My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

Poetry and diplomacy combine ambiguity and brevity: Diplomat Abhay Kumar Abhay Kumar speaks about the poetry-diplomacy connect and how poetry is an effective diplomatic tool Deepak Parvatiyar | May 9, 2018 This interview was published in Governance Now magazine https://www.governancenow.com/views/interview/poetry-and-diplomacy-combine-ambiguity-and-brevity-diplomat-abhay-kumar   Photo: Facebook/Abhay Kumar Abhay Kumar is a poet and a diplomat, a 2003 batch officer of the Indian Foreign Service, now serving as India’s deputy chief of mission in Brazil. He edited 100 Great Indian Poems, an anthology that was published in February and is being translated into Portuguese. He is also known for the Earth Anthem, which he penned in 2008. It was set to music in 2013 and recorded in eight languages. The Symphonic Orchestra of the National Theatre of Brasilia recently performed the anthem in English and Portuguese. In an interview with Deepak Parvatiyar in Brasilia, Abh

Act or Perish: Message from Brasilia is loud and clear As water crisis looms large across nations, creating water-secure societies is the need of the hour Deepak Parvatiyar | March 30, 2018 This article was published in Governance Now Magazine http://www.governancenow.com/news/regular-story/act-or-perish-message-from-brasilia-is-loud-and-clear Photo courtesy: Twitter/WaterForum8 On the eve of the 8th World Water Forum (WWF), held in March, social media was abuzz with ‘news’ that the Brazilian government had handed over its two large aquifers to private companies – Coca Cola and Nestle. This raised the concerns of water conservationists across the globe and led to signature campaigns on the social media against such a move. There were fears that the move would further hasten the process of commodification of water – an issue that water activists have been concerned about particularly after they labelled the World Water Council (WWC), which organises the WWF eve