Urban Mirror

  The base issue to focus on, is not the division of the available opportunities, caste, community, colour, language, latitude, or, longitude wise, but on the creation of more and...

  Serious cases of murder, rioting, embezzlement, extortion etc continue to remain in an endless queue yet the cases of people with political God fathers or, Mr.Deep Pockets, continue to...

The brazen expenditure of crores of rupees in elections by various political parties and their candidates has become a norm. This truth cannot be denied now. The dominance of black...

  Recently a seminar was held in Nainital, a prominent hill-town, which is becoming unliveable for the permanent residents. The objective was to identify the reasons for the decline and...

  The people’s representative, elected (unfortunately?) by us believes that he/she, is a Don above all laws and regulations which apply to the common citizen. And the political parties, defeated...

The accomplishments of a ruling party may not be much to write home about, but, when neatly dressed smiling faces of the political leaders gaze at you from the front...

    As the youngest mountain range connected to half a dozen countries, affecting the geo-climate over a large region, the  little attention given to the integrated eco-friendly, development of...

The selection process of the judges through the Collegium system itself is a hush-hush affair and only the outcome is known to the public at large. On what grounds X...

    The logical question is that when money is extracted through illegal means to carry on the electoral campaigns of political parties -then in the eventuality of such illegal...

    The serious existential crisis looming over Mr. Kejariwal’s future as CM and his politics because of this excise scam is becoming graver every day. The facts which are...

  The comment that qualified hate speech was worrying as it indicated disturbing trend that has roiled the country in recent times. It is not only poisoning minds and polarising...

  The Opposition parties alliance named as INDIA has been stitched together with the same old tattered faces, tainted to the hilt, dyed with lack of integrity, devoid of morality...

  When political parties and politicians start spending billions of rupees to win elections, their proximity to money bags is the obvious outcome of this greatest sin in democracy. Hence ...

  The central and state Governments, in the light of the observations of Parliamentary standing committee, should immediately take corrective steps to bring the pattern of all the competitive exams...

  The culture of the blame game is all pervading. In the Parliament the opposition targets the government and blames it for the wrong policies being followed creating unrest, unemployment,...

  Even after seven decades of independence we remain bracketed in the category of corrupt nations and have failed miserably to provide clean, honest and efficient delivery and governance system...

      The unfortunate part of our nation’s life is that it remains deeply mired in all pervasive corruption and the worst sufferers consequently are the poor and marginalized...

  Anti student policies in admissions have pushed our education system to the brink of disaster and students are forced into the dragnet of flourishing coaching classes to qualify by...

Blowing hot and cold in the debates on supposed interference in religious precepts and practices, as well as, creating disturbances at the drop of a hat, on imagined affront to...

  The scams of the Delhi government exemplify the selfsame brazen looting. The story of 400 plus fake appointments by the current Delhi government is an astounding saga of lies...

  It is said that law is blind but in India, it appears, that it is colour blind. It recognises only black silk gowns and nothing else. There are any...

    The Kejriwal Government has spent Rs 1106.02 crore on advertisement, in the last three financial years which include Rs 297.70 crore in 2020-21; Rs 596.37 crore in 2021-22...

      Those castigating the current defection saga in Maharashtra need to reflect whether they were not, once upon a time, skilfully playing the same game of power grabbing....

        The preliminary examination of civil services exams conducted by UPSC has reached such a level of absurdity that now experts call these exams a kind of...

  In the ongoing violence in Manipur, the time has come to  expeditiously  end  the violence by acting impartially and taking stringent steps. Strong signals have to be sent to...

  While working in Uttar Pradesh, I came across several instances of medical college buildings built with hundreds of crores of rupees lying vacant. They had become the refuges of...

  Despite availability of these technological tools, it seems the system failed to adopt them to the optimum. This horrifying collision shows that the work on adoption of these technologies...

  The leaderless Muslim community under the control of Mullahs has already been politically marginalised during the last ten years and further caste division, as is evident glaringly, is threatening...

    The hackneyed slogans of garibi hatao , sarvajan hitaye, sabka vikas have failed to deliver to the populace which has been reduced to subsisting on doles and freebies...

  In the ongoing Karnataka election campaigns of contesting parties, it is back to caste, religion and freebies. Instead of debating the policies and programmes mentioned in their manifestos and...

    Today's Indian women are more literate and educated. They're enrolling in schools and colleges in greater numbers and staying in school longer than previous generations did. But that...

    In a highly criminalized electoral politics the pampering of criminals-turned politicians has assumed serious dimension with almost all political parties opening floodgates to criminals for electoral gains. In...

    Increasing the upper age limit for women candidates for competitive exams like Civil Services Exams etc to 35 years would be a first step in this direction which...

    The incompetence and inefficiency of the police administration is always blamed for such turbulences when the fact is that the police administration can control any situation if allowed...

  The unfortunate part of “history rewriting spree” is that it doesn’t serve national interest in any way. Ignoring true history and distorting it to serve the narrow political ends...

Corruption preponderates in our governance system and  taints public life. Our nation is governed  by the “rule of law” but in practice, it remains limited to being  on paper only....

  Rahul Gandhi has contented that the opposition is not allowed to raise issues in the Parliament and he is not given a chance to speak. The parliamentary records speak...

There is an urgent need to take corrective steps to change the deplorable conditions. For that it is essential that principled leaders start working indefatigably in the interests of the...

    The irony is that most of the leaders who have occupied prominent positions in our country have been so self- centered that after attaining power they have negated...

With the high and the mighty, transgressing the approved and accepted framework of law, laid down rules, regulations, and, procedures, wrong signals go to the common people. And, soon enough...

  The bed-rock of democratic governance is discipline. And, if the bed-rock, the very foundation, is missing all the structures, the legislature, the executive, and, the judiciary collapse, like a...

  To win elections the political parties find it easier to raise emotions and promise sops rather than put forth concrete program of development and outline the formidable efforts required....

  Opposition for opposition’s sake has been the guiding principle of political parties, and, frivolous, half true, and false statements, their main tools to create mountains out of mole hills....

    The yawning chasm between the rich and poor in visible everywhere in our country. It is callous that our ruling class and the well to do in our...

  To destroy a nation all one needs to do is to destroy the youth. The impressionable young minds can be easily programmed to accept illusion for reality, and perceive...

   Any system of governance which is devoid of truth and morality is bound to aggravate the misery of the people whom they govern. This all-pervading amoral culture of mal-...

    As the state of the nation supervisor, the media has immense responsibility since every wrong reporting, can and does, more often than not, lead to grave consequences soon...

In recent years, there has developed the common perception, that the guardians of the constitution, the Hon’ble Courts,  seem to be over reaching the functions and powers enshrined for them...

For the last several decades saving the environment has been the burning topic of the day, and, one international conference after another is being held in one country or the...

  A minuscule of officers dispose off the files in time, and, answer letters in time, however, the majority sits on the files, does not answer or even acknowledge letters...

  Stopping such Fellowships and such other rewards and fellowships will certainly demoralize deserving youth and deprive them of the consequential monetary support and adversely impact the nation’s march towards...

  History is a chronicle of man’s deeds and misdeeds, achievements and failures, kindness and cruelty. The only purpose of the study of history is for the people to learn,...

Maha Upnishad, holds that, the world is a family and Brihadaranyaka  upnishad prayer is, lead me from darkness to light. These, and, any number more, are the nuggets of gold,...

   The country has failed to recognize that the all-pervading corruption in all kinds of construction activities is at the root of these problems. Bridges do not fall on their...

  During my tenure in HRD ministry a paper on neighborhood school concept was prepared and a former Union Education Secretary was tasked to study this scheme and come up...

    The decades of inept leadership which has mired this great nation in the cesspool of corruption, poverty and deprivations of all kinds. These incompetent, visionless, corrupt, avaricious leaders...

  Despite a road map laid out by the IIT Kanpur study to bring down the pollution levels in Delhi and NCR, very little was done by way of implementation...

Despite people suffering hardships of all kinds, for generations, surprisingly these very political parties have been quite successful in ensuring that people keep voting for them for the same promises...

The bottom line is that the stock markets are totally out of sync with the performance of the economy and its poor health. Clear signals are emerging that something is...

The tragedy of our nation is that competence and integrity are seldom the criterion for appointments to position of power which, undoubtedly, matter the most in determining the direction of...

Unfortunately,it is near hopeless,to expect moderation from the politician,as,arousing emotions is his bread and butter.But,certainly the media can present the right picture in the right way.Or is it hoping too...

We, as a nation, do not lack in resources. We have the knowledge, we have the manpower, we have the road map to achieve these goals. Unfortunately, we have lacked...

Education is not filling a pail but lighting a fire and higher education is more so. Higher education programmes therefore are not merely degree awarding exercises but meant to enhance...

Our invaluable franchise has to be exercised to elect authentic, principled, transformational leaders-not these outworn masqueraders desperately capturing and then dishonorably clinging to power. Dr. Smita Pandey King Alexander the...

We have to burn the candle at both ends,one end for illuminating our past and the other to light up the path to the future.We have to clearly view and...

The cost of any product is based on the cost of production, licensing cost, expenditure on setting up the additional facilities, if any, required for manufacturing the product and such...

The scholarly report reflects sincere idealism and deep erudition.The only question is whether the ground truth of the problem has been understood so that a realistic solution can be attempted?...

The faith of the people in the judiciary is the foundation of the third pillar and if the foundation gives way the entire edifice of democracy would come tumbling down....

The level of noise in the news-media, both print and electronic, has continued to increase over the past few decades, and, now it appears, that, the noise has overpowered the...

If the democratic governance in India has to be effective it is well past high time that responsible citizens be involved in overseeing the working of public institutions in a...

The elected have been changed from time to time but it seems to have made little difference. The reason is not hard to seek. From time to time Ali Babas...

The special skill of the politician consists in knowing what passions can be most easily aroused and when aroused how to prevent them from being harmful to himself and his...

The very idea of two Capitol establishments for Uttarakhand is not only senseless, but, an invitation to administrative and economic disaster. A summer capital for the resource starved state is...

Political shenanigans have clouded the fact that honest wages, for honest day's work, across the board, is the only key to national development and not any number of political promises....

Today, in the name of freedom of speech & expression, individuals mouth obscenities, slap unfounded charges, circulate fake news, indulge in character assassination, and, tell lies of every color, whenever...

The Samajwadi Party talks about concept of socialism but whenever it came to power in Uttar Pradesh it was far away from real concept of this ideology and its style...

All societies governed by rule of law have left very few choices to their people as laws themselves have clearly demarcated the boundaries between do’s and don’ts and specified the...

While political row over Covid vaccination drive is unfortunate, the government of India should launch it free of cost and without further delay. V S Pandey For past several days...

India has been ranked at 103 out of 119 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2018 with hunger level in the country categorised as serious. Unfortunately, the country’s ranking has...

Long cherished hopes of judicial settlement of the decades-old vexed Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute now appears in sight, as the Supreme Court has fixed October 18 deadline for both parties to...

Even as Assam continues to struggle with finalising and updating National Register of Citizens (NRC) where 1.9 million residents have been excluded, various BJP-led state governments are toying with the...

Dr HC Pande Lucknow: The U.P. Government has just come out with a proposed umbrella act to ensure that the standards of higher education are not diluted with the expansion...

M Hasan Lucknow, May 26: The newly appointed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for carrying the Muslim minority together is unlikely to be materialised without satisfactory resolution to the Ayodhya...

Dr HC Pande On 26th January,1950 the people of India took a vow,that for better or worse,it is democracy or nothing.Now in the 72nd year of existence as a democracy,...

Dr H C Pande With the general elections having been announced,the political haute-couture designer fraternity is having a field day,and,their order-books are over flowing.The Beautician,the Ghost-writer,and,the Ideology Bar-tender,are having whale...

Dr HC Pande It is said that the strength of democracy is the strength of the small man.In India,in its democratic scheme of governance,the small man is hugely conspicuous by...

Dr HC Pande Defining democracy,M.N.Roy once remarked that it is nothing but just the majority of one.The truth of this remark need not be discussed here,since in India,democracy is alive...

Dr Smita Pandey "It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are not punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." Voltaire’s ironical truth resonates...

Editorial  The image of Indian media (both print and electronic) is in the shamble. With every passing day the situation is going from bad to worse and there appears to...

Editorial: The elimination of corruption and restoration of transparency in country’s political system is unlikely to be achieved without complete ban on political funding by the corporate houses. Huge funds...

Editorial The investigating agencies have failed to nab PNB bank looter Nirav Modi and others so far. Unfortunately even after lapse of nearly four months the investigating agencies are beyond...

The caste and communal prejudices for political gains have assumed serious dimension in the country, which is threatening the democracy and entire social fabrics. Unfortunately communal and caste-based political parties...

There is tremendous   concern over the way precious time and taxpayers money was lost during the  just concluded Budget session of Parliament.It was shocking that around 250 hours of the...

Make those at the top accountableV.S.Pandey                                                                                                                       Former Secretary,Government  of India . Last week former Secretary , Coal, Government of India ,  Mr H.C.Gupta was convicted by the CBI court...