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Policy

This category contains 8 posts

Why India does not await her Barack Obama?

Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN has written a blog titled ‘Who will be India’s Obama?’ He has compared the Indian and American political scenario and ends his article by saying “For the moment, India awaits her Barack Obama.” This is my response to that blog article. Why are we comparing apples and oranges? America is as … Continue reading »

Cancellation of vaccine-manufacturing public enterprises’ licenses: AIDAN calls for a rethink

The All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN) is a national network of organizations that have been working on pharmaceutical policy issues since the early eighties. Reacting to the news of cancellation of licenses of three vaccine-manufacturing public enterprises, namely the 103-year-old Central Research Institute (CRI), Kasauli; the 100-year-old Pasteur Institute of India (PII), Coonoor; and … Continue reading »

Marginalisation and the label

Now ‘Marginalisation of Muslims’ in NCERT textbook, screamed the headline (Indian Express web edition, May 28, 2008). The news item was about how the topic ‘Marginalisation of Muslims’ was included in NCERT textbook. If one failed to consider the single quotes, the sentence could be easily misconstrued. Anyway, the article spoke about how the NCERT … Continue reading »

Cricket, injustice and POTA look-alikes

Many Indians are aghast! And rightly so, because an Indian cricketer (Harbhajan Singh) who was accused of making a supposedly racial remark against an Australian cricketer (Andrew Symonds), was declared guilty by ICC Match Referee Mike Proctor, without any corroborative evidence. The accusers were the Australian team (captain Ricky Pointing and co.) and the witnesses … Continue reading »

Human rights violations by the Indian corporate sector – Case of ICICI bank

ICICI bank is becoming a sort of menace in recent times. They seem to be violating all codes of conduct and established business practices in their pursuit of growth and profit. What is worse is that they have begun to violate basic human rights of many of those who avail of its services. Today’s newspaper … Continue reading »

The shoe-stink of privatisation

If you thought, you had seen the worst of privatisation, think again – Central Railways is going to privatise shoe-shining in 6 zones along the Central and Harbour Railway lines in Mumbai. Those who know the tremendous crowds on Mumbai’s local train stations are also familiar with the shoeshine worker sitting calmly in the surging … Continue reading »

Bloodshot eyes… year after year

We are now a small and a sick family. We have all fallen victim to Conjunctivitis (commonly called “pinkeye” or “Madras Eye” in India). It started off with my dad, and then spread to the entire family, including our little daughter. Newspapers in Mumbai are full of Conjunctivitis news. It is that time of the … Continue reading »

This textbook is in the public domain and may be copied without permission

“This textbook is in the public domain and may be copied without permission” In this age of intense patent and copyright protection, is it possible to imagine a statement like the one above? Well, wikipedia has shown that it is possible (though the license terms are slightly different). In the field of health and public … Continue reading »

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