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Showing posts from 2015

Indian Inroads Into Africa

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By Vinny Davis* With the Euro zone, U.S, and China undergoing a phase of relative slowdown, economic forecasts have placed Africa in an enviable position- as a new and emerging market. This explains why a rejuvenated India was upbeat to seal its position in the Rising Africa. The third Indo-African summit captured attention, being the highest African participation in the recent times. The African continent is rightly getting subsumed into Alex De Waal’s term of ‘political marketplace’.  Economic diplomacy will be the tool to woo major trans-national engagements with Africa. The substantial presence of Indian business activities in the region will become the new level playing field to mobilize a revamped foreign policy concern. Though the capacity constraints of India pose a stumbling block towards the fuller realization of this goal, any key development is pitted to have a larger resonance in re-affirming the Indo-African ties. India would be embarking on a position of en

Why Government Awards??

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By,  Rahul V Kumar* Awards and alternatives The entire episode in which artists returned awards to the State to protest against state negligence of atrocities committed against individuals needs to be further debated. At the onset, the question should be whether the State should give out awards. For services rendered directly to the State, individuals do receive awards. But what about giving awards for initiatives pursued in their own capacities as free individuals? As a corollary, what do such awards really indicate? It could be two things. One, that the state is considering awarding the individual for his work to foster feelings of national pride. On the other hand, it could be that the state is recognizing talents and promoting them with awards and accolades. The first is a contentious issue, the question of national pride. The state has its own ways of attracting citizens and rewarding them for specific services; well and good. It depends on the individual wheth

Will the Climate change at The city of lights ?!

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  By Sanjay Menon* How many of you will agree with me if I state that the changes in climatic patterns had made the Syrian drought(2002) two or three times more likely, leading to the migration crisis ? The statement can be more convincing if you could recollect the Russian heat wave in 2010, that destroyed the country's wheat crop. It lead to the ban on grain exports, shooting up world food prices, pushing 44 million people below the poverty line across 28 countries. Scientists have proved that Climate change has indeed displaced people from their land, relinquishing stability. The loss of mesic trees in the Sudan-Sahel zone, switching off of Northern seas from polar to more temperate species, the        "water war" in Bolivia have all been similarly authenticated. The most recent being the finding of 2014 as the 'hottest year' since modern records began, around 1850. However, future climatic changes can be described only within a range of u

Nepal Political Tussle : Another Humanitarian crisis in the Offing?

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By Ms Vinny Davis*   The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Nepal has not seen peace after it became a federal democratic Republic. At a time when, adopting a constitution is cheered as a gateway to the peaceful transition of the democratic process all over, the Nepali experience was little too bitter. Sharing a 1751 Km border with Nepal, India has all reasons to be apprehensive over the political crisis that is spreading its tentacles across Nepal to Indian territories. On September 20, 2015, Nepal   promulgated its secular and democratic constitution, dividing the Himalayan landmass into seven federal provinces for administrative purposes. The 65-year quest for a democratic development from the monarchical rule was finally fructified. Needless to say, it did not go well with the Madhesi tribe who inhabited the Southern Nepal (or the Terai region). Incidentally the same region houses half of the country's population, in spite of it constituting only 1/5 of the total la