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.

Time to Shout Out & Loud

Gone are those days when you really get what you paid for. Departed are those days when companies use to ignore the complaints against them. These statements may be a bit puzzling at first, but both stands true in the present condition. The most burning topic of the recent time is consumers being exploited in this market where every day new company is being launched. With number of services and products added to the market daily, there is increase in the numbers of cases where consumers are being cheated by frivolous companies. The quality of services being delivered is the concern for the consumers, companies and government too. The awareness campaigns are being run by the government where they are helping to create awareness among consumers. In this initiative, consumer courts are being set up in every city where consumer himself can present his case to the court; lawyer is no more needed to be hired for the case. There are few private and social firms that have entered the market to provide consumer the consultancy services where they’ll guide you in resolving complaint against any brand or service. There is one organization, which I had personally interacted with viz. - Shoutout.co.in. When I shared my complaint on this website, within 2 days I got a call in order to resolve the complaint in best possible manner. They guided me through the process of filing the complaint with consumer court and also commented on the prospects of my complaint. The best part of this organization is that it offers free guidance throughout the case. This organization is working as an intermediary to resolve the complaint with the companies. I think it is the time for consumers to warm up their chairs, come out of their homes and shout loud so that people become aware of theft brands and consumer rights. It's time to fight for your rights and there are people to assist you. Don't be a naive consumer, rather be the enthusiastic consumer.

Immature Human Capital of India: Country demands development

The whole world is running behind two resources that can drastically increase their pace of development, i.e. energy and human capital. Today, we will talk about human capital, an asset that most nation wishes to get hold of. Human capital are those chunk of competent people who are well-educated i.e. engineers, doctors, scientist, educationist, etc and contributing in the growth of the nation. But the question I’m raising here is that – Is it worth having human capital in India? How much they have contributed to the development of India? Do they realize their importance for a developing country like India? Are they fulfilling the aspirations of their country? 

I somehow feel that human capital of India has missed the line and it is on the wrong path. They have forgotten their duties towards India as a responsible citizen. They don’t realize how much the country has spent in creating them. I think the sense of responsibility is missing in the educated people today; they are not gratifying what their profession demands from them.

The country demands from them that, they turn-out to vote proficient people during elections because they understand whom to vote, how to identify good candidates during elections and this voting pattern can change a lot, but they are very pessimistic about Indian politics that they have started losing faith in voting too. The statistics of voter turn-out during elections is that rural people comes out to vote more than urban educated people. Then how can we expect the change in our system, until and unless these educated people come out to vote.

The country demands from them that they contribute towards green India, they should understand festivals are not meant for polluting the environment (diwali is not meant for bursting crackers and holi is not meant for wasting water), and then saying that our environment is becoming worst than ever. We cannot attain the status of clean India until that enthusiasm to find a dustbin in our country is missing in the educated people. They just want to throw rapper, bit and pieces of what we eat or use anywhere without caring about country’s image.

The country demands from them that they come out and raise their voice against corruption. Bribing is not a solution, it is easy for you pay a bribe as you earning a good amount, but think of whole as a society, it is not easy for everyone. Think of a vendor earning a meagre amount daily, who has to pay a bribe for getting a birth certificate, a license, etc. Corruption is an evil which has ruined India and it has affected every class of the society. We have to join hands and work as a civil society for bringing good reforms.

The country demands from them that they start using public transport facilities because the city’s traffic is increasing day by day. They should understand oil is a natural resource that is not going to last forever; the day is not far behind when all these vehicles would be of no use, just a scrap. The way we are using the oil today, we are not going to leave anything for the posterity.

The country demands from our doctors that they understand that patient’s life is more important than their few hundred rupees of consulting fees. They should treat their patient as god because if no patient would be there, their earning would drop to zero. Getting a good medical treatment is not a common man’s deal now, it has to change now.

The country demands from our engineers that they start developing technology and equipment's with minimum carbon emissions. They develop cheap technology so that it reaches common man too. They innovate and invent stuff which could change the way we people live today, in a constructive manner. They should think of sustainable development as a future development strategy.

The country demands from our bureaucrats that their administration should reflect that common people’s voice is heard in trustworthy manner, irrespective of their political influence. As bureaucrats are driving force for developing policies, their focus should be on lower strata of the society, which is suffering from lack of resources. The way bureaucrats is sitting silent against all the odds prevailing in the society. The way they are involved in doing buttering of politicians, the way they don’t take any action against any politicians, this has to change and a clear message should go to the people that no one is above law. I believe that bureaucrats can change everything established in the society, they can bring development to common people’s feat.

I believe that human capital of India will soon understand their responsibility and India will traverse the path of development in every sector.

Anna Movement - Marching Ahead

Most of the people would be curious to know about the next move of civil society. Some of you might be aware of all the happenings. Few might raise question that civil society members have left the issue of Jan-lokpal and have entered the battle of elections? The issue of janlokpal is neither left behind nor the movement of corruption-less society stopped, rather it is gaining momentum daily. What we have learnt is large number of lessons from the government, the way govt. showcased its fortitude against the passage of effective lokpal bill. What we’ve seen in U.P. and other election-states is awareness campaigns. Team Anna has decided to bring the ideological change in the common people, because we have showed lots of strength on road. Now the main focus is to create and build think tanks across the country. IAC has started forming Charcha-Samuha (discussion groups) at every corner of the country be it village or city. These, so called Charcha-Samuha will discuss issues ranging from janlokpal, election reforms and parochial too. When these discussion groups grew in numbers and reach to lakhs, then the change will definitely strike. Team Anna has envisaged transfer of power from politicians and bureaucrats to the common people by raising issues like Right to reject, Right to recall, etc. The plan is make citizens more powerful than bureaucrats and elected representatives. The plan is to eliminate Red-light (lal batti) system and taking away the bungalows of the politicians and bureaucrats and shifting them to flats, where common people live. The rationale behind this is that when these people start living in such state of affairs, then they will realize the troubles of ordinary citizens. What we saw in August last year, was the acrimony of citizens against govt. policies and failure to tackle corruption. When the general election takes place in 2014, it become election of ideologies, policies, etc not mere based on religion or caste. Hope common people awakens as soon as possible for a revolution is yet to arrive.

Are we really Happy?

Happiness cannot be measured objectively, it is a subjective quality. One simple question strikes the mind, then how to measure happiness? Till now, scientists haven’t succeeded in finding a test to measure happiness! In most of our actions, we try to find happiness. One step technology takes in forward direction; humanity moves the same in opposite direction. This is because we are disturbing the natural arrangement created by the almighty God.
Each one of us has some material dreams and we labor hard to accomplish them. Some of us might finish up with finally achieving those dreams, but then, are we able to satisfy our soul? As scholar enters the college life, most of them desire to have a laptop, a bike, a Smartphone and all that. But then also, we are not able to satisfy our self. After getting these, we say if I get this, I’ll be happy, but then, we all know what happens. Try to remember yourself when you had thought in that way. I’m damn sure, most of you would have thought. Though many so-called superpowers of the world claim to be developed, but then see the culture these countries have. Gone were those days, when small-small things brought lots of happiness in our home. The world is moving very fast, people want to become millionaire in a day. But after getting that, they waste the money in irrelevant stuff. When a billionaire sleep on night, he is full of stress and at the same time you can find a slum dweller sleeping very peacefully. This fact shows that money can buy status but not happiness. Then how does happiness come? How can we make our soul happy? We should stop the self-centered approach; we will have to connect our soul to the supreme personality of Godhead. We will have to stop thinking ourselves as body and stop satisfying our bodily concerns, rather be on platform of thinking where our activities are not influenced by mode of goodness, mode of ignorance and false ego. Without that, we will be striving for happiness and might wind up with messing things around us. As we’ve forgotten our constitutional position, we are suffering in this material world. We need to get back our constitutional position that we are constrained to, that is to be one with god.

AC Room Policies

India has been a developing country from more than 60 years. We have seen large number of schemes launched by the govt. for the needy and various policies are created in favour of these sections. Then why are we still developing at a slow pace? How long it is going to be that we merely remain a developing country?
Everyone has some or other reason for this slow pace, some would say corruption, Ineffective govt. sector, terrorism, international affairs, politics, etc. India has seen many policy failures. No policy is 100% perfect, but if we can implement it 80% successfully, then that’s something good to achieve. Whether we have analysed why the policies are not efficient at ground? Why such good policies on paper fail in real-world conditions? As I think, most of our policies are framed in a closed AC room, only some ministers with experts sit and frame the policies. The policy when seen on paper seems excellent, but when they are implemented by the government for the common people, it seems not to produce expected results. FDI might be a good decision as expressed by our economist and cabinet ministers, but common people, traders, trade unions were not at all happy with the decision because their bread will be at stake, when 51% FDI would have been allowed on retail sector. Though NREGA was a good policy decision, but there were various issues related to corruption in various states, so the govt. needs to deal with these issues seriously and introduce some changes that can minimize the corruption in NREGA. We have seen large number of irregularities associated with PDS (public distribution system), Why.....? I’ve personally seen that PDS shops are not fair; they use to cheat common people who are entitled for that quantity of grain. If it is not working out in its present form, then introduce some checks so that the grains reach the common people. The Anti- Kudankulam nuclear power project protest is the result of the same AC room decision, the govt. did not talk to the people residing near the project. Though eminent scientists have promulgated the idea of the project, but we need the consent of the common mob.
I think it is a time when our THINK TANK starts framing policies out of AC rooms and visualize the challenges any policy can face on ground. Its time people become an important part of policy development programme and the development takes an interactive look. It shall not remain only govt.’s task to implement policies rather people become an important part of it. We need to talk to common people, take their inputs, and then frame the policy. The time is here when policy development programme makes a shift from AC Rooms to the place of common people.

Character – The Neglected Criteria

The most important aspect of the person which is completely missing in the present generations is perfect character. How will you define about someone’s character or his personality? Let me clear you the narrow difference between personality and character. Personality is who we are and what we do when everybody is watching and Character is who we are and what we do when nobody is watching. We have shifted our focus from character building to personality building. It is very easy to find the personality development classes in the every corner of the city, but there is rarely a institute that teaches how to build character. Our modern education system is also focusing on employment, in other ways building a good personality. But the real education means building character. Character will automatically lead to competence. Since, there is no character building; everyone is suffering with something or the other. Today, you have to prove yourself as an honest man before the society, because everyone is a potential suspect. What kind of fearful society we are creating, where we cannot believe each other. The miseries of 21^st century are mostly associated with character less society.

 No character development is the root cause of many social problems such as corruption, poverty, terrorism, etc. Character-less persons entering politics will only exploit their position and countries resources. People are so crazy after money that they are entangled with frustration, enviousness, greedy and are disturbed. Today, even the wealthiest person is unhappy. See the youth of today, what type of qualities they are developing in their school and college life. They are trapped in the hole of intoxication (drinking, smoking, etc.), meat-eating, illicit sex and gambling. When they come out as professionals, all this will be reflected in their attitude and personality. This thing is neither good for them self nor for the society. We can save our country from the forth-coming scams, terrorist attacks and various ill-evils, if there is some attention paid on this serious issue. A most common example which can be witnessed in every household, when parents speak lie in front of their small or teenaged children’s, at times they ask their children’s to speak a lie to someone whom they don’t want to talk and then expect their children to speak truth in front of them. Children’s learn from their parent’s traits and children’s build a belief that even speaking a lie doesn’t do any harm to them.

There might be some traits of a good character, and it is not easy for one to define qualities. So, according to Bhagavad Gita (Ch-12), A perfect character must possess the following qualities: freedom from enviousness, should not be frivolous, should not be naughty, should be straight forward, should have the capability to subjugate the senses (self-controlled), should have a strong faith, try to build a loving relationship with every individual. According to me, it is the high time when think tank take some concrete steps in changing the education system or introducing something that would cater the need of character building. Time has arrived when due weightage is given to character, so that we can build a perfect society full of faith and trust and remove all the social-ills present in the society. 

INTROSPECTION – THE NEED OF HOUR

The campaign of Anna is almost over for the Janlokpal bill, but there still exists a wave around the country that whether the janlokpal bill would be able to curb corruption from society. Corruption is impossible to remove from society until each and every citizen of this country does not inspect himself or herself. It is the time when people of India should start introspecting themselves. Introspection means checking out our acts whether they are correct or not from all points viz. - socially, legally and morally, the point of economically (profit) comes after these three points. It is very easy to raise fingers on someone who is doing something wrong. Check out honestly how many times you have given a thought when you do something wrong? Not even a single time, you would have manipulated in your mind that it was correct. How many times do we follow traffic signals, until there is traffic police standing as surveillance? People even don’t know the use Zebra crossing. How many times do we try to escape the traffic police when caught, by paying a small bribe? We don't even care for the wrappers and chips packet while throwing them on the public places or anywhere. Yes,dustbin is not easily found but if you have a will you can find anything. These small things make the big difference. For escaping a huge line at any public offices, we try to find the agents related to that office and by giving them their fees, we try to escape the internal working of the offices because we are rich enough and then we condemn our system. Who are we to condemn our system, not being the part of it? This is the reason why only poor’s and lower middle class suffer in this country, upper middle class and riches escape by giving money. The cases might be viz. applying for a driving license, Pan Card, vehicle registration, issuing a birth or death certificate, applying for a Passport, even a school seat needs a bribe.

We may say that our time is more important than paying a small amount, but then who are these people to raise questions on someone’s integrity. They have no right to correct someone else before correcting themselves. You cannot ask someone to follow the rules, until you teach by your own example, it is one of the most effective way. Is your time more important than your country? If yes, then you will die fulfilling your sense gratification and cannot serve anyone selflessly. The fight against social evils is morally a fight to retain our traditional values. It's a fight to preserve our fundamental rights, our land, our forests, our judicial system, our faith in ourselves. If we lose all these values, of what worth is all the name and fame in the world? Your past may have passed doing such acts, but if your future continues as same ,then there is no difference between you people and animals. This appeal to the readers may prove to be futile, but I’m sure at least few minds will be ignited after reading this article.

SILENT KILLING

You might be wondering about the topic , I think it is very difficult for you to imagine the inside story behind this topic. I will try to put up few basic questions just to bring your attention on one of the serious issues of the times. Do you know why poison is prohibited ? We all know that consumption of poison leads to immediate death , in most of the cases, so it is illegal to be in possession of poison. You might be thinking that there are various other products available in market which also leads to death but not immediately. Now you might be wondering about those products . Few of those are liquor, smoking, sheesha, gutkha, and various other stuffs. But do you know why these products are not prohibited ?Think a little ….. you'll find the answer. Both the stuffs lead to killing of people ….. one legal and another illegal .... Sound strange ….!!! There might be efforts such as increase in age of drinking, printing cancer photographs on cigarette packs, etc. Do you think this much is enough ? The consumption of liquor, both the local and branded leads to high revenue for both central as well state govt. Is it morally correct to put the citizens under trouble for few percent of revenues. The opening of new bars , pubs and sheesha lounge would cover more population coming in contact with these stuffs , thereby increasing revenues. But few people might characterize this as a sign of developing society, I characterize this as a influence of western culture. In this country taxes on petroleum products is more compared to liquor because govt. knows that petroleum products have become necessity. Poison is one-time revenue generator where as smoking and liquor consumption increases exponentially. Most of the people don't discontinue these habits until they are dead.

                                       The govt. says that person above 18 yrs is mature enough to differentiate between right and wrong. If the person is mature enough to decide his fate , then he should also be allowed to decide between Poison and Liquor or cigarettes. Then why there is a need to ban poison. I'm not saying that poison consumption should be allowed , rather I'm putting a Question before you that whether liquor , smoking should be banned or not? I've just tried to put up the basic facts and the govt. policies towards safeguarding its citizens. I hope this post is helpful for bringing the attention of the people of this country on such a serious issue of Silent killing. 

Bringing The Jan Lokpal

Before Anna ji's fast on 4^th of April , I haven't heard about Jan-Lokpal , but since then I'm committed towards Jan-Lokpal and learning more and more about the bill because of value it contains. The problem is that only a percent of country's population knew what the lokpal bill is all about, remaining are just happy by seeing that civil society is doing something good for this country and few others are also critisizing the govt. This is the time for every individual to warm up thier chairs and learn about the bill and then decide whether the govt. or Anna's team is correct. What Anna has done is a voice of common people, they are frustrated by paying bribes for pitiful works to be done . They want complete freedom from this day -2-day corruption prevaling in the society and want complete security of what they pay as Income tax and various other taxes. We want an effective agency similar to CALL 108 or CALL 100 ,etc which could be called for help when there is a demand for bribe. We don't pay taxes to be the part of wealth of a minister or a MP or any other bureaucrat, but for nation's development. The govt. is trying to fool the people of this country by saying that –We can't allow a parallel govt. to function , that's a safe excuse .To what extent this is correct let us analyse. What govt. has proposed in the bill is very strange -:

1. If the complaint is found to be false or vexatious then it has proposed a min. of 2 yrs of imprisonment for the complainaint whereas if govt. servant is found to be corrupt , then min. imprisonment of 6 months.
   
2. Accused can register a cross-case against complainaint in a special court,before any preliminary investigation in which govt. would provide a free advocate to bureaucrat.
   
3. All NGOs would be covered at center as well as state(even a small group in village will under Lokpal) whereas govt. does not want this bill to be implemented at State .A matter of fact is that only 0.5% of govt. employees would be under purview of Lokpal.
   
4. Govt . wants only higher bureaucracy to be included in the lokpal ….. knowing that 120 crore people interact with lower bureaucracy where it is bribed for small works like : Ration card, Driving license, getting a Loan, dealing with traffic police, buying or selling property, getting a transfer, etc…..
   

I think it is the last chance to make or break LOKPAL