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 …
IF THERE ever was living proof of how bizarre our country is, then this week was probably it. Gandhians became demagogues and a people’s movement took on the shades of a dictatorship. And a government riddled with charges of corruption, ended up strangely smiling, as the cast of characters pointing …
Anna Hazare's long career betrays a naivete that makes him easy to manipulate. Rana Ayyub profiles the man who started the storm Those who have seen glimpses of 73-year-old Anna Hazare’s naivete in the past were apprehensive when he went on his recent fast. His integrity and resolve had always …
AS MAHENDRA Singh Dhoni’s face knotted in intense concentration, 1.2 billion Indian eyes were on him. At Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, it was the most critical match of all. The World Cup final. Do or die. DO or DIE. And yet, not far away from the stadium, another Team India …
Anna Hazare’s hunger fast last week for probity in politics captured the news agenda and unleashed a nationwide frenzy. Declarations of victory may be premature since the real work of drafting a law on the Lokpal is only just beginning. Corruption is not an abstract evil that can be combated …
Many political leaders and intellectuals have criticised the Anna Hazare campaign on the Lokpal Bill for being anti-democratic and anti-political. But when the political class as a whole has failed to tackle corruption, a campaign that seeks to have a law enacted that will put in place a powerful watchdog …
The environmental problems confronting Indian cities today have arisen because millions of people have been forced to live in illegal settlements that lack adequate sanitation and other basic urban services. This is the result of two factors. The first is the legacy of the colonial city characterized by inequitable access …
This paper attempts to measure the effect of castereservation policies on the provision of public goods and services in gram panchayats in Andhra Pradesh using data from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The investigation finds that the effect of reservation varies tremendously in different social, political, and institutional contexts, …
Kazakhstan’s election commission believes that candidates for the presidential election, scheduled for April, need to brush up their knowledge of the Kazakh language. The commission’s head Quandyq Turghanqulov said the mandatory Kazakh language test for the candidates would be made stricter. Candidates would be tested for their reading, writing and …
This article suggests how the Gandhi–Ambedkar–Narayanaguru–Marx visions can be synthesised in support of the movement for the liberation and empowerment of India’s dalits. It brings out the beginnings and evolution of Gandhji’s sensitivity and opposition to ‘untouchability’. His perception of ‘untouchability’ was initially limited to ‘touch-me-not-ism’, but deepened after his …
The government has a plan to reach welfare to the poor without wasting money. It wants to put hard cash in their hands instead of spending on welfare programmes. Down To Earth finds out how cash transfer works and how ready is India for the shift in the delivery of …
It is logical for India to be one of the few countries to spend about two per cent of its gross domestic product on the social sector. After all it hosts the world’s largest number of poor. But it sounds illogical that nearly three-fourths of it is the cost of …
The papers in the special issue on Rammanohar Lohia (EPW, 2 October 2010) did not dwell on the socialist leader’s thinking on local governance and local development, ideas which continue to be relevant today for rural development.
High and volatile prices for key commodities, including food products, could spark unrest in poor countries, warned the heads of the WTO and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Interest in Lokpal has revived, thanks to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's diktat on fighting corruption. Here is the lowdown on a watchdog that neither the political nor the administrative executives want.
You have no doubt read about the scams and scandals associated with the infamous iron ore mines of Bellary district in Karnataka and Ananthapura district in Andhra Pradesh. Now you can see the film. Titled Blood and Iron it is a documentary of two and a half hours which will …
Whenever accusations of corruption are made and found to be true, members of the fraternity of the accused rush to defend them by saying that these are a few of the
CIA supported modern art whose proponents in the US were once communists. The American espionage agency’s documents of late 1940s revealed a new artistic movement. Russian art could not compete and was dismayed at the appeal communism still had for intellectuals and artists in the West. The newly formed CIA …
Developing countries must guard against a repeat of the situation at Copenhagen, where negotiations under the UNFCCC were deliberately stalled, and Heads of State/Ministers from developing countries were pressured to agree to “something” to save the climate regime from collapse. At Cancun this is likely to be ending differentiation between …
