Naresh Kumar Vaid, Director , Vaids ICS

Back after a long time because many important issues must be dealt with. Here I begin. Constitution: Long time ago I came to the conclusion that the Constitution has been betrayed every now and then. As regards Lockdown, who empowered the Central Government? Law and Order is a State Subject and the Centre can not enforce it unless an Emergency is declared. Second, every student of polity knows that before taking such a step all other necessary steps must be taken, most important being civil supplies. Third, right to life enshrined in the Constitution was totally ignored resulting in loss of life and employment. There was no proper planning and management strategy to enforce Lockdown and none in the government could visualize the consequences of doing it in haste or none had the guts to pinpoint them to the powers. Yet, all people in ruling dispensation as well as most of the so-called national media has lauded lockdown as timely. Is it? The present government and the political parties ...

Dear Readers! For me the Caption of this article is misleading (though, in the beginning you may not agree). The fact is that results of Anthropology in the last decade (except for one year) have been constantly good — more than 10%. However, after IAS 1996 it is for the first time that three in top then have Anthropology as their Optional. [In IAS 1996 three of our students  — Nilesh (7th), Manish (8th) and Piyush (9th) held this record]. Therefore, it is a special occasion for me but I may be disjointed,  as I have to say a lot on different aspects. I “I love anthropology because I’m insatiably curious. Anthropology uniquely spans the arts, humanities, social science and natural sciences, and touches all fields of human endeavor or inquiry. Human origins? Uh huh. Human rights? Certainly. Ontology and the nature of being? Got it. Genome sequencing? Check. Poetics and aesthetics? You bet. Cross-cultural psychology? Please. Climate change? Down cold. Migration and displa...

वो  जानवर  का बच्चा  है माँ को ढूंढता माँ बन गयी ग्रास शिकारी का बच्चा  भी बनेगा वो इंसान का बच्चा है माँ को  ढूंढता माँ बन गई  ग्रास शिकारी का बच्चा ज़िंदा रहेगा मौत से बदतर ज़िन्दगी किसी अपाहिज  भिगारी की या बंधुआ, आजीवन या  …… क्योंकि वह आदमी का बच्चा है I have just returned from Jharkhand after visiting Korba and Birhor. I could not express myself in better words   

TRIBALS, by all accounts, belong to the lowest rung of the society in terms of poverty, education and health; but the recent caste survey, some observations have been published in some newspapers (IE : 25-6-15 & HH : 26-6-15) shows a different picture. BUT first, we must know who is poor in India and whether the conclusion is tenable. There is no standard definition of poverty in India. Different committies have given different recommendations. The most amusing is the one given by erstwhile Planning Commission according to which the country has only those many poor as can be catered by the government. But, the most interesting are the figures relied upon by GoI, i.e. Rs. 26/- and Rs. 32/- per day for rural and urban people respectively. HERE, I have a point. Creamy layer for OBCs was initially fixed at Rs. 1.00 lakh annually, that was raised to Rs. 2.5 lakhs and then further to Rs. 6.0 lakhs. 9It is being raised further.) Meanwhile BPL limit has remained the same. It means, th...

THE government is planning to introduce some changes in tax reforms, i.e. those who transact through credit/debit cards will get some tax rebate. Is it the solution to eradicate black money? WHEN the issue is black money, the main issue is money. So, the government should concern with how to control the flow of money, not only to regulate few services. To curtail the flow of money, the first thing the government can introduce is that all transactions over and above Rs. 1000/- must be through plastic money. Poor people dont spend that much on a single transaction, but others do. All those transactions will be reflected in bank statements. THE next thing, the government can abolish currency notes above Rs. 100/-. Most, rather almost all transactions are carried out in these notes. All developed countries have printed notes only in small denominations. THE black money is generated though infrastructure, mainly through property construction/sale/purchase; through inflated/deflated...

JAIPUR literary fest ended last  week with nothing new. But Chetan Bhagat, first in English, then in Hindi (must be translated by someone else) in two news papers advocated the use of Roman language 'if Hindi is to survive. Chetan must be kidding, or he is oblivious of truth. I know, his generation, not only for SMS but otherwise too, is more comfortable with Roman script. It however does not mean his voice need to be heard. I am sorry, at first instance, for being late in responding but I was curious to know the response who matter but I was disappointed. KAMAL Ataturk shifted to Roman script and three generations of Turkish children lost access to their past. Chinese gave a thought to it but finally went against it. They are better off with it. WHY Chetan forgets that Hindi has 52 alphabets while English has only 26. Thus, Hindi is not only more phonetically correct but more scientific too. He must realize that, in English, his name must be exactly written as CETANA BHAGATA....

DELHI is voting today. Voting time will be officially over in a couple of hours, though voting will continue for another couple of hours at many polling booths. Certain trends have clearly emerged, most notable being a clear divide between haves and have-nots. HAVES, expecting great returns, through Mr. Modi's vision (cutting on subsidies, Make in India, Ordinances regarding labour laws and Land Act etc.). For them the slogan is development (following neo-liberal policies. Have-nots harp on basic amenities like electricity water etc. BJP's slogan about eradication of corruption too has not gone well with them because municipalities of Delhi, full of corruption have been under BJP for the last seven years while Delhi, under the direct central rule for the last eight months, has not seen any development. Minorities and slum dwellers have no reason to support BJP. Finally the onus lies on youth that will decide the fate of political parties. AAP seems to have an edge. It's ...