Approval of projects to raise buildings, laying of roads, construction of bridges and other components under the broad umbrella called infrastructure, allocation of outlay, sanction of funds in stages of the projects’ progress (?) and finally conducting foundation-laying ceremony with one or the other Minister in the Cabinet of the State government, preferably the Chief…

The country’s literati, including the ever alert fraternity of analysts of its economic affairs and politically noisy ambience in all the regions, seem to have taken a holiday from writing articles on the two virtually dead topics namely, corruption and pollution. Other subjects that they have given a free run to their pens have been…

The classical economist Robert Malthus (1766-1834), influential in the fields of political economy and demography, is credited with the theory that population growth will always tend to outrun the food supply and betterment of human kind is impossible without stern limits on reproduction, a theory known as Malthusianism. He also postulated in his 1798 book…

Academic institutions at different levels of learning earn name and fame based on factors as diverse as chalk and cheese. Nalanda University of several centuries vintage continues to be portrayed as the topmost centre of learning globally but without citation of any other institution of its times being ranked on any accepted scale such as…

The advisory that one should take part in food in moderation (mitha) has very few takers. Eating for delight and not complying with the age-old diktat is a human frailty not observed in any species other than human beings. Birds, beasts, insects and aquatic creatures are speechless role models of assuaging their hunger without over-indulging…

India’s profile, and equally so the profile of its masses at large, is currently witnessing a change causing disenchantment to the seniors among the land’s citizenry. The subcontinent has been bestowed adoration in the past, often sounding poetic, by its scholarly writers as well as chroniclers coming from distant shores. Rulers in different regions of…

Idioms and proverbs that express a gospel truth in a concise manner are usually author-less. The caption for today’s column is traced to a collection of proverbs by John Ray (1627-1705), British Botanist and an accomplished naturalist, apart from being a philosopher and theologian. While many stories have drawn from the famed statement to signify…

Ancient scriptures of the land, particularly the voluminous texts of Sanskrit verses, much of which script is not attributed to any identified author, have come to later successive generations as a legacy through the process of passing on verbally, according to scholars. The four vedas figure prominently in that class of India’s ancient literature which…

Reports in both dailies and television channels highlighting corruption and cases of functionaries in the administration found, read discovered, with wealth in cash and kind disproportionate to their known sources of earnings having emerged on tsunami-like scale seem to have driven the people at large to the point of accepting the features as mere fait…

The land’s dailies of all hues may have run far short of their column space informing their readers about the cacophony generated by both netas and their chelas in a free-for-all game of everyone of them trying to outwit everyone else, leaving some sections of society in a state of disgust and the rest amused…