2014

The annual Budget of the Central Government should always reflect high levels of concerns for weaker sections and rural areas, but this year there are additional reasons why the newly elected government should be even more concerned about this. Just a few days before the Budget, new estimates of poverty have appeared confirming the well-known fact of actual poverty levels being significantly higher. In fact even the new upscale estimates are likely to be an underestimate of the existing (…)

India is heralded for a new sojourn. The new Railway Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda recently tabled the Railway Budget which is said to herald a new era in the realm of transport in India. It is being pegged as shunning populism and moving forward towards consolidation and modernisation. What justifies this notion is the move to moot Foreign Direct Investment in suburban rail corridors, stations, revamping the reservation system, public-private partner-ship for rail projects, work stations in (…)

The quality of our expectations is being perpetually set off by contrasting categories. The definitions are relative but even in their breach (or incompleteness) contain tangible difference. Thus, for instance, industrial society, classically underpinned by the division of labour in the use of technology for mass production, is defined by one unified purpose of material betterment while the post-industrial community demonstrates greater heterogeneity in occupation and values. Agrarian (…)

EDITORIAL
So the Narendra Modi-led BJP Government at the Centre has at last been forced to act against hoarding of onions and potatoes. Yesterday it brought these two vegeables under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. This move, whose purpose is to empower State governments to undertake dehoarding operations and control the prices of these commodities which are definitely shooting up, was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) Now the States will be free to impose (…)

by Bharat Dogra, Roopam Singh
At a time when the need for inclusive development is being emphasised time and again, it is shocking to know that year after year development funds meant for the weakest sections have been diverted to entirely different areas on a massive scale.
Difficult to believe this may be, but it is a well-documented fact that funds meant for development of Dalits and tribals have been usurped time and again for such unlikely expenses as those relating to the (…)

by Rajinder Puri
According to media reports, the decision to appoint Amit Shah as the next President of the BJP has been all but finalised. The official announcement expected in a few days is to be a mere formality. Senior BJP leaders, L.K. Advani and Sushma Swaraj, had expressed reservations about Shah’s appointment until the murder cases in which he is accused are satisfactorily disposed of. It may be recalled that earlier Nitin Gadkari was removed from the BJP President’s post on (…)

IMPRESSIONS
The dimensions of the Iraq crisis began hitting us only when Indian workers were kidnapped and Indian nurses stranded. There is also an awareness now about the possible economic disaster if oil prices go crazy. These are grave issues and we must exert every nerve tackling them. But the big danger Iraq poses is ideological. A militant religious force is on a conquering spree and India will be among its prime targets.
Other versions of this religious force were frightening (…)

It is one of those ironies that the Khilafat movement of 1919 that brought two subconti-nental communities together in the cause of the Ottoman Caliphate, ostensibly came to naught. The Caliphate itself was neutralised by the secular vision of Kemal Attaturk. Yet that ideo-logical separation of church and state, mostly confined to the elite, has been under fire from the West Asian fundamentalism of the past few decades as the middle class-led masses have first assailed the state, the world (…)

by Shiladitya Chakraborty
The newly elected BJP-led NDA Government appears to be determined to make a clean sweep at all levels. Many heads rolled in the mass exodus of the UPA-II appointed Governors. At least three—Karnataka Governor H.R. Bharadwaj, Uttar Pradesh Governor B.L. Joshi and Assam Governor J.B. Patnaik—have resigned from their posts on June 17, 2014. In fact their actions were lauded by the Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, saying: “If I were in their position, I would have quit a (…)

COMMENTARY
by Navneet Sharma, Harikrishnan B. and Pradeep Nair
The euphoria of Narendra Modi’s landslide win is at its peak. Every Indian is basking in the glory of electing a stable government which is hoped to provide a new direction to governance and administration in India. The PM, Narendra Modi, has taken the oath of secrecy along with his small Cabinet. Though the selection of Ministers is the PM’s prerogative, it reflects the concern and seriousness of the PM elect, with which he (…)