Emergence of South

RISE of the developing world, or the South, has resulted in a shift in the dynamics of the global market. This is the underlying theme of the 2013 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Despite being low on human development index (HDI), a measure of health, education and income, developing countries like India and China have become strong enough to influence international decision-making on policies relating to trade and environment, claims the report.

Governors in the dock

GOVERNORS of states with sizeable tribal population have come in for indictment over not performing their special administrative roles. To ensure partial autonomy in tribal areas, the Constitution entrusts governors with immense powers to supervise the administration and governance in such areas.

Pause for polls

Kenya’s high court has ordered that the date for switch off of the analogue TV signal be delayed, preferably until after the March poll. The court believes an immediate move to digital would be unfair to those keen to follow the polls on TV.

Internet governance issues will dominate 2013

Treaty negotiated in Dubai is not a magic wand Author(s): Emma Llansó

Clash of the cyberworlds

From the blurbs

WILDLIFE OF THE HIMALAYAS AND THE TERAI REGION edited by Ashok S Kothari and Boman F Chhapgar, OUP, Rs 120 This is the fourth in the Bombay Natural History Society’s series that aims to make accessible old writings, drawings and paintings of India's flora and fauna. The text draws from the works of Stanley Henry Prater, known for his classic The Book of Indian Animals, and naturalist R A Sterndale whose work is said to be the source of inspiration for many scenes in Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book.

The beauty & beast of malnutrition

Lack of governance, not figure-conscious girls, behind undernourished Gujarat

Looking beyond privatisation

Karen Bakker is an old hand at tracking the expansion of private control of water utilities in the 1990s by companies such as Bechtel, Enron and Vivendi (now Veolia). She has also researched the more recent shift towards public private partnerships (PPP) in water supply.

Innovative administrator

I first met R Gopalakrishnan when he was the district collector of Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh. This was in the 1980s when India was in the throes of a crippling drought. Jhabua looked like a moonscape—nothing but arid and thirsty land and desperate people. Anil Agarwal had gone there for a meeting of tribal groups, fighting for their rights over forestland. I had accompanied him.

A tab on wishlist

When Sangeet Srivastava laid his hands on the Ubislate 7 tablet, he was sorely disappointed. The second year student at the National School of Drama in New Delhi was swayed by the initial frenzy in the wake of the launch of the world’s cheapest tablet last year. Ubislate 7 is the alter ego of Aakash tablet, the brainchild of the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.