P Manivannan, an IAS officer in Karnataka is allowing the
public to watch what he is doing in his office by hooking up the CCTV in his chamber to his official website. Manivannan, the MD of the Bengaluru Electric Supply Company, BESCOM, has installed two IP enabled cameras in his office, and the public can see whatever happens there.
In this scam age, with his own Karnataka CM involved in one, this act has won great appreciation from the anti-corruption activists.
Cynics say this allows corruption outside the office. They should realize that they themselves can check that, and prevent it. This is a step in the right direction.
"Adarsh" would have been Adarsh, if we had the cameras installed. Unless of course, some folks changed the camera direction to suit themselves.
Expressing one's opinion about the effects of Government policy seems to be a risky affair for writers in India! Anish Trivedi, a columnist for Mid-day was convicted by the special Prevention of Atrocities Act court on Thursday for making casteist comments in an editorial article written for the Mumbai tabloid in 2006.
The author has been handed over a sentence of six month's jail term and Rs. 25000/- fine for blaming the reservation policy for the bad condition of government offices!
Read about it here.IMHO..psst psst ....come over and lets talk it over a cup of coffee, while we are still free to do so!
With the courts burdened with cases, the aam aadmi seems to have ran out of patience due to delays and adjournments. "Tareekh pe Tareekh" is the common experience for those who need to seek justice in Indian Courts.
Not surprisingly, this 60-something Anil Tikotekar sent a cheque for Rs. 20000/- seeking one hour of the court's time. Not a big sum of money considering the difficulties he faced commuting to the court each time. But he had to apologise to the court and withdraw the letter.
Read about it here.
Posted by
An Indian Writer
Labels:
Women
I am aware that such a title could be greeted with a sarcastic "So what's the big deal? Aren't you women always vying for gender equality and such?"
But
news of this kind always inspires and delights me.
The Laundromat arrives in India!
This pay and use coin operated laundry service for public use is a concept popular in UK has made its debut in New Delhi’s Satya Niketan, which has 7000 rented flats – many of them foreigners. With consumers having to spend close to about an hour at the Laundromat, one wonders whether this idea would make it big time in our country? Mumbaikars spend that much time commuting to office! Imagine if they would need to travel with their dirty linen another half an hour just to wash them in public! I had the good opportunity to see how a Laundromat works without having to go abroad – I watched a Mr. Bean episode on TV – Rowan Atkinson (as Mr Bean) - at his very best - tells us how not to use a Laundromat, while others at the Laundromat show us how it really works!
Read about it here!Indians meanwhile may be looking for a different kind of Laundromat which can clean up our politics - and corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and government officials! Need of the times, i guess!
India will set up the first Tidal Power Project in Asia - in Gujarat!
With its economy growing at a fast pace in relation to other economies, the power needs of the country will grow exponentially in the coming years. Clean energy forms and non-conventional sources of energy beckon the world, inviting us to try out harnessing such energy sources as Wind and Solar energy - for power generation options - offer us great potential in future.
It is therefore refreshing to know about the project to harness the energy in our tidal waves!
Ride the waves of change -
Read all about it here.
Which political party in India needs to read this over and over again??
GOI is fighting too many battles on too many fronts. Some of these are internal within the Government and some within the party and allies.
If one analyses the situation, most of these battles have nothing to do with governance or its absence, or any matter of national importance.
Sadly, most of these revolve around massive and brazen acts of corruption. This is compounded by consistent refusal of the Government to come clear and be transparent. The whole emphasis is on covering tracks, fudging facts, not going after the guilty until it is too late or have been forced into some action.
It is amazing that at a time when we need to focus all our energies to take India to a new level, our political leaders, industrialists and privileged populace have begun looting as if there is no tomorrow.
It is a sad reflection on our national character.
New Delhi is a busy capital of late with different world leaders scheduling their visits.
Whether this speaks of India's importance on the world stage as our media would like us to believe or is it more likely, the lure of lucrative contracts to supply us "latest" and horrendously expensive stuff.
These leaders have found a way to flatter the Indian psyche, lower our guard and walk away with contracts exceeding one hundred thousands crore rupees.
Earlier, a visit to Mahatma Gandhi's samadhi at Rajghat was de riguer. Protocol has added two new items which seem mandated by the political leadership and media.
Every leader is expected to say that they strongly support India's entry to the UN Security Council as permanent member,
and
issue stern warning to Pakistan to punish those involved in 26/11.
Is our leadership really so gullible?
15 days of Parliament doing nothing has cost the nation 95 crore Rs. So habituated are the MPs across party lines to mopping up freebies for no work, that no one complains about the Centre dragging this wasteful session to its normal conclusion till Dec 13, 2010.
The crucial business of passing the supplementary demands of Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Railways got done on December 1 and 2 respectively. The final week of the sitting is going to be a mere formality.
Why? Sonia Gandhi's birthday on Dec 9. A session ended early will have most of the MP's of the ruling party back in their constituencies before that , and that cannot be allowed .
Izzat ka sawal hai...
Stay tuned for daily adjournments till Dec 13th.
We, the taxpayers , pay. For the party games .
We have been witnessing a huge controversy kicked up by the continuous flow of "behind the doors" information from Wikileaks.
Widespread interest has been generated and everybody is eager to get that juicy bit of diplomatic faux-pas.
What emerges from this episode is the identity of the true villain. It is the United States of America. It has long been known that USA has been the master of double-speak and always played India and Pakistan against each other.
Post 26/11, US help was forthcoming only because of American citizens killed. They had information on every previous terrorist strike but never shared.
What transpires now is India has been "back-stabbed" even here. Alas, one more time.
What's new?? We all can see it but our political masters do not want to....
Media hates Modi.Political parties hate Modi.
Why do we accept mediocre and not better governance?
let us CHANGE INDIA for INDIA OF TOMORROW.
Experts at the Foundation for Environment and Economic Development Services (FEEDS) are thinking out of the box,
to introduce new ways to increase the income of poultry farmers in Manipur.They have assisted the Krishi Vigyan Kendra near Imphal, to conduct training programmes for farmers (who have traditionally reared chicken and ducks) in rearing Australian Emus and Turkeys.
Turkeys are already fetching between Rs 200 and Rs 250 per kg in Imphal,” said N Muhindro Singh, veterinary specialist.
Poultry farmers in Manipur suffered huge losses three years ago, because of an outbreak of bird flu. Emu has a much higher disease-resistance capacity than other poultry, which renders Emu rearing a less risky proposition.
FEEDS itself is a success story in its own way,.....it today has a wide spectrum of activities including 70 hectares of tea plantation, 80 hectares under cardamom, and a sizeable area under medicinal and aromatic plants.
Some of the cartoons are so timely, aren't they?
let us CHANGE INDIA for INDIA OF TOMORROW.
picture courtesy mailtoday
Apparently, Indian honey manufacturers
sell contaminated honey domestically, while they export a cleaner variety. The Centre for Science and Environment has discovered different types of antibiotics in 12 brands of honey sold in India.
The Director of CSE, Sunita Narain explained "the beekeeping industry uses antibiotics to control and prevent outbreaks of diseases in honey bees, and as growth promoters to increase production." These antibiotics are present in the jars of honey that find their way to our homes.
Interestingly, the honey which is to be exported is checked strictly, since antibiotics in honey are banned in most countries. However, in India, there are no domestic standards that the manufacturers have to comply with.
Sunita Narain says,
"That stock which gets rejected for export since it is considered unsafe for consumption finds its way back to the domestic market."
Posted by
An Indian Writer
Some people
still say, the smoke and burning smell from Delhi don’t mean there is a fire up there.
That the hyper-sterile western attitude claiming the Games Village is filthy isn't serious.
That it is okay for a ceiling or bridge to collapse, after all India is known for finishing things at the last minute. Like the grand Indian wedding, everything will fall into place when the Games begin.
*
If we take it on ourselves to invite a number of countries to participate in an event, we should ensure that our guests are comfortable. They aren’t mere tourists.
If the bridge collapsed five months before the event, we would probably have shrugged and said,
It happens only in India…
If you promise not to get agitated over the post and/or the comments, I’ll share
this link with you.
Gokulashtami is celebrated in most parts of India with a lot of passion and more so in Mumbai. The Maximum City always overdoes itself and sets new benchmarks.
One does not mind raising the bar higher in productive matters. We Mumbaikars seem to have taken the first part of this literally and raised the bar, so to speak, for the "makhan chors".
Announcing rich cash prizes, the "matki" was tied much higher. This required taller human pyramids with higher possibility of them crashing down with serious consequences.
The number of injuries have gone up exponentially and there are atleast four participants who shall never walk again. When the dust settles, will these "generous" donors also look after those crippled. I doubt it.
Time to call for celebrations with responsibility. Hope next year safety measures are adopted atleast voluntarily.
I was saddened to read this news report yesterday-
When Sitaram and Ramabai had their fourth child, a girl, they did not even want to think of a name for her and started calling her Nakoshi.That’s Marathi for the ‘unwanted one’.A random survey conducted by the Satara district health department showed 222 girls named Nakoshi in the 0-16 age group.Hearteningly, there have been efforts to change this distressing mindset of the parents of discriminating against daughters.
The district administration has a programme to educate the parents and to persuade them to rename the girls.
Dr Sudha Kankaria, who is associated with the project, says
,“We are also asking couples to take eighth pheras instead of the traditional seven pheras during their wedding ceremony. The eight phera will be an oath they will not discriminate between a boy and a girl.”
India is the birthplace of chaos. Anything that can go smoothly will get derailed and finish with a lot of chaos as an accompaniment.
.
Our festivals are a chaos, our faith is chaotic, our life flow is a chaos. Infact, chaos has become an unique Indian trademark.
When chaos is our very nature then why do we pretend to prefer order. Why do we fear chaos or use every opportunity to bemoan chaos.
I believe that we should stop fighting chaos and dive headlong into it. Let us embrace chaos and allow it to permeate every cell in our earthly vehicles, our bodies.
For, life was born out of chaos, and it is a miracle that order of cosmic proportions is maintained as part of chaos.
The next time we see or read about chaos, move on with a smile and say...."That is Life".
