Global Voices

English

The world is talking, are you listening?

Big government leads to corruption. Corruption leads to bad governance. Bad governance gives rise to mass poverty.

Atanu Dey argues that India is not doomed to be poor due to factors outside its control. It needs good governance.

In a podcast at mylaw.net legal practitioner Namita Wahi talked about the paradox of the fundamental right to property in the Indian Constitution and how to deal with it.

Blogger Mizohican from Mizoram, India has invited a Mumbai police officer who mistook him for a Nepali and used a xenophobic slur at him for drinks to talk things out.

The blog on India's Gendercide posts a video which shows shocking stats of bride trafficking, the Indian version of domestic sex-trafficking.

On January 23, 2013, an excerpt from the annual report of l'ACAT-France, A World of Torture 2013, makes a fresh assessment of the state of torture in the world [fr]:

“A report called A World of Torture in 2013, assesses torture practices that continue to be alarming, from Pakistan to Italy, by way of South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Australia and Bolivia. From authoritarian regimes to democratic countries, none are exempt from criticism on the topic. In 2013, torture remains as endemic, omnipresent and multi-faceted as ever”.

In recent months blocking of urls has been much debated in India. Nikhil Pahwa at MediaNama, who is not fond of blocking content on the Internet, suggests how India should approach website blocking.

Gaurav Mishra explains social curation and describes how Media, organizations and brands can curate contents to drive social engagement.

Proloy Bagchi comments that political corruption, government pressure, misuse of public resources, intolerance on criticism, intimidation and threat are some of the reasons that are limiting freedom of expression in the largest democracy of the world, India.

Colombian blog Diario Nocturno wonders “What if Superman had landed in India?” [es]:

We all know that Superman, while he was just a superbaby, fled planet Krypton in a space capsule, just before its destruction and landed (oh, what a coincidence) in Smallville, Kansas. But, what if he had landed, let's say, in India?

Then he presents other new versions of well-known stories made in Bollywood.

Sandip Roy writes why India should be paying attention to its neighbors #Shahbag uprising as there is a conversation happening there which matters to everyone in South Asia.

In India it is easier to find funding for a not-for-profit handicraft venture than for for-profit. And these funds are sometimes used to keep alive trades that are inefficient and thus give the artisans a false impression that demand actually exists for their produce. Pertinent Observations finds the entire ecosystem disturbing.

Anuradha Shankar at ‘A Wandering Mind’ writes about the ongoing Egyptian Mummy exhibition in Mumbai, India. These mummies started a global tour from the British Museum to educate people across the continents about their ancient civilization.

Nikhil Pahwa reports that India’s telecom regulator TRAI has updated its regulations to penalize Indian internet service providers that fail to meet the quality standards.

Jabberwock shares this amazing story about an animal loving old woman living in a small makeshift shanty in Delhi. She has been looking after street dogs for years now, on her meager earnings from collecting and selling reusable garbage.

Bagchiblog sheds light on the rise of air pollution in Bhopal, the capital of the the Indian State of Madhya Pradesh. The degradation in the air quality has primarily been caused by an increase in cars and two-wheelers in the cities and rural areas.

Rohit De at ‘Law And Other Things’ informs that journalist, blogger and writer Sidin Vadukut has uploaded a series of podcasts on the oral history of the Indian constitution, beginning with the reforms of 1858.

Rajeev Gowda, chairman of the centre for public policy at the Indian institute of management (IIM), Bangalore, argues at Sans Serif why it is best not to name the 23 year old Delhi gangrape victim.

Gaurav Mishra analyzes the dynamics of grassroots change movements and how they work to make an impact in the mainstream using social media.

Amit Topno, a ‘Video Volunteers’ community correspondent reports that the residents of Nichitpur village in the Indian State of Jharkhand do not have any working public toilet. The villagers plea to the local authorities via this video to ensure that proper toilets are installed.

Offstumped posts an analysis on the recently concluded phase 1 of the assembly elections in the Indian state of Gujarat.

Main Toki at The Broken Scooter highlights the challenges to tackle Eve-teasing, sexual harassment of women in public places. In India the law exists but it does not define eve-teasing in proper terms and the fines are negligible.

The Internet Democracy project in India is conducting a research project that looks at how women in India, who are social media users, deal with speech addressed to them online that makes them feel uncomfortable as women. You can also participate – details are here. Deadline 15 December, 2012.

Glass Bangles. Image by Anuradha Shankar. Used with permission.

“Bangles are considered auspicious, and at one time, it was considered inauspicious for a woman not to wear bangles,” writes Anuradha Shankar at ‘A Wandering Mind'. She notes that glass bangles for daily wear are becoming less popular in megacities like Mumbai, but are still adored in small towns or in rural areas of India.

Paritosh Chakma recently visited Chakma villages in Papumpare district of the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh and wrote about their plights. Thousands of Chakma refugees were transferred to the Chakma Settlement Areas in this region during 1964-69 and most of them still remain stateless.

Maddy writes about the recent developments of vertical farming considering the demand for more agricultural lands in India and elsewhere.

Aman Ki Asha Milne Do Petition Logo

Visa restrictions prevent citizens of India and Pakistan from visiting families in the other country. There isn’t even a tourist visa protocol between these two biggest neighbours of South Asia. Journeys To Democracy promoted the Aman ki Asha Milne Do petition to change this.

It’s raining gifts in the Bengali newspaper wars. And gone is the age of fress flasks, timepieces and tee-shirts to woo subscribers.

Sans Serif reports.
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Prasant Naidu provides insights from the 2012 Bloggers’ Mindset Survey conducted by 20:20 MSL and Blogathon India. The notable results include phenomena like “conversations have moved from blogs to Twitter” and “Facebook gets the maximum traffic for bloggers”.

Nitisha Pandey at Youth Ki Awaaz discusses the current market rates for grooms in India and asks:

Does a boy’s parents’ give him good education only to get a handsome dowry?

“I am quite confident that these guidelines won’t have much of an impact when the Government itself is defying most of them while communicating with people”.