THE AFRO OUTREACH – MODI'S RENDEZVOUS WITH AFRICA PUTS INDIA UPFRONT
PM Narendra Modi’s historic four nation tour of Africa (July 7th to July 11th) was in essence a sincere attempt to add a new dimension to his government’s motto of making India a leading global power. The tour succeeded in large measure – by strengthening bilateral relations, enhancing India’s strategic, economic and soft power aspirations, […]
TO BE OR NOT TO BE … EVENT-HORIZON – BREXIT RIPPLES IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
On the 23rd of June 2016, in a referendum on whether to stay with or leave the European Union, the British voted by a narrow margin, with 51.9% voters choosing to end their association with the EU. This shook Europe and sent ripples across the global economic landscape, despite the referendum result not being binding […]
MAJOR INITIATIVES TAKEN BY THE MODI GOVERNMENT IN THE PAST 2 YEARS
May 26 marked the completion of two years of the NDA government. The government had announced major initiatives that ranged from cleaning India to saving the girl child, from smart cities to lighting up villages, and from skilling youth to helping start-up enterprises. Have a look… Digital India The Digital India Programme was launched in […]
IN RETROSPECT: TWO YEARS OF MODI GOVERNMENT
ON TRACK TO BRING ‘ACHHE DIN’ Despite facing several challenges on the political and economical front, Narendra Modi- led NDA government, riding high on its development agenda, has successfully put the country on the path of social development and economic growth. There were multi- faceted challenges – two years of successive droughts and suicides by […]
The Panama Papers Questioning The Existence of Tax Havens
Author – S Ravi (The author is a practising chartered accountant. He serves on the boards of various listed companies, and is a part time director on the board of a public sector bank.) The term ‘tax haven,’ as well as the practice of using such ‘tax havens,’ is nothing new, it has widely been […]
THE SAHITYA AKADEMI IMBROGLIO THE SILENT REVOLT OF THE INTELLIGENTSIA
The past two months has seen a spate of protests by the country’s intelligentsia against a perception of ‘rising intolerance’ – and returning awards has become their favoured mode of expressing this protest. While we could agree with the writers, artists, film-makers and scientists resorting to this, or agree to disagree with them – the […]
DO HOLY MEN THINK ALIKE ?
Few people may be aware that Swami Dayananda Saraswati, who breathed his last at Rishikesh on the 23rd of September, had in his youth been a fighter pilot with the Indian Air Force, a journalist in Chennai and a company executive with Voltas. Similarly, not many know that Pope Francis has worked in his early […]
SUMMER OF DISCONTENT EARLY WARNING SIGNALS FOR MODI
One of the most heart-wrenching images on the eve of this year’s Independence Day celebrations was that of an old soldier, with an array of war medals dangling from his torn shirt, weeping in anger and shame because he had been manhandled by policemen wielding canes and lathis. He was just one of dozens of […]
THE LONG WAIT ONE-RANK-ONE-PENSION
They also serve those who only stand and wait. Whatever the original significance of this line from John Milton’s poem “On His Blindness”, it has taken on an entirely new meaning for retired soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Indian Armed Forces. After having served the country gallantly and loyally, our men in uniform have […]
INDIA AND THE GOLDILOCKS MODEL
At the preparatory meeting of the World Speakers Conference in Geneva in early June, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan made a strong plea that countries of the world ought not to be judged or ranked merely on the basis of their GDP statistics. The volume of how much goods and services an […]