On Mohandas Pai and his concern for tax-payers money

Sylvia Karpagam 28th May 2016 Mohandas Pai , previous head of HR at Infosys and current chairman of Aarin Capital Partners recently wrote an article for NDTV[i] addressing the protesting students of JNU. Admirers of his way of thinking have jumped into all bandwagons, arguing on his behalf and vehemently validating his point of view. Mohandas Pai, in reality,...

When Erasure From Memory Is Also A Human Rights Violation

in Human Rights — by Dr Sylvia Karpagam — July 22, 2017   The Human rights organisation, Amnesty International has brought out two reports, one in 2016 and another in 2017, highlighting details of prisoners facing death penalties and of undertrials in India. However both reports fail to mention that a majority of those facing death penalties or undertrials awaiting...

Healthcare act amendments should put an end to profiteering, help people

KPME ACT July 14, 2017 Dr Sylvia Karpagam Recently there has been quite a flurry of opinions, accusations and threats around the issue of regulation of private medical establishments in Karnataka. Although the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (KPME) Act has been around since 2007, concerns over the last few years, around patient rights, have brought in...

From manual scavenger to professor, the journey of Kaushal Panwar

Asst. Professor Kaushal Panwar Despite facing discrimination at every step, Kaushal Panwar managed to achieve her dreams. But she says her identity, for people around her, is still that of a Dalit. Ashwaq Masoodi Kaushal Panwar is an assistant professor of Sanskrit at Motilal Nehru College, Delhi University. Priyanka Parashar/Mint It’s like hitting a brick...

When TV Anchors Become BJP Spokespersons To Spread Fake News

Published: July 09, 2017 13:19 IST Mahua Moitra The Goebbels doctrine - "Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth" -is also known to psychologists as "the illusion of truth". Under test conditions, people were more likely to rate statements as true when these statements were more familiar. Welcome to the BJP's nation-wide...

Protest when patients’ rights are hit

Dr Sylvia Karpagam, Jul 7 2017, 0:04 IST Dr Sudarshan Ballal’s article on June 28, 2017 in these columns expressing concern about the controversy and mistrust being generated between the medical fraternity and the state government by the introduction of the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (Amendment) Bill, 2017, ironically leaves patients and their rights completely...

Karnataka needs better regulation of private hospitals in order to protect patient rights

Private doctors are protesting price controls on medical procedures. Image credit: Pixabay [Licenced under CC BY 2.0] Jun 30, 2017 · 02:30 pm  Sylvia Karpagam   Doctors in private practices across Karnataka have been protesting stringent measures in the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (Amendment) Bill, 2017, which seeks to bring more accountability to the expanding private...

Choosing one’s enemy

The fact is – the BJP have always been honest. They have never deviated from two core tenets – that they would create a Hindu rashtra and that the Muslim was the enemy. In 2002, with Modi as the Chief minister, a pogrom took place in Gujarat where Muslims were massacred in thousands – the...

Regulation is a good thing – especially for private medical establishments

  Suddenly doctors have become the new victims. They feel that they are justified in shutting down shop and getting onto the streets for what they perceive to be a good cause – the cause being none other than the  Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (Amendment) Bill, 2017, currently being tabled in the Karnataka Assembly, which...