(Probable Question: One fundamental issue with expenditure planning in India has been a strong tendency towards revenue expenditure at the expense of capital expenditure. Explain. Suggest remedial measures.) Budget expenditure is an important tool for the government to advance policy objectives. Therefore, for effective and desired outcomes, along-with allocation of budget to specific sectors, a strategy … Continue reading Budget Expenditure Strategy

Fairness / tackling the biases AI Based on the premise that a large set of well-diversified data may be an accurate description of the world, most of the developer community takes a technocratic attitude that data-driven decision making is good and algorithms are neutral. However, this argument does not recognize the fact that the existing … Continue reading Ethics and Artificial Intelligence

The Arthashastra of Kautilya, a minister in the Kingdom of Chandragupta Maurya provides an elaborate description of the problem of corruption.  As per Kautilya's view on corruption, honesty as a virtue is not permanent and any person, howsoever honest, may turn to unfair means in order to make easy gains. Therefore, Kautilya prescribes strict vigil over office holders … Continue reading Kautilya on Administrative Corruption

There are a few different reasons why we should value greater transparency. The first is the way that transparency potentially changes the way government operates. The second is that transparency potentially changes the relationship between people and government officials. And a third reason is that transparency enables groups, that otherwise would not be able to … Continue reading Why we should care about transparency

The role of ethics in contemporary society is resurgent; its reach sprawling out across the social landscape at what many must find an alarming rate touching capitalism, banking, politics, policing, journalism, our own lives. The notion of ethics has the power to conflate these disparate issues under a more understandable set of parameters and ask … Continue reading On Ethics in Public Life

Around 6th century BC, people of India were speaking and writing languages that were much simpler than classical Sanskrit. These vernacular forms, of which there were several, are called the Prakrits. The word Prakrit stands for a group of languages and does not refer to any individual language. Marathi (with all varieties), Bengali, Orisa, Assamese, … Continue reading The Emergence and Importance of ‘Prakrit’ in Ancient India

Throughout history, the region between Krishna and Tungabhadra (Raichur Doab) remained a bone of contention between the major kingdoms of the south. Of the various empires that ruled the Deccan such as the Chalukyas, Mauryas, Bahamanis, Vijayanagara, Chola etc. Raichur has been part of them all. There are three primary reasons for the fight over … Continue reading Raichur Doab: A Major Bone of Contention

It is a well known fact that the main civilisations of the ancient world of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India (Indus Valley), and China were possible only because of the great river systems around which they grew up. The rivers made these civilisations possible, not simply human invention or any special ethnic type that migrated there. Agricultural … Continue reading Importance of Rivers and Waterways – A Historical Perspective

Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) is a farming practice that believes in natural growth of crops without adding any fertilizers and pesticides or any other foriegn elements. The word Zero Budget refers to the zero net cost of production of all crops (inter crops, border crops, multi crops). The inputs used for seed treatments and … Continue reading Zero Budget Natural Farming

Author: D. Shyam Babu Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has moved towards lateral entry in government service and has invited applications from “talented and motivated Indian nationals willing to contribute towards nation building” to be appointed as joint secretaries in 10 Departments/ Ministries at the Center. The lateral entry decision is based on the assumption … Continue reading Summary-The Hindu-Neither New Nor Undesirable