Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Regional Disparities, Smaller States and Statehood for Telangana

  7 March 2009, by C.H. Hanumantha Rao

  Growing Regional Disparities in Development
  Regional disparities in development have been growing in India, especially in the post-reform period. For example, according to the Eleventh Plan, the per capita Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of Bihar—the poorest State in the country —which had steadily declined to a little over 30 per cent of the per capita GSDP of the richest State by 1993-94, dropped further to 20 per cent in 2004-05. (GOI, 2008) What is true of rising inter-State (…)

• National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme: Issues and Challenges

  7 March 2009, by Jyoti Bhargava, P K Bhargava

  Problems of unemployment and poverty are inter-related and both these problems have continued to be acute in rural India. In order to overcome these problems, there have been a number of employment schemes in the past—the Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS), National Rural Employment Programme (NREP), Jawahar Rojgar Yojana (JRY) and Sampoorna Gramin Rojgar Yojana (SGRY). However, most of them have not yielded the desired results and brought security to people’s lives. Under such a situation, (…)

• Resurgent Russia and its Growing Engagement with South Asia

  7 March 2009, by Vyacheslav I. Trubnikov

  The following is the text of the P.N. Haksar Memorial Lecture delivered by Vyacheslav I. Trubnikov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to India, at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development, Chandigarh, on November 29, 2008.
  It is a pleasure and honour for me to be here among friends and colleagues to deliver the Haksar Memorial Lecture. Today, I will try to look into the changing global scenario in the light of Russia’s growing political and economic role and in (…)

• Washington to Dacca

  7 March 2009, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From Washington to Dacca, the changes in scenario are indicative of the new temper that has been overtaking politics all over the world.
  The forces hostile to peace and independence cannot come on top; at the same time, they have not yet been eliminated, not even brought under control. The decisive element in the international politics is the power of socialism and anti-imperialism, but the power of mischief of imperialism has not yet been neutralised.
  The US Administration (…)

• Karimov‘s Gamble

  7 March 2009, by Mansoor Ali

  President Karimov of Uzbekistan is once again taking steps to align his country with the West in general and the US in particular. By initiating moves to build strong ties with the new US Administration he is seeking to come under Washington’s protective umbrella. Tashkent is simultaneously engaged in blackmailing Moscow: Uzbekistan is threatening Russia by projecting the possibility of the Central Asian state’s withdrawal from such regional organisations as, for example, the EuroAsian (…)

• China Breaks its Silence on Afghanistan

  7 March 2009, by M K Bhadrakumar

  In the violent, lethal environment in which he lived and survived to eventually lead Beijing’s march towards socialism with Chinese characteristics, Deng Xiaoping had great reasons to be cautious. In regard to China’s international approach, Deng had this to say: “Observe calmly; secure our position; cope with affairs calmly; hide our capacities and bide our time; be good at maintaining a low profile; and never claim leadership.”
  Thus, China never spoke its mind on the Afghan (…)

• Women’s Participation at Grassroot Level: An Analysis

  7 March 2009, by Ajit Pal Singh

  A democratic polity involves the decentra-lisation or deconcentration of power in a way that the affairs of the local people are managed by means of their positive participation. It implies the extension of democracy at the grass-root level in view of the fact that the people’s participation signifies the constitution of a democratic government not merely at the top but also at the foundation level of the political system. Thus, democratic decentralisation or Panchayati Raj aims at making (…)

• Developed Punjab Evading Females

  7 March 2009, by Manisha Bhatia , Shaik Iftikhar Ahmed

  Addressing the national conference on ‘Save the Girl Child’, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took up the challenge of curbing the menace of female foeticide. Being a proud father of three daughters, the PM highlighting the alarming picture of gender imbalance is highly significant. It indicates the concern of the government to check the declining sex ratio in our country. Among all the States, Punjab bears the shame of having a low sex ratio. The reason for this huge gap in male-female ratio (…)

• Have Family Courts lived up to Expectations?

  7 March 2009, by Namita Singh Jamwal

  The Family Courts Act 1984 was enacted with a view to promote conciliation and secure speedy settlement of disputes relating to marriage and family affairs, based on non-adversarial and multi-disciplinary approach. The Family Courts (FCs) are expected to (i) adopt a radically different approach than that adopted in ordinary civil proceedings, and (ii) make reasonable efforts for conciliated settlement before the trial commenced, and during this stage the proceedings are to be informal. (…)

• The Slumdog Phenomenon

  2 March 2009, by SC

  The resounding success of Slumdog Millionaire at the Oscars—where it won eight awards (including that of the Best Picture)—has been greeted with spontaneous celebrations across the country.
  The nation deserves to be legitimately proud of the fact that for the first time an Indian, our finest musician A.R. Rahman, aptly described once as the “Mozart of Madras”, won two Oscars—for the Best Original Song (‘Jai Ho‘), which he secured with another Indian, the distinguished lyricist Gulzar, and (…)