Dakshinayana Part Twelve – Aurangabad: The City of Gates

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 4/25/2013 1:28:00 PM

'Taj of Deccan - From the front I left Nagpur around 8 in the night, in a state run bus to Aurangabad (722 INR). 476km long Nagpur – Aurangabad route passing through Amaravati, Jalna etc took the rest of the night. One of the bizarre incident happened during this journey was, a ticket checker woke me up around 3 am in the morning. I am still wondering, what was the need for checking'

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35% reservation for women in Bihar Police

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 4/24/2013 4:56:00 AM

'"Bihar Cabinet... passed a proposal...to grant 35 per cent reservation for women in recruitment of constables and sub-inspectors in reserved and as well as unreserved categories." Bihar Cabinet nod for quota for women in police - The Hindu I am not a supporter of reservation, but chronic under-representation of women in Indian law enforcing agencies really demand it. Effectiveness of Police'

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Dakshinayana Part Eleven – Sevagram: Walking with Gandhi

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 4/19/2013 4:46:00 PM

'Shalimar Lokmanya Tilak Express was supposed to start at 1.40 in the afternoon. Train was not crowded, but neither had any vacant seats except in berths. Finally I decide to sit at the door itself, watching countryside of Maharashtra for next one hour. An old man – a regular traveller in Lokmanya Tilak – sat next to me. He was more interested in explaining about railway stations than anything'

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Draw your dream home, take a printout using 3D printer, and sleep inside

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 4/17/2013 10:33:00 AM

'Grab your mouse and start drawing a home in computer screen; if you don’t like some part, erase it; If you need to modify some parts, just erase that portion and redraw it. Show the design to your family, relatives and friends, and ask for their comments. After finalizing, just hit the print button and forget it. Come back after some time, your home will be there... ready to occupy.... This'

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Public apathy towards accident victims in Jaipur tunnel. Ask what you could do...

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 4/17/2013 7:14:00 AM

'24 * 7 people are complaining in social networks, workplace, seminars, articles etc that Indian administrative system is corrupt from top to bottom, government is not doing this, not doing that etc. But how many of us, as citizens, are doing our part of job? Yesterday, there was an accident inside a new tunnel in the city of Jaipur - just 265 km away from National Capital New Delhi. In this'

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Are we running backwards to Stone Age? Tribal warfare?

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 4/17/2013 6:04:00 AM

'"Thirteen people of the Ror community have been arrested and heavy security deployed in Pabnawa village of Kaithal district in Haryana, after a 400-strong mob allegedly launched an attack on 150 Dalits on Saturday, causing some 200 Dalit families to flee the village. Their houses were allegedly looted and women humiliated...sequel to Dalit boy Suryakant’s marriage with Ror community girl Meena'

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Western Ghats and 'Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP)’ Report

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 4/16/2013 5:44:00 PM

'Silent Valley - A View from observation tower For a long time, thought-out my childhood days, Western Ghats remained as a permanent fixture in my life. Living close to Ghats, I could see the mighty mountains standing on a side, with mysterious mist roaming around it. Even now, every time I cross Palakkad Gap, that saintly figure used to come to my mind. Human thirst for development'

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Caste discrimination, victims in one case became preparators in another

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 4/15/2013 4:40:00 PM

'Over 300 Dalit families of Deveerahalli Village (Tamilnadu).. allege that they are being denied work by intermediate castes of the village and of six other nearby villages. “A love affair is the reason for denial of work to Dalits” - The Hindu This is a classic example of discrimination. When upper caste stick with discrimination, both intermediate and lower caste, including dalits, protests;'

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Doctor and medicine is available but syringe refuses to work - a tragic saga from Uttarakhand

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 4/12/2013 7:08:00 PM

'"The Rs 793-crore UN-supported livelihood enhancement project in Uttarakhand is facing political and bureaucratic hurdle" "...sponsored by the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), a UN body, the state government would receive funds totaling Rs 793 crore for livelihood enhancement project in the state. "Due to the stalemate, we have not received any funds so far," said a'

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Continuing tragic saga of fuel linkage in Indian power sector

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 4/12/2013 6:46:00 PM

'"At least four states have asked Coal India Ltd...to curtail supplies to power plants, complaining excess fuel stocks are causing frequent fires" "This, however, does not mean the coal shortage for the power sector has been eliminated. What has happened is a sharp reduction in the number of power stations with a critical coal stock level" Problem of scarcity becomes problem of plenty - BS ".'

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Cleaning the dying rivers in India (again)

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 4/12/2013 5:51:00 PM

'Bharatapuzha - Kerala How often do you find clean running water in rivers, which are unfortunate enough to have major cities in her banks? As my friend once told about Musi River flowing through Hyderabad city, “it’s not river, it’s just a drainage channel”. I had to see it with my eyes to understand what he really meant. According to recent press release from Ministry of Environment'

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Ireland Doctors still sticking with Stone Age ideologies?

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 4/12/2013 6:48:00 AM

'Savita Halappanavar’s death in last October left behind a lot of questions about Irish policy on anti-abortion laws. The main question was, could doctors able to save her life if they agreed to her request for abortion? Apparently, she was 17 weeks pregnant when admitted to ‘Galway University Hospital’, and was found to be miscarrying. Later "an inquiry into Savita’s death found that she could'

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The Open Source World and Kerala’s ‘IT@School’

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 4/9/2013 6:06:00 PM

'Linux Logo What can be the major reason for Microsoft Windows Operating System's success? Foremost among them may be, its deals with PC makers and its ability to catch kids at very young age. Once a person is very much familiar with windows, it’s difficult make the transition to another one in a later stage. One of my friends often says change is the only thing, which will never change rest'

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Third front – Will it ever see the light of the day?

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 4/1/2013 7:48:00 PM

'When elections are about to come and hit the door, politicians suddenly woke up from bed and start shouting about third front. When they say third front, it is quite common for others to think first and second front exists. Interestingly, people who are in first and second front themselves don’t know whether the amalgamation can be called as front or not. Possible members Third front used to'

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Ganga Expressway or Ganga Waterway?

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 3/26/2013 7:17:00 AM

'Ganga Expressway: state government envisioned Rs 3,160 crores worth project to provide 22 KMs long four lane congestion free road link within Patna... HUDCO...sanctioned Rs. 2,000 crores as soft loan to state government for this project - Business Standard 3160 Crores for 22 km means, 143.63 crores/km, that too fully funded by government. Is it really required? Why doesn’t Bihar try to'

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TB - The Killer Disease and India

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 3/25/2013 7:02:00 PM

'Centre for Disease Control and Prevention - Chest X-ray of a person with advanced tuberculosis. Infection in both lungs is marked by white arrow-heads, and the formation of a cavity is marked by black arrows Introduction TB - short form for Tuberculosis - was just a name of disease in Biology text, which could give me half mark in exam. This changed when TB conquered the body of one of my'

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Incredible India and sexual attacks directed towards women

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 3/25/2013 6:22:00 PM

'Sexual attacks on women and foreigners are slowly but steadily eroding the image of India as a safe place for women. This is particularly damning for our tourism sector. Whatever positive opinion generated by 'Incredible India!' campaign may evaporate considerably, if we are not able to put a full stop to sexual attacks on women and foreign women tourists. Who would like to go to a country,'

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Declining share of agricultural sector in Indian GDP

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 3/21/2013 10:07:00 AM

'According to latest government reports, share of agriculture and allied sectors in India's GDP may decline to 13.7% in 2012-13 from 14.1% in 2011-12. In 2009-10, it was 14.6% and in 2010-11 it was 14.5%. This declining trend, in terms of percentage, can be attributed to relatively high growth in non-farm sector like services. Now the question is, whether this trend is good or bad for India? I'

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Travel restrictions on Italian diplomat to India and Vienna convention

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 3/21/2013 7:30:00 AM

'According to reports, on 15th February 2012, two marines from Italian Navy Vessel Protection Detachment(VPD) travelling on board of oil tanker 'MV Enrica Lexie' shot and killed two unarmed Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala, in India's contiguous zone (but not in Territorial waters). After close to one year, for exercising their right to vote in Italian elections, Supreme Court of India ('

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The Coal dilemma in Indian power sector

Author : Sajeev k      Blog : Astitva - Search for an Identity      Date : 3/20/2013 8:36:00 PM

'According to latest details from government, India installed 15,956 MW against the planned capacity of 16,407 MW in conventional - thermal and hydro - power sector in 2012-13. During this time, state run NTPC commissioned five thermal projects – Mauda (MH), Rihand (UP), Sipat (CG), Vindhyachal (UP), Indra Gandhi Unit 3 (HR) - totalling 2,660 MW. NTPC-TANGEDCO added 500 MW and ONGC installed an'

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