My Columns: Without Fear and Favour

Outcome of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s India Visit By  Deepak Parvatiyar September 8, 2014 Overseas bounties seem to be pouring in this monsoon for India. It began in July with the presidency of the new BRICS Bank to India, followed by the out-of-turn visit by US Secretary State John Kerry to New Delhi to facilitate a better chemistry between President Barrack Obama and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi before they meet in Washington later this month; and the USD 35 billion ( Rs 2,10,000 crore) pledge by Japan to invest in India over next five years for various developmental works, besides Japan lifting ban on six Indian companies including HAL during Modi’s visit to the country a few days ago. The latest in the line is the inking of the long-awaited Indo-Australia nuclear deal that allows the latter to sell uranium to India, during the recent two-day state visit of the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to New Delhi during 4-5 September 20...

Narendra Modi’s Teachers’ Day Speech By  Deepak Parvatiyar September 6, 2014 http://www.elections.in/blog/narendra-modis-teachers-day-speech/ Consider the impact that Narendra Modi’s Teachers’ Day address could have on young impressionistic minds of school going children! Wouldn’t it have a lasting impression? We have seen US President Barrack Obama interacting with students at St Xavier’s College, Mumbai during his India visit and we still remember it. Yet, Modi’s interaction with students is more ubiquitous because of his choice of the date – the Teachers’ Day! Modi’s Teachers’ Day Address :  Meticulous Exercise Wasn’t his live address to millions of students across the country through electronic mediums and digital technology a grand spectacle? It did require meticulous planning and swift execution and Modi effectively displayed that he is a great organiser of spectacular events. School timings were shifted when Modi addressed from New Delhi’s Mane...

Expectations from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s India Visit By  Deepak Parvatiyar September 5, 2014 Much is expected of the ensuing India visit of the Chinese President Xi Jinping both on strategic and economic fronts. Indian Commerce Minister Nirmala Seetharaman visited Beijing at the same time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Japan. India expects Jinping’s visit to pave the way for major Chinese investments in the country, while also hoping China to facilitate Indian IT services exports by removing the barriers. Border dispute between the two countries too are expected to figure in the summit meet. China High on India’s Agenda There is no doubt that China is crucial to the Modi government’s foreign policy. Vice President Hamid Ansari had visited Beijing in June this year (Seetharaman had accompanied Ansari to China then too). At that time both countries had signed a Memorandum of Understanding on facilitating Chinese industrial parks in India...

Significance of Narendra Modi’s Japan Visit By  Deepak Parvatiyar September 4, 2014 “Being a Gujarati, money is in my blood…commerce is in my blood.” Mark Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s words when he met top Japanese industrialists in Tokyo. Obviously, a Gujarati has a knack for business. Yet the point that needs to be underscored is that hard bargaining forms the core of his business sense. “Apvanu bhav su chhe?” (What is the right selling price?) – can be heard all through a bustling Gujarati market place. Twin Challenges of dealing with Japan and China It’s from Gujarat too, Ahmedabad-Mumbai railway corridor to be precise, that Modi has proposed to introduce Bullet trains in the country. The two countries that are wooing India to buy such trains are arch rivals Japan and China. Does it surprise anyone therefore, that at the time when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was busy offering the Japanese bullet train technology to Modi, India’s Commerce Minister N...

Sheila Dikshit : Will she return to Active Politics? By  Deepak Parvatiyar September 3, 2014 What a dramatic turnaround for the suave, erudite, mild mannered and urbane Sheila Dikshit, who not very long ago ruled for a decade and a half in the political firmament of Delhi with all her charm and ingenuity! Only last December, she led the Congress party to a humiliating defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections where the party could win only eight of the 70 seats. She herself lost ignominiously by about 25,000 votes to political greenhorn and Aam Aadmi Party’s maverick leader Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi elections. As if this was not enough, the Congress in Delhi was completely decimated and drew a blank in the national capital in the subsequent Lok Sabha elections. You may also like to read Sheila Dikshit Biography List of Governors of Kerala What the Stars Foretell Blame it on her stars that nothing seems to be going right for the lady in the last on...

Jan Dhan Yojana : A too Ambitious Scheme? By  Deepak Parvatiyar September 2, 2014 It was from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15 this year that Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in his maiden Independence Day speech his ambitious plan of financial inclusion, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). Following this announcement, the scheme was kicked off on August 28. The scheme is aimed at every habitation across India (barring hill states and the 82 Left-wing extremism-affected districts) to have a banking point — a bank or a banking correspondent — within a 5-km radius, by January 26, 2015. The rest of the country is to be covered by August 2016. Features of Jan Dhan Yojana Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana envisages a bank account, an ATM-enabled RuPay debit card to an estimated 10 crore unbanked households in the country. Besides, there are incentives to open the account such as: You may also like to read Narendra Modi's biography Nare...

Non Voters in India – why people abstain from voting ? By  Deepak Parvatiyar September 1, 2014 “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” Ancient Greece’s philosopher Plato’s saying still holds good. We take pride in India being a robust democracy. Yet, as a matter of concern, still a large population does not vote in the elections. A casual look at figures suggest that on an average around forty percent voters don’t turn up for voting in a general election in India. This trend has prevailed right from the very first general elections in the country in 1952 when the total voters’ turnout was 61 percent. The 2004 elections – which were contested on the then ruling National Democratic Front’s ‘India Shining’ plank – saw the lowest voters’ turnout with an abysmal 48.74 percent. The highest turnout registered in a single general election was when 66.38 per cent of voters exercised their right in the last 2014 general elec...