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 …
Two years after the Copenhagen summit, the real world is moving away from a safe and equitable climate future faster than ever. Political leaders are busy fighting the global financial crisis. But the lack of public interest and disengagement of relevant actors in the UN climate negotiations (UNFCCC) has – …
Kyrgyzstan is outdoing neighbouring Kazakhstan in linguistic nationalism. Candidates who want to contest the forthcoming presidential elections will have to pass a test of their ability to speak Kyrgyz. Speaking Kyrgyz has been a prerequisite for those seeking the highest office since independence from the former Soviet Union in the …
This study examines the validity of the democracy advantage thesis with reference to India’s states and shows that the impact of democracy on health, in terms of infant mortality rates, is mixed – good to moderate in a number of states but poor in most of the populous states. It …
The revelations of the Karnataka Lokayukta report are symptomatic of a larger story that goes beyond corruption in high places. There has been a neglect of state institutions and decisions by the executive are taken not under consultation with the assembly but as decreed by a new religious math-temple-resort complex …
Arguing that the initial years of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board were dominated by the priorities of the then ruling party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, whose government created it in 1971, this paper points out that shelter policies in the state had a formal orientation away from eviction and …
Hidden behind city branding exercises through large projects are acts of land capture and slum demolitions by a predatory local state and crony capitalism. In the policy arena, meanwhile, the urban, and particularly the metropolitan story has been one of deliberate confusion, and fragmentation of policy and implementation. The promise …
India has played a key role in drawing up the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that was initiated by the World Health Organisation and the country has ratified it. Ironically, the government’s Indian Tobacco Board is expected to promote Indian varieties of tobacco and the development of the tobacco industry. …
Tribals continue to be at the highest risk of eviction as their regions have the largest number of pending development programmes. And tbey suffer the most even when it comes to land-to-land compensation package. But the new land acquisition bill won’t bring relief to tribals says Richard Mohapatra.
With a growing betel vine sector as well as thriving paddy cultivation and fishing, it is no wonder that villagers in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district have resisted the state government’s forceful acquisition of land for the POSCO project. Political parties of all shades as well as the intelligentsia are increasingly coming …
Sparring Points Besides Lokpal Bill, politicians have sparred with civil society on four key pieces of legislation RTI Act: Various arms of government first block it, now place conditions designed to strangle transparency Right to Food: The Planning Commission differs with activists on what percentage of poor should be covered …
The links between digital technologies and politics, especially in the light of the recent West Asian-North African uprisings, have been well-established. But there is a pervasive belief that the technologies of computing, in themselves, are apolitical. There are two warring groups when it comes to debates around political participation and …
On May 30, as the joint drafting committee of the Lokpal Bill met for the fifth time in the conference room of the ministry of finance in North Block, trouble was already brewing. In the last four meetings, the contentious issues had been put on the backburner and the government’s …
Tea grown on the steep slopes of Darjeeling hills, connoisseurs swear, is unlike anywhere else in the world. Epicures use a plethora of adjectives to describe the “champagne of teas”: brisk, flowery, round, mellow and sparkling. Brewed properly, the Darjeeling tea leaves yield a thin-bodied, light-coloured liquor with a floral …
At Jantar Mantar on April 8, Anna Hazare addressing people gathered in support of his movement. A FUTURE historian who browses the archives of Indian newspapers and news websites from April 5 to 10 will be confused over how to characterise the groundswell of public support across the country for …
PUBLIC interest lawyer Prashant Bhushan was nominated by Anna Hazare as one of the five civil society members to the 10-member committee constituted by the Central government to draft the new Lokpal Bill by June 30. With his father, former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan, also in the same committee, critics …
"Those that think that the market-led system is perfect are living in a dream... There is need for an optimal combination of around 70 per cent of market and 30 per cent state influence" - Ashok Gulati, Chairman Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Ministry of Agriculture, in conversation with …
The Indian state of Bihar has long been a byword for bad governance. It was however governed particularly badly between 1990 and 2005, and has since experienced something of a ‘governance miracle’. How can we account for the 1990–2005 deterioration? The answer lies in the interaction of three factors.
