Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Why Modi did not mention Afghanistan/Taliban in his UN address? | Faraz Ahmad

  1 October 2021, by Faraz Ahmad

  September 27, 2021
  Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 25 was too restrained and cautious about the singular issue concerning India’s security– the foisting of Talibani regime forcibly by Pakistani Mullah-military establishment upon the hapless peace-loving people of Afghanistan. He seemed content with joining QUAD group which the Americans have devised merely to confront China in the South China sea.
  In his 21-minute brief (…)

• Asset Monetisation as Instrument for creation of Greenfield Assets | Atul Sarma & Shyam Sunder

  1 October 2021, by Atul Sarma

  by Atul Sarma & Shyam Sunder*
  As is well known, India is hugely deficient in its infrastructure both in terms of quantity as well as quality, which not only impedes efficient functioning of the economy but also raises cost of production. In this context, the government’s intent to meet such deficit is quite legitimate. However, Covid-19 induced challenges leading to slump in GDP growth, government revenue shrinkage yet inevitable compulsion to expand government expenditure including (…)

• From the Archives: The mid 1970s investigation into secret US research projects in India | Chakravarthi Raghavan

  1 October 2021, by C Raghavan

  From: Mainstream, May 17, I975
  RESEARCH PROJECT:
  On July 29, 1974, the Press Trust of India came out with a dispatch revealing the real face of dangerous American research projects under the cover of the WHO. These research outfits spread all over the country are actually meant to serve the Pentagon. The PTI had a hard time unearthing the misdoings of these projects because of the resistance of the Union Health Ministry and such bodies as the Indian Council of Medical Research. Previous (…)

• As Gandhi Jayanti nears, violence seems overtaking all possible spheres | Humra Quraishi

  1 October 2021, by Humra Quraishi

  MUSINGS
  29 September 2021
  With news just coming in of a group Bajrang Dal men attacking medical students in Karnataka, the questions that come up rather too spontaneously are : Why are these so called private senas and brigades not banned? Why are they allowed to expand, move about too freely and continue to bully and hound the citizens? What is the purpose of unleashing these brigades? Is the police force not really adequate or not really forceful enough? After all, what’s the (…)

• Rise of centre-left in Germany | M K Bhadrakumar

  1 October 2021, by M K Bhadrakumar

  September 27, 2021
  German Finance Minister, Vice-Chancellor and Social Democratic SPD Party’s candidate for chancellor Olaf Scholz holds up a bouquet of flowers at the party’s headquarters in Berlin. September 27, 2021
  The big take-away of Germany’s first election of the post-Merkel era is that none of the parties has ‘won’ and each of the parties has reason to look miserable and feel disappointed with their performance. A new political landscape is struggling to be born.
  For the (…)

• My father was brutally killed by the Taliban. The US ignored his pleas for help | Muska Najibullah

  1 October 2021

  September 27, 2021
  The night of 27 September 1996 was always going to be a long one. I was awake studying for midterm exams when my mother, calm but uneasy, heard the news that my father had been taken out of the United Nations compound in Kabul.
  I was ecstatic at first. My father, Najibullah, the former president of Afghanistan, would finally be reunited with his family. He, along with my uncle, had been living in the UN compound since 16 April 1992, when forces within his government (…)

• Afghanistan highlights link between religious soft power and Gulf security | James M. Dorsey

  1 October 2021

  by James M. Dorsey*
  Oct 1, 2021
  When Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed Abdulrahman Al-Thani this week described the Taliban’s repressive policies towards women and brutal administration of justice as “very disappointing” and taking Afghanistan “a step backwards,” he was doing more than holding Qatar up as a model of Islamic governance and offering the militants cover to moderate their ways.
  Sheikh Al-Thani was seeking to shield the Gulf state from criticism should Qatari efforts (…)

• Questions About New U.S. Plant Engineering | Martha Rosenberg

  1 October 2021, by Martha Rosenberg

  “One of the reasons I started working in nanotechnology was so I could apply it to plants and create new technology solutions. Not just for food, but for high-value products as well, like pharmaceuticals.” So says the University of California Riverside’s Juan Pablo Giraldo, lead researcher vaccine-maker Moderna.
  A GMO or genetically modified organism is considered one whose genetic material makeup does not occur in nature but has been produced by enhancing, altering, or knocking out (…)

• 

  Delhi Police: Search of an Image | Twinkle Siwach

  1 October 2021

  reviewed by Twinkle Siwach
  __0__
  Capital Cops:
  The Unofficial Guide to Delhi Police
  by Suvashis Choudhary
  Har-Anand Publications Pvt Ltd
  2021
  Pages: 192
  ISBN: 978-93-91504-01-4
  __0__
  The essay begins with the context in which we are describing Delhi Police. The first part of the essay talks about the historically evolving nature of the Delhi Police. The second part presents a discussion of the book. The third part is an analysis of the functioning of the Delhi Police and (…)

• 

  Patriotism is not Blind Nationalism | M R Narayan Swamy

  1 October 2021, by M R Narayan Swamy

  The Psychology of a Patriot
  Saket Suman
  Rupa
  10th August 2021
  Pages: 240 pages; Price: Rs 295
  ISBN: 978-93-91256-39-5
  __0__
  A very superficial and outward idea of patriotism has been introduced into people’s lives and implanted in brains in India, so much so that gestures such as chanting anthems and waving flags are now used to define a patriot. This is how, author-journalist Saket Suman says, patriotism has historically been manipulated by political and vested interests and (…)