2020

by Suparna Sanyal Mukherjee
Education and advancement of educational status are both sides of the same coin, while skills play a vital role for development of science and technology. Scientific advancement and technological connotation always substantiate through the skills.
Science is an accumulation of systematic knowledge which can propagate through systematic and scientific knowledge orientation, logical argument and systematic theory. These are the hidden content of the terms before (…)

BOOK REVIEW
by Mohammad Chingiz Khan
First, They Erased Our Name: A Rohingya Speaks by Habiburahman with Sophie Ansel translated by Andrea Reece; pp. 1 to 246; New Delhi: Penguin Viking; 2019; Rs. 499.
The erudite biographical memoir of one of the victims of state-sponsored oppression, Habiburahman’s First, They Erased Our Name: A Rohingya Speaks (with Sophie Ansel)—translated by Andrea Reece and published by Penguin Viking, New Delhi—is a narrative of the unbea-rable, insufferable and (…)

“Judge not lest ye be judged,” They said to the judge. “Or, if judge you will, Then judge at your own peril.”
The judge was young and dreamy Eyed, wedded to fairness. So he judged with upright mind And feeling heart, wondering Why the complicit could not find The law writ large to book the butchers Responsible for the carnage. The judge forgot that laws are Suited to faces, and do not necessarily Apply in high places.
Thus, at the midnight hour, he Received his comeuppance From Caesar, (…)

EDITORIAL
As we go to press today, the situation at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh remains extremely fluid. The country’s Apex Court had sent interlocutors to Shaheen Bagh to discuss with the protesters there and get their consent to allow traffic movement to distant places that had been blocked for 69 days, that is, since the Shaheen Bagh protest against the Citizens Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) had begun. In fact this morning itself one of the roads supposed to have (…)

by L.K. Sharma
Dear Shri Arvind Kejriwal,
This habitual freeloader was thrilled by your letter that came before the historic Delhi elections. Apologies for this delayed response. My open letter earlier would have been misused by the Modi Party that was determined to defeat you. I wanted you to win so that I can enjoy the promised free pilgrimages. One does not live by free water and electricity alone but needs spiritual salvation too.
Now that the most vicious-ever war has been lost (…)

by Arup Kumar Sen
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had a landslide victory in the Delhi Assembly elections held on February 8, 2020, winning 62 of 70 seats. The BJP improved its seat-tally marginally from three in 2015 to eight and its vote-share went up from 32.2 per cent in 2015 to 38.49 per cent. The AAP’s vote-share came down marginally from 54.3 per cent to 53.6 per cent. The Congress drew a blank with its vote-share reduced from 9.7 per cent in 2015 to 4.4 per cent. (The Economic Times, (…)

Bernard Shaw once quipped, “If you would learn about Finance Capital, do not read Das Kapital, read Little Dorrit.”
In that path-breaking novel by Charles Dickens, a man called Podsnap rises to be a very rich man from humble origins.
Then, as he sits down to dinner alone on a long long table, he puts up a wall-like arm to obstruct anyone who brings him bad news of any kind.
This gesture has since come to be christened “Podsnappery”. To wit, what you do not see does not exist.
As rich (…)

Religion has emerged as a major source of conflict across the globe. Ideological strife has now given place to the “clash of civilisations” and it is felt that in the foreseeable future, religion will be a major source of conflict within and among nations. The possibilities of conflict are greater in countries such as India where different cultures and religions do meet. How-ever, such clashes can be prevented if appropriate strategies are formulated and implemented at an early stage so as (…)

by D.M. Diwakar
The Economic Survey of the current financial year 2019-20, presented in Parliament, gives the present status of the Indian economy. This provides the basis for the policy responses through the Union Budget for the next financial year 2020-21. The Union Budget has become now merely ceremonial, as many financial decisions have been taken outside Parliament. The latest press conference by the Finance Minister for the benefits of the corporates to the tune of Rs 1.46 lakh (…)

In recent years there has been growing concern that adequate resources are not available for persons with disabilities and for implementation of new legislation related to their needs and rights. Hence a significant increase in allocation for disability-affected persons was needed and expected in the Union Budget but the recently presented Budget has failed to live up to these expectation and needs. What is even more difficult to understand is the reduction made in some important (…)