2014

by Rajrishi Singhal
when Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his maiden Independence Day speech on August 15, one crisp announcement stood out amidst the torrent of usual homilies: he wanted to shut the Planning Commission down.
The Planning Commission is a government body that formulates five-year economic plans, among other things. What Modi will replace it with is still not clear. But he was unequivocal about his decision: “We will replace the Planning Commission with a new institution (…)

by Vishnu Bhagwat
The overblown hype over the increased FDI ceilings in the defence sector, touting that India would become a major arms exporter from currently being the top importer in the world, is unrealistic. The exaggerated expectations that by increasing the FDI limits from the current 26 per cent to 49 per cent for foreign original equipment manufacturers will ensure rapid transfer of technology and setting up of vast manufacturing facilities for India’s armed forces as well as for (…)

IMPRESSIONS
It may seem too early, but the contours of the next general election are beginning to take shape. It will be the usual politics, played the usual dismal way. Those who saw in Narendra Modi’s victory a turning-point in history may have to revise their views. The size of its triumph had surprised the BJP just as the extent of its defeat had shocked the Congress. It was a message for the winner to try and earn the trust of all, and for the loser to introspect and change its ways. (…)

Abstract
In the late 1950s there emerged (somewhat abruptly) a constricted one-dimensional economic interpretation of the role and purpose (hence the philosophy) of education largely from the standpoint of the concepts, categories and methodology of mainstream (neo-classical) economics. This soon culminated into the foundation of a new branch of economic discourse/inquiry, namely, economics of education, which eventually weakened the pre-existing humanistic vision and liberal view of (…)

As Bipan Chandra (86) was, and will remain, to the history of anti-colonialism and communalism in India, Balraj Puri (86) was, and will remain, to the history of anti-feudalism and non-discriminatory justice in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. And both, primarily, were, and will remain, untiring and undetered voices on behalf of democracy, where democracy is not understood merely as the periodic ritual of a peaceful governmental change but as an idea inseparable from the raison d‘etre of (…)

by Anwar Sadat
Does the incident of the downing of the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 MH-17 on July 18, 2014, flying from Amsterdam to Kualalampur, by the pro-Russian rebels operating along the Russian-Ukrainian border resulting in the death of all the 298 persons on board, including crew members, involve Russia’s international legal responsibility? The incident of unspeakable death and destruction has evoked criticism by the US President, Barrack Obama, and several European Union leaders. (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
After forty years of the foundation of our independent republic, the Frankenstein has appeared again—the monster that is out to destroy democracy and plunge this nation into civil war that shall rend asunder thousands of towns and villages of this great country.
The term communalism does not convey the gravity of the crisis that confronts us today—let it be bluntly stated that what we face today is the demon of Hindu-Muslim hatred. Over a large part of this land, (…)

COMMUNICATION
The recent decision to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam by 17 metres has been widely criticised by social organisations led by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) as well as many eminent citizens on the ground that it violates the legal rights of about 48,000 families in the submergence area of this dam to cultivable land-based rehabilitation. As several reports have pointed out, thousands of farmers, including tribal farmers, workers, fisher folk, artisans, are still (…)

Som Benegal, journalist, writer and poet passed away peacefully at the age of 92 on August 22, 2014.
He was a well-known theatre director in the 1950-60s and News Editor in the All India Radio in the 1940s. He was also a multi-media specialist in the fields of Radio, Television, Exhibition Design, and Journals since 1942. He was passionate about the independence of the media and served as the Secretary-General of NAMEDIA.
He served on various committees for the Government of India as a (…)

EDITORIAL
The electoral success of the joint front of the JD (U)-RJD-Congress in the recent Bihar by-elections has been able to establish not just the limits of the Modi wave but also the fallacy on the part of the ruling combine in general, and the BJP run by Narendra Modi and his protege Amit Shah in particular, to take the electorate for granted. It has once again confirmed that if the secular forces unite to prevent the split in secular votes, the BJP cannot possibly hope to repeat the (…)