Tag: Ashutosh Mishra Column

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: Odisha Congress’s defeatist attitude is the biggest stumbling block in the path of its revival in the state. The latest example of this attitude is the statement of party veteran, former minister, Suresh Kumar Routray on a local TV channel almost conceding defeat in the Bijepur assembly by-poll. Asked about the […]

By Ashutosh Mishra London: Railway service in England is pretty efficient. Trains are fast and run on time. Instances of disruption of service are few and far between. The kind of shambolic scenes that we generally witness at railway stations in India are but rare here. Extinction Rebellion protesters, who practically laid seize to this […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: It was heartening to read that Ramchandi, the tiny seaside settlement along the Puri-Konark marine drive, will be hosting the India Surf Festival (ISF), country’s premier surfing event, in the coming year. I have visited Ramchandi several times and enjoyed myself thoroughly on each occasion. Ramchandi is where river Kusabhadra pours […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: Even as the state BJP gears up to take on the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal(BJD), which it aspires to replace as Odisha’s ruling party in 2024, it finds itself circumscribed by its central leadership’s approach towards the regional party. With the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) still lacking a majority […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: It is heartening to note that the state government is trying to promote eco-tourism through fresh initiatives like ‘Eco-trails Odisha’, a trekking and hiking programme. Apart from creating awareness about new sites richly endowed with natural beauty, it seeks to educate tourists on flora and fauna of these destinations. Media reports […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: Ridding Chilika, Asia’s largest brackish water lake, of illegal prawn gherries ( enclosures) is a Herculean task. The gherries re-appear within days of demolition by the administrations of Puri, Ganjam and Khurda, the districts straddled by the huge water body which was declared a Ramsar site long ago. The Puri district […]

By Ashutosh Mishra Bhubaneswar: The rise of BJP as the main opposition party in Odisha has not surprised anyone but most political observers have sought to attribute this to the steep decline in Congress’s fortunes in the state.  The argument is that BJP’s vote share has risen almost in direct proportion to the fall in […]