Telangana Statehood Issue

It seems Central Government/Congress High Command is again trying to put Telangana separate statehood issue in the cold storage. They say the issue cannot be resolved in one or two days and that the ‘consultations’ are going on. Nobody expects the issue resolution of such sensitive issue in one or two days or weeks and even in a couple of months. But this burning issue is going on for the past many years, especially after the death of former Chief Minister Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy in 2009. It is causing the development of the state and industries in the state especially in Hyderabad badly. It is very much evident now that Telangana state movement is not just with political parties like TRS etc. but almost everybody in Telangana region wants Telangana state. Sakala Janula Samme (strike of all people) which is still going on in many government departments for the past more than one month without salaries is just an example of it. Some people unfortunately took the extreme step of committing suicide for the sake of Telangana and out of them some were students. People have been expressing their strong emotions through movements and support for the movement. Brand Hyderabad got several dents due to it. Entire road transportation to Hyderabad was affected for more than 25 days. But Centre/Congress High Command keeps on checking different political equations and delaying the resolution, with Sri Krishna Committee, Azad’s consultations and then Pranab’s consultations etc. As long as they discuss separately with different regions there will be no resolution. They should come up with a couple of solutions and try to negotiate with all region leaders together.

Initially I thought it was the movement of TRS party and now with or without it people are involved in T region. But in Andhra and Rayalaseema regions people are not that much bothered about ‘Samaikyandhra’, when compared to Telangana region, except some individuals like Lagadapati, TG Venkatesh etc. Everybody knows that they are fighting for Hyderabad rather than ‘Samaikyandhra’ (United Andhra Pradesh); especially those who have illegal properties with benami names are more worried it seems. In Andhra region, Chittoor and Nellore districts people prefer to go to Chennai rather than Hyderabad and Anantapur district in Rayalaseema mostly go to Bangalore and only some districts people want to be there in Hyderabad. Even I am from Rayalaseema and though I prefer Hyderabad, I don’t want continuous agitations and I strongly feel that let Telangana state be formed so that at least new capital in Andhra would be developed and even Hyderabad would be back to business. Present status is not good for any region. (Even Sri Krishna committee expressed that it would not be practical to simply maintain the status quo in respect of the situation.)

Overall T movements are peaceful yet Centre is not taking any action, in fact Congress High Command. (We can’t expect anything from rubber stamp Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.) If this much movement is ignored by them, then what is the value of democratic movements? Even British government valued movements but not these rulers. It is ironic that Telugu statehood fate is in the hands of a Bengali (Pranab), a Tamilian (Chidambaram), a Kashmiri (Azad) and finally by an Italian born woman (Sonia) who prolonged her Italian citizenship for many years even after marrying Rajiv Gandhi and settling in India. Many T region MLAs already resigned for this cause but Speaker seems to be another rubber stamp and not acting independently (being the Speaker of Assembly he is not supposed to act like a Congress party member).

It seems Telangana state would be given only by BJP led NDA government in 2014, if it comes to power. Till then no matter leaders resign and parties/organizations do movements, there is no use and T region people only would suffer because of losing jobs/salaries and children’s education etc. I wish these dumb and corrupt party governments should collapse ASAP. We can’t wait till 2014..!!

AP without YSR !!

It's one year after sudden and shocking death of the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy. For the past one year, lot of incidents happened which affected the overall state's unity badly. I am neither a fan of YSR nor a congress party supporter, but I (and many people in the stae) think that the things wouldn't be like this if he were alive. In fact, after his death only I came to know how people loved him. There may be certain accusations on him like any other political leader, but what people see him as the leader who proposed and provided pro-poor schemes. One among them is Rajeev Arogyasree, through which some of my known lower middle class people also got benefited. Governments should concentrate on poor and lower middle class people mainly and that's what he did and won many hearts in the state. He didn't even bother when 'reel-hero' Chiranjeevi entered politics, as he knows the only other opposition leader is Chandra Babu Naidu.

Unfortunately again the nominated CMs era started with the present CM Rosaiah. He may get the blessings of 'high command' but I doubt whether he can win a single constituency. Rosaiah lacks some key leadership qualities like decision making, ability to motivate and attract/inspire people. He may have lot of experience but for a good leader especially for a CM, strong determination and decicision making etc. are required and he can pick up the right team (esp. IAS officers and also cabinet). For key issues like Telangana statehood etc. he may have limitations to depend on high command but for each and every issue, approaching high command shows his weakness. More over, he and some of the foxes (some of them were loyal to YSR while he was alive) in the party always concentrate on Jagan's 'Odarpu Yatra' and preparing reports on it. They don't bother if Telanga activists attack lecturers, disrupt normal life of common man. Their only worry is whether YSR's son would become threat for their power. They have the strong support from anti-Congress news papers like Eenadu.

Overall, because of these opportunists, we may lose the big united Telugu state soon. Already Osmania University became hub for all politics and some anti-social elements. At least, I hope former CM Chandra Babu Naidu should come back to power next time to do something to suppress this non-ending agitations and keep the state united. And of course, it helps to teach a lesson to the egoistic Congress High Command who tries to keep 'obedient' people who don't have people's mandate. His comeback may be required for getting good shape to Hyderabad city again.

P.S. The below link shows how YSR used to scold the provocative remarks of KCR to divide Telugus and even on Telugu Thalli for his political benefits. He and he only could do that so bravely.

iPad vs iPhone

When Steve Jobs announced Apple iPad, I curiously followed to check the features. The iPad looks great, features are great, but if you have an iPhone already, I don't think an iPad is worth buying again. I didn't use iPad and so whatever I express may have some assumptions; but I have been using iPhone and so when compared the features of iPad with those of iPhone, I think it's not needed for iPhone users, because of the following (iPad features):
- no camera
- no phone feature
- no multi-tasking (running same iPhone OS 3.2 software)
- neither light-weighted nor easily fitted in a pocket (unlike iPhone)

In such cases, I would prefer either iPhone or directly a laptop/notebook.
Among Apple's 3 products iPod, iPhone and iPad, I think iPhone has more features and compact to take anywhere.

Windows 7 - seems like reliable XP

Microsoft's new operating system Windows 7 has arrived and it seems to be worthy successor to XP and definitely better than annoying Vista. Every time a new product is released, I used to think the new one would be better than the old one. But with Vista, I (and many) had to change the view and recite 'old is gold' (Windows XP is better than Vista). With Vista's worst experience, Microsoft discussed with all computer manufacturers and designed it to keep it without earlier (Vista's) mistakes and released beta also. I think it is a good beginning also.

A couple of years ago, I was excited to see Vista's graphics and overall look which was attractive than already running XP. But soon I had to call and try for downgrading to Windows XP. As I could not succeed in downgrading it due to some or other reason, finally I had to go for another one with XP (fortunately got one).

Now with Windows 7 release, my mind is again trying to have a 'new' thing, especially because of positive reviews; but I think it's better to wait and see for some more months before upgrading to it and especially before giving up XP. But a good thing seems to be 'XP mode' in Windows 7. Let's see..

Remembering Mahatma Gandhi..!!

Though many birth anniversaries (which is also the International Day of non-violence) of Mahatma Gandhi passed earlier, remembering him not only as the Father of the Indian Nation but also as the peace icon for the world gives me a great feeling. This October 2nd was more remembered. It could be because:
• Google had Gandhi's picture in the letter 'G' for the whole day (Oct 2nd 2009).
• US President Barack Obama said America has its "roots in the India of Mahatma Gandhi", adding "his teachings and ideals, shared with Martin Luther King Jr. on his 1959 pilgrimage to India, transformed American society through our civil rights movement. The America of today has its roots in the India of Mahatma Gandhi and the non-violent social action movement for Indian independence which he led." Last month Obama had said that if given a chance he would love to have dinner with Mahatma Gandhi, in responding to a student's question. Thanks to the President for his admiration for Gandhi and his ideology.
• Marking the International Day of Non-Violence, the United Nations has released a stamp of Mahatma Gandhi on the occasion of his 140th birth anniversary.

Till I read his autobiography 'My Experiments with Truth', I didn't know him much other than the things studied in the school. I think he almost expressed even his mistakes in youth truly in the book.

He is forever remembered as the pioneer to resist tyranny through mass civil disobedience, through total non-violence—which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

New Year with Recession!

Generally each new year starts with a lot of hope and new plans about various things including career. But this New Year 2009 is not so promising because of global recession. Whatever the news paper/channel/online I read and watched till now, all (including the President-elect Obama) expressed the same thing that whole 2009 will be under deep recession and it is going to be a tough year. The statistics about job losses and pay reductions till now and predictions for 2009 and even 2010 are scary. Of course, jobs are still there around but nobody is sure how the situation will be in this year because of change/drop of new projects and cost-cutting measures in the industry. I don't want to write more on this topic…

Basically I am an optimist. I hope and pray to God that that the situation will not be worst further.

Mumbai Terror - Extremism

The recent Mumbai terror is not new to us, but the way they did somewhat resembles 9/11. In earlier cases, Mumbai was targeted by secret bombs but this time they directly attacked people by shooting. And also this time they chose a posh area where westerners also visit and stay. I think it was given more coverage also by the media worldwide (by all major channels like CNN and BBC etc.)

The sad truth is that there is no safety in all big cities of the world. When it comes to India, the metropolitan cities are becoming more crowded because the people from all corners of the country come there for work. Now all such cities are prone to terror. Handling the situation in crowded places is really a challenge for the police and special commandos as well. I salute to the team (from army, police and other security forces) who fought for the nation.

It is high time for the central government to concentrate on all illegal infiltrators to the country. The statistics say that illegal infiltrators from neighboring countries are more for the past some years, esp. many entered through Bangladesh (mainly used by Pakistan based militants). Unfortunately it seems there are some local people in cities like Hyderabad who support and help such terrorists. I think the law may have to be amended not just to control illegal entries but also to punish (and if possible to ban from the country) the so called citizens of India who in fact act against India and democracy.

At the same time, we should be careful about some political parties who try to utilize this kind of opportunities for their political gains. Mostly such parties are communal and who already created divisions among the citizens in the name of religion. Some of my friends already started saying that BJP should come to power at this time. But I think one kind of extremism cannot be eliminated by just another kind (may be opposite) of extremism.

We all know that BJP was transformed over the years from a very small party to a big party just because of using Hindutva. We have seen in the recent months and years how the same party governments acted almost deaf and dumb for atrocities on Christians (in Karnataka, Orissa, parts of Tamil Nadu recently and Gujarat in previous years). Any wise and sensible person thinks and tries to know the difference between preaching and forcing and who is actually forcing whom.
Religion/faith is more a matter of personal belief and any person should be allowed to listen and decide what to follow, whether the preachings are from christian preachers or from ISKON (Hindu) or from some other religion. If religion based parties come by projecting religion to gain power and not concentrate on overall development of the country, I don’t think it is helpful for the growth of the country. (Poeple didn't believe when they made big publicity campaign that 'India is shining' in last elections.)

Of course, all parties in India always think in terms of votes. There is no single ideal party. Congress and communist parties try not to touch even dangerous minorities; BJP and its affiliated parties Shiv Sena, Bhajarangdal target even innocent minorities/non-hindus and spread hatred. (As it itself is a more wider topic which may deviate from original issue terrorism , I will write about it in detail in another blog.)

Elections are not very far. I think this time whatever the party or alliance of parties (NDA or UPA) that projects on strict controlling of illegal infiltrators/immigrants, punishing even the local (so called) citizens who support such extremists AND doing development as well should come into power. And the government’s duty is to protect the citizens not just from foreign terrorists but also from local extremists.

India-US Nuclear Deal

The Nuclear Deal is a hot topic of discussion everywhere in India now-a-days, thanks to Left Parties’ withdrawal of support to the coalition Central government. Like many Indians I have been thinking about the Nuclear Deal between USA and India, especially when it became a big issue, till the point of toppling the government.

But unfortunately there is no proper information about it especially in India. Neither the opposition parties (including the communists who withdrew support) explained why they withdrew the support, nor did the ruling Congress government give the convincing explanation about it. As far as I know, even media didn’t concentrate on the detailed analysis of it. I thought there would be a detailed discussion about it at least during trust vote in the Parliament but it didn’t happen. If we search in the web, there are many news and blogs (many biased views) about it but hardly could I find any ‘authentic’ information.

Based on the information found in official press release from US Department of State, I have summarized the nuclear deal between USA and India, pros and cons of it with respect to India’s interests. (I could not get the same kind of information in Indian government NIC sites. )
As per my understanding from the agreement placed in the official US Dept. of State press release site:

The Agreement:

• The nuclear deal between India and US is for the civilian nuclear energy for meeting the global energy demands.
• It is for peaceful purpose of civil nuclear energy only, in the fields of research, power generation, medicine, and NOT for nuclear explosives or any other military purposes.
• India has to allow inspections from the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), and they will be under IAEA safeguards.
• US will help India to access civilian nuclear technology, supply of fuel and cooperation in nuclear research and trade.
• The agreement is for 40 long years and can be extended for another 10 years and so on.
• Possible amendments can be done between two countries by consultations.
• Any dispute concerning interpretation or implementation can be settled by negotiations. (It seems there will be no involvement of UN or IAEA etc. regarding such disputes.)
• It can be terminated by either party by providing one year notice and proper reasons.

Pros (w.r.to India):

1. India will get access to US advanced nuclear technology, including materials and equipment that could be used to enrich uranium or reprocess plutonium for the nuclear reactors.
2. It enables reliable supply of fuel to India’s nuclear reactors. In case of any disruption of fuel supply for India’s nuclear reactors, US will help to include Russia, France and U.K. (group of friendly supplier countries) to restore fuel supply to India.
3. With this deal, US is reversing the sanctions it had imposed on India for the nuclear tests carried out by India in 1974 and 1998. Thus it enables unceasing fuel supply, cooperation and even trade.
4. It helps for India’s economic growth and to meet the growing demand for energy, especially nuclear power generation. (India is not able to accommodate the growing demand of power now and even the hi-tech cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad are the prominent power-cut cities now.)
5. More employment opportunities also in various fields (research, power generation, medicine, IT etc.) because of it.
6. India can emerge as one of the leading counties in the nuclear technology. The agreement is for 40 long years and can be extended for another 10 years and so on. It may change the economic and political equations in favor of India especially in Asia.

Cons (w.r. to India):
As of now, many civilian and military facilities are combined in India. They have to be segregated for IAEA’s (International Atomic Energy Association) inspection.

2. The Indian civilian nuclear facilities will be under IAEA safeguards, of course with ‘India-specific’ safeguard program (not sure what is ‘India specific’..it was not defined in the agreement).
   (I don’t have idea about the operations and administration of IAEA, but it may be controlled or influenced by US. This may be a prejudice and as per my limited knowledge too.)

Win-Win:

Why is it opposed in India by almost half of the Members of Parliament?
It seems the reasons are mainly political and because of prejudice about US because of earlier examples. But as per the agreement, both the parties, US and India, have equal rights and responisbilites. It is mentioned that the agreement is on the basis of ‘mutual respect for sovereignity, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality, mutual benefit, reciprocity and with due respect for each other's nuclear programs’. I think the communists would have supported the same deal if it happened with Russia which was main communist country of erstwhile USSR; and the intellectual politicians like Chandra Babu Naidu would have supported the same deal if NDA were in power.
And if….

If the same deal happened when National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was in power, UPA (United Progressive Alliance)/Congress would have opposed it. In India, whether it is good or bad, the ‘duty’ of opposition parties is to oppose the actions of ruling government (whichever party may be in opposition).

Source:

Official press releases from the US Dept. of State:
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2007/aug/90050.htm
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2005/49969.htm


The overall benefits are both for US and India, by exchanging information, technology, collaborative research by the scientists of both the countries and transfer of nuclear material, components etc.

ISB Rocks !

It’s great to know that Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad got 20th rank among top 100 global business institutes by Financial Times 2008 rankings. When I heard about this news in Feb 2008, I thought IIM(s) also could be in the list. But I came to know that ISB is the first an Indian Business/Management Institute which was listed in global top 100 (and that too in top 20) and till now not even any Indian Institute of Management (IIM) could get a place in global top 100. It even surpassed its mentor Kellogg’s School of Management (which got rank 24).

When it had beaten IIMs in top salaries (for selected candidates in campus interviews) for the past 2 years also (esp. one student with 1 crore per annum package), I didn’t expect that it would even surpass biggies like London Business School, Harward Business School etc. in top salaries in Finance and Consulting categories for the last year.


No wonder, US President George Bush, MBA from Harward University, spent time to visit and meet young entrepreneurs of ISB in Hyderabad (during his India visit in 2006).

Sources:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/3f930b0c-cb17-11dc-97ff-000077b07658.html
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/isb-grad-snaps-up-rs-1cr-pay-pack/7784-3.html
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2738912.cms

Security in US due to Gun Licenses

The recent killing incidents of Indian research scholars at Louisiana university campus apartment and another such incident of shooting public at a shopping mall in Omaha by a teenager, rekindles the thoughts about ‘freedom’ and security in US. Some months back, similar massacre incident happened in Virginia Tech University. Though many such incidents happened earlier also, this time it got more attention because of continuous such incidents. Many people in Andhra Pradesh (as the killed students belong to A.P.) especially elders worry about the safety of their family members in US.

Every time such incidents happen, security gets beefed up. But we cannot have the same kind of security maintained at airports at each and every shopping mall. In fact, it’s not a feasible solution. The system of handing over the guns and licenses has to be analyzed and screened thoroughly.

Nobody really understands why gun licenses are required in this century for common people, as 911 is very much active for emergency situations. If you see the origins of gun culture, they were required during early years of US formation, to protect from hostile Native Americans and also for hunting. And it is also tied to independence and freedom and respect. So it seems many US citizens feel that restricting gun licenses is a threat to ‘freedom’ and self-defense. But it should not be at the cost another citizen’s freedom. In fact, the guns are utilized by ant-social elements rather than needy (?) common man.

Even when it comes to security threats by illegal immigrants, one side there are thorough checks while entering US, but inside there are a lot of illegal immigrants!! And some states especially New York state used to issue driving licenses even to illegal immigrants. How can the terrorism be controlled in such cases? Of course, now they realized the need to check the visa status for issuing driving licenses.

I came to know that till now the law restricts to have gun licenses to only the people who have mental illness and who got jail sentences for at least a year and of course to minors. The good news is now the authorities realized the need to revise the law to give gun licenses. It’s a good beginning and obviously good news for the common public in US.

Manipulative Media!

Right from my childhood, I was very much interested in reading news papers, watching news/events in TV etc. If I don't get a chance to get news papers anyday (for e.g. on the next day after Diwali etc.) I used to feel that I missed something on that day. And I used to think that media (mostly) is perfect, they care for the people and only politicians are the worst. I was under this "myth" for almost till my completing education and getting into job.

But if we observe today's media - both print and electronic media, they are just like any companies who work for their business and profits. They have the powerful 'media brand' and constitutional support and they just use it for their gains; they try to project their views as the views of 'all people'. This may not be the case of all news papers and electronic media, but more and more are becoming like that, may be because of stiff competition among them. Anybody who follows them regularly may find this.

I can give a lot of instances for these manipulative acts of media. Some news papers are politically motivated and some others try to gain on youth’s inner interests to improve circulation. Those who reside in cities like Delhi and Bangalore may know that the most circulated English daily in those cities – Times of India. The good quality of it is it publishes the required ads for job seekers esp. of software jobs and classifieds more than any other news paper. It doesn’t write much in favour of any political party also. In fact, it doesn’t concentrate much on detailed news itself. Their concentration is mainly on page 3 people, cine stars and their photos and gossips etc. They want night life more than the general public’s facilities etc. When Bangalore had a rule that the pubs should be closed by 11 PM (don’t remember the exact time), TOI made it a big issue, as if everybody in Bangalore is bothered about it. Everyday they used to write a lot of news and stories about it, that even foreigners are not showing interest to visit Bangalore because of early closure timing of pubs and it may affect software industry etc. etc. And they publish some articles to promote the acts of page 3 and rich people are becoming common in society, like live-in relationships! They give some common names like xyz expressed like this….etc. (an example). I am not just criticizing TOI in particular. These are some examples. There is another major English news paper in South India, especially very much popular in Chennai. No need of telling the name as everybody understands that it’s The Hindu. It does act exactly opposite to TOI. In fact, very good news presentation, good articles. But this news paper tries to write either in favour or against to one political party always. There are some news papers (for e.g. Deccan Herald in B’lore) which are somewhat reasonable to be read, but they are lacking to attract the ads from software companies and so people generally try to buy the already ‘most circulated’ (obviously which publishes more ads and classifieds) news papers.

In Andhra Pradesh, we can’t believe a single Telugu news paper, because of biased news. Each news paper is in favour of a political party. Everybody knows the biggest media group in AP (Eenadu and ETV) publicly supports a political party and they admitted in Supreme Court also that they always write against Congress. Despite of knowing this, still it’s the largest circulated daily in A.P. Recently one of the popular Telugu TV News Channels also concentrated on film actor Chiranjeevi’s daughter’s eloping issue more than any other issue/news for many days.

It seems more and more such news groups are increasing, as some political leaders are directly or indirectly investing in them.

When compared to print media, electronic media is somewhat better, as we can see the video clips directly (if they show) instead of relying on ‘said’ news.