Sunday, July 12, 1998
Plans, without planning
The day before yesterday was World Population Day and, ironically enough, the health ministry has chosen to commemorate it by staging a race, even as it seems to lack the will to control the population race in the country. Census 2001 will provide irrefutable proof that India has crossed the one billion mark. At the present rate of growth, we should relegate China to second place as the most populous country in the world in a few decades.
Under Strobe lights
Strobe Talbott is the epitome of a policy wonk. A balding, brooding, bespectacled man of forbidding intellectual comportment, the US deputy secretary of state defines the term wonk, synonym for nerd, and a fashionable and current American argot for a someone of intense and obsessive academic pursuit.
Catch 'em young
One of the brighter political ideas doing the rounds these days is the one arguing that the lower age limit for MPs be 21 rather than 25. Many, including Chief Election Commissioner M.S. Gill, find this a ridiculous proposition. They argue that representing a political constituency is not child's play, that it requires great maturity, an abiding commitment to the national cause, and high purpose.
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