ISSUES AND CONCERNS

Friends, We are truly into monsoon season. It’s been wet and pouring all over, including Mumbai, where rain god smiled and it flooded the other day. Met men have predicted normal or more than normal rain for the season. Following months will prove them right or wrong. But the erratic nature of the rain has been in vogue since some years now, indicating uncertain future rain scenario. Among other uncertainties the world is facing, this could as well be an addition to the list. Let’s hope it may not be a difficult year with water. June 6th has been the World Environment Day. As usual there have been seminars in schools, symbolic tree planting and speeches by ministers. But the seriousness with which it needs to be addressed leaves much to be desired, especially when it comes to India and Indians in general. Deforestation and massive cutting of trees in the name of development has been going on in one form or the other. Nearer home, in Karnataka, in the name of providing water to ...

New Delhi: It’s been close to six months, since the launching of STARTUP INDIA. But it has not been able to register its success, despite being talked about by all and sundry starting from PM Modi, the architect himself. According to media report it’s not even 1%. While it is true that there have been some over 200 aspiring entrepreneurs who had applied for permission to set up new ventures, but only one project has been cleared so far, by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, the nodal ministry for approval of these STARTUPs. Clearing the grey area, when it comes to approval of these STARTUP applications, it looks as if the innovative promoters and proposers of these projects have submitted incomplete details required to avail all the benefits available under the scheme, the ministry had claimed. Surely, the ministry is not expected to do the spade work for the projects, like project report with technical papers, financial feasibility, marketing potential etc. were certainly...

"KASHMIR & PAKISTANI PERFIDY", (I&C JUNE- 2016)     Excellent indeed. -Prof. B.M Hegde, Former V.C Manipal University. "KASHMIR & PAKISTANI PERFIDY", (I&C JUNE- 2016) Dear Sir, No where mentioned Arundhati Roy adding fuel to burning lamp. No reference how Kashmir Pandits were tortured and women raped and thrown out from their own land.  "QUOTA FOR RICH DALITS", (I&C JUNE- 2016)  Politicians don't want to make any negative statement on reservation. They are more interested to give more benefits to Dalit and minorities for vote bank.                                                                                   - Bhupal Mendon , Via FB "PERFORM OR PERISH "(I&C JUNE- 2016)  , You think the present Govt is believably workin...

NARENDRA MODI-TWO YEARS ON  LOOKING BACK-LOOKING FORWARD It was sometime in early 2014, post BJP announcement that Narendra Modi will be the Prime Ministerial candidate of the party in the ensuing Loksabha election, there have been plethora of reactions from those who had a pathological dislike of the man. Among those public reactions, remark by the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was the most telling, since he was the incumbent PM of the time. He had reportedly remarked “Modi as Prime Minister will be a disaster for India”. Despite Manmohan Singh and his ilk Modi was voted to power with an unprecedented mandate on his election plank “Abki baar Modi Sarcar”. And BJP secured an absolute majority on its own for the first time in its political existence of more than five decades (read Jan Singh together). Modi government at the centre has completed its two years in power since 26th May 2014. Looking back, has he proved the economist from the London School of Economi...

Strange Bedfellows Prof. B. M. Hegde, hegdebm@gmail.com “Alas, the storm is come again! My best way is to creep under his gaberdine; there is no other shelter hereabout: misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. I will here shroud till the dregs of the storm be past.” WilliamShakespeare-The Tempest Act 2, Scene 2 Something has happened in the world for strange people to come together. It is almost like the serpent and the mongoose have become friends! Two sets of people, diametrically opposite in their approach to make big money (goal is the same, though), have now come together to save the Amazon forest. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this report. The Amazon loggers’ mafia and the US pharmaceutical industrial tycoons have befriended each other to save the Amazon forest for their own good. The latter think that their future depends on the treasures in the Amazon forest to find powerful drugs for all ills of mankind for big money. The reader might think they...

How India fell out with Facebook RAHUL BHATIA Until Mark Zuckerberg arrived in a bright orange helicopter in October 2014, Chandauli had never seen a celebrity visitor. One of 44,795 villages in the state of Rajasthan, Chandauli is only three or four hours’ drive from Delhi, but it exists alone and forgotten, tucked away, a kilometre off a quiet highway. Last year, when a local boy used the internet to buy a used motorcycle, astonished villagers called him an online shopping hero. Zuckerberg had come to see an experiment at work. Earlier that year, with its sights set on the forthcoming elections, the government had asked a foundation to help give Chandauli’s mostly Muslim villagers a digital education. And so, with uncommon haste, a small administrative building was turned into a community centre, where locals could learn how to access information online. Soon, almost every household in the village had one person who knew how to use a computer. The transformation of Chand...

INDIAN IN COWBOY COUNTRY LABOUR DAY Pradeep Anand Come Labour Day, the Lunch Bunch and their spouses descended on Satish and Monica’s home in Sugar Land. It was a single-story, ranch home on an outsized lot. The St. Augustine grass in the front yard was manicured, and several crepe myrtles with pinkish-red flowers blossomed in the summer heat. It also had four oak trees surrounded by bushes of Mexican heather, blooming begonias, and an assortment of heatresistant perennials, such as blue lily of the Nile and day lilies. All borders were lined with variegated monkey grass. At the entrance to the home, two large hibiscus plants displayed giant, gloriously red flowers. The greenery outside extended into the home. Bright green potted plants adorned almost every window of this well-lit, airy home with high cathedral ceilings. Several identical pots of African violets adorned the large French windowsills of the integrated kitchen and breakfast area that overlooked the backyard. ...