My Perspective

Mr Siddaramaiah will be sworn in as CM of Karnataka today for the second time. The Congress after a series of electoral failures, has finally achieved a thumping victory in Karnataka elections by getting clear majority under the leadership of Mr Siddaramaiah and Mr DK Sivakumar . Major role in its electoral victory is played by 5 social sector guarantees the INC has promised in its manifesto. ₹2,000 monthly assistance to women heads of all families ( Gruhalakshmi), 200 units of power to all households ( Gruhajyoti) ₹3,000 every month for graduate youth and ₹1,500 for diploma holders ( Yuvanidhi),  10 kg rice per person per month( Anna Bhagya) and  Free travel for women in the State public transport buses ( Uchita Prayana).  Whether the upcoming government remains true to its promises is  the curiosity shared by the common man. Giving out 5 guarantees is possible in two ways. Either putting too many exclusions to reduce expenditure and strain on budget or  Risk h...

India will be celebrating 75 years of Independence on 15th August 2022. India's struggle for independence can be called more of an evolution than a revolution. The journey of this beautiful nation from 1947 till now has been a roller coaster of a ride with many successes, failures and ugly sides to it. The Good: 1.Vibrant constitutional democracy: The democratic system that India adopted at independence with a constitution drafted under the leadership of Dr.Ambedkar has stood the test of time.Many other countries which got newly independent in the beginning of 20th century have not been able to establish mature democracies.They have fallen back to military rules and autocracies.While the inherent democratic and tolerant nature of Indian public has nurtured the Indian democracy,even when it was threatened few times by autocratic governments. 2.Indian diaspora:  The educated elites and middle classes,who got settled in US,Canada,Gulf,UK and other European countries have formed...

Heart touching story of Maniben Patel (Daughter of Sardar Patel) as narrated by Varghese Kurien(Milkman of India) in his book:    "Maniben Patel was a woman of tremendous honesty and loyalty.She told me that when Sardar Patel passed way, she picked up a book and a bag that belonged to him and went to meet Jawaharlal Nehru in Delhi.She handed them to Nehru, telling him that her father had instructed her that when he died she should give these items to Nehru and no one else.The bag contained Rs 35 Lakh that belonged to the Congress Party and the book was the party’s book of accounts.Nehru took them and thanked her.Maniben waited expectantly, hoping he would say something more,but he did not, so she got up and left. I asked her what she had expected Nehru to say to her. ‘I thought he might ask me how I would manage now, or atleast ask if there was anything he could do to help me.But he never asked.’ she explained.She was extremely disheartened and in a way the incident reve...

India ranks poorly at 145 out of 195 countries in Healthcare Access and Quality(HAQ) Index published by Lancet.Its rank is worse than our neighbours like Bangladesh,Srilanka and some of the Sub-Saharan African countries. On one hand, India has emerged as most sought after destination for medical tourism.On the other hand,It has failed to provide essential healthcare to vast majority of its population.Therefore Indian healthcare scenario can be called as islands of California in a sea of Subsaharan Africa. The Ayushmann Bharat(AB) scheme has been introduced to comprehensively address this gap.This will cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families(approximately 50 crore beneficiaries)with coverage upto 5 lakh rupees for secondary and tertiary care.It is a publicly funded private insurance scheme.70 percent of healthcare in India is provided by private sector.This scheme is meant to make that seventy percent cater to poor people through public financing. This scheme has been hailed as ...

I am a guy from a small village. Having firsthand experience of the healthcare situation in rural areas, I think a three and half year BRHC(bachelor of rural health care)/B.Sc(community health) course as proposed by govt is a right move towards improving the rural healthcare delivery system. It is unfortunate that this course has faced strong opposition from IMA, MCI and parliamentary committee on health.   According to rural health statistics 2011, rural India has a shortage of 76%doctors, 53%nurses, 88%specialist doctors, 85%radiographers and 80% laboratory technicians. In order to address this huge gap in human resources in health,BRHC was originally proposed by NRHM,based on the recommendations of its Task Force.   IMA in its opposition for the course states “Introducing separate set of professionals exclusively for rural india, Govt is resorting to discrimination against rural citizens, treating them as second class citizens, which violates the right to equality ...

A week back,when I logged into facebook,it has kept ready a petition from me to TRAI,which only requires me to press a 'submit' button to convey my support to the free basics(earlier called the  Internet.org ). This irritated me to the core.It shows how a company can use it's dominant position to fool the regulators. Facebook's aggressive campaign to save the free basics has received support from many facebook users. Unfortunately most of them did so,without fully understanding what it really is.        Free basics gives free access to a list websites, which satisfy the basic conditions set by it. Disguised as an attempt to bring digital equality and inclusiveness,it mainly is an attempt by facebook to ward off the threat for it's existence. As they are, technological innovations tend to become outdated within a short span of time,either because the original idea loses it's sheen or it is overcome by a new idea or innovation.As we can observe, when face...