Drop Out Exams

It’s high time that the centuries old system of “examinations” to promote and educate the students should be dropped out of our education system. The education system in the contemporary society has been almost a driver of guilt. Such a guilt driven system can only be ineffective, inadequate and inept. Our obsession with examinations, grades and related stereotypes is self expressive of our education borne inability to try something new.

To understand the need to discard the convention of examinations we have to understand the vicious circle of competitions-preparations-grades-dissatisfaction-guilt-and insecurity induced by society. All of these phenomena together suppresses a student to continue to live inside the periphery of this vicious circle, and then we say that we need people to think out of the box. There is no way out along the diameters of this globe, ignoring some very limited exceptions like Finland, where a student can choose to live in alienation from such a stifling state. Students have no choice but to follow and accept this stereotype as a crucial function of the society without questioning. Every question mark on examination is replaced by a forceful period. Before proceeding ahead I would like to clarify at this point that I am talking about exams in schools and colleges not about the competitive and entrance exams for jobs and admissions to educational institutions.

I know it might have been a bit difficult for many of you to assimilate all that you have read above, so let us try to understand the effect of the vicious circle of competitions-preparations-grades-dissatisfaction-guilt-and insecurity induced by society.
Competition and the fear of lagging behind itself is so unhealthy phenomenon that puts unnecessary pressure on the mind of students and propels students to practice unfair tricks of cheating and maneuvering such iniquitous acts. Thus, cheating becomes a socially accepted mild mischief whereas it has the capacity to culminate to the extreme up to the formation of illicit gangs for leaking out the question papers of examinations beforehand and all other sorts of forgery in a very organised manner.

Competitions and the fear of failure leads to forceful preparations but as a matter of fact the preparation for examinations are mere symbolism, as many of the students tend to forget more than 60-70% of all they have studied for examination, a couple of months post examinations. So the society has been failing in its motives of making students “learn” through examination, since ages, right after a few months of every exam. There can be many more loopholes of examinations which we will try to understand by putting up some logic and evidence in the form of studies and researches below.

To understand the loopholes of exams better let us take an example to two female students A & B, who studied for 10 hours before examination and both of them could not complete 40% of their syllabus. However, student A scored fairly well but student B just managed to secure the passing marks. There could be variety of reasons but one possible reason could be the content that they studied. Student A luckily studied much of the contents in the stipulated time which were asked in the examination but student B studied all those contents which were not asked in the examinations. So how can we validate the results of the exam that have issues at its grassroots. This seems more like a gambling game and is not a justified system of testing two students who worked equally hard. This can not be a reason to reject student B because B still has the abilities to perform well. But this is no issue, the perturbing situation is yet to be uncovered.

Despite of her abilities, student B was dissatisfied of her performance which induced the feelings of guilt in her mind, the situation gets exacerbated when her teachers, friends and family somehow, directly or indirectly, make her feel insecure leading her to the point of self rejection. This decreases the level of self-confidence and her day-to-day activities are affected, this in turn again induces the feeling of guilt and self rejection. The vicious circle continues to operate.  In an “A-F” driven society what dominates the psychology of a student is a redundant pressure of examination and sickening guilt. This vicious circle many a times turn into a noose. In India in 2013 alone 2471 students committed suicide alone due to failure in examinations according to national bureau of crime.

South Korea is a highly examination ridden and guilt driven society, as a result of which the suicide rates of those aged 10 to 24 is said to be 9.4, but comparatively, the average suicide rate for the same age range of nations within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is at 6.5. Japan and Lithuania are not much behind in this race.

 The aim of this article, however, is not to give the data about the suicide but to instigate a thought process regarding whether or not we should start talking about a society free of examination and guilt.

Exams and the grade system not only trigger an anxiety, that subtly leads to a less productive human brain, long before exams start but also impedes the development of a free thought process, impedes the development of hobby or a disturbs a regular routine like writing, playing or learning something new for example a foreign language, or something that doesn’t relate to the curriculum.

Apart from logic and the data presented above let us now have a look on some of the researches and studies conducted by reputed institutions and professionals all across the world.

Social research psychologist, Martyn Denscombe, found in his studies that the main reasons of sufferings of teenagers during exams are: The educational or occupational consequences associated with the outcome of the exam; their self-esteem with regards to the outcome of their grades (students are likely to have a higher self-esteem with higher grades and guilty with lower grades); Judgments from friends and parents in relation to their performance; and fear of disappointing their teachers. (source)

According to another study, by UNSW School of Education, Australia, conducted on 722 students of year 12 revealed an alarming picture. 42% of the students showed high level anxiety symptoms high enough to be of clinical concern, 16% showed extremely high level of anxiety and 37% had above average level of stress. Female students experienced highest anxieties. Where does this pressure and expectation come from? Students identified themselves as the greatest source of pressure (44%), with family (35%) and the school or teachers (21%) as the other main sources. More gifted students (47%) than their average-ability peers (24%) identified their own internal pressure as the strongest source of pressure. (Source)

These two studies support my argument regarding the “vicious circle” of examination that I talked about earlier in this article.

In other researches the impact of “stress hormones” which are mainly cortisol and norepinephrine were studied. The studies revealed that when a person move from “cold cognition”  (rational and logical thought process) to “hot cognition” (non-logical and emotionally driven thought process like those at the time of examinations or at times of clear threat or pressure) the stress hormones are secreted from hypothalamus and enters the per-frontal cortex of brain (responsible for decision-making, memory and logical & rational thinking) to clear out the memory and impairs effective communication. At the same time high level of cortisol enters into hippocampus region of the brain (responsible for learning and retrieval of facts and concepts) and kills hippocampal neurons that does not let the brain access old memories and skews perception and storage of new memories. (source)

Nutritional biochemist Shawn Talbott’s research shows that there is 50 per cent more cortisol in the blood stream if an individual has six hours’ sleep instead of the recommended eight hours. It is also important for you to maintain a nutrition-rich diet, drink plenty of water and eat three meals a day; this will keep the cortisol hormone at a natural level and allow you to concentrate fully on the task at hand. (Source)

Scores of stress management tricks have been introduced but none of them have been successfully able to handle such stress and anxiety. The human body has a fixed mechanism to react against any abnormal situation by secreting hormones and therefore, controlling these hormones is not possible until we reach the golden age of ultra advance medical innovations.

Exams can be replaced by other methodologies regarding which I will come up with another article soon describing how and where changes can be brought for better performance of our students and a value-based-productive and just system which will have lesser flaws than the system of examinations and grades.

"Gender Budgeting" - Women's Day Special

While going through "The Economist" (Feb 25th- March 3rd) I read a wonderful article related to "Gender Budgeting". The article titled, "Making Women Count", tried to link the promises of governments in regards to commitment towards the gender issues with finance of the country for better results.

A lot of promises are made during the time of elections for ensuring gender equality but the results are ultimately slack and disappointing. Promises, good words and laws alone can not ensure gender equality and fair participation of  half of the population of a country, like India, in the economic activities and labor force. Therefore Gender budgeting has been suggested as a tool of realizing the promises.

Gender budgeting is nothing but separate financial allocations in the budget for ensuring that the benefits of the policies reach the women, for example, it can be a tool to fight against issue like lower literacy rate among women, domestic violence, gap in the salary of men and women, access to job market and other institutions. If unfixed, they affect the economy of a country adversely. However, when costs and benefits are involved in the promises and policies of a government then the results can be expected to be better than otherwise.

"The Economist" notes that GB is not a new concept and has been sought by the feminist economists since 1980s. In regards to India as well, the technique of gender budgeting is not new. It has been introduced during UPA I in the financial year 2005-2006 by issuing a "Gender Budget Statement" and approving it as a regular practice since then. It has been followed by the current BJP government as well in the 2015-16 budget wherein the government has issued a separate GBS under statement 20 of the expenditure statement.

However this budgeting has not been implemented by all the state governments of India. Many ministries are coming forward for implementation of this policy but still there is a long way to go.

Some of the examples of gender budgeting include lowering of income tax on second earners which encourage the participation of women in the labor force and ultimately boosts the revenue and consumption power of the country. Apart from that child care, sanitation facilities in schools, separate educational institutions for girls for encouraging more intake of girls, a common practice in India, are some examples counted under the technique of GB. Sweden has declared its government as a "Feminist Government". Other countries that follow the technique are Finland, Austria, Belgium, South Africa, South Korea (although the salary gap between men and women in 2015 was highest in South Korea among the OECD countries), Rwanda, Uganda etc. IMF and World bank have backed this technique and are encouraging more countries to follow it.

The demand of the day is that all the state governments in India and other ministries should formulate policies to implement this technique for gender justice, fairer and equal participation of women in labor force and day to day life.

Harvard Doesn't Matter, Saraswati Shishu Mandir Does.

It doesn't matter what you speak but how much you speak. Knowing well that this strategy works quite effectively in India, a prattling PM Modi gave another shot of Tequila to the woozy population of India. He said "Harvard doesn't matter, Hard work does". It was not just a jibe on nobel laureate Amartya Sen who has been associated with Harvard but targeted all the leaders of opposition who have a degree from foreign universities and had criticized the demonetization. Harvard became the poor guy.

This binary could only amuse those who do not understand the meaning of higher education, who has not understood the implications of research. Any thing that happens, happens. This is not just a populist statement made for a political purpose but an ideology which is in principle, "anti-rational". An ideology that demeans quality education, an ideology that trivializes higher education, an ideology of anti-intellectualism. An ideology of RSS that vilifies anything foreign. Ask them about Saraswati Shishu Mandir, they will uphold it in pride with a chest not less than 56" wide.

Connect the dots and you will find what has BJP government done, by the virtue of their anti-education ideology, to an already crippled education system of India. Soon after coming to power they cut the education budget of India. The scholarships earlier being given to the research students for pursuing M Phil and PhD were cut down. A lady with unknown number of forged degrees was made the Human Resource Development Minister of India. All this exposes the idea of Modi led NDA government towards education.

From a cart puller to a marketing guy, from a labor to an engineer from a student to a teacher and from a donkey to a Prime Minister every one works hard. What matters is not the hard work but the quality of work. Hope PM will understand this before the national elections of 2019.

And indeed the hard work did not pay off, the GDP went down as foretold by the "Harvardians" which was later confirmed by SBI report, the markets collapsed and it is going to take at least 6-9 months for the economy to come back on track. Therefore, Harvard matters.

For now I give him 25/100 for his partially correct statement. Yes, hard work matters but Harvard matters too and what matters the most is the quality of work.

Demonetisation: A Socio-Economic Tragedy

Almost 96%- 97% of the cash in denomination of ₹ 500/ 1000 currency notes have been deposited back to the banks. A fraction of the remaining 3% will come back gradually till March 31st which might have been kept by NRIs. This makes the plan of demonetisation and the frenzy or black money, a hoax or precisely a a socio-economic tragedy that took the lives of more than 100 people, slumped down the business in the informal sector that contributes to 80% of India's GDP, daily wages workers, rikshaw pullers, auto-rikshaw drivers, road side vendors, greengrocers, farmers, small shopkeepers and many were hurt for a long time. The GDP has been estimated to go down by 0.3-0.5%.
A new business of money laundering has surfaced in the country. The priests of the temples are involved in such business. The moral hazard of bankers are on peak. Every day people with thick bundles of new currency notes are caught and 2 out of every 3 of them are some how related to BJP.

The foreign tourists were not given any special immunity against demonetisation (Indian culture should be hailed for everything except for "Atithi Devo Bhava", isn't it?)

Those who say that it is going to be very effective in long run are least aware of the fact that there is no such positive long run effect of demonetisation. Thanks to the advisory and planning committee of demonetisation, whose chief, an IAS officer by profession is PhD in Yoga.

The counterfeit currency business will be even more stronger in long run because the new notes are exceptionally dull in the security features, apart from this there is no consistency in the patterns of the new notes. Today, I read somewhere that the image of Gandhi was missing on the new notes of ₹ 2000. Already many instances of counterfeit currency notes are in highlights.

The transaction of black money will be facilitated with much more ease in future with the help of bigger notes. Trust of people in the banking system has got uprooted. NIFTY and sensex have slumped down. People will no longer store their money in banks or in the form of INR, they will find it safe to store the money in the form of USD, Euro or GBP, real state, bullion forms and so on.

This was a one time stunt to flush out black money but remorse, not more than the value of 2-3% have come to the pocket of government. There is no long term benefit involved in this process. I am not covering the details of the cost involved in this process of demonetisation which includes advertising, information, collecting back the old notes, printing new notes, dispatching them all across India, programming and fixing the ATM machines for new currency notes etc.

The only long term effect that it will have is the repercussions of cash and liquidity crunch. Those who start buying small items from big marts using plastic money will not go to vendors due to the cash crunch initially for a few months and then will continue this habit even after the required amount of cash is restored. This is human nature, once you learn something (in this case say buying vegetables from marts) after that you show resistance in unlearning the same. you will keep on going to the mart and the vendors will be jobless.

The stories of terrorism and insurgencies coming to an end were nothing but a Joke and lie for the suffocating public to breath the gas of nationalism. There might have been a momentary break to these things but it does not count because a break of 1 month in the history of bleeding India does not matter. It is not permanent. It will return back to its original state in a couple of weeks.

So, this is called the state of complete chaos. However, the most significant thing it has done is to make Modi less popular among the groups of his die hard supporters and fans.

किसी के नाम एक खुला ख़त (डिजिटल चिट्ठी)..!!

किसी के नाम एक खुला ख़त (डिजिटल चिट्ठी)..!!

प्यारे बाबू जग्गुआ,

मैंने सुना कि तूने अंबेडकर और भगत सिंह को जेल में बंद कर दिया? चल कोई नहीं, इससे ज्यादा तुझ से क्या उम्मीद रखी जा सकती है.. अंग्रेजों ने भगत सिंह को तो फांसी पर लटका ही दिया था. तुझे क्या मची थी जो तूने उन्हें फिर से जिंदा किया और जेल में बंद कर दिया? और अंबेडकर से तेरी क्या दुश्मनी हो सकती है? खैर जो भी हो..

At JNU Ad-block (Freedom square) (pic by Samim Asgor Ali, JNU)

पता है जग्गुआ जब मैं तेरी बड़ी-बड़ी आंखों के अंदर नाचती काली पुतलियों से झांक कर तेरे दिल में देखता हूं तो मुझे एक बच्चा नजर आता है जो काफी डरा और सहमा हुआ है और वही कर रहा है जो उसे सिखाया गया है, वह बच्चा ना एक इंच इधर देखेगा ना एक इंच उधर, कोई शरारत नहीं गजब का आज्ञाकारी, क्रिएटिविटी घोल कर रखी थी गिलास में लेकिन उसने उसे पैर से मार कर गिराने की बात तो दूर छुआ तक नहीं, क्योंकि उसे सिखाया गया था कि अपने मन से कुछ ना करना, इधर उधर जाना, हाथ पैर मारना, कुछ नया सोचना, दिमाग लगाना इत्यादि पाप है और नदी किनारे सांप है..

At JNU, Freedom Square (pic by Samim Asgor Ali, JNU)

और उस बच्चे ने कभी कुछ सोचा ही नहीं, उस बच्चे ने कभी दिमाग लगाया ही नहीं, वह तो उसी एक फार्मूला पर ही चलता रहा जो उसके समाज ने उसे दे दिया था, उसे सिखाया गया था कि सवाल मत करना और उसने सवाल नहीं किया. मुझे नज़र आता है कि यही बच्चा अब बड़ा हो गया है, इसकी बढ़ती हुई उम्र और पकते हुए बालों के साथ-साथ इसके "सवाल ना करने वाले" संस्कार भी परिपक्व होते गए. यह बड़े जगह पर गया, देश-विदेश घुमा, इसने कई तकनीक सीखी यह तकनीकी के क्षेत्र का मास्टर बन गया. यह समझ गया कि तकनीकी विश्वविद्यालय में पढ़ाए जाने वाले फॉर्मूला की तरह ही यह समाज भी बिल्कुल एक सटीक और सीधे फार्मूले पर चलता है, उसने सामाजिक घाल-मेल पर कभी ध्यान ही नहीं दिया, गलती उस बच्चे की नहीं थी, गलती फिर भी समाज की ही थी लेकिन जब वह बड़ा भी हो गया तब भी इस गलती को न समझ सका और जिम्मेदारी समझ कर उसे ढ़ोता रहा. जग्गुआ तू वही अड़ियल बच्चा है. तूने न जिंदगी को समझा ना जिंदगी को जी पाया, काश मैं तेरा बचपन लौटा पाता क्योंकि तेरे बचपन ने तेरी जवानी खराब कर दी और उसने तेरी पूरी जिंदगानी को खराब कर दी. बड़ी दुविधा है.

तेरा अड़ियल मन चाहता है कि सारे बच्चे और जवान तेरी तरह ही हो जाए. ना तू खुश है ना तू दूसरों को खुश देखना चाहता है जग्गुआ, तुझे बस "लगता" है कि तू खुश है लेकिन तू खुश नहीं है. मैं चाहता हूं कि तू जहां है वहां तेरी नींद खुले, क्योंकि जहां तू है वहां सब की नींद खुलती है, जहां तू है वहां शुरू में सब को दर्द होता है जब उनके हर रूढ़िवादी और ब्राह्मणवादी संस्कारों को चैलेंज किया जाता है.

जहां तू है वह एक संस्थान नहीं, ना ही वो कोई स्थान है जहां तू है वह एक आईडिया है, एक सोच है, वह कल के समाज को बनाने की एक दिशा है, तेरे तकनीकी भाषा में मैं बोलूं तो वह एक ब्लूप्रिंट है समाज का, वह तुझसे और आज से 100-200 साल तो आगे ही है. वैसे मन की बात करूं तो तू जहां था पहले वह भी एक आइडिया था लेकिन तेरे जैसे कुछ लोगों ने उसे आईआईटी दिल्ली भर बना कर छोड़ा.. काहे.. मन की बात खाली वही करेंगे का?

Picture from the wall of Pankhuri Zaheer, JNU

वैसे हाँ, ये आइडियाज़ किसी रूप, रंग, समय, जाती, उम्र, जिंदगी और मौत से परे हैं, और जो जिंदगी और मौत से परे है उसी को तेरे पूर्वजों ने शिव कहा था लेकिन तूने क्या किया उसे एक नाम देकर, उसके गले में सांप लटका कर उसे कागज़ और पत्थरों में कैद करके रख दिया. तू भगत सिंह और अंबेडकर के साथ भी यही करना चाहता है, लेकिन तू फिर भूल रहा है जग्गुआ कि भगत सिंह और अंबेडकर एक सोच है, जेएनयू भी एक सोच है इसमें जेल मत बना, और ना ही इसे जेल में कैद करने की कोशिश कर, तू इसमें सफल नहीं हो पाएगा, बात मान लें. अपनी छीछालेदर मत करा, इंदिरा और मोदी तो बचें नहीं तू भी आजमा ले अपना कौशल.

तेरे गमलों और जुमलों से कुछ नहीं होने वाला. तेरे सजाए गए गमलों में पौधे नहीं क्रांति उगेगी. जिन हवाओं में तू आजकल सांस लेता है उन हवाओं में भी क्रांति है. इन हवाओं ने बहुतों की धमनियों से ज़हर निकालने का काम किया है, इन हवाओं ने मेरे भी धमनियों को शुद्ध किया था, जब मैं जेएनयू आया था तो मैं भी तेरी तरह का हीं एक बच्चा था, मेरे समाज ने जो मुझे सिखाया था मैं उसे त्यागने को तैयार नहीं था और देख आज मैं तुझे ज्ञान दे रहा हूं.

Ad block, JNU (picture by Samim Asgor Ali, JNU)

मैं चाहता हूं कि तू अपने कार्यकाल को सिर्फ एक कार्यकाल नहीं बल्कि छात्र-जीवन समझे और जब यहां से निकले तो तू तकनीक-विद् तो है ही, एक अच्छा समाजिक जानवर भी बन कर निकले. जानवर तो तू पहले से है, बस उसके पहले सामाजिक भर लगाना है.. नॉट वेरी डिफिकल्ट फॉर यू..

अभी तो मैं तुझे प्यार से जग्गुआ कह के पूकार रहा हूं लेकिन मैं चाहता हूं कि उस वक्त जब तू पास होकर निकले तो मैं तुझे इज्जत से जगदीश सर या प्रोफेसर जगदीश बोल कर पुकारूँ.

आशा करता हूं कि तू जब तक है जेएनयू तुझे खूब पुचकारेगा और खूब सुधारेगा. मुझे पता है कि इंडिया कितना भी डिजिटल हो जाए, जियो की कृपा से 4जी - 8जी में बदल जाए लेकिन तू यह फेसबुकिया-चिट्ठी कभी नहीं पढ़ेगा, लेकिन हाँ, अगर पढ़ेगा तो मित्र, अपने ईगो पे मत ले लेना, कुछ सोचना, कुछ दिमाग लगाना जो तूने आज तक कभी नहीं किया है, तेरे लिए कठिन होगा पर फिर भी करने की कोशिश करना.

तेरा कभी न हो सकने वाला छात्र,
किसलय कुमार

Why Did Hillary Lose?

There is no market for values. Every election anywhere in this populist world is on the way to prove it. Trump has almost no knowledge about many things including, economy, trade, international relations, laws, rules and regulations and so on. So it is clear that he will be dependent largely on his officials and senate rather than his personal wisdom and experience. OK let us not be so reactionary and wait and watch.

Now let us focus upon the reason behind his victory which are as follows:

1. The population of US was frustrated with the democrat government that could not satisfy a large section of the society. They were more outward looking and the US population considered Hillary as the part of same establishment. In short people were fed up of the current establishment.

2. The WikiLeaks report about Hillary and her infamous emails. Her hawkish approach towards other countries of the world. Her involvement in the "wars" that US waged on middle eastern countries like Iraq, Syria and Libya. This costed US a lot of money while US citizens were going jobless. Trump took an advantage of this.

3. Bernie sanders lost hope in between.

4. The economy of USA could not overcome the economic crisis after the collapse of Lehman brothers in 2007. This caused a great loss in jobs and it was later on complimented with global economic slowdown that still continues to persist. Multilateral Trade has slumped, Job losses can be seen on the surface today. The gap in the salary of a CEO and a clerk has drastically increased. The poor is getting poorer and rich is getting richer. This has created a frustration and wrath against the government.

5. The bigger section of the society of USA has increasingly been valueless, misogynistic, racist and economically, politically and socially frustrated. The reason is the "NEO-LIBERAL regime as a whole" which many of the Americans may not know, thanks to the wide spread mediocrity in the world and America. They may not agree with this but they must feel it and they are feeling it at present. "They also need to reconsider their education system."

PS: "Wrong" and "biased" Socio-economic political setup leads to frustration and frustration gives rise to a fascist leader not Bernie Sanders. The examples can be seen in post WW I Germany that nurtured Hitler, and at present it can be seen in countries like Philippines, Turkey and up to some extent in India (sorry if you mind but it is the fact, Indians were frustrated with congress government.)

Pros and Cons of Scrapping Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 Currency Notes

A good move. A big blow to Fake currency. We have been listening about fake currency notes of Rs. 500 right from our childhood, no one easily trusted Rs. 1000 bills. This step will suddenly curb down the fake currency market and terrorism. Much of the black money and fake currency that was used to fund terrorism would be halted since the validity of these two big currency notes has come to an end.

A rational approach would be taking into account the ways by which it will curb the black money and what are the loopholes in doing so. The pan account for those who deposit more than Rs. 50,000. Would be required. This may help the income tax department to track people and collect more taxes but no way has been defined to sack black money holders if they come and deposit their money into banks.

The loopholes of the system may include the following:

1.   The black money holders may deposit the money through different channels. Through tens of different accounts of their family members, friends and other channels. The biggest channels for domestic money laundering would be the sectors that enjoy exemption from taxes. For example: charity and religion. The babas, mandirs and Masjids are not taxed. What if the black money holders give their black money (Rs. 500/ 1000 notes) as charity to these entities (that are exempted from tax) and then get the money back from them in the form of new currency notes when the new currency notes are in circulation. They can do this in return of small amount to money?

2. The agriculture sector is also exempted from tax. In 2014-15 alone more than 400,000 tax payers claimed exemption from tax for their agricultural income. The small and big farmers do not have to pay income tax over their agriculture income. Not only the farmers but big multinational corporations like Monsanto, Kaveri seed company limited, Sri Ram fertilizers, Agricultural units of Aditya Birla group are also exempted from income tax. Not only these but the rich Farmers of states like Punjab, Haryana etc. who earn in crores are also exempted from taxes. The black money holders can deposit the money with the help of these channels as well.

3. There can always be transactions of 500/ 1000 notes for the first 50 days in sectors like jewelry business where the small black money holders can buy gold for their black money. This is because the jewelers can deposit the money in the banks and say that it is the money that they received 2 months back. This can be done safely at a nominal rate.

There can be other channels as well of which I am unable to think now.

Does the government have ways to check these channels as well?

Other factors:

It may be painful for Mamta bannerji, because in states having corrupt governance it would be a tough time for many politicians who have huge amount of black money in cash. But I was wondering when I saw Baba Ramdev appreciating the news. He was the one who was totally against the big notes/ bills during the tenure of UPA II. 

Other than this RBI officials will have to think that those who earn less than 2000 per month and other Khudra market will require more than enough bills of Rs. 50 and 100 because 2000 is too big to handle. 

"So RBI will end up spending more for printing more currency notes of Rs. 100, 50 and 500 and 2000. According to a report more than 85% of the money was circulated in the form of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 currency notes. So it will cost too much for the exchequer to print the new and scrap the old currency notes.

[If all this additional money (a total of Rs.6.666 trillion) has to be printed in Rs. 100 currency notes it would cost RBI about Rs.11,900 crore, which is more than a four-fold increase. This is without taking into consideration the increased costs of operating ATMs (since they would need to be refilled more often), and of handling money in general.

In other words, there is a significant cost to stopping issuance of Rs.1,000 and Rs.500 notes, as advocated by Ranade, and these costs should be weighed against what misuse of high-value notes costs the economy, before we make a decision. (Source: http://www.livemint.com/Politics/fhNlITluEPxCOHef3GSA6H/Scrapping-Rs500-Rs1000-notes-a-costly-idea.html)]

Now with new currency notes of Rs. 2000, wouldn’t it be more easy for black money transaction in future?

New note of Rs. 500

A crack down on black Money?

Frankly My dear, I don't care..!! :P

but lets have a look on the "challenges"
that may arise after the bills of Rs. 500/ 1000 are invalid after 8th of November.

1. The consumption will go down. All the money under table and hidden in mattresses and bags are not Black money. Even if they are black only 40% of them are black money. Those who posses huge amount of money in the form of big bills will fear going to banks for depositing it. Thus even the white money may be lost which will cause consumption to go down and thus the GDP will go down,

2. Jewelers and unorganized Real estate businessmen who have been doing transaction in cash will have problems in transaction for the next 50 days. This may cause the price to go down initially. Although good for the consumers.

3. The daily wage workers may starve if they have problems getting the bills of Rs. 100/50 as their will be huge demand for small bills. for one or two days.

4. People will have problems for sure those who do not have bills of Rs. 50/100 but they can still do "WHITE TRANSACTION" as far as they can persuade the "foolish-reluctant-seller" out there by enlightening them by saying that they can still deposit the money or get an exchange from banks and Post offices. When business will go down they will themselves understand the concept and will start accepting these bills. There may be some foxes who know this concept and may charge extra money initially for transaction of 500/1000 bills.

5. RBI officials will have to think that those who earn less than 2000 per month and other Khudra market will require more than enough bills of Rs. 50 and 100 because 2000 is too big to handle.
"So RBI will end up spending more for printing more bills of 100 and 50". बहुत ज़्यादा 100/50 के नोट चाहिए होंगे अब..

6. It is to be pondered upon that it is going to be a hard time for them who have saved their hard earned money in cash, especially the old people and housewives and their amount is 'little big".

7. The coaching institute owners who do not pay taxes and earn crores of Rupees like those in Patna, varanasi, Kota etc. will burst in tears today.

I am still not sure what action they are going to take against those who deposit their black money in banks. Is the government really going to sack them or just leave them after the money comes in the market (banks). Are they later going to be caught? or not?  and if yes what will be the mechanism of sacking them. Would it be easy for the concerned departments to track everyone since huge money will be deposited in near future.

Will come up with next post soon pointing out more of loopholes and more of pros and cons of this move. Keep following :P


PS: और हाँ अब 2000 के नोट गिरइलऽऽ त गईलऽऽ बेटा..!!

Survey Report Regarding Waste Management in India

Hello friends,

A few days back our team conducted a survey regarding “Waste Management in India” where we proposed a method of separation of waste (into three categories i.e. recyclable, non-recyclable and food waste) before throwing it out of house or commercial outlets. This method was proposed in order to make it more convenient for recycling the waste. The survey results were quite interesting and I would strongly recommend you to read the report compiled by our team.

We would like to thank everyone who participated in the survey. Based on this survey, we presented our idea in a contest jointly organized by “Smile-Gate and Yonsei University KLI”. Our presentation won the Popularity Award as it was liked by most of the audience. We were also able to bag one more award for best “Korean Language Skill”.

Now we have decided to take a step ahead in this direction and not limit this idea just to bag some medals in a competition. We want to take this idea to the Ministry of Urban Development of India. Our motive will be to bind this Waste Separation Practice with the “Swachh Bharat Mission” of Indian government. Therefore, we will run an online petition in a couple of days after proposing this plan to the ministry of urban development. We will be proposing some policies and examples for better implementation of this program. I will look forward to have your cooperation for the development and betterment of India. Our target would be to get the petition signed by more than 50 thousand people from all across India.

Now let us have a look at the survey results in the report below.

We began our survey by asking our participants to rate the level of cleanliness in India on a scale of 5, where 5 is excellent.

54.4% of the people gave a rating of 2 out of 5 and 31.1% of the people gave a rating of 3 out of 5. This dissatisfaction is not surprising but it obviously puts forth a strong signal that it is high time to do something substantial in this direction.

We were overwhelmed to see the suggestions from people. After carefully reading each of the suggestions and other parts of the survey, our team summarized the results in 3 key words as follows:

1. Policies: 57.3% of the participants believe that this waste separation technique can be put into practice if government implements proper policies. The point was clear that we lack proper policies for implementation of any such campaign. Suggestions included installation of dustbins for different categories of waste, distribution of free polythene bags for separating waste, encouraging and binding people through a method of fine and reward, increasing the budget, 23% of people were in favor of introducing new tax or cess for this purpose, as we already know that Swachh Bharat cess of 0.5% has already been implemented on every taxable service under “Swachh Bharat campaign” or Clean India Campaign. This is expected to bring substantial change in the near future.

2. Awareness drive: Majority of our population is not aware of the types of waste i.e. recyclable and non-recyclable.

77.7% of the participants also think that for such an initiative we need to adopt an extensive awareness drive program. Advertisements through electronic and print media would play a great role in spreading awareness. Visuals like pamphlets, banners and stickers can be helpful to educate those who do not have access to media and television. Some remarkable suggestions included special budget for advertisements, and training program for the “Safai Karmcharis” (Sanitation workers).

3. Contribution at individual level: Many of the participants in our survey believe that any remarkable change cannot be brought into existence until there is a sense of individual contribution, irrespective of whatever the government does. After discussion over this point, our team came to the conclusion that individual contribution can be ensured only when there are proper policies and well-designed system in existence that could bind people to follow the rules and regulations.

We also asked people about their opinion regarding Swachh Bharat Mission and its impact on the cleanliness of Country. 61.2% of the participants "agreed to some extent" that it can bring "some changes". However 19.4% were not able to decide its implications and only 12.6% of the people strongly agreed that Swachh Bharat Mission can indeed bring substantial changes. This lack of confidence in this "mega-budget mission", according to us, is probably due to lack of policies that could bind people at individual level to follow cleanliness and hygienic practices.

The last question we asked was how much time will it take for people to be accustomed with the waste separation practice. We got a mixed response to this question. However, we summed up the responses and found that 48.6% of the people think that it can be achieved in less than 3 years. To our surprise, there were 1.9% of the people who think that it is not possible and 17.5% believe that it will take more than 5 years to take real shape.

Our team concludes that our young population is already charged enough to follow campaigns like Swachh Bharat Mission, now they just need to be guided in a correct direction and assigned proper task in order to ensure contribution at individual level, rather than giving them vague message like “keep the city clean”.

We are of the opinion that the waste separation practice can easily be implemented within a time period of 2 years with the help of proper policies. At first it can be started at those 20 cities which are proposed to be developed as smart cities in the first round by Indian government and then it can be gradually implemented in other cities and villages. We will run an online petition with a detailed plan very shortly.

Thank you once again. 

“POSCO Field Trip- A Blend of Nature and Human Innovation”

Nature has a unique music and it is home to everyone. Nature can make the most delicious cocktail out of anything you give to it. It is an absolute solvent that can dissolve anything from something as material as “you” to something as immaterial as “your soul”. In my case there is only one place where I feel more relaxed than my bed. Make me sit in the lap of nature amidst the music that it plays and you will find me culminating to the contentment. My soul, body and nature would blend perfectly with each other creating a music of its own.

The feeling was ineffable amidst the soothing breezes, chirping birds, rustling leaves, glittering lake, colorful hills, smiling people and an endless view of the most effortless existence. Words would fall short. I wish, some day, prominent linguistics from all across the world would sit together at a similar place to coin a word which could express the most intrinsic feelings of human soul.

It was something more than just a field trip. Before going to the Gwangyang city and the southern bay area, I had imagined a place as cruel as an industrial area. I had imagined a polluted, dry, ruthless and a withered area which would cunningly hide the nuisance and injustice it has done to the nature. But I was proved wrong. I was amazed by the innovation, management and state-of-the-art technology of POSCO Steel plant. It was largely automated in order to protect the workers from such a high temperature where Iron is melted and cooled. The level of safety for the workers in the plant could be clearly seen by their organized and carefully designed operational area. It has some of the world’s biggest furnaces and the production process was quite green and innovative. They have planted as many as 6 million trees inside the 24 KM sq. area and produce their own electricity. I was also surprised to learn about their byproduct management skills. They have separate allied factories in the same area where they utilize their byproducts. They run one of the best schools of Korea in their city for the children of their workers and have a cinema hall inside their premises. Their residential area can house around 14,000 people. They have built an extremely wonderful bridge. Other than this they have built their own port and they don’t use the government port.

POSCO is one of the few companies in the world which has a separate organization to look into the social service in the field of education. This organization is called “T.J Park Foundation”. The foundation works pan Asia and Africa and is committed towards the creation and excellence of the global leaders. In the world where education has largely been commoditized despite of the fact that there are still more than 100 million children who do not have access to education and those who have access to higher education still accounts for the lower value of double digits, there exists some entities like POSCO that understands the value of education and helps the students financially to achieve their dream. If the duo of Asia and Africa has to develop then it has to expand the opportunities for higher education. POSCO has significantly contributed towards this crucial requirement.

In our field trip sponsored by the POSCO T.J Park foundation, we learned not only about the modus operandi of POSCO but we also got the chance to visit Korean film set and Suncheon wetland area which was again a beautifully designed innovative tourist place. It was really a soothing experience to visit places out of the hustle and bustle of city life and find some time to be lost in the beauty of nature simultaneously enjoying its perfect co-existence with human innovation.

However, all of this could not have been possible without the able management of the most amazing and beautiful lady, “Ms. June Kim”, under whose supervision we had such a wonderful, comfortable and cozy trip. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to her and her team and to all the students who went for the field trip and would wish them all the very best for future.

“This article is dedicated to Ms. June Kim”

Kislay Kumar

Sogang University

बजट के बाहर जाता उच्च शिक्षा

जेटली साहब का बजट भाषण कल रात मैंने सुना. करीब 1 घंटे 45 मिनट के भाषण में उन्होंने करीब 6 मिनट, अपने बजट के चौथे स्तंभ, शिक्षा तथा इससे संबंधित क्षेत्रों को दिया. उन के भाषण में मैंने यह कहीं नहीं सुना कि कुल शिक्षा बजट कितना है. अगर आपने सुना हो तो कृपया मुझे बता दें और अगर आपने भी नहीं सुना हो तो बताएं कि इसके कारण क्या क्या हो सकते हैं. उसके पहले कुछ जानकारियां दे देता हूं. संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिका शिक्षा पर अपने सकल घरेलू उत्पाद (GDP) का कुल 5.5% तथा चीन 4% खर्च करता है. गौरतलब है कि इनका सकल घरेलू उत्पाद भारत से बहुत ज्यादा बङा है. यूनाइटेड किंगडम 5.5% तथा क्यूबा 14% केवल शिक्षा पर खर्च करते हैं तथा जर्मनी में उच्च शिक्षा मुफ्त है.

खैर हटाइए अब मुद्दे पर आते हैं.

•  सर्व शिक्षा अभियान के तहत अगले 2 सालों में 62 नए नवोदय विद्यालय खोलने का प्रस्ताव काबिल-ए-तारीफ है.
• जेटली जी ने कहा कि 10 सरकारी तथा 10 गैर सरकारी शिक्षण संस्थानों को विश्व स्तर के संस्थान बनाने के लिए सरकार कुछ नियामक प्रदान करेगी जिससे देश के आम नौजवानों को "क्वालिटि एजुकेशन" मुहय्या कराई जा सकेगी. इससे एक बात तो तय है कि प्राइवेट संस्थानों को "शिक्षण के बाजार" में उतारने की पूरी कोशिश की जा रही है. आपको ज्ञात हो कि हमारे देश में पहले से ही 94.57% शिक्षा का निजीकरण हो चुका है. इसके बावजूद परिणाम कुछ खास अच्छे नहीं आए. आप बखूबी जानते हैं की प्राइवेट संस्थानों में बच्चों को पढ़ाना कितना महंगा है. एक छोटे से कॉलेज से बच्चों को इंजीनियरिंग पढ़ाने में लगभग 6-8 लाख रुपए खर्च किए जाते हैं. और ये तो विश्व स्तर के संस्थान बनेंगे तथा जो "आम नौजवान" इसका फायदा उठा सकेंगे वह जाहिर तौर पर हमारे जैसे "आम" नहीं होंगे. प्राइवेट संस्थानों की फीस कितनी होगी, यह प्राइवेट संस्थान कौन होंगे, ये किन लोगों से जुड़े होंगे ( कॉर्पोरेट?), किस आधार पर इनका चुनाव किया जाएगा? और क्या ये 20 संस्थान काफी होंगे? इन सब मुद्दों पर पर सवाल उठाना जरूरी है. 
•  Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA), जिसके गठन की बात जेटली जी ने की, उसके लिए एक हजार करोड़ रुपए आवंटित किए गए हैं. HEFA "बाज़ार" से फंड उठाकर उसे अनुदान तथा कॉरपोरेट सामाजिक दायित्व (CSR) के साथ मिला कर उच्च शिक्षा के लिए फंड जुटाएगी. इस फंड का इस्तेमाल इंफ्रास्ट्रक्चर तथा अन्य व्यवस्थाओं के लिए होगा. क्या HEFA इतने फंड जुटा पाएगा की भारत के उच्च शिक्षा तथा शोध की सभी जरूरतें पूरी हो सके? HEFA का भविष्य क्या होगा? क्या आने वाले दिनों में उच्च शिक्षा को सरकार HEFA के भरोसे छोड़ने वाली है? क्या विभिन्न फेलोशिप का ठीका भी HEFA को दे दिया जाएगा? अभी इन बातों का सिर्फ अंदाजा लगाया जा सकता है क्योंकि सरकार ने अभी इसका खाका तैयार नहीं किया है.
• नॉन-नेट फेलोशिप का क्या होगा? सरकार ने उच्च शिक्षा के छेत्र में जो बजट की कटौती पिछले साल की थी, क्या उसकी भरपाई हुई? उच्च शिक्षा से इस सब्सिडी (फेलोशिप) को हटाना क्या "WTO प्लस" (शायद Trade in Services Agreement) की तरफ सरकार के रुझान को दिखाता है? अगर ऐसा हुआ तो उच्च शिक्षा से आम नौजवान तो बहुत दूर हो जाएंगे. शोध उनके बस की बात नहीं होगी.
• कौशल विकास (skill development) के लिए प्रधानमंत्री कौशल विकास योजना के तहत 1700 करोड़ का बजट आवंटन स्वागत योग्य कदम है.  परंतु उच्च शिक्षा के प्रति सौतेला व्यवहार क्यों? क्या हम भारत को उच्च शिक्षा तथा शोध से दूर करके सिर्फ ड्राईवर, प्लंबर, और कुक का देश बनाएंगे और मेक इन इंडिया जैसे बिना सिर-पैर के सपनों के लिए स्किल्ड लेबर का देश?
•  उद्यमी बनने के इच्छुक छात्रों के लिए ऑनलाइन शिक्षा (Mass Open Online Courses)  से छात्रों का कुछ खास भला होने वाला नहीं है. फिर भी ठीक है, हमारे देश में ऐसी चीजे होनी चाहिए.
•  शिक्षण से जुड़े ज्यादातर क्षेत्रों को अनियोजित बजट के अंतर्गत रखा गया है. 

अंत में बस यही कहना चाहूंगा कि ऐसा लगता है जैसे उच्च शिक्षा हमारे बजट से बाहर की चीज है.

देशभक्ति की आड़ में चलता फायदे-खोरी का धंधा

कल रवीश कुमार जी का प्राइम टाइम देखे बिना मैं सो गया. सो गया क्योंकि बहुत थका हुआ था, थका हुआ था क्योंकि पिछले 3 दिन से ठीक से नहीं सोया था, नींद इसलिए नहीं आती थी क्योंकि मेरे अपने दोस्त, कुछ परिवार वाले, और देश भक्त भेड़ियों की भीड़ मुझे रोज देश द्रोही गद्दार और आतंकवादियों का समर्थक बोलती है. मेरी गलती महज़ इतनी है कि मैंने जेएनयू से पढ़ाई की है.
जेएनयू वाले क्यों लड़ रहे हैं किस चीज के लिए लड़ रहे हैं, किससे लड़ रहे हैं- भीड़ को अभी तक यह बात समझ में नहीं आई है. दुर्भाग्य इस बात का है कि अगर समझाओ तो भी ये समझने को तैयार नहीं होते. जिन्हें राष्ट्र का मतलब पता नहीं है वह हमें राष्ट्र विरोधी बताते हैं. इनमें ज्यादातर वह है जो हिंदू राष्ट्र के निर्माण की बात करते हैं और उनके हिसाब से राष्ट्र की परिभाषा वो और उनके "हिंदू-राष्ट्रवादी" प्रधानमंत्री ही तय करेंगे. जो इसे नहीं मानेगा वह राष्ट्रद्रोही है. चलिए ठीक है मैं राष्ट्रद्रोही हूं लेकिन देशद्रोही नहीं.
जिन 10 लोगों ने भारत की बर्बादी के नारे लगाएं मैं उन से बिल्कुल सहमत नहीं हूं, वह 10 लोग जिंहोने मुंह छुपा कर भारत की बर्बादी के नारे लगाए हैं वो जेएनयू नहीं है. जेएनयू के शिक्षक और सारे के सारे छात्र संगठन एक स्वर में इसका विरोध कर चुके हैं. लेकिन यह बात "देशभक्तों" के समझ नहीं आती. उनका दिमाग अब तक इस बात को समझ ही नहीं पाया है कि जेएनयू में विरोध किस चीज के लिए हो रहा है. मैं हैरान हूं ऐसे राष्ट्र से जो उन दस देश विरोधी नारों से हिल गया. मैं हैरान हूं ऐसे राजनेताओं से जिन्होंने हनुमंतप्पा के शहादत को भी अपने राजनैतिक स्वार्थों का शिकार बनाया. यह वही राजनेता है जिन्होंने One Rank One Pension के लिए संघर्ष कर रहे पूर्व सैनिकों की एक नहीं सुनी. उनके कपड़े फाड़ कर उनकी मांग को नंगा घोषित कर दिया. लेकिन भीड़ के पास इतना दिमाग कहा कि वह ऐसी चीजों पर चिंतन कर सके.
मैं ऊब चुका हूं खुद को साबित करते-करते. अर्णब गोस्वामी, सुधीर चौधरी, दीपक चौरसिया जैसे पीत पत्रकारिता के दलालों ने इस भीड़ को यह बताया कि कंहैया नारे लगा रहा था, उन्होंने भीड़ को यह जताया कि उमर खालिद ( जो नाम से मुसलमान प्रतीत होता है) एक आतंकवादी है. उन्होंने यह नहीं बताया कि वह एक नास्तिक है, उन्होंने मनगढ़ंत IB की रिपोर्ट बनाई और कहा कि इसके संबंध "जैश-ए-मोहम्मद" नामक आतंकवादी संगठन से है और भीड़ बौखला गई. कुछ लोगों ने तो इसे सरगना वरगना जैसे अंट-शंट शब्दों से कलंकित किया और मुझे पता है की वे शर्मिंदा नहीं है. अब जब यह सारी बातें और वीडियो झूठ साबित हो चुकी हैं तो भी इनकी इनकी फैलाई हुई गंध हवा में अभी मिलि हुई है. जिन लोगों ने भारत विरोधी नारे लगाए उन्हें पकड़ने में पुलिस की असमर्थता इस बात का सबूत है कि सरकार उंहें पकड़ना नहीं चाहती बल्कि कुछ और करना चाहती है. और मैं अभी इस मूड में नहीं हूं कि आप को समझाऊँ सरकार क्या करना चाहती है. आप बस इतना समझ लीजिए की सरकार जो करना चाहती है उसी के खिलाफ मेरा जेएनयू आज खड़ा है.
जिन राष्ट्र प्रेमियों के मन को दुख पहुंचा है उन से अनुरोध है कि व्यर्थ मुझे गालियां ना दें. थोड़ी पढ़ाई लिखाई करें, चिंतन मनन करें, फिर हम से बात करें.

हां मैं यह कहना चाह रहा था कि आज जब रवीश कुमार के प्राइम टाइम का एपिसोड देखा जिसमें वह मुझे अंधेरे में ले गए, तो उस अंधेरे में दो चीजें बहुत साफ नजर आई. कुछ अज्ञानी देशभक्त, और देशभक्ति की आड़ में चलता एक बहुत बड़ा और गंदा फायदे-खोरी का धंधा. लगा जैसे अब देश बिक चुका है. दिल को बहुत दुख पहुंचा, इसी बीच जेएनयू छात्र संघ के पूर्व अध्यक्ष अकबर चौधरी जी का whatsapp मैसेज मेरे पास आया जिसमें उन्होंने जेएनयू में हो रहे आज के संघर्षों की जानकारी दी. और मैं अपनी आंखों को रोक न सका. लगा जैसे जिस जेएनयू ने मुझे सोचने समझने की शक्ति और चेतना दी है उस के दमन के खिलाफ कुछ करने में मैं असमर्थ हूं. रविश जी की आवाज़, अकबर चौधरी जी का मैसेज, और मेरे बहते हुए आंसू इस देश के बहुत सारे लोगों को अभी समझ में नहीं आए लेकिन आने वाले कुछ दिनों में शायद समझ में आ जाएंगे. मैं आशा करता हूं कि मोदी का हिंदुस्तान हिटलर का जर्मनी नहीं बनेगा.

Saffronization of the Laboratory of Democracy..!

"Heroism at command, senseless violence.. and all the pestilent nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, How I hate them..!" - Albert Einstein

I have got tired proving myself a patriot after the incident of February 9, 2016 in JNU. My only fault being an alumnus of JNU!

Herds of nationalists are hounding the sleep out of my nights. Every Johnny is calling me anti-nationalist on FB, twitter and other SNS. Thanks to the yellow journalism of the "nation" that has achieved a new height. The institution that was known for its academic excellence, unique debate culture, freedom of expression and social inclusivity for decades has been branded as a factory of terrorists and anti national elements within hours.

With the strongest possible words I would condemn the anti-state sloganeering by a few unidentified students during the event of February 9, and so did all the responsible students and their political organizations along with the teachers association of JNU. However the fashion of media trial and the videos that showed some unidentified students raising such slogans were enough to boil the blood in the tributaries of nationalism flowing through the brainless skeleton of "Hindu Rashtra" having their confluence at Jhandewalan.

The constitutional dictators seized the opportunity and with the same modus operandi of 2002 riots they used all possible tools of suppression like Police, judiciary, media and the notion of pseudo nationalism to suppress the progressive voices and mislead the citizens. Kanahiya Kumar, the JNUSU president is arrested randomly and slapped with fake charges of sedition despite of the fact that he was not involved in any such activities. There is no video that shows him calling such slogans. I am sure Kanahiya would be released soon but who will be accountable for the loss of his dignity, time and energy? Who will restore his state of mental, physical and psychological well being? The government, in its move to suppress the progressive student politics saffronize every institution and seemed to be waiting for the turn of JNU after FTII, IIT Madras, HCU. Within hours the campus turned into a fortress and hostels were raided. As if it nurtures terroroists. The credit goes to the VC-Sangh connection or the sheer inability of the new VC who seem to be unaware of the culture of JNU. This was something like undeclared emergency.

By the virtue of this tireless effort of the sangh giroh, today the media houses like Zee news and Times now are considered to be as two versions of Ramayana and the anchors like Sudheer Chaudhary and Arnab Goswami are Maharshi Valmiki and Tulsi respectively. They gave rise to a new debate on tax. To my amazement every deshbhakt started worrying about the subsidies that is being given to JNUites from the tax they pay. Everything in the country is running by the taxes we pay. The salaries of those legislatures who watch porn in the parliament is also given by the taxes we pay. The subsidized parliament canteen also runs by the taxes we pay. The hefty loan of thousands of crores that the cash-cows like Ambani is exempted from repaying also comes from the taxes we pay. The plot of land that has been given to the "honorable" CM of Gujrat has been maintained so far by the taxes we pay. The natural resources allocated to these cash-cows are our share of pie and we pay for their maintenance.

Common “Education is not privilege it is our right”. When highly capitalized country like Germany has made its higher education free of cost despite several criticism from the agents of free market then why can’t India give free education to its citizens? Germany claims that tuition fee is something "Socially unjust". Learn something. Amidst all the new low of BJP came when the Home minister reacted on the fake twitter handle of Hafiz Saeed and alleged that JNU protests were backed by Saeed.

JNU has been a laboratory of democracy and democratic ideas. An institution that has a tremendous contribution towards nation- building and has produced top class bureaucrats, thinkers, intellectuals, professors, academicians, scientists, political leaders, diplomats and what not. The concrete framework of bureaucracy of Modi government is constituted by JNU alumni. The chief of CBI and foreign secretary of India and the top diplomats who design the framework of diplomatic relations of India with the world are all the products of JNU. The level of intellect that these scholars’ possess and the politically aware citizens that JNU produces is just because of the open debate culture and the socially just ecosystem of JNU.

Who the government is targeting? Why the government has become so impatient? Can the slogans of those 10 students destroy the country? Why the government does not want to talk about its alliance with PDP in J&K that considers hanging of Afzal Guru a travesty of justice? What are the issues of Kashmiris? Why does the same slogan is normal in Kashmir and seditious in Delhi? The crackdown on JNU raises some serious questions on the double standard of the government?  This is an attack on democracy and JNU will give them a fitting reply.

Is it a smart selection of cities?

The Indian government has selected 20 cities for its smart cities mission on January 28^th. There has been much hue and cry regarding the selections of these cities out of the total 98 cities contesting for it. 

Smart cities are nothing but cities with good public transportation, better connectivity, good sanitation and proper waste management, inclusion of IT services for some solutions, better utilities and civic amenities. The ultra smart cities will see the inclusion of IoT (Internet of things) which is likely to revolutionize the world in near future just like the Internet did in late 1990s and early Y2K. This would enhance the urban mobility and congestion free transport, energy saving methodologies and factors related to healthcare.

The government claims to develop these cities at par European standards. For your information Barcelona, New York, London, Nice and Singapore were the 5 smartest cities of the world in 2015.

Well, Rome was not built in a day and thus the mission of building smart cities at par European standard would not be easy for the government to achieve for years to come. The fund of $7.5 billion is likely to run short for the 100 cities planned to be developed as smart cities. However in order to cope up with the shortage of funds the government plans to raise funds through public private partnership and the funding would also be done by both central and state governments. 20 out of these 100 cities will be getting the funds in the first round. 40 and 38 cities would be included over the course of next 2 years respectively.

One of the common factors among these 20 cities is that around 30% of the cities are either port cities or close to port cities and all the cities are among the already well developed cities of India in terms of education, IT services and manufacturing industries.

This initiative is closely connected to PM Modi’s Make in India campaign and it can prove to be a driving force for make in India and startup India campaign. India was ranked 54 in LPI (logistics performance index) according to the World Bank while Germany topped the list in 2014. India has lowest performance in terms of infrastructure and custom clearance among other criteria for deciding the LPI rankings. The logistics performance of India needs proper nurturing for a better growth of economy and more investments. This performance can be fueled up by smart cities project only if it gets to run smoothly.

Looking at the current economic situation of India where export is racing downwards and INR is sinking, it becomes important for the government to take some quick and smart steps in order to attract investments in short run.

Had the government chosen other less developed cities then it would have certainly required much more time to develop the basic infrastructure of those cities and then make them able to attract investments. It would be a time taking process which could lead the economy to sink further. Thus, the choice of government to build major trading cities as smart cities in the first round seems to be a wise decision.

However, if we analyze the scenario utterly by political point of view, we would find that more than 50% of the cities belong to states where the ruling party is either led by BJP/ NDA or it has good relation with BJP but on the other hand BJP ruled states like Jharkhand and Goa could not compete in the first round.

Let us have a quick look at the features of some of the cities from this list.

Bhubaneswar: It was declared the best city to do business in India by the World Bank in 2014. It has good road, rail and air connectivity, good education facilities and IT hub having rich content of natural resources and quite close to a port city.

Surat: A well connected city of Gujarat. It is sometimes called as diamond city of the world and textile city of India.

Jabalpur: A city of MP rich in natural resources like bauxite, iron ore limestone etc. and quite famous for marble. It is an important manufacturing hub for many products including arms and ammunition for military and paramilitary forces.

Vishakhapatnam: Port city located in Andhra Pradesh, a key economic zone and a home to many IT/ ITES and manufacturing industries. It is famous for steel plants, education and tourism and trade through water.

Other cities too have their own specialties and are leaders in one or another field. The cities according to their ranks are Bhubaneswar, Pune, Jaipur, Surat, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Jabalpur, Visakhapatnam, Solapur, Davangere, Indore, New Delhi Municipal Corporation, Coimbatore, Kakinada, Belgaum, Udaipur, Guwahati, Chennai, Ludhiana and Bhopal.