KILL 'nonsense' BILL

Note:A "bill" is a piece of legislation which is brought up in parliament .After thorough discussion and passage in both the houses of parliament i.e Rajya Sabha & Lok Sabha a bill becomes a "Law" and is a part of constitution.For e.g:demand for 1/3 rd seats to be reserved for women is still a bill as it is yet to pass whereas Right to Education  for children upto 14 years passed by parliament in 2010 is a law .

Happy Reading :)    

    

            "I Think it's nonsense.It should be torn off and thrown in the dustbin"...these were the words used by Rahul Gandhi in a press briefing before the media.He was referring to a Representation of people (Amendment and Validation) constitutional amendment bill  which was tabled in parliament on Aug 23,2013 by overwhelming support of all major political parties.Rahul Baba's statement spread like wildfire and people from all sections like media,political commentators,various civil society organizations and above all "आम  जनता  " and as a result emergency cabinet meeting was arranged and the bill was withheld from passage.Let us go into the brief background of the bill.For easy understanding let us call the above bill as "NONSENSE BILL".

"Angry Rahul Baba"

            Nonsense bill came into picture because of a landmark judgement by supreme court on July 10,2013 ruled that a person who is in jail or police custody cannot contest elections.This created panic among every political party at the national and state level since politics is matter of livelihood for many politicians who are in prison such as A.Raja,Suresh Kalmadi,Lalu Prasad yadav etc. "बोले तो पेट का सवाल था "In fact JMM i.e Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has 82 % criminals contesting electionsउनकी तो पार्टी ही बंद हो जाती। .The Supreme Court concluded that a person in jail or police custody is not entitled to vote, and therefore, is not an elector,and thus cannot contest elections.So due to pressure created by Raja's and Kalmadi's and numerous छोटे  मोटे नेता who are in jail or about to go to jail this bill was introduced in parliament and all set to pass without even a single debate or question asked in parliament.If 'Nonsense' bill is passed in parliament criminals get right to contest election,and these criminals will further go on to make laws which govern the country.But that one press statement by Rahul Gandhi left all political parties red faced and 'Nonsense' bill was withheld temporarily. 

        Judging by the number of bills passed,this parliament post 2008 until now has the dubious honor of being the worst performer when it comes to the passage of "important" bills in  parliament.Day after day,session after session has been wasted with opposition parties walking out and the ruling party avoiding debate on important issues and they are well aware of the fact that each of such disrupton costs the country Rs 2 crore a day which can feed millions of undernourished children of our country.Here is the List of 5 most controversial bills pending in the parliament.

1)National Food security Bill:This is an ambitious scheme of the congress Goverment keeping in view the 2014 lok sabha elections to provide food at low cost to 22 % of India's undernourished population.While there is no denying of the fact that if the benefits reach the needy food security bill will be a landmark in the history of the world to prevent deaths due to hunger and malnutrition but still there are many issues such as effect on the farmers who will provide these foodgrains,preesure from developed countries and WTO who are oppsing this step by the Indian Goverment.

2)Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011:The controversial Land Acquisition Bill is to provide a fair compensation and rehabilitation to land owners in both rural and urban areas for the land acquired for developmental projects.

I demand जनलोकपाल 

3)Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill 2011:This is most famous bill which came into picture due to movement led by एना हज़ारे जी  whose passage is vital to curb corruption in the country.

4)The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2013:The cabinet has approved the move to amend the Right to Information (RTI) Act to keep major political parties outside the ambit of the transparency law. The RTI was a very important weapon in the hands of the common man to extract vital information about the source of funding of political parties "आखिर कहा से आता है पार्टी फण्ड " but the smart politicians now want to curb the RTI by making changes in this landmark act which was brought after the untiring efforts of Arvind Kejriwal in 2005.

5)The Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Bill, 2013:This is the Nonsense bill as we discussed above about which the less said the better.
             There are no easy or short cut solutions to such complex problems but the least we all can do is make sure that right man gets elected to represent us in the parliament.So make sure you have your Voter ID's ready for the next Lok Sabha election and cast your vote or else turn a blind eye to all the happenings of the nation.Choice is yours !! 

POVERTY-Bollywood Style

 Caution:Any person before reading this blog further should get  a fair idea the film दीवार by clicking here .Happy Reading !     

        My earliest idea of what poverty is comes in mind in a scene from Yash chopra's movie DEEWAR which i saw as a child wherein the mother Nirupa Rao is seen carrying her two children Vijay (Amitabh) and Ravi (shashi kapoor) on Mumbai's Marine Drive.So the basic premise of poverty for me remained that the poor person is an individual deprived of  food,proper clothing and a place he can call home..

"All time classic"

          In a progressive nation it is the duty of the Goverment to device policies for the welfare of the poor  and ensure these policies actually work in ground reality so as to help deprived sections of society help come out of the vicious circle of poverty. How does the Government define poverty??.There is a long standing dispute on how poverty should be measured. There are two systems to define Poverty in India.First is the Absolute poverty which is an approach based on material deprivations.The second system is of Relative poverty is an approach based on social exclusions as well. Absolute poverty is based on assessments of minimum subsistence requirements like food, clothing, shelter etc. Relative poverty on the other hand takes into account poverty whose definition relates to standards of particular society at a particular time which means they have lesser opportunities to grow ,to participate in ordinary living patterns (no playgrounds ,hospitals,places of recreation etc),and deprived of  customs and activities.

(Imagine)Nirupa Roy at the "Ration" shop

    Which one among the two above methods would you prefer? I believe most of us people would prefer the second yardstick i.e Relative Poverty because that seems to be the more humane approach in measuring poverty !Let us get back to the DEEWAR example to actually understand the problems faced by the poor.Imagine Ravi and Vijay's mother Nirupa Roy wants to feed her children.So Goverment provides "Swarna Jayanti Shahri Swarozgar Yojana" so that she can earn her livelihood by working in construction activities in city funded by the Goverment.But how can she claim to be poor.Goverment wants proof so she goes to the city municipality and gets the certificate showing income proof that she is BPL i.e Below poverty line as well as jobless.She is now eligible for a job and she can also get monthly ration at susidized rates from Goverment authorized Public Distribution system (PDS) outlets.

Benefits of  "शिक्षा का अधिकार "

          One day while gong to work she  finds that Ravi is watching other children go to school.She takes a vow to send Ravi to school and gets him admitted to nearest Goverment primary school (where thanks to the recently passed RTE i.e Right to Education bill Ravi recieves free education until he is 14 years of age) and she herself works hard through the day to manage family's livelihood and Ravi's education.Ravi turns out to be a bright boy in school but his elder brother Vijay does not attend school for some unknown reasons.The goverment provides various scholarships to Ravi due to his good performance in academics while MoHRD (Ministry of human resource and Development) comes out with vocational training programmes for Vijay so that he can find employment in Industry despite his lack of education.In this way बीस साल बाद  we see that Nirupa Roy has succesfully managed to bring up her two children out of the clutches of poverty and made them stand on their own feet. 

Late Mr.Suresh Tendulkar

         Goverment esablishes a yardstick to measure poverty called as the 'poverty line'.Since Nirupa roy in Deewar was a BPL i.e Below poverty line card holder hence she was able to get the above benefits or rather her 'rights' in legal language.Till 2011 this task of determining the poverty line is with the Late Mr. "Suresh Tendulkar" committee which refined it's methodology of determining poverty line by giving more weight-age to three primary factors i.e food ,education and health.As per 2011-12 figures it comes out to be Rs.816 and Rs 1000 per month for a person living in rural and urban area respectively i.e if a person is living on less than this figure he is declared poor.Whatever be the approach it must ensure the following:
1)Benefits reach the actual poor.
2)Transparency in distribution of resources i.e in Public Distribution system
3)Performance based and long term vision to be used while making welfare policies for the poor.
          If these things are taken into consideration then the country can succeed in reducing the percentage of population living below poverty line which currently stands at 28 % which is roughly 30 crores.

INDIA

        While  travelling in a train somewhere along central India I was having a chat with a Bengali co passenger. The talk covered several areas like movies, cricket, politics, academics etc just then a passenger travelling in the upper berth started muttering something in his native tongue (Tamil) while talking over phone.This attracted severe criticism from the co passenger with whom I was chatting and she said “Yeh south Indians kitne khadoos hote hai” and I nodded in agreement (earlier I had introduced myself as Maharashtrian J).This incidence reflects how many of us Indians have developed a mindset about persons belonging different parts of the country. Even in our daily conservation we often seem to classify people such as  “North Indians ko attitude hota hai, south Indians are narrow minded ,Bengalis are short tempered,  and Maharashtrians don’t socialize much”. 

         Such opinions have developed over a period of time .However nowadays with inter state migrations (people leaving their native place and searching jobs in other states, cities etc) majority of metropolitan and tier 1 cities having lost their original characteristics and have developed a pan Indian culture. In spite of these differences there is an amazing sense of unity that binds Indians together this term is popularly called as “Unity in diversity”.

Busy in cricket

       Our countries biggest strength is its unity in the form of our nation’s political system, national culture and festivals, common geographical boundaries and the pilgrimage centers and national monuments which are part of one common nation INDIA. This unity has been tested from time to time but each time the nation has reunited and come up triumph under adverse circumstances.

       But since Independence Communalism and Regionalism are two of major challenges threatening the integration of our country. India is a secular nation which means that as per our constitution we do not endorse any particular religion. On the contrary we respect all religions and leave it upon the individual to practice the religion of his/her choice. It is seen that people belonging to same religion develop a sense of oneness. Common festivals, religious practices etc bind them together as common identities. But trouble starts when such common identities are manipulated for the purpose of gaining power at local as well as national levels. The communal riots which happened in Muzzafarnagar district of UP is an example in the above context.

demand for statehood

          Talking about regionalism it is a part of human tendency to get attached to the place of his birth.That is why you find people demanding seperate states in Bodoland in North-east,Vidharbha in Maharashtra,Telangana in Andhra Pradesh etc.Regionalism is also of two kinds good and bad.By demanding special concessions and priveleges for one's state does not make a person anti national.Even Gandhi ji has once said unless i become a loyal Gujarati how can i call myself an Indian.The Kaveri water sharing dispute between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh or the Munnaperiyar Dam issue on the raising of Height of the Dam between Tamil Nadu and Kerala which are being solved by judicial means (special tribunals)  are perfect examples of how things should work in a federal country like India. But sometimes this feeling of regionalism takes violent forms such as the events such as the khalistan movements which occured in western punjab and the still ongoing conflict in Kashmir which has begun 3 decades back.Such movements have threatened the unity of the country.

         Today the social and political problems have become more and more complex than those faced by our leaders   immediately after independence and secondly lack of such  leaders with high integrity such as Vallabh bhai patel or Jawahar lal Nehru who could take bold decisions and had a very different approach based on national interests.The present era of coalition politics have made matter more complex as  every regional party tries to flame the sentiments of the people for its own interests.With rise in literacy rates people have become more informed and are not that easily influenced on communal and regional lines us but still poverty and unemployment make lower sections of the society vulnerable to such exploitation by political parties looking for gains.

      

On Indian Healthcare and US shutdown

       

Dhoom...3

        It was Oct 2 national holiday yet i had to wake  up early morning at 7 a.m to drop a friend at railway station who was going to Howrah.On the  way despite of my repeated warnings my friend disregarded not so good condition of our pulsar 150 and he raised the speed to over 90 km/hr as if performing the stunts in Dhoom 3 just like the lady in the pic.Eventually a strange noise came for a few seconds and bike chain gave away.We were stranded midway to the railway station The  nearest garage was  to open at 7:30 a.m.My friend said "jaane de yaar din hi kharaab hai aaj... Nahi jata hun Kolkata".Just then a phone call came to me informing  that one of our office colleague has fallen sick and was being taken to the nearest doctor at the earliest.We got our bike repaired and left for the clinic straight away.

       The scene at the clinic gave us an idea of the real situation as our colleague was screaming in pain as he was experiencing acute stomach pain.The doctor reached in around half an hour by that time we did whatever we could to calm him down.He was pleading  us to take him to city hospital in bhubhaneshwar which would have taken a minimum 2 hours.It was necessary to bring his pain under control as anything could have happened on the way to city if we directly took him to the city without visiting local doctor in town.In the absence of his parents or relatives it was our responsibility to take decisions.The doctor came and on the first look diagnosed it to be a case of jaundice and told us to conduct an ultrasound test to clear any doubts.

scene of an OPD at Goverment Medical college

         Since it is a small town there is no major hospital where all the facilities could be available under one roof.So if the Doctor's clinic was at X place,the ultrasound center was 5 kms away and in such a serious case the patient had to be taken in an ambulance from one place to another. In the meantime his family members were informed and they were told to reach at the earliest.

      At around 10:30 a.m the ultrasound test got over along with urine and blood test.We immediately made arrangements for him to be taken to city and got him admitted to Appollo (a private hospital) in bhubhaneshwar. As i did not accompany him to the city was informed in the evening that doctors  have admitted him into the ICU and that his lever was damaged.This news was shocking for everyone.

      This is the case which happened in a town but the condition in cities is no different especially for the poorer sections of society who cannot shell out 500 rs for a one time visit to a private hospital.So the only option with them is to visit the Goverment hospital situated in all major cities where minimal fee is charged.The most crowded  area in a Goverment hospital happens to be the OPD (out patient department) where one has to first collect a token based on which the patient is called.This may take anytime between 20 minutes to even 2 hours depending upon the number of patients and the medical staff available.

US under shutdown

       Miles away in AMRIKA an ambitious health policy called "Obamacare" which makes health insurance cheaper and affordable to the US citizens has brought the Goverment in shutdown.It all began when a spending bill was introduced in US parliament and the Ruling Democrats led by Barack Obama and Republicans in opposition disagreed over provisions in a bill with the opposition claiming that bill had anti obamacare amendments.As a result of this deadlock Federal employees who are considered essential will continue working. But employees deemed non-essential -- close to 800,000 -- will be furloughed.This also implies that  famous tourist places,National parks,museums etc would remain closed for 5 days.

             In a developing country like  India health insurance is at a very nascent stage with 2-3 private companies offering such services.Health is often disregarded in india with home made remedies given precedence over visit to a hospital.Owing to superstition and illiteracy  especially in rural areas.many Sadhus, Babas,maulvis alike have exploited this situation and played with the health of local people.Unless and until the Goverment regards Health on par with Defence,Agriculture and Infrastructural spending the Healthcare in India  will remain out of reach of the common man.

syria and UNSC

SECURITY COUNCIL-New York

        UNSC i.e the United Nations security council is a group of five permanent member countries namely US,UK,Russian federation,China,France and Japan and 10 non permanent members (who are elected for 2 years). UNSC is one of the most important of the various bodies which come under the United Nations.Whenever there arises a threat to world peace or an activity which can be termed as a an act of aggression UNSC calls upon the involved parties (or nations) to settle the dispute by peaceful means and recommends methods of settlement.Out of the 15 nations it is only the five permanent members who enjoy the veto power i.e no decision can be executed if any one among the 5 disagrees.

Chillar party

         Imagine a group of five kids who arrive at the playground to play cricket.Among them Umesh owns the bat,Raghu owns the ball,Chetan is a close friend of Raghu (because Raghu has Play station 3 at his home),jayesh and farhan complete the remaining friend circle.As soon  as play starts  dispute arises wherein Umesh is bowled out by Raghu but Umesh claims it to be a No Ball.But Raghu says otherwise and he is supported by chetan (who is desperate to play PS3 at Raghu's home coming weekend).So a dispute arises wherein Umesh and Raghu walk off the ground with their Bat and Ball respectively.Chetan follows Raghu.Meanwhile Jayesh and Firoz return home disappointed for not having allowed to play  a good game for no fault of theirs.
         Imagine the above group of kids to be the security council PERMANENT members.At the international stage the situation is quite similar to the cricket game above but a bit more complicated.SYRIA is a country which is at the centre of world's attention.A few days ago there were reports supported by pictures circulated on the Internet about possible chemical weapons being used by the Syrian Goverment on civilians.Meanwhile president of Syria Assad has refuted this allegation and has pointed fingers on the rebel groups (which are fighting to overthrow his goverment) to be behind the chemical attackThe US in an immediate response warned syria of dire consequences and threatened it with Military attack.The US of late has been indulging in DADAGIRI by attacking other countries without the approval of Security council (most recent being Afghanistan and Iraq).US has declared war against such countries without the approval of UNSC.This has angered other permanent UNSC members especially Russia and China.Russia (previously called USSR) was the only challenge to US but now a shade of it's glorious past whereas China is planning to emerge as new world power and a possible challenger to US ki DADAGIRI having already flooded US market with cheap goods and having emerged as the manufacturing hub  has a major influence on America's economy.

DADA...GIRI

        Coming back to syria problem,Everyone knows that behind it's fake concerns for loss of civilian lives in syria lies the US hidden interests in syria's oil reserves and along with Israel it wants to dominate Syria and neighbouring countries in the  Middle East.Russia and China wants to prevent this.Hence both Russia and China has exercised their veto power and blocked the resolution criticrizing syria and voted against the plan of attacking syria.Also, yet another war will drain the world's most powerful nation i.e US of it's resources which will cause major damage to world economy especially of emerging nations like India who are heavy importers of oil from the middle east.Foreign investments in Indian markets will dry up,oil price will go up,threat of nuclear war will prevail.A small threat by US on war with syria  has made sensex crash and rupee cross the 67 per dollar mark in India.Imagine the consequences that will emerge thereafter.
               Can India do anything in this case? The answer is No.Since India is no longer a non -permanent member of UNSC  it can do nothing more than issue statements urging US and the remaining world to maintain peace and avoid War at any cost.To become a non permanent member a country has to secure 2/3 rd of the total votes cast for that particular seat during elections held every 2 years.That is why India is trying to build relationships by becoming part of various regional groupings like SAARC,IBSA,Indian Ocean RIM etc,.By entering into such grouping India has more chance of securing votes for becoming a non permanent member of UNSC.
               .Meanwhile the Syrian Goverment has agreed to allow a team of United Nations to inspect the presence of  chemical weapons in the country.All eyes are now set on the UN team findings and the World hopes that peace will prevail in Syria and the middle east.
              

'US' ki naak me dum

         Edward Joseph snowden is an American computer specialist who worked for the CIA and the NSA and leaked details of several top-secret United States and British government mass surveillance programs to the press.The leaks highlighted how the US Goverment was comprising with people's privacy and accesing information.Snowden has defended his leaks as an effort "to inform the public as to that which is done under the guise of national security and clear violation of basic human rights".Snowden sent assylum requests to many countries but it was Russia which finally allowed him to stay in their country for a year thus angering the US.To undertstand the snowden situation let us revisit the two Cold war era and understand the historical background which are influencing the current developments.

'US'ki naak me dum.....

          At the end of WW2 USA and USSR(old name of Russia) were the only superpowers left.The reason for america's rise can be attributed to the money it earned by funding WW 2 in terms of weapons,ammunitions and finance it provided mainly to france,UK during the 6 long years of War. Many countries became indebted to USA and continued to repay this debt over a period of time.During the same period the USA also grew widely in terms of technology.it became the first country to land man on moon, the first to use a nueclar weapon on japan and leading manufacturer of automobiles and other allied industries.On the other hand USSR had the advantage of huge resources and land area thanks to majority central asian countries being part of USSR.It was the first country to send an artificial sattelite to space i.e SPUTNIK.The biggest difference between the two countries however lied in their respective ideologies-Capitalist US vs communist USSR.So what is the difference??
                 In Communism, the community or society solely owns the resources or the means of production. On the other hand, in capitalism, the resources or the means of production lies with a private owner.For Communists, the society is above individuals. But for capitalists, individual freedom is above the state or society. While capitalism is a self regulated economic system, communism is a government run economy. In capitalism, the individual has full control over production and decides on the price structure. Contrary to this, it is the society or the government that determines the price structure in communism.While Communism stands for abolishing private property, Capitalism stands for private property.So this was the difference in short...

The two "presidents"

               For the 2-3 decades this cold war continued until the USSR crumbled as communism could not sustain in the long run and this led to disintegration of USSR.So today Russia , the biggest among the USSR countries is a pale shadow of it's former glorius years.Russia today has a veto power in security council,has a influence in world trade negotiations but is nowhere near US.So today, US is the sole superpower in the world.With more powers comes more enemies.
                 With every second terrorist organization in the world conspiring against the US it is but natural that US has a state of art security and always has to be on it's toes . NSA national security agency is the foremost surveillance and data gathering agency of US.While working for NSA snowden came across many instrances where he realized that privacy of individuals was being compromised both in US as well as of other countries in the name of National security under US PRISM surveillance programmes. 
              Today snowden is a globally recognized  as a hero while at the same time he is a traitor for many of his countrymen because fact remains whatever good he did for the world he had to betray his motherland. "Russia has stabbed us in the back, and each day that Mr. Snowden is allowed to roam free is another twist of the knife," said Senator Chuck Schumer, a close Obama (US President) ally and fellow Democrat.
        In this particular battle between snowden and USA it is very difficult to take sides.On one hand is a man who considered  individual rights more important than his country's national security and on the other hand is a nation determined to protect itself from external threats using illegitimate means.But had it not been for snowden the truth would never have come out in the open.His courageous stand is an inspiration for whistle blowers all over the world who put their life at stake to bring the truth out in the open.This is an interesting time for world diplomacy as it is only the future that will answer the fate of Edward Snowden and it's effect on the two ideological enemies of the world the USA and Russia.                            

Babaji ki BUTTI...

         Yesterday night while escaping from Ticket collector (TT) in a packed chennai howrah mail (coz i boarded Sleeper class with a general compartment ticket :))_and surfing net on my  (not so smart) phone...I came to know that Civil service preliminary result has been announced.Having not yet recoved from the shock of losing my laptop's 'mother board' to deadly viruses now the exam result felt like salt being rubbed on my wounds. Anyway's i did not remember my roll number  nor was I expecting to clear prelims because as per my calculation my score of 170 fell short of expected cut off (240 as per general opinion).As expected I did not make it.But later on i started thinking about the time and energy i put in preparing for the exams,better thing i could have done in the time i spend to this exam. and other such thoughts started bothering my mind.Failure has this ability of pushing you to the verge of depression and it all depends upon you how you manage to defeat this state of mind.

"take an inspiration from him-THE FIGHTER"

         Under such circumstances a person generally searches for activities which can take him out of depression.While a healthy and fruitful chat with friends and family can cool your senses and help the cause, many people instead use failure as an excuse to take up habits to which they later on get addicted.Prominent among them are Smoking and alcohol ... the most dangerous ones.I am not a smoker so have no idea why do people take  up cigarette bud to fight depression but one thing is for sure...... it sucks.A smoker resembles an 'chimney' with piles of smoke coming out causing equal discomfort to the poor passive smokers who happen to accompany them.Moving on to the next...alcohol...yeah Having drank beer on several occasions i have come to the conclusion that  Wines,beer,Rum whatever one calls them are actually depressants.even science supports my logic.One temporarily forgets about tensions and pressure while consuming them, gets a sound night sleep, next day morning goes to work.. tries to begin work ...slowly realizes at the end of day problems have not left  they have just doubled as you did not come up with solutions for them since last two days.
        So all in all to face any situation in life addictions,Anti depressants these are not going to work.The real strength lies inside you.Try to gather that strength  and keep yourself busy in constructive activities like tracking beautiful girls on Facebook and liking their 6 month old photos while they were 5 kgs lighter ;) ,reading a book on Internal security,International relations, blah blah to impress others or blog 'nonsense'  like me.and remember... Life is much more than an exam.So chill !!So this was babaji ki buti for all those feeling low in life..Moving on to some other topics in world the  last two months a man called Edward Snowden  has occupied significant space on TV and Print media.Who is he? what he did?

EDWARD SNOWDEN

       Snowden was working as an infrastructure analyst  for NSA (United states National security agency).(The NSA is primarily tasked with global monitoring, collection, decoding, translation and analysis of information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes. The agency is authorized to accomplish its mission through clandestine means).He was leading a quite normal life with his model Girlfriend until he commited the greatest daring act on earth.He defied his own country The mighty US of A by leaking classified information to a british newspaper.The USA has charged him with espionage.He sent assylum requests to many countries including India.Finally after  spending 5 weeks at moscow airport Snowden has been granted 1 year assylum by Russia.Why Russia dared to grant him assylum, why india refused ,why snowden did what he did needs an entire new post. I look forward to write such post soon...Till then ENJOY THE WEEKEND :)

Youth Curry - Insight on Indian Youth: Just another 'carrer query'

Youth Curry - Insight on Indian Youth: Just another 'carrer query': 'Career queries' like this one really bug me. "... I am expecting an admission in IIT for computer science or mathematics.At...

A Day at the exam hall

     An infamous IAS aspirant once quoted "No exam is easy as long as there are 2 people appearing for it".In short you cannot underestimate the level of competition in a country like India with millions (both employed and unemployed fighting for a handful of seats).So here I was... on the 'D' day 26 May 2013..with all essential stationary items..a mineral water bottle..and admit card waiting in front of  my exam center at cuttack. Inspite of the vast syllabus and cut throat competition UPSC ensures that exam is conducted in the middle of summer season (may to be precise) to ensure that the torture is complete in all aspects.
     On my way to the exam centre I was stopped by a fellow UPSC aspirant waiting with her TVS pep walking anxiously towards me..For a while i had no clue what to do with many questions simultaneously striking my mind..do I know her,does she know me,why is she so much worried,had she come unprepared?..even if it is so what's the point crying now??...then she started speaking in oriya...now 'my' facial expressions started changing as i could not understand much.A few while later I figured out that the future IAS aspirant has locked her Scooty's dickey which is located below vehicle's back seat and kept all her items inside along with the Vehicle keys and her cellphone and all she wanted from me was my cellphone to make a call to her home to get help.I lended my phone to her and  about a minute later got my phone back and headed towards my exam centre.
      The best thing about growing up is the realization of one's karma which draws upon human beings because on that day I could hardly find anyone indulging in any last minute study for the exam.....Sala saal bhar jo nahi huya woh ab 10 minute me Ghanta hoga !!But in such tough situation I temporarily forgot the Karma theory... took out my test series papers and started revising the questions to leave no chances.Yaar ek question phas gaya toh :)
      At 9:10 a.m I entered the exam hall located my exam hall and took my seat and as per my old habit checked out the girls in the room ,offered my prayers and started the anxious wait for the question paper.As soon as i got the question booklet...I filled in the details in my answer sheet and went directly to the last page.Bingo!!The last 10 questions were based on indian Economy :) in all and that too testing the basics..no current affairs crap..My eyes brightened up...I realized 3-4 questions were directly from the test series I revised minutes ago...The test went on smoothly..History was tricky..so was polity,science surprisingly easy..Geography I found tough...I just wished had i got a week's leave before exam  i could have revised geography better..Nevertheless I ticked 65 out of 100 and marked 6 for last moment..The invigilator came to me and started verifying my particulars at such an agonizing pace...that he ended up eating up my 5 minutes in spite of my best efforts to help him out.In the lat 15 minutes i scanned the entire paper and attempted 6 marked questions.so i attempted 71 in all.
       I came out confidently out of the exam hall.Looked at the fellow expressionless candidates and realized there is no point in gauging one's performance since paper 2 was still remaining in the afternoon session.I went out ..had my lunch..revised some aptitude topics..time-speed,average ,percentage etc.The second paper started at 2:30 pm.the Invigilator I guess had learnt his lesson and felt pity on us candidates and this time completed the formalities well before the start of exam like verifying roll number,signing on my answer sheet etc.I got the paper..started with compulsory english questions..I could solve 3 passages correctly..My confidence grew with time...i was solving at a good speed I completed half of the questions in litlle more than an hour i had still 50 minutes with me to solve remaining 40 questions....and then it happened...lightning followed by thunder and the power of exam centre went off...In east India sun sets early so there was limited sunlight...I looked at the examiner..he gave me a sorry look...i realized there was no point in asking about the Generator..Goverment school me kaha se aayega Generator !!I moved my seat immediately near the door where there was a little sunlight coming in and continued with the paper just like the other candidates...In the end we got  extra 10 minutes to complete the paper 2.I managed to go through all the questions although struggled with reasoning questions...
         I came out of the exam hall with mixed emotions.Made call to home and friends and headed to the railway station to catch the train..
.       

RAJNIKANT's pro Nation Budget ....

'The Pro briefcase'

           It's that part of the year when The Finance Minister of our country would be seen carrying a black briefcase (or 'Red' as per his mood) into the Parliament to announce the financial report card of the country  which  we all know by the name 'Budget'.Just as in college  pocket money was decided as per our parent's mood which again depended upon the marks one obtained in the last semester similarly the National Budget depends upon the  amount of revenues generated in the last fiscal year (i.e 2012-2013) along with the national as well as  International economic conditions and as per this an 'approach' towards the budget is planned.

pro-POOR OF THE YEAR

            This approach forms the foundation on which various social and pro poor schemes (here i mean the real poors who live below 28 Rs per day not the poor guy in pic  from Karan Johar movies) ,Economic policies (like FDI in single brand retail), defence budget allocations (for buying Fighter planes,submarines etc and do some 'scandals' ha ha ), tax exemption limits for salaried class people (the मंगो  पीपल  ) are also announced in the budget.

            Under the current scenario the major factors which Mr. Chidambram would  specially lay emphasis on while planning the approach towards the budget would be to bring the dangerously low GDP growth rate from 5 to a respectable 7 percent in the next fiscal year,bringing down the Inflation rate to less than 7 %, checking the negative growth in manufacturing sector and the slowdown in the exports because of  Euro Zone crisis .Quite amazingly every  Goverment claims it's budget to be good for everyone i;e pro Aam Aadmi, pro Industrialists,pro farmers,pro urban India,pro Rural India,pro employed, pro unemployed,pro single,pro commited,pro married,pro bachelor etc (this is as paradoxical as Mahesh bhatt calling Murder & Raaz as family entertainment especially made for kids).When it comes to presenting the Budget under present conditions it is impossible to satisfy everyone.Compromise on populist measures and bold decisions on part of the Finance Min is the need of the hour.
               However  looking at the trends of budget in the last few years one can draw a  conclusion that type of budget is highly influenced by the amount of time left for the next General ELECTIONS :) i.e if the goverment is in it's first year after winning the elections will try to fulfill as many promises it had done while begging for votes in it's poll manifesto before the elections,the second and third year will see huge amounts of pro poor subsidies,pro Industrialist being announced and then when everything looks screwed up the Goverment takes some tough measures like raising petrol and diesel prices,putting limit on the number of LPG gas cylinders, increasing the fare in railways,making education loans costlier (and car loans more cheaper) ,selling it's shares in PSU's like coal  India, NTPC etc to balance the rising Fiscal deficit, selling the precious spectrum of 2G,3G,coal block allocations etc .

Give me one chance...mind it

               Rajnikant has uttered an epic dialogue in movie Shivaji-The Boss ....that the biggest problem in our country is the widening economic gap which means irrespective of what policies the Government makes" rich are becoming  richer while the poor  are becoming poorer" .The middle class condition is no less pitiable which after paying sky rocketing petrol/ diesel prices,electricity-LPG bills,house rent ends,children's education ends up with no savings. So what can be done to change this trend ???  The best option is  to make Rajnikant our Finance minister .No Seriously .If this is not possible other alternative suggestions for 2013-2014 budget are as follows:
1.Expedite the delivery of UID AADHAR cards which will check malpractises and corruption in the distribution of food grains an other benefits to the people below poverty line.
2.Simplify the  investment policies but not without lessening the role of Regulators (like TRAI,SEBI etc) so that foreign investors can invest without any fears in Indian Markets thus increasing inflow of precious foreign exchange in  the country.
3.Expedite the Projects which are getting stuck in Red tap-ism and lethargic decision making by various ministries specially in manufacturing sectors viz power,steel,mining etc
4.Encourage Public Private partnership models so that expertise of private sector can be utilized to it's full potential.

               The success or failure of the economy of a nation depends largely on the private sector,however Goverment can play a vital role by creating favourable investment climate, developing infrastructure,supporting the poor and vulnerable groups by various schemes etc.India  follows mixed economy where we try to get the right mix of capitalist and socialist measures path to development.Building schools for children,making vocational training centres for youth to make them employable,spending on women and child  development,introducing FDI in retail  all such steps do not give immediate results it will  take many years until we start getting their results.As long as these objectives are fulfilled we can call our Budget as  a pro Nation budget.

Environment Protection etc...

What we think our leaders do !!

              It's quite surprising that we humans we are more fascinated and less frightened by the thoughts of doomsday,End of the world etc.Alien Invasion ,Global Warming  etc are the reasons or the causes which Many authors,scientists etc have stated for the world to come to an end.Based on these Hollywood filmmakers have made fortunes by  bringing such phenomenon on the silver screen with the Steven Spielberg's 'War of the Worlds' and Roland Emmerich '2012' being the Latest additions to the long list.Sometimes I wish the world could be saved in the same manner as in 'Avengers' where all superheroes like Iron Man,Hulk,Thor etc came together to save our Planet Earth.But unfortunately it is not so...In real World..the problems are many and diverse and the responsibility of saving planet earth rests on the shoulders of  educated (not all of them) and old (no exceptions)  representatives of  various countries. World leaders of different nations assemble together at places of their choice to attend boring yet important summits,conferences where they have tea,biscuits, liquor and other forms of entertainment and if time permits some  discussion on gathered data and published works of Hardworking and eminent scientists who are slogging day and night to bring to their attention imminent threats to planet earth due to Global warming, environment degradation ,Loss of  Biodiversity , lack of sustainable development  etc.

What our Leaders actually do...

                      Anyways we restrict ourselves only to the important discussions that happen in such meets and summits.For that let us get a brief background of various organizations that are working towards protecting the planet Earth.          
           IUCN -headquartered in Kenya is also known as World Conservation union. It is World's oldest Global environmental organization, one of the most prominent work done by this organization is the preparation of Red list which is a system of classifying animals, plants etc on the basis of their likelihood of extinction and India has 132 species (this does not include Digvijay Singh, Baba Ramdev, Mamata Manerjee etc) on this list !!Jokes apart we can just hope that  Environmental ministry headed by Jayanti Natrajan has had the precious time to give the List  a read and ensure positive steps are taken to protect these species,besides IUCN has also got an observer status at UN General assembly so that it can voice environmental concerns at the global stage.
           CITES-headquartered in Switzerland is the Convention on International trade in endangered species of Wild flora and Fauna is another contribution of IUCN to stop illicit trade of wildlife.Trade of wildlife is another serious problem as people all over the word use traditional medicines derived from plants and animals to cure diseases.Asian region especially Chinese are notorious in this as they use bones, tissues, bloods of tigers, rhinos, elephants for treating arthritis,impotency,cancer and even AIDS.The countries which agree to follow CITES guidelines are called 'Parties' .These countries meet at regular intervals and their meets are called 'Conference of Parties' .The next COP is to be held in Bangkok,Thailand.                          
        Next on the list is  IPCC- Intergovernmental panel on climate change is the leading body on the assesment of climate change.They do  no research of their own.They only assess the most scientific, technical and socio-economic information in simpler terms they select गरीब साइंटिस्ट और स्टूडेंट्स की मेहनत  in the form of research papers which can be helpful in understanding the causes of global warming.The fourth assesment report published by the IPCC has indicated that major contributor to Global Warming is due to the emmision of human induced Green house gases.  This indicates that everything comes down to human need vs greed theory  because as development is taking place at rapid pace in modern times Human greed has grown manifold and we are disregarding Environmental concerns.  
        We can only expect that in coming days  the policy makers in the Goverment  stop the age old (नाम  बड़े और दर्शन छोटे ) approach by only forming high level committees and attending Global seminars instead of doing changes at the grassroots level for the protection of flaura and fauna of our great land.In the era of Vote bank politics where subsidies are for the poor and tax exemptions are for the super Rich most important areas like protection  animals,environment and Biodiversity take a backseat.
           Considerable work is being done by people working in adverse conditions and hope this practise continue in coming days.For more information on the efforts taken by the Goverment in Environmental protection visit this link -Ministry of Environment & Forests
     
           Note:Readers for better understanding of any unfamiliar terms in the blog can click on  the highlighted link addresses.