uncle and BJP leader Gopinath (…)

• No Record of Surrogate Mother and Child at Regional and National Levels

  6 April 2014

  by Sonali Kusum
  Surrogacy is a $ US 2.8 billion trade across the world and India’s commercial surrogacy is a $ 2.5 billion industry in the country.1 This is as per the estimate of the Confederation of Indian Industry.
  It is an admitted and well-known fact that in India surrogacy is legal in the commercial form with the Supreme Court judgment since the year 2002 in the absence of an effective binding law. The proposed law regulating surrogacy in India—the Assisted Reproductive (…)

• Implementation of Millennium Development Goals by UNDP

  6 April 2014

  by Portia B. Conrad
  In 2002, the Government of Pakistan became one of the first countries in the world to establish a national public-private partnership devoted to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This partnership includes the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Government of Pakistan, civil-society organi-sations and private donors, both in Pakistan and abroad.
  The MDGs comprised eight ambitious goals that were approved by world leaders at the Millennium (…)

• Tony Benn’s Death marks End of an Era

  6 April 2014

  communication
  With the passing of Anthony Wedgewood Benn (Tony Benn) an era has come to an end for radical socialism in Britain.
  Though he was born in an aristocratic family Mr Benn renounced his peerage in order to serve in the House of Commons which he entered as an MP in November 1950. Throughout his life Mr Benn served the cause of the working class in Britain with a passion and dedication rarely seen in modern British politics. There is no doubt that he was a polarising figure who (…)

• Messiah of the Middle Class or Demogogue?

  6 April 2014

  by Arun Srivastava
  Narendra Modi’s supporters and admirers claim that he is the most talented politician of our time. They may be right. Their perception is based on his oratorical skill and style to attract the people. In a democracy it is imperative for a leader to appeal to the human sentiment and muster their support. The interaction with the people is the key to democratic functioning. In a democracy the debate is done in two ways: first, through positive interaction by chiseling the (…)

• Non-binding Gestures

  6 April 2014, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The voting pattern on the United Nations forums invariably gives some indication of policy directions of member-states. On the face of it, India took a similar stance of abstention on two high-profile regional issues that came up for voting last Thursday (March 27)— the UN General Assembly resolution declaring invalid Crimea’s recent Moscow-backed referendum and the resolution at the UN Human Rights Council to open an investigation into possible war crimes in Sri Lanka.
  Both are (…)

• Towards a Brave New World?

  2 April 2014, by Uttam Sen

  POLITICAL NOTEBOOK
  The hurly-burly of elections is probably dimini-shing the thrust of changes in the national psyche, seeking coherence in a period of drift. The rationalisation is being forged with a fair bit of attention to detail. Discourse has been hitherto conducted along the accepted white line of the collective rather than the individual. Sociologists had been bemoaning the diminution of the individual in society, and flowing from that his/her perceptions of rights and (…)