Home Page of Dr. Saumitra Mohan

The Retreat of Liberal Democracy                                                           *Saumitra Mohan The world seems to be moving increasingly backward with the march of time much to the chagrin of all Panglossian expectations of the humanitarian values bringing about an eclectic, cosmopolitan and catholic human society. The incursions of regressive and retrograde forces on liberal-democratic ethos of our times are more stark and insidious today than ever before.             When the Berlin War came down in September, 1990 or when the former USSR disintegrated, people like Francis Fukuyama had vainly proclaimed ‘end of history’ with the ba...

Regulating Our Food Habits *Saumitra Mohan           Amidst all the negativity, gloom and doom centring around multiple incursions on libertarian values of a painstakingly built plural democratic society in this country, there is something very positive one came across the other day. This relates to a purported move by the Union Ministry for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution to regulate the amount of food to be served by different restaurants and hotels to their individual customers to prevent potential wastage of food.           The Hon’ble Minister also supposedly questioned the large portions of food served to each person which often results in unwarranted wastage. A section of critics has questioned the proposition as an infringement of personal liberties of citizens as it is not practically possible for anyone to fix up a uniform regime for all classes of citizens as dieta...

Surgical Intolerance in a Democracy                                                          *Saumitra Mohan           A slew of incidents in recent times have again adumbrated at increasing intolerance in the country, the intolerance of opposition to established wisdom, intolerance of contrarian views or intolerance of standing against the societal consensus. The same has been noticed more starkly in the aftermath of the recent surgical strikes in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. As Indians, we all loved the way our valiant and fearless armed forces crossed over to teach our western neighbour a fitting lesson.           Howev...

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and India           India is a signatory to the Millennium Declaration adopted at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2000, and has consistently reaffirmed its commitment towards the eight development goals. The targets of the MDGs converge with India’s own development goals to reduce poverty and other areas of deprivation.           India has witnessed significant progress towards the MDGs, with some targets having been met ahead of the 2015 deadline, however progress has been inconsistent. While India has achieved the target for reducing poverty by half, it is falling short of achieving the target for reducing hunger. The country has achieved gender parity in primary school enrolment, yet it is lagging behind on targets for primary school enrolment.           India has made progress in providin...

HDI: A Tool for Development            Human development is a process of enlarging people’s choices as they acquire more capabilities and enjoy more opportunities to use those capabilities. Human development is development of the people through building human capabilities, for the people by improving their lives and by the people through active participation in the processes that shape their lives.           Human development—by enhancing health, knowledge, skills and awareness—increases human capital and broadens opportunities and choices. The human development framework, thus, emphasizes that the true aim of development is not only to boost incomes, but also to maximize human choices—by enhancing human rights, freedoms, capabilities and opportunities and by enabling people to lead long, healthy and creative lives.   What is the   Human Development Index?   ...