india tweets

How insensitive, unresponsive and out-of-touch with the aam admi India's babudom is, is exemplified by the fact that meritorious school students have been getting a princely sum of Rs 10 as merit scholarship and Rs 20 as merit-cum-poverty scholarship from the govt of Odisha for the last 20 years.

While politicians never miss an opportunity to vote more and more perks and privileges for themselves, and govt officials get their salaries and DA revised upwards regularly, for two decades no one has bothered to revise the scholarship amount. To cap it, only a few thousand such scholarships are given out every year in the entire state. The situation in other states must be similar; leopards retain their spots, no matter which jungle they are in.

Kapil Sibal needs to focus more on education for the masses. India's development hinges on that.

A group of farmers in Odisha have turned an arid drought-prone area into one of plenty. Not due to any steps taken by the government but thanks to a training program being conducted by an NGO, Manav Adhikar Seva Samiti, where farmers are taught to conserve water and minimise impact on groundwater by harvesting rainwater in small man-made ponds.

22 ponds have already been made by farmers and these have proved to be very cost-effective. Despite deficient and erratic rainfall, the results are encouraging.

Sitaram Majhi used to migrate to Hyderabad to work. Now he grows vegetables in his 8-acre farm. For Tulsi Amar, another migrant labourer, who has taken to organic farming because he could not afford fertilisers, the results have been dramatic. He grows 20 types of vegetables.

More such self-help efforts need to be encouraged.