The year that was!!

This year belongs to the power of people, power of social networking, sports persons and in many ways it was a year of India.

Because of public pressure a lot of corrupt leaders had to go & Government was forced to start investigation for mega scams. It was the people who made Commonwealth Games a success. Without thousands of volunteers it wouldn't have been so successful after the corruption fiasco. At the end it was the people who also awarded some good leaders like 'Nitish' to set up a new trend in Indian politics.

It was a year where we also witnessed the power of social networking sites. A lot of businessmen, media persons and bureaucrats were caught red handedly in the bad game of lobbying & corruption. Be it Wikileakes, Radia tapes leakes or leaks of different secret Gov. reports, all exposed these Hippocratic false Icons.

Fighting corruption

Before we blame the political class and the bureaucracy for being corrupt, we must understand that it is we who make them corrupt. In a highly populated country like India, where corruption is deeply rooted, we must take steps to abate corruption, even if we cannot eliminate it.

If corruption has to be fought relentlessly, the first thing we must do is lead an incorruptible life. I got everything done without offering a bribe, though it was a tedious process. I got my electricity card, water supply and telephone connection, and my vehicle and driving licence transferred without bribing anyone. One should have the patience and moral courage to remain uncorrupted. We must lead by example.

Map of the Facebook world

A Facebook intern named Paul Butler has created a fascinating piece: amap of the world based only on Facebook friendships. There aren't any lines here from anything but Facebook accounts and their links to friends in other cities. Butler's methods:

Sachin & The Rest

In these situations I like Dravid and Laxman more than Sachin. I don't know y he was taking singles on first ball of every over??? I know, I can be stoned for this statement here in India. But the question remains; y was he giving strike to tail enders??? No doubt, Sachin is a great batsman, but many say he is not a player of big stage. He failed to perform on big occasions like world cup final, final innings/day of Important Test matches. More we remember the sad endings of his great innings be it 175 vs Aus in ODI, innigs vs Pak in tests, Man of the series in WC & this one being the latest.

Women's safety

Patriarchal attitude has been prevalent in India for ages. The caste system and patriarchy remain unchanged even in urban India. Our development is superficial. Men are afraid of women's progress and, therefore, subject them to humiliation. As a first step, society should accept gender equality. We should introduce the concept of equality in school curriculum. What is required is the urbanisation of social thought.

Given the alarming rise in the number of crimes against women in Delhi, the government should implement the existing laws strictly to rein in the perpetrators. If necessary, it should enact a new law providing for more stringent punishment.

Governments in major cities should also take the help of technology to restore order in public places. With the help of NGOs and the media, they should educate people on safety. Installation of CCTV cameras at parks and public places like roads and bus stops, well-lit streets and signboards showing routes and displaying emergency numbers at public places will also help.

Radia raids

I don't know why CBI raids yrs after a big scam comes to the knowledge of people or it is ordered for the investigation of a corrupt politician, bureaucrat, media person or a industrialist. nothing incriminating could be searched from offices and residences after a year. The recent example being Raja & Radia Raids. Another example is CWG & Suresh kalmadi, I don't know why CBI is waiting for to raid kalmai & even interrogate him?

Its raining scams

Ok it is a kind of season for scams, cwg, flats... Tape ...india shining,,india emerging...dont know what else. We are most likely to push 2G scam to the background if a couple of Hollywood stars are arranged to entertain us in TV. the memory of people is very short and week, every body has now forgotten Chara, Telgi, Tehlka, Boforce, Garland & the most recent CWG.

WikiLeaks issue

Trying to stifle and attack WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, at a time when jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo has been being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize highlights the irony of double standards that are existent in the ‘free world.'

The charges against Julian Assange are surprising. As far as America is concerned, the WikiLeaks cable expose is one of the most embarrassing situations it has had to face in the recent past and has a fallout in international diplomatic circles. The credit goes to WikiLeaks and Mr. Assange for exposing the ugly face of hypocricy.

Radia tapes

With the continuing exposé of the Niira Radia tapes, a question keeps popping up in my mind: who do we, the people, believe now? First we trusted the politicians in whose hands we entrusted our future, then the industrial giants on whom we relied for growth and, finally, the media which we believed would tell us the good and bad happenings in and around our country. 

The fresh set of leaked Radia tapes is a reconfirmation of the conspiratorial role played by the captains of industry through their agents and lobbyists to influence the government. But for the leakage of the tapes, the cosy media-corporate relationship would have remained under wraps. Society would have continued to believe that the elite classes have achieved what they have by rendering service to the nation. The Supreme Court should take cognisance of the disclosures while dealing with Ratan Tata's plea to protect his privacy.

The Top Scams in India

This is the season of scams and the biggest ever corruption cases in India have been unearthed more recently. So, we decided to dig deep to see which scams were the biggest and most damaging to the country and its citizens alike.

In our daily life, most of us must have been a witness to or a victim of the corruption thriving in some or the other part of the country. It could be in the form of a taxi-driver manipulating the meter to jack-up the reading or a government officer taking bribery to promptly transfer your file to the next department or even yourself offering bribe to a traffic police on breaking a signal.

An average Indian citizen is hard working and diligent, but it is the people in charge of the system (The Babu’s) or with whom the power lays, that act as a cancer spreading the venom, slowing down progress and what all not. But, somewhere down the line, we ourselves are responsible for allowing and being taken for a ride by these people, aren’t we?

However, it is during a multi-thousand crore scam, that a tax-payer actually realizes the heartburn of being cheated from his valued contribution of funds towards the development and well-being of the nation. But, that’s what a scam, be it big or small, means – the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme or action.