View Articles

New York: With less than two months remaining before the next United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancún, a senior world body official called on nations to accelerate efforts to find common ground to reach a concrete outcome at the Mexico meeting.

NEW DELHI: In a move aimed at ensuring greater accountability of the higher judiciary and making it more transparent, the union cabinet this evening cleared the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill to be brought in the winter session of Parliament.

KOLKATA: North-East India has a vast and untapped potential of hydro-power, estimated at 35,000 MW. For decades, it had been a constant grievance of the people of the area that the government was doing nothing to tap it which could usher in prosperity to this backward region. But the people have since grown wise. Now that the first steps are being taken to harness this power, strong opposition is growing, from Arunachal Pradesh in the north to Mizoram in the south, to the construction of mega dams. In Sikkim also there is a demand for scrapping the Lethang hydel project coming up at Yuksam.

An elaborate charade has begun with the rolling out of the first Aadhaar unique identity (UID) numbers in a tribal district of Maharashtra by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi. At its core is the pretence that giving a unique 12-digit number to each underprivileged citizen will achieve what hundreds of welfare schemes, and numerous efforts to control corruption, have failed to accomplish: namely, pilferage-free delivery of services to the poor.

There are two unhappy persons in India today. One is Mani Shankar Aiyar, who was called a “half-Maoist” by the BJP members in parliament. And the other is Arundhati Roy, who can be described as a full Maoist if her consistent stand in favour of the extreme Left insurrectionists is taken into account.

Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have commended the authorities for their strong and determined program implementation and readiness to adapt policies as warranted. This helped Iceland overcome a deep financial and economic crisis. Growth is expected to begin to rebound, although uncertainties remain, including from the global outlook and the private debt overhang. To better secure the ongoing recovery, Directors encouraged the authorities to develop a strategy to unlock investment and to reach consensus with social partners on wage settlements. Continued steadfast implementation of the program will be crucial.

One country in Europe with which India can have greater economic and strategic cooperation is Germany. India's largest trading partner in Europe is Germany and Germany ranked 8th in the share of the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) to India in the period April 2000 to June 2010 amounting to $2.84 billion.

New York: High rates of deforestation and degradation of woodlands continue to threaten the world's forest biodiversity, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today, but pointed out that there is a positive trend towards the conservation of forests in many countries.

While debating the implications of the Allahabad high court verdict on Ayodhya dispute, we all have overlooked an important subtext. In parivar circles they jubilantly call it a divine curse on those who gave a dhoka to the Ram cause after wresting power in his name. The reference is apparently to the NDA's deputy prime minister. Curse or plain human intervention, the chief hero of the 20-year-old battle for the Janmasthan now remains virtually banished by his own men. The charioteer of 1990 has been pushed into solitude and isolation within the party and parivar.

From single party rule to coalitions; from coalitions to dynastic politics; and, from dynastic politics to family rule. This is the route Indian politics has traversed during the 63 years of Independence. The lucrative route is now temptingly branching out to other arenas also. The trend is illustrated by two stories the media carried last week. One was about the appointment of relatives in the Organizing Committee of Commonwealth Games published by Indian Express as its front page lead. The other was the acquittal of the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his family members by a Mohali Special Court in the disproportionate assets case registered against them in 2003 when the Capt. Amarinder Singh-led Congress government was in power. The Badals acquittal was also conspicuously given front page treatment by the media.