The Critical Indian

Prime Minister of India's address to the nation on 8th Nov'16 at 20:00 hrs came as a rude shock to many when in his address he made a revelation to the entire nation that the existing highest currency denominations in India which is INR 500 and INR 1000 would no longer be a legal tender starting midnight. What that implied was that these notes could no longer be used for any financial transaction and would have to be exchanged from the banks or post offices with the new currency notes of equal value. In four hours these major currency bills would become valueless. This was huge and nobody had a clue. While he did clarify his action as another step in the fight against black money menace that had been impacting the country's economy adversely.              PM's address to the nation 8th June'16 Background If we step back a little. This huge announcement only came a month after the amnesty scheme called IDS 2016 (Income Declaration Scheme...

A Nation Without A Sporting Culture A nation which treats sports as 'time-pass' or recreation tells all about India's sporting culture. Since the government doesn't care, the people don't bother either and that pretty much sums up the plight of sports in India. And why just the government, the sports authorities, the media and the society and its obsession with job-centric academics, can all share the blame. Only if our successive governments had dedicated even less than a quarter of the effort for betterment of sports instead of indulging in corrupt and communal politics, the namesake sports promotion campaigns and all those gimmicks, we would have had a flourishing sporting cadre to make us feel proud of; and cheer for at different sporting events.  The buck just doesn't stop there, our politicians, bureaucrats, family members and their entorage having a gala time travelling with the sports contingent on tax payers money is almost like music to ear. Then ther...

Religion: The Deciding Factor "Don't judge me by my Religion"   Yes! You heard it right and that's the broader context that needs to be set here. Crime simply put is " an action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law"   Well! To be honest,   I don't recall last I heard that term applicable in its true sense.  In previous times and I am merely talking a decade, crime was still crime and the penance associated was more or less judged based on the severity of crime and the set of laws that prohibit and penalise for the same. The perception of people or society was also owing to the same set of rules. Ofcourse it wasn't all carved in the stone, there were exceptions, and those of similar kind that we are referring to here. But in general, the broader view was—to see the spade as spade. No doubt we also have had examples where the accused had used their influence, money or might to abuse the loopholes in the judicial system an...

Taliban militants walking past the hijacked IC 814 flight at Kandahar Airport, Afghanistan (December 27, 1999 ) ...