Sparsh

Faiz Ahmed Faiz is amongst the most famous poets of the Urdu language. Faiz, who was hounoured by Lenin Peace Prize in 1963, was seldom subjected to arrests by the right-wing pro-imperialist military regimes of Pakistan. Once, during the dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq, he was arrested and taken to the police station in front of the public. In this context, he wrote 'Aaj Bazar mein'. The video starts with a 'mushairah' (public recitation), where Faiz presents the poem, and describes its context. Then the video, with the melodious voice of Nayyara Noor in the background singing the verses of Faiz, shows the sufi culture of Pakistan, which was suppressed by the religious fundamentalist government of Zia-ul-Haq. Then, there are some clips of public floggings and public hangings of political dissidents, which were employed to ingrain terror in the people of Pakistan. Public floggings were a norm during Zia's time. The video, then, takes us on a trip to a well-kn...

The value of national ‘ownership’ in development of involving 2.8 million milk producers with AMUL separates itself from other success stories . Dr. Kurien on Rural Development --- A large proportion of rural livelihoods in India are at the mercy of the law of diminishing marginal returns from land. This has led to the bleak phenomena of rural-urban migration, casualisation of urban labour and feminisation of agricultural labour etc. with the net effect of extremely insecure rural livelihoods. A successful rural development programme must help rural people stay on voluntarily and profitably in the villages. Cooperative dairy development on the Amul Pattern has been instrumental in securing rural livelihoods in many parts of India through income generation, agricultural diversification, risk distribution, female empowerment and assured employment. Employment generation in India has seen a spurt even through the much vaunted Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) organizations and In...

Corporate corruption comes in many forms. The number of employees and turnover of some corporations exceeds the population and GDP of some nation states. When comparing countries, after observations of population size and GDP, it is usual to compare the system of government, the major power groupings and the civic freedoms available to their populations. Such comparisons can also be illuminating in the case of corporations. Considering the largest corporations as analogous to a nation state reveals the following properties: 1. The right to vote does not exist except for share holders (analogous to land owners) and even there voting power is in proportion to ownership. 2. All power issues from a central committee. 3. There is no balancing division of power. There is no fourth estate. There are no juries and innocence is not presumed. 4. Failure to submit to any order may result in instant exile. 5. There is no freedom of speech. 6. There is no right of association. Even ro...