CEA QUITS AFTER PRESSING FAMILY COMMITMENTS
Arvind Subramanian, known as super Subbu during his IIMA days for his high IQ, stepped down as Chief Economic Adviser.
He is leaving the finance ministry eleven monts before the end of his term in May 2019. He succeeded Raghuram Rajan to the slot. Over the last three years, he brought new ideas in public discourse including JAM: Jan Dhan, Aadhar and Mobile. He was involved in drafting GST and was the author of the brilliantly drafted Economic Surveys. During the last three years, three US-educated Indian economists have left India who served in top positions. Raghuram Rajan and Arvind Panagariya who headed the Niti Aayog were the other two.
Another Kochhar in trouble
Atul Kochhar, the star chef of Indian origin lost his job with J W Mariott in the Middle East, following his comment in connection with an episode of Quantico.
Quantico, starring Priyanka Chopra, depicting a terrorist plot hatched by Hindu terrorists had provoked outrage among Indians. Atul tweeted, “It is sad to see that you [Chopra] have not respected the sentiments of Hindus who have been terrorized by Islam over 2000 years. Shame on You.” The following day he deleted the tweet stating he is not Islamophobic, and regrets for his act being as it hurtled many people.
But JW Marriott was in no mood to relent. Possibly business considerations and the outlook in the Middle East pushed them to act fast. It JW Marriott terminated their agreement with Rang Mahal section that was headed by Kochhar.
IS KEJRIWAL FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHT CAUSE?
DELHI CHIEF MINISTER Arvind Kejriwal along with his three cabinet ministers Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and Gopal Rai, camped out at LG’s residence for nine days to get the bureaucrats’ approval for AA’s proposal of home delivery of ration. He accused the Central government of being a hindrance to ease the PDS. Lashing out at the prime minister and the Lt.Governor for not giving time for a meeting Kejriwal has underlined the eight instances where IAS officers skipped meetings.
The IAS Officer’s Association denied charges made by the Kejriwal government for being on a ‘strike’ for the last four months. During his dharna, Kejriwal got the support of various opposition parties including the Chief Ministers of four states – Chandrababu Naidu, Mamata Banerjee, H D Kumaraswamy and Pinarayi Vijayan.
Many have sympathised with the man people called AK 47 because whether right or wrong, the central government through the LG has not allowed him to function despite his winning the people’s mandate 67-3.
ENVIRONMENT – NOT JUST A TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION
Suresh Prabhu, the Minister of Commerce & Industry, launched the book ‘The Climatic Solution’ written by Mridula Ramesh. Excerpts:
“Even a small change in the environment shows its effect on the climate. Humanity has undergone several changes, and all of them are natural. However, the climate change that we are experiencing now is created by us: we created the problem, and it’s our responsibility to fix it for our survival.
“The ice in Antarctica is melting that makes the whole world at risk by increasing the ocean water level, all thanks to our action. Nearer home, in Tamil Nadu farmers suffer from water scarcity due to irregularity in the rain. Due to warming, north India faced a dramatic decrease in production of wheat. All of a sudden, Chennai faced a humongous flood during 2015, and in 2016 we were affected by Vardah cyclone. The only way to fight this irregularity of seasons is to store the rainwater so that we will not suffer during drought. Remember, only 3 per cent of the available water in the world is pure.
“Mridula has given a solution to the issue, rather than just questioning it. A good doctor is not the one who finds what disease the patient suffers from, but also the one who has the solution for it.
“The UN has offered a choice for people to celebrate environment day once in a year. Every single day we should practices what we do in that one day. There are already agreements made on desertification, wetland, forest tree, etc., There is also a protocol on ozone layer depletion. Keeping all this in our mind, we should locally implement global policies. The implementation is in our hands.
“The time to act is now.”
