Juridicality, Indian style

The Lok Sabha secretariat has been burning the midnight oil lately, collecting details of India’s practical experiences in “juridical and corporate insurance”. ‘Juridical’ as the word suggests has to do with courts — more specifically, it means something “used in courts of justice”. To this end, much needed background material has been obtained from the Comptroller and Auditor General and the insurance division.

Seventy copies of the report will be prepared in English and 20 copies in Hindi, and shared with a Mongolian parliamentary mission (currently on a visit to India) today. Why? As the remote land prepares to open up its insurance sector, the Mongolians have expressed a desire to learn from Indian MPs our corporate laws and procedures. Considering that India is itself barely a year into the exercise, and given the average level of competence enjoyed by our parliamentarians, it does speak volumes about the confidence other developing countries have in us!

99 per cent
At the end of a hurriedly called press conference to announce a broadcasting package for the Northeast recently, many scribes were noticed scratching their heads. The question that puzzled them was, why the upgraded facilities of Doordarshan covered 99 per cent of the area and population in many parts of the Northeast, and not 100 per cent? The riddle was solved by none other than information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj.

Said she, without batting an eyelid. “Because, I don’t want to be called a liar.” “The government would love to say 100 per cent coverage, but if any of you happen to find even a single household in the region not receiving DD signals, you may say that Sushma Swaraj lied about it.” Indeed, in a bid to cover all her bases, the minister did clarify that despite best efforts, it was quite possible some remote parts of the region weren’t receiving DD signals.