The Global Gender Gap Index annually benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions (Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment). It is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time since …
What are the most important issues for tribals in your region? Economic development, unemployment, agriculture, poor roads, irrigation, education and health and electricity. When did these issues become so important? There is not too much difference in the issues that were important earlier and the ones that are important today. …
What are the most important issues for tribals in your region? The question of maintaining tribal identity, government failure to understand tribal sentiment, land alienation, displacement and rights related to the forest. Why are these issues crucial today? Tribals don't need just the money. Even in the 21st century, half …
India has the largest tribal population in the world. Tribals number 8.6 per cent of its total population. They are also among the country's most marginalised. Why has India's political democracy not given its tribals their due? What is in India's political system that prevents the tribal voice from being …
Last fortnight I wrote about the different models of water privatisation. Questions continue to haunt me, but let me try and work towards some resolution. Firstly, there is the issue of pricing of water for the relatively rich of the developing world. It is evident that urban and industrial sectors …
The Krishna river waters have changed course. They are suddenly flowing in the reverse direction, from the lower riparian state of Karnataka to Maharashtra which is an upper riparian state. But the water is bypassing Andhra Pradesh even though it falls in the way. The reverse flow is Congress-ruled Karnataka's …
Almost 60,000 villagers have fled the central and far western districts of Nepal due to the Maoist insurgency. While large numbers have headed for towns in the eastern regions of Nepal, many of them crossed the border through Rupeidha, Banbassa and Jhulaghat and landed up in India in search of …
Every year, the month of May ends. India enters June, and expectations of rain. Small farmers scan the sky, reading the clouds (the big ones have subsidised irrigation pumps, and undemocratic canal water-sharing clout). Politicians begin to place calls to the New Delhi-based Indian Meterological Department (imd). Within the imd, …
celebrations should ideally have marked the tenth anniversary of Panchayati Raj institutions (pris), which are often described as world's largest experiment in decentralised governance. Even Prime Minister (pm) Atal Bihari Vajpayee had wanted the occasion to be commemorated in the winter session of parliament. Instead, the house did not list …
electioneering in Gujarat is in full swing. Caretaker chief minister Narendra Modi has run away from his vote bhoomi Rajkot. The mainstream media says it is a calculated move. Of course it is! Rajkot is a water crisis-driven city, and district. Modi had promised water. He was elected. Today, Rajkot …
NEPAD is a long shot but no one has come up with an alternative Together, the new African Union (au) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (nepad) reflect a new imperative in Africa's international relations. Integration has replaced liberation as the continent's strategic goal. And for average Africans the …
THE ENEMY OF NATURE: THE END OF CAPITALISM OR THE END OF THE WORLD? Joel Kovel . Published by Zed Books . 2002 . Price: not stated An average Indian radical (naturally also an environmentalist) wanders into a bookshop. He slips his cellphone into the pocket of his wrinkle-free shirt, …
For the past 18 months, Madhya Pradesh deputy chief minister Jamuna Devi has kept up the fusillade against Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar. Now Patkar has returned fire by filing a Rs 10-lakh defamation suit against Devi in the Indore district court. Earlier, Devi had alleged that Patkar …
In India, there is an inextricable link between water and politics. This was very much in evidence recently when the opposition walked out in the Karnataka assembly over the proposed privatisation of Bangalore’s water supply system. Water tariff had earlier been hiked steeply in the city to pave the way …
Kassel, a small town in central Germany, is home to Documenta, one of Europe's most prestigious art festivals. Documenta is often called the art Olympic, for it lasts a 100 days. Of course, it takes place only once every five years. The eleventh Documenta (Documenta 11) is currently on. Each …
the ritual drama of cleaning up of the sewer that passes off as the Yamuna has been enacted this year too. Delhi chief minister Shiela Dixit, gingerly balanced on a rock, wielding a stick dipped in the river, made for a nice media splash. Soon after, the vip retinue left …
On July 1, Denmark will take over chairpersonship of the European Union. Then it will be the responsibility of the newly elected right-wing Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, to help define and promote the global role of the only group of nations in a position to challenge the dominance …
Votes of dissent The rise of the far right is related in complex patterns to the failure of the elite political establishment to catch the popular pulseWhat on earth is going on in Europe? The question is motivated. Recent elections in countries like Austria, Denmark and France have seen the …
The first round of the French presidential elections saw Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the far right National Front gaining second place, ousting the incumbent socialist prime minister from the second round. Like a multitude of my countrypersons, I was stunned: how could a man who typifies modern fascism, anti-semitism, …
The assassination of Dutch rightwing populist Pim Fortuyn, and the stunning electoral advances of his French counterpart Jean-Marie Le Pen have brought some lingering trends in European politics to the forefront. Rightwing movements and parties, mostly campaigning on anti-immigration, anti-globalisation and anti-establishment sentiments, have been advancing in quite a number …
