Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Manmohan’s Progress

  7 July 2013, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  With Parliament rounding off the general debate on the Budget, this is the point of time when certain reflections on the government’s presentation of the economic crisis before the nation may be in order.
  Right at the outset, there was both curiosity and appreciation on the Prime Minister having chosen a distinguished economist as his Finance Minister. An outsider in the arena of party politics, Dr Manmohan Singh raised expectations that he would present before the (…)

• Tribute: Balraj Mehta

  7 July 2013

  [(Veteran journalist Balraj Mehta, 92, passed away in New Delhi on June 19, 2013. He was suffering from a kidney ailment for some time. He is survived by his wife, children and grandchildren.
  A noted analyst of economic and financial developments, he was an outspoken critic of the policy of liberalisation ushered in by the then Finance Minister and present Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, in 1991 and scathingly attacked it in his columns. He regularly contributed to the Economic and (…)

• Oppose IMF Way, Defend 
Economic Sovereignty

  7 July 2013

  The following is the statement issued by the Convention in Defence of Economic Sovereignty, sponsored by the Left parties, in New Delhi on July 19, 1991. —Editor
  The Convention in Defence of Economic Sovereignty, sponsored by the Left parties, categorically rejects the series or policy decisions announced by the Narasimha Rao Government to tackle the serious economic crisis facing the country. The two-step devaluation of the rupee by more than 20 per cent; the new trade policy measures; (…)

• UK’s Visa-Bond Idea can be Countered if Delhi is Not a Boneless Wonder

  7 July 2013, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Margaret Thatcher was tougher and more imperialistic than Britain’s present Prime Minister, David Cameron, can ever be.
  Back in the 1980s the Iron Lady tried to make some easy money by raising the tuition fees of foreign students in England. Most countries took it lying down. But Malaysia was not amused.
  Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed was a medical doctor and a soft-spoken genteel personality to boot. But he had more iron in him than the reputed Lady of London. He was (…)

• US Loses Lone Base in Central Asia

  7 July 2013, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The geopolitics of Central Asia has begun shifting in anticipation of the NATO forces ending their combat role as well as their pullout from Afghanistan and the proposed establishment of nine American military bases in that country. Kyrgyzstan last month gave the final touch to its strategic decision to demand that the US should vacate the Manas military base near the capital Bishkek by July 11, 2014.
  All signs are that Washington has accepted the Kyrgyz decision and does not propose to (…)

• A Philosophical Reflection on Spot-Fixing

  7 July 2013

  by Ashwin Jayanti
  What did the players involved in the spot-fixing scandal do wrong? Did they betray public trust? Did you feel that the entertainment you were a spectator to was staged and not genuine? Have the rules of the game been violated? Have the players set a wrong example for the people watching the show? Is it a contemptible display of the greed of the players? Most importantly, why has this resulted in such a public outrage against the players and their acts?
  Let us probe (…)

• Need for ASV in Hospitals

  7 July 2013, by Bharat Dogra

  COMMUNICATION
  It is a matter of great concern that the shortage of anti-snake venom (ASV) in government hospitals is endangering the life of snake-bite victims. This medicine is supposed to be available free to snake-bite victims (most of whom are poor) in government hospitals, but when this life-saving medicine is simply not available, snake-bite victims are pushed into a helpless situation. Many deaths are caused due to this.
  At the time of the arrival of the monsoon hospitals should (…)

• In the Wake of Uttarakhand’s Tragedy

  1 July 2013, by SC

  Last week one had tried to bring into focus just an idea of the tragedy that accompanied the disaster wrought by nature in Uttarakhand. In the past seven days the magnitude of what happened there has become clearer. Even as the Indian Air Force pilots and crew members along with the armed forces personnel are relentlessly carrying out the mission of rescue and evacuation of thousands of stranded pilgrims and tourists from remote and inaccessible mountainous areas, Manu Pubby in The Indian (…)

• West Bengal: People’s Fatwa to Mamata

  1 July 2013

  by Arun Srivastava
  The message of the June 21 rally in Kolkata of the intellectuals, writers, poets, theatre and cinema artistes was clear and loud: “Mamata Banerjee, mend your ways. History will not forgive you.” Interestingly, the same civil society had hit the streets of Kolkata in 2007 in her support and against the killings and perpetrating torture on the innocent peasants of Nandigram by the police of the Left Front Government. This time they had come out on the city’s streets (…)

• Edward Snowden’s Wake-up Call

  1 July 2013, by S G Vombatkere

  Edward Snowden, in his courageous, principled expose, has brought out how the USA’s National Security Agency (NSA) has been spying on most nations in the world. This spying is clearly to establish or strengthen the USA’s political, economic and military global clout. India is the fifth-most spied-upon nation, even more than China and Russia. Considering that India is the USA’s strategic partner, spying on India is breach of faith. Iran tops the list (14 billion pieces of intelligence); then (…)