Overhaul the intelligence set-up
ndia faces complex security challenges, which have the potential to derail its economic and social progress. But there does not seem to be any broad-based exercise to reform the country’s intelligence apparatus and make it more pro-active and in line with the pursuit of the nation’s internal and external policies.
On a sick bed
India is lucky to have two able technocrats at the helm of its economic affairs: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is an Oxford alumnus while Finance Minister P.Chidambaram is a graduate from Harvard. Yet despite their helmsmanship, the economic horizons of the country have remained cloudy for some time now.
More lethal, Virulent strains
Another deadly strain of virus is gaining notoriety among the medical fraternity across the world. Its name is Coronavirus and its lethal manifestations have already become a hotly discussed topic among medical practitioners and across health forums in the Middle East.
Sitting ducks in jails
The death of the Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh in Lahore jail and the subsequent reactionary attack on Pakistani prisoner Sanauallah in KotBalwal jail in Jammu & Kashmir are the kind of grisly incidents that could easily have been prevented.
EPA proposes, industry disposes
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) deadline of April 13, putting a ceiling on greenhouse gas emissions on new factories, has fallen flat on its face.
Sausage or rat meat?
Attention please: the next time you go out to buy mutton, be careful. You may end up purchasing rat or fox meat masquerading as mutton. Shocking, but it's true.
The end of poverty
Jim Yong Kim, President of World Bank, has set out on an ambitious goal. He is looking to remake the world in his own image that will surely appear utopian to many. What Kim wants is to have "a sustainable world where all households have access to clean energy.
Smokers, cough up more
The unraveling of the Saradha scam in West Bengal could not have come at a more inopportune time for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. It has only confirmed the growing perception that the state is in the throes of severe misrule and inept governance at the hands of Didi and her Trinamool Congress Party.
The digital dungeon!
Consider this: an EU Kids Online survey shows that more than "one third of 9-12 year olds and three quarters of 13-16 year olds who use the internet in Europe have their own profile on a social networking site.”
Throw open the doors
Alluding to the United Nations’opaque selection process for candidates to its key bodies, Sir Richard Dolly, ex Director of UNICEF, makes a candid admission: "There is a need for some process of open hearing and interview of the best qualified potential candidates.”
How to serve the unbanked!
The last time that licences were given out for setting up private banks in India was way back in 2004. The Reserve Bank of India, vide its guidelines on February 22, 2013, has once again got the ball rolling on the issue of allowing entry of private banks into the Rs.73 trillion banking sector.
War And Doom!
An influential section of the commentariat believes that the current economic slump in Europe and the US owes its genesis to, at least partially, to the effect of the twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The new game-turner in politics
Social media became an integral part of the US and European hustings a long time ago.
Avoiding the Armageddon
The illegal trade of arms internationally, and the impunity with which gun-running has proliferated in many parts of the world, poses a serious threat to global peace and harmony.
What after mandela?
"For as long as he lives, South Africans breathe a little easier and believe in their country a little more. When the day after Mandela dawns, that belief will be shaken, not dramatically or immediately, but slowly and perhaps imperceptibly. South Africa will, quite simply, be a different country."
Issue Dated: May 26, 2013
