India Today

India today

Some Updates:

The Indian master blaster Sachin tendulkar is the highest run getter(More than 12,000) in the tests.He surpassed the world record held by West Indies player Brain Lara.He achieved this fete in Mohali on 17th October,2008.

Aravind adiga is the 4th Indian to receive the Booker prize in literacy for his book,THE WHITE TIGER.Another Indian,Arundhati roy, too recieved this award in 1997.Both have received for their debut novels.

India leads the madals tally at Pune(Maharashtra,India) in the Youth commonwealth games.

Viswanathan Anand(Chess Champion),has moved to the top place of the live world rankings.

India signed 123 agreement(Civil nuclear agreement) with USA,to tide over its energy crisis,despite criticism by some political parties.

Threats to national integration,such as Communal violence,and MNS's(Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) attacks on some north Indian students who went to Mumbai to appear for a railway recruitment exam.MNS has also been encouraging violence,promoting enemity base don region,religion,etc.There are also demands for separate states such as for Telangana,Vidharbha,Bodoland,Gorkhaland,etc.

Chandrayaan-1 was launched successfully on 22nd October 2008 with the collaboration of european space agency.Chandrayaan will send information about the geological and geographical features of the moon.This is India's first unmanned mission to the moon.India joins the elite club of U.S.,Russia,European space agency,china and japan,Thus India is only the 6th nation to explore the moon.Chandrayaan-2 will be launched shortly.India is also planning to send a manned mission to moon by 2015.

Rahul Gandhi said that even after 17 years he did not get justice,while referring to the delay in executing the death sentence given to some of those convicted in the case.
Justice delayed is justice denied.Even the ex PM's son could not get justice in time!!.

Nearly 13 people killed in Imphal blast on 21st October'2008.A girl was killed in a grenade blast in Kupwara district in J&K on 21st october'08,the terror strikes continues, what about POTA and TADA and other laws to contain terrorism?.

Infrastructure in some metro cities is not upto the mark,eg:during monsoon season,we read headlines in the media stating that Mumbai is under water,Chennai marroned,Kolkatta in undated,and so on.........We can imagine the state of affairs in non-metro regions.

The darker side of globalisation:Jet airways retrenched nearly 1900 employees but later reversed the decision.due to pressures from Maharashtra nav nirman sena.This organisation threatened that it would not allow jet and kingfisher flights to fly over Maharashtra state.

The Index of industrial production(IIP) has declined in the recent months.

The SENSEX has come down to below 10,000 mark.It reached even above 20,000 points in the recent past.This decline is due to the apprehensions of global slowdown,financial crisis,slowdown in the U.S.economy,etc.

The inflation rate has started declining due to the measures taken by the government and decrease in the international oil prices.At present(october 2008) inflation rate in India is 11.44%.

The ForEx reserves fell by $9,937 million to $274.004 billion as on 10th 2008.

Many of India's grievances were unresolved at the WTO's (World Trade Organisation,earlier it was known as General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs,GATT)summits.Hence this treaty has got another name as Unequal treaty as it favours only the developed in general and the USA in particular.

Though some of the educated women have been getting employment and leading a better quality of life for the past 10 to 15 years,many women are still exploited for sex at work place or any other exploitation at work and also at home.Some women face sexual harassment at work place and the dowry harassment at home.In the recent past,there were incidents of rape and murder of women BPO(Business Process Outsourcing)night shift employees at Bangalore,(Karnataka state of India).

Gujarat state continues to be the favourite destination for the investors,it ranks 1st in attracting investments,with an investment of $176.8 billion in 86 projects for 23% of total investment in India.For the last 5years the Gujarat's economy has been growing at an average rate of more than 10%,which is more than the nation's growth rate.

Kerala is adjudjed as the best state among the southern states for its governance,educational and other social infrastructure

According to the Chief election commissioner of India,18.18% M.P.s(Members of Parliament)in the present loksabha have criminal cases pending against them!!!.Similarly,49% of MLA's in Bihar,38.30% MLAs of Uttar Pradesh assembly,32.91% of Tamil nadu assembly,30.86% of MLAs of Jharkhand assembly,15.31% of West bengal's state assembly have criminal background.He worried about the influences of 1.Money power,2.Muscle power,3.Manipulation,4.Stuffing electoral rolls,5.Bogus voting,6.Booth capturing,7..Intimadation8.,Pre poll and poll day violence.during elections in India.

In less than 4 weeks time,millions living in what is sometimes described as the most dangerous place on earth(KASHMIR) will make their way to polling stations.

Many Indians still suffer from hunger and malnutrition/under nutrition.According to the latest survey by IFPRI, Madhya Pradesh tops the list followed by Bihar and other north eastern states.According to this report,the condition of people who are getting less than a dollar is still worse. These facts were revealed by IFPRI, the international food policy research institute.

Farmers suicides in several states due to various kinds of problems related to their economic activity, debts,failure of crops,poverty,family problems,

Some major setbacks:

Atrocities on S.C.s and S.T.s;Bureaucratic corruption;Communal violence as reported recently in Orissa and Karnataka; and earlier in Gujarat;Disparities of several types and depreciation of rupee against the U.S.$;Energy crisis;Fertiliser shortage;Hunger, malnutrition and under nytrition;Inflation;Jammu and kashmir problem;Lower production and productivity levels in the primary and secondary sectors;Maternal and infant mortality rates are high in India;National integration issues;Obsoelete technology usage in primary and secondary sectors ;poverty(26%);regional inmbalances;social and economic infrastructure at lower levels;Terrorism;Unemployment(7.1%);Very high rates of crime;Women problems;youth problems;etc.

Thus in India,all problems do exist,from A to Z,as illustrated above.

Elaboration of some major problems:

1.Inflation:One of the major contributors to the present high rates of inflation is the rising international oil prices.Due to heavy population in India ,there is a wide gap between demand and supply of oil.India fills this gap by importing nearly 70% of its requirements of oil.Decline in the Supply of food products and essential commodities too are responsible for the present crisis.The Manmohansingh government took monetary,fiscal and other administrative steps to reduce the inflation rate.

2.Terrorism:Terror strikes have become a day to day affair in India.Hyderabad,Ahmedabad,Bangalore,Varanasi,Imphal,Surat,New Delhietc are the recent cities which faced the terror strikes.There has been criticism of the ruling government for its soft attitude towards terror.POTA,TADA,and other laws could not help in containing terrorism.Many innocent people lost their lives in the recent bomb blasts in the above said cities.Due to the surprising attacks of this kind fear gripped the minds of citizens of India.Government's efforts to contain terrorism would hopefully yield results within a short span of time.

3.Energy Crisis:India has abundant coal,and water resources but the demand far exceeds the supply of these resources.This has compelled India to sign civil nuclear agreement with the U.S.A.,which will ensure nuclear energy supply to India.Due to technological factors,India could not develop much the non-conventional energy resources,like solar,wind,geo thermal,tidal,etc.

4.Farmers Suicides:Credit,marketing,irrigation,electricity are the essential requirements for success in agriculture.Due to lack of proper credit facilities in the rural areas of India,many farmers depend on money lenders ,who charge very high rate sof interest rates,besides this the many farmers do not get adequate price for their produce.In addition to these problems, many farmers face fertiliser shortage,other issues related to agriculture such as the failure of crops, personal problems,etc.Such a great stress on un educated farmers is responsible for the recent spate of suicides in India.The government ha sto do a lot still,as already it has taken a major step of waiving the loans.

5,Regional imbalances and demands for separate states:There have been demands for separate states in India due to regional imbalances in the social and economic development.For instance,there has been demands for a separate Telangana,Vidharbha,Bodo land,Gorkha land.Already,Chatishgarh,Uttaranchal,Jharkhand were created due to such demands from Madhya Pradesh,Uttar pradesh,Bihar states of India.

6.The menace of Child labour:Poverty,heavy population,un employment,parents attitude,lack of proper educational facilities,government's inaction,etc are responsible for this growing menace in India.Child labour can be seen in all the three sectors of economic activity,i.e.,Primary,Secondary,and Tertiary economic activities.Due to lack of co operation from the people,Corruption, poverty etc this problem could not be solved completely in India,though the government banned child labour besides serious attempts by some NGOs and voluntary organisations.Due to the increase in the services sector's participation,the demand for labour also increased.

7.Corruption:The Transparency International ranked India among the most corrupt.A railway construction engineer was caught by police along with his suitcase containing 7 lakh rupees,at Chennai central recently when he was travelling in an A.C. compartment.In amn another incident,an Income tax officer was caaught while accepting a bribe of Rs.1500/- from an LIC agent in Chennai.There are many such incidents which are not reported.Corrupt practices of various kinds are common in India.Very high population,selfish nature/greedy of some politicians,Babus(government officials),gap between denand and supply of resources and services,etc havebeen contributing to the growth of thiis social evil.

8.Improving the social and economic infrastructure:In many government educational institutes and hospitals the quality of services is very depressing.The poor man cannot afford the high fees in the corporate hospitals and educational institutes.The quality of roads in some metro cities is very low and in the rural areas the situation is still worse.Meagre funds,corruption,low quality of technicians and technology,political intervention are some of the causes for this state of affairs.A poor man does not get a proper treatment in his village hospital and at the same time he does not have enough money to get high quality treatment in a city's corporate or any private hospital.Same is the case with the education of his children.According to some critics,the primary education was neglected by the government,though the higher education has been given importanace by various plans.After liberalisation(post 1991)too many private universities have come up.like ICFAI,Magnus,but not much investments were made in the primary education

9.Rural-Urban divide:Roughly 30% of the population of India lives in Urban areas.The rural-Urban migration hasbeen causing cities to swell.Due to lack of employment opportunities in the rural areas,some people migrate to the urban areas for livilihood.Though the rural areas support the urban areas(Food grains,Milk,Vegetables,Labour supply)the quality of life is very low.For instance,the highly educated doctors do not show interest to work in rural areas,due to poor infrastructural facilities in the rural India,such as roads,educational,health,sanitation,and other civic amenities)

10.Women status:Some legislators have been trying to reserve 33% of seats in the legislative bodies for women but there hasbeen opposition to this proposal from some quarters.This group suggests reservation within the reservation.Thus,this bill could not be passed.The new economic policy initiated in 1991,has definitely changed the quality of life of women of atleast some educated,as is evident from the increase in the % of women work force.But in some parts of India ,there is a desrimination based on sex and preference is given for a male child.

Concusion:

On the positive side,India is endowed with abundant natural and human resources.Prior to 1991,India could improve its literacy rates,educational levels,Infrastructural facilities through its 5 year plans.The market economy(post 1991)has been improving the quality of its people to some extent.India ranks 3rd among the scientific power in the world,for instance,India's emergence as the major IT(Information technology) and also BT(Bio-Technology) power in the world.India even helps some countries for their development in several fields.

If the policies are effective and implemented in a right manner and by eradicating corruption,India can be a developed nation by 2020.