Ashok Khemka Transferred to Museum Department by BJP Govt

Ashok Khemka, one of the celebrated IAS officer is again transferred from transport ministry to Archaeology and Museums Department, thanks to the Haryana BJP government. Mr Khemka has been transferred for the 45th time in his 23 years of career. Now this brings a question, how different is BJP government from Congress. Ache Din are back for few who do not wanted him in transport ministry.  

Mr. Khemka was trying to fix the problem of overloading of trucks in Haryana. Haryana like most of India has a great problem of truck overloading. Overloading of trucks leads to following problems:

 1. Accidents / Loss of Life : Overloading reduces the maneuverability and control of trucks  which causes hundreds of accidents where innocent people loses life.

2. Loss of Revenue:  Overloading also leads to loss of hundreds of crores of government revenue in the form of state taxes.

3. Damaging Roads: Overloading of trucks is also a big reason behind damaging roads, the road are designed for bearing certain pressure. Overloading leads to higher wear and tear of road causing monetary losses to the government.

4. Environment Pollution: When trucks carry more load than what it is designed to carry, it leads to environmental pollution. The inefficient burning of fuel in the engine leads to emission of harmful pollutants in the environment.

Now with him gone, what are the chances that the next officer taking strict action against truck overloading.  As per some news reports, " Mr Khemka had ordered district officials to penalize such vehicles which caused problem to some"

So the main question which comes to my mind:

Q Who is getting affected by the problem of Overloading? 

A.  "We the residents".

Q What are we going to do about transfer of Mr Khemka. 

A. Nothing, some may write blog, some may like it on FB , some may share but will do nothing. 

Q What should we do?

A.  We should demand reasons for transfer of Mr. Khemka to a department where people like him will be wasted. We should also demand that he should stay in transport ministry.

Q  Who  is to be blamed for such incidence ?

A. Not the politician but we the people who will not do anything sit idle.

Q. Who is to be blamed if a overloaded vehicle runs over someone ? And it can be anyone of us.

A. Please answer

Indian Diet and Cancer Risk

Every now and then we keep hearing that someone has been diagnosed with cancer. Cancer rate are growing rapidly in India. The change in life style and eating habits due to development and wealth are the leading causes of it.  While searching on Google I came across a good study done by Sinha R, Anderson DE, McDonald SS and Greenwald P on cancer risk and India Diet.

This summary table from the research tells us about what is good and what is bad for us in terms of cancer risk.

 

Salman Khan Hit and Run..

In 2002 a accident happens. In 2015 Salman Khan finally gives his statement that he is innocent. It took 13 years for our system to bring him to the court of law and still the proceeding are going on. This is not a civil case but a criminal one..

Some of questions that haunts me..

Isn't delay best way to hamper the law. Keep waiting and nothing will happen, you will loose faith in such a system. Why ?

The legal system is for the rich ? Would it take same amount of time if one of the celebrity gets hurt or killed in a drunk and drive case ? I am not sure. Some of the things in this country are not fair.

Does money works like lubricant in the system. Is it a true democracy where people do not enjoy equal legal rights in some sense. God save this country.


Modi ji speaks about problem faced by business man, one of the major issue is non payment by customers. The laws are there but enforcement is too slow. Section 138 does allow for criminal proceeding against the defaults but system can be made too slow by defaulters. Filling of the case takes a lot of time, after which defaulters will not come to hearing 2-3 times, then they will ask for extension of dates.. finally a long time is passed and during the process the businessman may not even survive as cash flow management becomes difficult and even good business plans falls flat. Judicial reforms are a big need of this country. I am waiting for the ache din ..




 

and they say Inflation is good...

Woke up on a lazy working day with a copy of mint in my hand and  eyes still half closed searching for my specs.. Much needed hike in diesel prices it reads and I thought,  finally the government seems to be waking.. the fiscal deficit might come slightly under control, might send a positive signal to the market..

After a few days I met Dinesh, a skilled painter with bony physique,  who was finishing the final coat of our drawing room ..how is it going I asked him and he looked too busy with his job not really interested in answering any thing. After 5 minutes he comes to me with his clothes spotted with drops of paint and shoulders drooping with the toil of the whole day work and explains, " the price for cooking gas has become 100 Rs/ kg now, price of wheat floor has increased by 5 Rs a kg. My room rent which I share with 3 other inmates has increased from Rs 1500 to 2000 , I am finding it very difficult to sustain here in this city, sending money back home seems to be impossible, I  don't know where to go and how to survive "

I thought to myself, " Dinesh's monthly earnings must be close to Rs 4000 as he was being paid 200 Rs a day by the contractor, All is not so well in India after all ".

Was the diesel price hike the only way to control fiscal deficit, why not put additional duty on the prices of diesel cars? Whenever I see people buying diesel cars the thought hits me, this car is going to consume gallons of fuel subsidized at the cost of people like Dinesh. the thought comes and go and I get busy in other consuming thoughts ..


 

Why Depreciating Rupee is good for short term..

If you look at Indian currency INR (Rupee), it has been depreciating from past 45 days, the reason might be the outflow of dollars. High inflation numbers and poor industrial performance is also not helping the stock markets. We are seeing the spur in demand of precious commodities like gold and silver as lot of economist are fearing a double dip recession. Our currency has now depreciated to more than 48 per dollar from 44.5 just 45 days back which is nearly 7 to 8%. But this deprecuition of currency might be good for the country in short term.

1. It will make exports Competitive and might improve the capacity utilization of manufacturing companies. 

2. Increase the investment in Indian equity and Debt market as dollar will get god valuation.

3. Curb outflow of investments from India and the money might be invested in Indian businesses.

4. Natural Hedge against the selling by FIIs as the FIIs will loose in dollar terms.

See the Difference ..

:)

Why Jan Lokpal law can slow India down..

We might all be cheering hard for Jan Lokpal which the Anna team has presented but are we aware that it can adversely affect the growth of the country. Following are the prominent reasons which might derail the good growth in India if very strong anti-corruption bills are passed.

1. Dis-incentive for Government machinery: The government machinery, banks, public institutions are so used to bribes that it has become a part of their compensation. Infact the salaries offered by government is so less that it barely makes up for their needs and reflect their experience and qualifications. These people are there on those roles just because  they are getting incentives from extra money they make. This also improves the speed in the system as they try to push the proposals. 99% of times wrong proposals are not passed by bribing, its just that the deserving proposal gets those extra legs and gets passed on priority. Time is money and the whole business suffers if the speed of transactions reduces.

2.  Fear of doing Wrong: Anyone and every one can do things wrong at times. Consider a bank manager working in a PSU, who passed 100 loans every day, he can get a few loans passed wrongly as people submit fake documents difficult to differentiate. Now if you will hang that person for doing wrong in 1% of those cases, he will never work efficiently. The fear of complaint, disrespect will make people take a lot of time in doing routine things and the speed of the whole value chain will be greatly reduced. For example, if I give a slap to Sehwag for getting out below 10 and no incentive for hitting a century, will he still like to play cricket. And everyone seems to know Cricket well and criticize Sehwag in this country

3. Change the draconian Laws first: The laws are required to be reformed before a strict anti-corruption law is in-acted. If you check out the rules of financing, rules of land acquisition etc. If the entrepreneur start following them as per the books, the business in India will come to a stand still. Rules might favor the established players as they have powerful lobbies and they also fund the political parties. The young entrepreneur will find it impossible to do business in India if he follows the draconian rules and not bribe his way through.

4. Crores of cases in Jan-Lokpal: If every person in India can simply write an application and get his complaint registered in Jan-lokpal how will you solve such crores of cases wnd who will monitor it ? How will you prevent people from filing wrong cases just to ridicule or blackmail the honest public servants ? The whole country is already struggling with so many pending cases in our courts. If things are pending in arbitration, it will adversely affect the growth of the country and velocity of money.


5. FDI in India: Most of the foreign direct Investment in India is nothing but the black money of Indians itself which is routed through tax heavens and is invested in fresh projects which create economic activity and employment opportunities.The tax laws in India are deterrent to a lot of growth. If people pay less tax and invest more in growth it provides compounded returns.

6. Law can not change people: Law can only create deterrent for people, it can not change people in a day.


7. Don't confuse corruption with Cop asking for money:The masses are mostly behind Jan Lokpal,specially the middle class as they feel that it will stop people in influential position abusing their power. How will you stop a cop asking for Rs 100 when actual fine is 500 and one has to wait for it in court for 5 days. You want to happily want to pay-off Rs 100 and get rid of it. If the cop is smart, you will be actually ready to pay even 500 to cop and still avoid the procedures. No law can change the way things are done in a civilized society. It takes generations to bring the change. If you change the system to no court hearing , pay 200 fine and leave. Will I have any problem in doing so ?

Everyone wants corruption free country but the question is you want anti-corruption over growth. Most honest countries might not be the most progressive or having the highest growth in the country. When India has almost half the population below poverty line, we need to ask our self, " do we need most honest country or do we need more people who are prosperous". Growth slowly tickles down and create opportunities for all. One white collar jobs lead to creation for 3 blue collar jobs. The thought is good but the timing is still a concern to me.

How to Handle Terrorism ?

Yet another bomb blast rocking the country, a lot of people died, few lost their limbs and will suffer for life because of it. Life isn't fair after all. I don't understand why do terrorist target the innocent people. Don't they have their own families ? How do they sleep in night after committing such heinous acts ? Is there any end to it?

The problem is only getting difficult with improvement of technology. Terrorists are using modern method to create panic in the society. It is very difficult to locate handful of such crack heads from millions of people. How can we handle or reduce such cowardly attacks?

1. Extra Vigilant Society: We need to be extra vigilant in crowded areas, It might look a stressful activity but  a vigilant society might reduce the number of such blasts. We need to be sure whom we are renting our hotels and flats to. We need to be careful about any unusual activity done by our co-passenger. We need to report all such activities to police at the earliest. I think its need of the hour to be extra vigilant.

2. Strict Punishment for Terrorist Activities : Make life so difficult for terrorist that they think 7 times before planning any activity. They should dread being charged for terrorism. People who support the terrorism by providing material or non material support should be be made equally liable for punishment. I dont really care about human rights activist here, We need to firstly save our human race and humanity.

3. Education: Education and knowledge improves perspective towards things, makes people more understanding and tolerant towards each other. It might not completely stop the terrorism but the more and better educated world will certainly have lessor terrorism.

4. Eradicating Poverty and inequity in society:  Somewhere or the other inequity and poverty in the society gives rise to such activities. The epicenter of such activities are mainly shabby localities where people find difficult to make a living and are lured by crime and terrorism.

5. Peaceful resolution of conflicts: Government should work with the terrorist organizations to reduce the conflicts, should peacefully resolve the problems, create jobs and employment opportunities for such people who can get healed and treated so that the poison of terrorism can be washed away from our system.

6. Reforming the antiquated systems: Some of the antiquated systems and institutions like Madarsas should be reformed and brought under clear guidelines and curriculum. These are the places where innocent peoples were systematically brain washed into believing in Jihad .

7. Better Intelligence Network and Infrastructure : Although terrorism is very difficult to curtail just by our intelligence agencies, but the way our intelligence system works, there is a huge opportunity for improvements. The whole anti-terrorism infrastructure needs to developed again. A part of money we pay as tax should be used for improving our security by investing in modern technology and infrastructure to fight terrorism.

Another Politician goes to Jail ..

Amar Singh became the new addition to the list of politician who went to judicial custody for various charges in last few months. Interestingly the whole drama of not turning up to court by showing medical reasons was strictly sorted by the court which usually does not hesitate in just giving the next hearing date. Amar Singh now have to just be happy with medical facilities of the prison. 

Mr Singh has also just added his name to the prominent list of politicians who tasted the salt of prison off-late like Mr. A.Raja, Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, Mr. Madhu Koda and Ms. Kani Modzi.   As the number of politicians going to Jail are increasing, it looks to be a positive sign for the Indian democracy. It also sends a good message to the political class that no one is untouchable when it comes to judiciary. If not in their own political term,politicians will be taken to the task once their term end for their misdeeds. So politicians should better do good things to stay away from a prison term. 

Our politicians must realize that doing corruption and escaping charges is become increasingly difficult for them as the media and use of technology is increasingly making the system more transparent.Government at times is also forced to stay away from influencing the judiciary to respect the popular sentiment of the citizens of the country. I hope it makes more politicians honest. 

Some of the question which comes to mind are how many of the politicians will finally be convicted, how much time will they stay in jail and how long will the case remain pending for judgement? I hope we witness some of the judgement in our lifetimes if not politicians.  

What should you be doing if You are Anna's supporter ..

Supporting Anna ji might be the new " Cool " amongst the young population, but it should be done with some sanctity so that it reflects well on the us as the aware citizen of our country.

1. Don't Abuse anyone: The basic Gandhian policy is based out of respect for all. Even the adversaries must be given full respect.

2. Do not break the rules of the land:  I have heard people are openly violating traffic rules etc as they are Anna supporter and can walk away doing it. It wont please Mr. Hazare for sure.

3. Lead the Initiative: Keeping just Face Book or Gtalk messages will not make the country corruption free.  Be the change you want to see in your country.

4. Make informed choices: If you feel that some of the clauses in the Jan Lokpal are difficult to implement and can be problematic, you should clearly say that. Application of individual judgement is important as all human can make mistakes.

5. Respect the National Symbols and Flag: National flags and symbol should be treated with respect and no one is above it. One should keep follow it in all the rallies and places whee national Flags are used.

Try to hold fast for a day and feel what its like to be hungry, it might make all us empathize with Anna and also with the countless children who sleep empty stomach every day.

Understanding Marketing Plan: Anna Hazare Campaign

Understanding Marketing Plan: Anna Hazare Campaign

This is just an attempt to explore the Brand Anna and the magic of his Campaign which is making waves in the country. What could have made it work? Without any prejudices just tried to think about it and found out.

Campaign : An corruption free country.

Timing of the Campaign:  Country caught in series of scandals like Common Wealth Game, 2G etc. The people of the country want to change the country, hence an opportunity of easily finding takers of the idea.

Market Research for designing the campaign:

•        More than 50% of the Indians are below 26 years of age.
•       Less than 1% of the people are super rich. Big emerging middle class, which wants to be socially conscious, uses internet and mobile phones and largely stays in urban India.
•      The young India wants to do something but don’t know what to do when it comes to showing their contribution towards the nation building.
•     Talking against corruption is considered cool in present scenario. The louder you speak; you are looked as more patriotic and socially aware citizen.
•    Earlier effect of movies such as RDB and how it has affected the educated masses. Use the frustration of people as a tool of creating a mass uproar against the establishment.

Segmentation

•      Simple demographics based segmentation of marketing based on the size of population in various age groups, education back ground and ease of passing information to them.

Targeting

Targeting the people who are :

•          In age bracket 18-30, which comprises majority of the population of the country
•         People who have read about Mahatma Gandhi in NCERT books, and want to contribute to something for the country.
•        Educated people, using social media, who likes to express their opinions who can be the flag bearers and the early adopters.
•        People who have time but also who does not like full time commitment.

 Positioning: Anti-Corrupt India

• The positioning is neutral in nature, not to entice any religious feeling, any regionalism, try and make it global in nature where all global citizens can participate. Some thing most of the people can easily relate to or face in their life.

Brand:

• Anna " Curroption Free"  has been used as a biggest brand in the whole campaign like Richard Branson for Virgin or Mr. Mallya for Kingfisher. The reason is the spotless past which very few people in the country can boast of, a history of leading movements and an innocent and aged persona which brings respect for the brand.  The campaign main tag line is “I am Anna Hazarre” which is clearly used to make people live the brand Anna Hazzare.

Communication Strategy: 

• Crowd Sourcing, using the youngster to become the voice of the campaign. The young India which changes status messages 2-3 times a day to become the brand advocator. The people can easily pitch in by not fully committing themselves but can do their bit.
• Largely using modern technology communication like mobile phones, internet and Social Networking. Creating news and being capturing by 24 hour media channels to directly go to the masses. 

Metro Trip via Indralok ..

I had traveled a few times in Delhi Metro and liked the easy journey which metro provides to the passengers. So with that in mind I boarded the metro at Rajiv Chowk few days back and contrary to the earlier experience it was a Jam packed coach , may be the office hours effect taking toll of my comfort.

Police Man literally pushed the last man in and somehow managed to close the metro door. So finally I was inside and the train was traveling at a good speed, you can smell all kinds of sweat in the vicinity but the air conditioning was still very comforting and the experience was much better than good old Mumbai Local.

In a Jamm packed train, a lady was trying to help her relative to get down on some station. They were both some distance apart in the train and could not see each other.

So the people were obviously unaware of it.

Old Lady: ( Top of her voice) Sussshila , tu hai na...
Young Lady:  Haan, mai hu .. ( quite Prompt )
Train Crowd : Few murmurs in a otherwise silent setup..

After 5 minutes ..

Old Lady: ( Top of her Voice) Sussshila, Inderlok utar jaiyo ..
Young Lady( Ofcourse Sushila) : Haan, Utar Jaungi ( little embarrassed)
Train Crowd: Laughing, Everyone seems to be enjoying this difficult train journey.

After another 6-9 minutes ..

Old Lady: (the only way she knows to speak) Susshila, Inderlok aa gaya, tu Utar gai ..
Looks like she assumed if she does not responds means she is already out ..
Sushila: Haan uttar rahi hu .. ( deeply embarrassed  ) , murmuring ..chalo sub ka manoranjan ho gaya ..
Train Crowd: Laughing on top of there voices

I thought to myself, Everyone now knows for sure that Sushila has finally got down on Inderlok station :)

Aarakhshan

Watched the movie Aarakshan yesterday, first day, last show in a packed movie theater sitting in the second row . I think since the movie was banned in few states in India added the incentive of watching it here in South Africa.

The movie started with a promising opening, showing a glimpse of education system in India, how the reservation era and supreme court decision on reservation divided the masses along the communal lines rather than bringing equity in the society. The movie clearly shows the anxiety of both the sections of society specially the youth who is caught between the politics of reservation and most importantly the teachers who can not be partial about a particular section but are always viewed with suspicion. The initial one hour of the movie was quite entertaining although there is nothing in the movie which you will find new or unheard but the acting of Mr Batchan is captivating to say the least. Some the dialogues in the movie regarding reservation were actually harsh but realistic and I was surprised that they were not scissored by the sensor board.

After the initial one hour, the movie digressed and focused on the role of coaching institutes in education system and also on the personal rivalry between a good teacher (Mr Bachhhan) and a bad teacher (Mr Bajpai)  . It just took the main topic of Aarakshan for a toss and looked to me as a major flaw in the movie. The timings of songs was really bad and they all seemed to be just inserted in the movie and made little sense with the story line. The characters were too strong either very good or very bad which also looked to be the traditional bollywood way of story telling and this aspect also could have been depicted much better by Mr Jha.  

Overall I can say people can go out of the theaters after the first one hour if they have got other important work to do, to make best use of their time or can just remain seated if there is nothing more interesting to do. 

What do our Armed Forces do in Peace Time ?

India boasts of a huge military might, they are all very well trained, disciplined and also inclined towards the development of the country. India has fought 4 wars in last 60 years and there had been minor disputes here and there but what has been the qualified forces will strength of 4.5 million been doing in the peace time ?

India as a country have a long road to travel to improve its infrastructure, to develop our cities and villages . Why cant the qualified people from the forces help the country in achieving its goals. There can be some rotation policy which allows say 10% of the trained force people at a time can be deployed in the developmental projects.

Currently when the country is facing huge shortage of well quantified and trained staff, our armed forces can make our country even more proud about them. The decision has to be taken by our think tank and I am sure the armed forces can be much more useful even in the peace time. 

Same Strategy: Divide and Rule

After Jantar Mantar victory, Looking at the news which are making the headlines regarding the Anna Hazare's revolution ... people at influential position are trying to link Chief Minister Narendra Modi with Anna . Anna did praised the minister for the development work. Any linkages with Narendra Modi will only divide the masses as the minister has a image of carrying a very fundamentalist ideology.

Anna being a Gandhiwadi and true patriot has nothing to do with all these controversies. It looks to be the clear work of the people with vested interests who doesn't want the masses to support Anna's mission.

Just looking at the history, it all looks so consistent.. what a funny analogy.. Britishers tried the same divide and rule policy to dilute the Mahatma's fight for freedom now the few people are trying the same tricks to dilute Anna's mission for a corruption free country.

I hope Anna succeed like Mahatma for India and for Indians.

The Rich India : Statistical Review

 I really wanted to know the statistics regarding poverty in India after writing the post Defining Poverty. The numbers were different on various websites. Than by collecting bits and pieces I tried to make the whole picture about the rich India somewhat clear. The data is consistent with World Bank estimates about the poverty in India. I have just defined poverty level as less than 2$/day which I believe is bare minimum to lead a life.

Here the pie chart clearly shows that nearly 80% of India is still poor earning less than 2$/day, The middle class is rising and constitutes nearly 19.61% of Indians and rich are less than 0.4% of the total population. I have defined middle class as people earning more than 2$/day.

To have a better view of the enormity of the situation, have a look at the assorted data in the below picture.

We have nearly 50 billionaires which keeps hitting the media headlines. We can boast of 170,000 dollar millionaires in India but the number is less than the number of dollar millionaires in Switzerland which has less than 1% of the population of India.

The news and views on India shining and becoming developed nation keep hitting the news channels. The rich and middle class Indians feels good to hear these views but we can not deny the real situation.


The numbers are improving, there are more people every day getting out of 2$/day benchmark and becoming the part of middle class but there is still a long way to go.

Defining Poverty

Poverty runs deep in India, to the extend that we start ignoring it.. the reason is very simple, we get use to it. From our childhood days we see so many destitute, beggars that we think that is the part of our life and ets just ignore it. This blog is not on it, it is about the definition of poverty ? Who do you call a poor ?

The country is full of brilliant souls and Politicians who don't really want India to show its poor face to the world. They try and show that the poverty in the country is coming down as it portrays the good image of  the country. They try and eliminate poverty by these three ways:

1. Development: Improve the image of the country by doing developmental work which have direct or indirect effect on alleviating poverty from the country. Lot of it is being done nowadays, some by the government and more by NGO's, external aids etc.

2. Eliminate the Poor: If you cant eliminate the poverty, can reduce the number by eliminating the poor population. Very difficult and barbaric option. The good thing is that no one can do it. Its just the natural calamities and disease in India which does it. The infant and maternal mortality amongst poor in the country is very high. So no action to reduce poverty in one way is like making the poor die by disease and illness.

3. Redefine Poverty: The easiest way out to show reduction in poverty is by changing the definition of poor. If you simply change the poverty line from 1.25$/day ( World Bank PPP number ) to Indian number of1 $/day, a lot of Indians crosses the BPL line overnight.


Some economist says that people earning less than 2$/ day should be classified as poor, others argue that less than a $ per day are poor. So their is no uniform definition of poverty in India.

The planning commission of India accepts that 37% of the Indian population is living below the poverty line as per the Tendulkar ( not Sachin ) committee report.  Arjun Sengupta report says that 77% of the people in India are living with less tha 0.5 $/day.

Whatever may be the exact proportion of poor in the country but even 37% number is quite a high number.

Two Indians in Top 10 richest College Dropouts !

Yes, two Indians has made it to the top 10 richest dropouts of the world .. I was surprised when I read the list, more so as I never knew that both Mukesh Ambani and Ajim Premji are college dropouts.

One can say that they had the legacy of their fathers behind them but I will still say that they actually made it big. Particularly Mr Premji venturing into software from commodity business was amazing.

Incidentally both  of them were studying in Stanford University before they left it for the good. Other college dropout that made up to the list from Stanford University is Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft.

Harvard Grads, Bill Gates and Mark Zukerberg of facebook fame also adored the list of richest dropouts.

Now we know where to go if we want to be rich and also don't want to study for too long :-)

Anna shows the Power of Democracy

Mr. Anna Hazare is actually showcasing the power of democracy in this modern world. Old Gadhian tools of Ahimsa and Satyagraha are working wonders again in this world of tears and blood sheds. I am really fascinated to see the kind of support his movement has got from the people of the country.

The youth of country has also sent a very strong message to the government that the days of corruption are limited now and they should better improve the governance otherwise this country come to the streets and fight it out. Ihe important part of this message is that the youth of the country is intelligent and responsive and will adopt the route of peaceful agitation. Few years back it was difficult to foresee this new face of Indian Youth, I believe the Sanjay Dutt movies on Gandhi giri should be admired for making this internet and i-pod generation believe in Gandhian philosophy.

Other exciting thing happening is the rapid adoption of technology in the country. I am very hopeful that the changes brought about by use of Information technology and social movements will work in parallel and will make the administrators of the country more transparent and responsive.

The initiative of UID could prove to be a another milestone which will change the way system works and will drastically reduce the leakages.

Looking at the evolution of the western world, they all suffered from corruption during high growth phase but the systems became much cleaner and government agencies became far more responsive as they got the dose of development.  India is also witnessing the same changes and hopefully in our life times we might see a new India with with far less corruption and red tap-ism. 

Centre Point of India

Nagpur isn't really a exciting place, sun beating down on you even in the month of November. The only thing I was excited about was to see the Centre Point of India, yes the point from where the East, West, North South parts of India are equidistant. ! Wow centre of this huge country ! Must be awesome ..

So me along with Sid asked our Cabbie to show us the Centre Point , he told us " Do you mean Centre Point Hotel Sir " . No we told him . Finally he left us somewhere in between and we kept searching for the place, no body there seems to know about the Centre point.

Finally some learned man told us that the place is called the "Zero Mile". Hmm, the name is in interesting. Finally we reached the place, and was aghast after seeing the condition of the place. Thay have simply killed it !

The place was uncleaned, surrounded by political and business hoardings. The centre point of India and no maintenance what so ever. Tried to click a few photographs, Planning to write to the authorities. Where are our taxes going ?

When will we start marketing our country ?