September 6, 2008

The census 2001 and the growth indicators portray Bihar as one of the poorest States in India, with a highly underdeveloped economic structure and the lowest per capita income. What makes its situation unique is that Bihar is the only State in India where poverty has been uniformly at the highest level. This is primarily because the third most populous State in the country with approximately 83 million people suffer from natural calamity. With the onset of the monsoon, rivers come down from (…)

Respected Pradhan Mantriji,
We, the undersigned citizens of India, write this letter to you with deep anguish over the catastrophic floods in North Bihar, and the resulting human tragedy, and dehumanising consequences. It is a matter of deep sorrow that despite our growing economic wealth, traditional culture of hospitality and huge army, “rising India” stands virtually a mute spectator while the lives of about three million people hang in balance. Despite all the rescue (…)

Human memory is short lived; hence connecting past and present events becomes incomprehensible. Before the last Lok Sabha elections Smt Sonia Gandhi’s whirlwind road-show traversing India impacted people’s opinion. She was sure to be the Prime Minister after the elections in May 2004.
The RSS manipulated astrologers who forecast the demise of her government before June 27, 2004. When Dr Manmohan Singh was appointed the Prime Minister, the RSS’ hopes dashed to the ground. If somebody takes (…)

“Never engage the same enemy for too long, or he will adapt to your tactics.” —Carl Von Clausewitz
After seeing the US forces stuck for the long-term in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Russian forces in Chechnya twice, finally it seems the curse of world military superpowers is broken. The South Ossetian war that broke out between Russia and Georgia on August 8, 2008 has been brought to a swift conclusion, at least militarily.
The war has been quite contrary to the Russian military (…)

The Indo-Naga peace talks between the National Socialist Council of Nagalim [IM] and the Government of India have sojourned many places like Paris,1 Bangkok,2 Zurich, Geneva, Amsterdam, Hague and New Delhi. An indefinite ceasefire or “sine die” was declared at a lesser known place called Dimapur [Nagaland] on July 31, 2007. Naga grassroot civil society organisations including the Naga Hoho demanded “No Solution, No Extension of Ceasefire”. Interestingly, a press statement issued by the (…)

Jawaharlal Nehru writing in 1932 on ‘The Great Revolt of 1857’, emphasised that many an English officer exceeded barbarity a hundred fold. If mobs of mutinous Indian soldiers, without officers or leaders, had been guilty of cruel and revolting deeds, the trained British soldiers led by their officers, exceeded them in cruelty and barbarity. Our perverted histories tell us a lot about the treachery and cruelty on the Indian side and hardly mention the other side.1
Karl Marx had also noted (…)

The toll of urban terrorism has so far caused a loss of 30,000 innocent Indian lives in the last 13 years due to 33 serial blasts in Maharashtra. The end of terrorist violence is nowhere in sight. As things stand, in the coming days India in general and urban areas in particular would have to brace up for more deadly terrorist attacks. The intentions of the terrorists are clear, as their capacity for deadly strikes has demonstrated. Unless some out-of-box surgical response is worked out, the (…)

The nation watched with horror the shenanigans in the Lok Sabha on July 21-22, 2008 during the debate on the motion seeking confidence on the Union Council of Ministers. For two long days it was an agony for any intelligent and informed citizen of the country to watch the performance, nay, antics verging on buffoonery of our members of Lok Sabha, desecrating our temple of democracy and converting into an arena of tomfoolery and horse trade of an ugly variety.
The subject matter was the (…)

Introduction
THE National Family Health Survey (NFHS) conducted in 2005-06 provides information on fertility, family planning, health, nutrition, health care, HIV/AIDS and women’s empowerment. This survey is the third in the series. The earlier two were conducted in 1992-93 and 1998-99. These were coordinated by the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) under the stewardship of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW). The preliminary findings of the National (…)