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Great Indian Debaters, Bangalore (2026)

29/05/2021

Hello All,

We are evaluating the prospects of Digital Courts in India and elsewhere and have come up with a short survey especially for law students and legal professional. It would be great if you can take few minutes to fill in this survey.
https://forms.gle/gPbSZy6GFLFEAJ118

Thank you.
Pavan Krishna.

Virtual Courts are a new evolving concept where legal professional log in to a digital platform to argue cases online. The objective of this survey is to get a feedback of common man and legal professional about Virtual Courts where lawyers, judges and litigants can log in to a common platform to ar...

18/04/2021

https://www.newindianexpress.com/prabhu-chawla/column/2021/apr/18/self-abasement-debases-election-commission-2291287.html

This article by Shri Prabhu Chawla aptly describes the utter failure of the present Election Commission in organizing the Assembly elections in various states in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Assam. To further add to his views expressed in the article, India is a technology powerhouse and still we have not utilized technology to conduct elections. We have several large and some of the world's best IT firms and we could have completely created a new application to conduct elections online instead of in person voting. I have already mentioned in my earlier blogs about the importance of conducting online elections. When we are able to access and perform banking transactions in a secure manner why can't elections be held online. As a pilot project the Election Commission should start with small elections like Gram Panchayat polls or Municipal elections that should be completely held online. Using Blockchain and advanced cryptographic technology it is possible to develop a hackproof election application. Each voter should be given a particular time slot to login to cast his/her vote. The authenticity of the voter should be validated with the OTP sent to his/her mobile number, once validated the ballot paper should appear in front of the voter for him to cast his vote. This saves lots of expenditure to the Government and in turn results in saving of our tax money. Similarly EC should have strictly passed an order to campaign only through digital medium. When Mr. Modi who is obsessed with his Mann Ki Baat comes and talks (never listens though) to the citizens every month why can't he use the same TV and Radio for campaigning. As pointed out by several eminent politicians the present situation for increase in cases, is due to the failure of the present Modi government in handling the situation effectively. Its high time The Honorable Supreme Court intervenes in the present sad state of affairs of the country and issues certain strong directives to the government to save our democracy and our economy. Why do we always wait for the problems to occur and then start to take action after its very late. Why can't our government be proactive and avoid the problems in the first place?

Political power pivots on mission with vision. When Election Commission’s mission is omission, emissions of doubt cloud people’s faith in democratic institutions.

04/04/2021

https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/columns/t-j-s-george/2021/apr/04/democracy-even-in-times-of-covid-2285433.amp

Why can’t the Election Commission ban in person campaigning in all the election bound states for this entire year 2021? Let campaigning be done online. As such many of our leaders are very active on Twitter and Facebook.
Also how about we go and conduct entire elections online. Every citizen who has a voter ID card should log in online on the voting day to cast his or her vote. Election Commission should seriously consider to introduce Online voting in times of COVID-19 to ensure that there is a good number of turnout by the citizens. The benefits are huge cost savings to the nation in conducting elections and more importantly thousands of teachers and poll staff need not risk their life to conduct an election in person.
Results can be declared immediately in an online election as soon as voting is closed.

Democracy is defined as a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.

14/03/2021

https://www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/voices/2021/mar/14/india-needs-laws-with-teethto-curb-noise-nuisance-2275385.amp

Yes as pointed by Mr. Anand Neelakantan in this article one of the ways to curb growing levels of noise pollution is to stop using loud speakers at religious functions and for prayers. There should be a total ban imposed on the usage of loud speakers by any religion for prayers at all times.

There is no respite on the road, as we Indians relish driving with one hand continually pressing the horn. There is no respite at home, as television chatter is a constant along with other household s

09/03/2021

It’s high time we get rid of such draconian colonial era laws and amend our constitution in such a way that it suits the present generation and the future.

When it is foisted on persons disagreeing with the government, the seriousness of the provision is eroded in due course

31/01/2021

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/Swaminomics/a-covid-tax-on-the-rich-will-hurt-wealth-creation/

Covid has hammered the poor, yet stock markets have boomed. Massive printing of money by central banks has flooded the world, sending all stock markets soaring. The wealthiest have become wealthier. Some analysts say, let...

30/01/2021

https://www.newindianexpress.com/business/2021/jan/30/economic-survey-2021-focus-on-rd-jugaad-can-take-you-only-this-far-2256900.amp

For businesses to focus more on R&D as claimed in the late Economic Survey it’s the government that should come forward and setup more and more Universities. Take US and UK for instance where lot of R&D actually take place in big universities. Universities should be funded liberally by both the government, the industry and of course by the tax paying citizen. Donations to universities for R&D should be exempted from tax. In Australia for instance in Melbourne alone there are 8 big Universities and 4 of these universities have more than 3 campuses in different parts of Melbourne with each campus dedicated to a few departments. Right now we only have Max of 3 to 5 Universities in selected few cities. The funding for existing universities should be increased and new universities on large scale should be set up in small towns and villages. Likewise in India also the government should setup more and more new universities with latest infrastructure in several cities. Industry should be granted tax exemptions and incentives to come forward and setup their own Universities. Why can’t we have Universities setup by the TATA group, Reliance group and Mahindra group in automotive, retail, petrochemicals, finance and so on. Allocate 50 acres of campus to each university in say 100 Kms away from the city where land is easily available for the new universities to set their campus. Let the universities compete in R&D and innovation. These new universities should be well connected with metros and express ways for easy accessibility. Such measures will in the long term lead to better R&D.

On the brighter side, India improved its ranking on the Global Innovation Index (GII), entering the list of world’s top 50 innovating countries, ranked at 48.

17/01/2021

https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/columns/t-j-s-george/2021/jan/17/the-wonder-thats-the-indian-farmer-2251091.amp

How can we appease the farmers and put an end to this ongoing strike? Why can’t the Government come down and agree to the farmers’ demands? Corporatization of agriculture is no good for farmers. But small and marginal farmers cannot afford agriculture in India due to lack of proper facilities and amenities from government. If the three laws are implemented then corporates will rule agriculture sector and farmers will have to produce only cash rich crops which will yield immediately. Farmers will have no say on what to produce. If farmers produce only cash yielding crops then who will produce rice, wheat and such other crops that fill our stomach? Do we import such food? I’m glad that Supreme Court has intervened to tread a middle path, but a middle path has to be treaded cautiously giving more benefits to the farmers than to Corporates. Lots of amendments need to be made in these laws and one such amendment is that farmers holding land less than 2 or say 4 acres should be brought under the corporates and produce what the corporates say. In return the corporates should for the next 50 years or so should take care of farmers food clothing and shelter.
No government can afford to take the wrath of the farmers who toil hard to fill our stomach.

The farmers’ agitation has become something of an Indian phenomenon.

20/12/2020

It’s indeed very sad that the factory of a major global MNC like Apple was vandalized for non payment of wages this past week near Bangalore. The state should establish a process through which the labor department and the Income tax department can monitor if the wages are being paid on time or not. This vandalism took place because the frustrated employees vented their anger on the company for not providing the timely wages and depriving them of many such basic facilities and benefits. And this happened only at Wistron which is a huge firm. Now there are hundreds and thousands of firms in India where many employers have not been paying wages to their employees but still making them work for more than 8 hours and not providing decent work atmosphere. The Income Tax department can track at a micro level on a monthly basis which company has not filed taxes. And should fine such companies heavily which should be levied on the total revenues generated by that company.
Similarly labor department should conduct frequent surprise checks on a regular basis and interview the employees outside the company premises to obtain the feedback from the employees as to how they are being treated.
No wonder this year has been really tough for many businesses with many factories being shut for a long time. Why did the government not monitor this situation and not anticipate that this kind of a problem might come? It’s the failure of the government not to tackle this situation in a effective manner. Just announcing a large package to the industry doesn’t solve the problem. When the government released the ₹20,000 crore package it also has to track who is claiming it and who is not. And call all the eligible entrepreneurs and tell them to file to claim the package and make sure the amount gets disbursed to the deserved.
These are some of the basic changes that can be implemented by the government with immediate effect to improve the working conditions of the employees and attract more investors in future.

For nearly a decade, India’s governments invested political capital to woo manufacturers of iconic products to ‘make in India’ by leveraging skill availability and low manpower cost.

06/12/2020

https://scroll.in/article/980336/scenes-from-a-farmers-protest-camp-its-hard-to-see-how-the-modi-government-can-shut-this-down Scenes from a farmers’ protest camp: It’s hard to see how the Modi government can shut this down

If Modi doesn’t attend to the farmers and meet their demands this protest might as well be the cause for the downfall of his government in 2024. As such these 3 agricultural laws were passed in a haste without proper debate.

There is determination and clarity of thought about how India is being sold to corporate interests.

01/11/2020

https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/columns/t-j-s-george/2020/nov/01/who-can-resist-the-magic-of-oratory-2217632.amp

So true. Mr. Modi is only a man of words and not action. The adage Empty vessels make much noise aptly suits him.

The damage inflicted by Narendra Modi’s use of power to promote Hindutva partisanship on the one hand and his own persona on the other will not lend itself to easy repair.

11/10/2020

https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/columns/t-j-s-george/2020/oct/11/deny-there-was-r**e-problem-solved-2208632.amp

Governments have changed but the crimes have not come down. Sad that this government also has not taken any action against the accused. As long as we elect our governments on the basis of religion and caste these crimes against the oppressed only keep rising. Really sad that our Prime Minister Modi hasn't even uttered a word about the recent Hathras r**e case.

Upper caste crime against Dalits is a part of popular culture in Uttar Pradesh.

Great Indian Debaters