ISSUES AND CONCERNS ಸಮಸ್ಯೆಗಳ ಮೇಲೆ ಕ್ಷಕಿರಣ

Helicopter as Birthday Gift Queen Elizabeth II has decided to treat her grandson Prince William to a £8 million helicopter as an early birthday present, reports PTI from London. The 2008 Augusta A109S Grand will be used to ferry William and wife Kate between official royal engagements. The Duke of Cambridge, who turns 32 tomorrow, is a qualified RAF helicopter pilot but it is not clear whether he will get behind the controls of the Augusta. The Daily Mirror reported that the aircraft will be leased out by the Queen, and that other members of the royal family also be able to use the aircraft. Sources close to the royal couple told Sky News that the helicopter, which has no previous owners, represented “better value for money”.       Karachi raises water bill on  Jinnah’s sister after ½ a      century of her death KARACHI: Pakistani authorities here have sent a water bill amounting Rs. 263,774 to Fatima Jinnah (in picture in a photo...

POLITICS AND CONSTITUTIONAL  RECTITUDE            A strange case of constitutional rectitude has come to my attention, which I want to share with my readers. This concerns, to begin with, an old-time political organization called the Swatantra Party and its current relevance. It came to my notice while reading the monthly journal Freedom First (June 2014) that has provided the background. The Swatantra Party, as the younger generation may not be aware of, was founded 55 years ago on 1 August 1955 by C. Rajagopalachariar, or Rajaji as he was better known, to fight the vision propounded by Jawaharlal Nehru, on the one hand of depriving farmers in rural India and herding them into collective farms and, on the other, opposing private enterprise by forcing the thesis of the State occupying the commanding heights of the economy in the name of socialism. That met the fashion of those times. The Swatantra Party did not last long. Though in a short span of...

Friends We are well into the monsoon season. It has already been around, doing hide and seek. Meteriological Deptt. reckons, North West monsoon to hit the Kerala coast early June as usual. Hope it keeps its date with the earth. Despite the forecast for deficient rainfall, the food production is likely to be normal, report monsoon watchers. Month that went by witnessed an upheaveral of another kind. Some even called it a tsunami. 2014, election has come and gone and has left Congress, SP, BSP, NCP devastated. While the Congress has been reduced to double digit, SP and NCP were reduced to single digit of 5 seats each, and BSP could manage only zero. Congress managed only 44, as against over 200 seats in the last Loksabha. This is perhaps the lowest for Congress in all these past 16 elections to the Loksabha. Indian electorates have spoken, loud and clear. Indeed, in one sweep, NAMO wave has swallowed all of them to register a highest tally for his party, the BJP. From 106 to 284 is ...

NEW DELHI: Every good thing has to come to an end. So is the prime ministership for Dr Manmohan Singh. Come June 2014, there will be a new dispensation in the corridors of power at the portals of parliament. So the incumbent CEO, the prime minister of the government at New Delhi, will call it quits. The honeymoon, which was, kind of bestowed on Dr Singh, shall be curtains down. Thus, fare-well speeches have already begun for Dr Singh.  Speaking on one such occasion at the Planning Commission he is reported to have said “India’s Growth story is a Work-in-Progress”. Indeed, it is a story of never ending work-in-progress! 66 years, of independent India’s ‘tryst with the destiny’ has been a story of a long, winding, with continuous ups and downs, journey of glorious uncertainties. How long into the future, it shall be a story of work-in-progress? is a question begging for answer. Of course, Dr Singh was frank in admitting that “there is lot of distance still to be covered”. Around t...

Let me, at the outset, thank you for sending “ISSUES & CONCERNS”. The magazine is really focusing on several issues & concerns that all of us are facing. The articles are of high standard dealing with contemporary Social, Cultural and Political problems they are both informative and educative, analytical and meaningful. Write-up by Prof. B.M.Hegde is practical for he deals with Science for everybody by his simple examples. There are other articles of interest together with snippets. On the top of everything, the magazine carries an article by a Journalist of Great eminence DR. M.V. Kamath whose write-up are of immense value. While again thanking you, I congratulate you for being an Editor of a good Magazine. H.G.Somashekhara Rao, Bangalore. Its been quite sometime since I wrote a feedback to I & C. So here I am penning some of my thoughts. I & C, as an awarness periodical is certainly doing a commendable job. Its analytical excercise - Month - in - Perspective - i...

Millennium Development Goals &  The 3rd Largest Economy Post May 16 While, being No:3 among the larger global economies may improve our international stock, it is more important that our own domestic problems have to be better addressed with genuine concern. At the end of the day, it is the human capital which is more important than capital formation. The present dispensation at the centre headed by a controversial but dynamic leader is expected to address this issue of Human Development Index (HDI) more than the index at the share market. Hope post May 16, 2014, things should look up for Indians rather than Brand India.      “India replaced Japan as the 3rd largest economy after U.S. & China, say data released by the World Bank” informed a media report on 1st May. Reportedly the data was related to 2011. So, it may well be true that India is indeed world’s 3rd largest economy. But frankly, does it really calls for celebration? is a question staring...

TRIBAL WOMEN IN OUR BLUNDER LAND   Ajit Panda Banita Naik is a lactating mother living in a remote village in Sunabeda Panchayat in Nuapada District of Odisha, where the only hope during any health problem for a pregnant or lactating woman is the ASHA (accredited social health activist). Although weak and anemic, Banita can’t consult any health person because the doctor, pharmacist and the ANM (auxiliary nurse midwife) posted in the PHC (primary health centre) in her village do not stay there for fear of Maoists. The lives and livelihood of 4000 such tribal women and children in 24 villages scattered over an area of 600 sq km inside the Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary are thus left to the mercy of God. There is no one to monitor the health and nutrition programmes which could help thousands of women live healthy lives.  Mamata is one such scheme, floated by the Government of Odisha in 2011 as a conditional cash transfer plan, to compensate pregnant and nursing mothers for...