A leading global management consulting firm working with more than three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500, as well as with government bodies and nonprofit organizations, has said that while vast majority of Indian businesses surveyed (91%) claim they have set targets to reach net zero, with 51% of them viewing these targets as “highly achievable”, ironically, most of them (78%) consider sustainability as a cost to business rather than opportunity.

    The gruesome  murder  of a Dalit youth allegedly for refusing to heed the order of high caste Rajputs not to "show off" by riding on his horse is all set to become a major embarrassment for the Supreme Court, which  ruled  recently that certain provisions the Prevention of Atrocities (POA) Act were being misused to "blackmail" innocent people. The only Dalit boy in the region to ride a horse, he was quite popular in his community.

  A new report by Paris-based non-governmental research and campaigning organization, Reclaim Finance, has blamed the MNC ArcelorMittal – formed in 2006 following the takeover and merger of the western European steel maker Arcelor (Spain, France, and Luxembourg) by Indian-owned Mittal Steel – for using use “climate destructive” metallurgical coal for its projects in India.

Today is Holi -- the day to "celebrate" the burning alive of a woman, Holika, who on being told by her brother Hiranyakashipu, an Asura king, to sit on pyre with his son Prahlad, a Lord Vishnu devotee. According to the legend, Hiranyakashipu plotted murder of his son Prahlad by  asking his sister Holika, draped in fire-resistant boon, to sit in bonfire with nephew Prahlad in her lap.  Hiranyakashipu did this to avenge his younger brother Hiranyaksha's death at the hands of Varaha, the avatar of Lord Vishnu. He didn't like Prahlad to be the devotee of Lord Vishnu, hence decided to kill the latter. However, Prahlad’s prayers to Lord Vishnu ensured that he was safe from the deadly flames, while Holika caught fire.  Whatever the legend, the very idea of celebrating the burning of a woman appears despicable. While there have been several interpretations of the legend -- with some stating that being an Asura was equivalent to Dalit , while others claiming Holika was a Brahm...

I was a little amused on reading an Al Jazeera piece  -- a scoop actually -- which says that ahead of elections the Modi government is all set to come up with its own democracy and freedom index vis-a-vis other countries. The story has been quotes by Hindustan Times, from where I first read about it. It is doing so after several international think tanks ranked India poorly -- a ranking which has been nose diving ever since Modi took over the reign in May 2014. The think tank "hired" is Observer Research Foundation (ORF), which, says the report, has worked closely with External Affairs Ministry and Niti Aayog, among others. While the Al Jazeera story made good reading, what it refuses to say is who owns ORF. I don't know why it omitted its name. I have known about ORF ever since RK Mishra, my former Patriot editor, who later became editor-in-chief of Business and Political Obsever (BPO), majorly  owned by Reliance , was made ORF chairman after BPO collapsed. R...

  A coalition of human rights organizations in the United States have filed a  complaint  with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as well as the attorney generals of Texas and Mississippi, calling for an investigation into the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation (GHHF), a Texas-based Hindu far-right hate group. GHHF activities should be precluded “from receiving tax-exempt status” as its “hateful activities fall well outside the scope of those governing charitable or religious institutions”, said a media communique issued by the coalition.

Amidst raging controversy over whether the latest Government of India’s “Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2022-23 Fact Sheet: August 2022-July 2023” suggests that India’s poverty levels are actually  down to 4.5 to 5%  during the decade-long Narendra Modi rule, a state-wise breakup in the 27-page  document  shows that “model” Gujarat’s average consumption expenditure is far below most of the so-called developed states.