Entries Tagged 'India' ↓

I was happy when the Government didn’t announce for the 7th year on a row.

Imagine the reputation and honour of the award if people like Bal Thackeray or Mulayam Singh Yadav are awarded.

Here’s a cartoon that was published in The Hindu on Martyr’s Day (Gandhiji’s Death Anniversary):

[Image Courtesy: The Hindu]

Doesn’t it make sense?

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Of late, we see a lot of advertisements about Online Movie Rental and Movie on Demand (with DTH). I’m always interested in such stuffs, so decided to do dig and research on this subject.

The results were interesting…
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Cable TV subscription bill for just Rs 77 a month. Pay Channels for Rs 5 a month. Stereo Radio stations other than the ones which ply in your metro. Digital quality sound and video. All this is going to a reality by December 31, 2006. TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has come out with some recommendations for introduction of CAS (Conditional Access System) in the four metros of India after the Supreme Court ruling by Dec 31, 2006.

We Chennaiites always miss out watching good things on TV. Be it Sports action like Grand Slam Tennis, Formula One grand prix, Cricket Action, etc.. or Hindi entertainment channels or English entertainment channels. Now, what I care is Sports action. I have a DVD collection that English movie channels would envy, and I don’t watch much Hindi stuffs but for the movies.

We were made scapegoats and wait for SCV (a leading MSO here) to negotiate with the channels to bring out sports action or retort to Live Streaming, etc…

Let’s take the TRAI ruling now and what really was going on in Chennai for over three years.

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Well, everything has its yin and yang side;
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

I wonder if the above holds true for the coverage of the ongoing Reservation-Quota story in the electronic media and print media. We see only one side of the story. They cover 80% of anti-reservation and only 20% of pro-reservation.

If it’s “The Rage over Quotas”, “Ghost of Mandal Returns”, “The Fire Spreads”, “Losing Patience”, “Deserve vs. Reserve”, “Doctors Defiant”, “Death of Merit” caption for their Quota-Reservation issue coverage; it’s almost the same in the case of the Print media. It’s “OBCBM- OBC Ballistic Missile” , “Mandal - II” , “100% reserved for family (indicating the PM post)”,etc. These days, I don’t watch much of Television (/me blames CAS) but I’ll tell how biased the newspapers are.

We subscribe to two Newspapers, The Hindu and Deccan Chronicle. There is a ocean of difference when it comes to quota coverage and related articles. While The Hindu presents a neutral stand, Deccan Chronicle on the other hand is entirely Anti-reservation.

Immature Coverage
To be honest, We buy Deccan Chronicle as an additional read to The Hindu and it costs only a rupee rs. 1.50. I read it for the rumours, I get to see a lot of chicks, read film news and many more “masti and masala” reads. Even so, I get irritated while I read the newspaper. It’s full of anti-reservation.

If the News channels can recycle some visuals endlessly, Deccan Chronicle does it in a different way. The have a cartoon section (”Here and Now - Sudhir Tailang”) which have anti-reservation cartoons for almost 5-6 times a week. It almost seems that they are desperate to reach out that they are also anti-reservation.

Another article which amused me was the :”GenY join hands against quota issue” in their ‘Teens’ section of Chennai Chronicle (May 22, page 25). While there might be no error or anything wrong with it but the whole thing showed Deccan Chronicle in a poor light. Don’t we all know that students are protesting? Do we need to be reminded that they are “GenY” or do we need a photo of pretty girls protesting? Don’t they know that there are also a pro-reservation protests and rallies in the opposite camp and are they not “GenY”?

An ocean of difference - The Hindu and Deccan Chronicle
Let’s see how The Hindu is covering the whole issue. Their Editorial (as far as my knowledge goes they printed only twice; one at the time of the proposal and the other one was how to strike a balance between merit and social inequality) was good and was presently neatly without takes sides. The Hindu also published a two part series on an Alternate proposal to strike a balance between merit and social inequality and a survey created by Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) jointly written by Professor Yogendra Yadav.

Right from the Editorials, Cartoons, guest columns, pictures, letters to the editors and even the reader columns (Open page - Sunday Edition; The Hindu) there was a vast difference in the way that both the newspapers covered the whole issue. One was biased to the core (Deccan Chronicle) and the other showed both sides of the story (The Hindu).

While one newspaper (The Hindu) goes beyond the raging debate and ponders into the alternate proposal and goes beyond the rhetoric of reservations, the other one (Deccan Chronicle) still covers the protests, rallies & childish cartoons and that too is biased. It’s any body’s guess which paper most of the people would like to read.

“We are with you and support your cause”
As I have said earlier, Deccan Chronicle got news which is basically targeted towards younger section of the readers. The got chicks and pretty girls on their end pages, rumours, film news, got to look good, “glamour and class” rules their contents. So it’s not surprising that there coverage is also biased and one sided.

When a Newspaper has a class constituency (or a section of readers they target), the labels tell the constituency that the Newspaper is with it on this issue.

The job of the media is to cover and show the events in an unbiased manner. They need to strike a balance between the two sides of the coin. Maybe only in the Editorials, Columns they can be bias which is again purely the author’s personal opinion. Their job is to only dish out the stuff, it’s upto to the readers to taste it and see if they like it.

More Reads: Taking Sides (About the same issue but with the electronic media)

The HRD ministry of India proposes 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in IITs and IIMs. Read more about this here.

I gonna tell why this is a big deal atleast for IIMs.

Even now, IIMs DON’T reserve 25.5% of the seats
First of all IIMs/IITs won’t reserve the full 25.5% of the seats. Note that they won’t fill the remaining seats for general category students. They’ll leave the seat vacant but they are not supposed to fill in the seats for general category students. They might choose to fill in the seats in other reserved category though like what NITIE did this year. They filled ST/PH seats to SC students. It’s not “fair” for ST/PH students, but they dint leave the seat vacant or filled in a general category students.

I am very very sure that IIMs as of now fill only 15% of the 25.5% reserved seats. There are more seats in IIMs than the number of students who are called for GD-PI for ST/PH students!

This OBC reservation thing is hyped.
Consider:

• IITs and IIMs won’t fill the seats unless students come with good %tiles/ranks. I can prove this:

a. See the reservations at NITIE this year. Not even 15% was reserved, when they ought to reserve 25.5%.

b. IITs dint release separate rankings in SC/ST/PH category for JMET this year. SC/ST/PH students need to get ranks within 5k to apply to the IIT SOMs.

c. Do you know that they are more number of seats in IIMs for SC/ST/PH students than the number of students who got called for GD-PI?? You guys think IIMs will fill all the seats?

d. Raja (politburo member CPI(m)) wrote an article in The Hindu this year, abt the “Games that IITs play”. He said that their party received many complaints that SC/ST students are given a “raw deal” at the IITs (UG level). He further questioned the success of this quota formula in private sectors, when a Govt. run instis like IITs/IIMs don’t fill in the seats that are reserved for “socially backward” section of ppl.

e. Also go thro the SC/ST reservation thread here, you can see many ppl posting that seats are not fully filled in IIMs and IITs.

• Allmost everyone with the exception of Brahmins can get a OBC certificates.
• IIMs are gonna increase the intake next year (they have already done that this year itself).
• Now the number of seats available for general seats will remain the same. Moreover some of the general students may be a OBC candidate also.
• I dunno if there is a concept of “Creamy - Non Creamy Layer” thing in this. If they decide to reserve seats for OBC in Non Creamy Layer, then %ile is gonna go down.
• Already Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra government funded colleges have 52.5% reservations. This proposal was nothing new.
• The %ile is gonna be very high in the OBC category. I am sure that it won’t be as less in the case of SC/ST/PH. For eg: The cut off (for getting calls from Anna University MBA course) was 32 in case of OBC and 34 in the case of general category.
• PSUs like IOC, SBI, ONGC, SAIL,etc.. have 52.5% reservations and still doing well.

A case study:
Let us take the example of FMS, DU.
For the mere 90 seats, they reserve:
15% for SC
7.5% for ST
3% for PH
3% for Defence
27% for OBC
In addition to this, this year they “reserved” 50% of the general category seats for gals!
That leaves only 22.5% seats for guys (for the general category).

It’s going to be very very hard to get GD-PI call from FMS (leave alone the final call)!! Already FMS is one of the toughest insti to get into, only one in 500 students get in. Now one in 1000 is gonna get into FMS!! FMS do fill in the seats. They don’t care about the quality unlike IIMs/IITs.

This is only exception where I think getting admission from FMS is going to be very diffficult.

Vote Bank Politics
The voter’s percentages in the recent LS election were around 45% (not sure) and many of the “well off” families din’t vote. Maybe the chunk of the 45% voter might have been SC/ST/OBC people.

The government need to satify them. So:-

• They bring in 52.5% reservations at IITs/IIMs.
• They make a “rule” to reserve 52.5% of seats in Private Institutions as well.
• Already private engg colleges (in TN) have 52.5% reservations from this year.
• 52.5% reservations in Private Sector Jobs

In the end, the Congress govt. will continue after this present term. Now, if “well-off” people also come and vote, then…..

Even the EC asked the congress to explain why they announced this when they are planning to implement this 52.5% from the next academic year. It was clearly a political move. Almost all the party supported this hike..from BJP to PMK to CPI.

Final Word
I am pointing out again that IIMs/IITs will increase the seats so that that the number of seats for general category students will remain the same. Even the President APJ Abdul Kalam said that increase the intake so that the reservation becomes meaningless. Even the IITs/IIMs din’t “protest” against this proposal as they did when Murali Manohar Joshi wanted to bring down the fees at the IIMs. In the end, it boils down to your attitude. If you have determination to get into IITs/IIMs, then you can make it big.

While reading today’s The Hindu Newspaper, I came across a article where a fool challenged the exclusion of Ganguly from the ongoing Hutch Cup between India and Pakistan in the Supreme court! I was surprised to read how foolish people can be. Moreover the writ petition was filled by a TV journalist.

Here is the article:

Ganguly issue: plea for early hearing rejected

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has refused to entertain the application for early hearing of the petition challenging the exclusion of former skipper Sourav Ganguly from the Indian cricket team for the ODI series against Pakistan.

A Bench comprising Justice G.P. Mathur and Justice Dalveer Bhandari on Friday declined to fix the petition for early hearing, saying that scientists, doctors, engineers and other professionally qualified persons were not being given due place in the country as compared to cricketers.

“India will not be at the receiving end if it does not play matches” the Court observed while turning down the plea for early hearing of the writ petition filed by a TV journalist.

The petitioner’s counsel, V.N. Sharaf, contended that the petition shall become infructuous as the ongoing ODI series between India and Pakistan may be over by the time the matter is listed for hearing.

The petitioner has sought directions to the BCCI Selection Committee to place before the court the minutes of the meeting that picked the Indian team for the ODI series.

The petitioner also alleged that Ganguly was a victim of board politics and had been dropped from the team on considerations other than merit as he had been doing well both in domestic cricket and in the recent three-test series against Pakistan. - UNI

Source: The Hindu

The Bench correctly observed two things, which I am quoting again:
* “India will not be at the receiving end if it does not play matches”
* “Scientists, Doctors, Engineers and other professionally qualified persons were not being given due place in the country as compared to cricketers”

I am totally surprised as how a man (a TV Journalist) go such distance to file a writ in the apex court!! Some people in India seem to have no other job other than filling PILs in the courts. Sachin’s Ferrari was also an issue and same with Kushboo’s remark on pre-martial sex.

Ganguly must be a happy man, so much people to his support who file writ petitions, stage darna, burn effigies, go hunger strikes, and what not!

How much times had you recharged your mobile connection just because your validity time is expired? I know many of my friends who have a lot of talktime left but still forced to recharge for the above reason. Are you one among these juntas,then Rejoice!

Mobile operators now come with “plans” which offer us lifetime validity for less than a 1000 bucks. All we need to do is top up our connection with these promo recharge coupons and recharge (for any amount provided by the operator) every six months. Now we can enjoy “Lifetime” validity.

TATA indicom first introduced 2 year validity promos which was an instant success and Reliance followed with their 3 year promo and soon other players followed suit with Airtel initiating the offer.
Now Airtel, Hutch, Idea, Aircel, Reliance, BSNL and MNTL have joined the bandwagon with similar schemes. Their plan is basically the same with some subtle difference.

Aircel offers the SIM Card and the lifetime validity for just 888 rs. MTNL for 900 (inc. Service Tax) and give 100rs. Talktime compared ot the merge 25rs by private operators.

So, What’s the Catch?

• These offer cannot be coupled with any other promotional scheme/tariff packs. This is clause that we all need to look out for. So it will disable all your active schemes such as 1 rupee outgoing for 25Rs. a month et al.
• The call rates and SMSes will be costing a lot more. Local calls at Rs 1.99 / min and STD calls at just Rs 2.99 / min. We pay only 80p for a min call made with BSNL Cellone.
• We are required to make a minimum recharge every 6 months in case of Airtel and Hutch to keep the service running else the connection will be permanently deactivated
• I am sure that we will have to stay contended with these tariffs for a long time as it’s not commercially viable for the operators to reduce the tariffs.
• Validity for Lifetime is subject to change in regulatory or license conditions in the future. The TRAI is looking into these “offers” and see if they have any loopholes and if they are commercially viable.

Have you ever wondered as to why the operators want us to recharge for atleast ever six months? Not that they will gain additional revenue.. Players like Hutch and Idea are offering topups cards for as little as Rs. 10 denomination. TRAI has a catch for counting these lifetime incoming free mobile consumers. As per their guidelines, an operator will not be able to count the customer as a subscriber if he fails to recharge within six months.
Clever Operators!

All these “Lifetime Prepaid” and “Chalta Rahe” will hold useful for people who receive more calls than they make. Students, senior citizens, Cab drivers, Milk mans and likes will benefit. Although these plans are tailor made for people in smaller cities and towns, this is on the whole a good news and will create cut throat competition between the players and will trigger tariff wars and we can benefit.

For more info:
Airtel Lifetime Prepaid
Hutch Chalta Rahe
BSNL SIM Excel Anant
Trump Jeevan Sathi