Innovation Redefined - Mission Potable Water

Someone said that if there would be a III World war, it would be fought for water or oil. We see that changing pattern of rainfall and climate is creating tensions all over the world. Though we have two-third landscape of earth in form of oceans, but then also more than half of world’s population does not have access to potable water. We being the second most populated nation in the world are one of the greatest victims of impure drinking water.
Millions of Children die as they do not have access to potable water. Most of them belong to families which can’t afford installing expensive domestic water purifiers.  As we all know, none of us trust drinking water supplied by Municipal corporations, who cares for the people belonging to lower community? Yet there are people who will sacrifice their comfort for sake of the poor people. They will innovate and bring out-of-the-box ideas for common people. Suprio Das has invented a very cheap, easy to use water purification system which works on principle of accurate mixing of Chlorine into municipal water.

Chlorine has been hailed by various international organizations including WHO and developed countries as a proper way to purify impure water. The Zimba Chlorine Doser requires no use of electricity as it is unreliable in most parts of the country. It has no moving parts and uses a system of transparent tubes to proportionately mix right amount of Chlorine into impure water. This reduces the chances of it getting damaged or unavailable at times and requires no behavioural change.  The most unique point of this device Is that it doesn’t have to be installed at each household, rather it believes in community participation. It will be disinfecting water at the water collection point, so every household will eventually get the pure drinking water.

The innovations of this kind, which can transform the societies, will be most welcomed by the common people, rather than manufacturing costly life saving drugs which are out of reach of the common people, just for sake of protection of Intellectual property and promoting Innovation. Not every innovation is accessible to every section of the society.  This will send a positive message to the agents of change, who can sacrifice everything for the common people and will bring about change.

To know more please visit the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvJVL6ECGLg

Franklin Templeton Investments partnered the TEDxGateway Mumbai in December 2012

Gentlemen ..... Ring the Bell..... Stop Domestic Violence

When we see the role of women in society, she is one who is carrying this world to the next generation and still she is neglected the most. But why do we see patriarchy paradigm still playing dominating role. Do we really need to classify humans into different sex and then thinking objectively in a negative manner. Large proportion of men of this nation failed to provide security to the women of this country, which they deserved. When we go into rural areas, men have developed a culture of violence against women. They are in usual habits of beating women, the women too do not protest because their friends in different families suffer with the same problem. They are in habit of accepting this as a custom which is prevailing all over the country.

I think it's the right time we take the initiative to bring some change and turn these long prevailing customs and turn it around. It is difficult for every women to start protesting against such a heinous crime they are suffering from long time. Some gentlemen out of men have to come out and will need to bring suffering women into confidence. If gentlemen takes such a huge initiative of stopping domestic violence against women, then all wise men will follow and this will turn into a movement striving for change.

We as a society, state or a nation are failure if we are unable to protect women of this country or ensure safety to them from domestic violence. This will help them to bring out their talent out of their closed box.

We men are not to hinder the growth of women but to make them progress.

# RespectForWomen
# RingTheBell
# BellBajao

This blogpost is for campaign against the domestic violence against women. RingTheBell is a initiative by IndiChange.

Changing Scenario of modern health-care

Today, people are facing new kinds of problems in newly emerging world full of technology. Diseases too are evolving themselves in fighting with already available solutions, so our healthcare should also evolve so that diseases could be cured easily.
The lifestyle of middle class and upper middle class who constitute good amount of population of this country  is changing continuously, they are upgrading in terms of technology, education, medical-cure, etc.

Though we are worried about lower class and poor people for providing medical facilities, we can provide them some alternative, may be any kind of cost-effective solutions of cutting edge technologies. But the 8-10 crore people who spend huge amount of money for health-care must be taken care of, not at the cost of lower strata but on their own will. These people are basic forces behind the innovation industry who in any form fund the research institutions. Due to this cost-effective solutions to many diseases, India is emerging as a medical tourism hub.


India is privileged to have medical institutions like Apollo, who have worked tremendously in this field and are providing cutting edge technology to the common people. (http://www.apollohospitals.com/cutting-edge.php).

Building the Republic: Redefining India

Today, we are celebrating the 64th Republic Day, it is indeed a great privilege to be a part of a republic at a time when most of the countries of Asia are still struggling under monarchy or dictatorship. It is indeed a great honour to be part of such a country which has diversity in language, religion, culture, etc. We are part of the biggest democracy and youngest country of the world. Even the world realises the potential of Gandhian philosophy, which served as base for various movements in India and outside. But then what went wrong in last six decades? In these 63 years of republic, we have some-how missed the principles of our forefathers. Though we have moved far away from 1950 level in various sectors viz. education, health-indicators, industrialization, etc. But common people i.e. poor labourers, farmers, daily-wage earners, etc are still living the same life as their ancestors lived 60 years ago; there is a marginal change in the lifestyle of poor class. Our Human Development Index ranking in 1980 stood at 134 and it remain unchanged even in 2011. It is difficult to suppress these voices of common people which will emerge in form of naxalism, crimes, demand for separate states, demand for reservation to different sections, etc.

We have shown improvement in literacy levels but the quality of education deteriorated, where almost 50% students of class V can’t read the book of class II. Our health indicators viz. maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate are still far behind the UN millennium development goals. The average life of Indian people has reached in 60s, but there many old-age people who are suffering due to nuclear families, they don’t have a place to live. A clear policy on old-age people is missing in govt. legislations. Our political leadership is crawling and is unable to implement common welfare programmes in efficient manner. There is huge rise in rate of crimes seen against women in these 63 years, we have taken a form of a patriarchal society and which is very dangerous for any society. There is a sense of sensitivity which is missing from the society. The men-women divide is emerging very rapidly; we need to take immediate steps to bridge this divide. It is better if we inculcate sensitivity towards women community and deal with all the cases with utmost care and high priority.

We are not able to change with time, we are framing policies which were required a decade before. How can a same policy work at all parts of the country when there is a difference in culture, religion, geographical locations, and requirements of each region? I think we need to move towards a system of customized policies for each region and decentralisation of power and giving more autonomy to panchayati raj institutions and local municipal bodies. Our policies should bring a transformation in life style of common people at the grass-roots level. Until we bring that change, our policies are failure. Inclusive society should be our ultimate dream. Continuous reforms will bring change.

It’s time the three basic institutions of this country metamorphose. It is good if we take these steps sooner than later. The latter will only add to the agony of the common people and we will go on seeing these people’s movement in the near future. In the present context, kiran bedi’s quote reminds of India’s potential – “If India has million problems it also has a billion solutions! We just have to make them visible and upscale their ideas!”

Anna Movement: Changing Roles of Media

Media has always been at the upfront of this Jan-Lokpal movement from April last year and became a part of this movement in Aug, 2011. It may be because of TRP or media activism that media left its role from being sceptic about the movement and started narrating the movement rather than just reporting. My question is that what was wrong for media being a part of movement in national interest? Is it a conflict of interest in being a journalist and Indian citizen? I strongly feel that what is right is right whether you view as a journalist or a citizen. What Team Anna has to keep in mind while this movement is in its youth days is that you cannot criticize a group of section for not supporting the movement. It is their rightful duty to report the movement, but if they fail to do so, may be due to their own unwillingness or govt. pressure, it is sad part of story. You cannot convert this story into actions against media mogul.

Low turnout at Jantar-Mantar may worry Team Anna, this year. If our movement is morally right, then we don’t have to depend on someone else be it media, low turnouts, blackouts, etc. At some point of time, I feel that let the common people suffer because they are so agnostic about change that they don’t even come out to participate in movement or ideologically support it. Team Anna is not fighting for themselves, why the citizens of this country don’t understand this? Their thought narrows down this movement of considering Team Anna’s movement. The Indian people, mostly the educated class is kind of oblivious of society. The reality show happening in the entire country is teaching us the big lesson. India is on the crises of change, all that matters is citizen, media and civil society’s support.

Each movement leaves its footprint on the sands of time, and I believe this time it will not remain merely the footprints, they will rise and go beyond that, creating a paradigm shift. Recent announcement at Jantar-Mantar visualizes team Anna’s sagacity to look forward, as they aim to establish a people’s party, a political alternative. What we can do is wait and watch the show as Team Anna enters into the next stage of democratic procedure.

Euro Zone Crisis Simplified

To what world sees as an alarming danger to the global economy. What is it that has dragged the European countries into a meltdown and stagnated the growth of the developing economies? Is it mere hype created by media institutions or is a juncture of reality? In this article you will explore what is the Euro-Zone crisis or sovereign debt crisis. Before you go into deep insights of this crisis, you must know two major giant groups of Europe viz. European Union and Euro Zone. 

European Union

Established in 1993, currently has 27 member countries of Europe. It was formed to ensure the free movement of goods, capital, services and people in member countries.

Euro Zone

Established in 1999, currently has 17 members countries of Europe. Euro was adopted the common currency for trade, that would help foster the economies of the countries. European central bank is the central authority for administrating the monetary policy of the member states. For countries to remain in Euro Zone, their budget deficit should not exceed 3% of their GDP.

It is an irony on the part of Europe, having two big-giant groups viz. European union and Euro zone working to foster and strengthen the economies of European countries, and then witnessing such a serious crisis at home.

Why it is called Sovereign Debt Crisis??

Whenever government is in need of some money to finance its spending, it issues bonds in local currency or international currency. What is the difference between government bonds and sovereign bonds? If the bonds are in local currency, it is called government bonds. If the bonds are in international currency, it is called sovereign bonds. Sovereign bonds can be sold to other countries and foreign investors. It has to pay the interest money on specific period and principal amount at maturity. It has spread to Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Spain. Italy has the highest debt, while Portugal and Ireland are high on list as well. This crisis has its effects to whole of the Europe and world as well.

Greece - Most Affected

Greece is a developed economy with high Human Development Indicators. Tourism and shipping are the major industries of Greece.

Major reasons -

1. Tourism and shipping industries were highly affected due to the sub-prime crisis in US.

2. Over-expenditure on luxurious things.

3. High-level corruption in government.

Greece borrowed money by issuing bonds from European Central Bank, maturity period has arrived and Greece needs to repay the amount.

Greece government paid Goldman Sachs and other financial institutions to falsify their reports about country's high debt. Greece has the highest budget deficit of 13.6% of GDP or $ 532.9 Billion as of 2010.

After effects

S&P downgraded the Greece rating from BBB+ to BB+ in 2010.

Bailout and Austerity

The first bailout was approved by European Union and International Monetary Fund. They agreed to pay Euro 110 Billions, with EU paying Euro 80 Billion and IMF paying Euro 30 Billion. To continue receiving bailout, Greece has to follow some austerity measures and bring down its Budget deficit at 3% of GDP by the end of 2014, so it continues to remain the part of Euro-zone.

Austerity measures to be followed by Greece -

1. Wage cuts.

2. Freezing the pensions for 3 years.

3. Increase in sales tax to 10%.

4. Slashing of bonus.

It is a diktat on the people of Greece due to over-burdening of austerity measures.

Euro-Zone Crisis - A by-product of Sub-prime crisis

The economists suggest that the recent crisis in Europe was a ripple-effect of the crisis that hit the private financial institutions in US. To counter the global recession, European countries increased public spending, which began in 2008? Crisis in Europe hit majority of private financial institutions (e.g.- Lehman Brothers, American Insurance group) i.e. private banking institutions going bankrupt. While sovereign debt crisis in Europe led to the crashing of government financial institutions, i.e. countries itself going bankrupt.

 The world economic scenario is precarious. What we can do is wait and watch the show as it enters in to the next level. A lot of lessons are to learnt by the world economies including India as the show is proceeding in Europe.

Important Terms:

Budget Deficit - The amount by which some measures of the government revenues fell short of some measure of government spending.

Sub-prime Crisis - It was basically related to reckless lending to NINJA borrowers and mis-selling of toxic assets by reputed financial giants. It led to the crashing of private financial institutions in US.

Bailout - A loan given to a company or a country which faces financial turbulence or bankruptcy.

International Monetary Fund - The international organization that helps by providing loans to countries facing with balance of payments problem.

Zero Corruption Passport

The Indian Diaspora across the world is increasing at an all-time higher rate. People are going overseas to study, research, do business, work, tourism and many other purposes. Today, globalization has turned the world into a global village; distances are minimized with the help of technology. Therefore, there is a steep hike in no. of people applying for a fresh passport. Every foreign journey begins with a passports, one cannot do the above mentioned activities outside India, if he is not in a possession of a passport of Republic of India. Now starts the most revolutionizing step: getting a passport.  To go into insights of complexities involved in getting a passport, I arranged all my documents and applied for a fresh passport. After 3 weeks of my application, a police constable visited my place and followed his procedure for verification. After completing all his formalities, he demanded Rs.500 as his bribe and said it is his fees for doing verification and is disseminated from top-to-lower officials and warned me if I didn’t paid then, I’ll have to suffer and my file will not be cleared. I refused firmly and said that being a student, I’ll not pay a single penny and you do what you want to do with my file. After more than one month, my passport status showed that my police report was not clear, and then I wrote a mail to complaint authority of passport office, Bhopal. Within 1 week of my mail, my police report was clear and my passport was about to be dispatched. Finally I received my passport few days ago, to be surprised, even postman asked for some gift. But I had to refuse to him too, due to my policy of zero corruption. 

If we have all the tools available to fight against system, viz. RTI- Right to Information, in that case why there is a need to be corrupt. Hope I’m able to implement my policy of Zero Corruption, having failed many a time in my life, but still trying so that I’m able to reflect in my action all the time the same policy. It is my request to all the people who will be applying for a passport in near future, please adopt this policy and If there is any difficulty, I’m there to assist you in your bad times. Don’t cripple by seeing the system inefficient, rather use the infrastructure to convert your disability to strength.