World-Me-My viewpoint

Andhra Pradesh government has paid an amount of Rs 8 Crores towards interest on Overdraft facility utilised for 5 days from Reserve Bank of India (Central Bank). This happened due to a financial mismanagement / miscalculation by the government. The government released Rs 2067 Crores towards pending incentives for industrial units just 5 days prior to the closure of the financial year. It is understood that these dues are pending for over a decade. This is the news item which has come in the news papers yesterday. What is the motivation to release the entire amount of incentives at one go that too when they were outstanding for over a decade? Second thing is why is it necessary to release these funds at one go when the government is well aware that it does not have sufficient funds in its account in central bank? This is a surprising act by the government which is headed by an experienced Chief Minister, Mr Chandrababu Naidu. But a look at his previous rule, we find that his govern...

  Last week saw the announcement of discovery of the body of Malli Mastan Babu, one of India's top mountaineer. He is unique in a way that very few of the Indian mountaineers were solo climbers and he is one of them. He has the distinction of conquering the summits of the tallest peaks in each of the 7 continents in 2006 in a short span of 172 days and made to the Guinness Book of World Records. Apart from this he has several achievements like, In 2007, he accomplished through trekking and climbing a high-altitude traverse of the four major Hindu dhams of Uttarakhand. During the same year, he had run 8 full Marathons and 3 half marathons in 13 days, spanning 10 Indian States. In 2008, he completed a 75 day High altitude trek from the Mt. Everest region to Kanchenjunga, climbing all the high passes between them, covering a total of approximately 1100km of Himalayan terrain.   He was an alumnus of IIT and a motivational speaker. He lost his life after sum...

During the last one week there were 2-3 news items which show how the heads of governments are splurging the public money. Chief Minister of the State of Telangana wants to spend government money to fulfill the vows made to several gods  There was a news item in the local news papers stating that the Chief Minister of Telangana Mr K Chandrasekhara Rao and his cabinet took a decision to spend an amount of Rs 10 Crores to fulfill various vows made by their party to various gods during the Telangana movement prior to formation of the state. These vows were made to several gods including Lord Balaji, Kanakadurgamma of Vijayawada, Lord Lakshmi Narasimha of Yadagiri gutta, Chadar at Ajmer Dargah etc.  It is a common thing among Indians (possibly among people of some other countries also) to make vows to the gods and invoke gods at the time of difficulty and one needs to fulfill them once the issue is resolved. However, it is height of madness and splurge to ...

American president Barak Obama has concluded his visit to India as a guest for the Republic Day. It might be termed as a great coup by Mr Modi when the American president agreed for and visited us. However during his speech, he advised / sermonised that India can develop further if we are not splintered on religious lines. There is nothing wrong for someone to tell some good words. However, this sounds more like a snub to the politics of the associated organisations of the ruling party like RSS. Do we need this kind of sermonising from head of a foreign nation?

Yesterday I saw a good public awareness ad by Government of India on listening music through headphones on roads. Thre is a animated character called Chintu who is very fond of music and always listens through headphones wherever he is. One day he puts on his headphones and start walking on the road. He could not hear the horn of the approaching vehicle and meets with a fatality. The ad was concise but the message is clear. Nowadays many would have observed that people put on the headphones and start listening to music the moment they get out of their house. This does not stop when they cross the roads, get on or off the buses / trains. The people walk and act like Zombies and does not even respond normally. In my childhood, whenever I listened to radio (cricket commentary) for more than an hour my mother used to shout at me stating that continuously listening to such loud sounds from a close range impairs hearing. She was a semi-literate and told this out of common sense. I wonder w...

In an article today in an Indian News paper "Business Standard" there is a caution that the current celebrations about low crude prices may not be there for long. The link for the article is given below http://www.business-standard.com/article/markets/four-reasons-why-the-latest-crude-oil-price-crash-may-not-be-sustainable-115010800845_1.html According to the article, the crude prices have come down because of Raising US Shale Oil Production Insistence of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) to continue production to maintain its market share Slump in demand from major importers However this continued reduction may not be sustainable in the long run as according to the author, a price below USD 60 is not beneficial to the US Companies into production of Shale oil due to costing. A second factor is the shrinkage of oil revenues of major oil producing countries like Russia (Oil accounts for nearly 45% of budgeted revenues) and Venezuela. This may...

We entered into 2015 yesterday after completing one more year with many twists and turns like a Bollywood Potboiler. On the new year eve I was watching a discussion in Television discussion and heard a impromptu ode to the time in his native language. I will try to translate the same below Time is omnipresent and ever flowing Time is Challenge (throws up challenges) Time provides solutions Time hurts – Time heals Time flows – Time stops (for the dead) Time kills – Time creates Time creates Chimera – Time makes them real I hope I made justice to the original (of course I added one or two lines of my own). Like many in the world I also made some resolutions / wish list for the New Year. To reduce my waistline by atleast 1.5 inches by end of 2015. Keep my finances in a better shape in the new year. This is what I wish for my country Hope better sense prevail in the country and political parties Hope the country become Swachh ...