India's New Army Chief ?

GENERAL V K SINGH, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Eastern command, took over as India’s Army chief from General Deepak Kapoor and will assume office from Thursday. Mr Singh, who is India’s senior-most infantry officer, will be the first trained commando to become the Army chief. The 59-year-old new Army chief has vast experience in counterinsurgency operations, line of control and highaltitude operations. A third-generation officer from the Rajput Regiment, which was also the regiment of Field Marshal K M Cariappa, the first Indian Army chief, Mr Singh participated in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War as a young Captain and was awarded the Yudh Sena Medal for his distinguished service during Operation Pawan against the LTTE in Sri Lanka. He will be India’s 26th Army chief and will stay at the helm for over two years. Mr Kapoor retires from the Army after over four decades of service.

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Indian Reforms: Myopia or Nightmare !

With the accession of Rajiv Gandhi to power, a vision began to germinate. That vision was that of an India that would be vibrant with the entrepreneurial energy of the few, and the rest of the population serving those few with their labour.

The argument was that despite more than 40 years of independence, with slogans of a ‘socialistic pattern of society,’ Indians remained desperately poor. Most of them also remained actually illiterate or barely literate. The free market advocates backing Rajiv Gandhi thought that the energy of the business community could both enrich the rich and, through trickle-down effects, better the condition of ordinary people. The Central budget of 2010-11 is a further step towards the implementation of that vision.

Look at the successes of the budget: the professional middle class is happy with the cuts in taxes collected from it. The business community, including foreign investors, is happy, because of further privatisation of public assets by which the Finance Minister proposes to raise Rs. 25,000 crore, because of the................

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Reforms By Russia To Tackle Terrorism

It is right to condemn the Moscow bombers, but also to look for new ideas for the north Caucasus

 SORROW and condemnation are the right responses to the deaths of innocent people at the hands of terrorists, whether in London   and New York or in Madrid and Moscow. This week’s terrorist bombings on the Moscow metro killed at least 39 people and injured many more.

For all its problems, the Russian capital held together. There was no panic, medical help was swift and the work of the emergency services was better co-ordinated than in the past. Moscow, which has lived through a theatre siege in 2002 and several previous bombings, including two in the metro in 2004, has learned to cope . Muscovites took the attack in their stride, and even the authorities responded more

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Private Schools V/s Government Schools

Here is an incontrovertible fact: the majority of children between the ages of eight and 14, rich or poor, attend private schools. Even poor families shun government schools and willingly pay fees to enrol their children in private schools. To cater to this demand, private schools are flourishing, not just in cities and small towns but in villages as well. These schools have been established as commercial ventures. They are of two kinds: recognised and unrecognised by the government. To obtain recognition, private schools have to fulfil impossible criteria including infrastructural demands and have to pay teachers according to the government-appointed Pay Commission’s recommendations. Thus, teachers must be paid upward of Rs 20,000 a month as entrants and the scale rises with experience.

Of course, schoolteachers should be paid well and the new scales are.....

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