Boon or bane? The presence of green canopy and rivers is usually considered nature’s blessing for any region but it appears that the abundance of forest cover—which is approximately 71 percent of total geographical area —and presence of holy rivers is proving to be more of a burden on the small Himalayan State of Uttarakhand. The environmental and forest...
Though it may not be blacklisted, it does slide further on compliances required for countering terror at FATF Pakistan may not be blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the inter-governmental forum that links terror funding to freezing international aid, but India’s persistent campaign against it nursing terror hubs has clearly paid off. It now appears that Pakistan could slip...
The recently-concluded second informal summit at Mamallapuram underlined the importance of the leadership discourse in India-China relations After more than a year since the April 2018 Wuhan summit between India and China, the leadership from both countries met again for the second informal summit at the historic town Mamallapuram in the southern State of Tamil Nadu. As both the...
In a historic day for Bengalis, Abhijit Banerjee and Sourav Ganguly seal their achievements with a top prize and job Yet another Bengali has won a Nobel Prize for Economics. Abhijit Banerjee, alongside Ester Duflo and Michael Kremer, won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel. This news followed another development where Sourav Ganguly, the...
GUEST COLUMN The Mental Health Day takes place every year on October 10 with an aim to educate and spread awareness of mental health issues in people all around the world. The day as we all know was set up by the World Federation for Mental Health and it was first celebrated in 1992. Suicide prevention was the primary focus...
Shameful slip The slide witnessed by Uttarakhand in the index of the education quality and health services released by an agency none other than the NITI Aayog which is the policy think tank of Government of India, puts egg on the face of State administration and its governance. In the recently released education quality index, the Aayog has placed...
Ultimately economic concerns of both nations will underpin the matrix of a one-on-one working relationship By now an informal meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping has been a protective shaft, cushioning the simmering tension between both nations. The two leaders embody the Wuhan spirit in a total recall of their first friendly face-to-face that staved off...
It is appropriate that the IAF took delivery of its first four Rafale fighter jets on the auspicious day of Vijay Dashami It might be just a coincidence but the Air Force Day this year coincided with the auspicious occasion of Vijay Dashami and depending on where in India you are from, this day celebrates the victory of good over evil....
GUEST COLUMN Poetry may not be counted in other forms of art, but it encompasses all arts of the world. In fact, all aspects, all beauties, all essence of life can be expressed through poetry. “Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance,” says Carl Sandburg. All forms of life, the whole of earth, all celestial bodies—all planets,...
To achieve the target of installing 100 GW of solar energy by 2022, a more comprehensive manufacturing strategy is needed. We cannot remain dependent on imports Recently, while addressing the UN Climate Action Summit 2019 in the US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “We believe that an ounce of action is worth more than a tonne of preaching” and announced that...