Every year at least half a dozen students in the IITs ended their lives. IIT Council has decided to constitute a Task Force to study the issue of increasing suicides and recommend appropriate measures to prevent such cases. The Task Force shall be headed by an eminent person and include representatives of parents, teachers, alumni, professional counselors and will submit its report in four months. The panel may be headed by the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Science, Bangalore and comprise five or six mental health experts.
This hangama over the death of half a dozen students every year is in a land where two million U-5 kids perish annually due to malnutrition. TB swallows each year half a million. A few may chide me for comparing suicides with natural deaths. These are not natural deaths but state assisted killings. Let us consider another suicide issue. Since 1995, a quarter million farmers ended their lives due to rural economic stress. Every hour two food providers terminate their lives. That is nearly three thousand times the suicide deaths in IITs. Recent 11 deaths in Delhi shook the entire creamy layer. None cared to look at this farm suicide for one decade. Only after the 'India Shining' brigade was stopped from 'Feeling Good', the UPA appointed a commission to study the issue and suggest remedial measures. Six years passed after this committee gave its recommendations. But the suicides continue unabated. No question of any task force. Why this monumental apathy from the 'informed' society?
IIT Kanpur and Rajasthan Chairman Anandakrishnan gives the answer: “IIT students are valuable assets to the nation. Only the cream of the society joins the IITs and they have a very good opportunity of becoming leaders in the society”. Poor farmers don’t have the ghost of a chance to enter any IIT to get salvation.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Singara Chennai
Monsoon season is round the corner. It will be busy time for Chennai Corporation officials leasing out maintenance and de-silting of Super-Ultra-filthy Storm water drains on the road margins of Chennai, so that people can weather the rain without flooded roads and nullahs. But, it will nevertheless be flooded on account of shoddy maintenance work and lack of any visible, scientific solid waste management system on the ground. You see, we are an almost arrived superpower with a great growth story of consistently 9% per annum & now and then touching 10%,against a depressing global recession. And as an arriving superpower, we have technology only for moon missions, Atomic bombs, Nuclear tipped Missiles & 4-laned Golden Quadrilaterals..
Not for maintaining storm water drains and building walking platforms.
The video at the bottom will give you a glimpse of how we provide the much touted Urban Amenities in Chennai, say for example, the storm water maintenance - through high exploitation of migrant labourers. The Corporation gives out the Contract. The Contractor (invariably a Binami of a councilor/s) subcontracts the work to another, again. The nepotism in such deals is as filthy as the storm water drains & public toilets of Chennai. The subcontractor gets migrant families from western districts like Salem/Darmapuri or from the Telangana region to de-silt the filthy drains. Of late, Bihari & UP migrants have increased the competition for such jobs. Coolie is paid by metre desilted. The more metre they desilt per day, the better. This is the motivation for entire families to 'plunge' themselves into the desilting work.
But, most of the 'dirty' money is invariably earned back by the Government, thanks to Government peddled liquor shops. How else, our Government can distribute laptops and sheep? And give subsidized plots to the IAS, MLAs, Filmy association people, etc & hectares to the SEZ? These ignorant migrants don't understand how they support the household economy of the IAS, the business class & finance the Government's welfare schemes too.
Husband, wife, brother, brother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, grandpa with kids around undertake to desilting without any safety protection. Broken brandy & beer bottles dumped after drinking episodes (or rather drinking epidemic) in Tasmac liquor shops, all types of plastic waste, raw chicken waste from butchers' shops, rotting wastes dumped by roadside eat-outs, construction rubbish, sewerage illegally let out by establishments & houses and of course silt are to be removed.
Cockroaches, variety of other insects, rodents gives them great company. They outdo the so-called dangerous reality shows on TV. Children of the families will play dangerously on the platform as traffic whizzes past .Watching their elders scoop out filth provide some amusement to the children.
The amusement is not only to their Children, of course to the people driving, walking past.Or are these migrant families, a necessary evil, some kind of an annoying nuisance to tolerate before the much bigger nuisance, monsoon sets in?
http://www.paadam.in/videos.php
Not for maintaining storm water drains and building walking platforms.
The video at the bottom will give you a glimpse of how we provide the much touted Urban Amenities in Chennai, say for example, the storm water maintenance - through high exploitation of migrant labourers. The Corporation gives out the Contract. The Contractor (invariably a Binami of a councilor/s) subcontracts the work to another, again. The nepotism in such deals is as filthy as the storm water drains & public toilets of Chennai. The subcontractor gets migrant families from western districts like Salem/Darmapuri or from the Telangana region to de-silt the filthy drains. Of late, Bihari & UP migrants have increased the competition for such jobs. Coolie is paid by metre desilted. The more metre they desilt per day, the better. This is the motivation for entire families to 'plunge' themselves into the desilting work.
But, most of the 'dirty' money is invariably earned back by the Government, thanks to Government peddled liquor shops. How else, our Government can distribute laptops and sheep? And give subsidized plots to the IAS, MLAs, Filmy association people, etc & hectares to the SEZ? These ignorant migrants don't understand how they support the household economy of the IAS, the business class & finance the Government's welfare schemes too.
Husband, wife, brother, brother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, grandpa with kids around undertake to desilting without any safety protection. Broken brandy & beer bottles dumped after drinking episodes (or rather drinking epidemic) in Tasmac liquor shops, all types of plastic waste, raw chicken waste from butchers' shops, rotting wastes dumped by roadside eat-outs, construction rubbish, sewerage illegally let out by establishments & houses and of course silt are to be removed.
Cockroaches, variety of other insects, rodents gives them great company. They outdo the so-called dangerous reality shows on TV. Children of the families will play dangerously on the platform as traffic whizzes past .Watching their elders scoop out filth provide some amusement to the children.
The amusement is not only to their Children, of course to the people driving, walking past.Or are these migrant families, a necessary evil, some kind of an annoying nuisance to tolerate before the much bigger nuisance, monsoon sets in?
http://www.paadam.in/videos.php
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Anna's fast a threat to Democracy
If corruption erodes Democracy, Anna’s fast equally undermines the Democratic values and institutions that behold the basic values of Democracy. He is now the voice of the middle class, who are economically stronger and uphold the rigid caste system which is dead against equality and thus against Democracy.
In a Democratic nation, legislations are passed by the Parliament as a law making body. If Anna’s fast can pressurize the Parliamentarians to accept a “Bill” which is hand crafted by him and his team, the very essence of democracy is defeated. Also the Indian middle class has vested interest in this legislation as they are the primary beneficiaries of the Government Services.
The same middle class never bothered to fight for the marginalized, deprived, caste wise subjugated Indian brotherhood. This fast is a clear cut plot to undermine our democratic institutions and to benefit the very few middle class which is a BIG market for the western powers.
In a Democratic nation, legislations are passed by the Parliament as a law making body. If Anna’s fast can pressurize the Parliamentarians to accept a “Bill” which is hand crafted by him and his team, the very essence of democracy is defeated. Also the Indian middle class has vested interest in this legislation as they are the primary beneficiaries of the Government Services.
The same middle class never bothered to fight for the marginalized, deprived, caste wise subjugated Indian brotherhood. This fast is a clear cut plot to undermine our democratic institutions and to benefit the very few middle class which is a BIG market for the western powers.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Patent for an enablement
Ford, a Michigan based auto major in America was started with a motive “inexpensive cars for the masses”. Being a family controlled company for over 100 years; this company is rather successful when compared to many of its rivals which started a hundred years ago. When American car manufactures started manufacturing motor cars in 1900s, they got patent license from ‘Association of Licensed Automotive Manufacturers’ (ALAM) which was owned by a patent Attorney named George B. Selden. Despite never having gone into production with a working model of an automobile ALAM got patent licensing rights to build cars and enjoyed the royalty.
Henry Ford refused to pay royalties to ALAM and started manufacturing cars. George took Ford to the court on the account of patent infringement. The patent war lasted for 8 years creating 14,000 pages of court documents. Finally George won the case in the trial court. This was the headlines in most news papers of that time. Encouraged by Thomas A Edison, Henry went for an appeal. George’s patent was over turned just a year before it could expire. The appeals court used the “Enablement” principle to decide the matter along with Non-obviousness.
Enablement means, providing sufficient and detailed information about the invention so that any appropriately trained person is able to make it. It goes without saying that the inventor must make the invention. There can be no patent granted merely for the concept or idea. It has to be operational. In this case, George was given patent for an improvement to Brayton Engine and he never manufactured a car based on his own patented invention. By the time the court overturned the patent, George had made several thousand dollars out of the patent.
Henry Ford refused to pay royalties to ALAM and started manufacturing cars. George took Ford to the court on the account of patent infringement. The patent war lasted for 8 years creating 14,000 pages of court documents. Finally George won the case in the trial court. This was the headlines in most news papers of that time. Encouraged by Thomas A Edison, Henry went for an appeal. George’s patent was over turned just a year before it could expire. The appeals court used the “Enablement” principle to decide the matter along with Non-obviousness.
Enablement means, providing sufficient and detailed information about the invention so that any appropriately trained person is able to make it. It goes without saying that the inventor must make the invention. There can be no patent granted merely for the concept or idea. It has to be operational. In this case, George was given patent for an improvement to Brayton Engine and he never manufactured a car based on his own patented invention. By the time the court overturned the patent, George had made several thousand dollars out of the patent.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Can God be taxed?
For all those who believe in GOD this is a tough and unpleasant question. In the first place why would one want to tax the GOD who created the Tax officials? The court thinks the other way.
Now let us look at the legal position of a “Hindu Idol” as for Hindus the Idols are symbolic representation of the GOD himself. The Privy Council considered the idol as a juristic person but it is a junior who constantly needs a guardian to act on its behalf. The will of the idol must be respected pertaining to its location. In the Yogendra Nath Naskar V. Commissioner of Income Tax, the Supreme Court of India held that the Hindu idol is a juristic entity capable of holding property and of being taxed through ‘Shebaits’ who are entrusted with the possession and management of its property.
A Hindu deity falls within the meaning of the word individual under the Income Tax Act, 1922 and can be a person in law, but so far as the deity stands as the representative and symbal of the particular purpose which is indicated by the donor, it can figure as a legal person and in that capacity alone the dedicated property vests in it. There is no principle why a deity should not be taxed if it is allowed in law to own property.
So now let us see whether a Mosque, Church, Synagogue, Gurudwara, is a juristic person or not. As per the privy council, they are not. They are not legal persons because, they do not have rights or duties as natural persons. However the Privy council left the question open whether such religious places could for any purpose be regarded as a juristic person.
Now let us look at the legal position of a “Hindu Idol” as for Hindus the Idols are symbolic representation of the GOD himself. The Privy Council considered the idol as a juristic person but it is a junior who constantly needs a guardian to act on its behalf. The will of the idol must be respected pertaining to its location. In the Yogendra Nath Naskar V. Commissioner of Income Tax, the Supreme Court of India held that the Hindu idol is a juristic entity capable of holding property and of being taxed through ‘Shebaits’ who are entrusted with the possession and management of its property.
A Hindu deity falls within the meaning of the word individual under the Income Tax Act, 1922 and can be a person in law, but so far as the deity stands as the representative and symbal of the particular purpose which is indicated by the donor, it can figure as a legal person and in that capacity alone the dedicated property vests in it. There is no principle why a deity should not be taxed if it is allowed in law to own property.
So now let us see whether a Mosque, Church, Synagogue, Gurudwara, is a juristic person or not. As per the privy council, they are not. They are not legal persons because, they do not have rights or duties as natural persons. However the Privy council left the question open whether such religious places could for any purpose be regarded as a juristic person.
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