Mullaperiyar Dam: Specialist versus Generalist Inquiry commissions

The Central Government appoints several commissions to inquire into a wide range of matters. The commission members seldom have the requisite knowledge of the matter. Most of the times generalist bureaucrats are appointed to these inquiry commissions and hence we can never expect them to have the vision which a specialist of the subject would have. Despite the recommendations of several committees to give more importance to specialist administrators no such steps have been taken so far by the Government.
Many of our schemes have suffered on this account, lets see whether Mullaperiyar Dam survives or not. 

Lokpal Bill : Different Versions

It's up to us to decide which one should guard our homes !

UPA's version of Bill differs considerably with Jan Lokpal Bill proposed by Anna Hazare and company. It should not be too difficult for even a laymen to point out the difference and find out which version is ideally suited for the Indian democracy which has been marred with sagas of corruption of largest possible scale in recent times. 

Kapil Sibal warning to websites: Do not publish derogatory and controversial comments

Kapil Sibal's warning to websites like Google, Yahoo and Facebook among others to remove derogatory and controversial comments from their websites comes at a very wrong time for Congress. At a time when the Congress itself is mired in derogatory acts like 2G scam, doing nothing to prevent farmers suicides and monopolising Intelligence Agencies for party purposes rather than using them for National Security, such comments from Mr. Sibbal will only add fuel to the anti-government fire.

Invention for Destruction

"I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill."

                                         

Thomas A Edison was proud to say these lines. The times have changed and so has the ethics of our scientists. Earlier they were making "Path making inventions" and now they are making "Path breaking inventions"...With all due respect to the great scientists trying to develop cure for AIDS or for Alzheimer Disease....the fact is that  there number is too low...the funding they get is too low....The biggest inventions of our decade have been missiles, nuclear weapons, biological and chemical weapons...and these account for the major chunk of research funding...

What if Edison was alive today...how he would have felt about our scientists...we must think... 

                

Ballots or Bullets

"Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets."

The famous line by Abraham Lincoln is getting exemplified all across the world, especially in the middle east. Starting with Tunisia and then moving to Egypt and Libya, the transformation of Dictatorship to Democracy has been getting great popularity.  

Education or learning

Albert Einstein once said:

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education"

It is usually said that whatever Einstein has said is pure gold. This famous quote from the great man is no different. In the modern society while on one side there is huge emphasis on education , on the other hand the act of learning has been buried deep under. Especially in the context of a developing country like India the greatest challenge is to integrate education with learning. The formal education system demands obedient, and not creative students. Students are forced to cram books rather than explore the world around them on scientific lines.

If Marx had commented on this subject, he would have said that students have been alienated from education. They consider education as a means to get a high paying job.

For Einstein learning was an end in itself and unless this means-end transformation is not reversed we should not expect to discover another Einstein.