Being the third largest GDP is hardly good enough

We always talk about India having the third largest GDP after China and USA. 

But what we don't talk about (conveniently) is the GDP per person. That is the productivity of an average Indian. Having a large population does increase total productivity but doesn't mean you are richer. A family of 5 earning ₹50,000 a month is not richer than a family of 3 earning ₹40,000 a month. 

So where do we stand on the world based on GDP per person also called "GDP per capita"?

We are ranked at 125 just below Nigeria and also below our neighbors Sri Lanka (103) and Bhutan (114) and yes, even below world average. 

We need to change how we measure ourselves. Productivity per person, safety. Innovation, inventions, happiness, health, sports, art, etc are better parameters.

Anti Corruption Song

The Telangana Tamasha

The Telangana Tamasha (show) is a show and not an issue because the real issue is something else, political parties have recognizing the short term political gains, have made a "tamasha" out of it. Politicians have successfully divided the people of one state, speaking the same language (telugu), and made them bitter enemies of each other. Development issues, governance problems, genuine impracticalities along with poor implementation are not problems in which part of India? But politicians very cleverly have used these problems along with other co-incidences to make a whole issue out of nothing for petty short term political gains. "The casual and arbitrary approach of the Union Government, short-term vote-bank politics of parties and shameless political duplicity have led to a wholly avoidable crisis over Telangana" says JAYAPRAKASH NARAYAN. lone MLA from Loksatta Party from hyderabad region. He also very rightly calls it "19th century politics" more commonly known as politics of "divide and rule".

The concerns stated by pro-telengana-ites are issues like lack of development in the Telangan region, exploiters from Andhra region coming and taking oaway their jobs, or giving their jobs to other Andhra-ites, lack of irrigation projects in the Telangana region, lack of infrastructure in the Telengana region and some other such issues. Let us analyze these problems more deeply. Most of these problems clearly, are direct result of failure of governance. Making a state and dividing Andhra Pradesh is not a solution to that. Poor governance is a problem in lots of other states as well and the real solution i believe in for this issue is decentralization and the empowerment of local governments. Democratic reforms are needed to solve this menace.

Now coming to lack of irrigation projects, in an area with mostly hills and infertile soil, it could be quite uneconomical and impractical to have canals. Morever the rainfall in the area is also quite low. Areas like these are better off without relying on agriculture as their main occupation. There could be alternatives to look into. This solution too could be solved by empowered local govts. Though even having a new state might help to an extent, but nothing better than powerfull local district administrations. Its like lots of states just without having to divide a state.

So what was the need for a Separate Telengana? Politicians very cleverly noticed these issues, and also noticed the co-incidence that the area of Telengana was once upon a time a separate State and that a few treaties made in favour of the people of the region have not been implemented. For example the reservation in jobs for the people of Telangana. There was also a demand for a separate Telangana by leaders of the people, who were patriotically and romantically in love with the culture, art and music of the Telangana people. Politicians seeing this, did not waste any time to use this situation to their benefit. Anything that encourages the people to vote for them, to the extent that all political parties were in favour of making a new state of Telangana. The truth came out though, when the Central government announced the formation of Telengana and more than 150 MLAs resigned in protest, all from parties which previously supported the formation of the new state. Clearly supporting the formation of the new state was for votes from the people in the Telaangana region and resignations were for votes from their own respective constituencies which co-incidentally or otherwise all lie in rest of Andhra Pradesh. Is it really about the culture of Telangana people? Or is that also an emotion purposely built up by politicians? Sindhis and Pathans in India live quite happily, their tradition and culture is intact and flourishing, they dont have any region in India to call theirs. Telangana is a region even if it does not have a Chief Minister of its own, that is even if its not a state, its a region and there is no reason why its culture and tradition cannot flourish too.

Its all a political mess, not a drama but a mess because every political party wants to cash into the people's emotions. Like Poultry farmers, who breed chicken only to later slaughter them and sell them, politicians breed emotions, rise peoples' emotions and manipulate them, use it for getting votes only to later slaughter them mercilessly. The solution to the real issues can be found on a table, there is absolutely no need to go to the streets, especially in a functioning democracy.

Sub-Continent Open

The Sub-Continent Open is here! Full of fire and energy! India accuses Pakistan of their territory being used to plan 26/11 Mumbai attack, and in turn Pakistan accusing India of involvement in terrorism in Pakistan. The hottest tennis match on Earth isn't it?

India says it has evidence of Hafiz Saeed masterminding the Mumbai attacks and Pakistan says they have found evidence in their Swat Operations of Indian links to terrorists in Pakistan. Obviously both these claims are backed by genuine reasons. But where does this end?

Anyway I hope this ends soon, and the two countries become more mature and good friends, till then enjoy the action LIVE on any news channel. Sub-Continent Open goes all year long!

Special thanks to "Democratically" twitter account for triggering this thought.

Why we should not copy the Americans

We don't need to copy the Americans. What have they done right to copy anyway? Their economy has failed, their families values are messed up, they are probably the country spending the most amount of $$ in war and destruction. The only country to have ever used Nukes, the country to ruin Iran's developing democracy, the country that defied the United Nations while attacking Iraq. It is also the country who looks to have a lot of Nuclear Powers sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty but have not ratified it themselves.

Now if that isn't enough here's another reason. The HPI - Happy Planet Index compiled by UK based New Economic Foundation has placed India at the 35th position while USA is at the 114th position out of a total of 143 nations.

The list is topped by Costo Rica, lets start following them, atleast we will develop! Why shouldn't we follow Costo Rica or other countries which are definetly much much better than USA, just because USA makes good movies? Just because they have the money to do that, which ofcourse they got after exploiting the rest of the world. Should we follow such people who in the past have been inhuman imperialists while blaming others of Dictatorship, and even today are involved in one of the worst ongoing wars on Earth, the Afghan war, who for their own safety and security toppled Iran's democracy and now blame Iran for not having a viable democracy? Look around guys, there are much better things to copy if at all you want to copy, or better lets be innovative and learn from the goods of every one and not copy any one blindly. There are also a few issues where we, the Indians can lead the world and show the world the right path.

Source of information on survey:
CNN-IBN

Elements of the Indian Culture that Backfired

We have a very beautifull culture in India, absolutely fabulous and very colorfull. But there are elements in our culture which according to me have backfired, and backfired BIG TIME! This is my attempt to try to explain these elements of our culture and how i think they have backfired, without trying to hurt anyone's feelings.

The "Respect Elders Syndrome":
In our culture we are always taught to respect elders. Respect your parents, respect your relatives , those relatives who are elder to you, respect anyone and everyone who is elder to you. First may I ask, how much elder? What if my mamu is one day elder to me? Does that count too?

Now on a more serious note, my main problem with this culture is, why respect ONLY elders? Who respects children? Who respects people younger to oneself? Ofcourse a lot of you would say that everybody should be respected but elders should get more compared to younger people. But let us see how this "Respect Elders" culture really affects our day to day life.

Ajay was walking with his mom and her mother in law, Ajay's grandmother. It was a dark misty evening, and Ajay who recently learnt in his school about fog, told his grandmother, "Daadi (grandma) this fog is actually clouds that formed just above the Earth". The grandmother, not very knowledgeable about such things refused to accept what her grandchild just said. Infact she told him, "No its not clouds". Ajay insisted and his mother told him to keep quiet. Defeated by two elder women Ajay put the topic at the back of his mind. Later that night though, Ajay asked his mother, "Fog is really clouds, my physics teacher taught me in school". His mother very calmly told him, "Yes beta (child), i know, but you should not argue with elder people like that."

The point here is, in this process of "respecting elders" we are actually hurting our society. Now this is a very childish example , the same concept applies to adults, and becomes all the more complicated and dangerous. Child abuse by parents, women abuse by in-laws, are all compounded effects of this one basic "value" we inherit from our culture. Respect Elders is one thing, demanding or expecting respect because you are elder, is the culture we have unwantingly got ourselves into. And it doesnt end here! The effects compoound even greatly.

So till now i have identified child abuse, women abuse by in laws as being rooted to the culture of respecting elders. I say women abuse by in laws specifically and do not include Husbands yet, because husbands abusing their wives is something i will take up later in this post. Ragging culture, is yet another culture which springs out of the elemental culture of respecting elders. In this case you can call it respecting power. Just because you are a first year student you have to obey what your seniors dictate you to do. Even if this doesnt take up violent forms, and is as simple as singing a song or giving an introduction , this is basically abuse of power. Power we have created in our culture and given to seniors. Our society has a very undemocratic heirarchical structure, from family to college to ofcourse government. Teachers also many times think they are to be respected by students and the students have to believe everything they say and that they have the right to go to the extent of slapping or beating a child.

Its all about power. Power given to those of higher status (like in a family), higher caste, or higher position (like college or school). Same with politicians who think they are rulers, and are above law. Wondered why most politicians are old? Its because we respect them so much, elders not politicians. We respect elders so much that firstly we offer them what they want and mostly they themselves expect respect along with obidience.

Here i come to another point i want to make. Does respecting mean to obey blindly? Does respecting mean to follow blindly? Does respecting mean to say yes for everything? Can not we with full respect tell our elders that this or that is wrong? Cannot we with great respect listen to the point of view of someone younger or inferior to us? Sad but no Indian culture has taught us not to do such things.

Pati Parmeshvar:
Another element of Indian culture, which is very disastrous and many people don't know unconstitutional! In India , atleast legally, a man and woman are supposed to be 50% stakeholders in a marraige. Which means both have equal right over the kids, and which also as i interpret it, means that the woman has the right to stay with her parents.

Why does a woman have to sacrifice her parents , when she marries? I will put this in slightly different ways. Why are women forced to do such a dis-service to their parents, who by no doubts are the closest relatives of the woman. Would guys do such a dis-service to their parents, even though they love them so much? Where does all the thoughts about Gender equality go when it comes to marraiges? Cannot a man and woman marry each other, without the woman having to marry the man's family as well?

This along with the respect elders culture has led to abuse of wives by husbands, and very interestingly is also the reason the women stay shut and bear everything and accept it as their fate.

Lives are being lost, not by the physical death of women but by their mental death. Guys have to understand this and help make a better India with a reformed culture. Most importantly women have to stand up and understand the gravity of the situation and the discrimination against them and not only fight to become independent but also help others become independent. We have a lot in our culture to be very proud of, but a few things that we have got wrong, can be changed.

I would like to end this long article, with my concept of respecting people. If you have read all along and reached till here, thanks a lot for being so patient.
"Respect each and every single person around you, just for the sake of humanity. Respect more those who deserve more and most importantly respect differences in opinions".

RIP VIP Culture

It's time we say R I P to VIP culture in India and stop treating our netas as Gods. Here is a situation in India right now, where the ex-President and perhaps one of the most respected Indian in India is frisked, and he being the gentleman he has always been has no problems with the incident, whereas the Parliament cries foul.

Our dear old politicians, are not crying for the dis-respect shown to Dr Kalam but to protect their own Godly images. It is bloody high time we cut short the privilages these politicians get, they are servants after all, and servants are supposed to serve not rule. The President and Prime Minister of India may retain such privilages but that is more than enough.

It is completely ridiculous how traffic is blocked so that ONE, one out of a billion plus Indians can go where he wants to go, not like most of his group are sincere and honest either. Ex-President Dr Kalam has stood in queues many times, (sigh) it's sad, but our Politicians don't even learn from the President!