chakravarthy

[ Based on an article written by Padma Rao Sundarji, former South-East Asia bureau chief of Der Spiegel and a senior global affairs analyst. The article was published in Deccan Chronicle, dated 25th June, 2018 (Monday) ]. Delhi woke to some good news in the third week of June, 2018. The city's stately, two-storeyed Town Hall of 1863 vintage was dying a slow death, due to callous use of municipal officials from Independence upto 2009. Its museum and library too must be in their last throes, if rodents, seepage, white ants and pigeonshave left any book or artifact intact at all. Still, and after nine more years of dithering, it's final - the august building will soon be leased out to bidders for a heritage hotel. One dismaying thought persists. What if the government 'does an Air India' on the Town Hall by retaining a stranglehold through the hobby interior designer-wife of an official or someone else it wants to 'favour' with a paid consultancy? Instead of le...

The discovery of the cities of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa in the early twentieth century, was the greatest archaeological feat in Indian history. It not only brought an ancient civilisation to light, but also pushed the antiquity of India back by several millenia. However, there were other discoveries, prior to the excavation of Harappan civlisation, which changed the way Indian history was perceived. These discoveries were results of scholarship, imperial rivalries and chance encounters. Together, these discoveries extended the influence of ancient India, far beyond its territories. The Enterprising India : One of the earliest such discovery was the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. The document has been around since 1533, as a translation of an earlier manuscript. However, in 1800, William Vincent, the Dean of Westminster, published the translation of Periplus , with his commentary and historically corroborated date of the document. The Periplus is now believed to have written in t...

[ Based on an article written by Bharat Bhushan, journalist based in New Delhi, published in Deccan Chronicle, Edit, p. 8, dated 16th June, 2018 ]. We Indians apparently come from a long line of scientists and technologists. Dinesh Sharma, Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, has reminded the nation that Sita's birth from an earthen pitcher in the epic Ramayana was evidence of ancient 'test-tube baby project'. The ruling BJP has reprimanded him and advised restraint in his public comments. But how many people is the BJP going to reprimand? Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Deb claims that the Internet existed during the Mahabharata period, Baba Ramdev promises an ayurvedic cure for everything from AIDS to 'homosexuality', and Prime Minister Narendra Modi sees in the mythical birth of Karna outside his mother's womb and the grafting of an elephant's head onto Ganesh's human torso proof that modern levels of science and technology were available in In...

[ Based on an article written by Aasim Sajjad Akhtar, published in Deccan Chronicle (view from Pakistan), Edit, p. 8, dated 16th June, 2018 ]. It is perhaps not surprising given the many contradictions of Pakistani state and society that there are two distinct opinions circulating about the upcoming general election. On the one hand are those who argue that our political parties comprise opportunists seeking only power and money; there is thus little chance of elections signalling change in our establishment-dominated system and making it even slightly more democratic and responsive to the needs of the popular classes. The second camp is more defiant; it insists that regardless of how much pre-poll rigging and manipulation takes place, voters still have a say in determining the fate of the country moving forward.  Neither view is entirely incorrect, but one does not get the sense that the major contenders in the electoral exercise - as well as the 'hidden hands' - are far...

[Based on an article published in Deccan Chronicle, Edit, p. 8, dated 16th June, 2018]. The split verdict on a batch of petitions challenges the disqualification of 18 rebel AIADMK MLAs is a breather for the ruling party headed by Chief Minister Edapaddi Palaniswami. While Chief Justice Indira Bannerjee of the Madras High Court upheld Speaker Dhanapal's decision to disqualify dissidents, her colleague Justice Sundar took the diametrically opposite view in deep condemnation of the process by which the disqualification was done selectively. The immediate implication of the split verdict is status quo in the Legislature of 234 members in which the ruling party has the support of around 116 and the opposition DMK and Congress 97 plus 1 MLA of IUML, besides the leader of the 18 dissidents T T V Dhinakaran who is the lone Independent. The farther away a trust vote is, the better it may be for the ruling party. The incongruities thrown up by even one-half of the judgment are aplenty...

[ Based on an article published in Deccan Chronicle, Edit, p. 8, dated 16th June, 2016 ]. The shocking - and very disturbing - targeted assassination in Srinagar on 14th June, 2018 (Thursday) of eminent Kashmir editor Shujaat Bukhari, who was a voice of reason, democracy, dialogue and protection of human rights, ironically took place on the same day as the release in Geneva of a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights that mistakenly sees its remit as including the making of political demands. This detracts from the UN body's presumed impartiality as a neutral observer, and casts doubts on questions of human rights it talks about. Human Rights violations in a disturbed area merit serious attention if we are serious about the most basic rights of citizens. But, for any remedy to be meaningful, the tribune must be unbiased and focus on the context.  In Kashmir, many demand independence or azaadi , a term with layers of meaning, including separating from ...

[ Based on an article written by Dhirendra Kumar, Founder and CEO of Value Research, published in The Times of India dated 09th October, 2017 (Monday) ]. In three years, falling interest rates have knocked off around 40% from the annual income that a FD would yield. That's a shocking decline. People generally don't do the math of returns correctly. Each step in the decline of FD rates appears small. They are generally around 0.25% to 0.5%, which sounds trivial. However, the actual reduction in income is much more significant. For instance, a decline in the interest rate from 7.5% to 7% in the income that the deposit generates. This adds up fairly quickly. Over the past three years, you would have seen a 2.5% decline in the rate of interest that you earn from your FDs, from 8.75% to 6.25%. However, in terms of actual income, that's a reduction of 40%. The logical way to deal with this issue is to shift your money from FDs to mutual funds. Mutual funds that have a low r...