Corruption in Public Life Corruption in public life is not a modern phenomenon. It was prevalent in the political and civic life of ancient India too as has been discussed by Kautilya in his Arthashasua. But, it is only since independence that corruption has become a chronic feature of our public life. So much so that people have started treating it as a normal feature. They no longer show righteous indignation...

Should there be Reservations? To whatever extent a society may claim itself to be democratic the truth is that the fundamental principle of democracy, namely, equality of all citizens in the society remains an ideal. In the modern era, in which democracy has come to be considered the be all and end-all of all political systems, societies continue to be plagued by inequalities rooted in race, class, creed, caste, religion and...

Democracy Implies Tolerance of Dissent ‘Democracy,’ the ancient Greek word literally means ‘rule LI by the demos’. The term ‘demos’ is generally translated as ‘the people’ and ‘the people’ implies the whole population, particularly the adult population, of a tribe, a territory or a country. The entire population or the collectivity obviously comprises a multitude of individuals as units.’ It is well known that no two individuals in a collectivity—mechanical or...

Paradoxes of Democracy Today every nation in the world either desires to be a democracy, or claims to be one. With the dissolution of communist blockdemocracy is the magic word. It is seen to promise everything good politically, socially and economically. And yet, if we only think a little, democracy is full of dilemmas, contradictions and paradoxes. The basic problem is that theory and practice are not identical. The conditions for...

India’s Population and Its Economic Implications Comprising Over a billion people and being the second most populated country in the world thus supporting over 17 per cent of the world population. India’s strengths and weaknesses visibly lie in its population. According to the 2011 Census, the population of India stood at 1,210,193,422 persons, an increase of 17.64 per cent over the 2001 Census It is down by 3.90 per cent in...

The Indian Republic India became a republic on January 26, 1950 and since then’ the Constitution of India has been the governing principle of this country. Or, at least, it is supposed to have been so. It is, of course, tempting to try and overview our achievements and failures in upholding the tenets of that document. It is equally tempting and easy to point at the failures—the poverty, the illiteracy, the...

Tourism: Potentials and Problems Tourism has emerged as one of the world’s largest industries. Growing rapidly in the last two decades, today it accounts for more than seven per cent of world output and employs some 150 million people around the globe. Since the end of Second World War, it has been a good source of revenue generation. having tremendous development potential and stands today as unique natural renewable resource industry....

Modern Civilization When we talk of modernity and civilization, a host of attributes come to our mind such as welfare states where the gifts of science have brought better living standards for the people, the fear of disease, poverty, housing, starvation and political injustice are greatly minimized and leisure is filled with a myriad forms of entertainment from music to cricket; where travel is quick and comfort and ignorance does not...