Once again the Supreme Court has redeemed the honour of the country. Where the executive has miserably failed in acting in a just and fair manner against corrupt ministers the Courts and more particularly the Supreme Court has restored the honour of the nation. The Supreme Court yesterday cancelled all 2G licences. This is an excellent example of what a fair and wise Supreme Court can do for democracy. The second judgment is also remarkable wherein the Supreme Count has ...

Over the better part of last year the country has been engaged in a debate on corruption and money stashed abroad. Some ministers have gone to jail and Anna Hazare started a mass movement. While corruption is an important issue the more important issue plaguing the nation is lack of employment opportunities. In the pre 1991 economic regime the priorities were subsidised food to the poor, creating employment opportunities through public or private sector, giving enough subsidy to the ...

The country is passing through a more difficult phase than we realise. The economic reforms which started in 1991 created an entirely new set of opportunities and atmosphere which triggered the hope of fast growth. In the last twenty years lots of things have happened. The growth rate has increased considerably which is visible in the progress in terms of roads, flyovers, malls etc. in big cities and the smaller ones. The middle class has done well and has been ...

Lokpal Bill is again riddled with lot of questions. With Government having to retract on FDI in Retail and now it appears on Pension & Companies Bills. It looks as if the Government has been imprisoned by its own decisions. This does not augur well for the Country. At all times the Country needs an effective Government and not a situation which looks anarchic. Team Anna can go on making demands, dharnas, rallies, jail bharos etc. It is not their ...

It is a big relief that the government has postponed the decision of bringing foreign companies into retail. The corporate sector and the share market have reacted adversely. Due to various reasons the government is under pressure and all decision making has become slow if not stopped altogether. The corporate sector has said in clear terms that government should start taking decisions. Of course the decisions they want would include the decision of FDI in retail sector and such policies ...

The sudden announcement by the Government of inviting big retail chains into India has sparked a controversy. The pros and cons of having giant retail marts have to be discussed at length. It is quite possible that they do good to the country’s economy in the West where they operate. Are they suitable to Indian conditions? The local kirana store, the bhajiwala, the doodhwala offer good service to the people. They are quite efficient. Are these big stores going to ...

The new Chairman of the Press Council of India has raised a vital point which has created a flutter in the media. The purpose of the Council was to keep an eye on the general standards of the Press and attend to complaints with the limited powers it had. Expectedly, it turned out to be a toothless body. Any person aggrieved against false and malicious things printed against him had to go to court to get his name cleared. Knowing ...

Democracy is still the best known civilized form of governing a country. Sure it has many flaws depending on each country. Unfortunately over the last 60 years, our democracy has become more flawed rather than improving. India has its own share of aberrations piled up during the last sixty years. The point I am trying to make is in our anger against the flaws of democracy we should not be tempted to throw away the system itself. Anything that follows will ...

Once we have accepted parliamentary democracy as a civilized method of social transformation there are no short cuts. We have to continuously endeavour to improve the quality of MLAs and MPs that we elect and the quality of governance would follow. While Anna Hazare rightly focused on a problem, i.e corruption the solution that he is suggesting is not ideal. He wants to create another monster ‘Lokpal’. We have enough agencies, laws and institutions in this country and ...

The present focus in the country should be on reducing disparities and contain the social tension and anger in certain sections of society. India is a democracy in the sense that we have elections every five years and voters turn out in large numbers in what is a generally free and fair election. However the content of democracy is getting reduced day by day. For instance once a government is elected there is hardly any interaction between ...