Diwali Celebration :)

Happy Diwali to you all :) :)

Diwali, The Festival of Lights, is a very special festival in India. Different regions of the country celebrate it with slight differences even though the basic idea behind the festival remains the same. The methods of celebration has changed with time and with the introduction of new technologies especially LEDs, it has become more colourful. Firecrackers is one of the important part of this festival. Children enjoy bursting firecrackers. However, many environmental conservationists are propagating for crackersless Diwalis so that it will be safe and green :)


Here are some glimpses of how New Delhi celebrated Diwali :)

Whole street is lighted up on both sides!! 

Whole street is lighted up on both sides!! (with more light) 

In North India, during Diwali, giving gift to friends and relatives is a tradition. This has been commercialized. See the way gift boxes are kept here :)  Believe me, all those gift boxes do get sold out!!! 

Women selling bunches of flowers 

A boy engaged in his mobile while waiting for customers to sell handicraft works made of mud

The way houses are made to glow with lights 

Glowing houses with colourful lights! 

Glowing houses with colourful lights! 

Oil Lamps made of mud of different size and shape 

Here comes the LED show :) LED has brought a revolution in the world! (Notably, recently Noble Prize was awarded to inventors of  Blue LEDs. Producing Blue LEDs was a great difficult task two decades ago!! Now we can see them in large numbers!)  

Sculptures of Gods and Goddesses and other decorating materials 

Different varieties of garlands :) 

Children bursting firecrackers in front of their houses (on the roads!) 

Why India Needs To Have Strategic Relations With Sri Lanka For A Regional Stronghold

Published in YOUTH KI AWAAZ - http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2014/05/india-needs-strategic-relations-sri-lanka-regional-stronghold/

By Akshara Damle: 

May 16th was a remarkable day for India. The election results brought an end to the era of coalition government. As we have seen in the history of Indian politics, coalition governments cannot take decisions easily as every decision has to get the assent of different political parties with different ideologies. Regional parties exerted pressure and influenced the previous coalition governments on both domestic issues and foreign policies. As a result many decisions were withdrawn or kept pending. The new central government will not face such hurdles. However, it is the responsibility of the government to heed to other parties’ views and seek consensus.

Mr. Narendra Modi’s decision to invite the heads of the SAARC countries is well received and appreciated by foreign policy analysts as a step in redefining India’s foreign relations. Only the state government and leaders of regional parties in Tamil Nadu have criticised the invitation of the president of Sri Lanka. Their concern is legitimate with regard to the treatment of Tamil minorities in Northern and Eastern province in Sri Lanka. In fact, United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) has severely criticized Sri Lankan government’s governance deficit in the region and has also passed a resolution against it. It is also seeking a credible international inquiry into killing of Tamils, war crimes and human rights violations in the last leg of the civil war in Sri Lanka. The UNHRC is concerned about the continuing trend of attacks on freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association; rising levels of religious intolerance; and continued militarisation in the Northern Province. The video clip released by British television broadcaster Channel 4 accusing the Sri Lankan armed forces of having an underlying culture of systematic brutality and sexual violence poured fuel to the fire. Though human rights violation must be condemned, Tamil Nadu’s demand to boycott Sri Lanka harms India’s national interest.

While there can’t be any justification for mass killing of innocent Tamil minorities or the still prevailing discrimination towards Tamil dominated areas, the problem cannot be solved by closing the doors to Sri Lanka or by stopping bilateral dialogues. Instead, India should enhance its bargaining power and get justice for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka by cultivating better relations.

In fact, the relation between the two countries turned positive when India abstained from voting during the last resolution of UNHRC on March 26 this year. Sri Lankan leadership was delighted and welcomed India’s stand and ordered the release of Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan custody. It is the responsibility of the new government to continue in the positive direction initiated by its predecessor. Earlier in 2013, Tamil Nadu government had successfully deterred the then Prime Minister of India from attending the Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka, thereby putting regional interests above national interest for political mileage and this can never be justified.

Apart from the Tamil issue, India needs to consider other developments going on in Sri Lanka, which is a strategic location in the Indian Ocean. As the India-Sri Lanka relationship worsened, the presence of China in Sri Lanka increased significantly. Sri Lanka is one of the important countries with which China wants to enhance its partnership in infrastructure development and establishing free trade zones under the revival of Maritime Silk Route (MSR) policy. China has already built two ports, one in Colombo and another in Hambantota. China has thoughtfully kept India away from its new foreign policy, except for the mention of Bangladesh, Myanmar, India and China (BMIC) pipeline network, even though India is one of the largest markets for Chinese products. This shows the double standards between overt gesture and covert actions of China. China has also collaborated in satellite launching activities with SupremeSAT (Pvt.), Sri Lanka’s only satellite operator.

To counter China, good relations with Sri Lanka and other countries in the Indian Ocean region are very essential. Therefore, strengthening multilateral organizations like SAARC, BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic cooperation) and IOR-ARC (Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation) is a necessity. Sri Lanka, being an important member of these organizations, can never be neglected or sidelined in the foreign policy. Both the countries will have to work together in order to check piracy in the Indian Ocean. Support of Sri Lanka is essential for India to emerge as a Blue water navy in the Indian Ocean and also to get permanent membership in United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Sri Lanka is a good market for India’s automobile industry and it supplies spices, rubber and other plantation crops for us. India has also emerged as a hub for medical tourism, many patients from Sri Lanka and other neighbouring countries come here to get medical treatment.

India must follow the policy of friendly relations with its neighbours guided by the Gujral doctrine. Therefore Mr. Modi’s decision is a good start in the right direction. The states must cooperate with the Centre to find the right balance between national interest and regional interests.

What do you think?

ENTRY AND EXIT OF FDI: A CASE OF DOCOMO

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is an important aspect for a growing economy like India. Our nation has allowed FDI in different sectors like multi-brand retail, single brand retail, telecom, insurance, media, defence and so on. Presence of a foreign investor not only adds quality but also some glamour to the sector. The entry of foreign investors gives confidence to a country that it is investment friendly and their exit equally gives pain. The appearance of fault line in TATA DOCOMO resulting in TATA and NTT DOCOMO is a case in point.

TATA DOCOMO (TD) created a new trend of 1paisa (ps) per second, when it made a foray into the Indian telecom sector. Prior to the entry of Tata Docomo, other mobile service providers were offering a minute’s pulse rate. Whether a person spoke for 15 seconds or 1 minute 2 seconds, he had to pay the price for 1 minute and 2 minutes respectively. During that period, Tata Docomo’s offer asking customers to pay for what they use was a new thing for Indian telecom industry and was expected to create a boom! Some long talkers soon realised that they will end up paying more if they choose this service as already established service providers like Airtel, Idea, BSNL and Vodafone were providing 50ps/minute call rate. However, it was very useful for those who made many short duration calls!

But then change in the number was a problem for many at that point of time as Mobile Number Portability (MNP) option did not exist. This prevented many from shifting completely to TD and some people used it as an alternative number. The entry of dual sim phones in the Indian mobile market was a boon for such people. Unfortunately, for TD, the competitors never lagged behind in providing 1ps/second offers. In fact, service provider like Airtel which had very good penetration, a large customer base and was appreciated by customers for its signal strength provided an option for them to choose between minute pulse and second pulse. So long talkers continued their existing plans and short talkers changed their plans and not the service provider. This prohibited many customers from buying new TD sims which had limited network coverage and had only second pulse rate option and not minute pulse rate. To tackle this, TD introduced other offers like 1ps/2seconds, 3ps/4seconds and so on. But bringing similar offers was not a big deal for the competitors! Rather, it helped them in diversifying tariff plans. Due to poor network connectivity, other Value Added Services (VAS) of TD didn’t help in attracting more customers.

Later, it was the turn of ‘cost of sim’ game! At a time when customers had to pay an amount nearly Rs. 100 to obtain a new sim, TD started providing sims at as cheap as Rs. 2! For students like me, it was like buying chocolates! The expenditure to get our photo and ID cards was more than the cost of buying a sim! With such an offer, a single customer bought 5 to 6 sims at a time. I am no different. I too had bought four sims of TD at a cost of Rs. 8! To make the offer more interesting, the company had also provided a talktime of Rs. 40 in each of those sims! I myself didn’t know what to do with so many sims! But I purchased them. I and most of the customers like me thought that the one who bought maximum sims was more intelligent in grabbing such offers! There was an upper limit of eight sims in a person’s name! Otherwise, many people including me would have purchased 25 to 30 or even 50 sims! I used to call my parents everyday from different sims in order to keep them activated.

To be realistic, it was a dirty bomb by Tata Docomo! In fact, TD itself couldn’t keep a hold on mad rush for its sims! (rather ‘sins’). May be, the company was initially happy for its wittiness to increase its consumer base. But it turned to be a pseudo-consumer base! Sooner than later, the customers started getting call from the company to verify their ID proofs. The company had failed to manage the documents and it had ended up in a mess. Many customers had to re-submit their documents! This irked the consumers! Visiting a photocopy shop, again to get copies of photograph and then go to the simcard dealer, fill up the form and submit was really a tedious process. So people like me, who had bought sims only to ‘utilize’ the offer thought of finishing the talktime available in each of the sims and keep them somewhere safe so that they can be used for contact transfer when we change the phone!

In a way, the idea of increasing customer base had landed in a disaster! The reliability of quality of product for which TATA is popular for couldn’t really keep its stature in this game! Though at that point of time I didn’t think so much, but now when I think about it I feel, probably this low cost sim scheme might have been a boon for terrorists or anti-nationals. Even otherwise, they possess so many sims with them, and if it is available at a toffee rate, will they not utilize it!? Aren’t they ‘intelligent’!?

On a broader perspective, the entry of NTT Docomo, which is one of the best mobile operators in the World, was a very positive sign for India. As the TD website says, NTT Docomo provided cutting edge technology. Technologists at DOCOMO have defined industry benchmarks like 3G technology, as also products and services like i-Mode, e-wallet and a plethora of lifestyle-enhancing applications. Last year itself, while most of the rest of the industry were only beginning to talk of 4G technology and its possible applications, DOCOMO had already concluded conducting 4G trials in physical geographies, not just inside laboratories!

The investment by NTT Docomo was one of the biggest Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in India. It had not only brought the much needed dollars to the country but also technology and human resource. Despite this, the company incurred losses in India and has finally decided to sell its shares and exit. But this exit will mark a black spot for Indian economy. If such a technologically advanced company fails to make profit in a country like India which has seen drastic increase in the number of households having cellphones from 7 per cent in 2004 to 82 per cent in 2011 – 12, then the possibility of other FDIs coming into country also becomes dismal. Not only in FDI terms, but also in terms of bilateral relations, Tata – Docomo partnership had helped in enhancing India – Japan relations.
If this partnership had become successful, then it would have attracted many more Japanese firms to invest in India. Now it was the right time for India to grab maximum investments from Japan under the regime of a pro-Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Shinzo Abe. Our neighbour China, though not in good terms with Japan due to Senkaku island issue, has presence of 10 times more number of Japanese companies than what India has. So, India should consider the exit of NTT Docomo seriously and address the issues to make the nation more investment friendly. Indian companies should devise right strategies to make collaborations successful.

Women Empowered!?

The International Women’s Day was celebrated on 8th March. The morning news paper reminded it to me. No celebration at home. My mother is busy doing her regular chores as usual. I wondered then this day is for whom? I thought of making a quick survey. I sent text messages to some 30 women in my contact list saying “Happy women’s day. Let women be more powerful”. I got only 3 replies! I wondered! What about others!? Aren’t they celebrating Women’s Day? Don’t they think that celebrating women’s day is necessary!? Or is it that they have no meaning to it since the celebration of women’s day never changes their lot. In fact, all the women whom I had sent messages are well educated. Still, there is no cheer in celebrating women’s day! Then what is the status with uneducated, illiterate women in our society?

            It is correctly said that “if you educate a woman it is like making the whole family   educated!” In fact, some results have shown that education of women has improved their health conditions, has improved their child care practices, it has improved their social mingling. The concept of Self Help Group has worked wonderfully and one of the best examples is SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association). We do see many women working in different fields, some of which were traditionally male dominated!

But the question remains that “whether education has changed the attitude of men towards women!?” The results seem to be dismal. The treatment of women in households has not really changed. The culinary works still remain the domain of women in the houses. Even in nuclear families where both husband and wife are working, women have to do domestic works and then have to go for office. Husbands still continue to pick up the newspaper in the morning and sit on a chair waiting for tea to arrive to their place. Sipping of tea and reading of newspaper goes on till it is the time to get ready to go for office! By then breakfast is expected. The shoes should be polished and they do not know where is their pant or shirt, leave alone belt, socks, watch and purse! The laptop should be kept inside the bag and tiffin should be ready (if lunch is not available in the office)! If these things are not done properly, these husbands start grumbling for the inefficiency of their wives to get the things done on time! The blame will be again on their wives if they miss the bus or if they get jammed in the traffic. There is no consideration at all for their wives who also have to get ready to go for office! On returning home in the evening, a cup of tea is expected to be ready! If wife is late to return from the office, she will have to see the kitchen in a bad shape where so many vessels being misplaced, unlided sugar and tea powder bottles, milk in the vessel kept open, some biscuit packets opened and kept here and there and some powder on the floor with no hint from where it fell! Generally she doesn’t dare to question this adventurous act. If she does, then the ready counter is “I didn’t find the vessel to prepare tea. I had to search so much to get it. Why don’t you keep it in some place where it is easily available!” She will think it would be wise to keep quiet as these arguments are never ending!     

The most expected thing from women still remains “the ability to cook”. Many educated men do consider it as one of the ‘most important’ thing to be asked while choosing a bride for them! I wonder how cooking has become so important criteria undermining educational qualification, work profile and so on, even though they are well educated!  

Glass ceiling effect is not a new phenomenon. Very few women have been able to break the glass! Recently Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, told the assembled global elite at World Economic Forum that she had been opposed to quotas until a moment early in her career when she was told she would not progress because she was a woman. “I soon realised that unless we had targets, if not quotas, there was no way” to make headway, she said. This is a clear sign of educated men still considering women to be less capable of doing things!

It has become very common to see reports of rape incidents in newspapers. Many of us have become more desensitized to such reports. If we analyse these reports, it is quite prevalent to see that many of the rapes are by intimate partners! We get to see many well educated men who are in very good posts involved in such cases.

Right from Supreme court judges to journalists, professors, doctors have been alleged of sexual assault! Uneducated, illiterate men add to these numbers!  That means education has failed to bring attitudinal change in men. The overpowering nature of men still continues even though the structure of society is changing!

Unless there is attitudinal change, real women empowerment will not happen even if successive governments bring more and more legislations!

System down and anarchy up!

I completed my work in a hurry and looked at my watch as I was getting late. After lifting the heavy bag on my shoulder, I walked quickly towards the bus stand lest I miss the express bus. I had to reach my destination before night. On reaching the bus station I noticed that the bus was yet to arrive. I sighed a relief and looked around. The bus stand was crowded with passengers who were waiting for their buses. Luckily, my bus arrived after few minutes and it was parked at the platform. No sooner, I walked towards the door of the bus a queue of five to six persons was formed as commuters were waiting for passengers to alight from the vehicle. I also stood next to them.

Meanwhile, a group of young men arrived and threw their bags on the seats through windows and reserved seats for themselves. Few of them tampered in between the passengers who were alighting from the bus and reserved some more seats for their friends. Passengers standing in the queue shouted at them to form queues and follow the system. They never paid attention and went ahead! By the time we entered inside the bus no seats remained vacant! All of us complained to the conductor about this matter. He turned a deaf ear towards our demand!

I swiftly inquired with the co-passengers and learnt that no bus service was immediately available if I failed to board the bus which was scheduled to depart. Thus the only option left for me was to commute in the same bus. A fury ran through my nerves. I felt as if I was let down by the system. Nobody respected those passengers who were following the rules by standing in queue. On the contrary they mocked at us for our inability to grab the seats! I had to control my anger in silence!

It was not the difficulty to stand for three hours in bus which worried me but I was more bothered about the collapse of the system. Why are we not capable of getting things done as per rules? Why do we allow people to break the rules and enjoy unfair advantages? Why in democracy, might is allowed to be honoured? No answer except the ‘public mindset’ which accepts misrule as the procedure of the day. It has become a very casual aspect for us. In the present situation the personal agenda is to break the rule but be intelligent and get the things done! Because everyone is aware that nothing goes according to the rule!

I was sure that passengers will have to struggle to get a seat in the next bus too. A group of hooligans is always present while boarding the bus for creating trouble for commuters. If things continue to remain like this then how will the problems of common man be resolved? An old person who was standing beside me was suffering in silence while travelling in the bus. He meekly smiled at me and said, “I am a regular commuter of this bus. I usually travel as a standing passenger which is very common aspect. I am only able to occupy a seat on rare occasions. We need to adjust with the system! You can’t change the world, you need to change yourself!” I was surprised to notice that inspite of undergoing hardships daily this elderly person couldn’t learn the lesson to become unruly for grabbing a seat. He calmly replied, “I am a man of principles. I am sure, one day people will learn to follow the rules and become disciplined”. I smiled and said “hmmm”! However, I remained unconvinced by his statement and began thinking whether people will look towards such men and learn from them.

I thought I should raise this issue to change at least one person. So I tried to convince a youngster sitting beside us and said him that what he did was wrong. The youth should have followed the rules which would have made the lives of fellow commuters easier. He surprised me by saying that if everyone follows the rule then he too will follow. Refusing to vacate the seat for the elderly he told me, “Take it easy. Anyway we have boarded the bus and let’s avoid arguments.”

Unfortunately my mind would not stop thinking about the steps to be taken to reform the system? What would happen if I sit on the road observing a dharna in front of the bus and call it off until justice was attained? Then people would call me mad. Commuters might address me as an “educated idiot”! Many bystanders might comment that I didn’t have any other work to do! Even the media will label me as an ‘anarchist’! The incident would go down in history as someone had tried to challenge the deteriorated system in vain.

There are many people who criticise about the collapse of the system but they do not join hands to correct it. The reason why this is happening is that the society is fractured and the pieces do not forge into a unity to oppose the unruly elements. Each one has his own point of view for evaluating the injustice. For instance, take the example of transport system where categories of buses ranging from most luxurious to most ordinary exist. You are entitled to receive amenities as per your purchasing power. People select buses according to their purchasing power. Then who will fight for the common man’s rights? Only the anarchist!?

Role of legislative body in India

                    I began studying about the Indian constitution for the first time in 8th standard Social Studies textbook. I found the subject Civics least interesting and always struggled to understand it. Ultimately, I had to learn the subject by heart to clear the examination. However, my opinion about this subject has changed as I learnt that it deals with the issues pertaining to bread and butter of our citizens and several issues relating to the governance issues of our country!

                   As I continue to read Civics, I noticed several paradoxes. “While the protection of law is the responsibility of judiciary why formulation of law is in the hands of legislature even when its members may come from less educated sections?” “Why age and not educational qualifications remains the criteria to represent the people of this country?” “Even when the preamble says that Bharat is a secular country, why still we are witnessing communal violence?” These are some of the questions which are arising in my mind. Of course, India is a democratic country.

                  As Abraham Lincoln defined it “Democracy is by the people, of the people and for the people”. So is it the reason why legislative body frames the laws. Yes! Our democracy is based on the presumption that the representatives will be the voices of the people whom they represent and they will pass people friendly laws! Yet one cannot be optimistic as the hierarchical mind of Indians as said by Sudheer Kakkar keeps the representatives far above the common man.

                 In the process of policy formulations for good governance, three types of knowledge are used, namely, academic knowledge, bureaucratic knowledge as well as people’s knowledge. Academic knowledge can be obtained from the academicians and bureaucratic knowledge can be gained from the bureaucrats. But what about people’s will? Rousseau’s concept of ‘general will’ is very much relevant here. However, we can’t go on asking each and every citizen about their opinion regarding every policy. Hence, under a representative government the legislature plays a major role in formulating laws. It is assumed that all the representatives possess grass-root links and hence they are aware of what the people really want.

                 Apart from that, opinions of citizens are also sought by putting the policy in the public domain through websites of the ministries. But the fact is that very few are aware about this information and extremely few contribute towards it. Now the question arises whether our legislature is really representing people’s knowledge and whether it works towards fulfilling their aspirations or for the welfare of the representatives themselves?

                Senior MPs have commented that this year’s Monsoon Session was one of the least productive sessions in the annals of Indian Parliament. As per the statistics prepared by the Lok Sabha secretariat, only 1,157 hours of sittings took place until the 12th session of the 15th Lok Sabha. This is far behind the record of the 14th Lok Sabha, which had 1,736 hours and 55 minutes of sittings. In fact, the first Lok Sabha held 677 sittings of about 3,784 hours during its 14 sessions. The scenario is no different when it comes to Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Parliament.

                 For the first time in its history, the Upper House returned the budget sans any discussion. This only shows the lackadaisical attitude of parliamentarians who are representatives of the people. Who will bear the loss of money as well as time? Diversity of ideas should result in formulation of a policy addressing various issues and not witnessing recurring parliamentary logjams. And if Supreme Court takes up the issue due to delay in parliamentary procedure, then MPs will waste time in criticizing the apex court for not taking any action pertaining to policy formulations.

                  When the Chief Information Commissioner passed an order that all major political parties like INC/AICC, BJP, CPI(M), CPI, NCP and BSP should come under the ambit of RTI, parliament was very quick to take action to revert this order. But when the issue is concerned with people, as in case of acid attacks issue, where Supreme Court issued guidelines about regulation of acid sale before parliament or the government nobody had any objection about it.

                  As per reports, an average asset owned by a MP is around Rs. 5.8 crore and the Planning Commission sets the poverty line at Rs. 33.3 and Rs. 27.2 per day in urban and rural areas respectively even though this amount is insufficient to even fulfil the minimum quantity of calorie requirement of an individual! 

                 Criminalization of politics is one of the major issues taken up by the recent Law Commission. The Supreme Court’s order on Section 8(4) was deeply debated among the scholars as well as common man. But our legislature was in no mood to take up the issue positively and work towards decriminalization of politics. The facts show that there are 162 MPs in Lok Sabha i.e. nearly 30% (out of them 75 (14%) are charged with cases of heinous crimes) who have declared that there are pending criminal cases against them in which they may be imprisoned for more than 2 years. Can we expect good governance from them? Why don’t the political parties themselves take an initiative to cleanse our democratic institutions?

                   In this year’s monsoon session Lok Sabha sat for 73.13 hours and productivity was 58% and Rajya Sabha had a better record, sitting for 99.65 hours and clocking 80% productivity and the parliament could pass 10 Bills! The 2014 election is not far away. Country is facing severe economic crisis. Border issues are also posing major challenges for India. At this juncture, the citizens of this country really deserve more responsible representatives who will work together for the betterment of the country by taking decisive actions and not divisive actions. Hoping to see a more productive winter session this time which is commencing from December 5th!

Can India afford Mangalyan?

It was November 5th, early morning 6AM. I eagerly searched for “Mars Orbiter Mission launch” on google! Several results appeared and one among them was an article published in The Economist (TE) titled “How can poor countries afford space programmes?” It was a mind blowing article. How thoughtfully the author A.R. (The Economist doesn’t reveal the full name of the author) had written it! The article said, “From a distance, India’s extra-terrestrial ambitions might seem like a waste of money. The country still has immense numbers of poor people: two-fifths of its children are suffering from malnutrition and half the population lack proper toilets. Its Mars mission may be cheap as compared to American (or Chinese) standards, at just $74m, but India’s overall space programme costs roughly $1 billion a year. That is more than spare change, even for a near $2-trillion economy. Meanwhile, spending on public health, at about 1.2% of GDP, is dismally low. What if the 16,000 scientists and engineers now working on space development were deployed instead to fix rotten sanitation?”

Really, the readers are influenced to think in these lines. What was the need for ISRO to spend 450 Crore! Couldn’t we feed our poor people with the same amount and reduce hunger?! Even Dr. Harsh Mander says that we should work on reducing malnutrition and other welfare programs to uplift the poor rather than spending so much on a mission for knowing more about Mars which is far away from us. This Mars mission is of little significance to the Indian citizens. Dr. Mander continues to say that Indian scientists should work on improving agriculture and living conditions of people! True. I agree with A.R., Dr. Mander and all those enlightened souls that the nation is having large number of malnourished people even more than Sub-Saharan Africa, lot of sanitation work has to be done. India is lagging in many more indices of social welfare!
Further, I am not taking upon Dr. Mander and others having similar views. I consider them only as critics.

Anyone and everyone in our society who is performing some good work will have to face criticism! So, most of us are virtually desensitised about such criticisms. Dr. Mander is working on issues pertaining to malnutrition and poverty which is a very vital contribution by him towards our society. According to him, it is important to allocate funds for eradicating malnutrition. Another educationist may say quality of our education is degrading drastically and there is a need to fund more on education and improve its quality. A health activist may say, people struggle to get quality health services in both rural and urban India. Out of pocket expenditure by individuals is very high. Therefore, health should be given priority because without solving these issues how will we be able to reap the benefits of our demographic dividend effectively! Such arguments are never ending! We will have to see each field uniquely and separately. I would say if everyone tries to excel in their fields, overall development will be witnessed. Hence the question is not about what these field specific experts say, but the timing of the article by The Economist!
The Economist (TE) has published the article on Nov 4th 2013, at 23:50 i.e. few hours before the launch of Mangalyaan. It could have been published even after the launching of Mangalyaan because the article in TE would not have influenced the decision whether to launch Mangalyaan or not! But still they published it in the critical time. That is to reduce the morale of the Indians in general and the scientists and engineers who have worked for the Mangalyaan in particular! We will have to see the wordings of the article again – “What if the 16,000 scientists and engineers now working on space development were deployed instead to fix rotten sanitation?” How arrogant! Should we consider this as sympathy for India?! Never! It is a very well planned conspiracy of the West only to demoralise Indian achievements!

I feel the most fitting answer is to quote Prof. U.R. Rao who replied American teasers that India can easily afford this investment since it spends more than 1000 crores on crackers! I also wonder whether the same authors have questioned the politicians stigmatized by the scams crossing thousands of crores! Had they opposed the expenditure incurred on the inaugural function of the Commonwealth Games held in Delhi which was more than 450 crores! More importantly have they forgotten the advantage of the weather forecast by the satellites that saved thousands of people from the possible disaster of Phailin cyclone recently?

India in international arena

Soon after independence, the challenge before India in the international arena was formulating a foreign policy which is not influenced by any other country. So we evolved NAM policy which is still guiding our foreign policy. The parties of bipolar world criticised India for going with NAM policy and remaining out of both the parties one headed by USA and the other by USSR. But they didn’t understand that the idea of NAM was to spread peace in the world and not war. Despite criticisms, India stood with its NAM policy and helped strengthening under developed countries and other developing countries like. Neither USA nor other developed countries in Europe even thought about the poor situation prevailing in those countries at that time! Later in 2008, India proved itself that its focus was correct towards developing countries as even during economic crises only these countries were moving with a faster economic growth where as the developed countries faced economic slowdown, default of leading banks and so on.

It was India which realised the need for disarmament in the world for having world peace. India proposed plans for disarmament for the first time in United Nations (UN) platform when world countries were busy in arms race!

Pollution of Earth had begun after the industrial revolution of 18th century in Europe. Intense degradation of environment was visible in the West which has affected climatic condition of the whole world! India took active participation in conventions to curb climate change and control of greenhouse gases. It judiciously supported common but differential principle as it is the West that have been polluting this Earth with high intensity since 18th century where as industrialisation has gained some pace in India only after independence. But still, India would not be liberating hot air up to per capita permissible amount even by 2030! West has to understand its mistakes and work towards correcting it rather than being biased about developing countries.

I would like to remind the West about the scientific skills of India. Leave alone the contributions from the times of the sage Aryabhata and others or even C V Raman, Srinivas Ramanujam. In the present days, Indians are also contributing in experiments of Large Hadron Collidor (LHC) which is working towards understanding elementary particles. Several western countries like USA, France etc. are collaborating India with other major projects like Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), Antarctica research, study of moon (through India’s Chandrayaan) etc.

Apart from these, India is considered to be an important country in the world arena with changing world order from west to east. USA’s Pivot towards Asia policy emphasises on improving its relations with India. With this policy, USA is agreeing to transfer certain technology to India too. President of USA, Mr. Barak Obama signed Obama – Singh Knowledge initiative with India and Millennium Alliance in education sector.

The grants from various philanthropic organizations are coming more and more to India. In a way, the country is trying to make India happy develop cooperation to achieve its goal of becoming a dominant power in Asia – Pacific region. Like it reduced its cooperation with Pakistan after attaining its goals in Afghanistan, it may do the same once it gets a strong hold in Asia – Pacific region, Myanmar in particular. The world countries, west in particular, are worried about the rise of China and want the help of India to counter the Red Dragon. In a way, west continues to follow the carrot and stick policy which was adopted by the British in India during colonial rule.

Insecurity of the west

If the western countries are so worried about the position of India in social indices, then why do they try to suppress our nation’s growth through different measures?! For example, as recognized by G20 countries recently in their meeting Moscow, policy of US Federal Reserve has increased the volatility of currencies of most of the developing countries including India. In fact, that policy itself is considered to be one of the major causal factor for depreciation of Rupee. The cheap money policy of USA during economic crises was a honey trap for which most of the developing countries like India fell and now striving hard to recover. Though USA says that the policy is in its national interest, it was clear about the consequences of that policy over developing countries. May be USA was worried about the high growth rate showed by India, China and other developing countries even during the economic crises.

When we analyse many steps of the west towards India, I feel western countries feel highly insecure with the developments happening in our country. We have seen it since long time. There were sanctions over India when it proved its nuclear capabilities through Smiling Buddha nuclear test in 1974 and another test in Pokhran in 1998. Even when India ensured that it has developed nuclear weapon for peace, west didn’t believe it not because India was an unreliable country but a thief always thinks that the other person may also be a burglar. With their insecurity, they wanted to curb India becoming a nuclear power which is considered as an elite group. India could sustain even during sanctions and then the world countries came again towards our country for cooperation which is history now.

European countries are very eager to improve economic relations with India because of its large markets. They want market for their dairy products, insurance and other financial service sector. Why do they ask India to liberalise its regulations towards these, if they are really feeling pity about the nation’s poverty? Instead, they should provide us the market access to our products for which European countries always hesitate! India’s mature industries like pharmaceutical and IT sector are not encouraged by them because of their insecurities of sustaining their capitalists.

More interestingly, TE article has expressed concerns about hunger in India. Yes, huge numbers of people are striving hard to get their daily bread. Understanding this problem, India formulated National Food Security Act in the year 2013. The act was highly criticized by the developed countries in World Trade Organization (WTO) forums, alleging that it is trade distorting. Even when India’s Minimum Support Price (MSP) was much lower than world average, foreign countries showed red eye towards MSP and said that it is against Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) under WTO. If west’s concern was genuine towards hunger in India, then what was the need for it to criticise the nation’s effort to eradicate poverty and hunger?!

Finally, why should West be worried about the expenditure incurred on Mars that India is bearing! The worrisome matter is if the Mangalyaan becomes successful, then India will join the elite group in the field. European countries are jealous about it. Though USA has agreed for a cooperative effort with India in understanding the Mars through its MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) project which would be launched very soon, other countries are not liking a poor country like India gaining higher status in the scientific arena. Keith Parkins, writer and environmentalist from Guildford called Mangalyaan as an “ego project, whilst majority of population are in abject poverty. There is more to Mars than launching a rocket.”! If it is a wasted project for India, is it not the same principle applicable for other countries too. Instead of sending Curiosity, USA could use the same amount of money to create jobs as it facing economic crises and the unemployment rate was increasing drastically there? Why didn’t these people raise their voice during that time?! Being a sovereign country, India possesses the capability to take its own decisions. So, politely we ask all those countries who are criticising Mangalyaan of India to shut their mouth!

Thanking Teachers on Teachers' Day

“It is not only on this day, but I always remember them. So this kind of celebration of a ‘particular day’ is not really special” – have you heard of some people telling something similar to this?! I have heard many! In fact I too have used similar statement whenever I failed to celebrate this day! But it is not really true and is only a justification for our inability to celebrate the day.

“A guru is someone who takes us from darkness towards light” is an age old anecdote about gurus. It is true too. But has the role of a guru remained same even in the present times? Certainly not! In this age of Information Technology, there are so many modes of learning. They have proved effective too. Some of the psychological studies show that the understanding of the concept is good when the student learns with proper visual effects along with auditory inputs. It is not possible to explain all concepts with visual effects on a blackboard. So then, is computer aided learning proving better than learning with the aid of a simple blackboard (whiteboard for that matter)? Yes of course. Then what is the role of a teacher?

A teacher is someone who moulds his student to be humane, someone who breaks the conceit of the students so that the minds of the students are open to acquire more and more knowledge. She/He is one who motivates the students to work hard towards to attain their goals. She/He instils love and affection within his/her students. He is the one who warns the students when they go into wrong path and brings them back to right path. He is one who gives a sense of security when his students fail to achieve something that he/she had aspired for. He is the best friend for his students and share their joys and sorrows! If all these things are instilled within an individual, then the process of quality learning by his/her students takes place spontaneously. It is only when knowledge (Intelligence Quotient) is accompanied with the affective component (Emotional Quotient), a teacher can influence the students and make a mark in their life.

If you check your memory, the teachers whom you remember first are the ones who have the above mentioned qualities. Teaching is not just lecturing on the topics given in the syllabus but it is much more than that. It is showing the students the right path. If teacher himself/herself is not motivated to acquire more and more knowledge, if they themselves are egoistic then they can’t become good teachers. Therefore teaching is not a job but much more than that. Thanks to Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan for recognising this day as the Teacher’s Day. The celebration of Teachers’ day becomes more meaningful when we remember our teachers and respect their contribution in building our personality and following the guidelines they gave us and going in the right direction.

Innovation for India - 2 : Electricity consumption: 2 new methods to control it!

As we all know that India is a most densely populated country in the world next to China. Our infrastructure development has not been at par with China. We are lagging much behind and because of this we face lot of problems right from availing basic services by citizens to increasing investment (mainly FDI etc) in our economy. Apart from that energy security is also one of the major problem that India is facing these days. Most of the rural areas do not get electricity for more than 15 hours a day! The shortage of electricity is seen in cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru as well as the national capital Delhi. The electricity tariffs are sky rocketing and people are often made to pay very heavy amount of electricity bills. Rich people do use air conditioners, fans, fridges and many other electronic appliances which consume huge amount of electricity. They may say that they are ready to pay the electricity bills whatever may be the amount. But the issue is not that. I am not against using n number of electronic and electric appliances. But the fact of the matter is along with the proper utilization there is lot of wastage of electricity. For example, many a times, fans will be running even though no one is sitting in the room, TVs will be on even though no one is there to watch it! Lights are not switched off! Still large number of people are not aware about the critical situation of India with regard to energy scarcity (of course, there are lot of things that people are not aware about the basic things of India which I will discuss in some other post). At this juncture, this is my plan to save electricity!

                     Government of India has come up with lot of measures to save energy. For ex - Green buildings, Bureau of Energy Efficiency and so on. But they are facing the problem in implementation and most importantly the common man of our society is not aware of these things! Neither s/he is informed about these things by anybody, nor he cares to understand these things by herself/himself.  Therefore, government has to take up new initiative at household level! There are two options with me! Generally what happens is, people come to know about their electricity bill after consumption! Sometimes, they get shocked to see the very high amount of the bill also! But then they will grumble the State Electricity Board for hiking the tariffs and pay the bill. For one or two days after paying the bill, they will be careful. But later again the same thing goes on! Therefore Government has to make the provision of showing the electricity charges on a real time basis.There should be a display installed in every houses' so that people will come to know that their electricity bill is going up and they will reduce their consumption. Automatically the unnecessary electricity wastage will get reduced.

                 The second idea is bit autocratic but may work in some places and there is nothing wrong in trying this method too! The government should calculate per capita consumption in urban India as well as rural India (At a later stage this can be city specific also). Each house should register the number of family members in a house with the Electricity board! accordingly a machine should be fixed in each house with the data saved in it about the number of members in the family. The machine should be capable of cutting the electricity supply once the total electricity allotted to that house for a day based on the per capita consumption calculation. May be the allotment may be fixed for 1 or 2 members extra upon the actual number of members of a family so that in case if some guests are there, then also it would be manageable! The machine should also have the facility like, if a family consumes less electricity than the allotted amount, then it should be added for the next day! Within that limit people are free to use any number of electrical appliances! This average per capita consumption may also be varied according to the season. Because in North India, both winter and summer are extreme and there may be variability in the per capita consumption of electricity! Initially this method may be extremely criticized by people! But no issues. As the awareness increases, they get used to consume less electricity. Ultimately, their expenditure on electricity bills will be reduced as well as the country's burden as a whole! Similar machine might be modified to fix the electricity consumption for commercial purposes like in shops, educational institutions etc. India has got n number of engineering colleges as well as bright engineering students! So doing these things is not a difficult thing! We just need to have willingness to implement!


© Akshara Damle
   

Innovation for India - 1 : A Super powered pump

Recently we saw floods in Uttarakhand, Assam and Andhra Pradesh. So many people lost their lives, many more lost their livelihood, shelter etc. Ecosensitive Zone (ESZ) is an environmental method of reducing the intensity of such disaster. But I am thinking of something different... !!

How would it be if we manufacture 6 huge pumps which have the capability of sucking water of 1000 litres per second? It would be of great utility because these flood plains are surrounded by water scarce areas.
Some are very near by and some are far away!
For ex: Bundelkhand plateau - the region suffers only because of lack of water. Otherwise the soil of this region is fertile. But the region remained unproductive because of lack of water.

North Karnataka region, southern and central Maharashtra, western  and southern Andhra Pradesh are rainfed areas. Unless the rain waters the ground, there is no agriculture. But it rains very rarely in this region.

Thar desert - comparatively it is quite far. But with proper pipelines the idea can be made successful!

Recently there is flood situation in Vadodara and Mumbai. If we have this pump we can easily water the dry land of Saurashtra and Vidarbha regions respectively and utilize (I don't want to use the word exploit. because most of the times, exploitation continues to over exploitation!) the fertility of soil in that region!


What is the plan:
All these rainfed areas have fertile soil. But the problem lies in lack of irrigation. So, if we manage to provide irrigation, then we can utilize all these lands for cultivation which will enhance our productivity, livelihood security, and also Current Account Deficit as well as Fiscal Deficit.

The government is thinking of joining North Indian perennial rivers with South Indian non-perennial rivers. This is a good idea to ensure proper water supply in South India. But the problem is, when it floods in North India and cyclone hits South India, it will intensify the flood.
In such situations, these pumps will help and will be handy. If we connect different regions though huge water pipelines, then the water through pump can be directed to anywhere according to the requirement. Then it would be easier to water the regions as well as reduce the intensity of floods!

Why 6 pumps?
India is a huge country and it is not so easy to reach from one place to another due to infrastructural backlog. Therefore we should have
one in South East - Andhra Pradesh region
one in South West - Konkan region along with Gujarat
two in Northern India : towards west - Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh
and towards east -  Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal
two in North Eastern India - Assam (can help in watering parts of Bangladesh also which would help in improving bilateral relations) + Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and others

This way, we can resolve the problem of flood as well as drought in the country!

©Akshara Damle

Don't regret but rejuvenate

Disappointed! I wrote to my parents
It was not expected but had to be accepted!

Certain things do not happen as we wish
But it doesn't mean they will never happen

Try and try and try - say many great people
They often give the example of Edison!

New challenges make us more stronger
Successive failures will lead to success

It doesn't make me worried
to see my friends eating sweet fruits
But it makes me worried when I struggled to climb the top of the tree
to find an unriped fruit!

But nature won't leave,
the fruit to remain unripened!
It definitely ripens it!
May be not today but tomorrow!

But take a pledge - I will work hard
Hard work never goes in vain!
It always pays
one or the other way

It is very few people
who have achieved an easy success
Mind it, you are not one among them

You face all the difficulties
Better moulded you will be;
You are the one who will lead you to the path of success
Believe in yourself!

You should have worried
if you had cheated your soul
by not working in a proper manner!
But it is not the case with you

It is easier to face these kind of things
when you have many people to support you
than facing when you are left
in the middle of the desert  all alone!

Stop not, till your goal is reached
said Vivekananda
Inculcate it in your life!
Goal is never far away!

Life is all about struggle
Struggle will give you pleasure
Be true to your heart
You are not here to please every heart

Consider the level of knowledge that you gained
the level of maturity that you accomplished
You are capable to accommodate in any place
You have reached a greater height!

Don't regret, it is not your mistake
But rejuvenate, it is your career
The more enthusiastic you are,
the more you gain
More motivated you are
More you achieve!

Thank your parents and fiends
For their good support
Work hard! work hard!
Stay blessed!

MENTAL HEALTH CARE BILL: A STEP IN RIGHT DIRECTION

“Sound mind in a sound body” is often quoted phrase among sound people. But in today’s world, it is not only sound body but lot of other things are there which influence state of mind. Therefore mind is not only a biological entity but also a societal product. It is aptly said that man is social and society is mental.

Stress, tension, depression, anxiety, mood disorders are commonly seen among individuals today. India has a huge burden of mental illness mainly among women, homeless, poor and those living in urban areas. As a consequence, India has considered mental illness as a disability which later also recognized by World Health Organization. To address worrisome number of mental patients, India has taken a leap forward by formulating “The Mental health Care Bill, 2013” which is a right based approach to mental health care with citizens getting the right to access mental health care. It also asserts that such mental health care service should be affordable, of good quality and available without discrimination.

Being signatory of United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, it is also an obligation for India to introduce legislations that protects the rights of disabled. Simultaneously, on international level, World Health Assembly has adopted ‘Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013- 2020’ which is a commitment by all 194 member states to take specified action to improve mental health and to contribute to the attainment of a set of agreed global targets.

            The drafted Bill has widened the definition of mental illness as “a disorder of mood, thought, perception, orientation and memory which causes significant distress to a person or impairs a person’s behaviour, judgement and ability to meet the demands of daily life and includes mental conditions associated with the use of alcohol and drugs but does not include mental retardation”

            As per the Bill, “Competence” or Competent to make a decision” means the person has ability to:

a) understand the information relevant to the decision and/or;

b) retain the information

c) use or weigh that information as part of the process of making the decision and;

d) communicate his or her decision by any means (by talking, using sign language or any other

    means).

            Every person has a right to make  an 'Advance Directive' in writing, specifying any or all of the following:

a) the way the person wishes to be cared for and treated for a mental illness and/or; 

b) the way the person wishes not to be so cared for and treated for a mental illness and/or; 

c) the individual or individuals, in order of precedence, the person wants appointed as their

    nominated representative; in the event of his or her having a mental illness in the future.

            The Bill exclusively mentions Rights of Persons with Mental illness which are as follows:

1.    Right to Access Mental Health Care

2.    Right to Community Living

3.    Right to Protection from Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment

4.    Right to Equality and Non-discrimination

5.    Right to Information

6.    Right to Confidentiality

7.    Access to Medical Records

8.    Right to Personal Contacts & Communication

9.    Right to Legal Aid

10. Right to make Complaints about Deficiencies in Provision of Services

Chapter III of the draft Bill mentions about the Duties of government which are in consonance with the four key objectives of Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013- 2020 like, promotion of mental health and preventive programs; creating awareness among public, reducing stigma associated with mental disability and strengthening community based rehabilitation; human resource training; strengthening information systems etc.

            The Bill provides for constitution of ‘Mental Health Review Commission’. The present day problems of mental health care facilities like lack of human resource, lack of infrastructure, poor hygienic conditions, over- crowding and very less number of mental health facility centres compared to the demand are also taken into consideration and the Bill tries to address these issues.

References: 1. Draft – Mental Health Care Act 

                  2. ‘Passion of mind’ – an article written by Arati Dhar in The Hindu of 16^th June 2013.