Open Forum

Open Letter on Heritage & Community Perspectives on (Rajpath) Central Vista Avenue, New Delhi, to the Central Public Works Department, CPWD, New Delhi.  *** Observations and Suggestions from master students of Sustainable Architecture (Heritage and Community Perspectives) at Central University of Rajasthan, with course coordinator Dr. Mansee Bal Bhargava on the proposed Re/development of (Rajpath) Central Vista Avenue project in New Delhi*: We are a group of students from Central University of Rajasthan, pursuing our Masters in Sustainable Architecture where in First semester we are learning about Heritage and Community Perspectives taught by Prof. dr. Mansee Bal Bhargava. It is because of the alignment of the course and the nature of the Rajpath Central Vista Avenue project we are motivated to submit our observations and suggestions on the re/development plan as invited by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD). The public attention on the re/development plan of the Central Vi

In conversation with human rights defender Vidya Bhushan Rawat , former United Nations diplomat Bruce H Moore, who has served as boards of several NGOs and institutes, including Transparency International Canada, Institute for Global Food Security at the McGill University, Canadians for Tax Fairness, Forum for Democratic Global Governance and the Huairou Commission (an international alliance of grassroots women’s organizations), speaks about growing inequality and food crisis in the post-Covid world.

Maharashtra tops justice delivery in India, southern states dominate ranking 29% judges are women, in High Courts only 11.4% 2/3rd inmates are undertrials, says the second edition of the India Justice Report. A note: *** The second edition of the India Justice Report (IJR), India’s only ranking of states on delivery of Justice to people ranks Maharashtra once again at the top of the 18 Large and Mid-sized states (with population of over one crore each), followed by Tamil Nadu (2019: 3rd), Telangana (2019: 11th) Punjab (2019: 4th) and Kerala (2019: 2nd). The list of seven Small States (population less than one crore each) was topped by Tripura (2019: 7th), followed by Sikkim (2019: 2nd) and Goa (2019: 3rd). The India Justice Report (IJR) is an initiative of Tata Trusts in collaboration with Centre for Social Justice, Common Cause, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, DAKSH, TISS–Prayas, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and How India Lives. The maiden IJR was announced in 2019. Through a r

Amidst Government of India seeking to retaliate Chinese aggression of Ladakh by banning mobile apps in order to create an anti-China sentiment among people, an official Chinese site has claimed that not only India’s “radical” scholars are misleading India on its northern neighbour, "Chinese products took 18.3 percent of India's total imports from April to September 2020, up from 14.6 percent in the same period in 2019..."

Was Marx influenced by his Jewish background? It would seem so, if one believes Shlomo Avineri’s book Karl Marx: Philosophy and Revolution . Praised for his “sympathetic and thoughtful interpretation of Karl Marx's view of religion”, Avineri says in his book, "Merely criticizing religion, without trying to identify the concrete social conditions that give rise to it, is to Marx shadow boxing, and unlike many other radicals, he finds it a waste of time.”

By Pramod Ranjan* The world’s biggest messenger company, WhatsApp, is the midst of a big row. Before dwelling deeper into the issue, let us have an overview of what is being said in the matter. On 4 January 2021, WhatsApp issued its new terms of service which said that henceforth the data of WhatsApp users would be shared with five companies associated with its parent outfit, Facebook, and that the services to users who do not consent to the new terms by February 9, would be disconnected. The notice sent the world into a tizzy. The Indian educated class, which is growing increasingly protective of its privacy, came out with a quick and sharp reaction. And this was not unexpected. As on February 2020, the number of WhatsApp users in the world had crossed two billion with Indians accounting for the highest number of its users. About 40 percent of Indians use this digital messenger. As media took cognizance of the new development, WhatsApp groups started getting crammed with messages

At least 16 RTI activists have been killed in Maharashtra since 2010. Their fault — they used RTI to unearth corruption, misuse of public funds and exposed horsetrading of elected representatives among other things. How did the criminal justice system respond to this phenomenon? Veteran journalists, Vinita Deshmukh and Prasanna Kumar Keskar investigated the lives and deaths of 13 RTI activists who paid the price for transparency with their lives. Excerpts from the report “Life and Death in the Time of RTI: Case Studies from Maharashtra”*, a Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) publication: Maharashtra has the dubious distinction of reporting the highest number of attacks on citizens and activists who use RTI to make government agencies more transparent and accountable. At least 36 instances of assaults and attacks on and 41 cases of harassment of or threats to citizens using RTI have been reported by the media. At least 16 alleged murders have been linked to RTI activism of the

Excerpts from the Policy Brief on Girls’ Education by Right to Education (RTE) Forum: The Right to Education Act in India was a major turning point for school education, it made education a fundamental right for children in the age group 6 to 14. The Act brought positive changes in the school education system which also benefitted girls. Through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the umbrella scheme for implementation of RTE Act, critical barriers like access and inclusion were addressed to a large extent, this led to increase in enrolment at both the primary and upper primary level. Along with this, schemes like Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and National Scheme of Incentives to Girls for Secondary Education emphasized secondary education of girls through scholarships, subsidies and incentives. With the introduction of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao in 2014 a renewed emphasis was given to education of girls. However, girls’ participation in secondary and higher secondary education, stark regional a