Tuesday, February 20, 2007

India Not Shining?

There have been a lot of dissapointing news for the nation in the past month or so:

1. Farmer suicides -> Despite government interventions, farmers in Vidarbha and elsewhere continue to kill themselves. Reasons? Governments not doing enough to solve their problems. Aam admi's party no longer cares for the poor. Solutions? Eliminate private money lending. Do away with BT Cotton and similar sinister schemes. Waive farmer loans in a manner similar to that of waiving industrial loans.

2. Inflation -> Spiralling costs of essential commodities. Reasons? Might be out of the control of the government. Solutions? No short term remedy in sight. Medium and long term controls already in place. Effects? The poor keeps getting poorer. Who is responsible? Of course the government, they must have a vision to foresee such damaging scenarios and mitigation plans for quick fixes.

3. Energy Shortage -> Power cuts and load shedding hours increase to alarming levels - more so - in the rural areas. Effects? Unemployment, Lack of infrastructure leading to slowdown in the fast growing economy. Reasons? Lack of long term planning by past governments. Solutions? Continuous long term planning and immediate shift to re-usable energy resources wherever possible.

4. Terror attack on the most sensitive train the country. If this is the condition for the train which is supposed to be the most secure, then what is the status of all other trains? India continues to be the softest terror target in the world. Reasons? No control on infiltration. No effective anti terror central law. Minority appeasement policies of central and UP government with an eye towards cheap electoral gains in the coming elections.

Tough times...

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Favourite TV show on air - India Tonight with Karan Thapar on CNBC TV 18

India Tonight is an intense and thought provoking show that runs on CNBC TV 18. The anchor Karan Thapar talks to 2-3 guests on a topic every night Monday to Thursday at 10.30 pm India Time. http://www.tv18online.com/cnbcTV18_shows.html

Its a must watch for them who have any interest in politics of the nation. For me, it is the best program on show currently on TV. An added attraction - It has only one break!

Watch it and it will keep you thinking about the topic at least 5 minutes after the show ends.

Karan's famous ending line every night is - "And if you have been, then Thanks for watching. Good bye and Good night".

Cheers,
- Ashutosh

Tuesday, February 06, 2007