government | Asia News – Politics, Media, Education

Archives

Opinion: India’s Right to Education verdict opens the Pandora’s Box

By Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay Fri, Apr 13, 2012 1:59AM UTC View Comments

The decision of the Indian Supreme Court in upholding the constitutional validity of the Right to Education Act, which mandates 25 percent free seats to the poor in government and private unaided schools uniformly across the country, underscores a basic contradiction in governance for the past several years. The political compulsions of the Congress has...

Read Full Story ›

India: The Trivedi balance sheet – who gains, who loses

By Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay Tue, Mar 20, 2012 3:25AM UTC View Comments

Former Indian Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi. Pic: AP.

A week is a long time in politics, thus said British Premier Harold Wilson. It is particularly long when leaders weigh options, make new friends and prepare for strange bedfellows. Every minute becomes agonisingly long in times of coalitions – especially when the disparate lot of regional parties and smaller groups account for nearly 220...

Read Full Story ›

Japan: Disney Smartphones for a country running out of kids

By Anna Watanabe Thu, Feb 02, 2012 1:41PM UTC View Comments

Reports of child abuse have increased 40 times in the last 20 years. Picture: Flikr

Days after government estimates projected a pessimistic outlook for Japan’s steadily declining birthrate, both the corporate sector and Diet have made some surprising announcements. Monday’s results from the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry predicted almost half of Japan’s population will be aged 65 or over by 2060. But this hasn’t stopped mobile phone operator NTT...

Read Full Story ›

No depth: Shallow minds try barricading the web in India

By Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay Tue, Jan 17, 2012 3:15AM UTC View Comments

No one in India’s official establishment is comprehending the damage being done to its democratic credibility by the ham-handed manner in which content regulation of the Internet is being sought. Even in the mid-1990s when there were no laws worth their name to control the explosion of satellite television channels, the scenario had not resembled...

Read Full Story ›

Indian Parliament: Are disruptions a necessary evil?

By Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay Thu, Nov 24, 2011 3:33AM UTC View Comments

Two days into the Winter Session of Indian Parliament and calculations are doing the rounds. ‘Four crore rupees’ down the drain because of disruptions. Such a calculation has been made with unwavering consistency since I first stepped inside Parliament as a reporter way back in the early 1990s. It is only now that one realizes...

Read Full Story ›