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| THIS
OUR NORTH AMERICA |
| Obama, Messiah of
minorities |
Harjap
Singh Aujla
NEVER before in the history of American Presidential
Inaugurations, as much enthusiasm was witnessed
as was seen on the frozen winter morning of Tuesday
January 20, 2009 in the Mall Area of Washington
D.C. In excess of two and a half million people,
from all walks of life, the young and the old,
the healthy and the infirm, the rich and the poor,
traveled to the American Federal Capital.More |
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| We need a new world
order |
Dr.
Sawraj Singh writes from Washington
BARACK Hussein
Obama was elected as president of America because
people wanted a fundamental change. The American
policies, particularly the policies of Bush, have
miserably failed and have led to a global economic
crisis and instability in the world. America has
had its worst recession since the great depression
of the thirties.More
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| Zaidi that angry
Iraq journalist |
Gurpreet
Singh writes from Vancouver
THE Iraqi
journalist who threw shoes at the former US President,
G.W. Bush on his last visit to the country before
leaving his office this year has sparked a vigorous
debate among the South Asian media people Muntadar
al Zaidi not only threw shoes at Bush but also
called him a dog during a press conference in
Baghdad. Zaidi had said while tossing his shoes,
``This is from the widows, the orphans and those
who were killed in Iraq’’.More |
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| ANALYSIS |
| Through
the peephole: Development planning in India-6
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Vinod
Anand
WE shall briefly look at three indicators
to assess the extent to which the benefits of growth
have trickled down to the people. These indicators
are: Absolute Poverty Line, Gini-Lorenz Ratio, and
Unemployment Rates. We shall also look at the Reforms
and their impact on the economy.
It is indicated that the number of people below
the poverty line declined from a massive 54.9 per
cent in 1973-74 to a low of 36 per cent in 1993-94,
though there has been a better improvement in urban
poverty as against rural.More |
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| Contemporary
global capitalism: Multi-pronged crises-3
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Pritam
Singh
THE grand failure of many a financial institution
in the US is one of three such crises that have
affected the world today; the others related to
oil prices and food shortages. These in sum have
broken the back of neoliberal triumphalism, and
have resulted in a spatial shift in global capitalism.
No wonder, it is time to address alternatives
to this greed driven, unregulated and excess-motivated
system.More
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Government cheats Farmers in Chandigarh
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| Gobind
Thukral
AS a young graduate student I had a running argument
with my professor of economics. It concerned the
status of farmers in India. Although the professor
agreed that farmers’ economic condition
was appalling, they themselves were largely responsible
for it. They remained without any productive work
for six months in a year and had lazy habits;
borrowing without considering their needs and
paying capacity.More
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| LAW & JUSTICE |
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| Criminal Law Amendment,
2008 |
Joginder
Singh Toor writes from Toronto
 THREE
kinds of judgments as John Rawls, an American Jurist
puts it, a citizen has to make. First he must judge
the justice of legislation and social policies,
secondly he must decide which constitutional arrangements
are just for reconciling conflicting opinions of
justice. He should also be able to rank procedures
for selecting which political opinion is to be enacted
into law.More |
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| ART & MEDIA |
| 96 journalists killed
during 2008 in 32 countries |
| DURING the past year,
ninety-six journalists in 32 countries paid with
their lives for exercising their profession, according
to the 2008 Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) report.
This figure is lower than the record 115 journalists
killed last year, but this drop of 17.5% is due
solely to an improvement in security in Iraq.More
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Industrial growth shrinks
by 2% in Dec | Take credible action against terror
groups: India to Pak | Electoral rolls in Punjab
to be published on Feb 25 | Yamaha expects 1st
loss in 26 yrs | Sania-Santangelo
in Pattaya Open semis
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| Industrial growth shrinks
by 2% in Dec |
| Despite
the government’s stimulus package to boost sagging
demand, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) shrank
by 2% in December - for the second time this financial
year- official figures indicated Thursday. However,
inflation continued to head south as it softened further
to 4.39% for the week ended Jan 31 vs 5.07% recorded
for the previous week.More
Updated on February
12, 2009 at 01:00 p.m.
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- Take credible action against
terror groups: India to PakMore
- Electoral rolls in Punjab
to be published on Feb 25More
- Yamaha expects 1st loss in
26 yrsMore
- Sania-Santangelo
in Pattaya Open semisMore
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| E D I T O R I
A L |
| The Befuddled Republic |
| INDIA celebrated
its 60th republic day in bewilderment. There was,
we are told, an unprecedented security all over
the country to ward off terrorist attacks. Good,
but how about the poverty and deprivation. Over
40 crores people, totally illiterate, living in
abject poverty and without any basic amenities
like water would know very little of this aging
republic or an emerging super power. Indians are
more illiterate than even our poor neighbour,
Bangladesh.More |
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| FOCUS |
| Dynasties:
Enter Sukhbir, Goodbye Papa
|
 PUNJAB
can boast of adding another dimension to dynastic
rule. On January 21 in the holy city of Amritsar,
a history of sorts was scripted in Indian politics
with 47 year old Sukhbir Singh Badal taking oath
as Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab. This is the
first case of father-and-son duo occupying the top
two posts in a government.More |
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Mideast: Obama's
quick start raises hopes
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| Jim Lobe
 A
series of unexpectedly swift moves to begin addressing
the Arab-Israeli conflict taken by Barack Obama in the
week since he was sworn in as the U.S. president is
being hailed by many regional specialists here who were
deeply frustrated by George W. Bush's relative indifference
and virtually unconditional support for Israel.More
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| Too
many pieces to pick up in Ghaza |
Erin Cunningham
A pillow, a belt, a child's
school bag and pages of a torn copy of the Quran lie
in the wreckage of the Al-Da'aa family home in Zeitoun,
a neighbourhood of Gaza City. Twenty-four members of
the family were killed when an F-16 fighter jet dropped
a bomb on their house. Nine bodies still lie under what
is now just a massive pancake of concrete, metal wires
and death.More |
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| Obama
and the Muslim world |
 PRESIDENT
Obama's interview with Al Arabiy, his first interview
since taking office on Jan. 20, signaled a new rhetorical
posture toward the world, his initial appointments and
directives have shown that, unlike the previous administration,
he intends to put policy weight behind that rhetoric
and effect a significant change in U.S. this is the
sum total of broad assessment of Obama’s trajectory
towards peace in the world.More
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| FEATURES |
| Inflation and recession
dilemma-3
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| Professor
Vinod Anand
OUR country
has been in a fix, because of the fact that, on
the one hand, lowering of various interest rates
(as a short-run way out) to control the rising
inflation has gradually reduced the liquidity
of money, and therefore, the demand for various
goods and services, but, on the other hand, this
remedy has also added to the recession in terms
of lesser employment.More
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| Chandigarh,
the deficient democratic quotient |
| Gobind Thukral
 OVER
a million Chandigarh citizens are privileged people.
They earn the highest in the country and spend the highest,
perhaps. Per capita income, though a not very correct
way to judge the real wealth of the people last year
was over Rs one lakh, highest in the country and beats
even Delhi, the national capital.More |
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| Hand
Washing leads to good health |
| Sonia G Handa
 WHEN
as a child, I was told to wash my hands with soap before
eating my food; it looked trivial unless the hands were
dirty. The real meaning did not sink in, although I
followed it thinking there must be something nevertheless
I followed it. Much later I understood the concept of
cleanliness and tried to follow it.More |
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| US should
help save innocents |
| THE US military's
investigation into deadly and controversial air strikes
in Azizabad in Afghanistan in August 2008 was deeply
flawed. Human Rights Watch demanded in a letter to US
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to take responsibility
for civilian casualties when that is warranted and take
appropriate disciplinary or criminal action against
those responsible.More |
| COMMENT |
| Poor under attack in the
Indian
national capital
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| Bharati Mirchandani
 THE
razing of houses continues along the sewage drain that
extends from the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to the new
sports facilities behind INA market. In the past 35-40
years these families have dwelt here in their homes
which have been razed twice before. This is the third
time and they have learnt to cope as their livelihoods
are here and they hoped, as promised during the last
election, that all the dwellers here would get pukka
houses nearby.More
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