Returning.....

‘You’re looking outside as if its Delhi you have come to visit!, papa said, as I stared through the car window. I widened my grin and continued doing what I was. But much dense was the streak of thought jumping up-and-down inside my little head!

I was finally able to figure out ‘what’ it was that had been missing, all this while, when I had been away. NO, It wasn’t some-’one’..(:p)… rather, it was ‘the feeling’. The feeling of being home, cozy in my quilt, listening to the neighborhood kids howling-and-shouting (Ben!!!) and utilising their holidays in the hope of becoming the next Sachin Tendulkar; of the aunty-next-door, gossiping with her maid every morning at exactly 8:12:32 am, and the Funday-Sunday beginning with melodies of Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand, Madhubala, and so many more, which only my maa can guess correctly! (now u see why, eh, Ghosh? :p)

My mind keeps going back to Priyanka’s post on Christmas; and how we all want to be together, at some times of the year. Well, why am I not surprised? Coz it is these beautiful moments spent, which count at the end.

I enjoyed Goa, truly. With the serenity of the water, and enthusiasm of the beach, nothing could have made my Christmas ‘merrier’!

But at home, well, IT’S DIFFERENT !! :D

Suhani

The magic of Christmas is with us...

When I was a kid, I was never the sorts to believe in the existence of Santa Claus. I knew my parents were the Santa Clauses… but nonetheless I was always excited to find my box of chocolates under my pillow. I always looked forward to walnut cakes, puddings and turkeys (yes, we do have them here) and just the noise and the buzz and of course the zillion TV shows during the time. December was always special.

Today, I have forgotten what it’s like to have the ‘family time’ at this season. It’s either with friends in some club or huddled in the room, under the blanket with lots of hot, crispy KFC chicken. I miss sitting idly with Mum in front of the numerous ‘Award Givings’ on the TV… it meant nothing but I just miss the sheer joy of being so secured.

                                                          

These times have always got me security, warmth and love which is very rare once you get out of home in the big, bad World to make something out of yourself.

This festive season I would be away from home… probably with friends, partying some where, as we popularly call it, but what I have realized is as much as we are in denial, home would always be a secured place for us. We can never replicate it with anything else. In all my fifteen years away from home, I have realized that what we mean to our parents, we can never mean the same to anybody else.

This Christmas and New Year, I urge you guys to say a silent prayer with all your heart to all the people whom we take for granted and to the Almighty for giving us what many are deprived of… the warmth and security of a home, loving parents and the knowledge that no matter what, we have a place to go back to.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!!!

This too shall pass!

Fellow bloggers….whatsup?????.....long time (:D)

Well, just felt like asking, no offence :p

Has been a long time since I posted, I might have forgotten how to write (:P). So, since I wanted this post to be ‘GOOD’, I thought of not experimenting, and sharing with the (not many) readers we have, a story my grand-mum told me when I was 7 or 8 yrs old.

“A king once, sat in discussion with his advisors.

He said to them, “When I’m happy, I fear a mishap might sadden me the very next moment. And when I’m upset, I wonder when next would I be glad. This mind-block allows me, neither to enjoy the former moments, nor to look for a solution to my problem in the latter. Can u think of a way to sort this out?”

His advisors pondered on the query, but could not come up with an immediate answer. The question, they admitted, wasn’t an easy one!
One of them came back to the king, the following day, and gifted him a ring. He said, ‘My Lord, I think this will work!’

The king looked down at the ring.
 Its stone read ‘THIS TOO SHALL PASS’
He smiled. Not further an explanation did he need.”

I was confused when grand-mum finished, probably being too young to comprehend with the depth of what she was trying to explain to me. Sensing this, she followed it up by elucidating. She said.”Always remember, everything in life is a phase—fame, glory, sorrow, power, everything—they all begin, and as time passes, come to an end. Hence, never hold on to the idea, that life is static.”

Today when I think about it, this is how it comes to me- The phrase coined implies that knowing our hardships ‘shall pass’ gives us hope; knowing the happiest of times ‘shall pass’ helps us cherish them; and knowing that even the best of riches shall part someday, helps us to live life fully.

Simple and straight -It’s the day, and the dark, and then the day again! So, keep smiling (:D)

-Suhani :)

Notes EHI Occupational Structure - Eureka

Eureka123 is a business plan by students of economics, St. Stephen's College. Our aim is to reach out to the college students through quality notes and educational videos in their respective subjects. If you want to contribute or pour help, do write to eureka123.ssc@gmail.com. Thanks! Happy studying!

Occupational Structure - j. krishnamurty EHI

How important is a 'Brand-Name'?

Somebody asked my father the other day, “aur Dr.Sahib, bachche toh bade ho gaye honge? Kya karti hai bitiya aapki?” (Dr, Sahib, your kids must’ve grown by now, isn’t it? What does your daughter do?)…to which my father said, “She is pursuing Eco hons from St. Stephen’s College”.

And YES!!!!! Most of you can guess what followed; a lengthy discussion about how good the college is, how the Delhi University cut-offs are rising to the impossible-mark with each passing year, and how difficult it is to get to the so-called ‘worthy’ colleges these days. Not that I don’t agree with them, but really: is a brand name that important? Just because someone did not do well in some 3-hour examination, and ended up in one of the ‘not-so-well-known’ colleges, does that reduce what s/he is worth? Just because someone works at a company you haven’t heard about, does that make him/her less accomplished?

When one hears about ‘Steve Jobs’, there is only one word which comes to mind: ‘APPLE’…he was a high school dropout, but who cares? All we know today is that, he is one of the most successful businessmen in the world. 

‘Shiela Ki Jawani!! ’…reminds me (and I’m pretty sure you too!) of Katrina Kaif, recently called the ‘Barbie Doll’ of The Hindi Film Industry. I haven’t heard of anyone asking, “How much did she score in her Class XII boards?”

What I’m trying to basically prove here is that one doesn’t care, because it simply doesn’t matter. I’m nowhere trying to say that doing away with ‘Brand Names’ and the value the common man, including you and me, associates with them is the way to go! All I’m saying is, it isn’t the world which decides your worth, it is you :) Just like wearing a brand name pair of shoes will not give someone style, going to a brand name institution of higher learning will not, by itself, give someone a good education or make them successful.

You might not be big, at present, but it’s your life, and with work and will, nobody can stop you from ‘making-it-large’.

I concur. Do you?

-Suhani

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

I like Nehru. Wasn’t non- alignment an awesome strategy in the wake of cold war? Reading a bit on game theory, I realized that in any two party game, the ‘third way’ could be better for any third party as opposed to aligning with one of the two in which case one invites the wrath of the rival camp.


India’s policy wasn’t that of neutrality or isolation in the sense that we never ran out of the battle ground feigning to know nothing about the cold war politics. We were active and we were strategically important and we were not aligned. Both US and USSR as a result were involved in novel enticement tactics – there were entreats and connivances. We got food from the US in our ‘ship-to-mouth’ woes in the 60s while we countered the China-Pakistan-US axis in 1972 by signing the Treaty of Friendship with the USSR for 20 years.


Over the years I have learnt that middle ground is mostly better than extremes – it gets you sympathy from both ends while you end up making no enemies.


The other day, listening to an IDG talk by Mr. Vinod Raina, I discovered a similar viewpoint in this sense in another field. Think of India’s Constitution. It mentions the word ‘socialism’ in the Preamble as a reflection of the spirit of the Constitution while at the same time Article 19 (a) gives every citizen the right to engage in any trade, profession or occupation reflecting highly capitalist goals. Isn’t it a beautiful balance? Of course, I admit that these double views can end up creating more confusion that mere allusion – but it certainly is a good enticing tactic to keep all the groups in a diverse country happy and content!


Lately I have been highly impressed by the views of Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen on markets and equity. The logic goes thus – there are two types of common errors any human being or system commits –

1. The error of omission i.e. not doing something one was supposed to do
2. The error of commission i.e. doing something one was not supposed to do

I find the errors similar to the statistical errors in hypothesis testing. You may end up rejecting a right conclusion (Type 1 error) or you may end up accepting a wrong one (Type 2 error).


These errors pop up everywhere in our lives and around. So as the saying goes, ‘to err is human’ – it follows that all systems made my humans must also be prone to errors. Capitalism and socialism are man-made systems, afterall. While capitalism traces its roots to Hobbes’ social contract theory and views on individualism and liberalism, socialism evolved as Karl Marx’s solution to the exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie under capitalism.


Dreze and Sen believe that neither extreme is flawless and both capitalism and socialism come with their own kitty of errors of omission and commission, which can sometimes be big bloomers than minute errors. While markets may fail to discourage parallel evolution of black markets, government may fail on grounds on distributing commensurate rewards to the most hard-working people.


So the word of the day is CO-OPERATION – in other words an amalgam of both the systems. Let the market take care of efficiency at the micro level while the visible hand of planning sees to the long term macro goals of the economy.

India, as always, went for a mixed economic model – enjoying the best of both worlds.


So the most important question is, why am I talking of this ‘both world theory’ at this time of the year?

The answer is SUS ELECTIONS at college. Its probably the best time of the year for students especially fuchaas when their views are heard and an uncanny respect for every single student of the college (excluding the opposition camp) evolves out of thin air. Suddenly our inboxes are full of election promises and suggestions. There is lively canvassing on the campus – its more like a ‘power mela’ where both camps are multicultural and claim the other to be a bigoted and regionalized one!

It seems like a battle between the ‘most hardworking candidate of the SUS last year’ vs. the ‘most hardworking candidate of the SUS last year’!!!

While I sit back deleting the bulk ‘vote for bla bla bla’ messages from my overflooded inbox, I wait for the open court tomorrow. I sincerely hope I am able to find some substantial difference between the agendas of both the camps so it becomes easy to decide – the most difficult decision to make is ‘choosing between equals’ or ‘perceived equals’!

In this scenario, what does the ‘best-of-both-worlds’ theory teach me, then?
Getting my demands fulfilled and my personal utility maximized from the either of the two winning!

...and btw yeah, you guessed it right…I plan to walk to the open court tomorrow wearing a white shirt and a black pant! :P

Choices Matter

You must have heard of Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’. Scrooge was a greedy businessman who had no joy and love in his heart. So, he worked in his office even on the Christmas Eve. Had Scrooge went to celebrate Christmas, he would have had to buy gifts. Being ‘rational’ Scrooge chose not to. Why? Suppose Scrooge gave a gift worth Rs. 100 to a person, say A. But, A values the gift to Rs. 80. Scrooge in return might receive a gift that he values less than the price of the gift. Therefore, it leads to a loss in total utility. Scrooge could have given Rs. 100 in cash as a gift but he chose not to, because he won’t be as satisfied, though better off than the previous case. Scrooge’s rational thinking led to him having no place in his life for love and compassion!

We make choices every day. These little choices that we make are very crucial. You must have heard someone saying, ‘I have no choice.’ What does ‘choice’ mean? Actually, when we say ‘I have no choice’, it means we had choices but they were not liked by us. In short, they were ‘bad’. Choice is something that relates what we prefer and what we demand. While studying microeconomics we often assume that all consumers are rational and that their decisions maximize their utility. But is it so?

Let’s take a simple example. B likes swimming and hence joined swimming classes. He has two choices-either pay Rs. 50 per visit or Rs. 900 per month. If B goes for swimming frequently, the second choice must be preferred. But B is a busy man. He still prefers second choice thinking it cost Rs. 30 per visit. At the end of the month B finds that he went for swimming only 15 days and ended up paying Rs. 60 per visit. This, as some economists call is ‘irrational confidence.’ B overestimates his number of visits and hence lands on a lower indifference curve (See diagram).  Take another example, C goes to watch a movie. He wants to buy popcorn. (Is C actually hungry?) Small size cup costs Rs. 50 and large size costs Rs. 60. C’s decision to buy the large cup was not determined by his hunger level but by the thought of getting those extra popcorns for just Rs. 10. Had he bought a small cup, he would have saved Rs. 10 and also taken care of his ‘health’.

Thus, we see that there are many factors which influence decisions because of which consumers are irrational. If the ‘overconfident’ consumers think a little rationally, coupled by looking at the macro-economic indicators, then they can save a lot in times when prices are soaring high. Hence choices do matter!

Corruption - Economic Bad or Good

Some days back, my Microeconomics Professor suggested a very strange thing – ‘Maybe corruption is a good thing after all.’ I was taken aback for a moment and then the incredulous feeling was replaced with a strong contemplation as he proceeded about how the thought of earning that extra bit of money might actually serve as an incentive for people to perform better and work harder. “Maybe it is not such a bad thing after all”, he said.

 I started dwelling on it. Then again, when you think about it, maybe corruption and the facility and liberty of making that extra bit of money can distort many other things as well. If things were left to the policy of – “how much you can get by how much you do”, people would tire everything out to make money. What I believe is the problem in India is the work policy and the facts that people aren’t driven by the right motives and incentives to work. Every one works only to make them better and richer and healthier. There is the spirit of philanthropy, of the concept of making things better for everyone... these things missing. Therefore with the advent of such a policy, there comes this whole widening gap of the social and economic status of people in this country. Corruption is essentially a bad thing, defined as ‘Dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery’. It is found in a survey that corruption as incredible as it might sound can actually elevate the efficiency of an economic system.

There is an example where it is shown the case of bribery in attaining the driver’s license. Now a person would pay the extra marginal money only if he believes that his utility from that product would be much greater than others and would definitely offset the extra cost, therefore he values it more than the others, which further implies that his usage of the product would fetch an increased marginal productivity, which is kind of efficient. Now this argument of mine might look absurd when it is made to stand on certain moral and welfare grounds, because on a whole, corruption is never good on a long term. The efficiencies on the short term are always short scale and have the capacity to erode social equality and even mar law and order. The cost of corruption is always so huge that it causes disparities on another level. The money which is siphoned off from the main stream is definitely a flawed angle in the whole system of the way the economics works in a nation.

But the main negative point, according to me about this social evil is the huge disparity that it causes amongst the poor. It creates distributional consequences. It hampers the progressivity of the taxing system, creates social and economic inequality and also leads to slowing of the growth of a country and reduces the effectiveness of the social programs, and by perpetuating an unequal distribution of asset ownership and unequal access to education. In a cross-section of 37 countries, a significant impact of corruption on inequality was found, while taking into account various other exogenous variables. When controlling for GDP per head, this impact remains significant at a 10 % level. It was concluded that deterioration in a country's corruption index of 2.5 points on a scale of 0 to 10 is associated with the same increase in the Gini coefficient as a reduction in average secondary schooling of 2.3 years.

Therefore though we can continue contemplating about the good effects of corruption and it’s potent of becoming an economic developer, yet the ill effects need to be diluted first. I would continue writing of this, if some new idea strikes me on how to go about this dilution!!! Till then, have a great weekend! 

Reference for the statistics:  Anti Corruption Resource centre U4

Reservations (Aarakshan)

Today in this ‘free’ country, I believe candidates who are more deserving should get the opportunity irrespective of his Religion and caste. What Aarakshan or Reservation does is that it gives opportunities to the candidates from socially backward classes at the cost of depriving the other candidates, who are not socially backward, the ‘equality of opportunity’. I don’t really understand why there is reservation in colleges, universities and centres of educational excellence.  Is it because the government wants to uplift the backward classes? Yes, the development of backward classes is an area of concern, but reservation as an instrument for this development speaks of the inability to impart better primary school-level education to everyone. The admissions should be completely on ‘merit’ basis. I would like to make it clear that I am not against reservation but I am against the kind of reservation. It was said in the movie ‘Aarakshan’- talk of ‘merit’ only when everyone starts from the same level. This is exactly what I think should be done. Often, it is seen that people make through good institutes through reserved seats without having adequate knowledge base to be able to cope up with the syllabus of these institutes which in a way leads to the decline in quality of education. So, it is essential to focus on building a strong base for ‘everyone’ and then allowing free competition to get admissions in colleges. In order to help those who are deprived, we must not deprive those with merit.

Here’s an example from my experience. In FIITJEE you are required to pay huge tuition fees even after getting some scholarship. This might not be affordable by backward classes. FIITJEE selected 40 students (after a test) under SC/ST/OBC categories and provided them coaching free of cost. So, everyone comes to the same level, getting access to same faculties. Now when the results of IIT comes, the one with 5000 AIR gets a low branch in a low ranked IIT and the one with AIR 6500 gets a good branch in one of the top IITs. Is it justified? Isn’t this injustice, inequality? The need of the hour is, to provide facilities to the backward classes (which can be in proportion to their merit?) at primary and secondary school level and NOT reservations in colleges and universities. Have reservations in schools, why only in colleges and universities? What colleges/IITs/management institutes do is help you develop on what you have acquired so far.

Till now I talked about reservations in general. Now, talking about some specific type/kind of reservation- the one in St. Stephen’s College. I am not in favor of the reservation based on Christian quotas. Those who make through these seats (most of them) are not educationally disadvantageous and hence I see no reason for the same. It is extremely difficult for general category students to get through. First, the cut-off is very high as against 15% less for those through quotas and then you need to be impressive in the interview. While it becomes extremely difficult for a person with 98% to be selected through general category, for a Christian with even below 95% it becomes relatively much easier. All this, in a future date, might break the virtuous circle of academic excellence for which St. Stephen’s is known for. I agree with the reservations for the visually challenged and handicapped people. I also agree with the sports quota for there is a cost in specializing in something and that should be considered. Ok, I am not against reservation for Christians, but look at the number of the seats reserved!

All I would say is reservation is a shortcut to achieve something that can easily be achieved if we focus on ‘small’ things which can lead to a big change, instead of hasty decisions to make a big change which will ultimately lead us nowhere!

Sufferings Refute Religion?

Back in December 2004, I remember, I was in Kannyakumari on the 25^th, a day before the devastating Tsunami hit the coastal areas and took away so many ‘innocent’ lives. According to our itinerary we were supposed to see the sunrise on the 26^th, but because of the bad weather and the predictions that we might not see the sunrise, we left the place on 25^th. And after that I had only one thing to say, “Thank God! You saved us!” But I wonder why did I say so? Just because I was saved, is it reasonable to thank God? What about those innocent people who lost their lives and above all those who lost the dear ones? They must have thought why God did this to ‘them’ and not others? God is cruel. This leads me to the conclusion that we thank God when he saves us and we curse him in our sufferings. In our happiness we forget him; in our sorrows we curse him!

We doubt the existence of God when we go through extreme pain and sufferings. The God created the universe and that he is the most powerful and has ‘full control’. Then why does he let the innocent suffer? “God doesn’t exist and if he exists why is he so cruel?”- This is what we say in times of pain and suffering. In other words: “Suffering refutes religion”

Recently, Arun Shourie, a former Stephanian has written a book titled- ‘Does he know a mother’s heart?” Arun Shourie has been an economist in the WB and the editor of Indian Express and Times of India. He had a successful career. In this book he talks of his experiences in bringing up his son who is suffering from cerebral palsy (a congenital disorder of childhood which leads to some physical disability.) and his wife suffers from Parkinson’s disease (a disorder of central nervous system). In this book he talks about why there are sufferings if God exists and why God punishes the innocent? But in reality this is not the case. There are sufferings all around, in everyone’s life at some point of time. But what makes Arun Shourie not believe in God or refute religion is the intensity of the suffering that he has gone through and is going through. He is 70, his ‘disabled’ son is 35, his wife is herself suffering with the disease and at this point of time this father worries of who will take care of his son as he exits.

In his book he talks of a situation where a father beats his son, shouts at him, in short inflicts pain and sufferings upon his son (basically referring to his life). Probably this ‘cruel’ father should be prisoned so that the sufferings of child cease. Then Shourie questions: “What if the ‘father’ here is God?”  I don’t have an answer to this but what I would like to say is if ‘the father’ beats the son and shouts at him, doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care and love him. In fact he loves him the most and always wants his well-being. He wants him to struggle and win. And so is the case with ‘the father’ of mankind- God. He gives sufferings to his sons so that they can struggle, work hard and go through bad times, for there is joy in good times but a greater joy when good times succeed the bad ones. There are sufferings and those who are strong ultimately receive what I would say “Eternal blessings” Still many people think that God does injustice to some people, but this is not so. I repeat, there are sufferings in every man’s life. Think of the sufferings of those millions of people who are under the shackles of poverty.

I won’t say that you believe in God, for everyone has a different opinion in this matter. What I would say is believe in the ‘cosmic energy’- The energy, the bond that keeps us moving. The energy, that is everywhere in space and even within you. Discover and multiply the cosmic energy, for it keeps everything in order. If God gives us sufferings, he also gives us the strength to overcome them. We need to discover that strength in order to make our lives better.

Change the way you look at things and you will find those things changing!

Much ado about autos !

When was the last time that a University student was able to find an auto conveniently (and I am not even talking about the fare yet)? Every time that I step out of my college to go to some place not easily accessible by metro, I spend double the time it would ordinarily take me to reach my destination - because half the time is spent finding an auto.

What is the issue with autos? In 1997, the Supreme Court fixed the number of autos registered in Delhi at 55,000. The reasoning behind this judgement I have not been able to locate, but what I can definitely say is that no judgement has been more ill-conceived than this one.

Let us make a simple guesstime. Assuming that an average family consists of 5 members, the number of families in NCT Delhi is approximately 3 million. Assuming that every day at least one member of a family, on an average, needs to take an auto ride, we get the number of auto rides required per day in Delhi at 3 million. Given that there are, at a maximum, 55000 autos on Delhi roads at any point of time, that is over 50 rider per auto per day. Ask any auto wallah, this does not happen. Evidently, there is a demand-supply imbalance in Delhi.

There are some inherent problems with any kind of licensing system. For one, how does one decide how the licenses are to be given out? This is junction 1 for corruption. Secondly, how does one ensure that licenses are not hoarded by those who are able to get it? This is junction 2 for corruption. Thirdly, how does one ensure that a black market does not develop? This is junction 3. And lastly, how does one ensure that roughly perfect-competition prices are maintained in the market? This is junction 4.

In Delhi, it is not a secret anymore that an auto mafia does exist - for example, an auto usually costing just over a lakh costs over 6 lakhs by the time it reaches the road. This is because obtaining a license is a difficult process, and the mafia hoards most of the lincenses anyway. If one was to include these costs in the cost of production, the prices that the auto wallah charges for the ride will correspondingly increase.

Will removing licenses totally solve the problem? For one, it will lead to a proliferation of autos, and drive down auto charges to bare minimum levels. However, this is likely to lead to more traffic congestion. This is thus something that I am not very sure which way to call. Either way, a fixed number does not do the job. At worst, the Government should fix the number of auto licenses according to the population of the city. This way, new licenses will be issues every year - and probably some licenses that have exceeded a certain number of challans can be removed too.

If rash driving is considered a problem, then let anybody who passes a driving test take an auto? Presently, auto licenses are more scarce than driving licenses, and hence the thrust is on obtaining an auto license, rather than properly monitoring driving standards.

Let's just hope the Government stops looking at the metro as the ultimate solution to traffic woes.

References:

(1) http://www.inewsone.com/2011/04/25/delhi-needs-more-autos-says-police-official/45823

(2) http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sheila-wants-autos-off-delhi-roads/592194/0

(3) http://delhiscoop.com/section/transportation/27

Does India really have checks and balances?

Having belatedly started reading Nobel Economics Laureate Paul Krugman's blog (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/), I see that his primary obsession these days is with the discussion on expansionary austerity, i.e. with the Republicans forcing Obama to reduce the deficit, with the argument that it increases growth in the economy. This is an economic debate, that I is beyond the scope of my point here. The idea that caught my attention was that, as Krugman puts it, Republicans have forced Obama to behave like right-winger (for those who don't know, the Republicans are considered the right, and Obama and his Democrats the left-leaning, thought not out-and-out socialists).

Can we imagine such a situation in India? Does the opposition in India really have the muscle to force the Government to do something? In recent times, we can talk about the resignation of ministers, and think further back and we can talk of the JP movement against Indira Gandhi. However, these movements cannot be really called 'opposition-led movements', since the entire nation, or much of it at the very least, was agitating.

The primary flaw as I see in Indian democracy is the close interlinking between the Executive and the Legislature. The executive by very definition has a simple majority in the legislature. Of course, there is the Rajya Sabha which does not show such a relationship by definition, but it is still quite unlikely that the ruling party is much behind the half-way mark here. Hence, the Government can pass any law that it wishes, especially those that do not tinker with the Constitution.

Thus, the only check on the executive has been the judiciary, but even here an attempt has been made by the executive to protect controversial legislation (such as Tamil Nadu's reservation act) in the ninth schedule to protect it from judicial scrutiny. The judiciary, of course, has sought scrutiny over these by means the 'basic structure of the constitution' argument, but then the 'basic structure' would obviously be very narrow in scope -and hence much of the ninth schedule acts escape judicial review.

This post is not a call for change, I must clarify. India is already too far in its experiment of democracy to make such a drastic change at this moment. This post is merely a commentary - so that the next time we complain about the Government being unreceptive, we know where to look.

Spare the Army!

When Prince falls into the hole, call the Army! When Naxals are to be fought, call the Army! When the Police seems to be failing, call the Army! When bridges collapse, call the Army! Now, when houses collapse, call the Army! The purpose of this post is not to argue that the events mentioned here are not of a serious nature; in fact, they certainly are! However, what I argue is that if the Army needs to be called for almost everything that is of a 'serious' nature, would we call our civic administration 'not serious'? How does this reflect on the state of India's civic administration that a force that is anyway understaffed to carry out its primary duty is being diverted for other purposes?

The natural question arises - what is the harm in making the Army a quasi - civic agency? Why should the Army be limited to defending India's borders, especially at a time when India barely goes to war? The answer is two - fold.

Firstly, the relative tranquility on India's border itself is because of the Army's heavy deployment there. It is because there is a credible deterrent on India's borders that they remain relatively tranquil. If ever our restless neighbourhood sees that India's vigil has lowered, we should be assured that a major offensive is in the offing.

Secondly, a quasi - civic agency has to be placed under the control of a representative Government. This is because the regions that are serviced by a civic agency are well - populated areas, and hence there is a need for greater accountability. This makes the decision - making process less quick. The army operates in an environment where a certain level of accountability has to be forgone, in favour of greater preparedness. For this reason, the army should never be subordinated completely to the legislature or the executive of a nation. However, this does not mean that the Army should be allowed to turn rogue, like in our neighbourhood. Instead, the army should be under the joint control of the legislature, executive and the judiciary, especially the last, but not under the control of any one of them.

Now turning to the other side of the story - the lack of efficiency in our civil bodies - such as the police, the municipalities, the disaster rescue teams etc. These agencies have been eroded due to repeated interventions by the political class, and operate in an environment of dreading accusations of insubordination. The question that I leave the reader with is - how can we make these institutions free of political interference without removing them from the watch of the civilian Government?

Microfinance in Assam - June, 2011

Microfinance is a very popular tool to uplift poverty by bringing in economic inclusiveness of the lower class, which is very essential for the holistic development of a nation. The concept as we know, had been started as the ‘Grameen Bank – The community development bank’ in Bangladesh by Professor Muhammad Yunus in 1976. It is centrally themed at the idea that the poorer sections of the population have the ability to be economically and financially included in the mainstream and can harness their abilities in contributing to the development of the nation and increasing the GDP.

When I studied about the Microfinance scenario in Assam, I learnt of how prevalent and useful this concept was in here. I had worked with a small, emerging Microfinance Group, called the Nightingale Microfinance Institute. Started in 1997 in Assam and 2005 in Guwahati, they had made marginal progress and have helped a commendable section of people in the rural backdrop. They had an industrious army of Credit Officers who braved plains, terrains and hills to reach out in the backwaters of the city and the state, where people need it the most.

We went to many hilly rural localities in the countryside of the city. One such incident was my experience in Birikuchi, Bonda. It is an area which is about 10 kilometres from the main city hub. Firstly as the rule goes, we had to investigate the houses of the appointed families. We had to check their financial status, and their living and housing facilities to approve them of the loan. There are certain criteria one has to fulfil in order to be eligible for the microfinance loan. There are two means of Micro financing schemes followed in Assam. One is the SHG-Self Help Group and JLG- Joint Liability Group. The JLG is popular and prevalent in this part of the state as the time constraint and the bank liabilities aren’t that big an issue. The crux of JLG is the Soliditary Lending System, where a group of five women borrow the money each, and when the time comes to pay the interest, they encourage each other to do so, and give it holistically as a group. There is an inbuilt peer pressure which helps built the liability and the responsibility in every borrower to give the interest regularly and on time. The houses of all the five members have to be in close vicinity in order to facilitate communication, networking and circulation and dissemination of information. Once that is done, we have the CGT- Compulsory Group Training, where the members are taught the ethics of being a part of Microfinance League. This help is predominantly given to married women of the age of 18-50, with a stipulated monthly income and a pre-planned and income generating Investment and business scheme. There is the GRT – Group Recognition Test, after this, where the Branch Manager tests the members, interviews them and then sanctions the loan. There is the Loan Disbursement Process where the cheques are handed out and the interest slips are given, where it is clearly mentioned the time an dates of the weekly interest payment proceeds.

Some important things which I observed in my surveys was most of the people invested the money in Weaving, Fishing, and Cattle Farming. The MFI also monitor and examines the success rates of such ventures so that any chance of loan default and collapse is eliminated. There were a lot of women who were pressurized by their husbands to borrow money for alcohol and tobacco. In this way, a lot of loans got piled up from different institutes and banks, and one loan was actually used to pay for another one. In this way, the whole purpose of the scheme was eroded. It is actually aimed at economic inclusiveness and woman empowerment. Giving the power to the woman of the family makes them more included and legally involved in planning out the economic avenues of the family, which in a way secures the safe interest of the family in terms of education of children and family business and promotes savings within the family.

Micro financing also is a way to promote and encourage savings. Though that is a bit hard to implement n all parts, but the very banks which lend money to the MFI’s encourage people to open fixed deposits in their branches, which plays a double role. It helps banks branch out and earn more, and it also keeps some safe money in the vault for these poor people to cope with emergencies and much required start up capital for new business ventures.

Now, it is for time for some bit of stats and facts...

The micro finance service providers include apex institutions like National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), and, Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (RMK). At the retail level, Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks, and, Cooperative banks provide micro finance services. Today, there are about 60,000 retail credit outlets of the formal banking sector in the rural areas comprising 12,000 branches of district level cooperative banks, over 14,000 branches of the Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and over 30,000 rural and semi-urban branches of commercial banks besides almost 90,000 cooperatives credit societies at the village level. On an average, there is at least one retail credit outlet for about 5,000 rural people.

Though for now, because of the time constraint, I have to go back to college but I resolve to resume back for this project in my later course of holidays. At the cost of sounding absolutely cliché, it has brought me a bit more close to humanity, if at all. I walked and braved the scorching sun for the surveys and this made me see how hard people are working just to survive. It’s important to realise that upliftment of this section of people which makes about more than 40% of India’s population is the only way to actually bring about holistic progress of the country.

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To be continued.

My Life, My Way

Typically, we wish for room-mates, friends, people, or in short, the world around us to adjust ‘our way’. The origin of this being the notion, that if things churn out as we want, we’d be happier and life would be more comfortable as there would be lesser reasons to fret over. But, what we fail to realize, is that even this statement does not eventually turn out to be true. There is always the thought ‘kaash, aisa hota!’

 ‘Is it so hard for you to understand?’…is one question we’ve all asked, somebody or the other. But how many times have we been posed the very same query? Loads, isn’t it?

This proves, that we are all ‘inflexible’ creatures, in the heart of hearts; sometimes not listening to others; and at other times discontented, because we aren’t appreciated. In a nutshell, we are all in the same boat; yes, could be different sections of the boat, but the same vehicle at the end of the day.

The above, however is simply a brief of the problem; the problem of always living with that something which is not complete—in the ‘head’ or in the ‘heart’. Next the doubt arises: What is the solution?

It doesn’t lie in one word, neither is there a shortcut to it. But the basic key, to making one’s life comfortable, is to ‘be-the-change-you-want-to-see’. By this I simply mean, that the next time before labeling somebody under the ‘Go-to-hell’ or ‘I-hate-him’ categories, just take a moment and think, what would you have done if you were in that ‘somebody’s’ shoes? If your response is what he is doing at present, then why do you not approve of it?

That, now, is because all of us want to be treated with utmost care. We would prefer someone who values us; who is there when we need him or her to be; who supports us when we face tough times; or in short, one who we know ‘will-always-be-there’.

So, first and foremost, all of us need to ‘WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE!!’ (Or Chai, for tea-aholics like me :p) Primarily, instead of seeking support, try being supportive for once. Rather than waiting for someone to call for help, try offering it ourselves. And as a substitute of expecting the other person to amend his lifestyle, fine-tune our own attitude.

Indeed, our own life isn’t a bed of roses; hence changes aren’t easy to deal with. It is hard to solve, or for that matter, even listen to someone else’s issues, when one is going through a bad phase. But that is a fact for all, right from a roadside rickshaw-puller, to Dr. Manmohan Singh (well, with all the media pressing on him these days, it must be tougher for him :p), thus even accepting that ‘Everyone has problems’, is a big realization. Is it not? 

At the end of the day, life isn’t that bad. Being an optimist is tough, but not impossible. And if u don’t believe me, the next time you feel ‘all-is-not-well’, close your eyes, and remember the last time you were really really happy. A smile is what you’ll end up with :). That doesn't solve anything, but atleast helps one lighten!!

The warning is that I haven’t myself tried all of what I’ve written till date; but am on my way. So follow at your own risk…….. :)……………………………………………………[and do comment if it helps!] 

-Suhani

Social Media and Subway Surprises

Nothing makes up an evening post a tiring work day better than a healthy subway sandwich. It is something whose marginal utility takes a while to swerve down after reaching the cliff. So I entered the subway outlet on my way home the other day, my gaze fixed on the giant menu board above the counter. The lady on the other side of the counter smiled and interrupted, “Hi”.

I looked down to smile at her remembering Tim Harford’s view of smiling waitresses. I realized it was part of her job to smile at weary customers and that she was remunerated for the same. Nothing unusual about that.

Concentrating on the mouth-watering picture of the sandwich, I ran my eyes over all of them displayed and mused over my choice until I heard another voice from across the order counter.

“Hi Jalnidh”

Now that wasn’t written in The Undercover Economist. Did Subway start paying them for guessing names too? I looked down to find a neatly dressed guy in black with a matching black turban, smiling gallantly. I was kinda befuddled. Let me confess I am not accustomed to people bumping into me at random places to say “Hi Jalnidh”

“I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you”, I said trying hard to recollect any scintilla of familiarity with the figure.

He introduced himself, stating his name. “So how is your project going?”

The first shock was too much to face the second one now. “Which project?” – the word project reminded me only of the depository participants and derivatives I had been working on in the stock exchange during the course of my internship these days.

“Your project – the one you are working on for quite some time…”

“Oh! Éclair* - Ah! That is going good!”

The guy turned out to be my senior at school who was working part time at the outlet. I had never met him at school and never had the faintest trace of him apart from the fact that I had accepted his friend request on facebook out of sheer courtesy and second that I had seen his comments on some on my éclair photos with the kids.

And then the perfunctory stuff I am asked, continued – “Where is it working? Can I éclair? How can I help? I really wanna contribute…” More than the sandwich, a genuine outpouring of someone’s passion for volunteering made up my day.

The sandwich was done and packed, the bill paid and receipt handed over. I realized that social media had penetrated into our lives so deeply and subtly that I should be prepared for little surprises like those around the corner. Inspiration and enthusiasm spread in fountains through social media. Today éclair owes much of its success to Mr. Zuckerburg more than anyone else.

*Éclair is a street school chain being run by the author and some of her friends that aims to get street kids, especially kids of migrant laborers enrolled in regular schools through an informal rudimentary class taught in open parks.

Is the Government subsidising the Delhi Metro?

The title of this post is slightly misleading. Firstly, the Government already subsidises the Delhi Metro. For example, electricity used by the DMRC is subsidised by the Government. Secondly, this is not some serious article. It is just an observation that I want to share with the world.

The Delhi Metro has always intended to raise a significant part of its revenue by means of property development and advertisements. My contention is with the second. While travelling in the Delhi Metro, the advertisements that I most often come across are ones by the Delhi Government (especially the ladli scheme), public sector banks, MTNL and a few private universities. I also observe that a lot of metro coaches don't have advertisements, even though space is left for them. The third observation is that even though advertising space has been outsourced to private companies such as BigStreet, most such space has still not been booked.

Can it thus be concluded that advertising on the Delhi Metro is not as attractive as it is made out to be? If, for example, most advertisers on the Delhi Metro are Government - owned, is it fair to assume that they are free from Government control of their advertising? If the Delhi metro has not been such a success as far as commercial advertising space is concerned, then is the Government playing a greater role than what meets the eye in making the enterprise profitable? This all leads to the question - is the cost of the metro to India greater than what meets the eye?

On the flipside, one can argue that even PSUs have only a fixed advertising budget, and what they are forced to do (if at all) is to divert funds from one form of advertising to another. However, optimal allocation would require equi-marginal utility in all forms of advertising. However, given that marginal utility from advertising (especially online forms) are extremely hard to monitor, a proper economic argument against such a diversion is nearly impossible to make. What could be done in this regard is to consider the ratio of public to private advertising on the metro to that outside the metro, and see whether it is significantly different.

Till then, chew on this thought!

- Subhashish Bhadra

Parkinson's Law

“WORK EXPANDS SO AS TO FILL THE TIME AVAILABLE FOR ITS COMPLETION”

A person interning in a company is asked to update the facebook page of that company and is given an hour to do that. In actual, the work requires only 15 minutes. What one expects is that in one hour the person will do the work efficiently and comfortably. The end result is that the person hurriedly completes the work when 5 minutes is left. What he has been doing till now is spamming friend’s wall with notifications. And at the end of the day he complains of been over-worked from 10 to 6.

It is raining and you are asked to deposit a cheque in the bank and return in an hour. You will take an umbrella and leave. But if you are given 5 hours you will probably admire the rain and wait for it to stop and rush to the bank only at the last moment.

In both these examples, what we see is that enough ‘internal’ work is done. What I mean by internal work is the work that is not needed, avoidable and useless and which unnecessarily keeps you busy. The fact is more the time you get to complete the task, more complex the task becomes.

Think about it. DU gave us 15 days to prepare for our subsidiary papers. We worked for those 15 days. If we had 2 days we would have worked for those 2 days only. Suppose it normally takes two days to prepare our syllabus. What will happen? Some will say that in the former case we will be able to prepare well, for we get more number of days. But that’s actually not true. In the former case, you’ll work for those 15 days but the ‘real’ work done will be just 10% of the total work done. The rest is useless. In the latter case there is a deadline and in order to meet the deadline you will be more ‘focussed’. The quality of work is bound to be worse in the former than the latter because of a large number of distractions. In the former case, you might spend a few days watching movies, then a couple of days deciding how much to study in a day, then another day or two to find the syllabus and at last it will be only a day or two left when you will study somehow.  Ultimately, you yourself will realize that you could have done better with a shorter deadline. For it is 2 days or 15, people are found with the books even at the last minute.

The conclusion is Parkinson’s Law stated in another form : “ The amount of time one has to perform a task is the amount of time it will take to complete the task.”

It’s important to be clear what is meant by ‘Work expands’. When we say work we refer to the ‘real’ or actual work. ‘Work expands’ doesn’t mean the amount of ‘real’ work increases. If you are given 15 days syllabus won’t increase. But, the work increases figuratively in mind. It is human behavior to think that the work has increased. A person thinks he has worked for 8 hours in office but in actual, he has done work equivalent to 4 hours. Now consider two statements:

1.      Limit tasks to the important to shorten the work time.

2.      Shorten the work time to limit tasks to the important.

There is a great difference between the two. Take the first statement. Suppose in the earlier example, it takes 3 days normally to complete the syllabus but you are given two days. What will you do?  You will restrict yourself to the important topics so that you can do well in the subject. The idea of ‘smart work’ will be tested here. This is not Parkinson’s Law.  The second one is the Parkinson’s Law where it takes 2 days to complete the syllabus and you are given two days and if you ‘work hard’ and be ‘focussed’ for those two days you will complete the syllabus.

What I want to achieve through this is to tell the readers that ‘Delay is the deadliest form of denial.’ and to show how absurd some of our thoughts can be. I am sure most of us must have got trapped in Parkinson’s Law sometime in our lives. Don’t believe in Parkinson’s Law because it’s just a law. Parkinson’s Law doesn’t work in many situations!

So try it out! Think of a time to complete a certain task and see if you can finish the task with a better output in that time. You will be astonished to see that you are not at all over-worked!

Funnynomics - Can you guess what is it?

HI. I know this is funny. There is a micro economic concept illustrated through the picture above, yes it makes perfect sense. Lets see if you can guess. Do give it a try. Good luck :)

Young Diplomacy

Just last year, I had witnessed my first college election voting. I was very keen to vote. Having heard so much about voting rights, with democracy being the buzzword, the mere thought of how my vote could contribute in how a college government would shape up, gave me an inexplicable sense of responsibility. My friend, Andrila had clearly, confessed to me about her absolute disapproval towards indulgence in elections of any sort. She maintained that “diplomacy was the best policy”.
                             Sadly, that’s the plight in our country among most of the youngsters and their attitude towards the Government. In India, there are many unspoken, diluted but nonetheless evils in the form of developed and orthodox mindsets, both on the sides of the generation above 30 and the generation below that. People have a natural tendency to believe that experience and at that “years of experience’ is the only viable and feasible solution to acquiring enough efficiency of skills and thought, in order to be adept enough to make concrete, changes such in the Government. Youngsters are thought to be irrational, rash and lacking in depth and stability. They are restricted to only being “cool, rebellious and happening”.
But perhaps, we can see a changing scenario, looming in the backdrop with the advent of dynamic personalities like Agatha Sangma, Sachin Pilot, Rahul Gandhi and Omar Abdullah calling the stops in the Government. . One of the most violent phases of Youth politics came with the attempted self-immolation by Rajiv Goswami, in protest against the implementation of Quota system under the Mandal Commission. Other remarkable instances to follow are - Omar Abdullah, 38, was sworn in as India’s youngest Chief Minister in the New Year. Barack Obama is just 47!
                                   Thinking and contribution from youngsters in unhampered, devoid of manipulation, as it is not influenced by any partial view of reality. J.K. Rowling has aptly said: “Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth”. In today’s knowledge-based economy, what you have is more important than what you’ve experienced and that’s what we find in the youth.
                                    Youth involvement would also bring in a fresh surge of new innovative ideas, and most importantly a lot of spirit and enthusiasm. Going on the lines of the Anil Kapoor Starrer – Nayak, where a 32 year old man becomes Prime minister for a day and the whole functioning of the Government changes!!
If we as a nation have to move ahead and build the country of our dreams, we have to use politics as a medium to ensure that the Government remains sensitive and accountable to the people. We need developed and young minds instead of corroded and corrupt minds.
The youth shouldn’t get perturbed by old conventions and disapproving, lashing tongues. As a saying goes- To change the system you have to be in the system”. The country desperately needs some young leaders who personify energy, enthusiasm, morality, and diligence. During Independence we have leaders from all across the country like Jawarhar Lal Nehru and BR ambedkar active on the political forefront but sadly today politics is an avenue more so for the hierarchy, and the security due to the fact than rather a venture which people want to join as a result of their driven passion for their motherland. We have a handful of young leaders who are very much within the circle of politics, hailing from big families who have built empires in politics and the work affiliated to them, presumably for this very reason lacks passion and devotion. They are driven more by an obligation to carry the family trade on then rather a morale inherent sense of duty to their country.
Youth, clearly don’t consider politics as one of the most sought after, lucrative and comforting job avenues to venture into. But at times, when the youth so actively is involved in issues like the Jessica Lal murder case and reservations, their actions and their passion for fighting the cause totally negates any illusion of disinterest harboured by them towards politics. Second reason may be that young people are not given opportunities to prove themselves claiming that they are not equipped with experience to participate actively in the governance of the country. This somehow seems relatively more plausible and a reason as the monopoly of old leaders in almost all avenues of politics is disarmingly prevalent.
                              What I passionately desire is that voting should be the first step to establishing an inlet for fresh blood. Youth should actively campaign for the cause and themselves should be active participants in the voting process. Last year, there was so much of hue and cry about voting, the media coverage the publicity was phenomenal, but the outcome was pathetic. In fact superstars like Priyanka Chopra and Shahid Kapoor who had actively campaign for the cause, had themselves refrained from participating in the process.
                                The idiosyncratic laidback attitude and apathy associated with the voters, young and otherwise should be removed. We shouldn’t forget that complaining about all the numerous problems and defects in the Government is not the only way out. We should move and fight and strive for all the change that is possible at our level. It’s only then, can we witness a change in the functioning of the country. And for most of us, who think that they really don’t care about the way things function, then I presume we should really think about all the villages which don’t have electricity, all the women who are raped and yet haven’t got justice, for all the families who have lost their loved ones and the murderers are at large, looming free. Who are we fooling... our country, our people or ourselves?
-Priyanka Dass Saharia

The Special Ones

A rather impulsive post this is!!

I recall sitting in my school bus one rainy morning last year, looking at the road. We reached Dwarka, and thanks to the water-all-over, vehicles honked more than they moved. I saw a scooty stop, a young pretty lady got off, lifted her daughter from behind, made her wear the Hannah-Montana school bag, and holding her hand, waited for her school cab. The daughter, dressed prim-n-proper, hugged her mom, and said ‘Mujhe school nahin jaana!’ .Oh Gracious! I thought, that was so me (junior version)!!

Having nothing else to do, I continued staring at them. The mother wiped off the baby’s  tears, and promised to make her sweets once she returned. The child, reluctantly, but did, sit in her cab, and waved goodbye. Mommy-dear stood there till the cab was out of sight, and was off on her scooty thereafter.

It brought to mind the fuss I used to create, when forcibly sent to school. I too was promised sweets, told stories on the way, and even dropped to school at times. And now, at the age of 19(well, almost!), I have become a college girl. Blah!! Gone are the days when my maa shopped for me, n dad took me out for a movie. Times have changed, and so have I.

Living in the same house, the only ‘quality time’, we spend together as a family is at dinner. But, deep down, what we know is that we are all bound, by a strong thread, ‘Love’. A feeling, though hardly expressed, it keeps us together. What we forget is expressing it, putting it to words, bringing it to the forefront of our lives.

And this isn’t just about me, but all of us, who find it so difficult to spare a few minutes to tell their parents how special they are. They’ve taught us almost everything, about work and hope; to always do what is right; to remind ourselves what goes eventually comes back, and hence to be true to oneself throughout this journey called ‘life’. So go ahead, take a moment off, give them a hug, and let them know how much they mean to you!!

Till next time……..:)

-Suhani

Societies : As I perceive

The word ‘society’ exists only as a mental concept, but in reality there exists only ‘individuals’…In the end it is the self-interest and not the common-interest.

Starting the college can be a little daunting if you are unable to figure out what to do with all the time you were going to have in your hands. After long lectures, listening to someone with a beard droning on how interesting statistics is or to someone who has resolved to beat the Shatabdi express, I had to figure out what to do and it was then that I came to know about societies. ‘Societies bring students with similar interests together, for instance, if you have an interest in economics, ecosoc is for you, if you can be dramatic, shakesoc will welcome you, so on and so forth…” This is what I was told. The entire first year of my undergraduation, I thought it was so true. Societies were a good way to improve campus experience. But, the circumstances changed the way I perceive societies.

Some societies in college is what can be called an ‘industrial’ society. There is a sharp sense of ‘individualism’. People ask ‘What’s there for me?’ ‘I, me and mine’ words dominate. ‘If I am not given a post, what’s the incentive to work?’ Worse is, ‘individualism’ marked with ‘groupism’. In some societies, the authority has been centered in the hands of a monopoly group who make decisions that is in their interest. Worst is, if you try to break this monopoly in order to make way for perfect competition, you’ll realize that you should have concentrated more in micro classes! Free entry of firms is very difficult in a monopoly!  

No longer I believe in societies bringing together people with a specific purpose, for if that was, then there will be a new society altogether! The root cause of all this is to make the CV’s look attractive. Most of us fail to understand that it is a strong academic profile with good test scores and grades and challenging courses which is far more important than holding a post in  so-called ‘societies’.

The only thing I am happy about being in a society is that it gave me an opportunity to meet people who helped me get the most out of my time and to make friendships that I hope will last for long.

If ever I feel that I am compromising with my academics because of the societies, I shall quit!

Go Green and sustain it...

In 2008, I had been to the International Round square Conference, in Glenlyon Norfolk School, in British Columbia. Just to tune you guys a bit, Round square or RS in short, popular form, is a global youth congregation, of 80 schools all over the world, which come together to learn and be more in tune with each other’s cultures and in general be more receptive, perceptive and sensitive to some of the crucial global issues like Global Warming, Sustainable Development, War and Violence, Child Abuse and so on. All this is achieved by Exchanges, work projects, conferences, meets, and community service fellowships. It is based solely on the ideals and vision of Mr Kurt Hahn, who thought that education should capture a child’s all round development and make him or her more sensitive to issues around him, to mobilise people to work for all causes. This was his idea of personal growth and development.

Now, on these lines, the theme for the 2008 conference was ‘SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT’.

As we know sustainability is about resilience and bringing about a way of living so that the resources and the environment can be utilised in such a regulated manner that it sustains the present and the future. We saw a whole new spectre of how this concept can be utilised in every way. Car-pooling is a very popular culture in the States and Canada, where the kids are all taken to school in a communal Mini Van. This saves time, labour and fuel. Even Environment Day on 5^th May is celebrated here on a large scale, where people really GO GREEN, like literally, they wear green clothes, restaurants popularise green food like veggies are hard on in demand. In fact the very conference was conducted in a very sustainable manner, where the very food that was thrown away after each day was recycled and made to provide electricity to the store rooms of the school!!!

There are so many issues related to the environment which we here in India, really don’t bother about. People were also more sensitive towards wildlife, especially the kids from South Africa. We pooled in our ideas about little things like shower breaking, where the shower is stopped when you lather yourself, instead of the water running away into waste. In the adventure trip, we feasted on Pita sandwiches and in fact recycled the waste materials, to make the fuel for the dinner and the bonfire. No wood wastage!! I learnt that sustainability also comes with appreciating nature and learning to have fun with water sports and hiking. We went for nature walks and treks. I had my first canoeing experience right here!

Here are some issues which would give you a whole new insight into what wonders can being ‘sustainable’ actually do!

Here are the 10 best ECO INNOVATIONS of 2010-

1. Carbon Absorbent Foam is the winner of the 2010 Earth Awards. This foam can grab carbon out of the air and lock it away as a sugar. It is ideally suited to be placed in smokestacks to remove carbon before it is emitted into the atmosphere.

2. e-coupled Wireless Tesla Charger is a new system capable of charging Tesla’s electric vehicles without wires or plugs. This system will recharge Tesla’s electric vehicles via an induction pad at distances up to 4″.

3. nPower PEG is a kinetic energy charger. It is the world’s first handheld charger that captures and stores an individual’s kinetic energy. This tiny power charger captures kinetic energy from daily activities and transforms it into electricity that can power mobile gadgets.

4. Solar Charger that Runs Devices Directly. Developed by Suntactics, this new portable solar charger is powerful enough to charge your phone and other mobile gadgets using nothing but solar energy.

5. IDAPT Universal Gadget Charger is made from recycled materials and is able to power almost all wireless devices.

6. Solar Power Parking Meters: In LA, new solar-powered, wireless-connected, single-space parking meters take coins or cards.

7. Biodegradable Motor Oil, although it was developed a few years ago by Green Earth Technologies, in 2010 they began running their first TV ads. The biodegradable motor oil is made out of a mixture of beef tallow and plant ingredients.

- Published By Richard Matthews (Green Market - Source).

Being sustainable and ‘green’ as they put it has become a trend now, but more than commercialising the issue, work needs to be done, at even a grass root level. In our college the Wildlife Society, every year maintains this day when lights are switched off for an hour all over the college. It saves immense energy and electricity. We as the younger generations, it’s great that we are socially, economically and culturally more in tuned and in harmony, on the global front, or so we try. We should try investing our efforts a bit on the environment side as well. It might be a tad insipid at times but we shouldn’t forget that it is the foundation for all the other systems to work upon.

I know, this post was kind of short and random, but the point was to familiarise and popularise the concept of sustainability.

PS: The image above is the logo of the 2008 conference, where the world and its fate, made of various cultures, countries and people (represented by the participating schools' logos), are in the hands of Man.

The video below, is about the best pratices and designs regarding the concept.