Posts

Cloudbursts, Rapes, Abuse, Peace in Ukraine and Harmony at Home

Image
Apathy, pure and simple! Cloudbursts can’t be stopped but casualties and resulting havoc can be minimised. Speedy help can be ensured to be there in place just in time when lives matter. Every time we regularise unauthorised construction or colonies, when we decide to extend the so-called basic needs like electricity and drinking water, never is the construction itself tested for quality which it had never adhered to, in the first place, not having been subjected to any building norms. Are we always brushing aside the root issue? Are we only cementing tragedies, promoting cosmetic surgeries, to become unmitigated disasters in the future. All the constructions along river banks, elsewhere, in numerous developments even in urban landscapes, there are tragedies waiting to be knocked on their doors, in times of excessive rains and other natural catastrophe. In every JJ colony, in numerous 1000 plus colonies either regularised or waiting to be regularised before every next assembly election
Post a Comment
Read more

Inbound Tourism is Lowest Hanging Fruit for the Indian Economy

Image
Earn More Foreign Exchange, Create a Million New Jobs, Invent New Economic Streams. Balancing receipts against revenues is basic stuff, as much to the economy as a whole, as it is for individual balance sheets, of people and corporates. Amidst the challenges that all economies face, India’s task is no different. Inbound tourism is the lowest hanging fruit, remains  unexploited, waiting to be tapped, like never before in the history of our country! Why now, you might ask? What is so special about NOW? 1. We have got the tourism ‘plant’ right, for the first time since Independence. The base had to be domestic, the inbound was to the creamy layer. For a country the size of India, the structure was always wrong, upside down, with foreign tourists being the base, for the first few decades. Historically, Indian travel was all about pilgrimages, on holidays we tended to stay with friends and family, preferring the inimitable holdall, to carry with us. The right comparison for Indian tourism i
Post a Comment
Read more

Heartbreak in Paris: Disrupt the Present Eco-system

Image
It was heartbreak in Paris, for 1.4 billion people resting their hopes on just a hundred plus athletes. That in itself was most unfair. Imagine, the billion plus hopes resting on the shoulders of just that few! It was a pressure that few could have managed. But our athletes did, and with fair success, though we were off the mark by a whisker as many times as we won our medals. We could have doubled, had luck been on our side. Getting the 4th position in four other events; when we could have done better in each of them. Our big iconic hope, Neeraj Chopra, after a first big throw, just could not pull himself back. All our hopes in badminton and table tennis were dashed to the ground. It was tough going in hockey, but our players showed grit in holding onto the bronze, largely owing to the heroism of our goalkeeper, who stood like a rock, guarding the goalposts. Not to mention the 100 grams overweight of  Vinesh Phogat, that best exemplifies the heartbreak. Full marks to the few, the hund
Post a Comment
Read more

Elections 2024: A ‘Course Correction’ for the BJP?

Image
Let us take a look back at the 2024 Lok Sabha election results, once again. Read from one side, one single party has as many seats as its main opposition put together, in its combined strength. The BJP did lose as many as 60 seats, reaching nowhere near the 400 paar, but yet it did hold on to enough to score a third consecutive majority (though not, on its own), forming a government beating incumbency, almost! A third term was almost incredible, in times like these when coalitions are becoming more common globally. Whether one wants to accept it or not, the BJP did more than well, for a third consecutive term. Only that it was claiming it will get more, the final numbers may look like a climb down. The PM was sworn in for a record third time. Read, from the other side, from the perspective of the opposition, every other party was a winner, too. The INDI Alliance was also beaming, just as much. Managing a breakthrough when all was being written off. There was more than hope; there was h
Post a Comment
Read more

Budget 2024: Tourism Gets Short Shrift: Marketing Budget Slashed to Zero

Image
Another year, when ‘tourism’ is being short-changed; Budget 2024 must revisit the need to market inbound tourism, considering the growth of overall infrastructure, including the convention business. Our PM is the best ambassador for India’s ‘tourism’, he has mentioned tourism a few times more than all our past PMs ever did collectively. And yet, ‘tourism’ gets short shrift in the budget allocation for 2024/25 for promotion of Destination India. Yet again, repeatedly, year on year! As the budget gets discussed and before it is passed, here is hoping ‘tourism’ gets a second consideration from the Hon’ble FM, and gets its due, as a serious business activity for the Indian economy. Budget 2024 has been no exception. For tourism, that is. Per se, for this industry, no special announcement, except perhaps, if you do the reading right, a further downgrade in the scheme of things. In a budget of the size of a few lakh crores, the expense on publicity has been scaled down from 100 crores to 33
Post a Comment
Read more

The Ambani Wedding Extravaganza: The Big Fat Indian Wedding Got Better

Image
Can it get any bigger? Unlikely. The Ambani wedding was one that was never seen before, and unlikely to be seen again. All their three children are happily married; for the next wedding, we will have to wait for the next generation. Unlikely to happen in the life span of many of us. Unfortunately, or otherwise, weddings in India are an occasion to make a statement to your friends and family, business associates and even people at large. It is not for no reason we have that unique Indian phenomenon called ‘the Big Fat Indian Wedding’. The bigger you are, the fatter it becomes. And what you spend is seen as a revelation of your wealth and standing in society. A common sight at venues is the ultra hooh haah that goes with an average well-to-do businessman’s family wedding; a few crores here and there, is always a statement, like it or not. It is ultimately ‘yours’ to choose. How classic or how subtle you want to be, or how brazen and ‘right in your face’ extravagant celebrations, you want
Post a Comment
Read more

18th Parliament: How much a New Beginning?

Image
This last month has witnessed new scandals. The likes of which occur, unfortunately, not rarely. Politicians involved in sleaze and scandals is not in itself news breaking. Neither is consumption of hooch. Howsoever sordid and unfortunate these are, nevertheless we need to recount them in passing, in some detail. To understand where they come from, in what spirit and with what intentions. The NEET-UG examinations exploded as a major scandal. Did one never suspect that papers get leaked? That there are cases of cheating rampant across colleges and universities, some were more notorious than others. But how organized these could be, how extensive an outreach these could have, assumed newer proportions. Imagine in a national level examination, conducted by the National Testing Agency, some 1500 plus candidates were given grace marks. These are on all India level, conducted in 13 languages; this year, over 24 lakh students took them. What was truly exceptional this year was that 67 studen
Post a Comment
Read more

Understanding a Neighbour. A Book with a Difference

Image
A new book and its launch: Ambasador Nalin Surie’s wife, Poonam has been for long an avid China watcher. She has travelled and mixed with the ‘people’ extensively. She has published her third book, China: Modernity and Tradition. On the occasion of the launch of her book, Ambassador Shyam Saran was joined by another diplomat, a former ambassador to China, Ashok Kantha, and foreign policy and global affairs strategic analyst, Dr. Raja Mohan. We bring you a brief on what was said. And, a glimpse from Poonam’s unfolding of what inspired her to write her book. The excerpts: Shyam Saran Many of us, in what may be called the China fraternity, our focus is so much on the foreign policy aspect or the security aspect of our relations with China and China’s place in the world that we perhaps miss out on something which is absolutely critical to understanding China, which is the overall historical context, the overall cultural context. Also, the main actors in the drama that is taking place in Ch
Post a Comment
Read more