ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Friends Time and tide waits for no man, so are the events. There have been five important to very important developments happening in the Indian sub continent. The Congress party has won an emphatic victory after a longtime, more than ten years to be sure. That has ushered in a hopefully stable government led by an honest man but also happens to be strong, this time round. The share market which is the immediate barometer of events in the country is very upbeat. Hopefully the economy should look up and so shall the expectations of an expectant nation are not bellied. While its generally accepted that no government can provide solutions to all its problems at all times, it is eminently possible to address most of them with sensitivity and honesty. Since it is recognized that bottleneck is always at the top, mercifully we have a top which is transparent and means business. It is therefore reasonable to believe that Sardar Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of the country shall do all...

Women’s Reservation Bill: for whom? There are more serious problems than the reservation of women in the parliament. Indian women undergo sufferings from womb to the tomb which needs greater consideration in any democratic polity. The women politicians of India should be well aware of the truths of women’s life in the country. Only 55 per cent of rural house holds in India have access to safe drinking water, this means that 45% of women spend a considerable amount of time carrying water from distant wells and other sources. Women and girls living in urban slums are particularly affected by the inadequate sanitation facilities. One of the reasons for low attendances and dropout of girl students from schools in India is the lack of toilets in schools. Census 2001 provisional figures indicate that 54.16 per cent of women are able to read and write. Still 245 million Indian women cannot read or write, comprising the world’s largest number of unlettered women. Besides, national averages i...

GANG LEADER FOR A DAY A Book by : Sudhir Venkatesh First Days on Federal Street One cold November night, J.T. invited me to a meeting at a small storefront Baptist church. An ex-gangster named Lenny Duster would be teaching young people about the rights, responsibilities , and power of voting. The next election, while a full year away, would place in office a great many state legislators as well as city aldermen. Lenny ran a small organization called Pride, which helped mediate gang wars. About a hundred young Black Kings attended the meeting, held in a small room at the rear of the church. They were quite and respectful, although they had the look of teenagers who’d been told that attendance was mandatory. Lenny was about six foot four, built lean and muscular. He was about forty years old, with streaks of blond hair, and he walked with a limp. “You-all need to see where the power is!” Lenny shouted to the assembly, striding about like a Caesar. “J.T. went to college, I earned a d...

CROWS ARE INTELLIGENT LONDON : ROOKS, a member of the crow family, are surprisingly innovative when it comes to searching food- they are not only capable of using tools but also making and modifying them for their use. “This finding is remarkable because rooks do not appear to use tools in the wild, yet they rival habitual tools users such as chimpanzees and New Caledonian crows when tested in captivity,” said Chris Bird of Cambridge University, co-author of the study. In a series of experiments, the rooks quickly learnt to drop a stone to collapse a platform and acquire a piece of food, and subsequently showed the ability to choose the right size and shape of stone without any training. Not only could they use stones to solve the task, but they were flexible in their tool choice, using and modifying sticks to achieve the same goal. When the correct tool was out of reach, they used another tool to get it, demonstrating the ability to use tools sequentially. In further tests, the rook...

WHEN FENCE ATE THE CROP I have always believed that men, which includes women as well, are essentially same all over the world. From Melbourne to Mumbai to Manchester, except in their dress habits or eating habits, most things have a common streak. The other day, my sense of being an Indian felt betrayed when I read in the press about Britain’s first Muslim woman peer of Asian origin had claimed £ 100,000/= as expenses on a vacant flat. ‘The Sunday Times’ of London reported that Labour MP Baroness Uddin has been claiming allowances on an empty flat in Kent. The peers who live outside London are allowed this allowance, while she actually lived in Wapping, some 4 miles from House of Lords. She had bought the flat some 4 years ago, but according to neighbours never occupied, but has been claiming some £30,000 per year as accommodation expenses from the govt. The fact that the Baroness is of Bangladeshi origin really did not make me feel less mortified. The disturbed feeling persisted. The...

The Common Man’s Personal Liberty Prabhakar Sinha Even 62 years after independence the common man’s personal liberty has not received the attention the citizens of a republic deserves. The jails in the country are overflowing with under trial prisoners detained for allegations of minor criminal offences. In fact, a very large number of them continue to languish in jails because they are too poor to move for a bail; many of them continue to be in the prison because the trial takes too long. In fact, if their cases had been tried in time and they had been convicted, they would have been free, as they have already spent more time in jail than their offence warranted. Since the independence, millions of the common citizens have suffered undeserved loss of their personal liberty and been forced to live in jail in inhuman conditions without anybody seriously taking up the cudgels on their behalf. The cause...

LIVE LONGER WITH FRUITS, GREEN TEA, RED WINE! NEW DELHI : WANT to know the secret to longevity? Just rev up your diet with fresh fruits, green tea, fish and red wine. “Breast milk is responsible for higher IQ and leads to lesser chances of having diabetes, hyper-tension and asthma. It has long term advantages even when the baby grows up into an adult and therefore ensures longevity,” says Dr Arun Soni, consultant at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital’s Department of Neonatology. “It is a complete food for babies. It is hygienic. It gives extra immunity to the body of the baby and protects them from illnesses,” he says. Dr Seema Puri of Department of Nutrition at Institute of Home Economics says dietary adjustments may not only influence present health but may determine whether or not an individual will develop diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes much later in life. Puri recommends a high intake of vegetables (particularly wild plants), fruits, nuts and cereals mostly in the f...

Special Economic Zones: Socio-economic Implications :- Naresh Kumar sharma A large number of special economic zones (SEZs) have come into existence in the last two-three years. Many of them occupy hundreds of acres of land each and often the land is acquired by the government from unwilling farmers. The SEZs are extremely attractive to exporters, industrialists and entrepreneurs because of differential application of laws and favourable tax concessions. There is a possibility of an avalanche of SEZs to appear in the country in the future, Consequently, it is important to analyse the economic and social implications of such a large number of SEZs appearing on the scene. Among these, particularly important are the implications for food security, political stability of the country and the functioning of the democratic institutions. In this context, a conference which was held in the Indian I...

COALITION COMPULSIONS AND LICENCE TO LOOT Elections to the Loksabha is over. UPA has returned to power with much better strength. The strength Congress acquired as the dominant party in the UPA has reflected in its obvious responses in ministry formation, post election. Old ally, the RJD is not there, Communists are not there. Many parties have been greatly weakened. The only party that came back with the same number was DMK of Karunanidhi ‘Sons & Relatives Pvt. Ltd’. He brought in 18 MPs, but wanted 9 ministries. Trinamool Congress, the new coalition partner has 19 MPs, and she is not pressurising. Karunanidhi, the Kalaignar, is insisting on 9 berths in the ministry and that he will choose the portfolio. With Congress having won an incredible 206 seats, Sardar Dr Manmohan Singh is very upbeat and would not like to take any nonsense from anybody including DMK. But Kalaignar does not understand this new found confidence of the Prime Minister. He insists that his son, his daughter al...