Sparsh

1- Barefoot - The other side of life Harsh Mander -: Can anyone really live on Rs. 26 a day, the income of the officially poor in rural India? Two youngsters try it out. 2- Powerhouse on your plate! - Easily accessible and affordable, millets are making a comeback to Indian kitchens, says Shonali Muthalaly. 3- The everyday embrace of inequality :The institution of paid domestic labour produces cleanliness, meals and childcare, but it also produces and reproduces an unequal home and society. 4- Salman Rushdie & India's new theocracy :-India's secular state is in a state of slow-motion collapse. The contours of a new theocratic dystopia are already evident. 5- BCCI: Billionaires Control Cricket in India by P. SAINATH 6- 42 per cent of Indian children are underweight - Hunger and Malnutrition (HUNGaMA) report by the Naandi Foundation – were described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a “national shame” at a release function here on Tuesday. 7- The complex co...

Why Rural economy is always in a poor state ? Poverty exists in both rural and urban India. Slums are visible signs of poverty in the our cities. Slums are our failure in planning to implement an affordable housing in metros for the poor migrants at the cost of welfare state. There is an immense migration of the landless labours in cities from the rural areas. Many reasons can be cited for this state such as failure of rural economy, regional nature of growth, absence of basic civic amenities in rural India and caste discrimination in rural India. Poor people can afford the physical torture of the slums but cannot bear the mental torture of rural habitation caused due to caste discrimination. In slums people have only class identity and not caste identity. There is a huge connection between poverty and caste system in India. Majority of land in rural India is in the possession of minority upper castes. Hence, all the subsidies and growth in the agricultural sector is enjoyed by t...

1- What a country needs for development in a very long term ? Vigorous debate and absolute freedom of speech. And this makes America a great nation. The source lies in its first Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Atanu Dey puts his perspective very clear on comparison between America and India on free speech. The first amendment article and comments by readers form a very interesting read on this topic. 2- The Strange case of China and Russia: There is a denialism when an entire segment of society, often struggling with the trauma of change, turns away from reality in favor of a more comfortable lie. It has created a society where institutions are brazenly politicized, where violence has been legitimised, where the so...

Everywhere in the country and in the world, people left their beloved homelands to try their luck in this cold, faraway place where all one had to do, was be willing to work. Mumbai is the prime example of city of migrants in India. And America is an example of a modern country found by immigrants only. In times of economic downturn, we forget the values on which the place was built and developed. The sociopolitical climate becomes increasingly destructive towards immigrants in these times as scapegoats are used to help alleviate frustration. We are all citizens of the world–there is no place in the world that we can go and not touch something created in another land, no place where there are not immigrants. In my views, history is made by wandering humans from one place to another for trade, war or to become part of greater civilization. Human is indeed yayaver by nature and settler by culture. Few web links in mumbo-jumbo post for reading.... Copenhagen Diary : A report on Clima...

Vinaas Kaale Vipareeta Buddhi : Bal Thackeray has pushed himself and Shivsena downward by commenting on Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin's recent comment that “ Mumbai belongs to India. I am a Maharashtrian and proud to be a Maharashtrian, but I am also an Indian ,” It is necessary for heroes like Sachin to take a stand openly on grave issues like this as an Indian. It is not any celebrity tantrum but comes from the mouth of two stalwarts of Marathi manoos.The Sena supremo signed off with 'a friendly advice, in your own interest' to keep off politics, I hope our people will now keep Bal Thackery on the brinks of politics. All Indians are welcome to visit, live, stay and become Mumbaikars, but big question remains, how long it take for the city to own you? In Brief about History : Once that was future, now is the past. I like it because, it makes me humble and give feeling my littleness and mortality. History is my favourite subject in reading for pass time from childhood. I read...

American Consular Officer : "How do we know you'll come back to India?" Student : "Sir, my roots are here - my family, my property, my business... I want to study in America, but I will come back and put my education to good use." I read this conversation from someone'sblog and idea about state of indians living abroad struck me. Thousands of Indian students have given this earnest answer at their visa interview. A significant number never return to their motherland. You have to wonder - why bother to ask? Because the idea of America, to a large extent, is to attract the brightest and the best from around the world. NRI ideally stands for Non Resedential Indians. Practically NRI means- Non Returning Indian or Non Reliable Indian. When the race for food, clothing and shelter becomes over, then green card migrants try to find a identity for themselves. Next generation faces issues like choosing their sides between Indian family and American culture. Desi ...