Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• FDI in Higher Education : Aspirations and Reality

  9 June 2007, by Konark Sharma

  Introduction
  EDUCATION is becoming vital in the new world of information. Knowledge is rapidly accredited replacing raw materials and labour as the most critical input for survival and success. Higher education enhances a country’s capacity for participation in an increasingly knowledge-based world economy and has the potential to enhance economic growth and reduce poverty. Thus higher education has assumed even greater significance for developing countries, especially for those like India (…)

• Mayawati, no Ataturk, Still has a Chance

  9 June 2007, by T J S George

  The great beauty of Indian elections is that nobody loses. Even when you are routed, you can boldly claim victory. Listen to the Congress spokesman after the UP rout: “The courage of Rahul Gandhi is laudable. We increased our percentage and number of seats.” Listen to the BJP, the greatest loser: “We won in Punjab, Uttarakhand. We defeated Mulayam in UP.”
  The politics of bombast is an escape latch when the field is crowded with so many parties. Behind the brazenness, however, there is no (…)

• Book Review: A View from Within

  9 June 2007, by D. Bandyopadhyay

  Indian Administration: Politics, Policies and Prospects by Kamla Prasad; Pearson Longman, New Delhi; 2006; price Rs 650; pp. 406.
  Retired civil servants have a comparative advantage over the run-of-the-mill research scholars in writing about administration. Any sensitive and perceptive civil servant with the experience of a three decades-and-a-half would have the opportunity to observe, participate and watch from a close quarter some major events and evolution of public policies, (…)

• By-elections and Beyond

  9 June 2007, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  Indira Gandhi certainly had good reasons to be satisfied, if not elated, with the results of the string of by-elections held this week.
  Spread over several States, the contests for seven Lok Sabha and twentythree Assembly seats constitute a sort of mini-General Election. Judging by the scores, the commonly accepted adage that a party in power faces by-elections with a handicap—as these become the ventilator for popular grievances—seems to have been falsified for the Indira Congress at the (…)

• Social Realities Cannot be Ignored

  9 June 2007, by Syed Shahabuddin

  COMMUNICATION
  I am surprised by Shri Chaturanan Mishra’s article entitled “The Caste Factor” (Mainstream, July 2, 2005). None of us supports casteism or communalism. At the same time we should be realistic enough to appreciate that both caste and religion are factors today in every sphere of life which affects distribution of power in the society.
  I dare say that even the Left parties are not above taking caste or religion in consideration while choosing their candidates in elections. (…)

• P.C. Joshi and Indian Cultural Renaissance

  9 June 2007, by Anil Rajimwale

  P.C. Joshi, the General Secretary of the CPI from 1935 to 1947, left an indelible mark on the modern cultural history of India, in both the pre- and post-independence periods. And this is an extraordinary event of history. If we can credit any one person for the modern cultural renaissance and upsurge in India, it would undoubtedly be P.C. Joshi. Organising workers and peasants is commonplace, nothing new, though very important and crucial, but PCJ grasped the essence of his age and did his (…)

• Climate in Turbulence

  9 June 2007, by Deepender Kumar

  The issue of climate change has once again come to the global centre-stage. The recent report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has created an upheaval at the international level. A cursory glance of the report is sufficient to realise that doomsday is awaiting for some of the vulnerable countries.
  If one goes by the statement of Dr R.K. Pachauri, Chairman of the fourth Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, it would be clear that climate change is man- made. Dr (…)

• VVER-type Reactors : Some Irrefutable Facts

  9 June 2007, by Narayani Menon

  For long in several circles in our country Russian equipment have been regarded as inferior to those of the West in different realms of scientific-technological activity. This perception has persisted over the years even if it is devoid of any foundation whatsoever. Russia, like the erstwhile Soviet Union, happens to be one of the few countries which are frontrunners in the phenomenal technological progress our planet has witnessed in the course of the last century—its breathtaking successes (…)

• Don’t Say No To A Dream

  9 June 2007, by Som Benegal

  MUSINGS
  There are two types of revolutions. One is full of blood and thunder and like a tornado bringing death and indiscriminate destruction. The French and Russian Revolutions were such. The other is quiet and peaceful like “tired eyelids falling upon tired eyes” or like dew falling upon morning grass. The Polish transition from communist rule to democracy under the leadership of Lech Walesa was one of the other kind. So was the benign Silk Revolution by which Czechoslovakia parted into (…)

• Message to India Inc in Prevailing Scenario

  2 June 2007, by SC

  North India is in the grip of turmoil and violence. First, a sectarian storm raged in the shape of the Sikh priests’ holy anger at the Dera Sacha Sauda sect’s head dressing himself up in the attire of the 10th Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh, and there was every possibility of the tensions emanating from the incident leading to largescale bloodshed. Mercifully that has been averted even if close observers of the Punjab scene strongly feel that the present lull is deceptive and what has been won (…)