Articles by Moin Qazi
We found 124 results.
A Right Time to Ponder over India’s Water Woes
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Jun 2017
Realizing its dire predicament decades ago, Israel studied the “water equation” and made itself all but independent of Mother Nature. Israel took 70 years to solve its water problem; India won’t need that long, as it can emulate Israeli advances. But New Delhi must summon the political will to act before water runs out.
→ read full articleIndia Needs to Focus on Its Development Warriors
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Jun 2017
5 Jun 2017 – India spends more on programmes for the poor than most developing countries but is not getting the expected dividends that significant public expenditure would seem to warrant, and the needs of important population groups still remain partly addressed. This has been haunting social scientists and policy makers.
→ read full articleTreating India’s Suicidal Farmers
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 May 2017
For every Indian farmer who takes his own life, a family is hounded by the debt he leaves behind, typically resulting in children dropping out of school to become farmhands. The Indian government’s response to the crisis—largely in the form of limited debt relief and compensation programs—has failed to address the magnitude and scope of the problem or its underlying causes.
→ read full articleMedia Is Free, but Is It Fair?
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 May 2017
In an ideal world, journalism is a profession of incredible integrity. Good journalists are amongst the most dexterous and skilled people in the world—and also the most respected.
→ read full articleWhat India’s Poor Really Need Is Microsavings, Not Microcredit
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Apr 2017
There’s an old saying about poverty: Give me a fish, and I’ll eat for a day. Give me a fishing rod, and I’ll eat for a lifetime. But these days, particularly in India, there’s evidence that one of the most effective tools to fight poverty may not be a fishing rod, but a savings account. What we need is a savings revolution.
→ read full articleIndian Microfinance Needs to Pause and Reflect
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Apr 2017
Microfinance is actually a tool in a broader development toolbox, but in certain conditions, it happens to be the most powerful tool. It has all to do with how we are using it and how we are defining the outcomes. It needs to shape a more responsible capitalism.
→ read full articleIndia’s Pluralism under Siege
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Apr 2017
India follows a system of legal pluralism that allows different religious communities to be governed by their own codes of personal law as a way of protecting distinct communal identities and safeguarding the right of citizens to practice their faith, as enshrined in the constitution. But Muslims are governed by the personal law, which came into force in 1937.
→ read full articleIndia Needs to Move Beyond Hubris
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Apr 2017
Sometimes we filter when we listen, having a preconceived notion of the ground realties. In a country as large and diverse as India, it makes sense to connect those who live in similar climates and by tracking the effectiveness of the projects they manage and making appropriate, informed changes to those that aren’t working.
→ read full articleIndia’s Village Women Glide the Development Landscape
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Mar 2017
27 Mar 2017 – Gender inequality is not only a pressing moral and social issue but also a critical economic challenge. India has a larger relative economic value at stake from advancing gender equality than any of the ten regions analyzed in a McKinsey Global Institute report, The Power of Parity: How Advancing Women’s Equality Can add $12 Trillion To Global Growth.
→ read full articleIndia’s Improbable Harbingers of Political Change
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Mar 2017
Rural Indian women haven’t always had much by way of social agency or political power to pay an active role in the development of their community. Malnourished, suppressed, uneducated, violated, and discriminated against, Indian women had the odds badly stacked against them. Deeply entrenched stereotypical norms had relegated women to the domestic space and severely restricted their engagement in public affairs, an area largely dominated by men.
→ read full articleThe Delusion of Microfinance
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Mar 2017
8 Mar 2017 – When microfinance–providing small loans and other financial services to poor people, primarily women–made its first appearance, everyone was infatuated by its narrative: Those on the left loved its stories of transformed women and direct empowerment of the poor. Those on the right loved how it promoted grass-roots capitalism, fostered a culture of entrepreneurship, and all this by doing away subsidies.
→ read full articleIndia’s New Push to Digital Financial Transition
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Mar 2017
Access to the right financial tools at critical moments can determine whether a poor household is able to capture an opportunity to move out of poverty or absorb a shock without being pushed deeper into debt. However, the existing “bricks and mortar” banking system doesn’t work for poor people, in part because most of their transactions are conducted in cash. Handling cash transactions is costly for banks, utilities companies, and other institutions, which pass along the costs associated with storing, transporting, and processing cash to their customers.
→ read full articleA New Relevance for India’s Moderate Madrasas
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
27 Feb 2017
West Bengal has become the first state to begin the modernization of the traditional madrasas with the support from central government. As a result nearly 600 government recognized madrasas have modern curriculum. They offer courses in physics, chemistry, biology, geography, mathematics, computer science, English language and literature and other regular subjects.
→ read full articleThe Plight of India’s Small Farmers
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Feb 2017
The Green Revolution in the 1970s relied on high-yielding seeds, irrigation, fertilizers and pesticides to increase agricultural productivity, but took a heavy toll on the land and water resources of the country, reducing long-term productivity levels.
→ read full articlePutting the Last First
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2017
Handing the Poor the Reins of Development
→ read full articleFlashlights for Warriors of Development Programmes
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
23 Jan 2017
Even when programme results are reported, the names and actions of the individuals who made the process successful on the ground are seldom known. We should really applaud and honour ordinary men and women, who have nobody to back them, yet are working doggedly to keep projects rolling.
→ read full articleWhat Makes Social Programmes That Work
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
2 Jan 2017
Most development programmes for poor have been designed on the assumption that the poor need charities and they cannot afford to pay for the services. This is erroneous and we have witnessed how dollops of free money have stifled their initiatives.
→ read full articleComments Can Be Free, but Facts Must Be Sacred
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
26 Dec 2016
The journalism of today may be bringing a lot of power and pelf to the practitioners of its trade, but, it is losing its sheen because it is becoming increasingly devoid of the essential content that earned it the honor of the Fourth Estate: trust.
→ read full articleBitter Harvest for Indian Farmers
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
19 Dec 2016
15 Dec 2016 – The naked and cruel truth about India is that agriculture remains its Achilles’ heel. It is a source of livelihood for hundreds of millions of people but a fraction of the nation’s total economy and a symbol of its perennial distress.
→ read full articleUnveiling Islamic Polygamy
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Dec 2016
One of the most contentious issues that come up in any debate on Islam’s gender practices is polygamy. Contrary to various myths, polygamy is a unique and revolutionary social safety and security net that has unfortunately been maligned on account of its abuse.
→ read full articleWomen in Islam: The New Paradigm
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Dec 2016
The portrayal of Muslim women that we glimpse in the media is grim and somber. The public perception of them is one of stubborn stereotypes: supposedly powerless and oppressed, behind walls and veils, demure, voiceless and silent figures, discriminated and bereft of even basic rights. This picture keeps reinforcing itself, largely because this is how the Western media caricatures women in Islam.
→ read full articleIndia’s NGOs: A Mixed Blessing
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
28 Nov 2016
The recent decisions of Indian government imposing stern controls on foreign nongovernmental organizations is deplorable but, sadly, not surprising. Illiberal and authoritarian governments are inherently allergic to civil society and, more broadly, to any institutions they don’t control. India and several other countries have either passed or proposed similar laws to curtail the activities of nongovernmental groups.
→ read full articleThe Uniform Civil Code Debate in India: Unveiling the Myths
Moin Qazi – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Oct 2016
The Indian government has embarked on a marathon exercise of seeking public opinion on having a Uniform Civil Code. A uniform civil code will mean that personal laws will become subservient to constitutional law. The Constitution enjoins all religions and faiths to be respected equally and adherents be free to carry out the articles of their faith.
→ read full articleCan Sufism Sanitize Our Planet?
Moin Qazi, New Age Islam – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Oct 2015
In the chaos that prevails around us the most authentic hope comes from mystics whose poetry and philosophy combines the virtuous message of formal religion with the transcendental values of love and harmony. The finest exponent of this luminous philosophy was Rumi (which means daylight), the great 13th century Sufi mystic.
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