What Deepak Read

The Warning

2009-10-21T02:00:00Z

(60 minutes) In the devastating aftermath of the economic meltdown, FRONTLINE sifts the ashes for clues about why it happened and examines critical moments when it might have gone much differently. Looking back into the 1990s, veteran FRONTLINE producer/director Michael Kirk (Inside the Meltdown, Breaking the Bank) discovers early warnings of the crash, reveals an intense battle among high-ranking members of the Clinton administration, and uncovers a concerted effort not to regulate the emerging, highly complex, and lucrative derivatives markets, which would become the ticking time-bomb within the American economy.

Dear Kapil Sibal

2009-10-20T05:12:00Z

Dear Mr Sibal

I have always thought that the IITs are the glowing successes of India’s educational system. Equally, I believe that the regular schooling system, including the Class X and Class XII boards, are #FAIL.

That is why I am rather surprised at your ministry’s proposal that it be mandatory for IIT entrants to score at least 80% in their Class XII board exams. They already have to work hard enough for the JEE, which seems to have served its purpose for generations now. Why add to their stress?

It’s been reported that your reason for doing this is “to squeeze out the hundreds of coaching institutes who thrive by selling hope to unrealistic aspirants.” But why do those coaching institutes exist in the first place? It is because students find the existing education system to be inadequate. So why not fix that first? The coaching institutes won’t have a reason to exist then.

You must have heard of that old cliché, If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. Mr Sibal, what you’re trying to fix ain’t broken. Yet.

Regards

Amit Varma

More open letters here. And some essays by me on our education system:

Our Unlucky Children.
Fund Schooling, Not Schools.

The India Uncut Blog © 2007 Amit Varma. All rights reserved.
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Mission Not Accomplished

2009-10-02T04:00:00Z

Unless the government does much more than is currently planned to help the economy recover, the job market will remain terrible for years to come.

The New Sputnik

2009-09-27T04:00:00Z

China is embarking on a new, parallel path of clean power deployment and innovation. It is the Sputnik of our day. Unfortunately, we’re still not racing.

It’s Easy Being Green

2009-09-25T04:00:00Z

Saving the planet won’t come free (although the early stages of conservation actually might). But it won’t cost all that much either.

French Crack Down on Migrants

2009-09-28T08:15:00Z

Riot police remove migrants and demolish makeshift homes in the camp in northern France known as the 'jungle'.

Garfield 22.09.09

2009-09-22T06:00:00Z

Reform or Bust

2009-09-21T04:00:00Z

Putting limitations on how bankers are compensated is a populist idea, but it is also good politics and good economics.

Have a Nice Day

2009-09-16T04:00:00Z

China and Germany understand that prosperity and growth depend on nurturing a renewable energy industry. When will the United States?

A Better Way to Manage Receipts for Business Travel

2009-08-20T16:52:06Z

I know Neat Receipts is years old, and I probably should have covered it long ago. But people, I'm willing to come right out and say it: this thing has changed my life

When the moment passes

2009-08-20T16:00:00Z

Quitting a job can be sheer ecstasy. But what if joy is replaced by doubt? How then do you pull your cards back?

Going Jinnah’s way

2009-08-20T07:46:04Z

Jaswant Singh may well have embarked on a solitary journey to begin with, opines Jawed Naqvi.

‘The only way out for the BJP now is to split’

2009-08-20T07:32:35Z

Jyotirmaya Sharma, a professor in political studies at the University of Hyderabad and author of “Terrifying Vision”: M.S. Golwalkar, the RSS and India, in Mail Today:

“Jaswant Singh’s expulsion means very little for the BJP or its politics. If it has any significance, it is symbolic. It sends a message to the ageing leadership of the party to abandon ambition, retire gracefully and, maybe, write more books.

“Neither is it about a book nor about the book’s portrayal of Jinnah. Rather it is an assertion by the RSS that while it perceives the BJP not as its life-breath but merely an inspired organisation, everyone ought to be told who determines the orthodoxy….

“The only way out for the BJP is to split. A section of the party has to say goodbye to the wise old men from Nagpur and find a less fraught alternative than Hindutva. Periodic allegiance to Hindutva no longer finds resonance with the voters nor does it help with the allies.”

Worldcloud of today’s headlines: courtesy Wordle.net

Also read: ‘Only a vertical split in the BJP can save the BJP’

‘Don’t be afraid of the Taliban. They are already here’

Posted in Hindutva, Moditva, Issues and Ideas Tagged: BJP, Churumuri, Jaswant Singh, Jinnah, Jyotirmaya Sharma, M.S. Golwalkar, Mail Today, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Nagpur, RSS, sangh parivar, Sans Serif

‘A party inherently insecure and anti-intellectual’

2009-08-20T06:08:56Z

Pratap Bhanu Mehta in The Indian Express:

“In expelling Jaswant Singh the BJP has confirmed the fears of its worst critics: that the party is nothing but a party founded on endless resentment that makes it inherently insecure and anti-intellectual. Its nationalism is not the nationalism of a thinking party; it is a pinched-up nationalism that prefers caricature over complexity, conformism over thought. The party does not understand the first thing about its self-proclaimed heroes.

“Vajpayee once wrote, mujhe itni oonchaie kabhi mat dena, gairon ko gale na lago sakon, itni rukhai kabhi mat dena. It is a measure of how much the BJP has fallen that it can now not even embrace its own. The real greatness of Sardar Patel was that he could live with difference. Despite deep philosophical differences the personal and political bond between him and Nehru remained very strong. Even their mistakes and differences were not petty. But the BJP does the amazing feat of demonstrating that even its virtues have the odour of small-mindedness.”

Read the full article: Party to differences

Cartoon: courtesy E.P.Unny/ The Indian Express

Also read: ‘Advani offers nothing creative, only resentment’

Posted in Hindutva, Moditva, Issues and Ideas Tagged: Atal Behari Vajpayee, BJP, Churumuri, Jaswant Singh, Jawaharlal Nehru, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, RSS, sangh parivar, Sans Serif, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

Republican Death Trip

2009-08-14T04:00:00Z

President Obama had campaigned to move beyond divisive politics, but instead he is facing an opposition that eagerly seizes on every wild rumor manufactured by the right-wing media complex.

The Land of ‘No Service’

2009-08-16T04:00:00Z

While maintaining “No Service” in the wild is essential for Africa’s ecotourism industry, the rest of the continent desperately needs more connectivity if it is to prosper.

The Great Debator won’t take questions, thanks

2009-08-12T07:02:48Z

For months, Lalchand Kishinchand Advani and his tribe teased and taunted “weak, nikamma” Manmohan Singh for a public debate on television. But the shock defeat in the 2009 general elections and the searing criticism of his leadership have dented the debating skills of the Loh Purush beyond repair.

So much so, that at the BJP’s very private, untelevised chintan baithak in Shimla, neither Yashwant Sinha nor Arun Shourie, are “invitees”. Clearly, “the former future prime minister of India” has no interest to “debate” the two former Union ministers who had questions on the defeat.

Or does he?

E.P. Unny in The Indian Express

Also read: ‘The only person to blame for BJP defeat is Advani‘

The Great Debator ducks out of a TV interview

Eight questions for The Great Debator

Five more questions for The Great Debator

Posted in Issues and Ideas, Media Tagged: Arun Shourie, BJP, Churumuri, E.P. Unny, Indian Express, L.K. Advani, Loh Purush, Manmohan Singh, RSS, sangh parivar, Sans Serif, TV Debate, Yashwant Sinha

My owner’s first bike used to be a Kinetic Honda

2009-08-10T13:48:02Z

With their large, flat footboards, pets have a comfortable ride on many scooters. But on a motorcycle it is a different thing. Animal rights activists—dog bless them!—will, of course, put their heads in the petrol tank and ask why the poor animals must be subjected to such torture, but try telling that to this pet owner giving his dream girl a ride on Queen’s Road in Bangalore on Monday.

Photograph: Karnataka Photo News

Posted in Life Etcetera, Mysore-Bangalore Tagged: Animal Rights, Churumuri, Kinetic Honda, Queen's Road, Sans Serif

A Primer on the Details of Health Care Reform

2009-08-13T02:51:01Z

It can be difficult to sort fact from fiction in the raucous debate over health care reform. Here is a guide to the main issues.

Green Shoots in Palestine II

2009-08-09T04:00:00Z

For the first time since Oslo, there is an economic-security dynamic emerging on the ground in the West Bank that has the potential to lay the foundations for a Palestinian state.