EXACTLY a year ago, Democratic World (or DW) was launched in its English language avatar and in the 12 months since, has grown and expanded in directions that perhaps even we had not expected. When I look back at the year gone by, what comes to mind are the faces of all the people who have appeared ...
“Despite naysayers, many young politicians have their hearts in the right place.”
Seeing the Indian middle-class rise despite all the economic and democratic battles was one uplifting point of 2012. I see the Indian middle-class as a strange anomaly. They want democracy without practising their democratic right; most of them are not that eager to exercise their universal franchis...
“If we allow our democratic system to function we could get a lot done.”
What a year this was—scams galore. Somewhere in this dismal “scamscape” a sector within the Indian democratic system showed great promise—the judiciary. The way in which it handled matters with clarity, transparency and fairness was heartening for me as I have been a participant of the India...
“The political scenario does not look good but in the field of arts, we are doing well”
When I look at the state that our country is in today, I feel that despite all the slogans against poverty and corruption, nothing really is happening. Much more needs to be done to alleviate the sufferings of the poor in villages and in cities. The money that is stashed in Swiss Banks needs to be b...
“We need to focus on all sectors equally, but education is most important.”
I am an artist and I know nothing about politics. As far as my understanding of things goes, democracy by definition is of the people; it is about the voices of the masses. Truth be told, these voices are not being heard by the government of this country. Most people running our country are corrupt ...
“We are trying to rewrite the blueprint of medical healthcare in India.”
Indian democracy failed in several ways this year, and the most affected were the bills they passed which should have reached the implementation stage but instead have reached a standstill. Probably FDI is the one thing that seems to be working, but if you look at the other bills like the Foreign Un...
“In a democratic world, I do not really believe that icons take a country forward.”
The past year has been a mixed bag of highs and lows. The education sector has shown a lot of promise, more so in rural and semi-rural areas. Government and civil organisations have worked together seamlessly especially to educate the girls. Unfortunately, one cannot say the same about the health se...
Barack Obama Gets Second Term in the White House
ELECTION \\ US President Barack Obama returned for a second term at the White House after an initially close-run battle against Republican Mitt Romney. Heads of state broadly welcomed Obama’s election to a second term in the White House but urged him to play a leading role in issues such as boosti...
A Year of Losses Bollywood sheds tears as stars of yesteryears fade away
OBITUARY \\ In 2012, Bollywood became that much poorer as several veterans of the Hindi film industry breathed their last. Some of the bigger names included veteran character artist AK Hangal, actor and wrestler Dara Singh, veteran actress Achla Sachdev, satirist and actor Jaspal Bhatti, and superst...
Gob-smacked by Scams Government, companies and individuals, all under the scanner
SCAMS \\ India saw its fair share of scams in 2012, the biggest one being the coal allocation scam, or ‘Coalgate’. Coalgate was a political scandal concerning the Indian government’s allocation of the nation’s coal deposits to public sector entities (PSEs) and private companies. The Comptrol...
Sachin Tendulkar in the Rajya Sabha
CRICKET \\ In April 2012, Sachin Tendulkar took the nation by surprise as he accepted a Rajya Sabha nomination proposed by the President of India. He is the first active sportsperson and cricketer to have been nominated to the Rajya Sabha and he took the oath on June 4, 2012. Allegedly, Tendulkar co...
India’s biggest Olympic medal haul Six medals make us proud
OLYMPICS \\ India’s medal haul in the London 2012 Olympics was the biggest ever in the country’s history. The event was held between the 27th of July and 12th of August, 2012. The Indian Olympic Association sent the nation’s largest delegation to the Games ever, as a total of 83 athletes—60 ...
India was infused with a can-do ambition and entrepreneurial spirit”
I left India when I was seventeen years old and spent two years in boarding school in the US. Then I went to college there and even spent some time in Eastern Europe after that, actually. I travelled to Romania, where I had earned myself a fellowship and from there, back westwards to England for my ...
Social media trends have been shifting on a monthly basis, but here’s a look at some which left an impact—whether good or otherwise There was a time, not too long ago, when charting out the social media trends that made an impact over the year was easy. Entrenched players took their time to cha...
The Hindi film industry shows signs of change and a growing maturity THERE IS A fleeting moment in one of the finest Hindi films of this year, Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Paan Singh Tomar, which almost cries out for subtextual analysis. The title character— once an upbeat army man and athlete proudly se...
Nandita Das talks of stories that touch hearts and minds I came into acting by default and my human rights background must have influenced my choices in the acting work that I took. For me, in many ways the transition from actor to director was a natural progression. It was always exciting to watc...
Pride and Prejudice: The LGBT Debate
Tammy Baldwin from Wisconsin became the first gay senator in the recently held elections in the United States. She has made history of a sort in a country which has been debated long and hard about giving equal representation to people of an alternative sexuality. In contrast India, which has a long...
The kudos are slowly piling up for the leader of a ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ ON DECEMBER 20, Narendra Modi is widely expected to lead the BJP to a third successive election victory in Gujarat. The state’s prodigious economic success in the past decade and the administrative efficiency and transparen...
Sentila Yanger and her team at Tribal Weave are trying to spin a dream for the people of the Northeast Most Indian and international fashionistas have an item or two in their closets which have been sourced from the eastern side of the Himalayas. Those who frequent the markets at Paharganj (Delhi)...
Unique Geography Meets Ancient History
Ancient cities, medieval markets and modern play-towns, Tunisia has them all in spades Where on earth is Tunisia? I learnt to quickly provide a one sentence answer to bemused friends as I prepared for my vacation. In North Africa, tucked between Algeria and Libya, along the southern Mediterranean....
Subodh Gupta talks about good art, the clever artist and creative independence It is ominous when an interviewee refuses to answer the first question that is put to him. It is even more so when he in fact retorts, “Do you have anything interesting to talk about at all?” Obviously, we had to st...
