Dear All: I stumbled on this article a few weeks back and felt that it deserved wider circulation – especially in the context of the recent discussions and decision by SC on RTE.  I was vaguely aware of the discriminatory nature of Article 30 (which by the way, was the reason behind the Ramkrishna Mission to declare itself a non-Hindu “sect”) but its extent and repercussions shocked me. Below, excerpts from a richly referenced and data-rich critique of this article by Dr Moorthy Muthuswamy…Read on.
*** Excerpts from Religious Apartheid in Modern …

The question was prompted by these excerpts fom Salil Tripathi‘s “An excuse called Rushdie” (emphasis added):
Only one out of every six Muslim children entering an Indian school stays till his matriculation. I use “his” deliberately; the figures are worse for girls—only two out of five Muslim girls enter schools, and fewer than one-tenth complete secondary education.
These stark dropout rates explain the malaise affecting Indian Muslims, and unless that’s addressed, all other solutions are ineffective.
Such low enrolment figures and high dropout rates mean that only one of 25 undergraduate students, …

A thought-provoking extract from a post on FTI colleague Sanjeev’s blog:
I don’t know how this man Narayana Murthy gets the audacity to lecture to others about doing something.
For nine years now I have been trying to get him (or Nandan Nilikani) interested in CITIZENSHIP – namely, in the process of active participation in the affairs of their nation. Numerous email communications I’ve had with both of them ..I even met both of them. They pretend to be “supportive” of the ideas I advocate but then do nothing.
One of them even …

Dear All: Following up from the successful (& hugely interactive!) live chat on “Illegal Infiltration and Impact on Demographics” that we had on 6th Jan, below are details of the “Republic Day Special”  live text chat on the “Role of Youth in Today’s Politics…and “ What can You and I do to bring about Systemic Change?”. Some of you will recall that we had a discussion on this topic almost 2 yrs back…A lot has changed since then..and I felt it would be useful and informative  to have another discussion …

Earlier today, I was reminded of this news-item from June ’11:
Mystery surrounds an American agency carrying out a survey in different parts of India to know the Muslim opinion on some sensitive issues like placing Sharia over the Indian laws, Islam’s role in mainstram Indian politics, and whether Islam is under any serious threat.
…Kerala Police chief Jacob Punnose says the survey had communal overtones and hence a case has been filed against TNS India for asking communally sensitive questions.
“We have decided to file a case of 153(a) under Indian Penal …

Many of you may have seen this photograph of Raju Narayan Swamy, IAS 1991 circulating on the internet with the title, “Every Indian Must Read and Share This. Pls Share”

The note accompanying the photograph mentions, among other things how…
After a decade of meritorious service in IAS, today, Narayanaswamy is being forced out of the IAS profession.
Leaving aside the fact that it is practically impossible to force anyone out of IAS, let us continue with the note (emphasis added)..
…Mr. Narayanaswamy is on the verge of leaving IAS to go to Paris …

Dear All: Following up from the series of “live chats” and calls last year, I would like to start 2012 with a live text chat on:

“The continuing illegal infiltration from Bangladesh and its implication for the demographics of Assam and Paschim Banga”
Time: 8pm IST
Date: 6th Jan ’12 (Friday)
Please do leave a note below (via comments) if you have a specific question or wish me to address a specific point.

 
Illegal Infiltration & Impact on Demographics
The text-based chat will be a relatively free-flowing discussion focused on illegal infiltration from Bangladesh and …

..and below the surface to understand the real causes of what you see around you.
As an example, see this recent news-report about pending RTI applications…
Staff shortage results in a pile of 19,000 pending RTI appeals in Maharashtra
Does this surprise you? Probably not.
Which is why I keep making the point that the real solution must be to focus on “Open Government” rather than another law or more babus…That is how things should be..We don’t need a law (RTI) and then additional bureaucracy (staff to deal with RTI applications). Far better to insist on openness, …

Late one evening last week, I was asked by a well-meaning friend why did I hate the idea of “Food Security Bill” so much? Surely no one can reasonably object to making sure every Indian is well-fed and healthy? He was right. No one can reasonably argue with the aim of ensuring that our population is well-fed, literate, healthy etc etc. What I was railing against was the “means” – and the misplaced belief that subsidies are the way to solve these problems; the misplaced belief that all we need …

A few days back, I learnt (via an NYT article) that Jodhpur – a beautiful city in Rajasthan, with a population of a 1.2million has only one traffic stop-light. In that article, Thomas Friedman talked about “leaders-who-will-not-lead“.  After reading the news-headlines for the past few days. I now realise what he meant. Sample this…
In the south of India, a long-standing dispute centred on the Mullaperiyar dam threatens to snowball into a major flare-up between Kerala and Tamil Nadu…A few hundreds kilometers away, work on Kudankulam power plant remains stalled due to …