P Sainath, a photo journalist from the Hindu, describes farmers’ plight in India. I did not know that every half an hour, a farmer in India commits suicide. More and more farmers are leaving their land and hunger is increasing despite our country is getting richer while competing with world’s biggest economies.

Once Swami Vivekanand said “India is my country and all Indians are my brothers and sisters”. Now I wonder what happened to that brotherhood and why we can not help our farmers. Over 250 million Indians go to bed hungry every day. This can easily be stopped if our govt think seriously about the problem.

Must watch the documentary below. Amit

23 and 1/2 hours: What is the single best thing we can do for our health?

You need to watch the video below to answer that question.

Dear Mr Prime Minister,

It is scientifically known fact that the Asbestos, a fibrous mineral, causes serious illnesses, including malignant lung cancer, mesothelioma. It is a shame that in India Asbestos is widely used in floor tiles, ceiling tiles and roof materials without even informing public about its harmful effects.

Asbestos Cement Roof in India

Most of the developed countries, including Canada which is the biggest exporter of Asbestos to India, have BANNED Asbestos use in their own country. Then why it is still being used in India?

I am wondering if Indian Govt is just ignorant of the issue or if there is any special advantage to India by having more Indians with lung cancer?

Asbestos is cheap toxic material which remains it in the environment for years. Developed countries are facing problem on how to clear their old buildings from Asbestos. But here in India, instead of stop using it, we are still importing from Canada, Russia and other places.

May be you should watch the documentary below and learn more about it. I hope after watching this you’ll spread the word and help preventing Asbestos use in India.

Regards,
Amit

Dear Mr Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh,

It is evident that with sheer power of money foreign companies like Wal-Mart and TESCO will transform the retail sector in India. But this will not happen in favor of India.

Wal-Mart’s lower prices will draw customers away from small shops and businesses, which are actually life line for Indian households, and hurt local communities.

Wal-Mart like companies are going to sell goods more cheaply then nearby micro Kirana shops, which simply means that it’ll represent a profound threat to the viability of those shops.

Most of fruits in India are sold on carts by Thela Walas [smallholders] even in the cities like Delhi. What will happen to these people if Wal-Mart start selling fruits in the market – for cheap?

Similarly, what will happen to small shops selling shoes, hardware, building supplies, paint and glass, groceries, fabric and jewelry? These things can be sold for cheap by big supermarkets, because they can afford, and because of this small shop owners will get out of business.

Companies like Wal-Mart, by selling goods for cheap, will force small shops to downsize and close their doors for business. This will simply create more unemployment. I am wondering why this is so difficult to understand by Indian Govt.

Similar thing have already happened in USA and UK where big supermarkets have indirectly forced small business to close themselves.

You might argue that, by hiring, supermarkets will create more employment in nearby local areas. True, but the workforce which will be used in supermarkets is not going to be same as who will be unemployed because of supermarkets.

An unemployed Subzi Wala or Dhoodh Wala can not go and work in Wal-Mart. Would you guarantee a balanced job growth against job losses because of new supermarkets?

In USA, Wal-Mart employs part-time and low wages workforce. They are also paid significantly lower than comparable to other sectors. This is important to sell their stuff for cheap. Similar practice may be applied in India and overall this will create more low end workforce, which India does not need.

Superstores will have central supply chains and this will kill local wholesellers. Again more unemployment.

Additionally superstores will force manufacturing jobs to go overseas. Walmart in USA is biggest importer of Chinese goods. If similarly happens in India, this will help shut down remaining local plants and move manufacturing to overseas.

Inflation in India is already so high and you are not able to control it.

India’s poverty line is set on 26 rupees in rural areas and 32 rupees in urban areas, which is really unrealistic. This means anyone earning say 50 Rs a day is not poor. Today a person can not buy one liter petrol in 50 Rs. How can this person not be poor?

And when companies like Wal-Mart will set the price for Indian consumers, how a poor Indian family, living on 50 Rs per day, will manage?

Amit

Again, Rahul Gandhi did not know what he was saying in public.

Someone once said, if you talk like a loser and you might win. This is what happening with him.

This time, he said people of Uttar Pradesh are beggars in Maharashtra and Punjab. WHAT? he does not know that Indians can work anywhere they want in India. If North Indians are not treated well in Maharashtra then it is problem with the people of Maharashtra.

If a person from Mumbai is working in UP, it does not mean that he is beggar in UP. Indians are working all over the world now, it does not mean they beggars there. If two people from UP and Mumbai are working USA then it does not mean that they are beggars abroad. Amitabh Bacchan is from UP and he is working in Maharshtra and so as soldiers who fought terrorists in Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai. No one is beggar.

According to him, may be Italian people who came to India should be called beggars.

He might be referring beggars to people who are doing small jobs like driving a taxi in Mumbai or working as labourer in Punjab. They all are working hard to make their life better and give their families new opportunities. This does not make them beggars.

If Rahul Gandhi really wants to win hearts of the people of Uttar Pradesh then he really needs to work on his language and show that he is actually from UP, not from Italy [Raul Vinci, his real name]. Importantly his Hindi needs to get better, but I see this as a possibility of far far away, because he might be using Italian as first language at his home.

This was one another stupid remark from him after his last baseless remark that farmers were burnt alive in Noida. He opens his mouth without actually thinking what is coming out.

Sometimes I wonder if Rahul Gandhi really cares about People of Uttar Pradesh or People of India. May be he cares about them, but certainly he is not the smart one, like his mom, who can fool Indians.

Amit

One more example of Rahul Gandhi’s knowledge

Have you ever think about Indian oil companies and how much money they are making? and how much actually they are contributing in to Indian communities?

In the events of recent oil price hike in India, I thought about it.

Firstly the question is, If Indian oil companies, owned by Govt of India, are making money out of Indian consumers, why they can not re-invest a fraction of their earnings in to India society?

People may think Indian oil companies are losing money because of International crude oil price hike, but it not like this. In 2010, Indian Oil Corporation, ONGC, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum had income of approximately $ 3.74 billion, $ 4.381 billion, $ 761.13 million and $ 825 million respectively [figure references from wikipedia 13/11/11].

Since all these companies are autonomous and Govt Owned, all this profit is actually made for Govt of India, which is further used by these companies to make more money from people of India.

Most painful questions in my mind are..

Oil companies are making money in India but how many oil companies..

.. have or supported any healthcare program?
.. do they support any education development programs, [except some handfull of scholarships]?
.. Do they support any development program of poor people in India?

Gas Agencies and Petrol Pumps are integrated part of Indian communities. They are in every village of India. Unfortunately, they not profitable for dealers now days because of the competition between companies. However, because companies had nothing invested in dealerships [all the land and investment is generally provided by the dealer] oil companies are still in profitable.

Oil companies in India are trying to squeeze as much money from their dealers and consumers as they can for their shareholders.

President of India owns ~ 78.92% of Indian Oil Corporation. Which makes her billionaire [~ $27 billion] as per the recent valuation of Indian Oil [$ 34.36 billion]. Reference

When billionaire like Bill Gates can invest his personal fortune in health care and the human development in India, why not Indian companies? Even though these companies are owned by Government of India.

Amit

I got up this morning at 5 am and found this very interesting talk by Jay Bradner from Harvard on Facebook.

He talks about the Open-source research for developing new cancer drugs and how it can change the world.

His idea was simple. His lab developed a prototype compound that might work to cure a rare cancer. But instead of keeping this secret, he published this compound and gave it to the world for free and asked people around the world if they wanted to test it.

Interestingly by sharing with the world, which pharma companies won’t do it this point of drug development, he received results with new insight of cancer research.

Other labs found that the prototype compound was also active on other cancers as well, for example leukemia cells treated with the prototype compound turned in to normal white blood cells. Great!

This was an unique idea for research and drug discovery which was only been seen previously in the Information Technology.

In India, where resources are not as accessible as developed world, open-source research can help create new environment and opportunities for the research. Specially when there is less money is available for research and all money is public money.

This will also save money and will create better use of limited medical technology resources in India in short period of time. In addition of that more knowledge will spread and confidence will develop to do high quality research.

Amit

Here is the talk from Jay Bradner if you are interested in watching.

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

May be, justice is being done this week for Gujarat rioters who killed many Muslims. We all know that Gujarat violence was wrong and one of the worst after 1984 violence.

But many important questions hang in mid-air. Did we ever address the root causes of the 2002s Hindu uprisings? Was it Political?

We all know that riots were started after the Sabarmati Express train was attacked by a large Muslim mob in a conspiracy. There were 59 people barbecued alive and then bodies were sent to Ahmedabad, which in turn started the Gujarat Riots.

Who made this decision of sending those bodies? was it done intentionally? I think any one could guess what was going to happen next in Ahmedabad.

This week court jailed 31 people for the murder and rioting in Gujarat and this is a coincidence of number that earlier this year 31 people were convicted in the train blaze verdict. These seems like politically balance verdicts to show the world that India, or say Gujarat, is secular state.

May be justice is done by a putting bunch of Hindus and Muslims in the jail, but this does not answer the question – who was behind those and if events were politically motivated? What was the role of policing during train blaze and riots?

Mr. Narendra Modi, who is trying to vanguard himself in China and may be positioning himself for the next race of the Prime Minister, had a questionable role 2002.

Whatever the case may be and may be the political system was compromised, the Indian judicial system seems to actionable almost after a decade.

But this will not bring two communities closer. I believe that Govt can do/must do much better in bringing the long term peace.

Regards,
Amit

When I opened the Hindustan Times this evening, I was expecting to read debate on petrol price hike in India and how Mamata Banerjee was convinced by the central government.

On the other hand I found this stupid news.

“Media can cover Aishwarya’s delivery: Big B”

WTF! I don’t know when Indian Media will start covering real stories.

Which event made India proud? Formula 1 or Commonwealth Games?

The event of Commonwealth Games of 2010 was one of the most embarrassing moment for the people of India.

Delhi was not ready for the games even after spending millions of dollars by UPA Govt. Those games were failed miserably to live up to expectations of the people of India.

This week, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati presented the Formula 1 winning trophy to German Sebastian Vettel. This time we did not listen any allegations of bribery, leaky event place, a runaway budget or delayed project.

The only thing I could find was the Dog on the race track and cancellation of the Metallica show. Formula 1 race was one of the best example of the private-public partnership event.

May be UPA Govt will learn something from Mayawati, specially Rahul Gandhi, who was trying to play a political game on farmer’s land in NOIDA.

95,000 people visited the closing ceremony of the Formula 1 event and whole world was watching us. Jaypee group and Noida administration did a great job in managing the event that it looked like piece of cake for them.

This showed the world that India is capable of hosting any international event with highest quality of standard.

Today I am a proud Indian by saying that India successfully hosted Formula 1 event.

Wishing more success for India in future:)

Amit