Indo-Techno Relations

There's been enough discussion on the online exams being introduced in India. Especially, this issue was exaggerated when the debut CAT online exam was a failure in first round due to server failure. But friends, do u think just because of this example, we can stand our ground in criticizing the use of technology in various examinations held across the country? India is a developing country with a vision 2020 and till date, about 70% of the universities in India have shifted to technology for conducting examinations and for various clerical works. Though India may lack infrastructure on certain levels like in the field of software developers, the benefits of resolving to technology must not be forgotten. Lack of infrastructure was one of the main reasons of the failure of CAT online exam at d implementation level. The benefits of avoiding paper-pen examinations can be listed as avoiding the wastage of paper and saving various funds used for its manufacture, reduction of time and easy management with less number of people etc. But, I do not think that its not feasible in answering all types of questions using technology like the comprehension type questions in CAT exam or derivation problem for an engineering student. It is not conducive for the users and is time-consuming. I'm not sure whether these type of hurdles in the introduction of technology can be solved.

Kashmir- the concave side

Hi friends, as march marches past, as our country marches up in the economical survey and as we look to march to the top of the world, the northern part of our country seems to face a disturbance wave which had been hidden in the unrecognized pages of Indian media. Kashmir is a very important and the most controversial state in India on the international arena. Every year the influential party members in Kashmir along with several civilians hoist the Pakistan National Flag on 14th August and burn the Indian National Flag on streets. But the media hesitate to disclose these flags, instead keep presenting the masala items as breaking news. Strong forces in Kashmir support this and the Indian politicians in Delhi seem unaware of the situation. Those who are aware or pretend to be unaware, stand pity-fully confronting the miserable condition there. Its already known that more than half of Kashmir is in the hands of Pakistan & China. Problems of this kind in the Indian Kashmir questions the decision of Pandit Nehru of dividing Bengal & Punjab during Partition of India, and not dividing Kashmir as it was his home state. India is the only country in the world where the National Flag is burnt. This never becomes breaking news in the media though it surely becomes an issue if the map of India is printed on the cricket ground or Sachin cuts a cake made of the Indian Tri-colour or even if Mandira Bedi wears a Tri-colour sari. All these remind of the Media Black-out which prevails in Afghanistan and the in-activeness of media in India before 1985.

Railway Budget

Hi friends, you all must have followed the railway budget presented by union railway minister Mamata Banerjee. There are plenty of things to think on this budget. The most attractive which i found was the introduction of 'Matrabhoomi','Karmabhoomi' and 'Janmabhoomi' trains meant specially for a ladies, working class people who regularly travel by trains and the defense n army troops, respectively. Further there's a proposal to increase the length railway tracks by 1000km in the coming year. Mamata Banerjee has also argued for multitasking in the railway stations like setting up hospitals, kendriya vidyalaya schools, hostels, lodges and shopping malls in and around railway stations. Certain stations are o be upgraded as World-class stations but it had been proposed when Lalu Prasad was our railway minister and still less improvement is seen in this direction. The proposal is still in planning stages with the local railway officials. There has been a lot of discussion that Bengal had a major share in the railway budget. According to me, every Railway minister gives some privileges to his/her home state like Lalu Prasad did for Bihar when he was handling this port-folio. It was obvious that Bengal will get special privileges like setting up of some wagon industries and extension of the metro in Kolkata. Mamata has proposed to rename few metro stations in Kolkata like park street as Bhagat Singh and Kalighat as Mother Teresa. this was totally needless and does not seem reasonable. While some names are appreciable like M.G Road station as Thakurbari station. Mamata has also gifted something to what she mentioned has 'the country's most neglected part'.The North-East states do not have a 2-way rail track and it had been years the people of the region were demanding for it. Mamata has proposed it for the route Guwahati-Tinsukia-Dibrugarh. The implementation of upgrading stations to World-class and Ideal stations need to been accelerated. Mamata has also crossed the borders and proposed to start a train named 'e par Bangla o par Bangla' from West-Bengal to Bangladesh. She has also provided a train named 'Amar Shonar Bangla' from Howrah to Agartala through Bangladesh which will help in reducing the time of travel of the passengers. .Its not-so-good news as Secunderabad station, the headquarter of South-Central railways did not get a place in the World-class stations list, but it would be upgraded as one of the Ideal stations. Besides, Mamata has proposed to run special trains during CWG in Delhi which also includes the double-decker train in the Delhi-Kolkata route. This double decker is nw being manufactured at Kapurthala. Besides, the Cancer patients will enjoy free travel in Indian railways in 3AC and sleeper class. Altogether its an ambitious budget whose aims have to be met by proper implementation of the ideas proposed which is certainly not going to be easy for the superior of the World's biggest network of railways.

Google's Googly

9th February was the day of the launch of GOOGLE BUZZ, a new addition to the Google associates. As many people are bored with orkut and Facebook and need an easy and fast means of communication with pals, the emergence of Google buzz was felt. As most of the people have their Google inbox open, they can directly chat wid friends n comment on posts from gmail without accessing a social network like orkut, facebook or myspace. But there has been criticism on Google buzz as it has its disadvantages...like the privacy of the users. Google has enabled auto-following of the users by the people he/she often sends e-mail or chats with. This is another concern for the company as they are receiving rude and harsh feedbacks from the users. Also, to view a particular comment on a post, the users need to scroll down the subsequent comments of other readers to find the desired comment. However, Google has responded to these feedbacks and is trying to improve Google buzz by making it user-friendly. The auto-following of the friends will be disabled and the users will be provided with options to suggest th friends they will follow and the ones who can chat with them and comment on their posts. I think buzz,in its modified form will be a true gift to the users in this busy and fast world.Today, people check their mails in gmail inbox and then they need to open orkut or facebook to communicate with their friends. Buzz will facilitate simpler and time-saving communication with friends. Comment on the growth and advancements of buzz as you keep using this amazing Google Googly

The Feb Flavor

Here comes February, the unique month of 28 days. If any of you guys have your birthday on 29th February,it may be something you wont like but guys don't be sad, Feb has many flavors and interesting things to entertain you.Though India doesn't have many festivals celebrated in this month, other nations have some Red-letter days in Feb. Some of the examples are the Sri-Lankan Independence Day on Feb 4, National Liberation day on Feb 11,Constitution of Mexico completed its drafting on Feb5,Flag Day of Canada on Feb 15, Liberation Day of Kuwait on Feb 26. Feb month is celebrated as the Black Month in USA and Canada in remembrance of the people and events that took place there for the African movement. Well, for all my young friends there's no need to mention about Feb 14 as the Saint Valentine day, a traditional day to express love to the loved ones. I only wish you enjoy this romantic month of Feb and follow my posts. Welcome fabulous Feb!!!

Serials' sensitives

Hi friends, today I've read about the case filed against production houses promoting violence and humiliation through TV serials. I've thought of it many times myself. Our mothers, sisters and wifes often watch family stuffs in TV that show crookedness, sliminess and jealousy feelings among the relatives of a family. They even portray polygamy and abuses in certain sections of the society.I strongly oppose Balaji Telefilms and other production houses promoting this. This is highly provocative and may channelize the thinking of young minds in a destructive way. Especially housewives are too interested in these narrow-minded craps. Anti-social acts like suicides, brutal murders, inhuman things, etc. must also be restricted. TV is a medium of social deeds in our democratic country. As a matter of fact, this issue becomes serious because visuals are more effective and leave an impact than auditory ones. This does not mean TV is an absolute idiot box and must be banned. There are many informative programs that can be produced and presented before the curious and sensitive audience like comedy, informative and detective serials, serials with mythological touch, historical and do-u-know facts, quizzes, competitions and cultural programs, etc. Besides there are always other stuffs like news, political discussions, sport, car and gadget talks etc. I do not find any reason why we should watch the family melodramas on TV when there are so many things superior than them and worth-watching and knowing about. Friends, if you guys find anything useful in these family programs, please let me know. Do not forget to comment as your opinion matters in the growth of discussion

Hindi-our National language. Are you sure???

Recently the Gujarat High Court in Ahmadabad declared that Hindi is not our National Language. This has triggered a discussion in the political, cultural and social fraternity in India. In fact, India does not have a National Language. India is a highly diverse country with many languages and cultures. Most of the North-Indian languages have been derived from the Devanagari script and hence Hindi has been accepted easily by all in North & Central India. But the South-Indian languages dates back to the Dravidian Era and therefore they find it difficult to follow Hindi. A major example is Tamilnadu promoting their language and culture in their state. This may encourage a divide between North and South Indians but we as Indians must respect other languages and not compromise our culture. Almost every state in India has its own language. This makes India unique among all countries. Moreover, Hindi is not accepted as the National Language in our Constitution too. But as Indians a single language must unite us and it can be none other than Hindi. Hindi is making its identity in the world as India's language. A flower does not bloom without its petals. India has many languages as petals of a single flower and Hindi is its blossomed form which looks beautiful to the flowers of other plants. Its rightly said :
'In India, water changes every one mile and people change every two miles'

World beware, China's coming

China is expected to become the next superpower in the world. Its competing with the USA in most of the fields including, technology, sports, finance, defense and influence on the world. The chinese acts clearly suggest that they want to expand their kingdom to the extent possible. Recent activities encouraging this frame of thinking is the settlement of naval base on coco islands, the northern-most island among Andaman & Nicobar group of Islands, Chinese settlements 20 km from the border within Arunachal Pradesh and the act of claiming Tawang, Chinese army bases in the western part of jammu & kashmir, the construction of several air-strips and military bases near the Nepal-China border. The medals in Olympics is dominated by the Chinese sportsmen in recent years contrasting to the predominant dominance of USA. Google blamed china-based hackers to have hacked it. Google might have quit China, but being the largest internet community in the world, I fear China will come-up with something more amazing than Google and reign the markets. Technological developments were clearly seen in the Beijing Olympics with world-class stadiums and facilities and the blowing out of clouds from the sky by missiles. China-USA cold war is in the news these days and was clearly sighted in the Copenhagen climate summit. But being a communist country, China has its own disadvantages also. Finally I want to comment that the Dragons are on a roll.

States' stats

You all must be well aware of the Telangana row and the disturbance in the largest of the 4 South-Indian sister states. There are already 9 petitions pending with the central government on state divisions,viz,Vidarbha,Purvanchal,Harit Pradesh,Bundelkhand,Gorkhaland,Bodoland,Sourashtra and Rayalseema. If the central government gives approval to Telangana state formation there will be a fashion in the country which will impose constant hunger strikes n bandhs in the cities resulting in a political crisis and chaos in the country. This does not mean that i oppose the sentiments of the people of Telangana. Telangana was ruled by the Nizam of Hyderabad and it was never under direct British rule. Rayalseema was ruled by the Chalukyas and the coastal Andhra region came under madras state. The unification to form Andhra Pradesh took place on linguistic basis after Independence when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru decided to divide the states on linguistic basis. This was the hallmark of whatever we are facing today. It could have been divided as different provinces that existed before Independence like the Northern province, central province etc.Consequently different kingdoms merged together like Vidarbha and Maharashtra, Gujarat & Sourashtra, etc. But the consent of the people in those kingdoms was neglected and therefores the situation stands before us as we are seeing it today. I can just say that dear people of my country, our country is already divided with Punjab and Bengal being the major losers. Please dont divide our counrty on regionalism and proudly say to the world 'United we stand, divided we fall'