At a time when the rest of the world marvels at – or perhaps dreads – China’s rise, Beijing perceives a serious weakness in its own armour: the lack of soft power. For all its economic woes, the West still possesses ample soft power as evidenced by its cultural domination.…
The gross pollution of Indian rivers has been staring us in the face for years. This, despite vast amounts of funds allocated for their clean-up. A study by The Energy and Resources Institute with Unicef reveals that one-fourth of children living along Delhi’s Yamuna river have over 10 micrograms of…
As Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad showed off what purported to be fourth generation nuclear centrifuges at Natanz – which can enrich uranium to 20% – the world should react by staying calm. If the Iranian claim is correct, then it has exploited a paradox in the international non-proliferation order, which…
Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar’s plainspeak is welcome. He says the food security plan’s success will depend on the government getting the logistics of its implementation right. No one disputes the necessity of food security in a country with vast numbers of poor. The question is, will the targeted sections really…
It’s the harshest legal stricture against so far. The Gujarat high court on Wednesday severely pulled up the chief minister for not only failing to anticipate the post-Godhra communal violence in 2002 – but also allowing “anarchy” to rule “unabated” for days in the state. Further, the court has also…
India’s long and convoluted search for a new fighter plane – a medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) – has entered its final stage. New Delhi has just announced that the Rafale, built by Dassault Aviation of France, has been chosen to meet the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) requirement. Only price…
There’s no arguing against the principle of zero tolerance for irregular grant of spectrum licences. To that extent, the Supreme Court has sent a tough message by cancelling 2G spectrum licences issued by former telecom minister A Raja, who’s accused of tweaking the first come, first served procedure to favour…
In yet another example of tacit political endorsement of fundamentalists militating against freedom of expression, the Kolkata Book Fair cancelled the launch of Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen’s latest book, Nirbashan (Exile), citing security concerns. In a repeat of the Salman Rushdie episode at the Jaipur Literature Festival, the Kolkata police…
A recent opinion poll sponsored by this newspaper, across the country’s biggest eight urban agglomerations, found even the best rated among them barely making it to a rating of ‘average’. The frequent sloganeering about Delhi soon becoming “the world’s most beautiful city” or Mumbai “a global financial hub” appears straight…
The ‘Arab Spring’ had its technological genesis in Silicon Valley-generated social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. But the same networking technology enables American jobs to be done by anybody anywhere. And so Arab authoritarian regimes see their bloody streets as nothing but an American conspiracy while many American politi-cians…
Recent Comments