Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Ecosystem-Based Approach to Build Climate Resilience | KN Ninan

  16 September 2022

  by K N Ninan
  Abstract: Climate change poses a great challenge to governments, societies, and entities. Finding ways to transit to a climate resilient economy and society therefore assumes great importance. Evidence collated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) point to an increasing trend in global temperatures and sea levels, increasing frequency and intensity of disasters and extreme weather events. These will have adverse short and long-term impacts on ecosystems, (…)

• Banks NPA Problem & NDA Government’s Loan Write-Offs | Pranjit Agarwala

  16 September 2022

  by Pranjit Agarwala
  Recently the Union Minister of State for Finance Dr. Bhagwad Karad informed the Rajya Sabha that from 2017/18 to 2021/22 the NDA government had written-off a whopping Rs. 9,91,640 crores of bad bank loans. This is over four times what the UPA government wrote-off. The UPA government wrote-off Rs. 2,20,328 crores from 2004 to 2014. Apparently the NDA government has been indulging in a bad loans write-off spree. In banking parlance such loans are known as (…)

• What is the Civilization State? | Muzban Jal

  16 September 2022

  by Muzban Jal
  In the last few years there have been voices heard that murmur of what is called the “civilization state”. From philosophers, defense experts, and vice chancellors posing as public intellectuals, paeans are being sung to this theme. But what this exactly is, we are not told.
  While very loosely what is meant by the civilization state is rooting politics in general—including the Constitutions of nations—on civilizational “essences”, what is left out from imagination is that (…)

• Uniqueness of Habib Tanvir’s theatre | Javed Malick

  16 September 2022

  by Javed Malick
  The folk component and flavor in Habib Tanvir’s theatre was too obvious and unmistakable for anyone to miss. But what was often not appreciated sufficiently was that he did not try to revive or resurrect any specific form of the folk play but developed a categorically modern form of Indian theatre with traditional flavour. For, what distinguished Tanvir’s theatre from that of his contemporaries was precisely this combination of Modernity and tradition.
  Tanvir was an (…)

• For a dialogue of life | John Dayal

  16 September 2022, by John Dayal

  Dr S Y Qureshi, former Chief Election Commissioner, celebrated author of a celebrated book that explains with great clarity that the rate of growth of the Muslim population in India, is now on the downward trend as people, specially women, get more educated. The same has happened in the population of other communities.
  It is only in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where social indicators are still in the red, that the size of the average family is higher than the national norm – for (…)

• Communalism in Leicester: Who is to be Blamed? | Nilofar Suhrawardy

  16 September 2022, by Nilofar Suhrawardy

  Undeniably, Indo-Pak cricket matches are viewed by citizens of both countries with great passion. There is no denying Indo-Pak enmity still prevails at various levels and their cricket matches are seen by certain sections as virtually equivalent to a war between the two countries. The Indo-Pak cricket match leading reportedly to tension in Leicester (United Kingdom) was held on August 28 in Dubai (UAE). It was watched in most parts of world, including Indian sub-continent. Leicester has been (…)

• Pakistan - India: Recent Floods and Climate Change | Soma Marla

  16 September 2022, by Soma S. Marla

  Enormous havoc and misery caused by recent floods in Bengaluru, Pakistan and Assam are not only natural disasters but also due to climate change. Overexploitation of urban land and water resources by greedy private real estate developers perhaps the chief cause of floods. Media relentlessly focused on flooded upscale villas, their swanky automobiles of super rich in flooded Bengaluru, and totally ignored the suffering of millions of poor and middle-class slum dwellers.
  For the floods, (…)

• Gyanvapi, Mathura idgah disputes a boon for BJP electoral politics | Faraz Ahmad

  16 September 2022, by Faraz Ahmad

  Soon after L.K. Advani started his Ram rath yatra on a DCM Toyota truck across greater part of India from Somnath to Ayodhya in 1990, seeking to replace Babri Masjid with a “Bhavya Ram Mandir,” Advani’s confidant and the then Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) International President Ashok Singhal held a press conference asking the Muslims to meekly surrender Babri Masjid, Gyanvapi Masjid in Varanasi and the Eidgah in Mathura to the Hindus, to avoid Hindu claims on 3000 mosques and shrines all over (…)

• Kartavya Path: Another leap towards neo-colonialism! | Prem Singh

  16 September 2022, by Prem Singh

  Let it be clear at the outset that when the road from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate in New Delhi was named Rajpath, it was not a literal translation of the King’s Way. In the same sense, Janpath was not the translated name for its old name, the Queen’s Way. In the Rajpath nomenclature, the symbolism of independent and sovereign India’s democratic statehood was fulfilled. From 26 January 1950 onwards, a colorful display of India’s military might and cultural diversity continued to be (…)

• The Narmada Sardar Sarovar Project: The truth about the dam(ned) delay | S.G.Vombatkere

  16 September 2022, by S G Vombatkere

  Addressing the September 23, 2022, National Conference of Environment Ministers, PM Modi said:“Urban Naxals and anti-development elements having political backing had stalled the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam by running a campaign that the project will harm the environment. Huge amount of money was wasted because of this delay. Now, when the dam is complete, you can very well judge how dubious their claims were”, and further,“These urban Naxals are still active. I urge you to make (…)