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WHY ONE RANK ONE PENSION MATTERS
Kautilya, had once given his king a blunt warning: “The day the soldier has to demand his dues, will be a sad day for Magadha for then, on that day, you will have lost all moral sanction to be King!”...
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CONCRETE STEPS, NOT FEAR MONGERING HEADLINES, ANSWER TO DELHI’S AIR POLLUTION
First, the obvious. Delhi is polluted. Most Indian cities are, but Delhi probably trumps them all. Its 25 million residents are by now habituated to all forms of pollution – land, water, food, and...
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400 MILLION HEADED TO CASH-STRAPPED CITIES
While local governments in China get 25% of total public revenue, it is only 3% in India, indicating the parlous state of finances in India’s burgeoning towns and cities. The annual growth in the...
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THE OH CAPTION! MY CAPTION! CONTEST #18
Fill in the blanks and be part of a Clothesline gag. Enter our photo dialogue contest and you (and your winning dialogue) could be featured in next week’s Clothesline. You wring ‘em clean, and we’ll...
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WHY INSTALLING CCTVS IN MUMBAI’S LOCAL WON’T MAKE WOMEN FEEL ANY SAFER
The first set of closed-circuit television (CCTV) system has been installed inside a women’s compartment of a local train in Mumbai. This is in keeping with the Union Railway Minister’s announcement...
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A DUMMY’S GUIDE TO THE PRESIDENT OF INDIA’S ELECTION
The President of India is not directly elected by people. He is elected directly by the representatives of people (i.e., Members of Parliament –MPs & Members of Legislative Assemblies – MLAs). All...
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HOW UTTAR PRADESH BUREAUCRATS MAKE MONEY AT THE EXPENSE OF POOR CHILDREN
In an investigation on dozens of education and district-level officials in Uttar Pradesh, Cobrapost found that substantial amount of funds allocated by the Centre to the Uttar Pradesh state...
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THE UKRAINE CRISIS IN A NUTSHELL
In November 2013, faced with an ailing economy, Ukraine’s pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign an Agreement of Association with the European Union, choosing instead to accept a...
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96% OF J&K SWACHH-BHARAT MONEY UNSPENT
Sanitation in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) is among the worst in India, with more than 54% of more than 1.2 million households without toilets and the 2014-15 target for household latrines falling...
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HOW YOGA DAY ECLIPSED THE MUMBAI HOOCH TRAGEDY
Yoga day was a big success. It inspired witty Whatsapp jokes, “Irish yoga” jokes, memes of cats doing yoga and India even set two world records that day. Sure enough, it gave the mainstream media more...
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WILL THE SUN SET ON MARAN’S EMPIRE?
Full disclosure: The writer holds shares in SUN TV as part of his equity portfolio There’s hardly anyone in the southern states who is immune to the reach of the Sun Network (Sun). If you’re not...
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WHAT’S TRADE UNION GOT TO DO WITH PRESS FREEDOM
It was supposed to be a discussion on whether the press is being muzzled. There was a two-pronged “peg” (since it was a discussion by the journalists for the journalists): the 40th anniversary of the...
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THE GOVERNMENT HAS LAUNCHED THE ‘DIGITAL LOCKER’. HERE IS WHAT YOU SHOULD...
Sharing documents with various government and private agencies for different purposes is a tedious task. From Income Tax Returns to University Degrees to PAN Cards, various agencies need these...
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WHAT VILLAGES IGNORE: WATER, SANITATION, STREETLIGHTS
Panchayats (village councils) spend most of their money on roads and bridges (38%), followed by maintenance of panchayat buildings (26%). Not enough is being spent on water supply, sanitation and...
View ArticleNEWSLAUNDRY HAFTA – EPISODE 21
Political commentator and journalist Kanchan Gupta joins us this week as we discuss the 40th anniversary of the Emergency and the possibility of it coming around again. The team then discusses if the...
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IS RIL’S BUSINESS INTEREST DRIVING NETWORK 18’S ‘PUBLIC INTEREST’ INITIATIVE...
Network 18 has launched a campaign in “public interest”. Or so it wants us to believe. A closer scrutiny reveals that the campaign may have more to do with aiding the business interest of the media...
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INDIA’S SOARING DRUG PROBLEM: 455% RISE IN CONFISCATION
India has witnessed a five-time (455%) increase in drug hauls over three years, from 2011 to 2013, according to data released by the government to Parliament. Officials have seized 105,173 tonnes of...
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RIGHT TO EDUCATION: THE NUMBERS DON’T ADD UP
The District Information System for Education (DISE) is the only nationally-comparable data source of education-related statistics in the country. It is an initiative of the National University of...
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THE ‘BETI’ ISSUE – DECLINING CSR (CHILD SEX RATIO) IN INDIA
In his Radio Address Mann ki Baat, the Prime Minister spoke about the declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) in the country and why we should be concerned about it. The CSR has been on the decline since 1991...
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THE SARPANCH WHO STARTED #SELFIEWITHDAUGHTER IS AMUSED BY CRITICS
Twitter turned into a battlefield yesterday. Yet again. To selfie, or not to selfie? And this was a particularly difficult one for our liberals: a seemingly great cause (women emancipation) but,...
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