World-Me-My viewpoint

Indian currency notes may need a new look as the people are looking at the same kind of currency notes for quite sometime now. Indian Rupee notes are of two categories. India uses notes of the following denominations 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000. One Rupee (basic unit) is being issued by Government of India and bears the signature of the Finance Secretary. Rest of the notes are issued by Reserve Bank of India and carry the facsimile of the signature of its Governor.Of these the usage of coins in place of currency notes is more prevalent in case of those with denominations of Rs 1, 2 and 5. There is recent news items stating that the Government of India is thinking of reissuing the One Rupee currency notes which were last printed around 10-15 years back. The reverse and obverse images of the last one rupee note is as follows Similarly the Rs 2 note which is rare to find now a days appears as below If you look at these two notes the obverse side o...

Two days back the Apex Court of the country gave a ruling that hence forth the Government Advertisements should only carry the photographs of Prime Minister or President or Chief Justice of India.  Government ads is a major source of income for media be it print or electronic media. Government issues hundreds of advertisements every day for various purposes like calling for tenders (for government works), showcasing their achievements, public interest advertisements (like the recent ones featuring actress Ms Vidya Balan  for construction of toilets) etc. An estimated Rs 700 Crores was spent by the current government in the past one year on ads can give an idea as to how much is the government spend and the kind of exposure the individuals gets out of this exercise. The ads for Tenders which are issued by individual departments does not carry any photographs. However the ads issued by government showcasing their achievements carry the photographs of the Prime Minister ...

It is being now reported on Indian news channels that two earthquakes struck in quick succession in Nepal - China Border. One on Chinese side while the other happened on Nepalese side. The magnitude of the quake is around 7.4 on Richter scale.These were followed by after shocks of magnitude 5+. Tremors were felt in Northern and Eastern parts of India, mainly the national capital New Delhi. The tremors were also felt in Odisha (Orissa) and Bihar. It seems the Delhi Secretariat has been evacuated immediately. Around 80 people died in Nepal and 1100 injured in landslides. The epicentre of the earthquake is around 15 km from Mount Everest. It is good that Nepal closed the mountaineering activity immediately after the last earthquake around 15 days back.

Within days from the suspension of sentence of Mr Salman Khan, we witnessing one more controversial thing - Acquittal of J Jayalalitha, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. This happened on appeal in a case where she was sentenced after 18 years of hearings in various courts (some of them were regular in Tamil Nadu itself and some special courts either constituted by Tamil Nadu Government or Supreme Court). The case is about assets disproportionate to the income of Jayalalitha and her associates (Sashikala, her son and some companies) by an amount of around Rs 66 Crores. In current days of where people talk about hundreds of Crores of rupees as loose change, the amount stated looks like a pittance. But remember around 18-20 years back this is a substantial amount. Even the much celebrated Bofors case involves a total amount of Rs 130 - 160 Crores only. A display of personal adoration which characterizes Tamil politics. In this picture people are pouring milk on the wall painting...

It seems the laws are applied differently to celebrities, politicians and the common man (so called Aam Aadmi). It is true that the aam aadmi adores the celebrities and mob them whenever / wherever they appear in public. The celebrities get special status every where like special and quicker darshans in temples, quicker access to airports, railway stations (do they travel in trains?). This is witnessed by every one over the day in and day out. However, the aam aadmi is so tolerant of everything from bad roads, poor infrastructure, politicians renegading on their promises, running from pillar to post when they need some work to be done in government, they take this special treatment to the so called celebrities in their stride. However what pinches the most is the interpretation of laws properly and dispensation of justice accordingly for the celebrities very quickly. Of course it is the responsibility of Judiciary to dispense justice impartially and properly to all the citizens of...

Last week Nepal experienced a major catastrophe in the form of an earthquake of the magnitude 7.9. The epicentre of the earthquake lay around 80 kms from the capital Kathmandu at a place called Pokhara. I remember this place Pokhara because some years back we saw the peak of Mount Everest from a hotel there through binoculars.  As per the latest reports more than 6000 people lost their lives. The capital city Kathmandu is completely devastated with many historical monuments and temples lay in shambles. With several after shocks of the magnitude 5 and above, the population is still forced to stay outdoors facing severe hardships. The earthquake has such a devastating effect that scientists say the city of Kathmandu shifted nearly 10 - 15 ft from its existing position. This is because the Himalayas lie on a earth fault line where the Indian plate is joined to Eurasian Plate (They are called tectonic plates by the scientists). The current Indian government headed by Mr Narend...