What according to you should be the 5 most important issues in the forthcoming Delhi Assembly elections? and why?
-Safety for citizens : The private security and police presence to be increased around the city 24*7 for late workers,employees in BPO's and media houses, around party hubs, etc. making the city safer at night and also increased precautions and security against bomb blasts which will also help Delhi become popular internationally before the upcoming commonwealth games.
-Rising Prices : Reducing wastage at local level by providing better storage facilities to traders and ensuring stringent regulatory norms against hoarding and reducing local taxes on basic food items.
-Smoking zones and drinking age: Public places should have smoking zones and the circulation of tobacco products should be regulated instead. A 200 rupees challan on people caught smoking anywhere outside their homes is unreasonable and at the same time the problem of smoking needs to be tackled also. The drinking age should also be brought down to 21 and the availability of alcohol should be regulated.
-Traffic conditions : Public transport system needs attention. Depots need to be constructed for blueline buses which are parked along roadsides by night. The conditon of the blueline buses needs attention, and if they are removed the DTC should be accountable for providing a responsible service to commuters. Action to popularise the use of metro over private transport needs to be initiated.
-Rehabilitation for residents 0f slum colonies : Building concrete accomodations in places of JJ colonies and slums.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
THE MELTDOWN
The United Nations said that swathes of mountain ranges worldwide risk losing their glaciers by the end of the century if global warming continues at its projected rate.
The arctic ice cap, since the last ice age, 125000 years ago, for the first time could be circumnavigated this year due to the rapidly melting ice.
Outside of the polar ice caps, the Himalyas are the largest store of water, feeding atleast 10 Asian rivers including the Ganga, Brahmaputra and the Yamuna. Between 1996 and 2005 the Himalayan glaciers lost on an average, a mass of more than twice the ice loss of the previous decade.As the glaciers recede they leave behind glacial lakes. With the rapid melting of the glaciers there stands the problem of swelling glacial lakes. A burst in a glacial lake could cause flash floods in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. There however isn't an institutionalised system, of studying the Himalayan glaciers and the rate at which they are receding or the glacial lakes, in order in our country.
The BBC reported that according to the WWF, India, China and Nepal could experience floods followed by droughts in the coming decades. It has been reported that the glaciers which regulate the water supply to the Ganges and Brahmaputra besides some other rivers, are retreating at a rate of about 10-15 metres anually. The New York Times, in a report on the receding Himalyan glaciers, reported a study conducted on 466 glaciers by the Indian Space Research Organisation using sattelite imaging, which found that there had been a 20% reduction in size of the Himalayan glaciers between 1962 and 2001.
Even though it is a natural cycle for glaciers to melt and regulate the flow of water in the rivers and get rebuilt during snowfall, the survival of a glacier depends on the balance between the melting and the buildup. Over the last 2 decades the mean air temperature in the North Western Himalyas had risen by 2.2 degrees celsius, a rate considerably higher than the rate of increase over the last 100 years resulting in a much higher melting rate .The rate of warming of the climate continues to be very high.
The 20th century's last two decades were the hottest in 400 years.The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that 11 of the 12 warmest years since 1850 have been after 1990. A report, based on the work of 2,500 scientists in more than 130 countries, concluded that humans have caused all or most of the current planetary warming. Human caused global warming is often called anthropogenic climate change.
Industrialization, deforestation, and pollution have greatly increased atmospheric concentrations of water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, all greenhouse gases that help trap heat near the Earth's surface.These gases persist in the atmosphere for years, which means that even if such emissions were eliminated, it would not immideately stop global warming.
It has been pointed out that natural cycles in Earth's orbit can also alter the planet's exposure to sunlight, which may explain the current trend of increased global warming. Earth has indeed experienced warming and cooling cycles roughly every hundred thousand years due to these orbital shifts, but such changes have occurred over the span of several centuries. Today's changes have taken place over the past hundred years or less.
India's per capita share of emmissions is 1/20th that of industrialised countries.India has largely therefore resisted emmission caps on green house gasses as it would also result in stunting its economic growth. America claimed that it will face a cost of atleast $ 400 billion if it complies with the emmission standards imposed under the Kyoto Protocol. The United States of America is the only developed country that has not yet given its consent to comply with the treaty on climate change. However a number of companies in the US have started to make efforts to reduce emmissions to confirm to the standards that have been set.
Through Carbon Trading projects under the Clean Development Mechanism, India will be avoiding more than 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2012, cutting back 10% of the country's greenhouse gas emissions every year.
The Clean Development Mechanism is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol,allowing industrialised countries which have to reduce their green house emissions to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to emission reductions in their own countries that will prove to be more expensive. Carbon credits are a key component of national and international emission trading schemes that have been implemented to reduce global warming. Credits can be exchanged between businesses or bought and sold in international markets.
India is making a significant contribution through this tool, in reducing the pressure that industrial development is mounting on the Earth's climate.
Keeping in mind the changing climate.. the melting glaciers in the world's largest storehouse of water outside the polar ice caps.. and the carbon trading..the rather cliche' question stands to pose again - Are we doing enough?
Obviously, if India is set to avoid more than 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2012, then it sounds like quite a lot is being done...
... that however is an exception to the fact that we still aren't too sure if our refrigerators use the most energy efficient technology, we don't even know which of our body sprays, hair sprays etc. have CFCs or if all body sprays have CFCs in them, leaving the air conditioner on for longer than needed has most usually only one effect - a senior member of the family paranoid about the unnecessarily huge elctricity bill...and thats all.
As discussions and international conferences on climate change continue, India, Nepal, Bhutan are amongst some of the countries from around the world that need to start doing a lot more than just cutting carbon emmissions, as they won't just be hit by fluctuating Earth temperatures but also very soon they will be hit by floods and other natural disasters caused by the receding glaciers on the Himalayas. If Disaster Management were to be a public company, there are chances that you would want to have your shares in it, the Disaster Management guys might just be doing a lot of business in the coming decades.
The arctic ice cap, since the last ice age, 125000 years ago, for the first time could be circumnavigated this year due to the rapidly melting ice.
Outside of the polar ice caps, the Himalyas are the largest store of water, feeding atleast 10 Asian rivers including the Ganga, Brahmaputra and the Yamuna. Between 1996 and 2005 the Himalayan glaciers lost on an average, a mass of more than twice the ice loss of the previous decade.As the glaciers recede they leave behind glacial lakes. With the rapid melting of the glaciers there stands the problem of swelling glacial lakes. A burst in a glacial lake could cause flash floods in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. There however isn't an institutionalised system, of studying the Himalayan glaciers and the rate at which they are receding or the glacial lakes, in order in our country.
The BBC reported that according to the WWF, India, China and Nepal could experience floods followed by droughts in the coming decades. It has been reported that the glaciers which regulate the water supply to the Ganges and Brahmaputra besides some other rivers, are retreating at a rate of about 10-15 metres anually. The New York Times, in a report on the receding Himalyan glaciers, reported a study conducted on 466 glaciers by the Indian Space Research Organisation using sattelite imaging, which found that there had been a 20% reduction in size of the Himalayan glaciers between 1962 and 2001.
Even though it is a natural cycle for glaciers to melt and regulate the flow of water in the rivers and get rebuilt during snowfall, the survival of a glacier depends on the balance between the melting and the buildup. Over the last 2 decades the mean air temperature in the North Western Himalyas had risen by 2.2 degrees celsius, a rate considerably higher than the rate of increase over the last 100 years resulting in a much higher melting rate .The rate of warming of the climate continues to be very high.
The 20th century's last two decades were the hottest in 400 years.The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that 11 of the 12 warmest years since 1850 have been after 1990. A report, based on the work of 2,500 scientists in more than 130 countries, concluded that humans have caused all or most of the current planetary warming. Human caused global warming is often called anthropogenic climate change.
Industrialization, deforestation, and pollution have greatly increased atmospheric concentrations of water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, all greenhouse gases that help trap heat near the Earth's surface.These gases persist in the atmosphere for years, which means that even if such emissions were eliminated, it would not immideately stop global warming.
It has been pointed out that natural cycles in Earth's orbit can also alter the planet's exposure to sunlight, which may explain the current trend of increased global warming. Earth has indeed experienced warming and cooling cycles roughly every hundred thousand years due to these orbital shifts, but such changes have occurred over the span of several centuries. Today's changes have taken place over the past hundred years or less.
India's per capita share of emmissions is 1/20th that of industrialised countries.India has largely therefore resisted emmission caps on green house gasses as it would also result in stunting its economic growth. America claimed that it will face a cost of atleast $ 400 billion if it complies with the emmission standards imposed under the Kyoto Protocol. The United States of America is the only developed country that has not yet given its consent to comply with the treaty on climate change. However a number of companies in the US have started to make efforts to reduce emmissions to confirm to the standards that have been set.
Through Carbon Trading projects under the Clean Development Mechanism, India will be avoiding more than 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2012, cutting back 10% of the country's greenhouse gas emissions every year.
The Clean Development Mechanism is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol,allowing industrialised countries which have to reduce their green house emissions to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to emission reductions in their own countries that will prove to be more expensive. Carbon credits are a key component of national and international emission trading schemes that have been implemented to reduce global warming. Credits can be exchanged between businesses or bought and sold in international markets.
India is making a significant contribution through this tool, in reducing the pressure that industrial development is mounting on the Earth's climate.
Keeping in mind the changing climate.. the melting glaciers in the world's largest storehouse of water outside the polar ice caps.. and the carbon trading..the rather cliche' question stands to pose again - Are we doing enough?
Obviously, if India is set to avoid more than 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2012, then it sounds like quite a lot is being done...
... that however is an exception to the fact that we still aren't too sure if our refrigerators use the most energy efficient technology, we don't even know which of our body sprays, hair sprays etc. have CFCs or if all body sprays have CFCs in them, leaving the air conditioner on for longer than needed has most usually only one effect - a senior member of the family paranoid about the unnecessarily huge elctricity bill...and thats all.
As discussions and international conferences on climate change continue, India, Nepal, Bhutan are amongst some of the countries from around the world that need to start doing a lot more than just cutting carbon emmissions, as they won't just be hit by fluctuating Earth temperatures but also very soon they will be hit by floods and other natural disasters caused by the receding glaciers on the Himalayas. If Disaster Management were to be a public company, there are chances that you would want to have your shares in it, the Disaster Management guys might just be doing a lot of business in the coming decades.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
An all women IIT - effects my development communication paper
President Pratibha Patil, has proposed an all women IIT in Amravati.
'an all women IIT'!!!!!???!!
'Amravati'??!!
Let me first try to understand what 'an all women IIT' would mean, from all the perspectives that i can possibly comprehend.
The first thought is - more women will be IITians.
and now i think - why aren't more women IITians already? After distinctly and consistently having performed better than the boys in the CBSE Class 12th examinations in the science stream - do the women suddenly get scared of the men at the centres of the IIT entrance examinations??!! One of the reasons, i suppose, could be the difference in the number of male and female students pursuing higher education. Is this because there are a whole lot of all men colleges and no women colleges?? I'm sure not.It's possibly because the social conditioning that we recieve pressurises men to get into competitive proffesional courses that will help them get well paying jobs more than women. However over the past decade the number of women making it into the IITs has increased distinctly. So, maybe its a sign of a changing social mind set.Will opening an institute for women encourage this change in social mindset? It is most likely to give out a message supporting education for women. With an IIT clearly reserved for women, many might take the initial education leading them to the level at which they can avail the reservation.
Here the establishment of this institute will be a happy moment if viewed under the topic of women empowerment of my development communication syllabus.
For the current number of seats in the 7 IITs the number of women even appearing for the entrance is less than half of the number men. A common obeservation in many engineering scools in India is that the number of women is very rarely even close to half the number of men.
-This year out of the 626 students pursuing undergraduate courses at IIT Delhi, 83 are women.
-At the existing 7 IITs about 10% of the overall strength are women.
There are 8 new IITs sanctioned under the 11th 5 yr plan. The all women IIT that has been proposed is meant to be besides these 8. Ensuring a higher standard in terms of resources allocated to these IITs might be an imporatnt reason as to why there are going to be 8 new 'IITs', and not just 8 new 'technological institutes'. The standard of teachers if fought hard enough for, might just continue to remain upto its current standard. But a lack of quality incentives might just bring out a major problem as to where the government will find quality faculty for the 8 new IITs besides also the all women IIT.
Finding a way of ensuring that the present quality of students will be maintained - i give up on this one.
Even if all the women studying currently in the IITs (who have made it through on merit) were to be sent off to study at the all women IIT there would be seats for a lot many more. And at the common entrance exam for the IITs more women would have to be taken as opposed to a number of boys who might have faired better.Unless if we agreed to convert the other IITs into all men IITs.Obviously, competition would eventually suffer, as would merit.
The current 7 IITs are recognised as a brand which get a respectable ranking when placed along side some of the extremely good universities internationally.
It would be much fairer, if the new institutes, including the all women IIT could be created after ensuring that a few technological institutes attained the same standard as that of which the IITs boast , rather than creating 'IITs' that cannot match up to the standard that they are expected to maintain.
Considering the compromise on the quality of education provided in the top institutes of India, under the topic 'Education' in my development communication syllabus, the new all women IIT doesn't seem like the best idea.
I'm personally only too happy that Montek Singh Ahluwalia has rejected the proposal of an all women IIT.
And Amravati is in Maharashtra in the Vidarbha district.President Pratibha Patil's former Lok Sabha constituency.
'an all women IIT'!!!!!???!!
'Amravati'??!!
Let me first try to understand what 'an all women IIT' would mean, from all the perspectives that i can possibly comprehend.
The first thought is - more women will be IITians.
and now i think - why aren't more women IITians already? After distinctly and consistently having performed better than the boys in the CBSE Class 12th examinations in the science stream - do the women suddenly get scared of the men at the centres of the IIT entrance examinations??!! One of the reasons, i suppose, could be the difference in the number of male and female students pursuing higher education. Is this because there are a whole lot of all men colleges and no women colleges?? I'm sure not.It's possibly because the social conditioning that we recieve pressurises men to get into competitive proffesional courses that will help them get well paying jobs more than women. However over the past decade the number of women making it into the IITs has increased distinctly. So, maybe its a sign of a changing social mind set.Will opening an institute for women encourage this change in social mindset? It is most likely to give out a message supporting education for women. With an IIT clearly reserved for women, many might take the initial education leading them to the level at which they can avail the reservation.
Here the establishment of this institute will be a happy moment if viewed under the topic of women empowerment of my development communication syllabus.
For the current number of seats in the 7 IITs the number of women even appearing for the entrance is less than half of the number men. A common obeservation in many engineering scools in India is that the number of women is very rarely even close to half the number of men.
-This year out of the 626 students pursuing undergraduate courses at IIT Delhi, 83 are women.
-At the existing 7 IITs about 10% of the overall strength are women.
There are 8 new IITs sanctioned under the 11th 5 yr plan. The all women IIT that has been proposed is meant to be besides these 8. Ensuring a higher standard in terms of resources allocated to these IITs might be an imporatnt reason as to why there are going to be 8 new 'IITs', and not just 8 new 'technological institutes'. The standard of teachers if fought hard enough for, might just continue to remain upto its current standard. But a lack of quality incentives might just bring out a major problem as to where the government will find quality faculty for the 8 new IITs besides also the all women IIT.
Finding a way of ensuring that the present quality of students will be maintained - i give up on this one.
Even if all the women studying currently in the IITs (who have made it through on merit) were to be sent off to study at the all women IIT there would be seats for a lot many more. And at the common entrance exam for the IITs more women would have to be taken as opposed to a number of boys who might have faired better.Unless if we agreed to convert the other IITs into all men IITs.Obviously, competition would eventually suffer, as would merit.
The current 7 IITs are recognised as a brand which get a respectable ranking when placed along side some of the extremely good universities internationally.
It would be much fairer, if the new institutes, including the all women IIT could be created after ensuring that a few technological institutes attained the same standard as that of which the IITs boast , rather than creating 'IITs' that cannot match up to the standard that they are expected to maintain.
Considering the compromise on the quality of education provided in the top institutes of India, under the topic 'Education' in my development communication syllabus, the new all women IIT doesn't seem like the best idea.
I'm personally only too happy that Montek Singh Ahluwalia has rejected the proposal of an all women IIT.
And Amravati is in Maharashtra in the Vidarbha district.President Pratibha Patil's former Lok Sabha constituency.
From a conversation with my maid..
..I learnt that her most common ailments are a cold or some minor injuries she used to get while playing.She hasn't ever attented a school and bears no regrets about it. She has learnt needle work from her aunt and her father which she thinks is enough learning for her to get along just fine even if she stopped working as a housemaid. She just got married last year to a man of her choice she shyly admits.She doesn't play anymore, so now her only common ailment is a common cold she says with pride.
When i ask her about children, she says she'll have them only when her in-laws insist on it. Does she plan to educate them,i ask her to which she says- her husband is educated and all the other children in the household go to schools, so she will have to send her children to school too maybe.
Everyone in her family goes to Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital whenever they feel there is a need for more medication than what the local private clinic can provide. It also happens to be the same hospital that the PHC in my area refers medical cases to. She is the new maid my mother just got.
From a conversation with my maid, i learnt that she is a very cool maid :) she is just 19 years old.
Though I think she would've had a slightly different story to tell me had she been educated. Probably confident enough to open her own little shop as a tailor. When i had asked her why she hasn't done that yet, she said that all the women in the family she has gotten married into,besides her mother in law, do the same work as her and opening a shop will mean keeping accounts, she doesn't know how to that.
When i ask her about children, she says she'll have them only when her in-laws insist on it. Does she plan to educate them,i ask her to which she says- her husband is educated and all the other children in the household go to schools, so she will have to send her children to school too maybe.
Everyone in her family goes to Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital whenever they feel there is a need for more medication than what the local private clinic can provide. It also happens to be the same hospital that the PHC in my area refers medical cases to. She is the new maid my mother just got.
From a conversation with my maid, i learnt that she is a very cool maid :) she is just 19 years old.
Though I think she would've had a slightly different story to tell me had she been educated. Probably confident enough to open her own little shop as a tailor. When i had asked her why she hasn't done that yet, she said that all the women in the family she has gotten married into,besides her mother in law, do the same work as her and opening a shop will mean keeping accounts, she doesn't know how to that.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
If I Were The Prime Minister For A Day..
..I'd firstly get up a lot earlier in the morning than i usually do..i'd spend the entire morning exploring how the Prime Minister of India lives..how many telephone connections he has that he doesn't have to pay the bills for, the food he gets to eat, i mean can he order subway for breakfast and not have to pay from his own pocket..what about chinese food?? How many cars does he have access to.. Does he have a private jet or something as well..??
After i'd figure out these things i would sit to plan how i can schedule my entire day in a way that i could enjoy most of these luxuries (a part of which are probably being paid for, from your dad's tax payments).
Thereafter, as the day would proceed i would find a moment to announce that all caste based reservations at the graduation and the post graduation levels have been scrapped and i would figure out the technicalities of making it illegal to even mention it in a public forum the next day onwards.
I would make the contact number of the original PM a part of information easily accesible to the public besides the contact numbers of all the Chief Ministers and MP's and MLA's.
Then i would, announce an increment in the pay for all the 3 services of the defence, bringing them at par with the highest paid government officials and if i realised that our country can't afford it i would bring down the pay of all government officials to the same level as that of the defence.
At the end of all this,if there was still time left in the day,i'd continue with enjoying the luxuries of being the Prime Minister of India.
After i'd figure out these things i would sit to plan how i can schedule my entire day in a way that i could enjoy most of these luxuries (a part of which are probably being paid for, from your dad's tax payments).
Thereafter, as the day would proceed i would find a moment to announce that all caste based reservations at the graduation and the post graduation levels have been scrapped and i would figure out the technicalities of making it illegal to even mention it in a public forum the next day onwards.
I would make the contact number of the original PM a part of information easily accesible to the public besides the contact numbers of all the Chief Ministers and MP's and MLA's.
Then i would, announce an increment in the pay for all the 3 services of the defence, bringing them at par with the highest paid government officials and if i realised that our country can't afford it i would bring down the pay of all government officials to the same level as that of the defence.
At the end of all this,if there was still time left in the day,i'd continue with enjoying the luxuries of being the Prime Minister of India.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
What Independence Day Means to Me.
As far back into my memory as i can go, i remember independence day as a period of a few days, comprising of a flag hoisting formality at school on the 13th or on the 14th, my dad going for dinner at the officers' mess on the 15th and for some reason i have a memory of eating tri coloured ice cream on one of these days as well.
The flag hoisting formality at school over the years got a new meaning with each passing year. While i was in my primary classes at school there used to be my favourite toffee - Aam Ras or Mango Bite, that used to fall from the folded flag at the top of the pole, when the principal tugged on the rope to unfurl the flag. After a few years, when i moved into the middle school wing, our teachers thought that we had become too big to be jumping around the pricipal for toffees so the flag just dropped rose petals this time.Dissapointing.
A little further up into my middle school , i had joined the NCC as a cadet. Having newly learnt how to salute, i would salute during the flag hoisting ceremony.Proudly.
As i entered high school, i had my last memorable independence day.It was around that time when i realised i had a love for being an anchor or the MC in school events. I had been chosen to be the MC for the independence day celebrations. The primary class students had prepared a fancy dress with 'The struggle for independence' as their theme. The flag hoisting ceremony took place and for the 1st time - i also had to hear the principal's speech! Then..
The Fancy Dress : (girl) from 1st B as Rani Lakshmi Bai (round of applause)
(boy) from 3rd C as Gandhi ji (another round of applause)
______ as Jawaharlal Nehru. I didn't have his name on the list. Oh God..!! I quickly turned around to ask a nervous little boy about to take the stage, - Whats your name??
He was quick to reply - I am Jawaharlal Nehru.
The event however overall went off well. There were refreshments distributed towards the end.
In the years that followed i havn't attended another flag hoisting ceremony. I had started bunking the morning assembly in the 11th and 12th. In college - i bunked classes. I dint even know if we had a morning assembly or a flag hoisting ceremony for independence day at all.
On this independence day, messaging was 1 rupee 20 paise against the usually subsidised rate of 25 paise. Travelling in Delhi was risky. Bomb blast scares. No tri coloured ice cream. Unhealthy food colour apparently. No dinner at the officers' mess either since my dad is on study leave. However it was a nice long weekend at home this time. Relaxed and Fun.
The flag hoisting formality at school over the years got a new meaning with each passing year. While i was in my primary classes at school there used to be my favourite toffee - Aam Ras or Mango Bite, that used to fall from the folded flag at the top of the pole, when the principal tugged on the rope to unfurl the flag. After a few years, when i moved into the middle school wing, our teachers thought that we had become too big to be jumping around the pricipal for toffees so the flag just dropped rose petals this time.Dissapointing.
A little further up into my middle school , i had joined the NCC as a cadet. Having newly learnt how to salute, i would salute during the flag hoisting ceremony.Proudly.
As i entered high school, i had my last memorable independence day.It was around that time when i realised i had a love for being an anchor or the MC in school events. I had been chosen to be the MC for the independence day celebrations. The primary class students had prepared a fancy dress with 'The struggle for independence' as their theme. The flag hoisting ceremony took place and for the 1st time - i also had to hear the principal's speech! Then..
The Fancy Dress : (girl) from 1st B as Rani Lakshmi Bai (round of applause)
(boy) from 3rd C as Gandhi ji (another round of applause)
______ as Jawaharlal Nehru. I didn't have his name on the list. Oh God..!! I quickly turned around to ask a nervous little boy about to take the stage, - Whats your name??
He was quick to reply - I am Jawaharlal Nehru.
The event however overall went off well. There were refreshments distributed towards the end.
In the years that followed i havn't attended another flag hoisting ceremony. I had started bunking the morning assembly in the 11th and 12th. In college - i bunked classes. I dint even know if we had a morning assembly or a flag hoisting ceremony for independence day at all.
On this independence day, messaging was 1 rupee 20 paise against the usually subsidised rate of 25 paise. Travelling in Delhi was risky. Bomb blast scares. No tri coloured ice cream. Unhealthy food colour apparently. No dinner at the officers' mess either since my dad is on study leave. However it was a nice long weekend at home this time. Relaxed and Fun.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Newspapers in development
"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." -Thomas Jefferson, 1787.
The Roman Acta Diurna, is the earliest recorded “newspaper”, which was found to have appeared in about 59 B.C. . The Acta kept citizens informed about government scandals, military campaigns, trials and executions under Julius Caesar's regime. Today, when,there are more than 60,000 registered newspapers in india alone, newspapers are looked upon to play a similar role, though the areas on which they now have to provide information stand largely diversified.
Newspapers have played a role in facilitating development mainly by performing their primary activity of providing facts and information. This role of newspapers has been enacted at different levels in different magnitudes in different areas of our country. India has a large number of local dailies and regional newspapers,specific to a district,state or region, most of which are also locally owned and operated by people directly effected by the development or lack of development in that region. Many of these newspapers, being run in rural areas ,become the only source of information,for the rural people, regarding areas outside of their villages or districts and also about local information that they don'y get. When newspapers give information about living conditions better than the ones in which the readers are living, they tend to organise themselves and put pressure on authorities and on the local governments to bring about the required changes. In many cases this has resulted in bringing about changes in factors effecting the quality of public life. Newspapers in rural areas have resulted in empowering the rural people to take part to a certain extent in the process of facilitating development.
Newspapers in many large cities are sometimes circulated amongst people who aren't aware of the conditions prevailing in the rest of the country or the level of development outside the metros. Newspapers in the metros hence also fail to have an adequate impact on influencing the urban masses to give support to rural issues relating to development. However, the role of newspapers in urban areas has been linked to development through various other ways. The newspapers have facilitated the organising of thought and action amongst various educated urban masses, over the years on various issues,though that role is now shared by all forms of media.
Making use of the accesibility to a mostly an educated readership, newspapers in urban areas have, in the past few years, initiated many direct programmes towards development. Many popular english dailies in the metros started programmes targeting school students, to create awareness, to give them a voice, and to directly take part in the development of the educational scenario,for eg. The Times of India started the programme NIE- newspaper in education aimed at school students, very recently The Times of India also started a campaign, called the teach india campaign, aimed at organising the educated people in 4 metros towards educating people who aren't privileged enough to get admissions in schools.
The role of newspapers in facilitating development has changed largely over the years, from being the biggest mode of mobilising people towards action during the years of the struggle for independence, to now,when it shares the responsibility towards creating an awareness of development or underdevelopment with other forms of media. Newspapers have responded to the requirement and have constantly reinvented themselves to continue contributing to the process of creating awareness, which is the first step towards defeating underdevelopment, be it social, cultural or development of any kind.
The Roman Acta Diurna, is the earliest recorded “newspaper”, which was found to have appeared in about 59 B.C. . The Acta kept citizens informed about government scandals, military campaigns, trials and executions under Julius Caesar's regime. Today, when,there are more than 60,000 registered newspapers in india alone, newspapers are looked upon to play a similar role, though the areas on which they now have to provide information stand largely diversified.
Newspapers have played a role in facilitating development mainly by performing their primary activity of providing facts and information. This role of newspapers has been enacted at different levels in different magnitudes in different areas of our country. India has a large number of local dailies and regional newspapers,specific to a district,state or region, most of which are also locally owned and operated by people directly effected by the development or lack of development in that region. Many of these newspapers, being run in rural areas ,become the only source of information,for the rural people, regarding areas outside of their villages or districts and also about local information that they don'y get. When newspapers give information about living conditions better than the ones in which the readers are living, they tend to organise themselves and put pressure on authorities and on the local governments to bring about the required changes. In many cases this has resulted in bringing about changes in factors effecting the quality of public life. Newspapers in rural areas have resulted in empowering the rural people to take part to a certain extent in the process of facilitating development.
Newspapers in many large cities are sometimes circulated amongst people who aren't aware of the conditions prevailing in the rest of the country or the level of development outside the metros. Newspapers in the metros hence also fail to have an adequate impact on influencing the urban masses to give support to rural issues relating to development. However, the role of newspapers in urban areas has been linked to development through various other ways. The newspapers have facilitated the organising of thought and action amongst various educated urban masses, over the years on various issues,though that role is now shared by all forms of media.
Making use of the accesibility to a mostly an educated readership, newspapers in urban areas have, in the past few years, initiated many direct programmes towards development. Many popular english dailies in the metros started programmes targeting school students, to create awareness, to give them a voice, and to directly take part in the development of the educational scenario,for eg. The Times of India started the programme NIE- newspaper in education aimed at school students, very recently The Times of India also started a campaign, called the teach india campaign, aimed at organising the educated people in 4 metros towards educating people who aren't privileged enough to get admissions in schools.
The role of newspapers in facilitating development has changed largely over the years, from being the biggest mode of mobilising people towards action during the years of the struggle for independence, to now,when it shares the responsibility towards creating an awareness of development or underdevelopment with other forms of media. Newspapers have responded to the requirement and have constantly reinvented themselves to continue contributing to the process of creating awareness, which is the first step towards defeating underdevelopment, be it social, cultural or development of any kind.
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