Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Murder of Leon Trotsky: Criminality of International Gulagism

  9 September 2009, by Subrata Sen

  What crime did we not commit! Our cruelty was no less than that of the imperialists and fascists! We can never be forgiven for this. Nor should we forgive and excuse ourselves. That we believed this to be the need of the cause is no justification. Mohit Sen, An Autobiography
  On the twentieth of August, 1940, Bolshevik leader, Leon Davidovicn Trotsky, illegally exiled from the USSR, and living in Mexico City, the capital of the Central American Republic of Mexico, was hit on the head with (…)

• Impact of Special Economic Zones on the Agriculture Sector

  9 September 2009, by Dharminder Singh

  Today all countries of the world are in the race to enhance their socio-economic develop-ment. They are using different methods and policies to achieve socio-economic development. Of these methods and policies, the policy of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) is a new one and is adopted by many countries like Brazil, China, Pakistan, India, Iran, Jordan, Poland, Russia etc. to enhance their socio-economic development.
  A Special Economic Zone is a geographical region which has economic (…)

• BJP in Turmoil, Opposition in Disarray

  31 August 2009, by SC

  As the number of deaths due to swine flu in the national Capital rises to three taking the total toll across the country as a consequence of the pandemic to 66 and India faces the worst dry spell in 91 years with about half of its landmass (246 districts comprising 46-47 per cent of our territory to be precise) coming under the grip of drought, the current political scene is dominated by disarray in the Opposition camp with the BJP, the principal Opposition party, in complete turmoil (…)

• A Dangerous Move threatening Food Security

  31 August 2009, by Sailendra Nath Ghosh

  COMMUNICATION
  In my article “M G Crops are the Highway to Genetic Holocaust: More Lethal than Nuclear Holocaust”, published in the July 4, 2009 issue of Mainstream, I had stated (in its third part) that
  in the USA, the decision-making positions in FDA (Food and Drug Administration), which is the authority to allow or disallow the cultivation of GM crops have been usurped by persons linked with GMO producer companies. In India, how many among the members of the Genetic Engineering (…)

• India’s 11th Five Year Plan 2007-12: Challenges and Constraints

  31 August 2009, by Gilbert Etienne

  India has started its 11th Five Year Plan (FYP) from a relatively high basis because of much progress achieved in many sectors of the economy, thanks to the rising and pushing middle classes and entrepreneurs, thanks to reforms and a more pragmatic approach in planning, including the Private-Public Participation (PPP) projects.
  The emphasis on agriculture and infrastructure, after decades of neglect, is highly welcome. To improve health and education is no less important. While the (…)

• Whither India: The Way Up or the Way Down?

  31 August 2009, by P K Chatterjee

  The Indian National Congress is back in power at the Centre. The small regional parties have practically disappeared from the scene. The Trinamul Congress party is a regional party and a shadow of the Congress itself. This government can safely be assumed to last for the next five years. The Congress has won much larger number of seats than all other parties and is the largest single party in the Lok Sabha. This government can safely be called a Congress Government, because the constraints (…)

• ASEAN Tryst and India‘s Signature to it

  31 August 2009, by V R Krishna Iyer

  A little while ago India had appended to its executive (a statesman with rare probity) signature to the ASEAN Agreement. I must confess I am a jurist but not an economist. But economics of the nation must submit to the fundamental jurisprudence which governs the rule of life and the state’s operations. On this basis, I consider the imperial economy which we liberated ourselves as a nation half-a-century ago to invest every little man in India with the right to life in dignity, decency, (…)

• Can Money Compensate Scheduled Tribe Victims for Rape?

  31 August 2009, by Vasudha Dhagamwar

  In our earlier study of Scheduled Caste victims in Uttar Pradesh we had drawn attention to the fact that compensation was regarded as the end of the case. [“Can Money Compensate for Rape” by Vasudha Dhagamwar, Mainstream (August 8, 2009)] We had raised doubts about the end beneficiary of the money paid ostensibly to the victim.1 We had noted the victim’s need for rehabilitation and we also had also seen the victim’s need for overall support from her community. The focus of our study in (…)

• Manmohan Singh and Naxal-Maoist Upsurge

  31 August 2009, by Ambrose Pinto

  The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, has described the Maoist uprising as ‘the biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country’ as several States, like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, are facing internal insurgency by Naxals and Maoists. The Maoists, in turn, have declared Dr Manmohan Singh as the biggest threat to the security of the country. While the Prime Minister has made it clear that the government will not hesitate to (…)

• Freedom Day at Amritsar

  31 August 2009, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  Three landmarks to cover in a single day—that was how some of us spent our fiftieth Independence Day.
  The first of the pilgrimage was to the Indo-Pak border post at Wagah to celebrate the anniversary of the freedom at midnight.
  Reaching Amritsar by the Shatabdi Express in the late evening of August 14, about a dozen of us led by the President of the Citizens for Democracy, Kuldip Nayar, we were received by a huge crowd at the Amritsar station itself—which included many (…)