Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Why Nuclear Companies are Coming to India

  17 September 2010, by Bharat Dogra

  One aspect of the debate on nuclear power which deserves more attention is the very low number of under-construction nuclear reactors in most developed countries. While the number of operational reactors is very high in countries like the USA and France, the number of under- construction reactors is low even in these two leading countries. This is evident from the table given below: Table - Number of Nuclear Reactors S. No. Country Operational Under Construction 1. USA 104 1 2. (…)

• Dissecting Identity Politics in J&K and Around

  17 September 2010, by Humra Quraishi

  BOOK REVIEW
  Identity Politics in Jammu and Kashmir edited by Rekha Chowdhary; published by Vitasta Publishing, New Delhi; pages: 470; Price: Rs 695, US $ 26.45.
  In these last few days I have been reading and re-reading this volume in the backdrop of the anger spilling out on the very streets of Srinagar and adjoining locales. Needless to say that this anger wasn’t built up overnight but has been simmering over the last decades. Twenty years back it had burst (…)

• Russian Fire

  17 September 2010, by Rakesh Gupta

  If Californian fires rage, Russian fires destroy crops. If Californian floods destroy the crops of vine fields in NAPPA, if oil spill destroys marine lives near Mexico, floods overtake Pakistan and China. In all these natural disasters human life is a casualty. Is it man-made? No, not natural disasters, except indirectly, as a result of playing with Nature, if one believes in entropy. It is man-mismanaged. Ask Obama and BPO, they will agree. Ask the Russians. The smog has reached Moscow and (…)

• Lok Sabha Elections 2009: Trends in Punjab

  17 September 2010

  by Lakhwinder Singh Sidhu and Sumandeep Kaur Punia
  India, being a federal parliamentary democracy, witnesses periodic elections to legislative bodies both at the national and State levels. Every election is different, in some ways, from the earlier ones. The electoral issues, manifestos, election slogans, campaigning techniques, voting behaviour etc. show some novelty in each election. The 15th general elections were held in May 2009. Since the 1990s, a notable feature of Indian politics (…)

• On Parliament’s Monsoon Session

  8 September 2010, by SC

  The monsoon session of Parliament has come to an end. But before the curtains came down on the session on August 31, the government was forced to retreat on several Bills.
  In fact the Rajya Sabha on August 31 was witness to a rare spectacle: one of the elders from the Congress benches, a former Minister for Education in Andhra, K. Keshava Rao, expressing his strong dissent with the manner in which the Education Tribunal Bill was being rushed through by the Union HRD Minister, Kapil Sibal. (…)

• Bol Kisana, Halla Bol

  8 September 2010, by Surendra Mohan

  On Thursday, August 20, the farmers of western Uttar Pradesh jammed New Delhi and held an impressive rally at Sansad Marg. They were agitating for the repeal of the Land Acquisition Act of 1894. The British imperialists, having claimed land and forests for the Raj under the Law of Eminent Domain, adopted this piece of legislation in order to acquire lands to be used for public good. Independent India did not remove this Act, the reason being economic development which the government wished (…)

• Lok Pal Bill-Promises to Redeem

  8 September 2010, by Rajindar Sachar

  The controversy following resignation of Justice Santosh Hegde, the Lok Ayukt of Karnataka, and the subsequent amends purported to have been made by the Karnataka Government has again highlighted the failure of the Lok Pal legislative history at the Centre and equally the passivity and reluctance of all political parties to pass this legislation, which is most urgently desired, if the attempt to control the rapid drift downward to political corruption, that is eating into the vitals of our (…)

• A United Struggle for United India-Azad Hind Fauj

  8 September 2010, by Ajeet Jawed

  September 1 this year marked the sixtyeighth anniversary of the formation of the Indian National Army (INA). The following article, bringing out the detailed history of the INA, is being published on that occasion.
  In the history of India’s freedom struggle, the INA occupies an important place. At the time when there were all round divisions on the Indian national scene, the INA exhibited complete national unity. The Indian soldiers fought unitedly for a united India. This armed struggle (…)

• Why the Moratorium on Bt Brinjal should Continue

  8 September 2010, by Bharat Dogra

  On February 9, 2010 Jairam Ramesh, the Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests, announced the important decision of a moratarium on Bt brinjal which was widely welcomed-not just in India but also at the global level-on grounds of health, environment and safety. However, a relatively small but extremely powerful section of vested interests set in motion high-power efforts to remove this moratorium.
  To give an idea of how strong these vested interests are, we may mention here (…)

• Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa

  8 September 2010, by Gilbert Etienne

  On September 21 will take place an important international Conference on the Millennium Development Goal (MDG). It was launched by the United Nations in 2000 with the aims to reduce acute poverty by half, to promote rapid progress of basic education and health, as well as gender equality.
  Half-way through, there has been some progress in education and health, but, as stated by Ban Ki-Moon, the Secretary-General of the UN: "We are not on track to fulfil our commitments." (The MDG Report, (…)