2016

The new ‘World Wealth Report’ points to an increase in the number of crorepatis from 2.36 lakhs currently to 5.54 lakhs by 2025 (at the 2015 prices). But these figures are not reliable. In the Indian economy, a substantial amount of black incomes are generated annually and they lead to the accumulation of black wealth which is often not counted in estimates made by agencies. A large part of this wealth is held in real estate and it is hard to estimate its amount. Further, at present, there (…)

Recently India abruptly changed tack by expressing its willingness to drop the three-tiered approach on tariff liberalisation under the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement. This was communicated to trading partners at the fourth RCEP Ministerial Meeting held in Laos on August 5. India has been one of the key proponents of the three-tiered approach on tariff reduction under RCEP.
What led India to change tack? The precise reasons behind this policy-shift (…)

by Surbhi Karwa and Shivam Yadav
“Let people know the facts and the country will be safe.” —Abraham Lincoln
The media is the fourth pillar of democracy— we have been taught this since our early lessons in social studies in school. The role of the media in a vibrant democracy is something which is crystal-clear to all of us. But the Indian media has its own share of challenges in the form of paid news, remuneration and job-security of journalists and, most importantly, media trials. The (…)

Perhaps the greatest sin that independent India’s ruling class committed was that it relent-lessly engaged in the most brutal exploitation of India’s original inhabitants commonly known as the Adivasis. It has done to the Adivasis what the White Americans did to the Red Indians (original inhabitants again). It robbed them of their land and national resources and destroyed their cultural identity. All in the name of development. What Shri Jaipal Singh, the eminent Adivasi leader, said way (…)

by Nilima Chandiramani
‘Protection of minorities is the hallmark of a civilisation,’ said the Father of our Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. The framers of the Indian Constitution showed utmost sensitivity to the needs and aspirations of minorities by incorpo-rating special safeguards in the Chapter on Fundamental Rights under the heading ‘Educational and Cultural Rights’.
Chief Justice S.R. Das, presiding over a Bench of seven judges in the Kerala Education Bill case, had reiterated in his (…)

From N.C.’s Writings
Early next week, on October 31, the country would be observing the tenth death anniversary of Indira Gandhi who had been cruelly shot down on this very day by her own security guards right inside her residence.
By all accounts it was a ghastly tragedy committ6ed by those who had been embittered by the ‘Operation Bluestar’ at the Golden Temple at Amritsar. The perpetrators of Indira’s assassination owned up the full responsibility for their gory deed which in their (…)

No Indo-Russian summit was held in such an anti-Russian media hysteria stemming from the Russia-Pak military exercise, yet no other summit in recent years has been so successful as the 17th Indo-Russian Summit taking place on October 15 at Goa. The Russia-Pak military exercise was held as per schedule in the wake of the terrorist attack on the Uri military base that took 19 lives. Delhi expected its special and privileged strategic partner, Moscow, to postpone, if not cancel, the first ever (…)

by K.C. Yadav
Much is found in print on the First World War, 1914-1918. Recruitment in Punjab during the global conflict, our present concern, is also not a barren field; there are several studies relating to it as well. A solicitous perusal of the literature shows, however, that it is by and large one-sided, based mostly on the official versions of things. The ‘other side’, the one as seen from the receiving end of the stick, is either ignored or touched casually. The present study is a (…)

EDITORIAL
Several major developments have taken place in the last few days. But none of these can possibly minimise the importance of the recent meetings in Goa: the Indo-Russian summit punctuated by the Modi-Putin meeting on October 15; the BRICS summit on October 15-16; and the BIMSTEC meet as well as the BRICS-BIMSTEC outreach summit on October 16.
As for the Indo-Russian summit, as former Indian ambassador to Moscow P.S. Raghavan wrote in The Hindu yesterday in an article entitled (…)

by Ram Puniyani
What is called a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) deals with the personal laws (marriage, divorce, maintenance, custody and inheritance). Our criminal and civil laws are the same for all the religious communities but our personal laws have been related and linked to religion. So there are separate laws for the Hindus, Muslims and Christians. Ironically Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs are included in the Hindus. The prevalent laws and norms among diverse Hindu communities are not the (…)