Archives October 2012

AMARTYA KIJMAR SEN was born on 3rdNovember 1933 at Shantiniketan, West Bengal. He received his initial education at Shantiniketan and then Presidency College, Calcutta. In his early childhood he was exposed to the plight of the poor. The sight of people dying during famine shocked him. It was, perhaps, this shocking experience that made him study the economic mechanism underlying famines and poverty.  Sen. first studied in India before moving to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he earned a BA in 1956 and then a Ph.D. in 1959. He has taught economics at Calcutta, Delhi School of Economics (1963-71), Oxford, Harvard and was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, between 1997 and 2004. Prof. Amartya Kumar Sen. is one of the greatest intellectuals and economists of modern India. Amartya Sen. is a philosopher, economist and asocial thinker. At a time when the world was talking of globalization, liberalization and free market economy, more...

Right to Information Act (RTI) 2005 mandate s timely response to citizen requests for government information. Since every citizen pays taxes, therefore he is entitled to know how the government is functioning. The Act empowers every citizen to seek any information from the government, obtain copies of any government documents, inspect any government documents, works and records, and take certified samples of materials of any government work. According to Act No. 22 of 2005, The Right to Information Act is "An Act to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority, the constitution of a Central Information Commission and State Information Commissions and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto." This law was passed by Parliament on 15 June 2005 more...

India's population is over one billion and out of it 40percent are young men and women in the age group of 15 and 30. They form a huge reservoir of energy and cream of the country. Wisdom and discretion are not the monopoly of the elders alone. The young men and women are also intelligent endwise and much of a nation's progress and future depend upon them. According to Samuel Johnson, "Young men have more virtue than old men; they have more generous sentiments in every respect."  Young people are full of abundant energy, courage, spirit for adventure imagination, hope and ambition. These can be very well used in the constructive and developmental activities of country. These should not be allowed either to go waste or used for destructive purposes. The young men and women of India should be fully involved in creative work of nation-building and reconstruction. Younger generation, more...

The Right to Education is a fundamental right and is accorded the same legal status as the right to life as provided by Article 21A of the Indian Constitution. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 is "An act to provide for free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years." The right of children to free and compulsory education came into force from April 1, 2010. According to the act, every child in the age group of 6-14 years will be provided 8 years of elementary education in an age appropriate classroom in the vicinity of his/her neighborhood. According to the act, any cost that prevents a child from accessing school will be borne by the state which shall have the responsibility of enrolling the child as well as ensuring completion of 8 years of schooling. No child shall more...

The primary duty of students is to pursue knowledge. As such a student is expected to pursue his aim of gaining knowledge with a single-minded devotion and a spirit of dedication. However, even studies can be pursued if proper atmosphere for this exists. As such, all sections of society have a duty to maintain calm and congeniality in their homes and elsewhere to let these future leaders of the country do their job diligently. The Indian students, by and large, did yeoman’s job during the freedom struggle. On the call given by our political leaders, they came out of their institutions and took a major part in the freedom struggle. After Independence, now the students' role in India is limited to the pursuit of knowledge and taking active part in such national policies as census, pulse polio, T.B., malaria, AIDS, - Hepatitis-B and C eradication programmes, as also such programmes more...

India is one of the fastest growing economies of the world and is witnessing growth, particularly in manufacturing and service sector. Therefore, to realize the full potential of the growth impulses surging in the economy, the provision of quality and efficient infrastructure services is essential. India's infrastructure includes performance and connectivity of basic systems and services such as roadways, railways, ports, airports and telecom. Over years, India's soft infrastructure has grown much faster than the hard infrastructure. Today, the Indian telecommunication industry is the world's fastest growing industry with 826.93 million mobile phone subscribers, as of April 2011. The market's first operator was the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), but liberalization led to the entry of private players such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Idea Cellular and Aircel. A large population, low telephony penetration levels, and a rise in consumer spending power have helped make India the more...

While all of us are rightly so eager to manage pollution of all kinds, it is also important for us to help in protecting wildlife. We should abide by the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. It is no secret that a large scale smuggling of wildlife goods is taking place all over the world in spite of requisite laws passed by a majority of countries of the world in this regard. Elephants' ivory is sold and for that the poor elephants are killed. Lions are killed for Medicinal purposes and so are tigers. White tiger, in particular, has entered the realm of a rare species. Another well-known rare species is the Chiruknown as Tibetan Antelope (Pantholopes Hodgsoni). It is an endangered species. The famous shahtoosh shawls, priced at Rs. Lakh or more in the international market are made of the wool of this animal. As per reports gathered more...

For a country so reliant on its trains, Indian Railways' Vision 2020 envisages introduction of bullet trains, massive addition to its route network, segregation of passenger and freight services into separate double-line corridors, raising the speeds of passenger trains from the current 130 kmph to 160-200 kmph on some routes, zero accidents and equipment failures and setting up of high-speed passenger corridors. In rail budget 2011. the formation of National High Speed Railway Authority (NHSRA) has been approved, which will be responsible for implementing bullet train services in the country. The world's fourth largest rail network is planning to build six high speed rail corridors to provide faster rail connectivity across the country. The six corridors that have been selected for the project are-Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar (450 km). Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad (650 km), Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijayawada-Chennai    (664    km),    Chennai-Bangalore- Coimbatore-   Ernakulam   (649   km),   Howrah-Haldia   (135   km)   and Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna (991 km). Twelve state governments and one UT have more...

War is a horrible thing by all means. Even the very word is a hat able one. Earlier wars were fought with bows, arrows, spears, sticks and swords. But modern wars are very destructive Ones. Even some of the earlier wars were quite destructive. For example, the war between Lord Rama and Ravana, the Mahabharata, The War of Troy, The Wars of Roses, The Hundred Years War, etc. However, the destruction caused in the First World War and then in the Second World War, particularly in the second, was on an unprecedented scale. Since the World War II, the war machinery has greatly gained teeth all over the world. Almost all the countries of the world are laced with most destructive weapons like bombs, guns, cannon, warships, war planes, torpedoes, missiles, etc. Even countries like India and Pakistan which Previously did not have such importance from the military point of more...

India is poised to take over the developed countries to emerge at the top of the heap in the global economic superpower league by 2030. According to global banking giant Standard Chartered, India could emerge as the world's third largest economy by 2030. According to Standard Chartered Global Research, "India has the fundamentals to emerge a winner in the super-cycle, potentially becoming the world's third-largest economy by 2030... India is likely to grow faster, on average, than China over the next two decades." In 2010, the world's major economies were USA (USD 14.6 trillion), China (USD 5.7 trillion) and Japan (USD 5.4 trillion). India did not figure among the top ten, as per International Monetary Fund data. However, by 2030, it is estimated that India will be at number three position with an economy of USD 30.3 trillion, behind China with an economy of USD 73.5 trillion and US with more...