Gorakhpur: A New Dawn Awaited

On my this May’s visit to Gorakhpur, an Eastern Uttar Pradesh city where I spent the first 23 years of my life, what welcomed me there amidst many things – usual and unusual –were memories that had been quiescent, with sporadic remissions, but this confrontation with the place – streets, shops, colleges, schools, the University, vendors, hospitals, libraries and above all individuals – brought a somewhat cumulatively animated revival and reminder of the past. A visit to the past makes one judge how far societies have moved; how matured, well-behaved they have become.

Role Of Technology For Lawyers

The world has undergone immense technological changes in the last decade. It is, therefore, easy to appreciate the significance of Information Technology for the world of lawyers. The way people live and work no doubt affects the administration of justice in this changing world.

Judicial Reforms Key To India's Development

The Indian judiciary is clogged with pending cases, a poor infrastructure and unfilled staff vacancies at its various levels. The lower courts have a backlog of 20 million cases and higher courts also have a large pendency. As per an analysis, even if Judges dispose of 100 cases per hour without any break, it may take still 35 years to catch up. The general impression is that the, poor remain deprived of justice under the existing judicial process which is time consuming and expensive. The executive wing is also responsible for not properly executing Government plans and judicial decisions of the higher courts.

Modi's ' make in India' & What Is Going Wrong With PSUs?

The year was 1930. The Great Depression had hit hard the world’s wealthiest and the mightiest nation, the United States of America.

After the Congress roadshow...

Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s Varanasi roadshow in August was important for more than one reason for both the party and its leaders. Banished from Uttar Pradesh governance for 27 long years, the Congress has been praying for an opportunity and a window that could start the process of its recovery and being relevant in State Assembly elections in 2017. A Bureaucracy Today report.

The Evolution of Fashion Retail in India

Organised retailing in India registered remarkable growth in the last decade owing to favourable demographics, growing consumer aspirations and brand consciousness. Correspondingly, the fashion category has a profound transformation over the years in terms of types and positioning of brands, formats, products and emergence of new players. The depth and variety of fashion brands took a quantum jump in shopping malls across all the sub-categories, including apparels, footwear, bags and accessories. Fashion retailers not only expanded in metros but also moved into Tier II and III cities as organised retail spaces started mushrooming in smaller towns.

Of Legal Quagmire and an Honest Bureaucrat

On august 16, 2016, the news of former coal secretary Hc Gupta, an accused in several coal scam cases, seeking to withdraw his personal bond to secure bail due to financial difficulties shook the entire bureaucracy. a week later, on august 27, he withdrew his petition seeking to take back his bail bond and agreed to “follow the normal legal procedure and practices”. observers opine that Gupta’s case is not just an incident of an “honest officer” finding himself unable to bear the huge cost of fighting litigation but it reflects “the deep-rooted malaise” in the indian administrative system which gives no protection to upright bureaucrats who are left all alone to fend for themselves for restoring their dignity and reputation. the incident, bureaucrats say, will demoralise officers to take any decision which will be detrimental to national interest. a Bureaucracy Today report.

The Good, Bad And Ugly Of IAS Coaching Business In India

Do you really have any idea of the number of IAS coaching institutes in India? While revising my book, How to Get Government Jobs? to make it a new avatar as How to Get into IAS?, I had to do research on the Internet for 10 days or so to know how many IAS coaching centres are in our country? I knew only a few established IAS coaching institutes. I was at my wits’ end when I compiled for the first time a Statewise allIndia list of IAS coaching centres of different nomenclatures and breeds operating in the country.

When Russian Deputy PM Invites An India-Origin UK Lawyer To Economic Forum Meet

In the recently held St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) meeting in Russia, the global fraternity saw India’s rising power through strategic linkages with various nations. India was the “Guest Country” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi the “Guest of Honour” this year. So it was a moment of honour and pride for Sarosh Zaiwalla, an India-born British lawyer and founder of a UK-based legal firm, Zaiwalla & Co, when he got an invite from the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Sergei Prikhodko, to attend the prestigious conclave.

'Enormous Business Opportunities in Govt Sector'

The Japanese-origin Hitachi Data Systems has been involved with several e-governance initiatives in India. In an interaction with Bureaucracy Today, Srinivas Rao, Sales Director, Government Sector, Hitachi Data Systems (India), talks about how the company is helping India transform into a digital nation.

If Govt Policy Measures Are Correct, Indian Farmers Can Become Lenders

There are no two opinions that since Independence, Indian farmers have been trapped in debt due to the wrong Government policies and natural calamities. An analysis.

Why Disinvesting The 'Maharajah'?

On June 28, 2017, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave its in-principle approval for considering the strategic disinvestment of Air India and five of its subsidiaries. This announcement gave birth to a question as to how a strategic sale of AI shares or their sale through stock market will be carried out.

Bringing Growth, Ingenuity, Experience For Doubling Farmer's Income

Year 2014 onwards, India achieved an all time record production of foodgrains (more than five times since Independence) and is now a food-secure nation. In terms of total production in the world, India is first in total pulses and second in wheat, rice, sugarcane, tea, cotton (lint), vegetables and fruit. However, per hectare yields in India are far behind those in many other countries. In the case of rice and wheat, China’s average yield is nearly double and 1.6 times more respectively. In the USA, the fruit yield is even more than double than that of India. Further, there are wide yield variations amongst the Indian States and within a State. The foodgrain productivity of Punjab in 2013-14 was more than two times the all India average yield and 3.7 times more than that of Maharashtra. Therefore, the farmer’s income per hectare of cropped area at present is quite less.

Expedite Subsidy Reforms

After protracted wrangling, members of the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed on November 30, 2016 to reduce their combined output by 1.2 million barrels a day. Likewise, 11 non-OPEC countries led by Russia decided on December 10, 2016 to knock off over 550,000 barrels from their supplies. The agreement is effective from January 1, 2017. These developments need to be viewed in the backdrop of a steep drop in the price of crude from its peak of US$ 114 per barrel in mid-2014 to US$ 27 per barrel in February, 2016 and had recovered only marginally to US$ 40 per barrel by November-end. The price of LNG which follows the trend in crude also plummeted from a high of US$ 13-14 per mBtu (million British thermal units) to USD 6.5-7 per mBtu during the same period.

Challenges of ‘Skilling' India

India enjoys a demographic dividend where more than 60 percent of its population is in the working age group. The youth bulge presents an opportunity for India to enhance its growth and also supply skilled manpower to the rest of the world. According to a World Bank report, this is because India’s working age population will be more than the dependent population for at least three decades till 2040

Loopholes In India's Education Policy And The Way Ahead

The Indian education system today is all about studying and not learning. The question one can ask is, are we doing what we intend to? 

The Entrepreneur Who Broke The Glass Ceiling

In the male-dominated communications industry of the United Kingdom, it needs iron will for a woman, that too of an Indian origin, to make a mark. And Natasha Mudhar has done just that. At a young age of 33, she is heading the globally renowned, multi-awardwinning business and communications consultancy, Sterling Media, as its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director. In an interaction with Bureaucracy Today, Mudhar shares her life’s mantra, the projects she is handling, her most challenging assignments as well as how she has coped with gender issues.

The man Behind the Successful Crackdown on Black Money Syndicate

Taking India a step closer towards making it a fully tax-compliant nation and unravelling the thick layers of the tax evasion circle, an Indian revenue Service officer, Dhruva Purari Singh, took upon himself the task of conducting a project based investigation under which he collected the database of money launderers, identified bogus companies and conducted a nationwide search to turn the “income Disclosure Scheme, 2016” into a grand success. While the nation was aware as to how Prime Minister Narendra Modi cracked a whip on tax defaulters, not many Indians knew about the intricacies of the undertaking by Dhruva Purari which makes it all the more pertinent to put him on the Cover Page of Bureaucracy Today.

Restructuring Entrepreneurship And Employment System

With every passing year, the Skill India Mission is taking steps forward in strengthening its skilling agenda in collaboration with industries, training partners and other stakeholders. Important steps which have brought some groundbreaking changes include the PMKVY scheme and the establishment of multi skill centres, the introduction of vocational programmes at government schools and the implementation of the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) that standardizes the quality of training and connects with job roles in the industry. Based on the NSQF individuals can progress through education and training with multiple entry and exit options since the Framework paves the way for interoperability. A large amount of money and energy has been invested in the skilling and vocational education which in our country is still at the nascent stage. However, much more is desired to give it a sharper edge and greater quality, especially in terms of developing pedagogic procedures and implementation at the ground level.

It Takes Hercules To Cleanse Augean Stables, Mr FM

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s this year’s budget speech lacked the fireworks that some might have expected. However, he managed to beat the monotony by raising the issue of political funding and proposing initiatives to cleanse its Augean stables in India. The initiatives do reveal the positive intent of the Government to introduce transparency in a system which presently remains shrouded in clandestine opaqueness. However, the policy proposals of the Finance Minister fail to pass muster and it would not require too much of an insight to pronounce a verdict: “too little and too misdirected”.

A Strong Case For Chennai's Rental Housing Market

Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, has grown exponentially in recent decades. Employment, education, opportunities and lifestyle are the magnets that keep pulling people into Chennai from all directions of India. This naturally has a profound impact on the demand for rental housing in the city.

PCMC Townships Save The Day For Pune's Home Buyers

Townships are a new property mantra in India, and for the bigger cities they’re without any doubt the sole remaining hope for good quality living standards. Slowly but surely, the residential quality of life in cities like Pune is on the decrease, and township property is rightfully getting increasing importance as the most logical response to the increasing need for quality-based living.

Cracking down on dodgy developers

In recent times, the Indian real estate developer community has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. The good news is that the “black sheep” of this family are being brought to book, simultaneously increasing the contrast between unscrupulous operators and transparent, honest builders who have hard-won reputations to protect. The fact that law is coming down heavily on unreliable builders is very positive, as it prevents the entire community from getting maligned. Also, consumers now know that their grievances will be heard and acted upon.

Making Indian Steel Industry An Investment Hub

While dedicating the rs 12,000-crore expansion project at the SaIl’s rourkela Steel Plant to the nation on april 2015, Prime Minister narendra Modi had asked the Indian steel industry to boost its production to surpass china and ensure quality which attracts global attention. “We must go to the top,” Modi had said. now two years down the line, the Indian steel sector is all set for a boom with the initiatives being taken by the Steel Ministry to realise PM Modi’s dream of a self-reliant nation. In a conversation with Bureaucracy Today, Union Steel Minister chaudhary Birender Singh and Steel Secretary aruna Sharma share how the Ministry is leading the sector to a fast-paced growth and striving to give it a massive makeover.

Tips For Investing In Rental Property

From the initial choice of having rental property to really purchasing the first one as an investment, there’s plenty of planning and work involved. Buying rental property should be approached with a lot of circumspection and forethought so as to get an optimal return and avoid a serious financial setback resulting from a wrongly chosen piece of property. There are a number of aspects to be considered when looking for income-generating property.

Bridge Between Hunger & Food Security

It is a matter of pride for all of us that India has become the fifth largest exporter of agricultural commodities. But it is home to 1,946 lakh crore undernourished people too, the highest in the world, according to the annual report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. This translates into over 15 per cent of India’s population, exceeding China in both absolute numbers and proportion of malnourished people in the country’s population. India’s gross domestic product grew 7.6 per cent in 2015-16 but this higher economic growth has not been fully translated into higher food consumption. 

Where Indians are Investing Today?

Traditionally, there has been a high affinity for having physical assets such as precious metals, jewellery and real estate among Indians which started changing quite rapidly over the last decade. The reasons are varied. One important factor playing a role here has been the increased penetration of financial instruments tapping people living even in remote villages. The result is: the“only store of value”feature offered by physical assets is fast disappearing.

Has Bureaucracy Failed Narendra Modi?

The ambitious Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, which was officially launched on October 2, 2014 amid much fanfare with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself cleaning the road with a broom at Rajghat in New Delhi, was seen as a harbinger of change which would influence the behaviour of millions of Indians who are notoriously known for dumping their wastes in public places. For months, bureaucrats wielding the broom also continued to dominate the media space. However, over two years since the campaign was launched, the cleanliness zeal, it seems, has taken a backseat. A reality check done by Bureaucracy Today in Shastri Bhawan in Lutyens’ Delhi which houses major Central Ministries indicates that those in the corridors of power are not readying themselves to become part of a new, clean and swanky India.

CRWC Plans to Diversify From Its Traditional Warehousing

Giving a boost to railside warehousing operations in India, the Central Railside Warehouse Company Ltd, a subsidiary of the Central Warehousing Corporation, is planning to set up 10 warehouses at railheads to store commodities besides upgrading its existing 19 warehousing complexes in India for Rs 200 crore. In a conversation with Bureaucracy Today, KU Thankachen, Managing Director of the CRWC, talks about its expansion plans.

‘Gems and Jewellery Industry Lacks Proper Training Network in India'

The Government and the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship have taken several skill development measures such as the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna (PMKVY) and created a benchmark at the national level for skilling in India. However, artisans in the gems and jewellery industry who contribute majorly to the jewellery creation process lack certifications and are struggling to make their both ends meet. In a conversation with Bureaucracy Today, Binit Bhatt, Chief Operating Officer of the Gem and Jewellery Skill Council of India, talks about skills in this industry.