Ranvir Nayar, Author at Media India Group

Privatisation is not the magic pill

February 11, 2021

In her budget speech on February 1, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman outlined the government’s ambitious plans for privatisation, both in the current year as well as a government policy. She said that the government will privatise all public sector enterprises, other t...

World Wetlands Day: Construction equals destruction

February 8, 2021

Mumbai Coastal Road and the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train. Two of the most high-profile and highly controversial projects in Mumbai have one thing in common, besides extra-large budgets. Both pose severe threat to the bustling metropolis’ once thriving wetlands, which are now f...

Budget 2021: Devil in details

February 3, 2021

For weeks, it had been touted as the most crucial budget that an Indian finance minister has had to place before the Parliament in several decades, if not since the independence of the country. After all, this was the first budget that the government has presented since the full-...

Myanmar coup: Don’t shed tears for Aung San Suu Kyi

February 1, 2021

Finally, political situation in Myanmar has turned a full circle. Like many other south-east Asian nations, Myanmar has never been a true democracy. Ever since the assassination of Aung San, Father of the Nation, who led the country to freedom from the British rule, the count...

The peaceful protest that was…

January 28, 2021

Till eve of the Republic Day, everything seemed to be going as per plan and meticulous planning has been the one of the most outstanding qualities of the farmers’ protest at Delhi borders. After all, it has taken a whole lot of detailed planning to set up and run with clockwork...

Degeneration of tractor rally from Singhu Border to Red Fort

January 26, 2021

“This is not what our protest was all about. We have been protesting peacefully for months and even been at the borders of Delhi without any incident. But today, to see some people turn to violence, attack the police and damage a piece of history that is shared by the entire na...

Ballooning Indian stock markets’ rising disconnect with reality

January 25, 2021

Right from the days of the first Big Bull, Harshad Mehta, in early 1990s, there have been several bull-runs in the Indian stock markets. But few can come anywhere near the one that seems to have gripped the Indian stock exchanges ever since April last year. On March 23, 2020, the...

‘Farmers disappointed, angry over government tactics’

January 22, 2021

“We are extremely disappointed and sad by the attitude of the government that has led the charade of discussing seriously with us during 11 rounds of talks, to finally leave the discussions mid-way. There is a lot of anger amongst the farmers, but now our focus is on making the...

With US back in, time for fresh start for Paris Agreement

January 22, 2021

True to his campaign promise, within hours of taking office, the newly elected President of the United States, Joe Biden, annulled his predecessor Donald Trump’s decision on June 2017 to exit the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, paving way for the world’s largest economy an...

Time to pause Covaxin administration

January 20, 2021

Amidst growing scepticism over the safety of vaccines, especially Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech, in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Virology, three days after the nationwide vaccination programme against Covid-19 was rolled ou...

Plastic poison spreads unchecked

January 19, 2021

For the third year in a row, a survey by anti-plastics NGOs has found that Coca-Cola is the top global plastic polluter, while others in the top 10 include equally famous names such as PepsiCo, Nestlé, Unilever, Mondelez International and Procter & Gamble. Though many of the...

Major health risks due to untreated sewage disposal

January 13, 2021

India produces close to two million tonnes of faecal waste every day and the urban areas alone, accounting for just over a third of the total population of the country, generate over 62,000 million litres of sewage daily. Of this, over 60 pc or close to 38,000 million litres is d...