Can people understand reforms

When the ordinary citizen is able to understand that diesel will much much cost more, if he buys without subsidy, and that price of a cylinder of cooking gas is also subsidised, then the uproar would subside. But the anger generated (that the consumer has to pay more for the same items) is used by the political elite as political capital. This is a drama played and replayed. People have to learn to think for themselves and not depend on interpretations of the political class. What we need is more education on statistics, and more awareness. Beware of brainwashing done by the power seekers, they are trying to frighten you.So people awaken and see reality.Before starting a fight, see who is your enemy or what you are fighting against. Your cause for anger is the state of the world economy.You are upset about the state of the world economy and you cannot fight with the reforms which are trying to shield you.You must resist mob tendency, and stop following a herdsman. Do not believe in what you are made to listen to. Follow your reasoning ability, do not follow false leaders.  

New clarifications on allotment of natural resources

Supreme court has today clarified that all allocations of natural resources need not be distributed by auction. If the allocation involves corporate profit, then it should generate good revenue for the government; so auction will be used in these cases. But those cases where public good or welfare for the poor is involved, then we can allot without auction, on case to case basis. For example , if land is acquired for an orphanage, then we should not go for the highest bidder. Government will not try to draw revenue from that allocation, so no auction is needed.We should consider the public good and view it as a better allocation. But for other natural resources like coal or oil, state should remember that it has trusteeship over the resources and that the resources belong to the people of India. So revenue generated must be used for the people. But if a coal firm offers very very cheap electricity for the people, it should be given free coal blocks. Basically, there should be transparency in allocation, there should be equality in looking at those seeking allotment, there should be some public good in distribution of natural resources. If a natural resource is given for commercial purpose, then revenue from it should be maximum. Keeping auction could be economically illogical because often 'explortion and exploitation' are grouped together for oil, minerals etc.Since the cost for exploring is high, there should be some concession and lesser revenue must be collected.There is risk of not finding any oil after intensive exploration.
At many times, it is noted that auction is not a fool-proof method of allocation. Auction could be manipulated through cartelization. It is highly suitable to use e-auction which allow bids and at the same time provide profit to firms, so that high quality affordable services are available to the people. With this clarification by the Supreme Court,  we have a good structured policy for government to follow for allocation and pricing of scarce resources like coal, petroleum, natural gas, spectrum, forests, land and water which can be better distributed by e-auction. It can be quick and easy. E-auction is most favourable as offering an economic choice for disposal of resources. But it is no compulsory and is not a constitutional mandate. If questioned, courts have to analyse its legal validity. If a policy or law is unfair, then as per Article 14 of our Constitution, it can be striked down.Now land acquisition can be done speedily as there is option for acquire without auction.
But this has brought back the same definition problems--what is a "public good" A transport firm can make a highway charging toll--this is for public good. But when it starts charging exorbitant toll, and makes huge profits, it cannot be interpreted as "public good".
Whenever a policy is made there is some beneficiaries and some losers. In the previous ruling, there were benefits for the land owners,and no benefits to the industrialists. But now the policy favours industrialists. There is reason to believe that the policy making is done so that our people (farmers or owners of land) will not be the beneficiaries. And that the rich industrialists will certainly benefit.

Our people living in cities

To solve problems of the people of India, to conquer illiteracy, erase poverty, overcome gender inequality, eradicate child labour, we must know how the Indian people live. When we think about “how India works” we see that it is the people, the hopes that they have that keeps the country moving on. People work hard and sustain themselves and their families. These bonds and relationships they have in their cultural set up keeps them connected. They have each other to keep themselves going. They show each other the pathways to the realisation of their basic needs—access to jobs, access to education, access to loans, access to housing facilities and so on. This inter-dependency leads to clustering of people and thus villages came about. When specialists were needed like iron smiths, gold smiths, carpenters, masons, shop keepers, vaidhs (doctors), bigger villages came about. Then towns formed may be on banks of rivers or around specialisations (religious specialisation lead to the making of Varanasi). With Industrialisation much later on, towns became cities. We have municipalities and townships, which are committed to look after the towns and cities. However they may try, they are not able to meet the needs of the people. All cities have poor waste management systems. Piped water for drinking is not provided to all. There is a steady flow of migration from rural to urban India; and we cannot cope with the problems related to this migration. There are areas which have become slums—no water connections, no electricity no sewage system. But civic authorities spend well on roads, sports complexes, swimming pools etc. For the very poor, there is no place to live, may be pavements, if allowed. Some minimum living space must be provided to the new arrivals to the cities. Since pitching tents is not allowed, a shed could be made for them.These people are illiterate and cannot ask for their rights. Among the citizens of city are street children, destitute persons, construction labourers, domestic servants, daily wage earners, coolies, small traders, rickshaw pullers, drivers etc. They have dire needs (no place to stay) and they are not heard. We classify the Indian people in terms of gender group or age group or we differentiate them on basis of urban or rural, in order to deal with their problems. But this is not the right way to visualise the situation. Only real classification is rich and poor. Having access to civic amenities and not having basic amenities differentiates a class of neglected people. Poverty has to be addressed first. Only after solving that we can look at the other problems of the people. Only after that we can look at urbanism and how to best resolve stressful life in cities.
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The Educated Country

The country with highest number of graduates, the country with the largest number of professionals, the country with largest number of educated citizens is India. Then,how can we still be backward? The India’s bureaucrats have never bothered to work after they have secured their positions or jobs. India’s teachers are not committed to teaching. India’s doctors do not bother about our people’s health. India’s politicians are not interested in progress for their people(they are interested in accumualting wealth). And India’s industrialists are not bothered about the state of their workers. Then how can India develop? We have what it takes for our betterment (we have education), but we do not commit ourselves to our work. We did not bother to think that this country had educated us; that this country had provided us with good food grains; we must remember that this country gave us the right environment for our growth. What did we do for the country? We procrastinated and did not show integrity; we did not think and we did not understand problems of others. So when the cost of food price is high and when the fuel cost is also very very high and when we cannot make any savings, we must understand that we had not contributed to the growth of our country. Now we know what is wrong with us.
We must think about others and their exigencies. May be now we can feel how the fish folks feel when their river is dammed and how they had lost their livelihoods; and may be we can understand how the tribals(simple people) feel when their land is taken away from them for making big factories; may be we can feel how people feel when immmigrants had taken over their lands; may be we can understand how ruthless dairy factories pay meagre sums for milk provided by very poor homesteads; may be we can understand how people feel when a nuclear plant is installed in their lands against their wishes. They feel helpless. May be we can manage little increase in price rise of diesel and cut down our expenditures. We should work more than what we are paid for, only then India will grow. We have to perform our role well.

How to pacify the people

On Friday night our Nation's leader had made a live telecast of speech to the common man of the Indian Nation (similar to fireside chats of American Presidents). On Saturday morning he had made a speech to the industrialists on how important investment is in the growth of the Indian economy. Is he in the side of the average Indian who is struggling to meet his daily expenses or is he going to help the industrialists invest? He is trying to be close to both.Because both have to be pacified.Election is due in two years. Before that he has to prove his worth. More reforms are coming!  
Now he cannot be supported by any other party. The rest of the term, he is heading a minority government. He is going to be responsible entirely for the resultant state of the economy. He will make proper reforms. He cannot play "blame game" anymore. He can survive the minority status because the other parties have mutual distrust and disagreement with each other goals.
Those somersaulting politicians have brought ruin to themselves in supporting opposite ideals and making enemies with one and all. This is an advantage to our leader and his party.
By repeating the disruptive behaviour in the Monsoon Session of Parliament, no reforms could be made. This shows that they were not interesting in governing, they were interested in making noises and were always criticising. It was incorrigible, to see our elected elite behave this way.Now any reform is welcome, supporting the people or supporting the industrialists. It is better than inaction and misbehaviour----tripping and thereby stagnating our government.  

Fast Forward on Economic Reforms

Even if there were protests, and even if some political parties resign, there will not be a rollback on proposed economic reforms. Government has to cope with current account deficits and fiscal deficits. It has to take measures which should generate wealth and it has to cut down expenditures. The sluggish economy has to speed up. And these reforms justify the measures taken, will they help?
The cost that the consumer has to pay is only Rs. 5, more than usual.The price of diesel has to raised by Rs. 17 per litre, to keep up with the international market. Government has been subsidising diesel; this was done so that poor farmers can buy diesel for their tractors and motors(for pumping water)But rich people started buying luxury cars which used diesel. Everyone wanted to use the resource that government had provided. The consumption of diesel rose, so so high that government could no longer subsidise it, now. The citizenry was irresponsible in its usage of a valuable resource which was meant for the poor. Now every one has to pay for it dearly.
FDI(Foreign Direct Investment) must be understood better. Already we have chain stores, but now we will have muti-brand retails. With competition, may be the cost will reduce. On the whole, coming of foreign stores means loss for the business people here. If have benefit of the country in mind, then, we can make a deal with the chain stores to develop the Indian market for a specific period(let us say for 10 years). After this period, the retails will have to pull out of India. This deal will make sure that Foreign Investment is used only for development and they cannot "own" anything in India. If these specifications are not made, India would suffer in future and there will be "no way out" of exploitation that will ensue.
It is foolish to say that coming of FDI will generate jobs.The idea of chain stores is reduce manpower increase "machine power" as part of modernization. To gain popularity political elite say that the coming of chain stores will generate more employment, as more jobs is what we want.
We just want to survive in the sea of changes that economic condition of the world market. So all sorts of measures have been proposed. There are more changes like CRR rate cuts by 25bps. New proposal is that government is going to sell stakes in four PSU(Public Sector Undertaking) NALCO,MMTC,Hindustan Copper and Oil India Limited. But the political climate will affect these reforms greatly. For these to succeed, government has to follow-up in the dis-investment plan for a long long time. But if the political party in power changes, this will affect the policy adversely.Before the dis-investment process can become successful, the government would have changed. So successful reforms in our economy is depended on how we wisely we select our political representatives; and how consistently we select.
 

When people oppose economic reforms

New political moves have isolated some politicians. When government would not rollback the diesel price rise; when FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) is here to stay, a roll back was impossible. But few states had proposed that the number of subsidized cooking gas cylinders would be increased, as a part of negotiations (bargaining). Still, adamant to her own beliefs, the regional party’s leader had pulled out of the coalition government. This has given opportunities for other smaller parties to come to the forefront. The adamant politician has brought ruin to her own state; the new increased number of hired personnel of the government will not be getting salaries. And all plans would become pointless now. Being too emotional in representing the needs of the common man, the Politician had gone too far and had resigned. Now her supporters, her people, are completely sunk. Who will speak for them now? If she “cries wolf” and resigns for small changes, what will she do when big problems befall the people? Now big problems have come.

People chose another way to protest against the price rise. Now we have “Bharat Bhandh” when all those protesting shut down their shops and establishments to revolt against the government’s actions. Other parties joined together and went on a March at the capital(New Delhi). They want that the pressure on the people be reduced. They vehemently feel that diesel price should not be raised as much. That means reforms cannot  take place now. Are not these reforms meant to lift the economy up therefore relieve the people? This event came and went; it has not resulted in any change in government’s policies. Now what is next?People's will or reforms?

 

Growth-At the cost of whom

The workers and farmers had fuelled India's growth. Farmers put together the power of the sun, with the fertility of the soil, and hard work while shedding their sweat on the soil. They sell their produce at low rates in order to make little money(minimum support price does not allow profits). Their produce is bought by others--procured, sold, resold, transferred, transported and consumed. This is what we call economy.Workers work for long long hours, contribute their labour, so that industrialists can make huge huge profits. Workers get small salaries, and live out their lives with few amenities and a little space to live in. They are paid just enough to live.The money these workers and farmers had contributed towards tax was taken by government; and bureaucrats consumed it as their salaries. Do these bureaucrats contribute to anything constructive? They contribute to corruption and red-tapism in our organisations.
 All  our natural resources are shared by politicians and their dynasties.Our resources should be used for betterment of our hard working people.Unless we contribute to the betterment of the actual producers, we cannot keep the wheel of economy from moving on. We want to only exploit them indefinitely. What is the government or the industry doing for the betterment of workers? Nothing. So with so many using up the labour of the farmers and workers, there will come a time when the workers and farmers will give up. Then what?We will have to increase the expenditures on farmers/working/producers and decrease the expenditures on non workers. We can reduce the number of bureaucrats by bringing in greater computerization.We can increase number of workers by increasing the number of industries;and workers should have more benefits and are not be exploited as they are now.If foreign companies come to India in a big way,they will not consider worker's welfare,only profit matters to them.Our people will suffer more with increase in poverty which this will result in. The logic that government will collect tax and provide a way of living for the poor is not credible anymore.More and more farmers are committing suicides. This is not normal.Oh what will future of India be like?

Quick reforms made

The Indian government is in a hurry to make reforms to make the economy healthier. Reforms in bringing in retail chains and raising of price of diesel and cooking gas have been made very quickly to remove our attention from the the realities of corruptions (in allocations regarding coal blocks). Diesel price was raised by 5 Rupees per litre. And this was hated by consumers all over India. If the diesel price was increased, tractors and motors for water pumping (which run by diesel) would make farming costlier. This would increase the price of vegetable, fruits, grains and pulses. More over trucks which bring the produce to the market will charge a higher price; this will further increase the price of all consumer items). In major metropolitan cities there were protests, and marches all wanted to demonstrate against the price rise of diesel. Politicians who had brought this show that the international price is high and we have to raise the price as there cannot be any more subsidies. For the ordinary people, the macro and micro economic policies do not make any direct sense; the fact that they have to pay high prices for food stuffs is something they will have to tolerate. In India cooking gas which is sold in cylinders is subsidised almost 50% (Rs 750/per cylinder gas is given to consumers at Rs 400/cylinder). A single  family is allowed to  use only  six cylinders per year;  and for additional cylinders there will not be a subsidy.They have to pay the cost price.This economic measure can  be  understood by all.

Along with raising price of fuels, the ruling government has brought FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in multi brand retail. Small time businessmen or middlemen buy from producers and sell to consumers with a small profit; and thereby make a living. But with the coming of chain stores, these small businesses and small shops will come to an abrupt end.Already we have seen  how the chain stores aim at huge profits without considering health of the consumers or welfare of its own workers. Farmers may benefit at the start but later they too will be strangulated by chain stores. In a second, the foreign firms will buy the farmer's land and leave him buried in debts.This has happened elsewhere and we may be repeating this in India. All those people who would have lost their livelihoods—where will they go? What will they do?

Rise of diesel price has met with big oppositions.One part of the coalition government has threatened to resign if there was not a rolled back within 72 hours. Even if the diesel price is rolled back, what will be the state of the small time middlemen? The solution is not in sight.

Protesting for land by standing in water

For sixteen days, farmers (whose land was taken away for making Omkareshwar Dam) were standing in neck deep water.Two senior minsters were sent to meet the protesting farmers when Asian division of the Human Rights Commission had called the water protest a "shame"; many protesters had started developing diseases.The dam water was raised to 193 metres without consulting the residents, and the lands of these people submerged. During the "Jal Satyagraha" (water protest) farmers stood in water to claim their right which the Supreme Court had given them(during judgement of May,2011)Compensation was not given even after surrendering their land for making the dam. This had happened in the district of Khandwa in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Government had agreed to give them land as compensation for the land that they had given. The dam was completed in 2006 but the villagers were not given land as compensation as promised.The activists were part of "Narmada Bachao Andolan" who were agitating for rehabilitation for the farmers who had lost their livelihoods. The dam had made a profit of 647 crores in year 2011 to 2012. It would cost only 500 crores to give compensation, but the needs of the farmers were not heard all these years. With this "water protest", they were heard and were compensated. 
The same activists had staged another protest in the district of Harda where 200 protesters were arrested.Why? These farmers had accepted a small package as compensation, and they were not promised new land for their land taken.Harda farmers were given a paltry sum which was highly inadequate;this was forced on them. They do not have a means of livelihood now.They may have to go for Grievance Redressal Authority.The number of people affected are 80000 as the number of villages submerged is 25029. This was done so that the Indira Sagar Project(dam) can produce 1000 MW of power.And the Dam has an irrigation potential of 123000 hectares of land in 574 villages. Maybe a simple canal can be made instead of a dam for irrigation.Solar power and wind power can be used instead of hydroelectric power. Is a dam so important that 80000 farmers are driven out of their homelands and left to fend for themselves?

Courts can restrain media now

Supreme Court has said that the higher judiciary could impose a freeze on media coverage if it was felt that reporting a case would harm the right of the accused for a fair trail.

Some feel that these have been proposed to control media; they have been laid down for media only regarding court cases. A court order can post pone reporting of cases for a limited time, only. When the trail is over it can be reported.
The reason given is that this will protect the victim. Sometimes the media moulds the public opinion in such a way that the victim is harmed. Actually, the accused get protected (instead), by postponement of reporting subjudice issues with grave consequences.Now the victims are left to fend for themselves in fighting for their rights and media cannot help them as it had always done.Many court cases have been solved by stint operations done by media personnel.Who will now ask questions about sloppy investigation procedures? Who can check political interference? Who can go deeply into details and find out about key witnesses and what they are trying to hide?Recently a lawyer was trying to make a witness lie and this was caught by the media.Now there will be few convictions, no one is there to help the poor victims.The orders of postponement of reporting would be passed only when necessary to prevent and substantial risk to the fairness of the trial or the court proceedings. This will not harm our freedom of expression. Reporters of media have right to appeal against postponement orders.
This is meant to give the persons under trail less exposure. Unnecessary exposure to media has the potential to prejudice or obstruct or interfere with administration of justice in a case in Supreme Court or High Court. There are two rights here—right to dignity and the right to presumption of innocence—guaranteed under Article 21. And there is Article 19 to freedom of speech which will give way, as it is not an absolute right. Is not the Right to open trail is an absolute right?
 This is meant to give powers to the courts to prohibit to make any statements which would be detrimental to the judicial process.But the media actually aids the investigative process. The recent exposure of the Minister who had killed many during riots(10 years ago) was possible because of pressmen. No attention was paid to the waitress who had refused to serve drinks after the restaurant timings were over, she was shot and killed.Media went on pursuing this and ultimately, the courts took up the case. Poor quality investigations by police and sinister intentions to cover-up issues are exposed by the media men.This is actually an indirect censorship in a crucial place--the court.
Just when we were hoping that trails would be telecast live,in this modern age, this comes as a step backwards. Such interpretations and laws would not give way to modernization of our court systems as anticipated.

September Eleven--Two Thousand One

Nine Eleven--Two thousand one, was a horrible date in Modern History. People who had arrived at work in the morning to their offices were killed when two planes crashed into their office building. It was a big blow to the American people. It was a shock to the rest of the world. New date in history was added--Age of terror had begun. Americans took the pain stoically.The culprits were caught ten years later. Anguished Americans had to go through recession, while recovering from the blow. They are a courageous people and they still remember all those who had perished during the bombing of giant twin towers. One day had changed everything.This was a direct clash between civilisations--- something that never had happened ever before.
India too was affected by that. World economy had started to go into downtrend. We are yet to recover from the bad economic conditions, which had begun from the date---Nine Eleven,two thousand one.The Indian people are affected by poverty, wrong policies,mismanagement of resources and lack of guidance.But they still have empathy for the Americans who had been jolted by such terror.We should also get such courage to deal with such horrible expressions of hatred.
 

Literacy Day Observed

The above picture is that of Goddess of learning or Saraswathi who is worshipped by all Indians.Two days ago the Literacy day was celebrated. We know that only 74% of Indian population is literate. The rest of the 26% who are illiterate are too poor to be literate. All the people who are illiterate have a great zeal to learn to read and write but the economic conditions are so bad that they have just enough to survive and are not able to spend time to learn to read and write.It is so sad,  that people who think education as the most valuable  wealth that one can have, do not know how to read or write. India has the largest population who cannot read or write.This is a very big matter as population explosion takes place where there is illiteracy,there is lack of health education.This results in illnesses.And lack of proper education leads to social unrest.All social evils arise from illiteracy. Political awareness is the most important matter which is erased by illiteracy. There are many laws which have been made to eradicate illiteracy. We made legal efforts to get rid of illiteracy. 86th Amendment to the Constitution of 2002 and Right to education Act of 2009 were very bold steps. Right to education of children under 14 was also important. But when conditions are so pressing, legal steps remain in paper. Economic upliftment is more important and so is social change. In many Indian states, where the women are not deprived socially, they make big efforts to rise out of illiteracy. In those Indian states where free lunches are provided to the students (like Tamil Nadu), number of school going children has risen phenomenally. Now even free 'tablets' are offered by politicians who are voted to power to students(like Uttar Pradesh). Some Indian politicians(like in Bihar) have promised free bicycles to female students,to encourage female literacy. Efforts are being made to bring literacy rate to 100%.But first poverty has to be erased for that to happen. And can that happen?  .

Child labour -- can we abolish it

Children are the real future of India, their welfare will make India's future.Earlier we had Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act 1986, now we have Child and adolescent Labour Prohibition Act which has been passed by the Union Cabinet two days ago.It has banned adolescents (below 18 years old) from being employed in hazardous industries. Earlier act protected children below the age of 14 only,now teenagers below 18 get the protection of the law too. The right to education Act has enabled children below 14 to attend school. But will this bring any changes in the ground level? In India there were 12.6 million child labourers between the age of 5 to 14(as per census taken 11 years ago).
 Poverty brings children to the job market. And no law can protect them from poverty. Factory Act of 1938, Plantation Act of 1951, Mines Act of 1952 and Minimum wages Act of 1948 tried to protect the vulnerable children. Even the Employment of Children Act of 1938 was repealed. Juvenile Justice of Children passed in 2000 could not protect the children of India. When laws cannot always come to terms with reality, a register was to be maintained in factories to keep attendance of the children working in them(those who were permitted to work) There are many who tried to save the children through 'Bachpan Bachao Andolan', CARE and several others.
Because of the lack of regulation and order in the labour market, children are inducted into it at an early age. And economy is informal, we cannot make laws for it. There are cottage industries in which children work.Even after making laws,there are legal blocks--who can be brought to court for what etc. There is lack of modernization in industries like carpet making and hand loom weaving which are done manually.Demand for children is high as they learn easily, and make no complaints. There are several reasons why children are recruited in the job market.Illiteracy among women in rural areas, causes early entry of children into the labour market. Rural economy is different--when it is transplanting or harvesting more "hands" are needed.Families which have cows or sheep need extra family members to take care of them. We must differentiate children who work within the family and those who earn money outside the family. Technically, the second kind are the child labourers.Child s deprived of education and freedom of childhood in both kinds of work.Indebtedness and large number of siblings also leads to child labour. Some families have a strange tactic  for survival--have lots and lots of children(in hope they will add to family income).They create poverty and  child labour emanates from this wrong tactic. Why does child labour continue to exist despite so many legal steps to stop it? The nature of the economy is such that it pushes families into poverty, land-less ness and lack of wealth drives poor families to encourage child labour.The truth is that adult labour is costlier than child labour and employers value that. When men,women and children enter the labour market, there is plenty of labour and that is an inviting scenario to the potential employers. When mothers have to work for betterment of the family along with fathers, they stop their children from going to school and convince them to go work too. Such people are illiterates and do not realize the urgency of  education.People work very hard to come out of poverty and try to use education to climb out of it.They do this by educating the next generation even under very pressing circumstances.State of poverty has to be tackled before bringing laws for abolishing child labour. Laws on paper must become  reality, so that India's future will become bright.....when there is a smile in each child's face going to school. If we invest on education, future citizens(today's children) will live in better conditions.

To protect Indian women

Yesterday, the Indian Parliament's lower House(Lok Sabha) had passed a bill (Sexual Harassment Bill) after a great deal of work. Now it has to be passed in the upper House(Rajya Sabha) and then it will become law. Status of Indian women is very low as the traditional Indian society was strongly patriarchal. Although the feudal(traditional) age had passed long long ago, the mindsets of the people still lags behind. Women suffer harassment at the workplace; they suffer in public transport facilities(bus) and in other public places. Even women who sell vegetables and fruits are molested. Women who work as domestic help suffer too. Women suffer as patients in hospitals.To address the exigencies that Indian women face, this bill has been drafted. It will work in the ground level also; local complaints committee will look into the grievances and take action. Law and its implementation is very important. For a law to be effective, it has to be implemented well.
In the present India there is growth of the corporate world, where many women are employed. The market is developing fast and women have entered the labour market.And it is here that this law will be very applicable. If women complain of harassment, their complaint is held as trivial. And this discourages them.Many do not complain because of fear of not getting a promotion.Sometimes the service rules are such that they refrain from complaining.Sometimes they are framed for false complaint by the boss who snubs the complaint.Justice must be done.
There are ways which have been adopted by army , navy and air force to deny women permanent position in their organisation. They are "too old" to be made permanent, when they get the required years of service. Or some or other case is put against them and denied posts. These have to be re-examined, so that more laws can be made to allow women to be part of these organisations.
The best part of this Bill is that there is a prescribed time limit for making the complaints---ninety days. And sixty days has been fixed for recommendation.This is a very progressive bill which has come to protect women who live in present age in a society with old old values. There are still "khap panchayats" which do not allow women to use mobile hand sets. How are we going to cope with that? Let us think on that.

Non Aligned Movement

India has been always part of the non-aligned movement. Long ago,in a world torn by cold war, there was urgent need to keep aloof from the two giants—America and Russia. Even when cold war had ended long ago, there is a need to keep away from strong powers. Hence non-alignment is relevant even today. Four days ago the NAM summit was held at Tehran.Thirty six leaders (out of 120expected) from around the world met in Tehran and attended the Non Aligned Movement’s summit. These nations represent 55% of the world population, or two thirds of those in the United Nations.  Many issues were discussed. Some expressed that Western powers enforce their interest in the name of ‘democracy’ and ‘international law’
When many nations are still developing, or underdeveloped, they cannot participate in the “trade” activity in an equal footing with a developed nation. There is a tendency is to exploit the underdeveloped nation which has rich resources and exchanges are manipulative; an advanced nation is a position to keenly understand the advantages and it dictates the “trade relations” to its own selfish benefit. There is no international organization can bring an order to stop this kind of exploitation. Why?
Many nations which had made better and better development felt that there is an “Islamic awakening” The meaning is that, there is more consciousness about one’ own cultural identity and individuality. After economic development has taken place, there is political awareness of oneself(or nations) to seek an individual status. For an outsider, this awakening may be threatening. Such fears have to be set aside.
India feels that countries like Syria have a right to determine their own destiny and that there should be no foreign intervention. Meanwhile International Atomic Energy Agency was scrutinising Iran’s nuclear facilities. Main topics were nuclear power, human rights and how to deal with international terrorism.

Iran has at last made efforts to be part of global mainstream, after long isolation. Iran is also attempting to improve ties with its own neighbors.

Two main accomplishments were that there was signing of the documents proposed and that all countries had a chance develop bilateral ties with other nations. It was a highly beneficial summit. The pressure exerted by the security council in the United Nations was absent, and all were allowed to say what their feeling is. That is the greatest positive point of this summit.