Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Reservation in Promotions Needed to Ensure Representation in Governance Structure

  17 September 2012, by Vidya Bhushan Rawat

  The Bill for reservation in promotions for SC-STs has been cleared by the Cabinet and introduced in the Rajya Sabha. Except for the Samajwadi Party, all the parties have supported it. This does not reflect their goodwill but their acceptance of understanding of the situation in India. Reservations are meant to ensure representation of SC-STs in India’s power structure and must be seen beyond the narrow confines of politics.
  The Central Government has cleared the Bill for reservation in (…)

• Recent Developments in Air India versus Indian Railways

  17 September 2012

  by Hans Huber
  Comparing the performance of the Indian Railways with that of Air India should be an intuitive exercise that allows stressing funda-mental issues pertaining to the outlook of two of India’s most prominent PSUs. (See Table 1 for a comparison of the scale of operations) Although a previous paper (Goyal A., 2008) had already applied principles of Transaction Cost Theory (TCE) to a similar topic, its conclusions can appear ambiguous, providing little scope for effective (…)

• The Reluctant Administrator

  17 September 2012, by Devaki Jain

  TRIBUTE
  I first met Anil Bordia on the lawns of Pramila Dandavate’s house. Mrinal Gore and Pramila Dandavate, elected to Parliament during the Janata Government, were constantly having informal meetings in their houses getting to know us, Delhiwallas, who had been working on issues related to equality and social justice as well as other change-makers.
  One time at Pramila’s residence a tall, slim, straight-backed Anil Bordia stood up and said to me Mera Naam Hai Anil Bordia, in that very (…)

• Rich and Varied Fare

  17 September 2012, by Barun Das Gupta

  COMMUNICATION
  The Independence Day Special Number of Mainstream presented a rich and varied fare. The first part of Kobad Ghandy’s series of articles on “Questions of Freedom and People’s Emanci-pation”, written as it is “in a jail within jail (the high-risk ward), with lathi-wielding cops brea-thing down one’s neck 24 hours a day, denied access to even the normal jail facilities” shows a freshness of mind and an undaunted optimism for the future rarely found in prisoners doomed to long (…)

• Chinese Strategic Footprint in 
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir

  17 September 2012

  by Soumya Tiwari
  The Chinese footprint in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) is a frequently debated question around the world and in our subcontinent in particular for the past many years. The media and policy-analysts are keen to know which way India-China relations will turn especially when it comes to boundary disputes be it in Arunachal Pradesh, where China claims around 90,000 sq. km of Indian territory, or be it in the western sector, PoK, covering approximately 5180 sq. km of area. (…)

• Frustration of the Social Space

  17 September 2012

  by Tarun Patnaik
  The dissolution of the Anna team and the death of a popular social movement in desperate condition filled with frustration, diminishing popular enthusiasm raise questions and doubts on whether, if ever, a social movement can succeed in India! The liberal and strongly defensive nature of our political leaders neither angers the public to forge a social movement nor provides them respite with acceptance of their demands.
  What are the reasons for which the members of the (…)

• High and Low

  13 September 2012, by SC

  While Parliament continues to be deadlocked by the BJP stalling the proceedings of both the Houses over ‘Coalgate’, the Rajya Sabha witnessed a new low in the history of the Upper House (known as the House of Elders) yesterday (September 5) with two members belonging to the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) nearly coming to blows as they clashed over the contentious Bill to amend the Constitution to provide for reservation to SCs and STs in promotion in government jobs. (…)

• Media: Lessening the Scourge of Managed News - Need for a Press Commission

  13 September 2012, by Kuldip Nayar

  I am not surprised that the remarks by the Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) have not been followed up or commented upon by the mainstream media or, for that matter, by any newspaper or television channel. TRAI Chairman Rahul Khullar has been candid enough to say that leading newspapers in India have spread themselves all over the media, from television to radio and such other avenues, without permission from any authority. He has explained how in every country (…)

• NAM Summit: Course Correction at Tehran

  13 September 2012, by Arun Mohanty

  As the heat and dust on the NAM Summit in Tehran settle, it is time to take stock of the results of the event. Despite vociferous US objections and relentless media-baiting, the five-day 16th NAM Summit at Tehran successfully came to an end with the approval of its final communiqué called the Tehran Declaration. The 700-paragraph document unanimously declared support for Iran’s nuclear energy programme, condemned imposition of unilateral economic sanctions against any nation and called for (…)

• Exodus of the North-East People: Do our Cities Alienate them?

  13 September 2012, by Ambrose Pinto

  Thousands of people from the North-East fleeing our cities in the southern part of India—Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and other metros, which till recently were considered as very tolerant—with fear and panic, as reported by the mainstream media, raises a number of questions about the lack of tolerance in the cosmopolitanism of our cities. All these cities in the last two decades have acquired the reputation of being global cities with people from across the globe coming here to establish (…)