Better India

India is only 38% democracy

2008-02-08T18:55:00.000-05:00

In my opinion India is not 100% democracy. Here are my reason:
1) At Federal/Central goverment Indians only select M.P. for lower house (Lok Sabha). A common person can not elect M.P. for upper house (Rajya Sabha) or President. As Indian constitution says all 3 branches of government are equal and but only 1 out of 3 directly elected by common man. So I give central government 33% rating for democracy.
2) Similarly at state level again common man can not elect either Governor or MLA of upper house of state. So at state level I again give 33% rating to democracy.
3) At town level, a common person can only elect city councilor. At most places the common man have no power to elect mayor of municipality. Even at some places where mayor is directly elected, he/she has very less power than state government appointment IAS officer. Here I give 50% rating to democracy.

If I average all 3 levels local, state, central goverment I see only (33+33+50)/3 = 38% people's representative ruling. So, who are rest 100-38% = 62% of people who are sharing power ? They are "power broker"s. Likes of Amar Singh (M.P. for upper house, not faced election in last 10 years), IAS cadre, Governors who never get to face common man's vote.

So next time if you see any news or advertisement claiming "India is world's largest democracy" just ignore it as false advertisement. As long as common people can not elect all "power sharing" branches of government, India will remain 38% democracy and 62% autocracy. And Sonia Gandhi will decide who will be governor of your state.

India on Wikimapia

2006-08-17T15:54:00.000-04:00

Nice to see lots of tags of Indian cities in Wikimapia. Top cities in Wikimapia (as on Aug 17) are:
Bombay, India - 55577
Calcutta, India - 52099
Manila, Philippines - 42665
Madras, India - 29690
Ponnani, India - 24384
Bangalore, India - 22206
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam - 20723
Hanoi, Vietnam - 20387
Mangaluru, India - 19022
Hyderabad, India - 18820
Ahmadabad, India - 16945
Delhi, India - 13254

It just shows that Indian net surfer are hungry for information and wants map service like Mapquest, Yahoo maps etc.

Direct Election for Rajya Sabha

2006-08-08T21:50:00.000-04:00

India's upper house of parliament "Rajya Sabha" is council of states, whose members are "elected" by assembly of each state. Off late Rajya Sabha has become back door entry to parliament to
i) politicians losing Lok Sabha election, can not fight election
ii) businessmen who wants to enjoy priviledge of being M.P.
iii) Film actors who are political parties campaigner
iv) Out of state politicians representing states of which they are not resident

Biggest beneficiary of Rajya Sabha is offcourse current P.M. Manmohan Singh. Manmohan Singh has never won even a municipal election. Incidently, he is "resident" of Assam and represent Assam state in Rajya Sabha.

So, why people are not allowed to directly elect Rajya Sabha member. A person who is answerable to state resident not to political party or party president.

In U.S. upper house election "was" much like current Rajya Sabha. But, people found it not in "spirit of democracy" and "benefitial to state". Hence they changed the procedure 90 years back and allowed citizen of the state to elect senator directly to upper house. This brought a powerful representation of state at federal level.

Why people in India can not elect Rajya Sabha member directly ? I think main reason will be that NO political party will be ready for it. It is best way for them to keep "power brokers" in the parliament.

Where is Indian Airplane ?

2006-07-31T19:27:00.000-04:00

There is 'revolution' going in Indian aviation industry. Many airlines have started operations in past few years. Things look good for airline industry. But why all airlines are ordering airpalnes from USA or Europe ? Why there is no talk of manufacturing or assembling aircrafts in India ? Whatever forex earned by BPO is going back to same countries where it came from.

Why NAL or HAL failed to capture civilian aircraft market ? Look at Embraer of Brazil. After privatization in 1992 Embraer has become world's 3rd largest aircraft manufacture with revenue of $3.5 billion and exporting 93%. How long HAL, NAL will be on central govrtment payroll and doing nothing but assembling Russian aircrafts.

Lets talk about NAL's Saras airplane. This aircraft is so late in production and costly that one other than Govt of India will buy it. As per NAL site this aircraft will cost $3.75 million (in 2001) and has market of 100-120 aircrafts. Now, compare this aircraft with Eclipse Aviation's Eclipse 500 which is prices around $1.3 million (in 2000) and has back order of more than 3000 aircrafts even before first commerical delivery. If you see features of Eclipse 500 you will wonder who will buy NAL's Saras ?

Is IIT really advance institute ?

2006-07-15T10:50:00.000-04:00

1) Why IIT takes exams on paper ?

2) Why doesnt IIT entrance exam is on computer and can be taken throughout the year (like entrance tests SAT/GRE/GMAT ?

3) Why do 7 campus of IIT has intake of only 4000 students, whereas MIT with 1 campus has intake of 10000 students ?

4) Why does IIT has reservation on caste ? How come mixing 50% students with merit and 50% students with reservation gives good quality of education ?

5) Most successful IITians have masters degree from US/UK. So just degree from IIT is not sufficient ?

Better India

2006-07-14T16:36:00.000-04:00

Lets make India a better place to live.