For a country that is capable of launching satellites and splitting an atom,
a lot of expendables — many of them national shames — thrive in India. Here's a
list of what we should fix in 2013.
1. Pot-bellied cops
In the age of commando-style terrorism, as we witnessed in Mumbai, do obese cops inspire confidence?
How will a policeman foresee approaching crime when he has trouble seeing even his toes?
2. Yamuna
The Yamuna was first mentioned in the
Rig Veda, written in 1700-1100 BC.
Today, it figures mostly in UN reports on pollution or at seminars on rivers that have become a dead drain.
What the Thames is to London or the Seine is to Paris, the Yamuna could have been to Delhi. Alas!
3. Capital punishment
Today, it figures mostly in UN reports on pollution or at seminars on rivers that have become a dead drain.
What the Thames is to London or the Seine is to Paris, the Yamuna could have been to Delhi. Alas!
3. Capital punishment
Death penalty is not for civilised
nations.
It certainly doesn't belong to a nation that boasts the world's most ancient continuous civilisation.
Besides, in the age of suicide bombers, capital punishment is hardly a deterrent.
Just two weeks after 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab was hanged, a Supreme Court bench said it was time to revisit jurisprudence behind the imposition of death penalty.
Will politicians oblige?
4. Railway toilets
It certainly doesn't belong to a nation that boasts the world's most ancient continuous civilisation.
Besides, in the age of suicide bombers, capital punishment is hardly a deterrent.
Just two weeks after 26/11 terrorist Ajmal Kasab was hanged, a Supreme Court bench said it was time to revisit jurisprudence behind the imposition of death penalty.
Will politicians oblige?
4. Railway toilets
The world's biggest open toilet, in
the words of the minister concerned himself.
5. Manual scavenging
5. Manual scavenging
The national shame.
For a nation aspiring to be a superpower, this is a practice that is legally banned but openly carried out in many parts of the country.
6. Sporting bodies
For a nation aspiring to be a superpower, this is a practice that is legally banned but openly carried out in many parts of the country.
6. Sporting bodies
How about appointing a Congress worker
as chief of Indian
Medical Council, or a BJP leader as Press Council head? Sounds
absurd?
But then just why do we populate sports bodies with politicians?
India could take the latest International Olympic Committee imbroglio as an opportunity to clean up our sports administration system.
7. Unban bans
But then just why do we populate sports bodies with politicians?
India could take the latest International Olympic Committee imbroglio as an opportunity to clean up our sports administration system.
7. Unban bans
Slapping a
sweeping ban on all things uncomfortable has made India a nervous nation. Let's
reverse the trend by unbanning a very popular ban: the ban on plastic bags.
Let's face it, it's not easy to replace plastic at least as of now, especially in a country where street vendors packing boiling cups of tea in plastic bags is a common sight.
The lower you are in the social ladder, the more essential it is to you.
Let's save environs by scaling up our plastic recycling capacity drastically.
Let's face it, it's not easy to replace plastic at least as of now, especially in a country where street vendors packing boiling cups of tea in plastic bags is a common sight.
The lower you are in the social ladder, the more essential it is to you.
Let's save environs by scaling up our plastic recycling capacity drastically.
8. Pervasive potholes
Formula One doesn't seem to have done an awful lot of good for
Indian roads.
Apart from a few stretches along the west coast and a few northern states that are pounded by incessant rains for a good part of the year, there's no reason why a national or a state highway should be riddled with potholes.
Just where are the auto industry associations when you need them: what's the point of high-performing vrooms when you have to shift gears every 100 metres?
9. Universal broadband
Apart from a few stretches along the west coast and a few northern states that are pounded by incessant rains for a good part of the year, there's no reason why a national or a state highway should be riddled with potholes.
Just where are the auto industry associations when you need them: what's the point of high-performing vrooms when you have to shift gears every 100 metres?
9. Universal broadband
Raj Reddy, former US
President Bill Clinton's tech adviser, argued that the lower a nation is in the
human development index, the larger would be its broadband requirement.
The reasoning: illiterate or semi-literate people who can't read instructions can still avail of online services when visuals replace text (the same reason we have election symbols).
A nation that can build its own cryogenic engine can surely promise universal broadband and bridge the divide — between digital and analogue.
10. Bullet trains
The reasoning: illiterate or semi-literate people who can't read instructions can still avail of online services when visuals replace text (the same reason we have election symbols).
A nation that can build its own cryogenic engine can surely promise universal broadband and bridge the divide — between digital and analogue.
10. Bullet trains
China has launched
services on the world's longest high-speed rail route.
The train from Beijing to Guangzhou traverses 2,298 km at a speed of 300 km per hour.
Compare that with India where the average speed is around 85 km per hour.
Young India has too many aspirations, and to fulfil even a few of them, we need to urbanise quick and efficient. And we can reach there only by bullet trains.
11. Ban on sedition
The train from Beijing to Guangzhou traverses 2,298 km at a speed of 300 km per hour.
Compare that with India where the average speed is around 85 km per hour.
Young India has too many aspirations, and to fulfil even a few of them, we need to urbanise quick and efficient. And we can reach there only by bullet trains.
11. Ban on sedition
Another one to
ponder. Let's just get this out of the way. It's fundamentally incompatible
with the ideals of democracy. So are many of our laws regarding the national
flag.
Drape it on your shoulder when you win an Olympic Gold, and you are walking a very, very fine line that could lead to jail.
12. Worm infestations/Tuberculosis
Drape it on your shoulder when you win an Olympic Gold, and you are walking a very, very fine line that could lead to jail.
12. Worm infestations/Tuberculosis
In other words,
freedom from third world maladies.
Washing hands with soap and decent public health engineering that keeps sewage away from drinking water will take care of the first.
But TB, which is the single biggest killer in India, needs a pulse polio- like sweeping and proactive awareness programme.
The poor man's malady is going classless: multi-drug-resistant varieties are on the prowl that don't take into account your Armanisuit.
13. My certificate, my right
Washing hands with soap and decent public health engineering that keeps sewage away from drinking water will take care of the first.
But TB, which is the single biggest killer in India, needs a pulse polio- like sweeping and proactive awareness programme.
The poor man's malady is going classless: multi-drug-resistant varieties are on the prowl that don't take into account your Armanisuit.
13. My certificate, my right
It
should be the government's responsibility to issue essential documents — birth
and death certificates, et al. Instead, it is the hapless citizen who has to go
from pillar to post to get hold of them.
These documents continue to define an Indian even in the age of Aadhaar.
So let's at least make the process less cumbersome.
These documents continue to define an Indian even in the age of Aadhaar.
So let's at least make the process less cumbersome.
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