HOW SAFE IS INDIA’S SILICON VALLEY…?

How safe is India’s Silicon Valley…? Is a very vital question to be answered at this juncture? Within the span of few weeks, two major incidents have taken place which has gained a good deed of national significance. First, how the Bangalore based girl was raped and murdered. I have already discussed that. Second, even more significant because this has put the state’s security in jeopardy.

Normally all the major institutions like Indian Institute of technology (IIT), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has a good number of security personnel’s to guard. On 27th December, 2005 there was a function held at the premises of IISc in which nearly 30 foreign delegates were to participate and you have a gun fire. What did gun fire have to do in a place where education is the key? On the sad side, a Delhi IIT professor falls a prey to the gun shots.

So far none of the so called ‘militant groups’ have taken responsibility, which I find totally rubbish and idiotic. These militant groups do the nonsense and after which claim responsibility so that confusion does not arise among them. Funny…though…!!

I would blame the ruling congress party for this security lapse. How can they allow an Ambassador car to enter the premises without being checked? The car could not have barged through some opening; it should have passed through one of the gates. Where were all the security guards? To add to the security lapse, the Karnataka Government had received RAW information that some attack would take place in their state, have they been a bit careful they could have saved a precious life. As a result of this, all the southern states have been put on high alert. What’s the point…?? Do they expect one more..?

This has by far put a lot of headache to the Government of the state, security problems. Already Bangalore has been facing the music for lack of or rather poor infrastructure. This has added to their misery. Companies like Infosys, Wipro and other major IT companies have beefed up their security, thanks to the Wednesday attack.

So, end results…will the state wake up to overcome all these challenges, if not I think another election may be round the corner coz Bangalorians as they liked to be called will not tolerate this for too long.

1st ANNIVERSARY OF KILLER TSUNAMI

On December 26, 2004, Tsunami struck the Indian coastline in the east and caused wide spread damage not only to lives and property but also to the psyche of the people, who were in its path.

Now that 1 year has gone, how far has the re-habitation work been carried out? The sorry state is that ht Government cannot point out any village where every boat has been repaired, where every net has been replaced, where a single house has been completed. Most of the work however has been done by NGO’s.

The killer waves caused widespread damage not only to India but also to many parts of South – East Asia. Indonesia was very much affected and the tourist spot Phuket was badly damaged. I recently saw in news that Indonesia has indeed set up a Tsunami warning system and a mock test has already been carried out. This has been done by a country that in many ways poor than India and we are yet to fix the system…INDIA – The land of difference.

So come again December 26 – many people would have horrid memories of last year. I was told there are going to be special prayers for the deaths as a mark of remembrance. The greatest tragedy to hit the subcontinent. Tsunami has become a common household name – some say it will never happen again for another 100 years and some say if the earthquake is on the ocean bed it can trigger one. Personally I am for the second one; if an earthquake of that velocity occurs again on the sea bed it can trigger a Tsunami again.

So, on December 26, 2005 – India is standing on the same platform where it stood on December 26, 2004, off guard to the killer waves which till day remains as a Black Sunday.

WAKE UP CALL

In the recent years India has become the most sought destination for outsourcing – thanks to the English speaking crowd. This has contributed to the growth of the national income of the country. This being one side of the coin, the other as many people debate is whether ‘The country’s culture – lost’. The employment opportunity in the country has risen, as the only major qualification to join a BPO would be to speak good fluent English, which many Indians do with ease, thanks to the British. As a result, there is more money in the hands of youth who care a little about saving. They are willing to spend on anything they fancy, which unlike the parents would abstain from doing.

In BPOs people work according to the timings of their client and since they work for a major companies in the US, they are forced to work at erratic times. As you may be aware, safety for a female citizen of the country is to barest minimum. The father of the nation Gandhi once said that India will attain freedom only when a woman is able to walk all alone in a night.

So, we have still not attained freedom. Those who have read the paper would know about what I am talking, for the unknown it’s about how a Bangalore based girl was raped and murdered. This has called for wide spread protest all over the state.

The girl worked for Hewlett Packard, its off shore outsourcing unit in Bangalore. She was in night shift which means the employer sends a cab to pick her up at 1 am. As usual the cab did come but the driver was not the one she was familiar with, a stranger who kidnapped her, raped her and ultimately murdered her. The driver was to pick 2 more girls but they declined from boarding the cab, had this girl too been wise enough to decline she could have saved her life.

So, whose fault is this – the employer or employee? I would say both are to be blamed, but a bit more on the part of the girl. At first, there should be some mechanism where by if the driver is changed the staffs should be intimated. Secondly, why can’t a staff of the company come along with the cab driver, atleast during night shifts?
But…is it technically feasible…??? When cabs come to pick one up in the middle of night, I strongly feel a senior staff of the company comes along preferably a male (the risk is less or nil… should I say?). By this, one can prevent cases of this kind.

We talk about globalization, economy boom, a market rise beyond the 9000 mark…but is the country actually developed or developing. I would be against it, what is the need for all these developments when we are not able to provide the basic security for a woman. All these developments go down the drain. This has been a wake up call for all the state governments as well as the employers. I would like to be optimistic, so I hope all the necessary decisions are taken to safeguard woman of the society and wish people learn a lesson from this and be careful enough to stop it from happening again.

INDIA – MAN POWER (or) MONEY POWER

hi all,
actually this is the article which i wrote for a competetion to Sulekha.com. i have just copied the same..its for 200 words..so less

INDIA – MAN POWER (or) MONEY POWER

Well, this is a question which has been kindling my mind for a very long time now. Are we known for Man or Money power? After pondering over this for quiet some time, I have come to this conclusion, of which I am quite sure of – India is definitely known for man power, be it in the past or present or future. India will be known for this.

There used to be a popular joke, “Indians only source of entertainment – giving birth”, but now it’s the greatest advantage for our country. India has got more number of people between the age group 25 – 40 years…youth who will definitely contribute to the growth of country in some way. So, the joke is of the past…it can’t be used anymore.

India may be known for its money power, as nowadays we are not wholly dependant on foreign aids whenever natural calamities strike as has been shown in the case of Tsunami relief. The Prime Minister politely declined the U.S aid and at the same time we helped Sri Lanka in their hour of crisis. We really helped the ‘Super Power’ with our money power recently as in the case of hurricane Katrina.

Even though all these things suggest that India has more money power, the fact is it has got more and more man power which is mighty too. The country’s man power includes both labour and knowledge. For instance, even the unskilled labourers are able to migrate to other countries and contribute to the foreign exchange reserve. In the case of skilled labourers, all the countries of the third world vie with each other to have the best brain in their organizations.

For the past few years there has been a reverse trend in the case of brain drain. The MNC’s form all corners of the world have set up their back offices in India and appoint our men. So, there seems to be no worthwhile match for Indian labour!

Another Word in Dictionary

Last year people of south India had a new name attached to their dictionary. It had its origin from Japan – and its none other than ‘Tsunami’. Tsunami created havoc to the whole of South Asia which resulted in the loss of innumerable lives. This has been the hallmark of destruction for the year 2004 by Mother Nature.

This year again, though confined to parts of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, another name is being added. This is however a cyclone by name ‘Baaz’. This time it had its origin from Iran. The year 2005 saw as many as 25 Hurricanes hitting North America and similarly number of Typhoons hitting Japan.

So, what’s this…? All this refer to the same natural phenomenon. If the event happens in the Indian Ocean, it’s called Cyclone. If the same event happens over Atlantic Ocean, it’s called Hurricanes and when it happens over Pacific Ocean we call them Typhoons. So all ultimately refer to the same natural event, their names vary as well as their velocity.

Cyclones are circulating storms formed in the ocean between 5 and 30 degrees north and south of equator. They are very unpredictable in the sense, they may slow, accelerate, curve or move linearly on their paths. They may be active for a few hours to even few weeks.

In the history of India, so far 7 cyclones have been recorded to have caused maximum damage, the last being this one. The 1st cyclone was way back in 1864 in Calcutta which claimed nearly 70,000 lives, which so far is the only cyclone to have caused maximum damage. There have been events recorded in 1942 (Bengal), 1971 (Orissa), 1977 (Andhra Pradesh), 1996 (Andhra Pradesh), 1999 (Orissa) and 2003 (Andhra Pradesh). These have caused damages but their scale of destruction is comparatively less. Incidentally all the cyclones have hit only the eastern side of the country – states which share one of its borders with the Bay of Bengal.

Cyclones, Hurricanes, Typhoons – whatever name we give, are created by Mother Nature which have brought destruction & claimed colossal number of lives. Though, scientifically we can say that these require a lot of preconditions to evolve, we can just be a spectator when it lashes. Man has not reached such a stage from where he can predict the quantum of destruction from these natural calamities. By science, we can find its course, nothing else can be done.

Mr. Kalam too spoke on the same lines at the conference held in IIT Madras. He wanted scientist of the world to not only predict, but also provide with additional information like amount of water level carried by the clouds as well as the amount of destruction it can cause. He also wanted the entire scientists of the world to start a virtual grid of information about natural calamities like cyclones, hurricanes, typhoons, earthquakes… which will help in knowledge sharing. Since India was not a member of the Tsunami warning system we were not forewarned about it. So we should see to it that anything of this sort never happens again.

Tsunami did cause wide spread damage & destruction – and people have named their kids ‘Tsunami’ as a mark of remembrance. So, I hope this doesn’t happen with this cyclone Baaz.