The Government of Maharashtra’s decision to issue an ordinance against various aspects of religious blind faith is an absolutely welcome one. It gives a great honour to the efforts and sacrifice made by Narendra Dabholkar.
In his interesting article (“From Trickle Down to Leapfrog”, EPW, 15 June 2013), Frederic Landy proposes a subsidy scheme for dry land farmers growing organic food. This is a good idea but its objective can also be achieved by involving the private corporate sector.
There have been several articles for and against genetically modified (GM) crops in journals around the world, including the EPW. This debate can be viewed in terms of a recent book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb entitled Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder.
Two recent news items suggest that India has a lot to learn from the east Asian countries like China and Japan. The first one is about Minister for Rural Development and Sanitation Jairam Ramesh’s statement on 27 July that the Indian rail is the world’s largest “open toilet”.
The commentary on “Rio+20: What Is at Stake” by T Jayaraman, Divya Singh Kohli and Shruti Mittal (EPW, 9 June 2012) misses one point, and that is, a country like India should think beyond its borders demarcated by land.
Last month’s beef festival in Osmania University has opened up a new a venue for a national level policy in the livestock sector, in particular, as it relates to the demand and supply of beef, and related economics.
Thomas Weisskopf’s concern for equity (“Why Worry about Inequality in the Booming Indian Economy?”, EPW, 19 November 2011) shows that India needs to “walk on two legs” of growth and equity.
Ashok Mitra’s review of Sulabha Brahme’s book on D R Gadgil’s writings discusses two icons of India, Prasant Chandra Mahalanobis and Dhananjayrao Gadgil (EPW, 15 October 2011).
The election results from Bihar clearly show that people have voted in favour of a political alliance which offers better hopes for the future than the other political parties which were just bent on criticising Nitish Kumar’s government.
I read the insightful article by Nasir Tyabji, “Private Industry and the Second Five-Year Plan: The Mundhra Episode as Exemplar of Capitalist Myopia” (EPW, 7 August), with great interest.
