Next Father of Nation!!!!!!!

During my childhood days,I always wondered why M.K.Gandhi ,fondly called as Bapu was referred to as Father of Nation and what made him so popular across India.His ideas and principles were known to people from centuries and he himself acknowledged that he was inspired by his mentor Gopal Krishna Gokhale.Then what was so special about him and how he succeeded in leading one of the largest mass movement in India always intrigued me.Recently I came  across his book "My Experiment with truth" which answered most of my question.But then began a series of new questions mainly pertaining to the idea of father of nation.Why India after so many decades of its independence could not produce any national leader who would be equivalent to his stature.After much thinking and again going through his book,I found my answers.

A man should ideally be judged by his action which is a result of his thought process.And his thought process is stimulated by his surroundings,his knowledge and his upbringing.As parents are often referred to as first teacher of a child,so their action make a lasting impact on a child.Secondly teachers who is often a child builds the future block of  a child.So,if a child has proper upbringing he can surely achieve greatness in life.Today,our education system seems to be xerox copy of western model without incorporating Indian values and principles which should ideally be the backbone of any education policy.Children's are taught to memories  their lessons rather then imbibing them in their real life.Gaining knowledge should be an activity based process rather than mere rote learning process.Gandhiji experimented a lot on how to impart proper education to a child and though he himself lamented that he could not provide proper education to his children but he was confident enough that his teaching and especially the way he imparted lessons would make his children good human being.His experiments provide valuable insights to all of us and especially to our policy makers who need to thoroughly understand his philosophy and implement them wherever possible.

Gandhiji taught us a valuable lesson about the necessity of experiments.The need for experiment arises when one is dissatisfied with what he have and wants to change the existing one or create a new one.The entire human civilization has evolved because of human curiosity and its insatiable appetite for change.Human civilization which have been adaptive to changes have existed and those which didn't perished.But the resistance to change is even greater and it needs great courage to go for a change.Thus people who go for experiments tends to be successful while other lag behind.Gandhiji himself use to experiment a lot regarding his practices,belief and way of living.He himself acknowledged that only through his experiment he has been able to devise his ideas and successful in implemented them.At the same time he warned that one should not blindly follow him or his ideas and should experiment on his own to check whether he can follow them to achieve his objectives.

(To be continue...)

6th Pay Commision:A talent booster!

With each passing day for the government to set up 6th pay commision,debates have intensified with the focus on the neccesity of the commision.Though I agree with those opposing the commision that it can be a death knell for fiscal prudence shown by the government but if one look at the harsh ground realities,the necessity of the commision cannot be ignored at all.
Not only the attrition level in PSU's have increased manifold in the past couple of years,it is becoming nearly impossible for government organisation to attract and retain requisite talent as specified by norms.The biggest hurdle faced by government institution is the meagre salary they offer compared to private companies who dole out sky-rocketing salaries to their employees.

As an engineering student,my dream is to get into a research organisation and develop new technologies and thus contribute my bit to the development of my country.Few days ago,premier research organisation of our country DRDO came to our campus to recruit my seniors.The news of DRDO coming to our campus thrilled the entire student community of our college,but our celebration translated into intense debate when we came to know that it is offering a meagre salary of 2.5 lac p.a. compared to 10 lacs p.a. offered by core companies. Even software companies visiting our campus are offering 4-5 lacs p.a. Some people can argue that the salary offered by DRDO is enough to provide 2 meals to one's family but considering all the difficulties faced by a student in becoming an engineer,one cannot resist the tempting salary offered by private companies.One should also keep in mind that most of the engineering students hail from middle class families where parents usually spent almost all their savings to build their child career.Thus a student is often under a moral obligation to provide a comfortable and luxurious life to his or her parent which they have easily relinquised to build his career.

The only solution of this talent crunch faced by government organisation is immediate setting of 6th pay commision which will enable any talented person to work for his country without having any financial worries.Thus the commision will be a talent boster and can act as a catalyst for all ailing government organisation.

Environmental Fund

Achieving 8% growth can be counted upon as one of the best thing that has happened to our country!Various reforms measures are suggested by experts not only to sustain this growth rate but even achieving double-digit growth rate in near future.But among all this euphoria,it seems that people are forgetting about one of the most important aspect of growth i.e our environment.Only a conducive environment can sustain such growth in future.Not only our natural resources are fastly depleting but the environment is getting polluted at an exponential rate!If we do not take environmental issue seriously now,there won't be anything left for our future generation except repent for our mistakes!

Often Government or NGOs complained that switching over to environment-friendly technology or adapting such a system is quite expensive initially and lack of requisite funds.One of the best solution to this problem is the creation of an Environmental Fund.Firstly,we should identify all sectors and industries which can be classified as major polluters like aviation sectors,chemical,automobile and other large industries etc.Then a major portion of tax collected from this industries should be parked in this fund.Apart from that,government should encourage people to contribute to this fund by providing tax incentives.And if possible then government can charge environmental cess similar to that of education cess.

The government can then use this fund to provide assistance and incentives to organisation or industries switching to environmental friendly technology.It can then provide incentive to automobile owners to switch to CNG.It can also undertake various infrastructure projects like Metro Rail,LRT or other public transport system.It can also be used to undertake power project using renewable sources.The fund will also take care of all the afforestation program planned by the government.

Autonomy!!!!!

While celebrating Independence Day,a question arises in every Indian mind that why still after 60 years of Independence,INDIA still lags behind in terms development compared to Japan,South korea,Singapore and many other such countries! Pandit Jawaharlal established IITs and IIMs with an aim to provide Indian students world class educational infrastructure.It was also supposed that this institutions can serve as a glaring examples for all future governments to establish more institutions on such pattern.Despite its wide acclaim & reputation IITs and IIMs have gained across the world,they are nowhere in worlds top 50 college list.The main reason attributed to their abysmal condition is the poor form of governance still practised in this institution.Though autonomous status was bestowed on them quite long ago,HRD ministry still consider them as their personal fiefdom.The condition of public sector industries is quite similiar to those of IITs and IIMs.Government still owns majority of stakes in them and even navratna status to some of them did not guarantee full freedom to be run by professionals.Its high time that government should grant full freedom to all educational institutions and public sector industries in all matters related to their governance and finance.Not only those institution be allowed to run by proffesionals but all age old laws enacted while they were being set be renewed so as to bring them at par with their competitors.

FLOOD wreak havoc while government SLEEPS!!!

While the nation is going to celebrate its 60th year of independence,millions of life are reeling under the impact of floods in Bihar,Assam and many other states.It has been estimated that floods have cost over 12oo lives and thousands of crores of rupees.Though floods are a natural calamity and man have no control over it,yet preplanning and creation of a dedicated team for disaster management can lessen the loss of lives and money.Though funds have been approved by central government for tackling floods,yet they are not released on petty grounds. Apart from this sloppiness on the part of the government, experts said there have been other lapses at basic planning level, thus aggravating the situation.
Dinesh Kumar Mishra of बाढ़ मुक्ति अभियान said the faulty flood protection measures have aggravated the problem. The most flooded areas of the state are the ones that the government claims it has protected, said Mishra.
This has happened because of reckless construction of roads, railway lines, embankments, canals, and village roads without any regard to the drainage system.
An agency report compared the Indian situation with Bangladesh, a much poorer country where years of preparations helped reduce the magnitude of this year’s suffering. Warning systems that issued regular bulletins about the water level in rivers gave thousands of people time to evacuate. No such system exists in India.Even now, assistance sought by states is for reconstruction programme rather than prevention!

Sanjay Dutt:Munnabhai ya Mujrim???

It's pretty hard to judge a person for his crime committed years ago especially in INDIA where judiciary is famous for its slow speed and the usual belief among people that a criminal can be forgiven if he repents for his sin.Valmiki,author of greatest epic Ramayana was a dreaded dacoit in his initial years of his life.It was his confrontation with Maharshi Narad which transform a dacoit into a saint.It is also said that no one is spared for his sin,sooner or later one get punished for his wrong deeds.Quite similiar seems to be the story of reel life hero Sanjay Dutt.Convicted and sentenced for six year of prison term,today he seems to be drawing sympathy and moral support of crores of his fans!His role as Munnabhai made him a brand ambassador of message of non-violence.Further loss of parents and wife seems to be enough punishments for all his crime.Recents polls have suggested that the prison term won't be lowering his brand image!

birth in train

The news drifted me once again into the world of reality from all that glamorous India Shinning talks.Expecting a baby brings unparrallel joy to one's life but giving birth to the baby in a running train can be a nightmare for any lady.I got dumbstruck when I read that a pregnent lady was turned down from a private hospital due to monetary reasons and she had to be rushed for a government hospital by a local train.It depicts our crumbling health infrastructure and how much a large section of our population is still dependent on subsidised government hospitals.