what India is about—a relationship with a community
what India is about—a relationship with a community....
Either feed world or make india more healthy
Some facts :
1. Food grain production
1960 : 120 mill. ton
1999 : 210 mill. ton
2009 : 234 mill. ton
2. Food self-sufficiency was achieved by 1984.
I read that India loses 40m tonnes of fruits & veg &21m tonnes of wheat a year to poor storage & distribution.We waste more wheat every year to storage & distribution losses than Australia grows! Real need for pvt sector to move into grain storage.
It is sad that still in our country a few unlucky one did not get the basic minimum food intake.
I see four solution :
This initiative could be three fold:
a) Use technology in storage area and together with newer cultivation techniques.
b) Water management with harvesting excess Monsoon rainwater in the North and transporting it to the parched West and South.
c) Ensuring a better return to the farmers.
d) Impowerment of farmers and need of former supportive system.
Problem Description( related to storage ):
Food system perspective:
We have 11 food crops namely wheat, rice, barley, maize, bulrush millet, big millet, pigeon pea, urd (black gram), mung bean (green gram), lentil and gram.The losses in 11 food crops and the agents+insects responsible for these losses were studied in sandy, sandy loam, clayey loam, loamy and clayey zones in western Uttar Pradesh, India.
It is shown that the average loss during the post-harvest operations of cutting, drying, threshing, winnowing and transportation is about 3%.
The average loss during storage is 5.45%.A distinction is made between the various storage methods such as jute bags, metal bins and traditional structures known as pucci kothia (masonry bin), kucchi kothia (mud bin), kuthla, bakhari, burgi and addaw.
Insect and Agent Monitoring in food grain stores (warehouses) with traps has to be imroved.Even in well maintained warehouses there is an overall storage loss of 0.41 per cent of food grain stocks. Technology can play an important role in this area.
Rats and weevils are the main agents, followed by other rodents, other insects and fungi. Losses are generally higher in areas with clayey and clayey loam soils. Average losses of rice are lower than those of wheat.
1. Food grain production
1960 : 120 mill. ton
1999 : 210 mill. ton
2009 : 234 mill. ton
2. Food self-sufficiency was achieved by 1984.
I read that India loses 40m tonnes of fruits & veg &21m tonnes of wheat a year to poor storage & distribution.We waste more wheat every year to storage & distribution losses than Australia grows! Real need for pvt sector to move into grain storage.
It is sad that still in our country a few unlucky one did not get the basic minimum food intake.
I see four solution :
This initiative could be three fold:
a) Use technology in storage area and together with newer cultivation techniques.
b) Water management with harvesting excess Monsoon rainwater in the North and transporting it to the parched West and South.
c) Ensuring a better return to the farmers.
d) Impowerment of farmers and need of former supportive system.
Problem Description( related to storage ):
Food system perspective:
We have 11 food crops namely wheat, rice, barley, maize, bulrush millet, big millet, pigeon pea, urd (black gram), mung bean (green gram), lentil and gram.The losses in 11 food crops and the agents+insects responsible for these losses were studied in sandy, sandy loam, clayey loam, loamy and clayey zones in western Uttar Pradesh, India.
It is shown that the average loss during the post-harvest operations of cutting, drying, threshing, winnowing and transportation is about 3%.
The average loss during storage is 5.45%.A distinction is made between the various storage methods such as jute bags, metal bins and traditional structures known as pucci kothia (masonry bin), kucchi kothia (mud bin), kuthla, bakhari, burgi and addaw.
Insect and Agent Monitoring in food grain stores (warehouses) with traps has to be imroved.Even in well maintained warehouses there is an overall storage loss of 0.41 per cent of food grain stocks. Technology can play an important role in this area.
Rats and weevils are the main agents, followed by other rodents, other insects and fungi. Losses are generally higher in areas with clayey and clayey loam soils. Average losses of rice are lower than those of wheat.
Idea for life
“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea
alone. This is the way to success.” - Swami Vivekananda
“Make it a rule…never to lie down at night without being able to say, “I have made one human being at least a little wiser, a little happier or a little better this day.” - Charles Kingsley
“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.” - Mother Teresa
alone. This is the way to success.” - Swami Vivekananda
“Make it a rule…never to lie down at night without being able to say, “I have made one human being at least a little wiser, a little happier or a little better this day.” - Charles Kingsley
“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.” - Mother Teresa
From 02012010 to 02022020 ..Can we be No. 1
As an Indian , I want India to increase its manufacturing export share in world market in 2010. I think that if the states like Gujrat and Bihar starts moving fast ( as they are doing now ) , India can do well in this direction. Currently China's share of the world's manufacturing exports is more than 8% while India stands at just under 1%. With the sold economical growth , I Guess , India is correctly poised to take on with China provided we can face the following changes carefully :
- Infrastructure projects need constant supervision and high level of monitoring. No outsider/private shareholder should be allowe to damage such projects. News like this should be avoided.
- Infrasture projects and PPP projects should be well funded by the national level organizations like LIC as well, so that profit is restricted to Indian companies.Not only this Gvernment should
- Giving importance to Infrastructure projects will also help in increasing the FDI inflow as well towards manufacturing projects as well. Still Services sector gets around 22% of total FDI in India.
- I know that FDI inflows to India are inevitably hit by the crisis but still India is doing better as compare to China but still international surveys like UNCTAD place India as 3rd compared to China's number 1 position. .
- State Government should SEZ oriented policies and do their own efforts to not only establish the policy but proper implementation as well.
3 Idiots .....is it really Best ever ?
This is start of 2010 and every Indian is talking about the 3 Idiots and media is going ga ga over the success of 3Is. I watched the movie online during our justication and in my views :
3Is is Kind of Best in following sense :
1. 'Aamir is not actor He is Brand' ; Aamir has delivered a blockbuster again and proved that he is the best when it comes attaching the word 'SUCCESS' to any movie. He continued to give 'SUCCESS' sticker to anything he attached to from Lagan to JTYJN to 3Is. He is best in this.He may not be perfactionist but he did all his best to achieve this title everytime he is involved. No doubt he should get 200% credit from changing his body from macho Sanjay Singhania to lollypop Ranchoo.This was great effort !!
2. Aamir is best when it comes to understanding the mantra of 'Box office performance' . No other actor is even closer to him. Although he plays a certain role in the film projects he has attached himself, but he makes sure that project gets success and so he gives his extra-ordinary contribution in every department of film from story to marketting and distribution. So he is best when it comes to performance at box office, Note following in support of my view :
- 3Is has released with most number of any Hindi movie ever( India 1550 prints and 342 prints overseas) in 40 countries.
- Paid previews of 3Is collected around Rs 9 crs gross worldwide
- Best ever Box office collection ( 200cr in 8 days ) as for as Hindi movie is concerned.
3. Best possible Team : Aamir,Rajkumar Hirani - Munnabhai fame , Vidhu Vinod Chopra- Munnabhai fame + Boman Irani-Best Hindi comedian of this decade.
4. Out of the beat story with good acting from Aamir,Sharman, Madhvan , Omi Vaidya( I like his style ) and offcourse Mr. Irani. It is important to note that story has played important role but it is not all as Mr. Chetan Bhagat is saying AFTER IT HAS GOT MUCH SUCCESS. Director and 3Is Team has done the great job from start to end.
Now come to the point why I think it is not Best ever :
1. The basic theam of the film is 'Winners don't do the different things they do it differently'. Even the Rancho's success was measred with number of patents ( 400 ). he did not embrace his same style throughout his life( as I was expecting the end to be ). In a way it has the same theme as other munnabhai films. If somebody says that Raju tried to copy the Munnabhai effect on Higher Education system.
2. Indian Education system is still the Best in world and we produce more genius Ranchoos from the same system.India's IITs and IIMs must be applauded for the world-class minds they have thrown up, these are institutions that are respected the world over.Let's get real about higher education, not engage in an escapist fantasy and convince ourselves that education does not matter. I am afraid that sometimes people take the theme of movie seriously and generalize it for whole system. In europe , I found some Indian parents saying that 'It is true scene of education system in India' ( I guess they are less knowledgable about indian system's power ). So for them message is "the education system sucks", "we learn nothing at our Engineering colleges and management institutes" and "teachers are unable to teach and only want to ruin students lives." ( I guess people will say 'dil pe mat le yaar' but.....)
3. In any system not all are Ranchoos and real ranchoos will never follow the trend they always defne the Trends. So movie is just an example.
But Aamit is the Best !!!
Shahrukh,Steve Jobs and Alchemist
Example 1:
Shahrukh Khan repeats following lines(from Om Shanti Om) many time in his stage appearances :
“itni shiddat se maine tumhe paane ki koshish ki hai ki har zarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki koshish ki hai....
kehte hai agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaaho toh poori kaynath tumhein usse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai...aap sabne mujhe meri chahat se mila diya... "
And now read the following lines of Alchemist :"When you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it."
Example 2:
Steve Jobs said :
....Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life....
and Again Alchemist :
Usually the threat of death makes people a lot more aware of their lives.
Shahrukh Khan repeats following lines(from Om Shanti Om) many time in his stage appearances :
“itni shiddat se maine tumhe paane ki koshish ki hai ki har zarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki koshish ki hai....
kehte hai agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaaho toh poori kaynath tumhein usse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai...aap sabne mujhe meri chahat se mila diya... "
And now read the following lines of Alchemist :"When you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it."
Example 2:
Steve Jobs said :
....Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life....
and Again Alchemist :
Usually the threat of death makes people a lot more aware of their lives.
Nobel prize and Indians...
US -> 333 (far better than the second most intellectually advanced nation)
UK -> 128
India -> 7 (including 1 foreigner, Mother Teresa, and 4 of our Nobel winners worked abroad)
In a hundred years from now, how many Indians will get the Nobel? As of now, one Indian is mentioned as a probable winner: V Ramachandran, the neuroscientist (The Tell-Tale Brain, Phantoms of the Brain). Like other great Indian minds, he hones his skills in the US. So did S Chandrasekhar, the physicist, and Venkatesh Ramakrishnan, the two other recent science Nobel winners.
We lack infrastructural facilities in most of the areas like :
UK -> 128
India -> 7 (including 1 foreigner, Mother Teresa, and 4 of our Nobel winners worked abroad)
In a hundred years from now, how many Indians will get the Nobel? As of now, one Indian is mentioned as a probable winner: V Ramachandran, the neuroscientist (The Tell-Tale Brain, Phantoms of the Brain). Like other great Indian minds, he hones his skills in the US. So did S Chandrasekhar, the physicist, and Venkatesh Ramakrishnan, the two other recent science Nobel winners.
We lack infrastructural facilities in most of the areas like :
- Education : Deteriorating condition in the primary school system in India, suggesting that future winners are not being created.
- Sports :Jamaica and Trinidad, which now produces the fastest runners in the world, where at least four or five of them can run below 10 seconds for 100 metres, a feat that will take an Indian at least two decades to achieve. It is national shame of having over one billion people and so bad performance in Olympic.
- Business : We have many billionaires, but hardly one global brand.
The barefoot economist : Jean Dreze
There are three types of economists:
Call Jean Dreze at Allahabad's Gobind Ballabh Pant Social Sciences Institute and chances are receptionists will not know who he is. Email the well known economist by his name and you will get the same result. That is because the Belgian-born, naturalised Indian's email user name is "jaandaraaz," the popular mispronunciation of his French name.
His email is only symbolic of the Indian identity Dreze adopted seven years ago. Since he came to India three decades ago, India's development issues have consumed Dreze in a way that not only has he done academic research on hunger, famine and its failing primary education system but also stepped out of academia in to being an activist and campaigner for these issues.
Dreze has cycled through several states, staged dharnas and mounted public interest litigations in a role that blurs the boundaries between academia and activism and stops at nothing to push the agenda of development.That Dreze is not your regular economist who buries himself in mountains of paper has been evident many times. Ganga Bhai, a tribal man from Chhattisgarh's heavily forested Surguja district, realised this in their first meeting.
The two were riding on a motorcycle through slushy, thick forest, having gone to research the area's starvation deaths in 1993. It was dark and raining, and they had lost their way. Eventually their bike skid and they fell. Dreze got up and asked Ganga Bhai to ride the bike himself so it would be easier to maneuver while he ran alongside. Dreze ran for about two kilometres in ankle-deep water before they found shelter in a potter's house.
Over the last couple of decades, Dreze has crisscrossed between being an academic who drafted the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and his activist role to ensure these policies work.
In the process, he has become a one-of-a-kind academic activist to campaign for, write, critique and fix India's welfare policies.
Dreze, 50, first came to India with his well-known economist father, Jacques Dreze. He had studied mathematical economics at the University of Essex but then moved to India for his Ph.D at the Indian Statistical Institute and with Nicholas Stern, the celebrated British economist known for writing the Stern Report on climate change.
And since he moved to Delhi, in 1979, Dreze started by living in a slum and fasting to know what the lives of people he wanted to research were like.
Dreze became known and celebrated at the Delhi School of Economics campus, where he has taught for decades, for his skinny frame, straggly beard, reticent nature and limitless energy to step out of the school and immerse himself in his research and his subjects' lives.
For instance, in a class on environment and development, Dreze talked about how he had noticed from his research in a village near Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad district that at sowing time, every farmer would wait for other farmers to sow to ensure that they timed their sowing perfectly. In this waiting game, Dreze found, sowing got delayed by two weeks and the soil dried up. Dreze had brought game theory by way of UP's farm problems to his classroom.
He became known for his research, with Amartya Sen, on hunger and development and later for co-authoring a report on the state of primary education in India's poorest states, which showed that half of all Indians could not read or write and that many schools did not have roofs or toilets.
By 2000 though, Dreze, who did not speak to Forbes India for this profile because he says he does not believe in singling out individual achievement over team effort, seems to have felt the shortcomings of a purely academic approach.
"In seminar halls in Delhi, or for that matter in London or Harvard, one hears all kinds of weird ideas that would never pass muster in an Indian village," wrote Dreze in 2002 research paper called On Research and Action.
This was after he had started working with Akal Sangharsh Samiti, a group of organisations working with drought affected people in Rajasthan.
"I discovered… that my painstakingly accumulated academic baggage was not always useful as I had expected in this venture," Dreze says, while writing about his work with the Akal Sangharsh Samiti, in that same research paper.
Even the "insights" of his well-known research on hunger and famine with Amartya Sen were "fairly obvious" to the affected people, Dreze realised.
And on the National Advisory Council, a body of experts meant to ensure the UPA government's agenda was being met, Dreze the activist seems to have married Dreze the academc.
Coaching or Training ?
Here in Norway, kids called the guy who train them trainer but I was thinking they should call him 'Coach' as I had the impression that when I coaching is almost same as training until now. But I just wanted to confirm.SO here what I found on internet :
So now I know why they call the guy trainer not the coach because it just train them to start with and may become coach in later stage. :)- Coaching is a broader term and training is a specific term.
- Coaching is super set which includes training.
- Coaching is more related with motivation,vision and inspiration while training is related with specific skills.Coaches have to play several roles they have to be your friend, they have to be your mentor and they have to be trainer.
- Coaches have to play several roles they have to be your friend, they have to be your mentor and they have to be trainer.
Is this really what it should be ?
So Now Congress made Meira Kumar as the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha in History of India......................But read following to decide how good it is ??
....
Somebody says take care of Sukka Pagadaalu(??) and the Meira Kumars will be automatically taken care of. Meira Kumar is the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha, scream the headlines. But a little later we are told in an aside that she has been appointed Speaker because she is a Dalit woman. And the idea behind the appointment is to contain Dalit queen Mayawati, whose ambition to climb the Raisina Hills is an open secret.
But how is Meira Kumar’s appointment going to check the rising ambition of Mayawati? We are told that this will happen because the message will be sent from the Congress is: "Hum kisi se kam nahin." For every Mayawati we have a Meira Kumar. This, we are told, is the reason why a record number of Dalit women have been appointed to the Manmohan Singh government, which includes Kumari Selja, Panabaka Lakshmi and Krishna Tirath. The Congress’s fashion statement is that "we care for Dalit women and thus we have Dalit women in the forefront". By implication, "we are doing the most for the women of this depressed group".
Maybe I am uninitiated so I don’t understand. How’s Meira Kumar’s appointment going to help ameliorate the fate of millions of Dalit women across the country? Meira Kumar may be a highly competent woman but does she symbolize in any way the typical Dalit woman? An ex-Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, daughter of Babu Jagjivan Ram who straddled the country's political scene for 50 years, and endowed with a wonderful voice, Meira is really from a very privileged background. Moreover did she want this job? Okay, forget Meira Kumar, did the bosses of the Congress think of the lady for the job even a few days ago? Obviously not and this is the reason why Meira Kumar was sworn in as a cabinet minister only to be made Speaker as an afterthought.
If the ruling party is so keen to uplift downtrodden women, it should first think of the likes of Sukka Pagadaalu (picture below), who at 64 is the same age as Meira Kumar. For those of you who came in late, she’s a tribal woman and was an MLA of the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh in the late 1970s. But now she is a daily wage labourer earning Rs 60 per day. Her husband is employed along with her as a construction labourer in the remote Srikakulam district. She gets an MLA’s pension but to make both ends meet she has to do a labourer’s job in her village, far away from what is called "civilization". Her plight had been highlighted in TOI in the run-up to the just-concluded elections.
Pagadaalu was attracted to politics by the call of Mrs Indira Gandhi and was one of the 33 women elected to the 294-strong Andhra Pradesh assembly in 1972. Even today she is a fan of the late Mrs Gandhi and laments how politics and politicians were different in her time.
Humble submission to the descendants of Mrs Indira Gandhi: If you really want to make a difference, uplift the likes of Pagadaalu. If you do that, the likes of Meira Kumar would be automatically be taken care of. And Mayawati won’t loom so large on your horizon. And then possibly UP could be yours – in the course of time!
....
Somebody says take care of Sukka Pagadaalu(??) and the Meira Kumars will be automatically taken care of. Meira Kumar is the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha, scream the headlines. But a little later we are told in an aside that she has been appointed Speaker because she is a Dalit woman. And the idea behind the appointment is to contain Dalit queen Mayawati, whose ambition to climb the Raisina Hills is an open secret.
But how is Meira Kumar’s appointment going to check the rising ambition of Mayawati? We are told that this will happen because the message will be sent from the Congress is: "Hum kisi se kam nahin." For every Mayawati we have a Meira Kumar. This, we are told, is the reason why a record number of Dalit women have been appointed to the Manmohan Singh government, which includes Kumari Selja, Panabaka Lakshmi and Krishna Tirath. The Congress’s fashion statement is that "we care for Dalit women and thus we have Dalit women in the forefront". By implication, "we are doing the most for the women of this depressed group".
Maybe I am uninitiated so I don’t understand. How’s Meira Kumar’s appointment going to help ameliorate the fate of millions of Dalit women across the country? Meira Kumar may be a highly competent woman but does she symbolize in any way the typical Dalit woman? An ex-Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, daughter of Babu Jagjivan Ram who straddled the country's political scene for 50 years, and endowed with a wonderful voice, Meira is really from a very privileged background. Moreover did she want this job? Okay, forget Meira Kumar, did the bosses of the Congress think of the lady for the job even a few days ago? Obviously not and this is the reason why Meira Kumar was sworn in as a cabinet minister only to be made Speaker as an afterthought.
If the ruling party is so keen to uplift downtrodden women, it should first think of the likes of Sukka Pagadaalu (picture below), who at 64 is the same age as Meira Kumar. For those of you who came in late, she’s a tribal woman and was an MLA of the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh in the late 1970s. But now she is a daily wage labourer earning Rs 60 per day. Her husband is employed along with her as a construction labourer in the remote Srikakulam district. She gets an MLA’s pension but to make both ends meet she has to do a labourer’s job in her village, far away from what is called "civilization". Her plight had been highlighted in TOI in the run-up to the just-concluded elections.
Pagadaalu was attracted to politics by the call of Mrs Indira Gandhi and was one of the 33 women elected to the 294-strong Andhra Pradesh assembly in 1972. Even today she is a fan of the late Mrs Gandhi and laments how politics and politicians were different in her time.
Humble submission to the descendants of Mrs Indira Gandhi: If you really want to make a difference, uplift the likes of Pagadaalu. If you do that, the likes of Meira Kumar would be automatically be taken care of. And Mayawati won’t loom so large on your horizon. And then possibly UP could be yours – in the course of time!
Future of flying for me...
As I am not very much aware about the technical development related to aviation so as passenger , for me the future of planes would be like this :
Interior :
1. More adjustable seats with features like messaging and heating,ECG,BP.
2. There will be more wider windows elsewhere too,so that passengers can get view of the sky ahead and around.I miss this a lot....
3. Free Internet surfing and multimedia experience for every passenger with features like Music,Video on-demand(not the common TV viewing) and free ISD phone.
4. A recreation room/area where passengers can enjoy some special games like chess, carom-board...
5. Special smoking zone where one can lit the cigarette without fire or something like that.
6. Flexible play area with wide-screen for young kids.
Exterior :
1. Plane with such a structure which can shed off its weight(if required) and can float/swim in water in case of emergency.
2. Plane with some extra parts which can reuce the speed of plabe drastically -IF REQUIRED IN CASE OF EMERGENCY TO AVOID collision.
3. Use of carbon composite materials in structure.
4. Use of alternate fuels like bio-fuel.
Interior :
1. More adjustable seats with features like messaging and heating,ECG,BP.
2. There will be more wider windows elsewhere too,so that passengers can get view of the sky ahead and around.I miss this a lot....
3. Free Internet surfing and multimedia experience for every passenger with features like Music,Video on-demand(not the common TV viewing) and free ISD phone.
4. A recreation room/area where passengers can enjoy some special games like chess, carom-board...
5. Special smoking zone where one can lit the cigarette without fire or something like that.
6. Flexible play area with wide-screen for young kids.
Exterior :
1. Plane with such a structure which can shed off its weight(if required) and can float/swim in water in case of emergency.
2. Plane with some extra parts which can reuce the speed of plabe drastically -IF REQUIRED IN CASE OF EMERGENCY TO AVOID collision.
3. Use of carbon composite materials in structure.
4. Use of alternate fuels like bio-fuel.
When a person trusts you to this extent, it can drive you crazy
The Indian Railways turnaround is a remarkable story both for the sleeping giant and its keeper railway minister Lalu Prasad. The
story of the makeover has been often documented. But now, officer on special duty, Haryana-born Sudhir Kumar, the backroom architect of that stunning turnaround, tells the story in his book, Bankruptcy to Billions, released on Saturday at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The 50-year-old IAS officer says he has no tricks up his sleeve that helped the railways leap into the company of Fortune 500s. ‘‘But as a baniya with a family in business for generations, I know how to make money. Tons of it,’’ says Kumar. Unfazed by the railways’ unenviable legacy, the first thing Kumar did in 2004 was throw convention out of the window. The many ‘expert’ solutions of corporatization, tariff regulation and privatization — he calls it the as World Bank approach — had one fundamental flaw. It rejected political mandate. ‘‘But that is an integral part. Don’t confuse it with political interference. You have to respect the political mandate, the social calling card. No textbook recipes would work.’’
On his part, Lalu gave him a free hand, says Kumar. His intention to make a difference was clear. From day one, Lalu invested in Kumar’s integrity, having seen him in action after the creation of Jharkhand from Bihar. At the time, Kumar was brought in as sales tax commissioner as Bihar was set to lose more than half its sales tax revenue to the new state. Kumar’s job was to ensure Bihar’s sufficient tax base was restored. The job was done in 30 months.
When Lalu became rail minister he wasted no time in bringing Kumar to his side. ‘‘When a person trusts you to this extent, it can drive you crazy. That kind of trust can push you to self-actualization,’’ says the 50-year-old in all humility, allowing himself a hint of a smile.
story of the makeover has been often documented. But now, officer on special duty, Haryana-born Sudhir Kumar, the backroom architect of that stunning turnaround, tells the story in his book, Bankruptcy to Billions, released on Saturday at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The 50-year-old IAS officer says he has no tricks up his sleeve that helped the railways leap into the company of Fortune 500s. ‘‘But as a baniya with a family in business for generations, I know how to make money. Tons of it,’’ says Kumar. Unfazed by the railways’ unenviable legacy, the first thing Kumar did in 2004 was throw convention out of the window. The many ‘expert’ solutions of corporatization, tariff regulation and privatization — he calls it the as World Bank approach — had one fundamental flaw. It rejected political mandate. ‘‘But that is an integral part. Don’t confuse it with political interference. You have to respect the political mandate, the social calling card. No textbook recipes would work.’’
On his part, Lalu gave him a free hand, says Kumar. His intention to make a difference was clear. From day one, Lalu invested in Kumar’s integrity, having seen him in action after the creation of Jharkhand from Bihar. At the time, Kumar was brought in as sales tax commissioner as Bihar was set to lose more than half its sales tax revenue to the new state. Kumar’s job was to ensure Bihar’s sufficient tax base was restored. The job was done in 30 months.
When Lalu became rail minister he wasted no time in bringing Kumar to his side. ‘‘When a person trusts you to this extent, it can drive you crazy. That kind of trust can push you to self-actualization,’’ says the 50-year-old in all humility, allowing himself a hint of a smile.
Slumdog Millionaire: I am happy for winners but is it realy an India win ?
I knew things had turned a corner when garden-variety Anglo-suburban Americans started correcting my Marathi, which is to say when they started regarding my use of "Bombay" rather than "Mumbai" as denoting an embarrassing lack of sophistication on par with using a fork and spoon, instead of chopsticks, at a Chinese restaurant. Not that I speak a word of Marathi, at least not a word one would use in polite company. And not that these would-be sophisticates do, either, but I'll bet dollars to dosas that it's only a matter of time before American hipsters start eating khichdi with their fingers in trendy Indo-fusion bistros.
Slumdog Millionaire? In the US, it's Slumdog Everywhere.
There were cheers in the South Bronx, where there is hardly an Indian-American to be seen, when Slumdog Millionaire won the best-picture Oscar. In midtown Manhattan's Murray Hill, aka "Curry Hill", the beatific visage of Freida Pinto smiles from shop windows, and India could do much worse than to have her as its current public face, even if many Americans believe her to be of Latin American rather than Indian origin because her name is "Pinto" and not "Muthukumarasamy."
Bollywood, along with its more urbane cousins in Indian art cinema, has long had a cult following here. Arthouse cinemas have Hindi film nights, though it must be noted that Americans take Bollywood much more seriously than Indians do - none of the furtive smoking and less-than-furtive cellular banter that characterise the authentic experience in Delhi or Bom- - excuse me, Mumbai. (Seriously, at the rate it's going, sensitive American tourists soon will be informing Mumbaikar taxi drivers that they really oughtn't to call CST "Victoria Terminus.")
It's not just Slumdog Millionaire, either. Chandni Chowk to China managed to break out of the foreign-film ghetto in its own small way, playing in suburban theatres, benefiting from Slumdog's buzz. Who knows, maybe even Salman Rushdie will start selling again.
My colleague Jay Nordlinger reports a recent brush with the biggest Indian star of them all, and it is illuminating: "On my way from Zurich to London, I see [Amitabh Bachchan] in the airport. In fact, he is on my flight. I approach him and say, 'Sorry to bother you, but I wonder if I could trouble you for a photo.' He says, 'How do you know me?' I say, 'Who doesn't?' Amitabh grins. But what he has asked me is very, very telling. He must not be used to being recognised by non-Indians. He has a strange existence of 100 per cent name and face recognition in India - a nation of more than a billion - and virtual anonymity everywhere else." He further reports that the Big B was flying coach. In truth, Bachchan isn't entirely anonymous in the US - within the past year, I've heard "Eer Bir Phatte" played at an American nightclub. (Yes, "Jai Ho" was the next song.) Never mind that the tune is a decade out of date, some things never go out of style. Yeh hai America, meri jaan.
Nordlinger, who has spent time in India, also makes a more serious observation: It's important for Americans not to romanticise India. (More important, of course, for Indians not to romanticise India, but that's another discussion.) But as India asserts itself in the American consciousness, this is worth keeping in mind: There are only two countries in Asia that matter to Americans right now - India and China. The future used to speak Japanese, but now the future gives you grief about saying "Bombay" instead of "Mumbai." Bombay has all but displaced Tokyo in the American imagination, and Kim Jong Il's North Korea is as much a punchline as a menace. But India and China are no joke. There's a Good Asia and a Bad Asia in American thought. Perhaps there should be room for more Asia than that, but Beijing remains uncontested as the capital of Bad Asia, a 21st-century expression of the "Oriental despotism" of popular lore and anxiety. The capital of Good Asia is not Delhi but somewhere between Bombay and Bangalore; Manmohan Singh may be the most highly regarded Asian statesman in the US, but India's clout remains primarily cultural and commercial rather than political.
Unhappily for India, the US has just elected what may be the most anti-trade administration and Congress since the Depression. A free-trade pact between the US and India would enrich both, but it is unlikely that Obama will pursue any such thing - and New Delhi's irresolute handling of the ASEAN free-trade agreement suggests that there are limitations on their end, too. India will naturally resist being reduced to a mere counterweight - to China, to Pakistan - and, after decades of lectures about its "potential", it finally has the strength to legitimately set its own course.
Strange, then, that India still seeks vindication in the West. An Indian who makes it big in America makes it Very Big Indeed, but saying that an American rock band is "big in Japan" is a joke at their expense. And though Republicans loved the idea of bestowing the Bharat Ratna on George W. Bush, American filmmakers still go to Asian markets seeking profits, not love. Even so, there is something to be made of this moment. Cultural currency is capital - limited, to be sure, but capital nonetheless - and America's intensifying interest in India is an asset waiting to be used.
Our nations have shared interests when it comes to such familiar issues as trade and terrorism, but there is more to international relations than interests, defined narrowly and politically. Americans watching Slumdog Millionaire may marvel at the sensory assault that is Bombay street life and recoil from the squalor of the Juhu slums, but they must also experience a sense, perhaps uncomfortable, of recognition. Multiethnic, multilingual, marked both by fierce entrepreneurial energy and economic anxiety, with both gods and gangs competing for turf, India is a foreign nation that's not so foreign. For reasons of ethnicity and history, and above all language, Americans tend to identify with declining, sparsely populated countries such as the UK and Canada. But the facts on the ground are different: India is the second most populous nation on the Earth, and the US is the third. We both have ruling classes that speak English and underclasses that don't. It is not in the future but in the present that our challenges should be recognised as more alike than different. Yes, India is still poor - for how much longer? Yes, America is surpassingly rich - for how much longer? It's not only young Indian chaiwallahs mooning away in dead-end jobs, dreaming of winning a million on a game show. Americans may not know the word crorepati, but they will. The word is in our hearts, if not on our tongues.
Slumdog Millionaire? In the US, it's Slumdog Everywhere.
There were cheers in the South Bronx, where there is hardly an Indian-American to be seen, when Slumdog Millionaire won the best-picture Oscar. In midtown Manhattan's Murray Hill, aka "Curry Hill", the beatific visage of Freida Pinto smiles from shop windows, and India could do much worse than to have her as its current public face, even if many Americans believe her to be of Latin American rather than Indian origin because her name is "Pinto" and not "Muthukumarasamy."
Bollywood, along with its more urbane cousins in Indian art cinema, has long had a cult following here. Arthouse cinemas have Hindi film nights, though it must be noted that Americans take Bollywood much more seriously than Indians do - none of the furtive smoking and less-than-furtive cellular banter that characterise the authentic experience in Delhi or Bom- - excuse me, Mumbai. (Seriously, at the rate it's going, sensitive American tourists soon will be informing Mumbaikar taxi drivers that they really oughtn't to call CST "Victoria Terminus.")
It's not just Slumdog Millionaire, either. Chandni Chowk to China managed to break out of the foreign-film ghetto in its own small way, playing in suburban theatres, benefiting from Slumdog's buzz. Who knows, maybe even Salman Rushdie will start selling again.
My colleague Jay Nordlinger reports a recent brush with the biggest Indian star of them all, and it is illuminating: "On my way from Zurich to London, I see [Amitabh Bachchan] in the airport. In fact, he is on my flight. I approach him and say, 'Sorry to bother you, but I wonder if I could trouble you for a photo.' He says, 'How do you know me?' I say, 'Who doesn't?' Amitabh grins. But what he has asked me is very, very telling. He must not be used to being recognised by non-Indians. He has a strange existence of 100 per cent name and face recognition in India - a nation of more than a billion - and virtual anonymity everywhere else." He further reports that the Big B was flying coach. In truth, Bachchan isn't entirely anonymous in the US - within the past year, I've heard "Eer Bir Phatte" played at an American nightclub. (Yes, "Jai Ho" was the next song.) Never mind that the tune is a decade out of date, some things never go out of style. Yeh hai America, meri jaan.
Nordlinger, who has spent time in India, also makes a more serious observation: It's important for Americans not to romanticise India. (More important, of course, for Indians not to romanticise India, but that's another discussion.) But as India asserts itself in the American consciousness, this is worth keeping in mind: There are only two countries in Asia that matter to Americans right now - India and China. The future used to speak Japanese, but now the future gives you grief about saying "Bombay" instead of "Mumbai." Bombay has all but displaced Tokyo in the American imagination, and Kim Jong Il's North Korea is as much a punchline as a menace. But India and China are no joke. There's a Good Asia and a Bad Asia in American thought. Perhaps there should be room for more Asia than that, but Beijing remains uncontested as the capital of Bad Asia, a 21st-century expression of the "Oriental despotism" of popular lore and anxiety. The capital of Good Asia is not Delhi but somewhere between Bombay and Bangalore; Manmohan Singh may be the most highly regarded Asian statesman in the US, but India's clout remains primarily cultural and commercial rather than political.
Unhappily for India, the US has just elected what may be the most anti-trade administration and Congress since the Depression. A free-trade pact between the US and India would enrich both, but it is unlikely that Obama will pursue any such thing - and New Delhi's irresolute handling of the ASEAN free-trade agreement suggests that there are limitations on their end, too. India will naturally resist being reduced to a mere counterweight - to China, to Pakistan - and, after decades of lectures about its "potential", it finally has the strength to legitimately set its own course.
Strange, then, that India still seeks vindication in the West. An Indian who makes it big in America makes it Very Big Indeed, but saying that an American rock band is "big in Japan" is a joke at their expense. And though Republicans loved the idea of bestowing the Bharat Ratna on George W. Bush, American filmmakers still go to Asian markets seeking profits, not love. Even so, there is something to be made of this moment. Cultural currency is capital - limited, to be sure, but capital nonetheless - and America's intensifying interest in India is an asset waiting to be used.
Our nations have shared interests when it comes to such familiar issues as trade and terrorism, but there is more to international relations than interests, defined narrowly and politically. Americans watching Slumdog Millionaire may marvel at the sensory assault that is Bombay street life and recoil from the squalor of the Juhu slums, but they must also experience a sense, perhaps uncomfortable, of recognition. Multiethnic, multilingual, marked both by fierce entrepreneurial energy and economic anxiety, with both gods and gangs competing for turf, India is a foreign nation that's not so foreign. For reasons of ethnicity and history, and above all language, Americans tend to identify with declining, sparsely populated countries such as the UK and Canada. But the facts on the ground are different: India is the second most populous nation on the Earth, and the US is the third. We both have ruling classes that speak English and underclasses that don't. It is not in the future but in the present that our challenges should be recognised as more alike than different. Yes, India is still poor - for how much longer? Yes, America is surpassingly rich - for how much longer? It's not only young Indian chaiwallahs mooning away in dead-end jobs, dreaming of winning a million on a game show. Americans may not know the word crorepati, but they will. The word is in our hearts, if not on our tongues.
rags-to-riches-to-brothel : It happens only in India.
When A R Rahman walked up to receive the golden Oscar statuette, her eyes misted over. Preeti Mukherjee knows exactly how it feels. Four
years ago, she was on the same stage at Los Angeles’ Kodak Theatre, where she, too, had hugged the statuette and cried tears of joy. She hasn’t missed a single awards ceremony since. On Monday, she woke up in the wee hours to catch the live telecast — before starting the day’s grind at Sonagachhi.
Preeti, who goes by the name Puja in Asia’s largest red light district, had got sucked into the sex trade just a year after her brush with the Oscars.
In 2005, Preeti was part of the Oscar-winning documentary Born Into Brothels, directed by Zana Briski. The child cast of nine had cheered so loud that it still rings in her ears. And she still remembers the warmth of the hug Zana gave her as the award was announced.
“It seems like a fairy tale now. I still see it in my dreams. I get goosebumps when I remember the heart-stopping moment when the award was announced. All of us kept screaming with joy. Zana aunty made sure we, too, went along to collect the statuette. My head was swimming, there were so many eyes on us, the deafening applause, so many cameras flashing...” Preeti recalls.
In 2002, when not yet into her teens, Briski and Ross Kauffman chose her in the cast of nine to teach them photography and get a close-up view of their world and that of their mothers. The film was completed in 2004 and went on to win about 20 international awards, capped by the Oscar.
When the film was nominated, the directors flew the kids to Los Angeles. Life was happy for some time and the directors tried their best to rehabilitate the kids. Preeti, who was in high school, and the rest got an offer to stay back in the US and study. Some did. She backed out.
“Aunty (Zana) gave a lot of money by cheque to my mother and asked her to release me, but she was unwilling. I am a girl and an only child and my mother wouldn’t let go. Call it family pressure if you will. It’s quite simple, really,” Preeti said, with a dismissive shrug and a short laugh. “So, you see me here.”
Abhijit, one of the kids in the film, now studies in New York University. Another girl goes to school there. Preeti is in touch with both of them. Two others are studying at Future Hope, run by a charitable trust. One has got married while another girl, who was with an internationally funded NGO, has disappeared.
Dressed in jeans and a trendy shirt, Preeti could pass for any other collegegoer, until the whiff of smoke and alcohol in her breath hits you. And you look at her eyes — beautiful, aggressive and defiant.
“At this age, I have a flat in Salt Lake, a laptop, costly phones and plenty of money. What do I lack?” she looks you square in the eye. “Zana aunty and I are in touch by email. She was upset that I, too, had joined the trade like my mother, something she wanted to save me from. But this trade has really paid off for me.” A sign of her ‘prosperity’ — she has hired rooms in Prem Kamal, one of the most expensive Sonagachhi buildings.
Mother Rakhi lives in the opposite building. Preeti pays for her living expenses. Rakhi says she wanted a “normal” life for Preeti. She still has a fading photo of Preeti with the Oscar statuette stuck on a wall. “That is all I have left of her..,” she says, tears in her eyes.
There is no clear answer as to how and why Preeti became a sex worker. Police records say she was rescued from a racket while a minor, sent to a juvenile home from where she was handed to her mother by the state child welfare committee.
Police say she’s now part of a major sex racket that involves extremely powerful people, who will never let her escape into a sunnier world. Behind the I-care-a-damn stare, you can see a fleeting longing in her eyes — a longing for freedom.
years ago, she was on the same stage at Los Angeles’ Kodak Theatre, where she, too, had hugged the statuette and cried tears of joy. She hasn’t missed a single awards ceremony since. On Monday, she woke up in the wee hours to catch the live telecast — before starting the day’s grind at Sonagachhi.
Preeti, who goes by the name Puja in Asia’s largest red light district, had got sucked into the sex trade just a year after her brush with the Oscars.
In 2005, Preeti was part of the Oscar-winning documentary Born Into Brothels, directed by Zana Briski. The child cast of nine had cheered so loud that it still rings in her ears. And she still remembers the warmth of the hug Zana gave her as the award was announced.
“It seems like a fairy tale now. I still see it in my dreams. I get goosebumps when I remember the heart-stopping moment when the award was announced. All of us kept screaming with joy. Zana aunty made sure we, too, went along to collect the statuette. My head was swimming, there were so many eyes on us, the deafening applause, so many cameras flashing...” Preeti recalls.
In 2002, when not yet into her teens, Briski and Ross Kauffman chose her in the cast of nine to teach them photography and get a close-up view of their world and that of their mothers. The film was completed in 2004 and went on to win about 20 international awards, capped by the Oscar.
When the film was nominated, the directors flew the kids to Los Angeles. Life was happy for some time and the directors tried their best to rehabilitate the kids. Preeti, who was in high school, and the rest got an offer to stay back in the US and study. Some did. She backed out.
“Aunty (Zana) gave a lot of money by cheque to my mother and asked her to release me, but she was unwilling. I am a girl and an only child and my mother wouldn’t let go. Call it family pressure if you will. It’s quite simple, really,” Preeti said, with a dismissive shrug and a short laugh. “So, you see me here.”
Abhijit, one of the kids in the film, now studies in New York University. Another girl goes to school there. Preeti is in touch with both of them. Two others are studying at Future Hope, run by a charitable trust. One has got married while another girl, who was with an internationally funded NGO, has disappeared.
Dressed in jeans and a trendy shirt, Preeti could pass for any other collegegoer, until the whiff of smoke and alcohol in her breath hits you. And you look at her eyes — beautiful, aggressive and defiant.
“At this age, I have a flat in Salt Lake, a laptop, costly phones and plenty of money. What do I lack?” she looks you square in the eye. “Zana aunty and I are in touch by email. She was upset that I, too, had joined the trade like my mother, something she wanted to save me from. But this trade has really paid off for me.” A sign of her ‘prosperity’ — she has hired rooms in Prem Kamal, one of the most expensive Sonagachhi buildings.
Mother Rakhi lives in the opposite building. Preeti pays for her living expenses. Rakhi says she wanted a “normal” life for Preeti. She still has a fading photo of Preeti with the Oscar statuette stuck on a wall. “That is all I have left of her..,” she says, tears in her eyes.
There is no clear answer as to how and why Preeti became a sex worker. Police records say she was rescued from a racket while a minor, sent to a juvenile home from where she was handed to her mother by the state child welfare committee.
Police say she’s now part of a major sex racket that involves extremely powerful people, who will never let her escape into a sunnier world. Behind the I-care-a-damn stare, you can see a fleeting longing in her eyes — a longing for freedom.
Why IIM lads only find easy solution to social issues...
Example-1 :
He is perhaps the smartest vegetable seller around with his IIM degree.
Kaushilendra, the 2007 batch topper of the IIM, Ahmedabad, became a vegetable vendor “to earn money and ensure quality prices to farmers and quality product to citizens”.
His light pushcart is made of fibre, can carry 200kg and keeps vegetables fresh for six days, for it is ice cool.
It has computerised weighing machine that “guarantees a proper calculation.” Even the customers are impressed. “Computerwaala taraaju dandi nahin mar sakta (A computerised machine is not exposed to manipulation),” a woman told this reporter.
Encouraged by the initial response, Kaushilendra is now the owner of 50 such carts that are selling vegetables in “right measurement and right rate”.
“I plan to buy more (carts) to spread the business. This is just the beginning. My venture will spread in the entire country in the years to follow,” Kaushilendra said with enthusiasm so infectious that one would want to believe him.
His fascination with the vegetable trade is understandable. Born to modest vegetable farmers’ family in central Bihar’s Ahmad Nagar village (Nalanda), Kaushilendra received his education in a rural government school while assisting his family in farming. Nalanda, incidentally, is known as the “vegetable bowl” of Bihar. “Though a bright student, Kaushilendra loves working in the field,” says father Narendra Prasad. He moved to Navodaya Vidyalaya in Nawada to complete his high school.
Then, he cleared CAT to enter IIM, Ahmedabad, after passing intermediate from Patna Science College.
“I am and have been fascinated with farming since my childhood,” the IIM topper said, adding: “I have planned to develop a Bihar brand of vegetable and popularise it in the country. Bihar has a potential to feed the nation,” he said
“The B-school product has challenged billionaire Reliance Fresh venture though small means and innovative mind. He can emerge as a vegetable tycoon in future,” remarked Ajay Kumar, an economist and CEO of a private portal, bihartimes.com.
Kaushilendra’s effort is similar to the one of the fibre rickshaw that was developed by another B-school graduate, Irfan, from Begusarai of Bihar. Like Irfan’s Samman Foundation, he, too, has floated Kaushalaya Foundation.
“A number of farmers from Nalanda have approached me to buy their products as they found our foundation’s rates reasonable. I am getting more than enough supply. But we will be in a position to buy in bulk only after our business grows.”
Initially, the family was perplexed by their boy’s decision. “Now I am receiving all the support from them, my customers and the state.”
Example-2 :
An auto ride to remember :
--------------------------
AHMEDABAD: This is some auto. An English-speaking driver, range of newspapers and magazines to browse through and a phone at your disposal!
G-Autos are going to hit the city streets on Thursday. The service will be launched by Chief Minister Narendra Modi at Khokhra.
They're an initiative of an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), Nirmal Kumar from the batch of 2007. Kumar's company, Nirmal Foundation, works towards social and economic upliftment of autorickshaw drivers.
"Sitting in a G-Auto is going to be a pleasantly different experience. These autos have been made more passenger friendly with minor design changes. For first-time visitors, the autos will have a map of the city and list of must-see places. Also, they will be equipped with dustbins.
Moreover, if the driver tries to act smart with you, there is a helpline number which you can call and lodge a complaint. These autos are all about safe and transparent travel. There are over 1,000 G-Autos registered with us, says Kumar.
But, G-Autos are not meant just for passenger comfort. "We have initiated hospitality training for drivers. We plan to teach them spoken English - 50 basic sentences. We'll prepare a customised dictionary for them with Gujarati words and their English equivalents. After all, many times autorickshaw drivers are the first people outsiders meet when they visit the city," he elaborates.
All drivers are given insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh, medical cover of Rs 50,000 and a monthly sum for school fees for their children. Each G-Auto driver will become a bank account holder with debit cards at his disposal.
"We want them to start saving and are introducing pension plans for them, where they have to save Rs 15 every day and invest it on a monthly basis," adds Kumar.
He is perhaps the smartest vegetable seller around with his IIM degree.
Kaushilendra, the 2007 batch topper of the IIM, Ahmedabad, became a vegetable vendor “to earn money and ensure quality prices to farmers and quality product to citizens”.
His light pushcart is made of fibre, can carry 200kg and keeps vegetables fresh for six days, for it is ice cool.
It has computerised weighing machine that “guarantees a proper calculation.” Even the customers are impressed. “Computerwaala taraaju dandi nahin mar sakta (A computerised machine is not exposed to manipulation),” a woman told this reporter.
Encouraged by the initial response, Kaushilendra is now the owner of 50 such carts that are selling vegetables in “right measurement and right rate”.
“I plan to buy more (carts) to spread the business. This is just the beginning. My venture will spread in the entire country in the years to follow,” Kaushilendra said with enthusiasm so infectious that one would want to believe him.
His fascination with the vegetable trade is understandable. Born to modest vegetable farmers’ family in central Bihar’s Ahmad Nagar village (Nalanda), Kaushilendra received his education in a rural government school while assisting his family in farming. Nalanda, incidentally, is known as the “vegetable bowl” of Bihar. “Though a bright student, Kaushilendra loves working in the field,” says father Narendra Prasad. He moved to Navodaya Vidyalaya in Nawada to complete his high school.
Then, he cleared CAT to enter IIM, Ahmedabad, after passing intermediate from Patna Science College.
“I am and have been fascinated with farming since my childhood,” the IIM topper said, adding: “I have planned to develop a Bihar brand of vegetable and popularise it in the country. Bihar has a potential to feed the nation,” he said
“The B-school product has challenged billionaire Reliance Fresh venture though small means and innovative mind. He can emerge as a vegetable tycoon in future,” remarked Ajay Kumar, an economist and CEO of a private portal, bihartimes.com.
Kaushilendra’s effort is similar to the one of the fibre rickshaw that was developed by another B-school graduate, Irfan, from Begusarai of Bihar. Like Irfan’s Samman Foundation, he, too, has floated Kaushalaya Foundation.
“A number of farmers from Nalanda have approached me to buy their products as they found our foundation’s rates reasonable. I am getting more than enough supply. But we will be in a position to buy in bulk only after our business grows.”
Initially, the family was perplexed by their boy’s decision. “Now I am receiving all the support from them, my customers and the state.”
Example-2 :
An auto ride to remember :
--------------------------
AHMEDABAD: This is some auto. An English-speaking driver, range of newspapers and magazines to browse through and a phone at your disposal!
G-Autos are going to hit the city streets on Thursday. The service will be launched by Chief Minister Narendra Modi at Khokhra.
They're an initiative of an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), Nirmal Kumar from the batch of 2007. Kumar's company, Nirmal Foundation, works towards social and economic upliftment of autorickshaw drivers.
"Sitting in a G-Auto is going to be a pleasantly different experience. These autos have been made more passenger friendly with minor design changes. For first-time visitors, the autos will have a map of the city and list of must-see places. Also, they will be equipped with dustbins.
Moreover, if the driver tries to act smart with you, there is a helpline number which you can call and lodge a complaint. These autos are all about safe and transparent travel. There are over 1,000 G-Autos registered with us, says Kumar.
But, G-Autos are not meant just for passenger comfort. "We have initiated hospitality training for drivers. We plan to teach them spoken English - 50 basic sentences. We'll prepare a customised dictionary for them with Gujarati words and their English equivalents. After all, many times autorickshaw drivers are the first people outsiders meet when they visit the city," he elaborates.
All drivers are given insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh, medical cover of Rs 50,000 and a monthly sum for school fees for their children. Each G-Auto driver will become a bank account holder with debit cards at his disposal.
"We want them to start saving and are introducing pension plans for them, where they have to save Rs 15 every day and invest it on a monthly basis," adds Kumar.
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