Hitting the Buffers: Mumbai’s Monorail Keeping Passengers Waiting! #India

Mumbai: frequency improvements to the #Mumbai Monorail may take at least fifteen months to materialise because the trains cannot be procured within a shorter timescale #India #cities #urban

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) November 2, 2019

Presently, just four trains operate along the #Mumbai Monorail's single line, meaning that there is a 20-minute gap between services – which are anything but reliable #India

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) November 2, 2019

Analysis: the #Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority's weird predilection for #monorail makes little sense in a world where #metro, #lightrail and #tram services are much more common and easy to source vehicles for #India

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) November 2, 2019

To watch: world-beating air pollution levels and basic urban mobility issues are doing nothing to sell #India's cities to international investors or its citizens; things will only improve when the latter drop tribalism + demand quality-of-life improvements https://t.co/0Sf6jQ89el

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) November 2, 2019

Flunking the Test: India’s Education System ‘Under Societal Siege’!

A new mix of #technology and #corruption threatens to erode the credibility of #India's #education system, with #exam papers being leaked on popular chat apps and smartphone cameras being used for brazen in-test #cheating

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) April 22, 2018

Part of the reason behind the incredible levels of #academic dishonesty: the best #universities in #India have admission rates about one-tenth those of #Oxford and #Cambridge

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) April 22, 2018

Analysts: political incompetence has seen #India embark on a spate of #school-building programmes without paying enough attention to the quality of #education these institutions provide #edu

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) April 22, 2018

To watch: #India is punching dramatically below its weight in a number of key sectors, but if current corruption levels within the Indian #education system remain unchecked then any thoughts of true #superpower status will remain delusional https://t.co/alM6grsJX9 #edu #Asia

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) April 22, 2018

Arresting Development: Police ‘Detain Thousands’ After Bihar Exam-Cheating Epidemic!

The Indian state of #Bihar is rocked by a fresh #exam cheating scandal involving surrogate #students who took a police force entrance paper

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) April 7, 2015

50,000 people took the entrance #exam for the #Bihar police force during October 2014 – but some of them were not actually candidates #edu

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) April 7, 2015

New scandal follows earlier revelations of #parents scaling a wall to pass crib sheets to their children, which went viral on social media

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) April 7, 2015

#Biharexams farce will not help #India's #education system shed its reputation for #institutional corruption + graft http://t.co/OjlfcUJPZw

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) April 7, 2015

Indian Central Bank Versus Structural Macroeconomic Deficiencies = Only One Winner!

Slide of #Rupee to 62.03 versus one dollar despite attempts by the Reserve Bank of India to prop up the currency represents 'policy failure'

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) August 17, 2013

Serious structural weaknesses in the Indian economy – including energy dependency, woeful infrastructure and epic graft – still unaddressed

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) August 17, 2013

US$11.6bn of #India #debt and #equities sold by foreign investors since 05/2013; 'genuine fear' re: economy prospects http://t.co/JHhqdkUQlJ

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) August 17, 2013

Under the Table: Transparency International Report ‘Reveals Endemic Global Corruption!’

Global Corruption Barometer 2013: 59% of respondents in 17 #G20 nations state their govts 'are not doing a good job fighting corruption' #TI

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) July 11, 2013

55% of respondents believe their government is run by lobbyists; 91%/ #Indians rate government anti-corruption measures as '(v.)ineffective'

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) July 11, 2013

66%/Brazilian respondents believe special interest groups have 'somewhat or full control of the reins of government' http://t.co/4OPoCzWxc6

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) July 11, 2013

Off the Grid: India Fails to Meet ‘Power for All in 2012’ Target

300m/c.25% of people in #India still live without #electricity as US$34bn #Coalgate scandal rumbles on #SatyamevJayate http://t.co/ZACMxS6Q

— ッ MEDIOLANA® EDU (@Mediolana) September 15, 2012

India Against Corruption: The Beginning of the Dialogue

While the Arab Spring has understandably thus far dominated the world’s news agenda in 2011, momentous developments of an analogous nature have also been happening in the emerging superpower that is India. On 24th February 2011, this blog pointed to the pronounced oligarchic trend within contemporary Indian capitalism and alluded to the systemic corruption that permeates the country; spring 2011 has seen an extraordinary flowering of unprecedented anti-corruption protests. Leading personalities involved in the protests include the renowned social activist and environmental pioneer Anna Hazare and the maverick yoga guru Swami Ramdev; the anti-corruption movements seeks, amongst other goals, the institution of an anti-graft citizen ombudsman via the passage of the Jan Lokpal Bill and the repatriation of ‘black money’ – estimated to be in the trillions of US dollars – held by Indian citizens in foreign banks, particularly those institutions based in Switzerland.

This movement has clearly chimed with the country at large, and rattled the Indian authorities: Bollywood luminaries such as A. R. Rahman, Amitabh Bachchan and Shabana Azmi have voiced and/or tweeted their support for Anna Hazare’s cause, and the India Against Corruption Facebook page vaunts over 226,000 ‘likes’ at the time of writing; by contrast, in the early hours of 5th June 2011 the Delhi Police stormed a non-violent mass fast at Ramlila Maidan in India’s capital, teargassing and charging peaceful protestors.

At this stage, it is still unclear what the eventual outcome of these developments will be. But it appears that India is at last having a meaningful national dialogue about the elephant in the room that continues to cast a shadow over the lives of so many of its citizens.