Analyses

Bangalore South is one of those few constituencies in the country the bulk of whose electorate is the target group of all the three major political formations. It is reckoned to be a prestigious constituency, and in terms of ethnicities is as demographically fragmented as any other in the country. And now it's become the cynosure of all eyes, with talk of former Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani being the possible Congress candidate for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. Even though Nilekani...

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is in a veritable financial mess, and few have a clue about how to extricate the Palike from it. In spite of available data on municipal finances, little analysis has been done on them, and accountants (even though there is a shortage of them) are the only ones who understand the data. These observations come from a well-known economist who has studied the BBMP’s budgets, and has a number of recommendations to make. Mukul Asher, who specialises in...

When environmental activists had voiced their apprehensions about the adverse effects of GM crops, particularly Bt Brinjal, proponents of this so-called agricultural wonder had accused them of crying wolf. But as in the unfortunate case of the fable, the wolf was for real and so was its henous act of devouring the sheep. The fodder in this case is the indigenous matti gulla brinjal, now being precipitously pushed to the brink of extinction by the lab-generated Bt Brinjal. Activists, of course...

In 1997, the largest and most powerful insurgent group of the Northeast signed a suspension of operations agreement with the Indian government. With the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) (NSCN-IM) agreeing to come to the negotiating table, many saw it as the beginning of the end for conflict in the region. They had reasons to believe so. For one, it was the NSCN(IM) which held sway over the many other smaller militant-secessionist groups of the region, which it had willy-nilly...

The according of World Heritage Site (WHS) status to the Western Ghats will make the going tougher for the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). On one hand, the Indian government will be under obligation to maintain the ecological diversity and sanctity of the Ghats. And on the other, it will remain under pressure to dilute the recommendations of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) which has called for drastic measures to maintain the biodiversity of the region. With the last...

The Delhi High Court judgment asking the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) to comply with a order of the Central Information Commissioner (CIC) over the publication of a crucial ecological report has pushed the ministry to the wall. A recalcitrant MoEF, which had been smarting ever since the CIC asked it to published a high-profile report by the Western Ghats Ecological Expert Panel (WGEEP) it had held back, had moved the court against the CIC directive of April 9. The court had...

One would need to be blind not to notice the signs – that of the Indian publishing industry being on a roll. Every other person seems to be penning a book, and everyone seems to be buying and reading them. Newspapers every other day carry reports of one book launch or the other. To top it all, there are the literary festivals that all and sundry want to attend. Yes, the Indian publishing industry is certainly on the upswing, if one goes by sheer numbers, recession or otherwise. But then, all...

There was a recent move in the Maharashtra Assembly which did not go down well with anti-abortionists. The state was planning to treat female foeticide as murder, and book culprits under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). On the face of it, it appeared a welcome step towards addressing the skewed sex ratio issue. But delve a bit deep, and the contours of the debate change – for the issue is also a lot about semantics and definitions. Fauzia Khan, minister of state for public health, announced in the...

It made for a wonderful keepsake photo opportunity when leaders of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) visited New Delhi for preliminary tripartite peace talks in August. There were smiles all around, and word was that peace was soon going to return to Assam. Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends as of now. If you go beyond the headlines and hark a little into the past, you will find that things will progressively appear worse. That would be because there are many talking points...

Talking about the insufficient coverage of wildlife issues in the news media is akin to flogging a dead horse. Certainly in conservationist circles. Conservationists never mince words about what they think of the media per se. Having worked on both sides of this divide, with both wildlife organisations as well as in the news media, I feel conservationists too should start owning up to their faults. A journalist who reports or writes about wildlife faces a number of problems, apart from the well...