Public healthcare in India

I was triggered by a news report in CNNIBN today about present state of public healthcare systems in India to explore more on health care system. It was pathetic to see the conditions of nation’s Institutes like AIIMS and Safdharjung etc. and this clip explains everything

It was very sad to see the entire state of public health care system despite repeated reports and alerts given by independent studies, following report from PWC explains everything,
India’s healthcare infrastructure has not kept pace with the economy’s growth. The physical infrastructure is woefully inadequate to meet today’s healthcare demands, much less tomorrow’s. While India has several centers of excellence in healthcare delivery, these facilities are limited in their ability to drive healthcare standards because of the poor condition of the infrastructure in the vast majority of the country. Of the 15,393 hospitals in India in 2002, roughly two-thirds were public. After years of under-funding, most public health facilities provide only basic care. With a few exceptions, such as the All India Institute of Medical Studies (AIIMS), public health facilities are inefficient, inadequately managed and staffed, and have poorly maintained medical equipment. The number of public health facilities also is inadequate. For instance, India needs 74,150 community health centers per million population but has less than half that number. In addition, at least 11 Indian states do not have laboratories for testing drugs, and more than half of existing laboratories are not properly equipped or staffed.
This whole affair was let to the private players over the years and private parties made health care unaffordable to for 80% of Aam Aadhmies. Incidentally for past 5 years we had well qualified man for job (first time in recent history India had MBBS doctor as Union Health Minister) but this man spent entire tenure in settling score with Dr. Venugopal of AIIMS or making juicy statement against film stars smoking in Screen.
Hope few voters listen and give their best to these politicians….

Political hyper-activism of Indian media

If we happen to see major news channels during these days, we could realize they are playing spoil sport or deep frying the issues which are least and trivial to progressive society. May be this fourth pillar wants to show it’s mighty by putting petty issues to inefficient politicians’ mouth and paint the picture they wish to.
Media could have played constructive role during election campaign of politicians, could have reviewed the performance of politicians and the parties. This could have helped their viewers to take informed decisions. I assume this should be role of fourth pillar of our democracy. Incidentally Dr. Manmohan singh rightly pointed this in an interview to a news channel on response to a question why personalities being attacked in this election do we run out of issues, Mr Singh precisely returned this to that editor said this media which selectively picks these speeches added that he had compared performance of UPA and NDA in the same speech and at end he had criticized Mr Advani, PM in waiting. It is the media which 99% of speech and picked the last part of the speech.
Instead 90% time slot occupied by discussing and debating Varun Gandhi, Lalu’s remark, Amar singh spat with Mulayam singh, Sanjay dutt remarks and Karunanidhi on LTTE, Viko remark on LTTE etc…and other 10% on dissecting IPL,
As requested by former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam media should have done performance appraisal and wealth creation of these candidates and parties, This might have contributed a lot in our nation building processes.
Hope some of my Media friends are reading this….

I found Mr. Right for my Constituency

The Man,
Mr Sarath Babu, Founder & CEO of Foodking Catering, from helping his mother sell idlis on Chennai’s streets to the top echelons of academia with an enrolment in chemical engineering at BITS Pilani and IIM-A, and now as the steward of his Food King Catering business, Sarath has come a long way.
His humility perhaps made him reject several high-brow offers from MNCs after his MBA. That, in a way, was the genesis of Food King Catering—with a paltry Rs 2,000 seed money. Today, his food business spans six locations with Rs 9-crore turnover to boot and set to clock Rs 20 crore by year-end. For 28 year old Sarath, his mother, who once sold idlis on the pavements of Chennai and worked as an ayah, is a pillar of strength. A mother of 5 children, she earned to get her son, Sarath an education at BITS Pillani in Chemical Engineering.
During his graduation there, he managed the college canteen as he had a natural inclination and knack for food. He then worked in a software company for 3 years post which he went to IIM Ahmedabad and studied Industrial Training. It is during this time in year 2000 that he went to Bihar and came across a report that stated 30% of Indians are under the poverty line. This was an eye opener for Sarath who then decided to set up Food King. With Rs. 2000 as initial capital and one employee he set up Food king in the same year. Through Food King he desires to give quality employment to the poor.
In the next 5 years he wants Food King to be a source of employment for 50,000 people by opening 400-500 branches all over the countries. As of now there are 250 people in his company but the plans are big. Despite all his success, he is a simple man at heart and continues to live in a hut. He maintains that his inspiration is and will always be his mother
His mother sold idlis from the family’s modest house on Bajanai Koil Street in Madipakkam to send him to school.
The 30-year-old youth later walked through the portals of two premier educational institutions, set up his own venture with just Rs. 2,000 as capital and now heads the firm that employs more than 200 people across five cities. he took another bold step which, in his own words, was to reach out to jobless youth.
The Mission,
He formally announced his decision to contest as an independent candidate from the South Chennai Lok Sabha constituency. “It was during the Mumbai terror attacks that I took the decision to plunge into electoral politics in order to reach out to more people across society,” he said. Mr. Sarath Babu said it was time for “all of us to not just aspire for developmental politics, but witness it for real.” “We need educated and selfless youth to drive this country to the next developmental phase. “Youth with dynamic personalities should come forward with courage and get into active politics,” he said.
Asked how he planned to reach out to the more than 11 lakh voters during elections, he replied that he had been speaking to several thousand people in the past three to four months and that he would make good use of technology, by remaining in contact with his voters through the internet and mobile phone. A number of his friends from school and college, including those from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, were with him to support him during campaigning.

At last good things started happening, I found a man I looked for in my constituency. Let us support him and make politics a proffessional activity,
Runinig a country need professional skills, I remmeber Jaagore campaign "ye Desh ko chellaneka kaam, ashaan nehi"
Hope some of my fellow constituency are reading...

Commitment to clean Indian Politics!

This election is witnessing many positive activism in India, many campaigns sponsored by non profit organizations and corporate world, They are pointed towards increasing active public participation in nation building processes.
Good, I hope active participation of celebrities and bureaucrats would translate into large participation of constructive forces of democracy. I am impressed by the media spending of these agencies at these difficult times (economic uncertainties), they are putting their best effort and sincerity to achieve their goal.





Let us participate more and more to clean Indian politics, let us pledge to vote and make our neighbours, family member and friends to vote for “right person for right cause!”

Hope I find “right” person in my constituency…

Positive Journalism - Is it exists in our country?

Few news which deserve to be occupy covers story of print media and TVs was not even reported in news, I though I should point out to them about this attitude.
How many of us know or informed by so called “Proactive journalism” that
1. A 16 months toddler donated her organs and gets chance to live through other, India’s youngest organ donor, I solute Ms Abhilasha and her parents for their brave deeds. Surprisingly this was appearing in front page only in Hindustan Times, Delhi edition, This should have occupied cover stories of other National dailies, however this was not even reported in many of high TRB or readership media- pity indeed ( worst thing is Tamil prints gave front page to a trivial news that “Actor Ashin’s assistant traced in Mumbai” )
2. Dual SIM card mobiles are invented in India, Somasundaram Ramkumar from Madurai had filed a patent for dual SIM card mobile phones in 2002 at the Indian patent office and was awarded the patent last year. Patent owners are to receive a mutually agreed upon payment for use of their ideas in a commercial product, which is called a royalty fee. In India, the concept of acknowledging ownership and copyrights is still rising and patent awareness is poor, even amongst corporate. To give a sense of the amount, royalty fees on computers and consumer electronics is 2% of the MRP, but in the telecom sector, In this case, Ramkumar is said to have asked for Rs 35 per phone shipped into the country, which we think is quite reasonable. Samsung India Electronics had filed a petition challenging the impounding of its stocks of dual SIM phones by Indian customs authorities in Mumbai, but the Delhi High Court dismissed it. The vendor is planning to take it up with the Mumbai High Court now, according to Financial Chronicle. The industry body Indian Cellular Association has been roped in to take it up with the customs authority even as other handset vendors watch and wait to see what happens. Spice Mobile offers four dual SIM handsets - D-80, D-88, D-90 and PDA phone D-1100. Samsung’s Duo phone was recently launched as a dual mode phone in the touch screen mobile segment and its. Fly (Meridian Mobile) and Motorola have also launched dual SIM mobiles. Meanwhile, the Madras High Court has directed retailers and even online shopping sites such as Rediff and Ebay to stop selling dual SIM phones, which have been quite popular in the country. Backed by the clout of the courts, Ramkumar has a good chance of winning this war against alleged IP theft. This news item was only covered in business dailies as they need to have close watch in business environment, other wise not given enough exposure to this deserved person.
We can add many many more to this list. Instead of chasing issues have no impact on common man and his life, Our media can play right role of fourth pillar of democracy.
Hope our self proclaimed Tamil Number 1 daily and The Hindu dailies will turn their eyes to positive news.. Are you reading?

Why Kolkata (Calcutta) lives in past?

I was viewing few of Kolkata cricketing fans’ interviews in English news media, one unique character of people of Bengal poped up immediately,
Why these people always live in past glories and history, To substantiate this I wish to I would like to put few of my observations
1. They yet to come out of Ravindranath Tagore’s musical legacy, They still presume Tagore’s contribution to music cannot be overtaken by human. Yes, I agree Tagore is great, who is next Bengali reaching that height, Is there any one in making???
2. Many Bengalis believes, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose yet to die, Incidentally Indian Govt. send huge money by appointing a single judge enquiry commission multiple times and for multiple years to unlock this belief namely Netaji Inquiry Committee-1956, G.D. Khosla Commission of Inquiry-1970-74, Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry- 1999-2005. I still don’t know how many of Bengalis convinced, If he lives as claimed by many Bengalis he would be at 112 years old.
3. They still believe their communist policies saved India from US like economic crisis, This is like some one who claims the credit that he had stopped Air accidents by blocking AIR mode of travel
4. They still believe Sourav Ganguly is the best ever captain and cricketer in all formats of cricket,

The above data (source :www.cricinfo.com) clearly shows why Ganguly does not even deserve a place in T20 cricket team

Hope some Bengali friends reading and trying to live in present!!!

IPL Moved out - Who benefits

I was little surprised by BJP’s cricketing politicians, fixing Congress party for anything and everything, (Of course Congress also tries to take credit of anything and everything from UPA govt. contribution to A R Rahman’s Oscar to Vijay Mallya’s Gandhi antiques Auction victory).
Coming to point, I feel it is better for our country as IPL being outside
1. Our young buds getting exposure to prove their skills in the harsh foreign conditions, ( climate, pitches and breezy winds- This will ultimately create a pool of talents for Indian cricket to dominate the world. Gone are the days when media criticized our cricketer, that Tigers inside India and paper tigers outside the country
2. IPL in foreign land will eliminate Lahore like scenario, as I suspect some skewed mind will throw some country made bombs and claim the credit to increase brand identity over night as this is being rewarding and tested method to make country speaking their name ( Test and working well as in the case of Mr. Promod Muthalik and Mr. Varun Gandhi, Who knows about them before they spitted their venom outside )
I would advice BCCI & IPL to schedule IPL outside the country at least once in two year, may in Australia, England, West Indies or South Africa, It does not matter to Indian viewer as he is connected in websites in office or hooked to TV in home,
I agree with Sachin and Yuvraj that they will be missing cheering live crowd, May be we can create this ambiance with large speakers and sound system recorded earlier matches played in India.
End of the day, we should look at creating a large talent pool which keeps Indian cricket going
Hope, Some of BCCI and IPL bosses are listening….