5.1 Drug epidemic grips India's Punjab state
5.2 Indian Software Product Industry Round Table, or iSpirt
5.3 Welcome to the police state
5.4 India car market tanks
5.5 Huge Bungalows in the land of landless!
5.6 Inexpensive products can save newborns
5.7 Whither CSIR Labs?
5.8 Deadly Year For Encephalitis Feared In India
5.9 Vedic Maths
5.10 150,000 people killed each year
5.11 The Story of Breathing Life into a Barren Land
5.12 The three Rs
5.13 The oil companies owe the nation an explanation
5.14 Can we think of something better than AADHAAR
5.15 Horrors of India's brothels documented
5.16 Anti-corruption party Aam Aadmi storms India
5.17 India's dangerous 'food bubble'
-------------------
5.1 Drug epidemic grips India's Punjab state (2/1/2013)
Maqboolpura offers a window into a drug epidemic that government and U.N. officials say is gripping young men in the state of Punjab. The trend, they say, is driven by unemployment and frustrated economic expectations, as well as the ready availability of smuggled Afghan heroin and other pain-relieving drugs known as opioids that are manufactured in India and often sold without prescriptions in pharmacies.
.. Drug use has long been a problem in India’s remote and insurgency-plagued northeast, as well as in cities such as Delhi and Mumbai. But the spread of drugs in Punjab, whose economy is the ninth-
largest of India’s 28 states, is a recent development that does not bode well for the nation, especially if the sharp economic slowdown of the past two years continues and youth unemployment rises.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
5.2 Indian Software Product Industry Round Table, or iSpirt (3/2/2013)
"A few good software services companies may be good enough to serve the top 500 hospitals in India. But if you want to address 500,000 or more hospitals around the country, you cannot do it without software products," says Goenka, who many regard as the father of the Indian software product industry. His Tally accounting solution is used by virtually every small business in the country, an accomplishment which earned him Nasscom's first and only Lifetime Achievement Award.
The problem of scalability arises in software services because of its total dependence on people to implement solutions. This is the kind of work the Indian software industry, including companies like TCS, Infosys and Wipro, have traditionally done. Software products, on the contrary, can be bought off the shelf and customers can implement many
of these on their own. The best examples of these are Microsoft's Windows and Office.
Naveen Tewari, whose mobile ad network is used by over 250 of the Fortune 1000 companies and is second only to Google's AdMob, notes that all IT solutions in education today are directed at the likes of the IITs and IIMs. "You need education products to reach out to the mass of educational institutions. India today has extremely smart people who can develop such products. The market outside India is also huge. There are 3-4 billion people living in countries similar to India who can be serviced by Indian product companies," he says.
Every town in India is seen to have one or two people who have developed some software product that they are selling among a small customer base. One association study found there were at least 17 software products developed for jewellery in India, but the developers had an average of no more than 2,000-3,000 customers each, even though there are an estimated 3 lakh jewellers in India. "These small developers are unable to see the big picture, think big. The association's initial efforts would be directed towards creating the ...
http://timesofindia.
5.3 Welcome to the police state (10/2/2013)
5.4 India car market tanks (31/3/2013)
The lone bright spot has been sales of SUVs, which have become hugely popular with affluent consumers seeking a status vehicle offering more protection on India’s lethal roads. SUV purchases soared 35 per cent in February.
5.5 Huge Bungalows in the land of landless (18/4/2013)
Great idea Amitabh.
5.6 Inexpensive products can save newborns (7/5/2013)
India leads the world in the number of first day deaths:http://www.usatoday.com/story/
5.7 Whither CSIR Labs? (25/5/2013)
The other problem could be from the demand side. Indian industries are comfortable importing know how.
5.8 The Deadly Year For Encephalitis Feared In India (18/6/2013)
The disease is predictable and preventable. Every year the monsoon fills the region's parched paddy fields, heralding the arrival of the mosquitoes that spread Japanese encephalitis from pigs to humans, devastating malnourished children with low immunity. Another strain of the disease — Acute Encephalitis Syndrome — spreads through contaminated water. Residents use the fields for defecation, contaminating the ground water.
A vaccine has long been available, but the state government — which spent tens of millions of dollars building monuments to its last top politician — has failed to muster the sustained political will to focus on the communities hardest hit by the illness.
http://www.npr.org/templates/
5.9 Vedic Maths (11/8/2013)
5.10 150,000 people killed each year (19/8/2013)
But a government-appointed safety panel in its report last year said about 150,000 people were killed each year crossing train tracks in what officials describe as "unlawful trespassing". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
5.11 The Story of Breathing Life into a Barren Land (6/9/2013)
Varun, it is great to read of an enterprise like your's; in India it is so easy to give in to paying bribes, and so easy to give up and sit back and do nothing because of the uphill task in getting anything moving.
5.12 The three Rs (19/9/2013)
5.2 Indian Software Product Industry Round Table, or iSpirt
5.3 Welcome to the police state
5.4 India car market tanks
5.5 Huge Bungalows in the land of landless!
5.6 Inexpensive products can save newborns
5.7 Whither CSIR Labs?
5.8 Deadly Year For Encephalitis Feared In India
5.9 Vedic Maths
5.10 150,000 people killed each year
5.11 The Story of Breathing Life into a Barren Land
5.12 The three Rs
5.13 The oil companies owe the nation an explanation
5.14 Can we think of something better than AADHAAR
5.15 Horrors of India's brothels documented
5.16 Anti-corruption party Aam Aadmi storms India
5.17 India's dangerous 'food bubble'
-------------------
5.1 Drug epidemic grips India's Punjab state (2/1/2013)
Maqboolpura offers a window into a drug epidemic that government and U.N. officials say is gripping young men in the state of Punjab. The trend, they say, is driven by unemployment and frustrated economic expectations, as well as the ready availability of smuggled Afghan heroin and other pain-relieving drugs known as opioids that are manufactured in India and often sold without prescriptions in pharmacies.
.. Drug use has long been a problem in India’s remote and insurgency-plagued northeast, as well as in cities such as Delhi and Mumbai. But the spread of drugs in Punjab, whose economy is the ninth-
largest of India’s 28 states, is a recent development that does not bode well for the nation, especially if the sharp economic slowdown of the past two years continues and youth unemployment rises.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Another report says 73.5% Punjab youth drug addicts:
http://articles.timesofindia.5.2 Indian Software Product Industry Round Table, or iSpirt (3/2/2013)
"A few good software services companies may be good enough to serve the top 500 hospitals in India. But if you want to address 500,000 or more hospitals around the country, you cannot do it without software products," says Goenka, who many regard as the father of the Indian software product industry. His Tally accounting solution is used by virtually every small business in the country, an accomplishment which earned him Nasscom's first and only Lifetime Achievement Award.
The problem of scalability arises in software services because of its total dependence on people to implement solutions. This is the kind of work the Indian software industry, including companies like TCS, Infosys and Wipro, have traditionally done. Software products, on the contrary, can be bought off the shelf and customers can implement many
of these on their own. The best examples of these are Microsoft's Windows and Office.
Naveen Tewari, whose mobile ad network is used by over 250 of the Fortune 1000 companies and is second only to Google's AdMob, notes that all IT solutions in education today are directed at the likes of the IITs and IIMs. "You need education products to reach out to the mass of educational institutions. India today has extremely smart people who can develop such products. The market outside India is also huge. There are 3-4 billion people living in countries similar to India who can be serviced by Indian product companies," he says.
Every town in India is seen to have one or two people who have developed some software product that they are selling among a small customer base. One association study found there were at least 17 software products developed for jewellery in India, but the developers had an average of no more than 2,000-3,000 customers each, even though there are an estimated 3 lakh jewellers in India. "These small developers are unable to see the big picture, think big. The association's initial efforts would be directed towards creating the ...
http://timesofindia.
5.3 Welcome to the police state (10/2/2013)
MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government believes that to stop the rampant misuse of the Right to Information Act (RTI) in the state, the AadharUID number can be used to verify the credentials of an applicant.
----------------
That's
interesting and something that those opposed to UID have been afraid
of. This will also mean wide linkage of UID to everything else.
I
have been puzzled by the security aspect of UID however. Will UID
prevent 10 terrorists from entering the country? If the whole world had
UID, could the Americans avoid extensive screening of travellers in
their airports. UID appears to be a scheme to shore up the margins of
the IT companies.
Selvaraj
P.S.
It will be good if our newspapers also sharpen their reporting. What is
the statistical nature of the misuse of the RTI act?
5.4 India car market tanks (31/3/2013)
The lone bright spot has been sales of SUVs, which have become hugely popular with affluent consumers seeking a status vehicle offering more protection on India’s lethal roads. SUV purchases soared 35 per cent in February.
---------------
The writing is on the wall, with Peak Oil and Global Warming, we have to change the way we live.
Even
though China has a higher growth rate, it would not be wise for us put
our economy on steroids as the Chinese are doing ...
The scariest environmental fact in the world:
(After providing the wrong kind of leadership during
the last hundred years, it is somewhat hypocritical of USA to take the
somewhat self-congratulatory stand taken in this article. It is the
western companies that want to sell their SUVs in India.)
Selvaraj
5.5 Huge Bungalows in the land of landless (18/4/2013)
Great idea Amitabh.
I would suggest one improvement.
Since there is shortage of parks, playing fields and water bodies in
most cities in India (in fact even in villages), first preference should
be given to convert this excess land for these purposes wherever deemed
essential.
Regards,
Selvaraj
5.6 Inexpensive products can save newborns (7/5/2013)
India leads the world in the number of first day deaths:http://www.usatoday.com/story/
5.7 Whither CSIR Labs? (25/5/2013)
The other problem could be from the demand side. Indian industries are comfortable importing know how.
If
the customer is smart and ambitious, he can motivate the supplier to
put his best leg forward. If the customer is lackadaisical even a smart
supplier will lose interest. The customer should also have the
capability to assess performance.
I believe the Indian Armed Forces are as much to blame as DRDO, in its poor track record.
Selvaraj
5.8 The Deadly Year For Encephalitis Feared In India (18/6/2013)
The disease is predictable and preventable. Every year the monsoon fills the region's parched paddy fields, heralding the arrival of the mosquitoes that spread Japanese encephalitis from pigs to humans, devastating malnourished children with low immunity. Another strain of the disease — Acute Encephalitis Syndrome — spreads through contaminated water. Residents use the fields for defecation, contaminating the ground water.
A vaccine has long been available, but the state government — which spent tens of millions of dollars building monuments to its last top politician — has failed to muster the sustained political will to focus on the communities hardest hit by the illness.
http://www.npr.org/templates/
5.9 Vedic Maths (11/8/2013)
Teach the kids this basic maths using Vedic Maths
SOMETHING INTERESTING TO GIVE YOUR MIND A TWIST
You think you know your maths or you have a computer mind?Try multiplying 996 by 997 and give me the answer within 20 seconds or less (no calculator allowed).
If you can't do it, then learn and use the classical Indian Vedic method to get your answer in seconds (see link).
Teach it to your kids or grandkids too to impress them!
Indian Vedic Math in simple steps…
5.10 150,000 people killed each year (19/8/2013)
But a government-appointed safety panel in its report last year said about 150,000 people were killed each year crossing train tracks in what officials describe as "unlawful trespassing". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
---------------
This
a huge number. We don't find many caution notices put up by the
railways on this subject. A train travelling at 60 Kmph will travel 166
metres in 10 seconds. Instead of treating the problem as that of
'unlawful trespassing', the railways should make the public more aware
of the danger, so that even if they do happen to cross railway tracks,
they will be more alert.
Selvaraj
5.11 The Story of Breathing Life into a Barren Land (6/9/2013)
Varun, it is great to read of an enterprise like your's; in India it is so easy to give in to paying bribes, and so easy to give up and sit back and do nothing because of the uphill task in getting anything moving.
Regards,
Selvaraj
5.12 The three Rs (19/9/2013)
Some
73 percent of children aged 11 in schools in the state of Rajasthan are
unable to subtract and 79 percent can’t recognize numbers between 10
and 99, according to the 2012 Annual Status of Education Report.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/
-------------
There is no need for fancy 'right to education laws' and fancy schools to teach children the three Rs.
What
needs to be done is to provide each family with required books and
convince each family to 'home school' and 'community school' the
children. (This basic step can be taken as a backup to formal
schooling).
Selvaraj
5.13 The oil companies owe the nation an explanation (16/10/2013)
About 45,000 multiple connections have been detected and Rs 24 crore can be saved once these are blocked, the companies told the court.
5.14 Can we think of something better than AADHAAR (23/10/2013)
5.13 The oil companies owe the nation an explanation (16/10/2013)
About 45,000 multiple connections have been detected and Rs 24 crore can be saved once these are blocked, the companies told the court.
--------------------
The oil companies owe the nation an explanation:
1. What was the effort made by oil companies to weed out duplicate connections in the last ten years?
2. How many duplicate connections were terminated. What was the penalty imposed for having duplicate connections?
3. How many distributors had their licenses terminated for selling LPG in black?
4.
Is there an evidence of an organised racket in the above mentioned
45,000 multiple connections? What penalty is being imposed?
It is common knowledge that by paying a premium of
Rs 100 one can get a subsidised LPG cylinder directly from distributors.
The oil companies cannot be unaware of this. It is disingenuous to say
that they have reduced the number of duplicate connections with the help
of AADHAAR, when they made no serious attempt earlier to check the misdirection of subsidised LPG cylinders.
Selvaraj
5.14 Can we think of something better than AADHAAR (23/10/2013)
Dear all,
I agree with Shri Agarwal
in that the existing systems should be used to plug leakages in the
public distribution system. To the extent possible it is better not to
put large amount of information regarding citizens in a central
computer.
Some may say why not leverage the capabilities of
the Internet and the information age to improve governance. So, let's do
some brain storming.
Here are two examples of the use of the information highway.
A. CREATE A REGISTRY OF INDIAN CITIZENS:
(As
I said before, it is better to continue with existing systems and avoid
putting large amount of personal information in a central computer
database. Still, this will be better and cheaper than AADHAAR, more democratic and truely high tech - AADHAAR masquerades as high tech when it is actually cumbersome and costly.)
1. Make use of the existing Post Offices for this purpose. (There are 1, 55,015 Post Offices in India, each serving an average of 7175 people.)
2.
To register as a citizen the head of the family to apply in the post
office in whose circle he lives, along with photographs of members of
the family and the ration card No. (if the family has ration card).
Nomads without fixed address to apply in any post office - in their case
one thumb print will also be required. The Post Office will issue a
receipt, with a receipt no. (The person can check in any post office
the status of his application. )
3.
The application to be approved by a citizen's committee chosen at
random ( committee could be formed from persons belonging to a
particular ration shop, belonging to a particular village panchayat, etc.)
4.
With the whole effort decentralised, the registry can be prepared in a
short time. (Allow for duplication - make it clear that deliberately
obtaining duplicate ID could invite fines and even prison sentences)
(As
I said before I do not support the preparation of such a registry of
Indian Citizens. The present method of identifying citizens by birth
certificates, school leaving certificates, ration cards, etc. is
sufficient. In fact when you look at this citizen's register it looks
almost as silly as AADHAAR. Equally purposeless, even
though biometrics are not recorded. Quite clearly if special services
are required, those relate to migrants, beggars and non legal residents -
their requirements should be dealt with separately.)
B. CREATE A GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL SYSTEM (This looks more exciting).
The purpose of this mechanism is to make sure that anyone who is entitled to benefits - BPL ration, cooking gas, etc. is able to obtain them without paying bribes and without seeking favours.
1. Once again use the postal system.
2.
Any citizen of India can walk into the Post Office attached to the
place he resides and register a request - for a nominal fee of Rs 10
(which can be waived by the post office at its discretion) - for a BPL
ration card, gas connection or any other government benefit he is
entitled to. The Post Office will issue a receipt - after taking his
photograph, and taking a thumb print if the person happens to be a
migrant, not having a permanent address.
3. The request will be forwarded to a committee of randomly selected individuals as suggested in the earlier exercise.
4.
Only the complainant will be authorised to close the case, which he
will once again formally do by giving an application at the post
office.
5.
If he is not satisfied, his case will move to higher authorities - the
district collector, the chief minister .... It will be made difficult
for any official to arbitrarily close his case.
The idea of AADHAAR is deeply flawed. It cannot solve any problem on its own - yet seeks to achieve 100% accuracy in its own implementation!!
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.......*.......PROBLEM........
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Regards,
Selvaraj
PS: Post Office Network
India
has the largest Postal Network in the world with over 1, 55,015 Post
Offices (as on 31.03.2009) of which 1, 39,144 (89.76%) are in the rural
areas. At the time of independence, there were 23,344 Post Offices,
which were primarily in urban areas. Thus, the network has registered a
seven-fold growth since Independence, with the focus of this expansion
primarily in rural areas. On an average, a Post Office serves an area of
21.21 Sq. Km and a population of 7175 people
http://www.indiapost.gov.in/
5.15 Horrors of India's brothels documented (24/11/2013)
"In the 11 years I've been there, I've never met one woman who has chosen to be there. Every woman I've met has been trafficked or born there," Ms Thompson said.
"These girls who have been trafficked can't return to their families because of the stigma and [yet it is] often [they who] are responsible for them being in Kamathipura," she added.
The British photojournalist is also launching a campaign with the UK-based Jubilee Charity calling for India and other countries to criminalise the purchase of sex.
In April, the Indian government amended the law to broaden the types of crimes considered to be a trafficking offence and established harsher sentences for traffickers.
But enforcement of anti-trafficking laws remains a problem, as does official complicity, according to the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report 2013.
"Countries like Sweden and Norway have made the purchase of sexual services illegal and it has had a profound impact on demand, causing trafficking to also decrease significantly," Ms Thompson said.
"Thihttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
-------------------------
I think the whole problem is being tackled the wrong way. Prostitution in the current form thrives on recruiting children. The way to solve this problem is to allow women to enter this trade if they want to, only after the age of 25. (The present age of 18 as in USA is OK for marriage, but not OK for prostitution).
Before this age any one facilitating this trade should be sent to prison. Evidently there is a need to make it mandatory to track the movement of children when they leave their parents to take up employment in cities with the help of the police.
Selvaraj
5.16 Anti-corruption party Aam Aadmi storms india (29/11/2013)
A new political party led by an anti-corruption crusader is challenging India's mainstream parties.
The Aam Admi - or Common Man's Party - is made or ordinary members of the public, rather than traditional politicians. It is led by a former bureaucrat and is contesting local elections in Delhi.
It was born out of a strong anti-corruption movement that swept India in 2011.
Sanjoy Majumder spoke to some of those looking to shake up the old system.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
5.17 India's dangerous 'food bubble' (29/11/2013)
With a third of the U.S. grain harvest now going to fuel for cars and another third going to feed livestock, U.S. exports are down. Global demand is increasing rapidly as populations expand and as more people move up the food chain, consuming grain-intensive animal products. A tightening grain situation means rising food prices for all, a trend that will continue without a global mobilization to use water more efficiently and quickly stabilize population and climate.
In the meantime, we hope India's wells won't run dry too soon.
Lester R. Brown is president of the Earth Policy Institute and the author of "Breaking New Ground: A Personal History" and "Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity."
http://www.latimes.com/
"In the 11 years I've been there, I've never met one woman who has chosen to be there. Every woman I've met has been trafficked or born there," Ms Thompson said.
"These girls who have been trafficked can't return to their families because of the stigma and [yet it is] often [they who] are responsible for them being in Kamathipura," she added.
The British photojournalist is also launching a campaign with the UK-based Jubilee Charity calling for India and other countries to criminalise the purchase of sex.
In April, the Indian government amended the law to broaden the types of crimes considered to be a trafficking offence and established harsher sentences for traffickers.
But enforcement of anti-trafficking laws remains a problem, as does official complicity, according to the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report 2013.
"Countries like Sweden and Norway have made the purchase of sexual services illegal and it has had a profound impact on demand, causing trafficking to also decrease significantly," Ms Thompson said.
"Thihttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
-------------------------
I think the whole problem is being tackled the wrong way. Prostitution in the current form thrives on recruiting children. The way to solve this problem is to allow women to enter this trade if they want to, only after the age of 25. (The present age of 18 as in USA is OK for marriage, but not OK for prostitution).
Before this age any one facilitating this trade should be sent to prison. Evidently there is a need to make it mandatory to track the movement of children when they leave their parents to take up employment in cities with the help of the police.
Selvaraj
5.16 Anti-corruption party Aam Aadmi storms india (29/11/2013)
A new political party led by an anti-corruption crusader is challenging India's mainstream parties.
The Aam Admi - or Common Man's Party - is made or ordinary members of the public, rather than traditional politicians. It is led by a former bureaucrat and is contesting local elections in Delhi.
It was born out of a strong anti-corruption movement that swept India in 2011.
Sanjoy Majumder spoke to some of those looking to shake up the old system.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
5.17 India's dangerous 'food bubble' (29/11/2013)
With a third of the U.S. grain harvest now going to fuel for cars and another third going to feed livestock, U.S. exports are down. Global demand is increasing rapidly as populations expand and as more people move up the food chain, consuming grain-intensive animal products. A tightening grain situation means rising food prices for all, a trend that will continue without a global mobilization to use water more efficiently and quickly stabilize population and climate.
In the meantime, we hope India's wells won't run dry too soon.
Lester R. Brown is president of the Earth Policy Institute and the author of "Breaking New Ground: A Personal History" and "Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity."
http://www.latimes.com/
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