Remove Corruption, Erase Rural -Urban Divide, Face Energy Crisis and many more visionary is no more...Prof. Kalam ends his lecture to youth of India

Prof. Kalam is no more and today when the country would be remembering one last time on the day of his last rites before 24 x 7 media shifts attention to another story being build up. Its fate the same day two persons from India being laid to rest from same community. One being, teacher and another a terror supporter and actor. One hanged till death another smiled at death and left in peace.

Last 15 years since India came to know about Dr. Kalam he served as President, he spreads his wings to the youth to forward his vision for India. Though year 2020 is just five year away we are still hoping for some miracle. Actions of the youth to fight corruption, reduce rural -urban divide and facing energy crisis has become the 'Sarkari' mission. The youth is de-linked and asked to train themselves to contribute to growth which are going to damage the very concern expressed by Prof. Kalam.

Though teachers in the nation are respected and have given maximum knowledge there are industrial giants have ridiculed the talent of the youth. The ignited mind as expressed by our late president, Shri Kalam have been concerned about the fate of nation, but did not find the driving force with in the political systems. The 'Anna' movement did show the power of youth where the political leadership successfully divided and ridiculed the movement later raised the same issues to get the power in national government. The power of intellectuals to convinced the political class and bureaucracy have reduced to jibes occasionally at them.

Today not much can be written on the issues that have concerned the generations, the nation needs to rise and reduce the debate towards the 'development politics' as great teacher Dr. Kalam wanted and was close to his heart. The scientific community concerned about the growth of sciences, and concerned about the earth must come together to cherish and nurture the wishes of the departed soul. Though never met the gentleman from Rameshvaram, its obvious that Dr. Kalam did inspire a whole generation of youth in 1990 till 2015 for the selfless service to nation. His earlier avatar as missile man or ISRO scientist must have been very hard-way of learning, a scientist who served the nation not only through his works but also inspired must get a peace while letting us get aspired to work hard and serve the nation. Goodbye ....Sir..

Cabinet Approves SMART and AMRUT Mission in India

Union Cabinet approves Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation and Smart Cities Mission to drive economic growth and foster inclusive urban development

In a determined bid to recast the urban landscape of the country to make urban areas more livable and inclusive besides driving the economic growth, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi today approved Central Government spending of about one lakh crore on urban development under two new urban missions over the next five years. The Cabinet has approved the Smart Cities Mission and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation of 500 cities (AMRUT) with outlays of Rs.48,000 crore and Rs.50,000 crore respectively. Under the Smart Cities Mission, each selected city would get central assistance of Rs.100 crore per year for five years. Smart City aspirants will be selected through a ‘City Challenge Competition’ intended to link financing with the ability of the cities to perform to achieve the mission objectives. Each state will shortlist a certain number of smart city aspirants as per the norms to be indicated and they will prepare smart city proposals for further evaluation for extending Central support. This Mission of building 100 smart cities intends to promote adoption of smart solutions for efficient use of available assets, resources and infrastructure with the objective of enhancing the quality of urban life and providing a clean and sustainable environment. Special emphasis will be given to participation of citizens in prioritizing and planning urban interventions. It will be implemented through ‘area based’ approach consisting of retrofitting, redevelopment, pan-city initiatives and development of new cities. Under retrofitting, deficiencies in an identified area will be addressed through necessary interventions as in the case of Local Area Plan for downtown Ahmedabad. Redevelopment enables reconstruction of already built-up area that is not amenable for any interventions, to make it smart, as in the case of Bhendi Bazar of Mumbai and West Kidwai Nagar in New Delhi. Pan-city components could be interventions like Intelligent Transport Solutions that benefits all residents by reducing commuting time. Under smart cities initiative, focus will be on core infrastructure services like: Adequate and clean Water supply, Sanitation and Solid Waste Management, Efficient Urban Mobility and Public Transportation, Affordable housing for the poor, power supply, robust IT connectivity, Governance, especially e-governance and citizen participation, safety and security of citizens, health and education and sustainable urban environment. Smart City Action Plans will be implemented by Special Purpose Vehicles(SPV) to be created for each city and state governments will ensure steady stream of resources for SPVs. The two missions are interlinked. AMRUT adopts a project approach to ensure basic infrastructure services relating to water supply, sewerage, septage management, storm water drains, transport and development of green spaces and parks with special provision for meeting the needs of children. Implementation of this Mission will be linked to promotion of urban reforms such as e-governance, constitution of professional municipal cadre, devolving funds and functions to urban local bodies, review of Building bye-laws, improvement in assessment and collection of municipal taxes, credit rating of urban local bodies, energy and water audit and citizen-centric urban planning. 10 percent of budget allocation will be given to States/UTs as incentive based on achievement of reforms during the previous year. A reform matrix with timelines would be circulated to States in the Guidelines. This Mission will be implemented in 500 cities and towns each with a population of one lakh and above, some cities situated on stems of main rivers, a few capital cities and important cities located in hilly areas, islands and tourist areas. Under this Mission, States get the flexibility of designing schemes based on the needs of identified cities and in their execution and monitoring. States will only submit State Annual Action Plans to the Centre for broad concurrence based on which funds will be released. In a significant departure from JNNURM, Central Government will not appraise individual projects. Central assistance will be to the extent of 50 percent of project cost for cities and towns with a population of up to 10 lakh and one-third of the project cost for those with a population of above 10 lakh. Central assistance will be released in three instalments in the ratio of 20:40:40 based on achievement of milestones indicated in State Annual Action Plans. AMRUT seeks to lay a foundation to enable cities and towns to eventually grow into smart cities. The Cabinet also today approved Central funding under AMRUT to the projects sanctioned under JNNURM and not completed. JNNURM projects relating to urban development sanctioned during 2005 -2012 and achieved physical progress of 50 percent availing 50 percent of central assistance released and those sanctioned during 2012-2014 will be supported till March, 2017. Accordingly, 102 and 296 projects respectively will get Central support for balance funding to complete these projects. Central spending approved for the next five years under the two new Missions assumes significance in the backdrop of the approved Plan outlay of Rs.42,900 crore for JNNURM that was implemented over nine years between 2005 and 2014. Out of this, actual Central assistance released was Rs.36,398 crore. Further to today’s Cabinet approval, a minimum investment of over Rs. 2 lakh crore would flow into urban areas over the next five years (2015-16 – 2019-20) since States and urban local bodies would mobilise matching resources ranging from 50 percent to 66 percent. In addition, substantial private investments would be mobilized by states and urban local bodies through PPP model as required to meet project costs. The architecture of the Smart Cities Mission and AMRUT is guided by the twin objectives of meeting the challenges of growing urbanization in the country in a sustainable manner as well as ensuring the benefits of urban development to the poor through increased access to urban spaces and enhanced employment opportunities. Source: Press Information Bureau, INDIA, April 2015

National Debates on Farmer Suicides: Live Broadcast of Farmer Suicides, Rallies and briefing by political leaders to nations

"A farmer hanged himself in front of 24 x 7 media in a political rally, while a state CM, national media TV and Print, police officials etc. had a decent watch of the process. Evening shows packaged with who should be responsible for the farmer live lost in front of everybody. An enquiry is being conducted and wittness gathered to prove that he committed suicide."

In the post independence India, this kind of incidents are not only shameful but criminal neglect by everybody. The ignorance and indifference of the leaders and political class is very hightned in this incident. The statements by hon. Home Minister and later by PM to condone the incidents may not be enough. The ownership of the people are taken over by them, have become masters to distribute the doles to the poor farmers. The systems have failed to respond in the natural disasters, whats the role of political class in realeasing the funds for the affected farmers. There was huge funds, and legal systems enacted to respond to the disasters, yet none of the state government reacted properly, the hypothetical assumption of the power by them raised concerns about the decisions to be taken by the political class.

The farmers who lost the crops must not be at the mercy of the political leaders, but the systems made to provided immediate relief have failed measirably, we are yet to get quick assessment despite the modern satellite technology to assess the damage. The numerable man power available at the disposal of the district governments could have been used to assess the losses and damages. Yet even after 45 days people have no idea how much compensation they can claim or get. The linkages of bank accounts, aadhar cards and other systems have also not helped in quick transfer of money /financial assistance. The issues are being rallied between the state and central government, who should act fast, why it takes months to assess.

While the nation watched the recent suicide of the farmer live 24 hours the pain of the citizen is very much in forefront. The politics of the national disasters must avoid the system to be enacted for the disaster management. We are so week that the political leaders take their own time and political situation to encash the dole transfer. We must not take these lightly, the world would look at us in peity.

I hope we must strengthen our systems to upgrade the disaster management in the manner as designed in the governance system. Empower the local bodies to take action, and provide necessary relief on time. 

Scam India to Skill India: Shaming India Abroad

The recent visit of PM abroad highlighted the change in India during last ten months from its transition from being 'scam India' to 'skill India'. No matter nothing has been done to make India skilled in last 10 months yet may turnout to be rallying point of ruling party. The assumption of the political class in owning the government from being Government of India to be claimed as 'Modi Sarkar' we personalized the government officially. Though the term used by media as an adjective turned out to be big election campaign slogan. The ownership did not remain only with the present ruling parties but the GoI ownership for past 60 years were granted to Congress. The easy claim to governments by the political class does not take into account the constitutional provisions and idea of government into four constituent pillars namely, executive, judiciary, legislative and media or people. 

The ownership of political class to government transferred all the ills of them to governments and in turn to the people of India. The notion of 'SCAM' India resides not only on the political parties those who have ruled but also people of India, who laboured hard to achieve the development goals. The professionals, government officials, academicians and citizens who all were part of various systems together brings out to what India is today. The alleged notion of India by present PM is faulty on the grounds of wild image created by the media. India is not scam prone its endevour to fight poverty and backwardness by increasing the agriculture production, industrial activities and technical knowledge is known world over. The efforts of people and tolerance of the all the government from central to state is legendary. Irrespective of shortage of resources, lack of infrastructure and basic amenities the people did not complained fully understanding the reasons of backwardness. This was not just scams which resulted in present state of affairs, its resource crunch, population growth and systems failure all due to various reasons.

There are times when the hard works of the individuals, state and national institutions have resulted in the change and enhanced India's competitiveness abroad. We have raised the glory of country in many economic sectors. We may be still middle income categories but the growth rate have risen in last two decades due to reforms. The scam allegations may be true since also marks the nature of awareness the media, state and people are into for their rights. 

The current government are at fault in raising the issue while showcasing the abilities of India and its people abroad. The party in power must respect the voice of nation, their dreams and refrain from damaging the image of India based on the data provided by the agencies who are out in open to protect the interest of developed world and their business. The trade imbalances are also result of poor image creation and campaign by the western nation to delink India's growth story from labour of its people. They are happy to project the poor image and disintegrated political class resulting in the damaging the ruling by the fellow political class and primarily the congress party. The parties in power must rule, but nation does not belong to a political party, its the people who have elected them to restore the image of India and enhance its potential. The blame game must stop and short term arrogance of the political parties must go away to give space to development works based on the reasonable policies not drawn by political class but by all the constituents of the Government of India and its states.