Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Bribe Money, Crime Money—Safe Money

  19 March 2011, by T J S George

  India will not chase those illegal funds in foreign banks, that’s for sure. The real reason is that virtually every VIP politician and bureaucrat is involved in it. It is mass guilt, not international treaties as the Prime Minister says, that makes India helpless.
  The US has proved that a determined government can get things done. And let’s not forget that America’s stakes are much less than India’s. A Swiss Banking Association report revealed in 2009 that Indians had $ 1456 billion (…)

• Meaning of Charles Sobhraj

  19 March 2011, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  FROM N.C.’S WRITINGS
  The scandal of Charles Sobhraj’s escape from Delhi’s much-publicised Tihar Jail is a matter which must shake up all complacency about the state of the country’s security. A notorious international crook—a star target of the Interpol —has not only bolted in broad daylight from a prison supposed to be heavily guarded, but has left behind a trail that points to indiscipline and corruption of unbelievable magnitude.
  This was not a sudden or totally unexpected happening. (…)

• Evolutionary Socialism and Lohia in the Twentyfirst Century

  19 March 2011

  March 23, 2011 marks the 101st birth anniversary of that stormy petrel of Indian politics, Socialist leader Rammanohar Lohia. On this occasion, we remember him by carrying the following articles.
  by Bhagwat Prasad
  The renowned Prof S.H. Alatas in his inauguration lecture in Multiversity’s Penang-II conference made a good speech on ‘The captive Mind’, particularly in the context of the knowledge available amongst the scholars of the erstwhile colonial countries. He referred to “…. this (…)

• Failures of Western Countries and UNO in Afghanistan

  19 March 2011, by Gilbert Etienne

  Very rarely in contemporary history can one come across such an accumulation of wrong assessments, poor judgements, ignorance as shown by the Western countries and UN interventions in Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban in December 2001.
  A review of such mistakes may help avoiding their repetition in future. No doubt a number of difficulties have been boosted by the shortcomings of the Afghan authorities: weak administration, corruption… but the reconstruction and fight against (…)

• Lohia‘s Prescription for Capitalism‘s Crises

  19 March 2011

  by Mastram Kapoor
  The President of the USA, Barack Obama, in his message to the G-20 London summit, called for a global effort to overcome the global economic crisis and expressed his determination to take a lead in this matter. He said: “The leaders of the G-20 have a responsibility to take a bold, comprehensive and coordinated action that not only jumpstarts recovery but also starts a new era of economic engagement to prevent a crisis like this taking place in future.” He described the (…)

• Dr Rammanohar Lohia: A Rebel Socialist and a Visionary

  19 March 2011

  by Satya Mitra Dubey
  I
  Dr Rammanohar Lohia, a veteran freedom fighter, great visionary thinker, founder of the Indian socialist movement, a practitioner of Gandhian techniques of resistance and an active exponent of the idea of a world government, was born on March 23, 1910, at Akbarpur, district Faizabad, UP. His death occurred on the October 12, 1967 in New Delhi’s Willingdon Hospital which was renamed as Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital after his death. His political followers along with (…)

• TAPI No Longer a Paper Tiger

  19 March 2011, by Ash Narain Roy

  The legendary Silk Road once linked South Asia with Central Asia through an extensive trade network. Today, despite an array of bilateral and multilateral initiatives, the two regions are still one of the least integrated in the world. But given the new geopolitics and geo-economics of the two regions, they will no longer remain so. The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project has the potential to bridge that gap. What petroleum was to the 20th century, natural gas (…)

• TAPI and Indian Interests

  19 March 2011

  by Riyaz Ahmed
  The proposed multidimensional Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project’s strategic impact for both India and Pakistan is expected to be greater than the economic benefits to be accrued. However, which of the two countries would be able to garner more advantage from the project depends on several factors. It is thus necessary for New Delhi to pay close attention to the intentions of the other partners of the TAPI as well as its international (…)

• On PM’s Response to SC Verdict on CVC

  16 March 2011, by SC

  The Manmohan Singh Government has had to suffer the ignominy of having made P.J. Thomas the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) with the Supreme Court having struck down, in its verdict on the issue on March 3, the appointment on the ground that the high-powered selection committee (HPC), which chose Thomas for the post through a majority vote, had completely overlooked the chargesheet against the former Chief Secretary of Kerala for the latter’s involve-ment in a corruption case related to (…)

• Union Budget 2011-12: A Precarious Balancing Act

  16 March 2011, by Sudipto Mundle

  The Finance Minister had an exceptionally challenging task in this year’s Budget. He was faced with three major goals pulling in different directions. With headline inflation close to double digit, and food prices having risen over 20 per cent in February, his main goal was fighting inflation. However, he needed to do this without compromising on high growth, which is now back on track. Moreover, he also needed to address the inclusion agenda being energetically pursued by Sonia Gandhi’s (…)