Home Page of Dr. Saumitra Mohan

GTA: Ushering A New Model of Development                                                                         Saumitra Mohan             The much-awaited day for the people of Darjeeling has finally come. A movement of local people stemming from the discontent and dissatisfaction with the earlier state of affairs culminated eventually in the signing of a tripartite agreement by the representatives of the Government of India, Government of West Bengal and the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) on 18 July 2011. The agreement inter alia envisaged for Darjeeling a smorgasbord of p...

Unravelling the Skein of Mass Movements                                     Saumitra Mohan             India has literally been through a churning process in recent times, with so many incidents testing systemic capacities for survival. We have seen the rise of an increasingly assertive and demanding civil society in recent times, which reflects the ‘revolution of rising aspirations’. The same seems to be quite in sync with the trends world over, what with the ‘Occupy Wall Street Movement’ in the US, the Spring and Jasmine Revolution in the Middle East and similar uprisings elsewhere. The ‘demonstration effect’, unleashed by Alvin Toffler’s Third Wave as represented by the means of mass communication including print and electronic med...

Anachronistic Naxalism- Need for Reinvention                                                                       *Saumitra Mohan             The recent spate of Naxal activities including the abduction of the Collector of Malkangiri, an MLA or two Italian tourists in Orissa, the continued mindless killings of security personnel as seen in the Garhchiroli district of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh or Jharkhand clearly shows that Naxals have far from given up their anachronistic fight against the Indian state. This is notwithstanding the reverses suffered by them including death of hundreds o...

Raid on Illegal Brick Kilns: A Story from Jalpaiguri Alipurduar is a picturesque place tucked away in the northern district of Jalpaiguri in the state of West Bengal. At 2500 sq. km, it is almost half the district of Jalpaiguri in term of area and has a population of over 14 lakh people. Peopled by different linguistic communities including a substantial tribal population, the mainstay of the local economy rests on the 66 tea gardens where a good number of local people including the emigrants from neighbouring Bihar and Jharkhand are employed. In fact, the tea gardens, even though a good number of them are sick, still continue to provide employment to a substantive number of people and thereby create demand for other sectors of the local economy. It is surrounded on its north by Bhutan, on its east by Assam, on south by the district of Cochbehar and on its west by Sadar and Mal sub-divisions of Jalpaiguri. Very lush and beautiful place with very good scenic locales and forests, Ali...

Raid on Illegal Brick Kilns: A Story from Jalpaiguri Alipurduar is a picturesque place tucked away in the northern district of Jalpaiguri in the state of West Bengal. At 2500 sq. km, it is almost half the district of Jalpaiguri in term of area and has a population of over 14 lakh people. Peopled by different linguistic communities including a substantial tribal population, the mainstay of the local economy rests on the 66 tea gardens where a good number of local people including the emigrants from neighbouring Bihar and Jharkhand are employed. In fact, the tea gardens, even though a good number of them are sick, still continue to provide employment to a substantive number of people and thereby create demand for other sectors of the local economy. It is surrounded on its north by Bhutan, on its east by Assam, on south by the district of Cochbehar and on its west by Sadar and Mal sub-divisions of Jalpaiguri. Very lush and beautiful place with very good scenic locales and forests, Ali...

Action u/s 97 gone haywire Alipurduar is a picturesque place tucked away in the northern district of Jalpaiguri in the state of West Bengal. At 2500 sq. km, it is almost half the district of Jalpaiguri in term of area and has a population of over 14 lakh people. Peopled by different linguistic communities including a substantial tribal population, the mainstay of the local economy rests on the 66 tea gardens where a good number of local people including the emigrants from neighbouring Bihar and Jharkhand are employed. In fact, the tea gardens, even though a good number of them are sick, still continue to provide employment to a substantive number of people and thereby create demand for other sectors of the local economy. It is surrounded on its north by Bhutan, on its east by Assam, on south by the district of Cochbehar and on its west by Sadar and Mal sub-divisions of Jalpaiguri. Very lush and beautiful place with very good scenic locales and forests, Alipurduar is one of the tour...

The Self-Help System: Need for a New Global Architecture                                                                         By Saumitra Mohan             It’s trying times for the world economy with recession demon refusing to be tamed, notwithstanding a slew of staccato efforts made by different involved players. The domino-like fall of many countries of Europe and Americas including Ireland, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece has been a cause of real concern given the insidious implications of the same for the world finance system. The laissez-faire economic model’s avowed ...