One more Star in Honest and Effective GovernMint of India

One more glorious addition to the hall of shame of Honest and Effective CONgress government.

Kamal Nath's rate is alleged to be 15%, 50% more than Mr 10% Zardari, no doubt inflation is high, more so in the high places of power.Some past defences of Kamalnath against Corruption include a $2.5 Billion contract when he refused to allow investigation into Corruption by CBI.

Please remember that CONgress is a government of Aam Admi and don't forget to vote for it in the next election if you do have a vote.

Meet the Government of India:Honest and Effective

Here is a short introduction to Government of India:

1. PM is a school student moving from one test to another (read Scam to Scam) and not a leader.
2. Agriculture and Aviation Minister have been busy minding cricket and IPL and running Air India into ground while food inflation flies.
3. The Finance minister watches as new scams are being unearthed.His ministry has the most vital pieces of information available so he should be the one who is most accountable.
4. Home minister is opposed by his own Party, colleagues and allies in tackling Maoism.
5. One of the bills of the Education minister who is now handling telecom was killed by his own partys' MPs.
6. The Railway minister is too busy tending to West Bengal while Railway projects get further delayed.
7. Textile and Chemical ministry are being run by members of one of the most corrupt political clans in India.
8. Steel minister is being investigated by the government of his state.
9. The Heavy Industry ministry is being manned by a person who organised a guided tour for a film director in aftermath of a terror attack.
10. The Foreign minister is ignorant of Diplomacy.
11. The Sports minister is so brilliant, PM asked him to shut up midway of a presentation.
12. Armed forces modernisation is stuck under Defence Minister St Antony.
13. The policy of Environment Minister are more unpredictable than the weather despite global warming.
14. Petroleum Minister is an old loyalist to Mr MDA.
15. One reform which everybody from a lowly businessman all the way upto PM agrees upon is Labor laws and who is our Labor minister by the way?

Nira Radia tapes: An interesting phenomenon on twitter

An interesting phenomenon was observed recently on twitter. Some enthusiastic tweeple suspended their activities all of a sudden on 18th November 2010 while some others went on an overdrive.But curiously, the great Indian Idiot Box has chosen not to cover the phenomenon. Here is the recent twitter activities of some NDTV 'journalists' including Barkha Dutt, Prabhu Chawla and Suhel Seth. Seems like the junior NDTV journos and Suhel were waiting if anything more is coming out or maybe they went into a huddle but Barkha reacted right away probably knowing those were the only telephonic tapes. Maybe there was no other fishy activity or maybe it was not on Phone. Prabhu Chawla's activity seems normal on 18th but seems like he had a lot of explanation to do on the next day. I also looked at Vir Sanghvi's twitter counter but it was usual low activity, no deviation from the norm. Journalists, particularly of the dishonest variety need to learn few lessons in Social networking, even though they may emulate Ostrich but they are being watched.

Barkha Dutt

Suhel Seth

Sunetra Chaudhari

Pankaj Pachauri

Nidhi Rajdan

Prabhu Chawla

Nira Radia Tapes:Some Interesting trends

A quick look at Alexa suggests that there has been tremendous increase in traffic for Open Magazine and Outlook India. This increase is apparently at the cost of rivals NDTV, Hindustan Times, IBN Live and Times Group. The last image shows a sharp spike on Google search volume about Nira Radia triggered by Open Magazine disclosure. An interesting phenomenon is that news reference sources are declining in volume while reader interest is increasing which is quite unusual in a democratic country. Take a look:

Why Not?

There are some achievers whose success is partly shaped by kind of peers they had and the kind of intellectual ecosystem they grew in,a University being the top contributor.But in the successof people that follow, this factor is peripheral, if at all.If exceptional intelligence is a truly random phenomenon, than why not in India as well?

1. There can not be a Warren Buffet in India since transparency among listed companies and their openness and respect to co-owners is still somewhat less compared to their US counterparts and despite the recent SEBI noises and apparent activism it is no match for the dreaded SEC.Recall the fate of Ra jratnam.
2. There can not be a Jim Rogers in India since every other day the futures trading in one or the other commodity or its import or export is banned in India or myriad other restrictions placed on its free trade.
3. There cannot be a George Soros in India since if there ever were he will truly be treated as a blood sucking dracula and likely to be persecuted on charges of treason resulting in spending rest of his life trying to be a philosopher and barred from accessing capital markets by any means.
4. There cannot be a Thomas Edison despite any amount of intelligence since the numerous patents that Edison spawned and ventures that they resulted in were a result of the well protected IPR regime and a law system which worked and where contracts could be enforced before the invention became obsolete. In India Patent regime is apparently liberal but there is no upper limit on the number of years it can take to resolve a case no matter how high profile the case is,recent Ayodhya ruling a case in point.
5. There cannot be a Richard Branson in India because Indian society does not appreciate failure and a young man without a degree is more likely to be disallowed to fill a loan application let alone meet the bankers no matter what promises his ideas hold.
6. There cannot be a Steve Jobs in India because kids born to unwed mothers except in case of celebrities are seldom treated with dignity.Not sure if adoption laws are more complicated in India or US but I am yet to see a storied individual adopted by humble parents in India. Also, as per one theory, there is only but one God.

Maybe one day, one of these days somebody might just pop up who is our answer to these giants and say well,why not?

चलो दिल्ली

हज़रात -ए -दाग़ जहां बैठे वहाँ बैठ गए

वो कोई और होंगे तेरी महफ़िल से उभरने वाले

Since I am neither Daagh nor Hazrate-e-Kalmadi, its time to leave Pune,having spent here longest time ever so far in my life at a single postal address.More so when Delhi beckons and all sorts of 'Games' are going on there.

It was again a Delihite who said this:

गौरी सोये सेज पर मुख पर डाले केश

चल खुसरो घर आपने सांझ भाई चहुँ देस

Its better to reach home before its too late in the evening. This also reminds me of this recent one: "and I know too much now To really feel at home in any one place”

I have been thinking of multiple 'When I am in Delhi' scenarios off late, some of which are:

1. Watch the plays at Mandi house,Kamani and NSD.
2. 

Eat at all those Bhavans of Indian States, A P Bhavan for example; Canteen of Consulates and restaurants and street food in and around Delhi.

Visit the weekend getaways where I have not been there properly yet.

Do some pilot projects on literacy in Mewat or Rajasthan area or possibly Bihar using some new approaches. Have wondered long if Cuba could eliminate illiteracy in a year 50 years ago,we can certainly do the same with all these toys at our disposal. The proximity to Hindi speaking regions with high illiteracy might enable me to do something concrete in this regard apart from armchair recording of videos via screen-casting.

Attend conferences, seminars and fairs and interesting people since Delhi is a hub of Think tanks and anybody who is somebody most likely visits Delhi.

Of course,continue to deliver high quality code:

I have enjoyed my stay in this Queen of Deccan but streets of Delhi are something else altogether despite its heat and dust and cold and short tempered people:

हमने माना दक्कन में हैं बहुत से कद्र-ए सुखन

मगर कौन जाये जौक़ ये दिल्ली कि गलियां छोड़कर

और वो आते हैं

तेरी ही बातें

तेरी ही यादें

तेरे ही नगमे

तेरे ही सपने

उफ़ ये रातें

और , ये बरसातें

दिल में हलचल

बाहर निकल

किसी से मिल

न कोई हल

हृदय विकल