Desai Diaries

Modernising our economy and modernising our society are connected but not proceeding at the same pace. While the  economy has experienced robust growth for four decades, the persistence of caste-based discrimination and isolation, and poor emplo....Read More

A few days from now, Nirmala Sitharaman, in her seventh year as Minister for Finance, will present the Union Budget. Judging by the past, a long part of the presentaAon will be a narration of programmatic changes in schemes that are not the direct re....Read More

My column last month focused on the international governance of the internet. This month, I turn to the national strategy in India for future information technology (IT) development. Over the past three-plus decades, the most significant substantiv....Read More

Over the past few decades, the most important technological advance has been in the development of new information technology. In 1990, the number of internet users was barely 3 million, mostly in the United States (US). Since then the use of the int....Read More

In November this year, the 30th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will take place in Belem, in the Amazonian part of Brazil. The UN Climate Convention is crucial....Read More

Eighty years ago, an international organisation, the United Nations, was set up and its agreed charter defined the legality of relations between States and established diplomatic practices that favoured restraint and mutual respect. This global....Read More