Saturday, May 31, 2014

Poor Manpower Planning?


Tamil Nadu State in the Indian Union adds 350 engineers per lakh of population every year, which is almost 2.5 times the national average. It is not as if each one of them is necessarily employed and fruitfully engaged.

What is the out-come of such a development both from the point of view of utilising the existing scarce resources including physical infrastructure and also from the side of the educated unemployed graduates increasing year after year. A mad rush to sanction and multiply the number of institutions resulting in large scale unemployment is certainly not to be welcomed in a developing economy like ours.

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Friday, May 30, 2014

Central universities in India


Of the 15573 teaching faculty positions in 39 central universities across the country, close to 49 per cent remain vacant.

Shortfall in Odisha and Tamil Nadu stands at 88 and 81 per cent respectively. Who is to blame for this development? Central Government or somebody else? 

Who asked them to open so many institutions without proper planning and faculty for the purpose of teaching? God knows the quality of education the government is offering through these institutions.

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Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Too little, too late


Forty-four years after he suffered 230 per cent disability and blindness in a TNT explosion while serving in the 1 Armoured Engineering Regiment, R.Mani was recently offered a sum of Rs I lakh by the Indian Army under a self-employment scheme meant for rehabilitation. 

The offer has only heightened Mr. Mani's sense of hurt. He has lost his arms, eyesight and some hearing power. At 70, he is in no position to take up a job.

Is it the right price a sincere and genuine soldier expected to pay for the service and sacrifice in his life? Will the concerned authorities scratch their heads and do something for this hapless hero?

Election Mela



One of the greatest achievements of Indian democracy has been the fool-proof and transparent election machinery working under the control of Election Commission of India. In some ways the conduct of general elections on such a large scale in India with hundred millions of voters has been so smooth and satisfying that even the richest democracy USA is envious of our system. Sometime back the election of George Bush as the President was getting delayed and dipped into several hours of uncertainty belying our expectations on their method of selection.

The credit goes to the Chief Election Commissioner and his team for having arranged the general election to the 16th Lok Sabha in nine phases systematically scattered all over the country looking to the security needs of the specific areas. The paramilitary forces were shuffled and shifted so methodically that the electioneering, polling and storing of ballot boxes in strong rooms became a possibility without any hassles. Supervision over the conduct of all the candidates and their parties was made easy although one is not sure about the extent to which the candidates violated the code of conduct with free distribution of cash and goods  on the eve of polling and in some places with the help of official machinery too. Well there is no fool-proof system by which one can ensure 100 percent honesty on the behaviour of candidates. But the CEC has tried its best to do a better job in the given circumstances.

Normally the behaviour pattern of South India and its electorate is different from the North. Now this time with of course some exceptions in the case of certain regional parties, the BJP and its allies have received the approval of the general electorate everywhere. It is a good sign for the stability and the growth of this country. Maturity  of Indian voters is a point to be recognised and admired by one and all!

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Friday, May 23, 2014

Unprecedented climate extremes over last decade: UN report




On Tuesday, July 9, 2013 the U.N launched a report in which it was revealed that between 2001 and 2010 the world experienced unprecedented high-impact climate extremes and national temperature records were broken much more than in any other decade in the past.

Michael Jarraud , the Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said "rising concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are changing our climate, with far reaching implications for our environment and our oceans , which are absorbing both carbon dioxide and heat".

Extreme floods, droughts and tropical cyclones were experienced across the world throughout the decade and more than 370,000 people died as a result of these, representing a 20 per cent increase in casualties from the previous decade. Tropical cyclones alone killed nearly 170000 people , affecting over 250 million and caused estimated damages of $ 380 billion.

Intergovernmental Board on Climate Services which met in Geneva in the first week of July, 2013 was expected to help countries and communities cope with long term climate change and associated extreme weather events.

Man's mighty powers and achievements can hardly stand before the nature's fury and check the adverse consequences. Mankind should know its limitations and control its adverse actions. The play of tectonic plates and the magma underneath the surface of earth expected to erupt in the form of volcanoes from time to time holds the key for the survival and longevity of human beings on earth in the days to come. Let us pray for the delay and decrease in its intensity so that we can enjoy this blue-coloured paradise in the milky-way galaxy. A perusal of the "Amazing Planet" a three-episode documentary film produced by National Geographic Channel would strengthen this fear beyond any doubt because the way this planet was formed, disturbed, the continents were shaped and bifurcated and the havoc played by mega volcanoes and earthquakes during the last several millions of years is beyond anybody's imagination.

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Thursday, May 22, 2014

Paradox in electoral numbers


Times insight group (May 19,  2014) reported that fragmented votes paved way for BJP landslide in General Elections for 16th Lok Sabha, 2014.  Far from spelling the end of a fractured polity, the 2014 Lok Sabha poll results show just how fragmented the vote was. It is precisely because the vote is so fragmented that the BJP was able to win 282 seats with just 31 percent of the votes. Simply put, less than four out of every 10 votes opted for NDA candidates and not even one in three chose somebody from the BJP to represent them. 

Those who picked Congress or its allies were even fewer, less than one in five for Congress with a 19.3 percent vote share (which incidentally is higher than BJP's 18.5 percent in 2009) and less than one in every four for the UPA. Unfortunately for Congress, its 19.3 percent votes only translated into 44 seats while BJP's 18.5 percent had fetched it 116 seats.

What a great disproportionate correlation between the percentage of votes obtained and the number of seats gained! It appears each constituency and the pattern of voting noticed therein requires to be studied in depth to calculate the achieved result or work in a specialised way to achieve the desired result in the ensuing poll.

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Rotting System?



In a rotten system currently prevalent in india only the slaves (timeservers) in a set-up - both in government and non-governmental organisations/ sectors succeed in surviving with spectacular omissions but indulging in incriminating commissions benefitting their beneficiaries and getting richly rewarded beyond their entitlement and expectations at the end of the day in the so-called rocky boat of modern life.

Hell with such a system!

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Big B, Sachin listed as NREGA beneficiaries


In a startling development, names of Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and his entire family, cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and family and such other celebrities are found to be listed as beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Chimbel village in Goa's Tiswadi Taluka.

It has been revealed by a local NGO Goa Parivartan Manch. God knows in how many villages across the country such a thing has been resorted to by mischievous middlemen and local officials in executing the scheme.

It is high time the name of the Mahatma is deleted from the caption of this scheme as a mark of respect to that great old man!
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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Slow and mild justice for doctors at fault


More than a year has passed since retired Chief Justice of India J.S.Verma died at a Gudgaon hospital and his family complained of medical negligence, but the expert committee appointed by the appellate body - Delhi Medical Council - has not been able to conclude anything. The high-profile case has highlighted the delays typical in medical negligence cases due to policy shortcomings and a lack of commitment.

Sad reflection on the system prevalent in the country. Unless the work ethics improves on its own or imposed effectively by the authorities, things would not change for the better in the near future.

(May 5, 2014)
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