Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

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  Table of Contents, Mainstream, Sept 18, 2021

  17 September 2021

  * India-Pakistan Hatred is a Mindset Problem | M R Narayan Swamy
  * Nature key to Human Well-Being and Prosperity | KN Ninan
  * What is Plaguing the Catholic Church in Kerala? | Chathukulam and Joseph
  * The Aesthetics of Silence | Susan Sontag (1967)

• Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, Sept 18, 2021

  17 September 2021

  Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, September 18, 2021
  The disturbing trend under the Modi government of using investigating agencies under the central government to go after critics or people out of favour with the government continues. Many observers, human rights groups and even the UN experts have been pointing this out. Recent developments confirm the trend where the Government seems to regularly send in the taxman to unsettle and harass critics —and all at the same time denying any (…)

• Miseries of Poverty, Not Pleasures | T J S George

  17 September 2021, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Prince Charles has a special valet to squeeze one inch of toothpaste on to his brush every night. There is also a valet to iron his shoe laces every morning.
  What a worthless life! You need some flunkey even to put tooth paste on your brush? Does he also brush your teeth while you contemplate how to rule the world? Shoe laces that are ironed everyday are essential for your self-respect?
  I didn’t even know that shoe laces could be ironed. No wonder I never (…)

• What is Plaguing the Catholic Church in Kerala? Is it ‘Jihad’ or something else? | Jos Chathukulam and Manasi Joseph

  17 September 2021

  by Jos Chathukulam and Manasi Joseph *
  Abstract
  While the ‘narcotic jihad’ and ‘love jihad’ appears to be creating more furore at the moment, there are various other factors that are plaguing the Church. This article briefly attempts to analyse the major issues and problems that are haunting the Catholic Church in Kerala. __0__
  Introduction
  Though Kerala is in the midst of battling Covid 19 and Nipah, it is the controversy over ‘Narcotic Jihad’ that is creating ripples in the (…)

• Bishops, Pawns and Politics: Indian Church loses friends and makes new enemies | John Dayal

  17 September 2021, by John Dayal

  No boat on a choppy Sea of Galilee would have been tossed as violently as the Church in India finds itself shaken today, trying to negotiate its way between competitive political space with Muslims and Hindus in distant Kerala, rampant persecution by non-state actors in the north and central states, its resources constricted by increasingly vindictive state policies, and its institutions, its social face for two centuries, staring at an uncertain future in many regions.
  This is perhaps a (…)

• India-Pakistan Hatred is a Mindset Problem | M R Narayan Swamy

  17 September 2021, by M R Narayan Swamy

  I was cursing my luck after encountering young Chinese women tellers at a Hong Kong bank who could neither understand nor speak English. I wanted to convert 900 HK dollars into Indian currency before flying back to Delhi. Just then I saw a South Asian man, in the bank’s blue guard uniform, flash a smile and ask: “Koi problem?” (Is there a problem?)
  I heaved a sigh of relief. Finally, I could relate the issue to someone. After hearing me, the man took my HK dollars, went in and, within (…)

• Nature key to Human Well-Being and Prosperity | K N Ninan

  17 September 2021

  by K N Ninan *
  With most countries failing to achieve the 20 Aichi Biodiversity targets as stated in the UN’s Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, attention is focussed on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework to be unveiled at the COP 15 meeting of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity scheduled to be held in Kunming, China during October 11-15, 2021.
  A reality check on the state of biodiversity and ecosystem services depicts a grim picture. According to (…)

• Deconstructing ‘Development’ | Arup Kumar Sen

  17 September 2021, by Arup Kumar Sen

  The term ‘Development’ is a catchword in the neo-liberal paradigm of governance. Multiple forms of violence have been inflicted on the people, particularly those belonging to the subaltern social classes/groups, in the name of ‘Development’. In the early 1990s, a book titled The Development Dictionary: A guide to Knowledge as Power was published under the editorship of Wolfgang Sachs. Very recently, a new book bearing the title Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary has been published (…)

• Biased Agricultural Price Policy Causing Lop sided Production | S S Sangwan

  17 September 2021

  by S S Sangwan
  Since 26 November 2020, thousands of farmers are protesting at the boarders of Delhi State for repealing the three farm laws of 2020. An attempt is made here to link these laws with the issues thrown up by the Agricultural Price Policy (APP). The AAP is implemented through procurement of wheat & rice at MSP by Food Corporation of India (FCI) and pulses & oilseeds by National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) under a Price Support (…)

• Minimum Support Price for Agriculture in India: Policy Implications | Pavittarbir Singh Saggu

  17 September 2021

  by Pavittarbir Singh Saggu *
  Abstract
  The influence of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) on agricultural technology adoption and boosting output and buffer stocks of cereals, pulses, and oilseeds in India is discussed in this paper. The results imply that food policy should strike a compromise between the interests of farmers in increasing their profits and consumers in ensuring nutrition security within a sustainable budget.
  Keywords: Food Grain, Agricultural Policy, Procurement (…)