DIGITAL INDIA- What has it in store for us?

Since the time it was announced, there had been rows of debates and opinions regarding the ‘Digital India’ initiative spreading all across the social media. ‘Digital India’, as the name suggests, is an initiative by the Government of India to make every government services and information digitally available and accessible. It ensures all government works to go online promising a greater transparency.

What the DI aims at?

The major aim of the DI is to set up broadband in 2.5 lakh villages, universal phone connectivity, net zero imports by 2020. It also aims at providing 4 lakhs Public Internet access points along with enabling schools and all universities with free Wi-Fi. Every citizen shall be provided with a digital locker for storage of digitised documents. It seeks to restructure of the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

Benefits for the citizens

Firstly the Wi-Fi hotspots and the Public Internet Access Points (PIAP) in public places (including 500 railway stations), hitherto which were restricted to restaurants or at hospitals, enables net services for the people on the go, thus reducing the dependence on the mobile data by other private telecom companies.

The ‘Digital Lockers’ provide an online storage system for important documents like passports, mark -sheets, degree certificates etc. for easy accessibility during submissions for application of any services, thus making the whole system hassle free by sparing us the toil of carrying he physical documents along with reducing the paper costs. The lockers also provide access to govt. issued documents. These lockers can be availed by signing up with the Aadhar Card number and the phone number that is linked with the Aadhar number. The documents would be safely locked with an e-sign authentication.

Benefits for the students

It was prevalent in some universities but hardly in any schools. The DI’s initiative seeks to establish free Wi-Fi in 2.5 lakh schools and all universities. This step is going to benefit both teachers and students alike, for almost every required information are available in the internet and availing them would no longer be a problem especially for those children with no net connection at their homes.

Benefits to the villages

The high efficiency Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) will be used to connect the 2.5 lakh villages announced, with Fiber To The Home (FTTH) based broadband. Their connectivity to the network would introduce them to an arsenal of information for them like Early harvest Programmes, proper weather forecast, which would serve as a guideline to the farmers who remain at dilemma and are succumbed to the debt traps, to plan their crops. The DI also includes the Government services like providing a reliable agri information and alternate marketing schemes through the services like mAgriculture and mGramBazar.

Benefits in jobs

The DI initiative being a massive project for a large mass would invariably require a huge manpower for its working. DI would ensure a rise in jobs in the IT sector in both public and private domains. An estimate of 1.7 crore trained for IT, Telecom and Electronics jobs and indirect at least 8.5 crore jobs will be created.

Major drawbacks

So far the DI seems to be dormant regarding its privacy policies for protection of the digitally stored documents and informations. Without strict privacy laws, there lies a risk of identity theft and cyber abuse of the information.

The DI is undoubtedly a giant leap towards development of India in the digital era unifying the cities to the villages through virtual string. With the tremendous support it is getting now from India and abroad, it can be clearly stated that it has many expectations to fulfil by almost every group of citizens.

From 'Gurukuls' to Schools...and a student's life.

Gone are the days when parents used to send their children to the ‘gurukuls’ or teacher’s home where there used to be a ‘guru’, a teacher, under whose tutelage the students used to obtain all their life lessons. At the end completion of their education, their teachers used to ask for his fees (gurudakshina) from his protégé depending on their learning and capability. This system though made great warriors and priests, it had many flaws within its folds. They never sought to teach remove the barriers of social inequality like the Brahmins were not allowed to enter in the gurukuls meant for other castes and vice versa. Back then the women were not allowed to be educated beyond kitchen management and child bearing. The gurukuls had a blind eye towards it.

With the passing of the eras, the system of gurukuls has evolved. Now the modern schools have become more accepting and encouraging. Now a student is free to attend any school, not caring about his background, girls are being educated and are breaking the boundaries of kitchen to fight for their own identity.

Eventually even this system began to be flawed slowly. With the huge amount of commercialisation, even education has become an investment for the parents. Education has obtained the same impression of any other commodity. The more it costs, the better it is. Thereby this system has brought an economic division, and the school one goes in has become a ‘status symbol’.

The changing in the system has also made a great deal of change in the student’s life. Along with creating an economic sieve, a few schools have also made it just too unreasonably difficult to crack their admission tests. To get you admitted in one of those, there are a lot of coaching classes. Even for those seeking admission in kindergarten. They are supposed to know to do stuffs like sharpening your own pencil and know your ambition in life even before you join school. Adding to the fun, there are coaching classes or pre-schools to get you there. Hear money raining?

After losing his innocent days, in pursuit of a good school, he finally gets there, into one of those colleges. Right from then he is given a number of tutors for making him learn what he was supposed to learn back at obtained-with-difficulty school. The number of tutors increases with the number of subjects. One can easily find any secondary or high school student to return from school, drop their bags, grab a few bites and rush for their tuitions.

Even when the books and multiple teachers do not suffice, there are a lot of further books that teach you to ‘pass’ or score good in the examinations, and the fact that they are all potent bestsellers, clearly indicates that marks are everything rendering knowledge almost no importance. A child building a wind powered toy car is seen as nothing compared to the student who was able to write about utilization of wind energy, in a better way, in the exam.

After struggling through almost his entire childhood, one has to appear again for entrance exams of various colleges. For that again, yes there are, the coaching classes come into play. Shell out some more and be there. He gets into a college. Now the student-soon-to-be-a-man has been duly inculcated with the lust for marks and job.

Doing all the chores of education and passing through all the stages, he is finally settled. Being a product of a huge commercial investment, he now has the burden of proving his worth and sets the target of earning money and life in his mind and thus rejects a job in the school in the outskirts of the city.

Dalai Lama’s words on the most surprising thing about humanity..

“Man. Because he sacrifices his life in order to money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.

Christie-The Queen of Crime

15th september 2015 marks 125th the birthday of one of the pioneers of English detective stories, the queen of crime, Agatha Christie. She was the brain behind some unforgettable characters like Hercule Poirot, miss Marple etc.

No matter whether it is a typist serial killer, an organized international crime, a simple murder of a man who knew too much, you just name it and there is Christie present with her unputdownable page turners. ‘The Mysterious Affairs at Styles’, her debut novel, marks the beginning of an era of thrilling mystery stories and has given birth to Hercule Poirot, the beloved detective of English literature. The first Marple novel appeared in the year 1930 in the book ‘Murder at the Vicarage’.

Browsing through the pages of Poirot or Marple, one must not forget the other independent stories like ‘The Secret of the Chimneys’, ‘Unexpected Guest’ etc. Apart from giving us wonderful characters, she has also redefined the narration of detective storytelling. She engages her readers throughout the investigations and one feels like he is solving the case himself, unlike her counterparts where the reader’s patience was tested till the climax where the sleuth explained everything. She engages her readers like no other writer in a journey of crime and investigation, making her the third best seller outsold only by The Bible and Shakespeare.

Under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott, she had penned down few novels like ‘The Burden’ , ‘Giant’s Bread’ etc. Along with mystery novels, this queen of crime had also written few plays which were later novelised by Charles Osborne.

Her stories were adopted into the silver screen and the role of Hercule Poirot, was played by David Suchet, thus immortalising the Belgian detective. Christie served as an inspiration for many movies and detective stories in the future. No matter how technology evolves or how the techniques of detection change, Christie’s ways will always be a novel and the most exciting methods and irreplaceable.

Our Decorated Roads

Certain sights become so common to our eyes that whenever we see them we tend to overlook, but to an onlooker and any newcomer it might be remarkable and disgusting.

 There are many sights that are generally witnessed in most of the Indian roads. Littered garbage, for example, lay strewn around the public dustbins as if someone’s effort to perfect his aim has failed him repeatedly in throwing his waste into the bin, or maybe those garbage were too beautiful to be confined into the bin. In places of no dustbins the roads are decorated with variety of pattern of dumped waste sometimes even releasing their fragrance imploring the pedestrians’ attention towards itself. Even the busiest man takes his time to appreciate the elegance of the strewn garbage. Some people remark saying why is nothing done about them. Little do they realise that the aesthetic value added to the roads by the virtue of well planned dumping of the garbage is irreplaceable. The garbage which would have been recycled losing its identity, have found a new incentive to live without losing their identity. This is not something any ENVIRONMENTALIST would ever understand.

There are some warriors fighting an endless battle to clean our city with the intension of keeping their vicinity disease free, but what good is health without beauty?

Some people involve themselves to cleaning to show our visitors from foreign countries a clean India. Why do we bar them from having the sight of decorated roads? Or is the scenario so blatant that it is solely for our countrymen?

Whatever it is, or however one takes this fact, the fact remains a fact and the fact is that THE CONDITION IS ALARMING and needs immediate change.

The Words of a Dead Tiger

I still remember the time before my death, when I was being beaten up black and blue by the new residence at the end of the jungle that had hitherto been my periphery. All I wanted to ask was why was not I given any prior notice before I was made homeless, just like it happens in their world?

Last week, a few cubs had gone missing. One of our streak had gone in search of them, only to be attacked and chased down by the humans.

We are non - violent peace-loving tigers who growl only to protect our family, much like the humans. I was asking them the name of the person who had allowed them to cut down our habitat and call it their own, when I was mistaken as a threat and thrown pebbles at. I urged them to keep peace because I had come for a peaceful venture, but they got angry (or rather scared) and gathered groups of men who began hitting me with sticks. Unable to solve the issue I was about to retreat when someone hit hard on my head and I was alive no more.

Innocent humans had been so naïve with their intelligence. They had been depleted our species eventually, finding no other job, since the very beginning of their kind and now they have began a campaign for saving us. Yes, it is true that in the recent times we are increasing in numbers and our depletion rates have gone down, but on the other hand looking at the way our habitat is being gradually succumbed and the hostility we face upon our visiting their locality is a clear indication that they do not care about our survival.

The Postman

Recently I was reading ‘The missing Mail’ by R.K. Narayan, when a sudden realisation occurred to me. Whether the present generation will understand the essence of this piece, how much will they feel connected to the core of the story and are they even aware of the importance of people like Thanappa, a postman? Or the community culture shown in the story?

The pursuit for this answer opened my eyes to the changing, or rather changed, times. Walking through the streets of Borivali, Mumbai, on my way home in the evening, I witnessed a school bus making its halt at my building’s gate. The happy faced children jump off the bus to embrace their mother, holding their hand they were being brought towards the elevator, when Rahul, a five year old toddler, spoke up. “Today I’ll make a record of 50 goals”. Of course it was some game he was talking about. Had it been my case back in my time the only thing ran all over my head while returning was to somehow finish eating and rush to the fields, where I would be spending hours till the sun had almost retired from the zenith.

I still remember the time when my father was posted in a different city of a distant state when I was seven and how I had spent my entire evening in an effort to compose a proper letter addressed to him. It was a delight to me t have written about my marks obtained in tests, runs scored by me in the evening match and about how we missed him while celebrating  mother’s birthday in his absence. It was a worthwhile experience. Had it been in the recent time, a simple text would have done the whole thing, sparing me the effort and happiness of it.

I heard my youngest cousin complaining when his uncle had forgotten to call him on his birthday, and there was a time when I had received birthday greetings two days post my birthday and still how much it delighted me to have a physical proof of their present to me. I never complained for its late arrival, for I was aware about the postal services and its demerits.

Letter writing used to be an art taught in school  when I was in my junior classes and as I grew up while appearing for boards the topic had changed to writing an e-mail. While writing this blogg, my SMART PHONE beeped, ‘yaar notes bhej,’ says the text from my friend. ‘send me the notes buddy’. I immediately took the pictures of my notes and sent him. Life has really become easy with the advent of these technologies and the world can be seen as a single connected unit. I no longer have to wait for the next morning’s newspaper to know about the fire mishap occurring in another part of my country. Thanks to the mobile news apps which are available for free. People have many friends in their virtual world, but what good is a hundreds of them compared to one true friend who is ready to be there at one call.

There are advantages of the advent of modern techniques of communications, they are fast easy and hassle free. But at the end of the day the text alert beep of the phone could never replace the essence and feel of that came upon hearing the bicycle bells of Thanappa.