काउंटरव्यू

By Shubhangi Rai, Megha Gupta, Fawzia Tarannum, Mansee Bal Bhargava Looking into the last century, water resources management have come a long way from the living with water in the villages to the nimbyism and capitalism in the cities to coming full cycle with room for water in the villages. With the climate change induced water crisis, the focus on conservation and management of water resources if furthered in both national and local agenda. The Water management 2021 report by NITI Aayog acknowledges that water and sustainability are of immense importance for the sustenance of life on earth. Water is intricately linked to the health, food security and livelihood. With business as usual, India’s water availability will only be enough to meet 50% of its total demand and 40% of the population in India will have no access to drinking water and sanitation by 2030 . Its Composite Water Management Index 2021 states that ‘India is suffering from the worst water crisis in its history and mil

By Harasankar Adhikari Rabindranath Tagore (1908) said, "Patriotism can’t be our final spiritual shelter. "I will not buy glass for a diamond, and I will never let patriotism triumph over humanity as long as I live." Tagore’s view stands in sharp contrast to what we are witnessing today, when patriotism means religious differences between the majority (Hindu) and minority (Muslim). Our secular nation is gradually disobeying its secular nature and it is being patronised by political leaders and their narrow politics. India’s unique character of ‘unity in diversity’ is trying to be saffronised. Hindu extremism (Hindutvavadis) generates a culture of religious intolerance. Democratic India is based upon the ideology of equality of all. This nation is based upon different foundations than most of those which went before it. Its legitimacy lies in its being able to satisfy its various component communities that their interests will be safeguarded by the Indian state

By Bharat Dogra* May 28 was the 92nd death anniversary of Bhagwati Charan Vohra who sacrificed his life in 1930 at the age of only 25 while making preparations for rescuing Bhagat Singh from jail. As he was preparing for his own martyrdom in jail, Bhagat Singh paid very rich tributes to the great sacrifices of Bhagwati Charan Vohra in the course of his numerous activities relating to the freedom movement. Bhagwati came from a very rich family, in fact he was perhaps the wealthiest among his many comrades in the revolutionary movement as a result of his family background. Yet right from his teen years he did not show any interest in enjoying this wealth and instead was always inclined towards the freedom movement. At the age of only 16 he was an enthusiastic participant in the non-cooperation movement started by Mahatma Gandhi. Due to the wide prevalence of child marriage in those times, even before this he was married to Durga at the insiste

By NS Venkataraman* On 2584th Birth Anniversary of Gautama Buddha on 16th May,2022 ( Buddha Purnima day), I was all the time introspecting about Buddhist philosophy and inevitably started thinking about the great Buddhist country Tibet , which is now undergoing a stressful time. When thinking about Buddhist philosophy, I could not but think about respected the Dalai Lama, who is the greatest Buddhist philosopher today in the world and who loves everyone and who does not hate anyone including those leaders in the Chinese government who have done the greatest harm to him and to Tibet. Now, respected the Dalai Lama remains as a standing monument of Tibetan spirit, which reflects love, peace and unbending struggle for truth and harmony not only in Tibet but all over the world I realized that while China can physically occupy Tibet region, China cannot destroy the spirit of Tibet, which is reflected by the mindset of Tibetans who are hoping against hope that a day would come

By Bharat Dogra It is a true mark of greatness if what a leader struggles to achieve in his lifetime is widely realized to be even more valuable in the years or decades after he has left the world. This is exactly how Jawaharlal Nehru is being remembered by more and more people of his country, despite a persistent tendency on the part of the present right-wing government to deny the greatness of his achievements and legacy. At a wider level the world also increasingly remembers the importance of his legacy of non-alignment and the highly relevant, although not perfect, efforts to combine democracy and peace with spread of socialist ideas in a country where deeply conservative ideas still held deep roots among a large number of people. Nehru was the Prime Minister of India for the first 17 years following independence in 1947 from nearly two centuries of British rule. In fact he remained a very popular Prime Minister till his death on May 27, 1964 from a heart attack, winning three gene

By Gopal Krishna  The total estimated budget of the biometric UID/Aadhaar number project and its cost: benefit analysis has not been disclosed till date. Unless the total estimated budget of the project is revealed, all claims of benefits are suspect and untrustworthy. How can one know about total savings unless the total cost is disclosed? Can limited audit of continuing expenditure of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), an instrumentality of Union of India be deemed a substitute for total estimated budget of the biometric UID/Aadhaar number project of UIDAI? It has been admitted by CAG that the audit of functioning of the UIDAI is partial because of non-transparency. The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India arising from performance audit of functioning of the UIDAI for the period from 2014-15 to 2018-19 is incomplete because it is based on statistical information “to the extent as furnished by UIDAI” upto March 2021. There is also a need to compa