One Swallow Doesn’t Make A Summer...

One more year, one last lap towards the next general elections when the people will once again get a choice to choose their own government. The road is not very clear ahead what with some flashes of opposition unity shaking the ruling party’s confidence in its very own bastions. So until such time, let’s focus on the one thing that’s surely moving from strength to strength with each passing day, women empowerment. They surely have come a long way and our cover story this month focuses on some of them that have etched their own paths to the top of their chosen field, however diverse and however male-dominated it has been.

Even as the world just celebrated International Women’s Day, we doff our hat to these interesting women who rule their profession. From cricketer Mithali Raj, golfer Sharmila Nicollet, singer Ananya Birla, poet-writer Meena Kandaswamy to police officer Divakar Roopa Moudgil, bureaucrat Smita Sabharwal and enterprising entrepreneur Monica Malhotra Kandhari and others. Many more feather in your caps, women!

From this positive feeling, we take in a rather sinking scene that has hit our banking system with frauds exploding in our faces with regularity. India’s Non-performing Assets (NPAs) stands at a whopping 9.6 per cent. It has the second highest ratio of NPAs among the major economies of the world. So why is India plagued with such a huge liability? Is it the system or the politics of it?

On the other side of doing business is the brave story of Project Laksal that is helping women artisans in Ladakh make profits by weaving Pashmina. This is the story of how an IAS initiative is weaving Pashmina’s profits back to Ladakhi women.

Come April and its IPL time – the biggest cricketing circus in the world attracting big bucks. In its 11th edition, the Indian Premier League is ever changing getting ever bigger.

On the international front, we take a look at two quite opposing personalities – that of the doyen of magic realism in literature and a charming head of state. Colombian writer “Gabo’ Marquez would have turned 91 if he was alive. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is a politician with the maple charm offensive. He even made it to the cover the iconic Rock magazine, the Rolling Stones.

In this issue of DW, we take a look at all these with our usual mix of easy reads and thought provoking ideas. Brace yourself for the coming summer. Read well.