Tushar Mangl's Blog, page 38

Discriminations faced by a girl child

Gender discrimination is a major cause of the global order. The economies are galloping at very high speed, new inventions; new techniques are being developed each day. Yet, the society seems to be taking a step backwards, with its attitude towards girl child. This has been happening since centuries and it is high time, some concrete actions be taken to combat this situation. Preference for a male child is a deep rooted psychology in not only the developing countries of Asia and Africa but also developed countries in the America and Europe. This trend is both disturbing and shocking.People feel that if they have a son, the son would inherit the property and family name. He would then carry off their legacy further. A girl child however, will have to be married off to another household and is seen as a burden. A burden which has to be a one day shipped off to someone else’s home with lots of dowry. So, the monetary incentive is always at the side of the boy who would bring in dowry instead of giving it away. Also, all the money spent on his education and welfare will remain within the family and would come to good use.Thus, discrimination goes on within the four confined walls of a family. It is all hush, no one openly boasts about how they feel that the girl child happened by accident and it was a boy that they always wanted. The boy of the house has his all wishes unfulfilled, whereas the girl is taught to be modest and homely. These are the qualities that will come handy, when she is married off one day.  She is not encouraged to get education, to look for jobs or even venture around after dark.  However, the situation is turning better by the day, although a lot needs to be accomplished.

Empower girl child to reduce social prejudices

It is sad to reveal that more than 10 million girls have been killed by their parents either before or after they were born in India. Not only this, number of girls that are fully vaccinated is 5% points lower than that of boys. If girl child is neglected in first few years of her survival, she has to come up with less food rights throughout her growing years.In this gloomy scenario surrounding girl child, very less percentage of girls attend schools. Approximately, 70% of girls between the age of 6 and 10 years attend school as compared to 76% among boys. In upper primary classes, the level of girls drops down to 40% and then much more in secondary levels. Since it is considered less important to educate and empower girl child, it is no big surprise that 54% of females remain illiterate as compared to 76% of males.In recent years, the government has developed free education program for single girl child in order to discourage multiple child birth. Government has also developed schemes which provide free education to families with two girls and even scholarships for their higher education for the purpose of empowering girl child. These schemes help in modifying the thinking pattern of families but it is important that these schemes are well understood and explained to people so that the main motto of developing such schemes can be achieved. Do you know that there are number of government schemes though thought and planned properly but failed miserably at execution level? This happens due to the lack of clarity of policies among grass-root-level officers which makes them unable to clearly explain the right purpose of schemes to people and eventually the whole idea of developing such schemes get lost somewhere.

Educate girls for their better future

There is a famous saying, “educate a man, you educate one person, educate a woman, you educate a complete family” but how many of us really believes in it? It is been confirmed by reports that more than 50 percent of girls in India fail to enroll in school and those who do are likely to drop out by the age of 12.Lack of education and illiteracy in girls  denies them to have good knowledge and skills needed for enhancing their status in society. Educating girl child helps in realizing her hidden potential, gives her freedom to think, act, question and judge world smartly and independently. Imparting education to girls makes them wise decision maker, teaches civic sense and help them to lead a respectful life.Educating girl childis never wastage of money or resources instead it is a better investment for parents as once girls get employed, they will think of their parents before boys who will think of their own family first. Educated girls have better knowledge about health and hygiene in homes which improves families as they know what to do and how to do.Denying education to girl child means destroying her talents. It has been seen that number of girls has been successful and helpful to communities and if good education is imparted to them, they can become good leaders who are more development oriented than men.Various studies have confirmed that illiterate women have high levels of maternal mortality, low earning potential and poor nutritional status. Remember that if you want your community to grow and develop, avoid leaving section of girls behind in terms of education. We need all groups of society well-educated for proper development of nation. Girls should be taken as boys and women should be handled at par with men.

That Bloody Good Book

The Indian book publishing has long been like a government department. Deep entrenched bureacracy, the authors dependent on the maai baap culture of the publishers, who for no fault of theirs had become government like babus.

They all receive even today hundreds of manuscripts each week. So they naturally have got a huge discretionary power, which they at times delegate to their team. They can't really publish each and every work that comes at their door, but there can be no strict parameter to pick the best book of the lot. Hence the culture of babudom.And I can't even blame the publishers for that.

Recently, I received an e-mail from Rashmi Bansal, a renowned author herself, (I had reviewed her blog youth curry here, in 2007) informing me about her new venture. I think, if implemented well, this could be a revolutionary idea. Even though self publishing has really taken off, it has created a glut of books in the market. So much so that many of them lie unnoticed for years. Rashmi's concept which she has started off with Niyati Patel is a good one. I like it.

It states that new authors submit their manuscripts on their website, bloodygoodbook.com
Next, people, visitors on the website vote for these manuscripts (like those boring reality TV shows, only here it is more fun)
So whoever gets the maximum no. of votes gets to have his or her book published. Of course it is not as simple as that but that's the gist of it. The fine print is that they pick up 10 most favored books and from that bunch decide which to publish as e-book or with partnership publish a print version through Westland.

All in all, it is a win win situation for everyone. You submit your three chapters on the website. If readers like it, you will get published. If not, at least you got a fair chance of representation. For the publishers, who have to play the risky game of backing a new author, a decent public support beforehand will make them more comfortable publishing the book.  Also significant is the fact that many wannabe writers or published authors would participate in the voting process, naturally for they would like to come and see whats on display. So, in a way the writer would also be judged by his/her peers. And not just votes but also comments/feedback. So even if a writer fails to top the finishing line, he still gets a lot out of this.

I myself would prefer self publishing over this. But to all new writers out there, my suggestion would be, even before you decide to choose a publishing route, go through this experience. Yes, don't just take this website as a process or a contest but as an experience. Whatever you learn out of it, will help you greatly in many ways. For, when we decide to get our work published, we have decided to face our audiences. And what better way to interact with our targeted audiences but here?

For readers and bookworms, this is a platform more for you than for writers. No one asks us for our view, even though its the reading community that ultimately decides the fate of a book. Why not give our opinions today, before the book is published ? Rather than after the book is published. This is one of the best opportunities for reading hobbyists to get their voice registered.That too by just marking stars and writing a review.

Of course that will be a challenge for BGB team. Apart from a very long name, they have also taken up a complex and difficult responsibility. That of an unfair and impartial moderator. My best wishes for them.
India needs a lot of good and knowledgeable writers and thinkers. I hope this platform brings out the best of the Indian writing talent, using the power of democracy, which India is well known of.

What the LS results 2014 mean for the State of Punjab

Punjab has just a handful seats in the entire Lok Sabha. Yet, this time around it has sprung up an interesting result, worth writing about.

The debutante Aam Aadmi Party scored a wonderful 4 seats out of 14. Its only achievement nationwide. Bhagwant Mann, who had earlier been part of Manpreet Badal's People's Party of Punjab, worked really hard and used his earlier experiences with the PPP to deliver a spectacular verdict. Especially in Sangrur, where he himself won with a margin of over two lakh votes. Also notable was the fact that the Delhi group, the select coitre of people who actually run AAP were not so involved here, which actually helped the party.

This election has also marked the final death nail for Manpreet Badal's PPP. He had started this party with lofty ideals and promise of a revolutionary change. He told his people of new ideas and new brand of politics. But soon he went allying with old ideologies like the CPI, CPM, BSP etc. Even that could not help him, so this time, he went allying with the Indian National Congress, the same party against which he fought almost all his political life. He fought elections against Harsimrat Kaur Badal,in Bhatinda and lost. His political career now, seems to be over. Almost all his supporters have left him. His prodigy and close associate Bhagwant Mann, who helped him form the party has now moved on to AAP and is actually flourishing there.

For the Congress, which was expected to win around half of the seats in Punjab, largely due to anti incumbency against the Akali BJP government but the AAP ate into its seat share. It even lost its strong hold of Patiala and won the seats of Ludhiana and Amritsar largely due to poor selection of candidates by the other parties. Even though his wife lost the election, Amrinder Singh, has once again emerged as the strongest leader of Congress in the state. He might not enjoy support of a large section of the party in the state, but the central leadership has lot of faith in him. By defeating Arun Jaitley in Amritsar, he has once again proved his mettle and showed why the high command trusts him so much.

For the Akalis, this was one tough election. This is their second consecutive term in the state assembly. While they are doing a good job, in comparison with what Punjab has seen all these years, their perception in public is dwindling to negative. Yet they held on a good fight, even though they made yet another bad decision in selecting a better candidate for Ludhiana Parliamentary constituency.

The most disappointing party came out to be the BJP. The national winners in this election. They contested from just three seats and won two. You might think it is good, but how good it is? All three candidates were outsiders. The BJP seems to have not much confidence in its own cadre. And why should it? Its own senior most leader, Arun Jaitley, who happens to be one of my favorite politicians in the current times, went against his own cadre, and fought the elections in the blind faith that the alliance partners, the Akalis will win the elections for him. Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had held on to this seat for three times, always complained against Akalis. So what does the leadership do? Ignore the on the ground leader and send in someone who is more co operative with the alliance partner. The message was clear, the growth of the party does not matter. It is friendships and cooperativeness that will take you places. But the voters refused the idea. I personally having admired Mr. Jaitley for years now, was disappointed with the way he handled his own election. And it is not really not an irony that Vinod Khanna, who was reluctantly declared the candidate from Gurdaspur by the party leadership, won yet again from the area with a handsome lead. Yet, this hard working Parliamentarian and a former minister of state for Finance in the Union Cabinet was delegated to the last benches by his party, whereas Jaitley who lost by more than lakh votes was awarded by twin portfolios of cabinet rank by his party (finance and defense). Is it any wonder why the party growth can never happen in Punjab?

Which is a good news for AAP as no other party seems to be concerned much about its grassroots workers. If the AAP leaders listen less to the Delhi gang or leadership, and work as hard as they have this time around, they really will have a good chance in the coming assembly elections. And that could change the way Punjab politics runs.

How the people and their representatives ruined the Indian banking system – 2

Indian banks today are examples of sloth and complacent customer services. They all have good nice businesses. They seldom care for the customer or the client. Private Banks too are not very far behind the government banks in mistreating or looking down upon their so called valuable clients. So how does that kind of psychology happen? Most importantly what’s the role of the people and government in this insensitivity of Banks? One reason of course could be the United Progressive Alliance’s policies. Led by Dr. Manmohan Singh, it favored loyal party cadres to the posts of bank directors. Like Anusuya Sharma (United Bank of India), Maj Mrs. Krishna Mohini (Punjab and Sind Bank) , Abdul Rashid (United Bank of India) , Praveen Davar (United Bank of India), Vinay Kumar Sorake (Syndicate Bank), KK Sharma (Punjab and Sind Bank), Umesh Kumar Sharma (Punjab and Sind Bank), Paban Singh Ghatowar (United Bank of India), Rani Satish (Union Bank of India), Omen Moyang Deori (Uco Bank), Harcharan Singh Josh ( Punjab and Sind Bank), Shobha Oza (Syndicate Bank), MN Kandaswamy (Indian Overseas Bank) , P C Zoram Sangliana (United Bank of India) and others. The one important qualification that was seen in them was their immense loyalty and hard work they put in for the Congress Party. But does that make them efficient directors too?In many cases, bank officers have been allegedly pressurized for not auctioning properties of those who did not pay their loans back. Instead they were asked to settle for terms which were unfavorable to the banks. But not many such complaints have come into the public light. However if the NPA figures of the banks are of any measure you can see that there is definitely a system of favors by banks to certain select individuals. Former cabinet minister Pawan Bansal, a close aide of former PM Singh, himself allegedly, got his Chartered Accountant Sunil Kumar Gupta a directorship of Canara Bank. Interestingly soon he and his family members got loans worth crores of rupees from Canara Bank. Now of course, the issue could be just an ethical one and have no legal basis.  Still it begs the question about how people are encouraging such candidates.  What about their ethics? Also, the question of shareholder activism arises here. How can any government push a favorite candidate for a job which needs technical expertise? This where there are large number of shareholders. It calls for the accountability of not only the banks and their systems, but also of the public that owns these banks. Obviously, it is this same public which in a way owns the government too. "The bank has suffered in the past due to reckless lending because of political interference and an obliging management, which resulted in accumulation of highest NPAs in the industry. If the Government wants this bank to survive, the bank should have directors who are not only professionals but also men of integrity and not connected with local politics." – RP Singh, Former CMD Punjab and Sind Bank

Narendra Modi's challenge of the Paradox

The Bhartiya Janta Party, was founded by quite many intelligent men, many of whom were upper class Hindus. The three biggest promises that the BJP ever made to the masses were
1) A Ram Temple at Ram Janambhoomi Sthan, Ayodhya
2) Repeal of Article 370
3) Uniform Civil Code

Narendra Modi, in 2014, brushed aside these issues made development and governance as his chief agenda and secured a handsome victory for his party and self. But with a simple majority comes a complex challenge of paradox. You can sweep aside old timers, you cannot sweep out deep rooted ideologies so easily. He himself has claimed himself as a Hindu nationalist, a disciplined party worker etc. Now he will be hounded with these issues although not highlighted by his campaign but neverthless which are the corner stones of his party's ideology.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee faced the similar problem when he ruled India for 6 years. Even he could not find a solution for these issues. For he did not have a clear majority with him and his allies were less enthusiastic with these issues. So, these were thrown in a corner, as Vajpayee focused on governance and other reforms.
But Modi cannot hide behind that excuse. He will have to not only face these issues head on but also, given the high expectations from him, will have to resolve them. Even though he can say that these issues don't count much for brownie points, for the Party could not attract much people to these issues.

The media and the so called intelligensia dismisses these issues like a fly hovering around a tea cup. Who cares for the Kashmiri Pandits? Have they ever got their due? Who cares for the sentiments of Hindus? No one. They just hurry down to paint the BJP as some big Hindu party waiting to devour people of all other religions.

Still Article 370 is really not only about religion. It is a law that grants special favor to the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir. So, the state does not fully come under the Indian Constitution. Why such favor to one state be given as against the 25 + other states? Especially in the case when a large portion of Indian taxpayers money is being spent on that particular state as economic packages or defense expenditure? The media and the intelligentsia of the country may not take this issue up aggressively but the questions should be asked. Narendra Modi should now deal with an iron hand in the matter of Kashmir.

The international media may label the BJP as a Hindu Party. But its demand of Uniform Civil Code actually a complete opposite of its image. As opposed to the idea of the Congress Party ( which the media prides to be a secular party ) of having different rules of marriage, inheritance etc, for different religions, the BJP lists a uniform civil code as its promise. The debate that started way back in the colonial era should find a conclusion now. Modi might not have pushed for it, while drafting his campaign plans, he will be expected to come through with this now.

Another debate that rages on since the Colonial era or before, is of the Ram Temple at the Ram Janambhoomi Sthan in Ayodhya. This will be the one issue where Modi will be cornered again and again. His detractors are still gunning for him for the 2002 riots. The media may now tone down their demonization of him, but he still is seen the RSS poster boy. But not all Hindus devout or not, are members of the RSS or VHP or BJP. Still they want the Ram Temple that has been promised by these organizations for years now. With an impressive majority in the Lok Sabha he will be in a position to do something about it. But, with the matter being in courts, he may pass the buck to the Supreme Court.

Modi came to power on issues like water, good governance, special packages, populist schemes etc. The wishlist of the voters is too long to list here. But these three issues will ultimately determine his mantle of leadership not the routine regular issues of the common man. And there lies the challenge of the Paradox for Modi.

How the people and their representatives ruined the Indian banking system - 1

Everyone likes to save little money. The rich, the poor, the average earner and even the lavish spender likes have a little nest of savings. Banks are the biggest mediums today to enable investment and savings transactions.  It is no wonder then; we need banks for a good economic system and an ideal way of life. Where we can save some cash and also go for any needs of loans. They make good business too. You save your money at 4 or 6 percent and your friend gets a loan from the bank at 10 percent plus. When the British left India, they left behind a fairly good banking system with a nice number of banks in select corners of the country. All we needed to do was use that system polish it well and spread it thick and deep. What instead Indians did was use it as a milking cow, ruining these institutions instead of using them for positive gains. In the 1970’s Indira Gandhi led the nationalization of the banks. The secret was out in the open. Politicians controlled the banks and not bankers or professionals. They now had loads of powers over the banks, which were trustees of sorts of the public money. The people of India loved the idea. They even loved the idea of Vajpayee who years later, started selling shares of these banks as IPOs or FPOs in the open market. So, first you nationalize a bank, and then you make money selling its share. We Indians have done our socialist, communist and capitalist dharma in a matter of decades. All this time, did we ever stop to think, which way do we want our banks to go?To spice up things, co-operative banking was launched in India. Now, most of these banks are going nowhere, with tight political control and awry finances.  But then we had an economist Prime Minister. He is the great Dr. Manmohan Singh, who was earlier the finance minister of India and also a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India. You would think, banking system could be saved or put on a right track under his rule.  And yes, he and his cronies in the government did allow a lot of great banking reforms in India. He made sure that all hard working politicians of his party, the Indian National Congress be accommodated as much as possible as the directors of various public sector banks.  The list of hard working Congress workers, who were appointed as directors of various banks include – Indu Singh Panwar (Central Bank of India), Ram Chandra Khuntia (Andhra Bank), Sooraj Prakash Khatri (Indian Overseas Bank), Maulin A Vaishnav (Bank of Baroda), A Ali Azizi (Bank of Maharashtra), Romesh Sabharwal (Central Bank of India), Masarrat Shahid (Bank of Baroda), Nafisa Ali Sodhi ( Indian Bank), Pankaj Gopalji Thakkar (Canara Bank), Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy (Indian Bank), Satya Behn (Central Bank of India), Prabha K Taviad ( Bank of India), Maj (retd) Ved Prakash (Central Bank of India) etc. The list is quite long.A similar report on rediff you can read here.Now, today the media, while branding the corporate and business class as villains of the latest banking mess that is brewing in India, they won’t tell you how the government of India being the legitimate representatives of people of India, played around favorites while running the banks. A recent report of the RBI shadows doubts on quality of board governance in the public sector banks. Is it possible that the policy of accommodating a number of working members of the party in the financial institutions backfired?

Elections 2014 - India Vs. Bharat

Writers for years have written extensively on sharp divide between India and Bharat. One, mostly urban the other mostly rural. It is Bharat that feeds the country, takes case of its productions and supplies most labor. It is India which issues orders, makes policies and do the management. Not surpisingly, it is India that complains the most.

But it is a fact that it India of the big cities, which is responsible for the worst scams ever happened to the nation. It is also a fact that the big city people have always exploited the Bharat people. And one of the vivid example can be seen in voting patterns. While Delhi had a turn out of around 64% voters, Saharanpur in western Uttar Pradesh, recorded a massive 74% voter turn out. It is a well documented fact that voting turn out amongst the big cities, is always low, at least lower than other places. Look at Mumbai, which has a voter turn out of 55% this time. If you look at the results of last assembly elections in Delhi, the city state voted for instability. Even an Uttar Pradesh, with much less exposure and literacy level has not done that since a decade or more and has so many parties vying for government formation. Still they are easily able to prevent unstable governments.

This is a sad scenario for India. The  urban middle class, with all its education and exposure is wasting away its vote with a complacent and an attitude that reeks of apathy. They openly criticize caste based voting and corruption in politics, what they fail to see is their contribution towards. election of suitable candidates for policy making for the country. For, be it the rail scam, or the CWG scam or 2 G scam, all alleged came from big cities, with sizable population of the well educated. Yet, they failed to question their representatives and inadvertently encouraged them.

Course Title - History of Medieval India from 1000-1707 A.D. LPU Question Paper

Course Code:DHIS 102Time Allowed: 3 Hours                                                                                     Max. Marks:80

1. This paper contains 10 questions divided in two parts on 1 page.
2. Part A is compulsory.
3. In Part B (Questions 2 to 10), attempt any 6 questions out of 9. Attempt all parts of the selected question.
4. The Marks assigned to each question are shown at the end of each question in square brackets.
5. Answer all questions in serial order.
6. The student is required to attempt the question paper in English, Hindi or Punjabi medium.

Part A   (2x10) marksQ1). (a) Who wrote Tuzuk I Jahangiri?b) What do you understand b slave dynasty?c) Who was Malik Kafur?d) Name Mohammad Bin Tughlaq's second capital.e) Name the 2 coins of Iltutmish.f) Who was Ibn Batuta?g)In which year second battle of  Tarain was fought?h) Who started Din I Ilahi?i) Who was Shivaji?j) Who was the great economist of Medieval India?
Part B                    (6x10) marksQ-2 Why Iltutmish is called the real founder of Delhi Sultanante?Q-3 Write a note on Alauddin Khalji's economic reforms.Q-4 Discuss the political condition of India on the eve of Muslim invasion.Q-5 Throw light on the imaginary plannings of Mohammad Bin Tughlaq.Q-6 Discuss in detail administration of Marathas.Q-7 Write a detailed note on circumstances an consequences of first battle of PanipatQ-8 Write a detailed note on Akbar's Din I Ilahi.Q-9 Give description of Mohammad Ghori's Indian invasions.Q-10 What were the reasons for the Rajput defeat at the hands of Turkish rulers?