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Current Affairs Archive
I have not been updating it often enough…if this goes on, I may rename this page “history”!
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Should India seek a position in the Security Council?
Posted on October 12, 2010 | No CommentsEver since I got interested in foreign policy issues during my high school days, there has been one strident demand by India’s Ministry of External Affairs: to get a permanent membership in the Security Council of United Nations. Today, India re-entered the Security Council by being elected as a non-permanent member, a post it will hold for the next two years. This has been greeted with euphoria in the country, and some are hoping that the clout of this position can help India to bargain for a permanent seat in the Security Council with its veto power. India has consistently... -
Jaswant’s Obama-like interview on his Jinnah biography in CNN-IBN
Posted on August 17, 2009 | No CommentsIn an Obama-like interview Jaswant Singh deals with a complex and polarizing topic like India-Pakistan partition with sensitivity and statesmanship that is rarely seen in Indian politics. -
Will trained workers in Panchayats improve the quality of NREGA?
Posted on August 15, 2009 | 3 CommentsMihir Shah argued in a recent article that trained workers should be appointed in each Panchayat if NREGA has to fulfill its promises. While Panchayats need personnel to implement NREGA, I argue that for the purpose of planning it would be better to create nodal agencies that take up planning sound works in a campaign mode. -
Best international news programmes: A list
Posted on December 30, 2008 | 2 CommentsAn effort to build a list of good international news programmes to get news from diverse perspectives Over the last few years, I have developed an interest in international affairs. Unfortunately, International English news sources were dominated by channels in USA and Britain. BBC and CNN that were available widely had some high quality programmes but put forward highly circumscribed views. My earning for diversity of views got a fillip with online news channels. I am now trying to compile a list of good weekly programmes, documentaries, etc. that we can watch now and then to catch up with major... -
India: Union & State budgets search engine
Posted on February 21, 2008 | No CommentsA search engine to search India’s Union budgets and State budgets (available) in one click A wealth of materials is available online today about budgets in India. Unfortunately they are dispersed across dozens of websites that take time to find. This search engine will enable to to search official budget websites of Government of India and most state governments in one click. It is periodically updated. The results are not perfect, but it is the best that I was able to produce given the clutter and the constant changes in the budget websites of various states. Loading -
India: Parliament & Legislative Assemblies search engine
Posted on February 21, 2008 | No CommentsSearch websites of Indian Parliament and most legislative assemblies in one go About the search engine This is a special search engine that searches websites of Indian Parliament, most state assemblies and other government sites that offer content on debates and other proceedings in legislative bodies. It also includes a few non-governmental sites. It enables us to check if something is going on relating to a specific issue (e.g. VAT) in various assemblies in one click. Google is not very useful in doing this since it would cover all websites that include “VAT” in its pages and often it pushes... -
Developments in Hindi cinema: Will the big kill the good?
Posted on November 14, 2007 | No CommentsAs big budget movies with huge marketing costs become popular and movie halls change, will the big drive out the small? Diwali is a time for new movies in India. Two big budget movies this time decided to go for huge spending on marketing. OSO and Sawariya together spent over Rs. 10 crores on marketing, swamping the media. Money was clearly spent on public relations rather than overt advertisements. “King Khan” was all over the place: watching cricket, dancing with cricket stars, doing shows, and being in any place that attracts public attention. Even if OSO were not mentioned overtly... -
Google News: Advantage of using news readers
Posted on June 1, 2007 | No CommentsOnline news is more than just reading the same stuff online...it's a great way of comparing how news is presented across different news papers Given that newspapers are our sole source of information on a variety of issues, news bias is a serious issue. In the days of reading on paper, I would subscribe to one, or at most two newspapers and read through them cursorily. But thanks to Google News (and other such news search engines), I now compare the presentation of news across newspapers. Google news puts together articles on a topic from newspapers across the world, and...
