Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• America’s Quest for Global Dominance

  1 December 2010

  by Tarun Patnaik
  America, the land of opportunities, of free private enterprise, of individual freedom, promises and appeals to the aspiration of many international citizens to come and seek to make their abode in the US. This is the place where ideas are respected and valued and one can prosper because of the quality of one’s mind. That is a matter of prestige for the American people. An example would be Bill Gates’ dramatic rise to prominence and wealth for the ideas he had and the (…)

• India-Japan Civil Nuclear Co-Operation Agreement: A Saga of Interests Eclipsing Ideals

  1 December 2010

  by D. Gnanagurunathan
  Hold your faith. The civil nuclear co-operation agreement between India and Japan, that was to have been signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Japan in October 2010, has been delayed. Two rounds of negotiations failed to resolve the differences and remain inconclusive. One of the stumbling blocks is Japan’s insistence on India’s commitment for a moratorium on nuclear testing to proceed with the deal. But India is unwilling to compro-mise its (…)

• Improved Longevity in India: A Challenge

  1 December 2010

  by Monica Munjal And Poonam Kaushik
  It is a universal phenomenon for a person to grow older. However, changes in demographic structure in the last century have altered the picture of the ageing population. The world’s population has gone on a changeover course of increased life expectancy and lowered fertility. The number of children is no longer increasing as rapidly as the older population continues to grow. The age-structure of the population has changed. There is growth in the number (…)

• PM Cannot Remain A Mute Spectator

  24 November 2010, by Analyst

  Indian politics has a Mahabharata like nature to it. A casual observation can reveal all the great elements of drama, like the seven sins, classic fight of the good versus evil, and the climax. Electoral democracy tries to sabotage the timing of the climax by ensuring timely elections for those in power, but nevertheless sometimes the characters of this massive ongoing epic catalyse sudden and unexpected developments that can give as much thrill as the climax of a drama. Like the original (…)

• Tribute to LC Jain

  24 November 2010, by SC

  Noted Gandhian and indefatigable crusader for upliftment of the poor L.C. Jain, 85, passed away in New Delhi on Sunday, November 14, after a courageous battle against cancer. Survived by his wife, Devaki, a well-known social activist, and his sons, Gopal, an advocate, and Sreenivasan, a TV journalist, Lakshmi Chand Jain was an erstwhile High Commissioner to South Africa and a former member of the Planning Commission (1989-90). He also received the Magsaysay Award in 1988 for “his informed (…)

• Embrace Fidel Castro: Historic Opportunity For Obama

  24 November 2010, by L C Jain

  Imagine Barack Obama inviting Fidel Castro, the Cuban leader, to his inauguration ceremony. That will make history. With that one act, Obama, as the resident of the White House, can bring radical transformation in the relationship between the US and Cuba.

• How MGNREGA Is Being Undermined

  24 November 2010, by Aruna Roy

  Despite its seminal success in beginning a process of addressing issues of poverty, star-vation and empowering the poor, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) needed a general election to breathe life into it. However, the disproportionate influence of the middle class on social sector policy has led to the same set of pre-election prejudices resurfacing.
  “What use is the MGNREGA to the economy at large?” asks the businessman, one eye fixed apprehensively on (…)

• New Life of Freedom for Aung San Suu Kyi

  24 November 2010

  [In this brilliant write-up, a noted scholar, author and classmate of Aung San Suu Kyi recalls her past association with Burma’s iconic symbol of the ongoing struggle for democracy while narrating the latter’s extraordinary battle against the world’s most ruthless military dictatorship, and raises a pertinent query: how will Suu, now that she is free (at least for the present), “react to the consistent pusillanimity of a country that was not only her childhood home, but is also Burma’s (…)

• China: Some Challenges and Issues

  24 November 2010, by Gilbert Etienne

  Let us first reject the latest fad,“The Beijing Consensus”, created in 2004 by J.C. Ramo (Foreign Policy Centre, London, May 2004), a kind of opposition to “the Washington Consensus” which favoured the neo-liberal theses in the 1990s. Though not promoted by the Chinese, the new consensus refers to the development model of China for developing countries.
  In fact, the achievements of China since 1978 do not constitute “a model” or a recipe that is transferrable. They are due to the (…)

• Local Body Polls 2010 in Kerala

  24 November 2010

  by M.R. Biju
  Articles 243 E and 243 U of the Constitution of India deal with the question of dura¬tion of Panchayats and Municipalities and pe¬riodicity of elections to the rural and urban local bodies. It is stated therein: “Every Panchayat/Municipality unless sooner dissolved under any law for the time being in force shall continue for five years from the appointed date of its first meeting and no longer.” This constitu¬tional provision also prohibits any dissolution of a (…)