Governance norms vs political survival Too many compromises with the legitimate political and governance norms have slowed down much of the effective delivery of social benefits to the farmers and the poor. This political commentary, readers might know, is posted on the weblog and so what I write mostly ,more so on the international issues…
National Curriculum 2005
Raises very disturbing questions! 300 academics and seven long months. And now we have a New Curriculum Framework of 125 pages dense text! Globalisation had accelerated the process of Westernisation, modernisation and also make us to face the knowledge acquisition an international type of using reason and science and the tools of knowledge like logic…
Reminiscences : C.N. Annadurai, Sir. A. Lakshmanaswamy Mudaliar
I had seen and heard the late leader “Anna” (C.N. Annadurai) as a student when I was at Pachapayya’s College during the 1953-55 period. Anna himself was an old student and as such there was much affinity between his old college and the same college students. The first time I came to know the name…
Mughal Era : Indian villages and agriculture
What was like the Indian agriculture, the Indian villages in the Mughal times? Poverty, famines, oppression, peasant rebellions….. Here is just a few facts from a noted historian. Sometimes it helps to look at our rural Indian countryside in a historic past. How did our village ancestors live and prosper? For a change we looked…
The evolving political scenario
Prime Minister’s musings give no clue to his real beliefs! The benefit of doubt to the PM or to the people? The passing away of Nani Palkhivala (1920-2002), the eminent Constitutional expert, marks an era in Indian politics and society. The many laudatory articles in the press by peers and others only reinforced the importance…
Engage farmers, transform India!
Let us say India is a confident nation? No leader worth his or her salt says. What the Prime Minister said soon after the Vijay Parva? After the Gujarat victory? The PM asks counter questions. Harps on Hindutva. A great pity, indeed. The Opposition leader Ms.Sonia Gandhi hides her disappointment for not winning Gujarat elections….
An unequal world
US and Indian democracies: Different values! US has a rightwing, miltarist, authoritarian government. India, with all its economic weaknesses, has a more open society. This is an unequal world. Injustice is the outcome for many weaker countries. I watched the last two debates of the Presidential candidates, George Bush and John Kerry rather very attentively….
NGOs in rural development
Time to have some candid criticisms! Govts, banks can succeed in villages only working through NGOs,SHGs and even panchayats. NGOs are very much part of any development. More so in India with its myriad problems. Even more pointedly society development where a host of intractable problems persist and defy easy solutions. Poverty, illiteracy, healthcare, social…