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Welcome move: Now, Bescom to harness solar energy for irrigation pump sets

Shankar Sharma, Power & Climate Policy Analyst, writes to the Additional Chief Secretary, Energy Department, Govt of Karnataka: *** This has reference to a news item Now, Bescom to harness solar energy for irrigation pump sets that Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) will soon harness solar power to energise close to 2.6 lakh irrigation pump sets (IP sets).
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Indian cricket administration's unjust ways hit Mohinder Amarnath's potential

By Harsh Thakor*  Mohinder Amarnath, born on 24 September 1950 was the son of late Indian former cricketer, cricket analyst and actor Lala Amarnath (the first post-independence captain of India). His brother Surinder Amarnath was a former test player and Rajinder a first class cricketer. Few batsmen were more reminiscent of an architect or surgeon out in the middle, doing exactly what the doctor ordered as Mohinder or ‘Jimmy’ Amarnath Ultimate man when the tide was swaying against you.

Why rapid transition to green energy should be people-centric and community-led

Synthesis Report of IPCC AR6 is a warning call: Grounded action needed to ensure social and ecological justice: ActionAid Association note: *** The Synthesis Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report is a warning call for action on the quickly closing opportunity of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees centigrade. Unless fossil fuels are rapidly retired, the impacts of climate change already faced by vulnerable communities will become difficult to handle. The IPCC report also highlights that we have the renewable energy technology, policy tools, and financial capital required for a just transition; however, “both adaptation and mitigation financing would need to increase many-fold”. The loss and damage caused by heat waves, crop failures, and rising sea levels suffered by majorities of India’s working peoples are already significant and uncompensated. News reports tell us that due to heat, India already loses around 101 billion hours yearly. E

Why is media so preoccupied with glorifying corrupted political criminals in trial?

By Harasankar Adhikari  Now, the state of West Bengal is a lying-in room for corruption and criminals, which are unfortunately sponsored by the state. These special acts of corruption and criminalism are alleged to be the work of political cadres of the ruling Trinamool Congress. Rampant corruptions and hooliganisms in every sphere of administrative affairs and even in private affairs are under trial in the honorable High Court of Calcutta, and the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation are investigating. But it is an unnecessarily delayed process.

Gram swaraj's basic tenet: equality, justice, genuine democracy, decentralization

Bharat Dogra  The freedom movement of India to get independence from nearly two centuries of colonialism was one of the most inspiring phases of the history of India. People were motivated to take up very inspirational work and were willing to suffer unending hardships including imprisonment and torture with courageous songs and slogans. This inspirational spirit must be retained even now as there are very big challenges to contribute to reducing very serious problems of the country and indeed the entire world. Some concepts which were very popular and inspirational at that time have an enduring relevance in terms of contributing much to guiding us in resolving some of the most serious problems, at national and world level, particularly as leaders of freedom movement were far-sighted and tried to guide these concepts towards more enduring objectives.

Will the democratic capital of India be only for the betterment of the political leaders?

By Harasankar Adhikari  We know that every nation/country throughout the globe significantly depends on its capital as a marker of its progress and development. These capitals are of various types—social, economic, cultural, etc. The progress and development of a country are obviously determined by these capitals. And there is co- relation and integration among these capitals. Economic capital consists of the resources and assets acquired through financial gains (money or land). 

Hetero-patriarchal socialization of women’s inequality: Violence and moral censure

By Harasankar Adhikari  Because of the hetero-patriarchal structure and socialization in every society, women face many dangers (especially sexual dangers) even today. Women’s sexuality is embedded and experienced at the service of the state, power regimes, and commodification in the media. Carole Vance (1984) shared that ‘the threat of male violence is not the only source of sexual dangers. Sexuality activates a host of intra-psychic anxieties; fear of merging with another, the blurring of body boundaries, and the sense of self that occurs in the tangle of parts and sensations, with attendant fears of dissolution and self-annihilation.’ Female sexuality has two aspects: cohesiveness, power, danger, and fear are one, and another aspect is the realm of ecstasy, desire, intimacy, mutuality, and pleasure. Women’s sexuality and embodied agency are potentially under the control of hetero-patriarchal logic. Michel Foucault opined that ‘the body is not simply a passive surface, i

Thousands of cases pending in Indian courts, why waste time on same sex marriage?

By NS Venkataraman*  Thousands of litigations and cases are pending in lower, middle and apex courts in India for several years. Some of the cases have been pending for over ten years without judgement being delivered. The ground reality is that after completion of hearing , judges take long time to deliver the judgement. Apart from this, stay orders are frequently given by the higher court over the judgement delivered by the lower courts. Further, several hearings are delayed due to adjournment, etc.

Why is Australian Prime Minister Albanese mouthing platitudes on Julian Assange?

By John Pilger*  I have known Julian Assange since I first interviewed him in London in 2010. I immediately liked his dry, dark sense of humour, often dispensed with an infectious giggle. He is a proud outsider: sharp and thoughtful. We have become friends, and I have sat in many courtrooms listening to the tribunes of the state try to silence him and his moral revolution in journalism.

American capitalist crisis and invasion of Iraq: remembering 20th anniversary of Iraq war

By Harsh Thakor  On March 20, we commemorated the 20th anniversary of one of the blackest moments in history. The War of Iraq by the United States is an event that will be inscribed in black letters forever. Hundreds of millions of people in every part of the world revolted to the bloodbath of a merciless military power shattering a small and defenceless country. The invasion of Iraq was an imperialist war in the classic sense of the term: a barbaric act of aggression that manifested the interests of the most reactionary and predatory sections of the financial and corporate oligarchy in the United States. Its immediate purpose was s the establishment of monopoly over Iraq’s vast oil resources and converting that long-oppressed country to an American colonial protectorate.