Vatican turns off 100 fountains as Rome goes dry

I remember to have visited Rome twice in the last two decades. One special feature of this historical city was that water used to flow freely all the time in the year with no tap to close its flow. It was a wonder for me as a person coming from a country where no safe drinking water was available to majority of its citizens despite the self rule by Indians since independence in 1947.

The same city of Rome is facing acute shortage of drinking water forcing its famous fountains to remain dry - an astonishing and shocking development in the Western world like in the case water-deficit countries like India.

Nature seems to have been highly disturbed by human actions in the last one century and more so in the past five decades or so, that regular monsoon and rainfall have become so erratic and unreliable - likely to lead to miserable conditions for human life on this planet. May be a few millions and millions of human beings will start dying for want of water regularly in the days to come unless some miraculous measures are found and corrective measures are put in place.

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Alarming bell on state's granary

Thanks to the research undertaken by a retired professor of the Madras Institute of Development Studies S. Janakrajan covering a period of four decades since 1971 on the Cauvery delta region, regarded as the granary of Tamil Nadu with the assistance of Indian Council of Social Science Research, the following findings are shockingly revealed as expected by some of us for quite sometime :

1)The delta region has shrunk by 20% due to anthropogenic factors such as diversion of land for non-agricultural purposes as well as factors linked to climate change.

2)The drastic reduction in crop cover and a 13-fold increase in wastelands between  1971 and 2014 indicate a worrisome phenomenon.

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TN got just 10% of 2.42L crore promised in GIM, admits minister:

The state of Tamil Nadu received just ₹29,615 crore  in investments of the ₹2.42 lakh crore promised by various industrialists at the global investors' meet (GIM) in September 2015 that was inaugurated by the chief minister J.Jayalalithaa, the government disclosed on Friday, June 23, 2017.

Many state governments have had, in the last two decades, tried their best by spending crores of rupees to attract the industrialists to come to their respective states, invest heavy sums and create employment potential to the local populations. Despite tall promises made in the presence of popular chief ministers, the investing industrialists have shied away from or delayed the establishment of their manufacturing units on account of practical difficulties faced by them on the ground .

It is worth investigating as to how much of an effort by different state governments have borne fruits and how much of funds have gone the drain due to unintelligent planning and worthless preparations by different departments in the governments. Ease of doing business mostly remains on paper, it appears.

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Supreme Court, Police Station & F I R

Spot: Kalashetra Colony, Chennai

Date: May 20, 2017 

Incident: a pregnant woman with her husband were on a stroll after dinner when the suspect passed by on his bike. He took a 'U' turn, rode close, molested her and sped off. Despite the chase by husband the suspect disappeared safely. The couple went straight to Thiruvanmiyur Police Station for filing a complaint and registering an FIR, but the same could not be done due to non-cooperation of the police. Only on the intervention of a woman police officer in the City Police Commissioner's office, the FIR was registered and a copy was issued after 20 days of the incident. God knows when the suspect would be caught. 

The policeman seems to have persuaded the woman not to register a case because she would be on a television channel tarnishing her own image. He further informed her that in a similar situation a woman journalist  working in an English Daily had the same fate on the same spot a few weeks ago. 

Registering an FIR is next to impossibility in this country despite strict ruling by the Supreme Court of India and strict orders and directions of senior police officials (DGPs and Police Commissioners) from IPS. Who is there to ensure implementation of this job by the officers in charge of police stations in this country?

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Mother of Parliaments

U.K House of Commons - 2017 Elections

51 Non-whites, 208 women out of 650 members in the house

a good and progressive development - the best example for other democracies to emulate in the days to come!

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Farmers Revolt

One has to lament like TOI editorial (June 8, 2017) that about five protesting farmers  were shot dead in Mandsaur district - ironically in the state of Madhys Pradesh often upheld by BJP as a model of agricultural progress. In states like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana and Tamil Nadu also farmers are up in arms against the state governments and the Centre. It should be treated like a wake up call and the governments should seek to remove the structural bottlenecks in India's farm economy. Loan waiver can't be a permanent remedy to ease the situation in the countryside.

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Farmer start-ups gain strength - the most satisfying solution found at last!

The age of middlemen in the life of farmers should find its exit  as early as possible . Sooner the better for the farming community in India, as I had been advocating for decades after studying and researching the economics of small and marginal farmers.

Example: About 1000 goat herders from 10 neighbouring villages floated Theni District Goat Producer Company Ltd (TNiGPCL), a company in 2015 that markets the goats of of all its shareholders in bulk. 

Farmers Producer Organisations (FPO) are farming startups which are being incubated by the Centre through Small Farmer Agri-business Consortium (SFAC) , rural development bank NABARD, agriculture and horticulture departments of state governments and NGOs. There are around 200 such companies in Tamil Nadu.

A good initiative and strategy in the interest of farmers!

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