Pavan K. Varma | Budget ignores real threat in favour of speculative relief
2 years, 11 months ago

Pavan K. Varma | Budget ignores real threat in favour of speculative relief

Deccan Chronicle  

There were two unwelcome guests sitting outside finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s capacious office in North Block before she presented the Budget. In other words, the real suffering of the middle class and the poor has been ignored on the basis of a promise that may or may not fructify two-and-a-half decades later. Education accounts for 2.8 per cent of the budget, way below the six per cent suggested by the NEP-2020. To the middle class and the poor waiting expectantly outside her office, the FM could well have said like Marie Antoinette, if you can’t get bread eat cake.

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History of this topic

Pavan K. Varma | Why 2024 promises to be an exciting election
1 year, 5 months ago

Pavan K. Varma | Why 2024 promises to be an exciting election

Deccan Chronicle  

The fact that almost the entire political canvas divided into two groups to meet on the same day, July 18, in the lead-up to the 2024 parliamentary elections, was a first in the history of democratic India. The goal of the two groupings was different — for the Opposition, the attempt was to strive for more unity amidst often irresolvable …

Pavan K. Varma | Karnataka's lesson for BJP: Divisiveness has limits
1 year, 8 months ago

Pavan K. Varma | Karnataka's lesson for BJP: Divisiveness has limits

Deccan Chronicle  

The results in Karnataka may or may not influence the final outcome in the parliamentary elections next year, but they hold important takeaways for all parties, especially the Bharatiya Janata Party. Quite apart from the fact that in Assembly elections people vote for the government they think can work for them directly, there is also something unacceptable in the logic …

Pavan K. Varma | What’s on the mind of the Great Indian Middle Class?
2 years, 6 months ago

Pavan K. Varma | What’s on the mind of the Great Indian Middle Class?

Deccan Chronicle  

In 1997, I wrote a book called The Great Indian Middle Class, which was brilliantly translated into Hindi by Abhay Dubey, with the title Bharatiya Madhya Varg Ki Ajeeb Dastaan. Today, the Indian middle class must rank as one of the most aspirational classes in the world. A foreigner once told me that he was surprised how an educated middle …

Pavan K. Varma | Amid corona crisis, it’s politics as usual for BJP
4 years, 6 months ago

Pavan K. Varma | Amid corona crisis, it’s politics as usual for BJP

Deccan Chronicle  

The whole world is in the grip of an unprecedented pandemic. Irrespective of the magnitude of the crisis gripping the country, it wants to attack chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her ruling Trinamul Congress party, and blow the bugle for electoral battle. A great many people believe that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should, at this critical juncture, take the lead …

Pavan K.Varma | Prophets of doom'? We all ignored India's poor
4 years, 7 months ago

Pavan K.Varma | Prophets of doom'? We all ignored India's poor

Deccan Chronicle  

Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta’s comments in the Supreme Court have, predictably, stirred a storm. Under the shadow of the glitzy malls, the upward mobility of middle class Indians, and stories of India’s emergence as a global economic power, there was the harsh truth of millions of the poor hovering precariously just above levels of absolute poverty, living in unlivable slums, part …

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