A quick reflection on the India Elections and expectations from new Government !

On May 19, 2009, in India thoughts, by Swapnil
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So the elections in India are over and we know officially that the Congress led Government is on the cards. Not a much change as such for common people but I have been pleasantly surprised by the way the common people in India have voted in favour of one party. This is something I think has not happened since a long time and is definitely a welcome change !

india-election Although I have been away from India for a great part of last 5 years of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) rule in India, but whenever I have been, I was probably impressed by the progress work done by them, particularly in the Delhi area where I was the most frequent visitor. The region has definitely progressed well on infrastructure front, but I think few things that the new Government needs to ponder, in my opinion are,

  • Robust internal security Plan -  After what happened in Mumbai, definitely the Indians are in no mood to have another episode of such terrorist mayhem.  Although the previous Government in power (UPA only) had formed something called NIA (National Investigation Agency) which is a national level security agency. It is still unknown what is the structure of the NIA and what procedures & powers are given to the country’s elite force (expected to be).
  • Economic reforms / development – Although the infrastructure upgrades have been planned well since the times of Vajpayee Government but this government is expected, now since they are on their own, to carry them forward with a rapid pace. The massive projects like national highways development, golden quadrilateral, river-interlinking were started during the BJP government should be taken forward with a purpose and be completed to assist the development of the country. 
  • IT & Telecommunications – Although India has long been pressing its position as a leader in “providing” IT Services to the world, its about time we start “consuming” these services within to strengthen the IT & Communication infrastructure in the country. Its such a shame that 3G network is introduced only few weeks ago in India and the average broadband speeds in India are ranked 115th in the world ! The Government & the IT ministry should be really focussing on how to improve the infrastructure and making the high end technology available to the public at affordable rates.
  • Better civilization & public rights – Although RTI (Right to Information) has gone a long way in giving the public a right to know what is happening with respect to various public / personal issues managed within Government, I guess India is still divided over several issues such as castes systems, religion & regionalism. The Women in average Indian society still do not have equal rights as Men and this is really sad to be seen in the 21st century.  The Government needs to step up and create laws that would allow equal rights to all Indians irrespective of Caste, Religion or Region.  Check out my extended thoughts on this on my blog post on Protectionism & Economy.
  • Promote entrepreneurship – Not only in the IT, but the entrepreneurship should be promoted across various sectors. We need innovative solutions that would resolve practical problems such as shortage of electricity, water, food etc., we need young Indians to come forward & get into entrepreneurship.  Do you still remember the person who supposedly developed the petrol using tree leaves ! What happened to him and his project? And remember project Rainbow that used paper to store Terabytes of data ! What about ‘Sakshat’, the $10 laptop?  We need more entrepreneurs to come forward and lead India into the new century.  Read my thoughts on entrepreneurship in India & education system here.
  • Reform the education system – The current education system needs reforms to allow innovation rather than follow up!  We need innovative methods of education rather than reading and mugging up the books, which, in practical life are of little or no use !!  Read more here..

Well, these are few thoughts I could jot down. Might be many more, but your comments are always welcome.  Do leave your comment if you could spare few seconds.

Thanks & more later !

 

[ Image taken from here ]

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IPL lost its “Indianness” – start of death of cricket in India?

On March 23, 2009, in Sports thoughts, by Swapnil
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So finally IPL is moved out of India by greedy BCCI officials!  Now you decide whether it is the start of the death of cricket in India or the final nail in coffin by BCCI in the “Indian” cricket?

ipl_logo Since last few years, BCCI has always shown its “business” side than “cricket” side to the Indian public as well as the world. From making the players play tours all over the world without break to banning ICL and its related entities from cricket related activities, just shows how greedy BCCI has been in recent years and could go to any low point to ensure they continue filling up their pockets !

India have played more One day and Test matches in last two years than any other country and cricketers have, albeit in lower voices, have raised their concerns on the toll its taking on them. They have played more than 30 one day matches & more than 15 test matches in 2008 alone which way ahead of any other team in the world.

I think, BCCI’s intention of maximizing the cricket potential in India and milking money from every opportunity will soon start to have negative impact on India. Prime example of this being the once famous and eagerly awaited India Pakistan cricket series! Until few years ago, it used to be the most anticipated series in the world cricket. Since the current management of BCCI took over, there were more than 4-5 series played over a period of 2 years that really devaluated the excitement generated by these matches. They soon became routine cricket matches !

icl_logo Behaviour of BCCI over the ICL issue was absolutely pathetic and really discouraging site for Indian cricket. OK, understood and agreed that BCCI is so called only “legal” body in India to govern the cricket at all professional levels but surely should not be empowered to stop anyone from playing on TV cameras until they are given permission ! In my opinion, this was absolutely unacceptable and discouraging site for Indian cricket. Why should ICL be banned when there are quite a few other tournaments played in India, domestically and sponsored by locals, but in the form of a gully cricket ! In fact we used to have a cricket tournament in our college where we invited all other colleges to play and was shown in the local TV ! Did BCCI think that we also should have taken their permission before playing cricket?

The IPL was started as the response of BCCI to ICL and yes, it was a huge cricket & commercial success in its first version. When it was started, it was advertised as a new era of cricket in “India” and “India” really embraced to the club cricket during IPL. The names of the teams were mostly based on the cities they represent and you had a feeling of belongingness to the team that was playing on behalf of your state, region.

How would you feel if “Mumbai Indians” plays home matches as Johannesburg and away matches at places like Durban, with no relation whatsoever to Mumbai and Mumbaikars? How would you associate yourself with a team that is playing with the name of your state / region but based 5000 miles away and you can not watch them? Would there be the fever of IPL that was witnessed almost in the entire nation during the first edition? Would it catch the same attention, generate excitement?

In my opinion, the answer is plain NO.

IPL should have stayed in India and understandably should have been played around the election schedule in India. For an average Indian, no way cricket is better or more important than the government and elections.  Elections must take priority and rightly so the Indian Government had asked IPL to reschedule the matches around the election schedule so as to avoid clashes.

The greed of IPL organizers (read BCCI) unfortunately prevailed over the common sense and thus all Indians will miss the buzz & excitement IPL that was present last year.

Now, I would not surprised if South Africa becomes India’s host country in next few years !

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Politics & crime go hand in hand in India? .. as per a study

On February 19, 2009, in India thoughts, by Swapnil
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Today I came across an article on Rediff.com about more than 20% members of parliament in India are criminals. You can read the Rediff article here.

Reading this article was probably a shock but nevertheless a known fact across India. There is a common belief in Indian people that unless you have a criminal history, you can not be a success in the politics and apparently the article on Rediff further proves the belief. Its a matter of a real shame that the future of the country is decided by criminals sitting in the parliament rather than intellectuals and thinkers !

Nevertheless, as I said earlier, politics is not considered as a career in India by a common man. Its an obvious option for goons, goondas & criminals to assert themselves as public leaders. Most of the politicians are either representatives of a cast, have a potential vote bank and mostly uneducated to lead the country, leave alone the community.

nocriminals.org To increase the awareness about the candidates and current state of criminal charges on the parliament members, a public interest foundation has set up a website informing people about the facts about their representatives in parliament. You can visit the site at http://www.nocriminals.org. These guys also have a blog on http://nocriminals.wordpress.com/.

This is a really bold move to make this information open to people in India and probably a need of time to increase the social awareness and most importantly a need to change !

The website mentions the following about the campaign,

The recent Mumbai attacks have once again highlighted the need for individuals with a high level of personal integrity to provide effective leadership for our country. It is well known that across party lines, a number of individuals with criminal antecedents are given tickets to contest elections. There is little public pressure on political parties to not give tickets to such individuals. In 2004, about 20% of those who were elected to Parliament had criminal antecedents. This problem is prevalent across most political parties. This tears into the moral fabric of the country and has an impact on governance.

This website does mention some interesting facts about the most ‘tainted’ states in India in terms of percentage of criminal MPs in the parliament. Most notably being the ranking of Maharashtra state (considered prosperous & more developed) above states like Uttar Pradesh & Bihar (considered less prosperous & with high crime rate). On a positive point, its good to see that the state like Asam having 100% clean record in terms of having good MPs representing themselves within the Parliament.

I am unsure of how things will turn out in the upcoming general elections in India, however one thing for sure is that the people in India have started to speak out in right direction, hopefully this is the first step in making India a great country again.

Cheerio !

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