http://www.suniti.org/ PostNuke Powered Site en-us http://www.suniti.org/images/suniti_01.png http://www.suniti.org/ admin@suniti.org http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=773 Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express writes: he world is looking to India on many dimensions: its economic prospects, cultural visibility and its own political example. There is a sense that, despite some serious challenges, the momentum of history is on India’s side. The future is only India’s to lose. But there is also tremendous apprehension in different parts of the world about the Indian state’s ability to leverage this opportunity to its full advantage. In meetings across the world, whether in Asia or the United States, the usual homage is paid to the Indian growth story. But shortly thereafter, the frustrations begin to emerge." Read More http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=772 The Indian Express writes: "CPM was right in saying Chinese companies shouldn’t be victims of security paranoia. But since the party has decided that Chinese communist sensibilities must be protected from a handful of young Tibetans, it invites very sharp questions. The first question is: why does the CPM think India’s democracy must carry the torch for China’s Olympian intolerance?" Read More http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=771 Arun Shourie in his four part series (Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV) shows that how the so called dream team of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has mismanaged economy during the last couple of years. "The Budget is a symptom also of gross mismanagement of the economy. Apart from the fact that reforms have been at a complete standstill ever since this ‘dream-team’ of ‘reformers’ took office, their management has brought the country back into the vicious cycle of high interest rates, declining growth, and inflation." http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=770 Arun Shourie in his four part series (Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV) shows that how the so called dream team of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has mismanaged economy during the last couple of years. "The Budget is a symptom also of gross mismanagement of the economy. Apart from the fact that reforms have been at a complete standstill ever since this ‘dream-team’ of ‘reformers’ took office, their management has brought the country back into the vicious cycle of high interest rates, declining growth, and inflation." http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=769 The Indian Express reports that Bangladeshi author, who was a refugee in India, left India. Nasreen was targeted by Islamic fundamentalist, and the our government's way of providing security to her was to put her in a virtual house arrest. Every right thinking Indian should be very sad today as we turned our back on a sharnagat. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=768 In a question asked in the Rajya Sabha, Home Minister Shivaraj Patil said "We should look at the scale (of Naxal violence) and not exaggerate it and create fear". He clarified his statement by stating that only 300 police stations out of over 14,000 in the country have Naxalite activities. At the village level, only 14,000 of them are Naxal infested. I guess, Mr. Minister should tell this to the families of Police personnels who laid their life fighting this red menace. Also, the next logical question should be how many villages/police station should be affected before we call it a real problem? Moreover, going by the logic, terrorism in Kashmir would also look trivial. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=767 Economic Times reports that an exhibition on Aurangzeb was forcibly shut down by police (see video). What is happening to the freedom of speech and expression? Where is the outrage? http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=766 Kanwal Sibal in the Indian Express writes: "Tibet is at the heart of our border problem with China. Hu Jintao can well declaim that China’s stability is dependent on Tibet’s stability, but how can this be achieved if China refuses to deal with the Dalai Lama and keeps conflict alive by laying periodic claims to Arunachal Pradesh? Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s January visit to Arunachal Pradesh elicited the usual Chinese protest against trespass into their territory. Although the protest was at a middle diplomatic level, it does reveal the iron in China’s posture and its indifference to Indian public opinion." Read More. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=765 The Indian Express writes: "Tibet is at the very heart of the deep distrust between India and China. The Sino-Indian dispute over the boundary, which in reality is the Indo-Tibetan frontier, is very much part of the Tibet question. The 1962 border war was the inevitable consequence of the failed Tibetan rebellion and the Dalai Lama’s escape to India in 1959. Given the ever-expanding stakes in a cooperative relationship with China, India cannot let Tibetan protests on its soil get out of hand." Read More. We need to look at this issues based on our national interest and not how Chinese are going to react. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=764 Ramesh Ramanathan in the livemint.com writes: "Beyond voting, there was little scope for the average citizen to really engage in affairs of state in India. Until 1992, when we got the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments dealing with rural and urban decentralization. With the 73rd amendment, every rural voter got an opportunity to actively participate in local issues through the powerful concept of the gram sabha (village assembly). This singular act of placing the citizen at the centre of the governance architecture captured the essence of democracy. However, in a remarkable display of constitutional one-sidedness, the 74th amendment offered no such parallel platform for the urban voter." Read More http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=763 Pratap Bhanu Mehta in the Indian Express writes: "Certainly, the CBSE could use a lot more pedagogic self-reflection. But it is also an insurmountable fact that no matter how much CBSE modifies its curriculum, in the final analysis we have a single metric of evaluation at the high-school level. Having a single commensurable measure of student achievement is part of a search for non-discretionary, transparent criteria for admission. But it is also a tacit acknowledgment of how little trust we have in our educators. The normal set of instruments that can supplement student performance in exams — internal assessment, references, interviews, other achievements — is considered too untrustworthy and open to manipulation. Exams are going to be important, but a system in which everything boils down to them will be a recipe for undue stress." Read More. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=762 One must have come across emails that exaggerate things about our country; for e.g. how Indian Professionals are dominating various organizations in the US, or Taj Mahal conspiracy theory, or various chain emails that exhorts one to forward that email to another 10 person one knows or misfortune may fall on one. Such emails promptly find their way to trash in my email box. Surprisingly enough, our government does not even seem to have basic intelligence to classify such emails as exaggeration. When asked a question in the Rajya Sabha, minister of state for Human Resource Development stated that "in NASA, 36% or almost 4 out of 10 scientists are Indians". The Times of India without even any verification simply ran a story on it. Fortunately, they are running a story that refutes this claim. How pathetic... http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=761 Jaithirth Rao in the Indian Express writes: "In the pursuit of the votes of farmers and in order to steal the thunder from the raucous opposition, our finance minister has announced a sweeping one-time waiver of loans given to farmers by our commercial and cooperative banks." Read More. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=760 The Indian Express reports that CBI investigation into sale of Centaur Hotels found everything in order. This investigation was a a result of baseless allegations from the communists, and the UPA government more than willingly plied. In 2006, the Supreme Court already said that the rules for the disinvestment process during the NDA government were fair and transparent. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=759 Indian Express, which has become mouth piece of the Congress led UPA government reports that government is "looking out for a countrywide grid of expressways." Currently, we have two expressways in the country, and both were built during the Atal Behari Vajpayee led NDA government. As a matter of fact, the current UPA government killed the Golden Quadrilateral project started by the Vajpayee government. This announcement is just one of the millions of promise which would never be fulfilled. Instead of making such announcements the government need to make sure that the existing projects are first completed. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=758 The Times of India reports that State Govt. of Goa has ordered inquiry into recent marriage of Sanjay Dutt. The reason is that they suspect Mr. Dutt's wife got her residence permit fraudulently. " For any marriage to be registered in Goa, one of the couple has to be a Goa resident which needs to be certified by the local authorities." What world and age are we living in. Shouldn't the citizenship of the country sufficient enough to go get marriage registered with any marriage registrar in the country? http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=757 R Vaidyanathan in DNA India writes about Govt. of India's Rs. 26 crore donation to Cambridge University to setup ‘Jawaharlal Nehru Professorship of Indian Business and Enterprise’. What did Jawaharlal Nehru had to do with business to setup a chair on his name? http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=756 The Telegraph writes: "Nawaz Sharif has been the least hostile to India amongst the rulers of Pakistan. Maybe that is why he did not last. But Pervez Musharraf has lasted despite all odds and errors; and he is on the way to overcoming his manly belligerence. If India got some friends amongst the industrialists and traders of Pakistan, they would only help in taming Musharraf. So trade is a good thing whatever India may think of its neighbours’ governments; it should promote trade in the national interest." Read More. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=755 S.L. Rao in The Telegraph writes: "SEZs may no longer be relevant for India perhaps in the numbers now proposed. In some, their development might in fact be a major land-grabbing effort by organized industry together with the government. There is little information either on the monitoring and regulation of SEZs, or of consequences if promoters are unable to deliver the promised results." Read More. Remember the days when many articles used to write off Indian Industry as nothing more then "screw driver technology". This article echoes the same line of thinking. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=754 The Indian Express writes: "China’s diplomatic protest against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh is not surprising in itself. India is fully aware of China’s claims to the entire territory of the state and is actively involved in high level negotiations to resolve the boundary dispute with Beijing. What is surprising, however, is Beijing’s relentless contestation of every single recent Indian administrative and political action in the state and its provocative actions such as the denial of visas to Indian citizens from Arunachal." Read More http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=753 Tavleen Singh in the Indian Express writes: "If proof were needed that the Employment Guarantee Scheme is nothing more than expensive tokenism in the name of poverty alleviation, it comes in this ludicrous advertising campaign. The reason why people like me had doubts about the scheme from day one was because grandiose centrally planned schemes of this kind have never worked in the past. The problem with centrally planned poverty alleviation in a country the size of a continent is that it is that they fail the implementability test." Read More http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=752 Gurcharan Das in the Time of India writes: "In the India of my dreams the government will stop running universities and colleges. All institutions will be autonomous. The government will plough all the money saved into scholarships. The government's role will be limited to governance - ensuring corruption-free ratings and corruption-free exams (with the credibility of IIT-JEE) at various stages in a student's career." Read More. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=751 Gurcharan Das in The Times of India writes: " Socialist control on industry brought License Raj, which bred black money and damaged our moral character, making us one of the most corrupt societies in the world. Socialist labour rules shattered accountability among state employees. Hence, above-average people in government produce below-average results. And so, even the pretence to offer decent public services has gone. The saddest truth is that our socialist state did not work on behalf of the people but on behalf of itself." Read More. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=750 Tavleen Singh in the Indian Express writes: "Why are we finding it so hard to build the infrastructure we can no longer do without? Why does it take forever to build a vital road or a desperately needed runway? Why do our railway stations continue to resemble open-air lavatories? Why do our cities look like slums? Why do our policy makers not understand that Bharat Mata looks really, really bad?" Read More http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=749 The Indian Express writes: "If looking away ever solved a problem, the West Bengal government would totally be on top of things. But as things stand, the bird flu situation in Bengal is spinning out of control. It is incredible how the state government has dithered, underestimated and mismanaged the crisis." Read More.