Blogs

The poor condition of education in the far-flung and backward areas across the country can be gauged with the fact that it is not at par with the standards even in national capital Delhi. Worsening situation is that number of students continues to grow while quantum of schools is unlikely to increase. The schools have huge shortage of teachers.

As the two Houses of Parliament celebrate their Sixtieth Birthday on May 13 (they came into being on May 13, 1952), parliamentarians are in a celebratory mood and are preparing for a special sitting on that day, despite it being a Sunday. However, as all Indians know, the Sixtieth birthday (Shashtaabdi Poorthi) is also a day for some sober reflection on life gone by and on what lies ahead.

A terrible incident occurred when a blanket factory building at Focal Point Extension area in Jalandhar, Punjab collapsed. Several people died and many injured in the tragic incident. However, relief and rescue department came into action soon after the incident took place, but injured and dead could not be rescued for a long time.

There are few politicians who have made the journey from the sublime to the ridiculous in so short a time as West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee. A year ago, as the well-entrenched Left Front Government floundered, the leader of the Trinamool Congress emerged as a Mother Goddess, hell bent on slaying the Marxist demons who had intimidated an entire people for three decades.

Whether or not unexpected troop movements around Delhi in January, on the same day that the army chief took the civilian authorities to the Supreme Court, spooked the government to the extent that it was deemed a coup in the making is a matter now for the historians to sort out. But what cannot be denied is that the relations between the civilians and the military are at an all time low and the trust deficit is widening by the day.

The revelations of the former Swedish Police Chief Mr.Sten Lindstrom about the "political payments' made by Bofors in order to sell field guns to India in the 1980s has come as a huge embarrassment to the ruling United Progressive Alliance government, the Congress Party and the Nehru-Gandhi family, all of whom have been working overtime to shield those who took bribes and commissions from Bofors 25 years ago.Mr.Lindstrom, who was the police chief who probed the allegations of  bribery in the Bofors-India deal, has now revealed in an interview  that he was the "deep throat" , the whistle blower, who gave documents  exposing the scandal to Chitra Subramaniam and some select  journalists.

India has indeed done well with the copybook meticulous launch of nuclear-capable Agni-V missile which has the necessary technology for Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) capabilities as its range is 5000 kms (3100 miles) but the government has preferred to call it only a Long Range Ballistic Missile (LRBM). The successful launch has put India in the elite club of just four other nations – the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia and China – that possess ICBM technology. France too used to have ICBM missiles but it scrapped the project because of high costs.

It takes a lot of doing to make the economy fall from a 9 per cent growth rate two and half years ago to 6.1 per cent in the quarter ending December. A fall of one per cent means the loss of almost 15 lakh jobs, and not surprisingly there is a lot of pain and gloom around, mostly inflicted by this UPA government.  News about corruption also refuses to cease. But the real tragedy is that the rule of law, one of India’s strengths, is also beginning to crumble.

The tablet revolution is today an important trend in the digital ecosystem.  Today tablets are becoming increasingly popular devices for the purposes of doing a variety of multi-dimensional tasks including accessing the Internet and doing various other computing functions. The success of the iPad over the last few years, ever since its launch, has demonstrated in no certain term the future that lies for the tablet.

There are quite a few things which India’s neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka and Nepal, and even Bangladesh, can learn from China’s relationship with Pakistan. It will give them at least a clear understanding of the folly of siding with Beijing against India and give up the habit of flashing the `China card` every now and then as a blackmail tactic.