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eCatalyst

A Quarterly e-newsletter by and for CCS graduates

December 2008

EDITORIAL

I write to you as the horror show goes on in Mumbai- an unprecedented global tragedy. An obscene massacre in the financial capital of India that put the nation on tenterhooks. Ask what liberty means to the hostages who were held up or shot inside the hotels. It is no doubt that the city and the nation were caught unprepared. It is high time that we as the future of the world should shed the sick pretence of resilience and face the reality.

Incidentally, today Delhi voted for its leaders, and it is indeed a quandary to think that any political party in power can or will be able to protect us from the threat of terrorism. Terrorism is not an election issue, but dirty politics will soon follow the massacre in the garb of safeguarding 'national security issues'. We feel like screaming to the politicians - "This was what was happening when you were busy politicking, taking bribes, neglecting your duties towards your citizens, committing slander and playing divisive politics…".

But what can an individual citizen can do, they ask. What can a brick in the wall do when the system is composed of multiple bureaucratic agencies that have no accountability to their own citizens but to murky power- circles?

We can be aware, we should demand accountability from our leaders at every level, and we should place our security as our problem. We are not proposing a total crackdown on human rights by a draconian mai-baap, but a slim state, which knows that terrorism is not a problem that should be politicized but handled with along-term vision to safeguard liberty of its citizens.

As the global crises (financial and terror) thickens, we as youth should try to be part of the solution and not the problems.

We look forward to hearing from you- your opinions, essays, research papers or articles on such pressing issues at ecatalyst@ccs.in

In Liberty,

Yavnika Khanna
Editor, eCatalyst

NETWORTHY

Martin Wolf on Tough Liberalism (from FT.com)
The current financial crisis: 10 liberal propositions: Stefan Melnik, an independent consultant on policy affairs and facilitator for democracy-building programmes offers his views on how the current financial meltdown is not a crisis of liberalism but we need reforms.
Sauvik Chakraverti's blog "Antidote" offers suggestions to tackle terrorism, among other liberal musings

E-XPRESSIONS

Freedom of the Media (Pranav Sachdeva, LACS 2005, CFW 2006)
The State of India's Reservation Policy (Sneha Krishnan LSS December 2007, Chennai)

CITYBEATS

State of Public Toilets in Delhi (Shahana Shiekh, CCS Intern, 2008)
Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR) in Kochi conducted a pedestrian audit to suggest measures to make the city roads walkable. See a report by The Hindu, on the study "Making roads in Kochi inviting to pedestrians"

FLASHBACK

I, Society and Public Policy' seminar: An Intellectual shock! (Kriti Budhiraja, ISPP 2008, New Delhi)
Report on Liberal Youth Forum- India's 2008 program (Yavnika Khanna, LSS 2003, ALSS, 2004, Intern 2005)
- Delhi
- Ranchi
- Jamshedpur
- Cochin

TO LOOK OUT FOR

For graduates

Advance Liberty for Change Seminar, 3-6 January 2009, New Delhi www.ccs.in/alcs
Other opportunities for graduates www.ccs.in/graduates
Volunteer at CCS: www.ccs.in/vol

For College students

Non summer Internship (November 2008 to March 2009) www.ccs.in/internship
I, Society and Public Policy Seminar www.ccs.in/ispp : Pune: 18-21 December
Revisiting Jeevika: 13 December, American Centre, New Delhi www.jeevika.org

To read the previous issues of eCatalyst, click here

Do mail us your submissions, queries or suggestions at ecatalyst@ccs.in