2022

Shimla has been my second home after Delhi since 1991, the year I joined the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS) as Fellow. During this long period of my association with Himachal Pradesh, I have been fortunate to have visited a larger number of cities, towns and a few villages of Himachal Pradesh. I got an opportunity to interact with people from all walks of life: agriculturists, business persons, administrators, politicians, lawyers, students, litterateurs, critics, journalists, (…)

by Arun Srivastava
Kiren Rijiju, law minister, must be feeling depressed and also angry at the Supreme Court judges, Justices K.M. Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy who dared the government to take action against corrupt officials who according to them were a bigger threat to the country’s security. Through their observations the judges had sent the strong message that the executive was the biggest threat to the country. Rijiju has often been accusing a section of the judiciary of not working in a (…)

On my eighteenth birthday, my mother gave a me a ticket to Ahmedabad with the words, ‘Go, meet Ela Bhatt’.
‘Who is Ela Bhatt?’ I asked, bewildered.
‘She’s a Gandhian,’ replied my mother.
‘So?’ I countered, with my just turning eighteen brashness.
‘Go, find out for yourself,’ replied my mother.
Elaben as she was known to all, was short-statured, soft-spoken, dressed in a white khadi sari with a green border. She took all of us — it was a conference - in a bus to Sabarmati ashram. As (…)

Ela Bhatt breathed her last on November 2 at the age of 89. With important contributions extending over 67 years, her name has become synonymous with struggles and efforts to improve the employment and income prospects of self-employed women workers, artisans and small entrepreneurs. She was founder of SEWA, India’s most well-known organization of women self-employed workers and its general secretary for 24 years ( 1972-1996). She played a leading role in starting the SEWA Bank so that women (…)

by Nandita Chaturvedi and Archishman Raju *
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Aruna Asaf Ali were two prominent women in the freedom struggle who were near contemporaries. On the surface, their lives took different paths; Kamaladevi is chiefly remembered for her work on handicrafts, and Aruna for her work with the Link and Patriot. Our generation has the benefit of hindsight and can examine their lives together. Doing so uncovers an essential unity in their vision, which may not have been (…)

Azamgarh is a lively district of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Because of the entrepreneurial nature of people here Azamgarh is described as Kerala of U.P. People from here not only go to different parts of the country but also to abroad. Descendent of an indentured labourer family from here who migrated to Trinidad and Tobago, Basudeo Pandey, became the Prime Minister of this group of islands country in the Caribbean. Most of the people who migrated from Azamgarh in the past did not use an (…)

by Nand L. Dhameja & Manish Dhameja
Education spreads seed of development. In the words of Benjamin Disraeli, fate of a country depends upon the education of its people. Development of education institutions is measured in terms of ranks developed on the basis of certain parameters. As such, ranking is a communication about the institution to various stakeholders - to students, parents interested, management, government to ascertain how the resources are being utilised.
The National (…)

Mia Mottly, PM of Barbodos, speaking at the ongoing ongoing COP27 UN climate summit, attacked the rich nations for their historical criminal past for present climate crisis and demanded 1 trillion US$ compensation to low income countries to tackle natural disasters. Madam Prime minister from a tiny Carribean nation is known for her bold speeches in world forums in advocating interests of developing South.
Her demand is justified. In the past centuries, the West colonized the South and (…)

by Letizia Tedesco
Arctic sea ice, under threat from climate change, holds the key to many forms of life. It could be gone before we understand it.
Sea ice holds the key to understanding the entire Arctic marine ecosystem. But it’s melting faster than we can unravel its complexity.
In our planet’s far north, an extraordinary ocean exists. The Arctic Ocean is special in many ways but its sea ice, floating on the frigid water, holds the key to a food web and ecosystem that supports (…)

by Manal Shehabi*
31 October 2022
Gulf oil and gas producing nations will badge themselves as climate leaders at COP27. It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds.
There is little room for grandiose ambitions at COP27. Instead, the 27th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, hosted this week by the African regional group in Egypt and dubbed the “African COP”, aims to meet COP26 commitments with practical solutions. In fact, the COP (…)