Served notice for election-eve promises! We request Sharad Pawar for some more promises! Sharad Pawar, the Union Agri Minister, is supposed to be a very competent politician. And yet he is held responsible by the Election Commission for violation of election code! The reason? He promised several helps to farmers after the assembly elections! What…
UN Human Development Report 2005
Economic development yes, but not enough social development. Hopes lie in new technologies. The UN Human Development Report 2005 puts India in the 127th rank out of some nearly 200 countries and credits India a success story in the globalising world. Poverty fallen to somewhere between 25 and 30 per cent from the early 36…
Power of the new media!
Do we understand our emerging digital lifestyle? What should be innovative education be like? Bill Gates and Narayanamurthy jointly appeared on the NDTV show hosted by Prannoy Ray in mid-December. As we type these lines Bill Gates is very much in India! So, the Microsoft chairman, along with the Infosys creator along with the NDTV’s…
Our banks don’t reach agri credit targets!
How to trust the Finance Minister? When his record for the farm sector is near zero! Is India’s banking sector healthy? It depends who asks this question and also who answers the question. After the bank nationlisation it is the government that controls the banks (PSBs) and the RBI supervises them. The present government in…
Globalisation:What lessons for India?
Are we optimists or pessimists? The Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates, was in India for four days, his fourth visit to India and he spoke glowingly about India looking futuristic with enormous human skills. The last 10 years had been the best so far in Indian history. Microsoft will invest 1.7 billion dollars in the next…
A higher growth rate in agriculture?
Such claims invite more cynicism than optimism! A mid-term review of the year, the economy projects a higher economic growth in agriculture. Some newspapers gave such figures like three to four per cent for agriculture, while others, more sober newspapers simply omitted the exact figures and simply talked of a ‘slightly higher growth rate in…
C.S.Ramakrishnan — Conversations On Gandhians, Tagoreans and much else!
On an unexpected day I had a caller in Bangalore. It was C.S. Ramakrihnan (CSR), a long time friend. I have had many friends, big and small and I often wondered whether I have friends in the sense others talk of theirs. I cant say I have childhood friends whom I remember now. Nor my…
Can Kerala be turned around?
West Bengal Chief Minister offers a model for Kerala politicians. The Kerala Left politicians are dreaming to capture power in the next Assembly elections. But Kerala politics is not one of black and white as in Bengal. Here the coalition politics have many shades of alignments and re-alignments. The question is: do the Communists in…