From the Editor : Anil Tyagi

THEY were the ‘Great Upcoming Seven’. People perceived them to epitomise a sea change in good governance, anti-corruption and an administration that worked only for the welfare of the citizens. They promised true and clean democracy if they were voted to power. The people believed them. They enthusiastically gave them power, not once, but twice. But the unravelling of the seven-some began even before they grabbed Delhi in 2013 and 2015. In fact, now they are only two, actually one-and-a-half, left. The other five went their own ways–one successfully to a Governorship, one back to basics, one unsuccessfully floated a new party, one back to social work, and the last one continued with his lucrative practice.

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Corruption : FROM RAJ TO RAFALE 14: The Body Collectors

A decade ago, Business Week, a leading American business magazine, dubbed several of the US-based Indian software firms as “High-Tech Sweatshops”. These were akin to manufacturing sweatshops in China, which skirted around, even broke, global laws, mistreated workers, and used unethical practices, even as they produced premier global brands. The magazine highlighted several examples to illustrate how the software sweatshops functioned, and how they abused the American visa system to build a network of dubious “human supply chain that reaches halfway around the world”.

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Cover Story : Kejriwal: A political revolutionary or Machiavelli?

THE incandescent halo of Anna Hazare has dimmed like the smouldering ashes of a fire that has long gone cold. The heady feeling of his agitation among supporters seems like a bad hangover on a smog-choked Delhi morning. The draft of the draconian Jan Lokpal Bill is gathering dust in the corridors of power. And, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that was born out of the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement stands reduced to a sad caricature of its promise of delivering an alternative politics that made it such a tour de force in India’s clamorous democracy.

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Global Scan : Playing with the minds of VOTERS

IN 2014, Nix, a senior person in Cambridge Analytica, the defiled and defunct UK-based firm that was accused of manipulating elections in the US (2016) and the UK (Brexit), wanted to test the accuracy of its voters’ database. “Do we have their phone numbers?” Nix asked. Yes, he was told. He reached for the speakerphone, and dialed one of the numbers from the list of American voters. A woman said “hello” on the other side. “Hello madam, I am terribly sorry to bother you, but I am calling from the University of Cambridge.”

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Governance : Mandate 2019: Calling for Stringent Social Audit

IN the Lok Sabha election 2019, hailed as a massive mandate, the BJP won 303 seats out of 543 i.e. 55 per cent of the total seats. This party had received 22.90 crore votes, which is 37 per cent of the polled votes and just about 25 per cent of the total 91 crores of eligible voters. Calling this massive mandate explains the warped nature of India’s archaic election system. In a country that boasts of using high technology (electronic) in the conduct of elections this is indeed pathetic. Is India really a representative democracy?

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Governance : Revitalising agriculture: Advisory services is the way ahead

IN India, foodgrain production has largely been possible through irrigated agriculture. But over 50 per cent of cultivated land that produces more than 80 per cent of nutri-cereals, pulses, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables is monsoon dependent. Such land in ‘rainfed’ regions also face vagaries of aberrant monsoons, droughts, soil degradation, nutrient deficiencies and declining ground water table. We are a food secure nation notwithstanding. Ensuring nutritional security and climate change resilience are additional future concerns.

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