Bitter Pill

That is how Times of India [ May 08,2011 ] describes the state of healthcare in India.

The report quotes Dr.A.K.Shiva Kumar, one of the authors of a Lancet paper on health services in India, as follows :

“ Poor health is the cause of poverty for nearly 39 million people in India. Around 30 % in rural India didn’t go for any treatment due to poor finances in 2004 – up from 15 % in 1995.

  In urban areas, 20 % of ailments were untreated due to monetary issues in 2004 – up from 10 % in 1995 “

I think it is other way around.

Poverty is the cause of poor health.

By Government of India’s own estimate, 32 % of Indians are “ Below Poverty Line ( BPL ) “. These 387 million people spend less than Rs.12 /day ($ 0.25) – presumably on food.

What kind of “ health “ can one enjoy on 2 cups of tea for food  ?

With regards

hemen  parekh

Primary Needs ?

In India, primary education is a “ State Subject “.
And most primary schools are owned by the states.
When asked by the Central Government, only 15 out of the 35 states bothered to furnish following information :
 No. of primary schools ……………………………… 566,221
 Schools that do not provide midday meals… 112,000
 Schools without electricity ………………………… 400,000
 Schools without toilets ……………………………….. 100,000
 Schools without boundary walls………………….. 400,000
States won’t tell you how many schools do not have a single teacher, but I suspect that would be in excess of 300,000 !
Obviously, state governments in India do not think that primary schools have some primary needs !
What else can explain this pathetic scenario ?
Could it be that the other 20 states which did not even bother to furnish any data, have no primary schools at all ?
When he is demanding that engineering / medical colleges use local language as “ Medium of Instruction “, there is no doubt about the noble intentions of Baba Ramdev.
Only question is : What should be our priority ?
( Source : DNA / May,09,2011 )
With regards
Hemen Parekh

Agriculture in China

Writing in Times of India ( 05 June, 2012 ), Subodh Varma provides following interesting info re: Chinese agriculture in the province of Sichuan :

Ø  All farming land is owned by the Government

Ø  Village Council allots land-plots to families , provides high yield seeds and arranges fertilizers and pesticides

Ø  In the province of Sichuan , water arrives in canals ( constructed in 256 BCE ), fed by Min River and irrigates 5,300 Square Kilometers of cultivated land. Water flows by gravity !

Ø  Families cultivate whatever they want and sell it wherever they can , for whatever price they get

Ø  A farmer family of four earned about 1,973 Yuan ( approx. Rs 17,500 / $ 312 ) per month in 2010 , according to the National Statistics Bureau of China

Ø  Farmers burn agricultural waste and residue in their fields , to return to their land , important minerals

Ø  China has 108 million heads of cattle ( against India’s 322 million )

Ø  Chinese cows yield as much as 3,700 liters per year of milk ( about 4 times of an Indian cow )

No wonder China does not need :

Ø  A monstrous / corrupt Government machinery for grain procurement

Ø  To store millions of tons of procured grains in the open , to rot under sun and rain

Ø  Then export these food grains by heavily subsidizing private sector exporters

Ø  A corrupt Public Distribution system

Ø  A Food Security Bill

And , unlike India ,China does not have 1.6 Million children ( under 5 ) dying each year due to starvation ( Indian Government likes to call it , “ Malnutrition “ )

Does any political party of India have the courage to include “ Elimination of Starvation “ in it’s election manifesto , for the forthcoming National Election in 2014 ?

With regards

hemen  Parekh

www.CustomizeResume.com

Jobs  for  All  =  Peace  on  Earth

Good News ?

According to World Health Organization’s “ Health Statistics – 2011 “ report, life span of an average Indian went up as follows :
 1990 ………………….. 57 years
 2000 …………………. 61 years
 2009 …………………… 65 years
Good news, no doubt . And hopefully, the life span will keep rising in the decades to come, when India’s population is expected to reach 1700 million people by 2050.
[ Source : Times of India / 16 May,2011 ]
Will we succeed in growing enough food and create enough jobs for all these millions ?
May be – if we can succeed in bringing back those 4 lakh crores of black money that Baba Ramdev estimates are lying in foreign banks.
Surely,we can pass a law to declare these monies as “ National Assets “, but only problem is that the foreign banks are governed by their own national laws !
May be we should shift our focus to prevention of generation of black money in the first place.

With regards

hemen parekh

Dispose them off !

India’s Law Minister, Veerappa Moily, urges high courts to dispose off during 2011, at least 65 % of the pending cases.
That is a mere 17.7 million cases out of the 27.2 million pending cases !
If courts work for 200 days in a year, that works out to disposing off some 88,594 cases everyday.
But honorable judges dare not ask the minister,
“ Sir, can you fix an upper limit to the number of new cases that we should admit – which, currently works out to 75,774 everyday ? “
No wonder, 24 % of pending cases are 5-10 years old.
But then, proposed Lokpal Bill envisages disposal of corruption related cases within one year !
We may need 1000 Lok Ayuktas in each state !
( Source : Times of India / 11 May,2011 )

With regards

Hemen Parekh

Thou shall not spend more

Deputy Chairman of India’s Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia is in a generous mood.

He has agreed to revise the definition of “ Poor People “, as those, who cannot afford to spend more than

Ø  Rs.15/ day in rural areas ( from earlier Rs.12/day )

Ø  Rs.20/day in urban areas ( from earlier Rs. 17/day )

And he has even spelled out exactly how much they should spend on various items, as follows :

Ø  Food ………………………………….. Rs.7.25/day

Ø  Fuel  ………………………………….. Rs.2.35/day

Ø  Clothing  ……………………………. Rs.1.28/day

Ø  Education …………………………… Rs.0.62/day

Ø  Footwear  ………………………….. Rs.0.20/day

Ø  Entertainment …………………… Rs.0.22/day

Now, if this is not precise enough, he mandates that the rural poor shall manage to consume 2400 calories, by spending Rs.7.25 ( $ 0.16 ) per day on food.

Montek can earn a lot of carbon-credit by claiming that these 387 million people have zero carbon footprint !

Supreme Court judges, Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma are not amused.

They have directed Planning Commission to further revise the per capita norms of consumption.

With regards

Hemen  Parekh

Baba Ramdev and Black Money

There is no doubt that a billion Indians will support Baba Ramdev in his campaign to bring back black money.
But even if he succeeds, new black money will replace the old black money !
You cannot cure a disease by treating its symptoms.
We must find a way to “ stop “ the generation of black money in the first place.
New finance minister of West Bengal, Dr. Amit Mitra recently confirmed that out of every rupee of revenue, 35 paise goes towards interest payment on state borrowings and 58 paise goes to pay salaries of Govt. staff, leaving a measly 7 paise for development.
So the honest tax-payer is asking :
“ When I pay the government, one rupee by way of tax, I get back only 7 paise worth of infrastructure / housing / education / healthcare etc. Then why pay taxes ? Why not finance these needs directly on my own – bypassing the tax authorities ? “
And this is true of nearly all the states of India.
My suggestion :
If a tax payer invests any amount into Govt approved Special Purpose Vehicles ( SPV ), solely devoted to to create infrastructure / housing / education / healthcare etc, let that money be tax-free, with no questions asked as to its source. All the profits / dividends earned by an individual thru such investments must be made 100 % tax-free and forever .
Just imagine what an annual investment of $ 100 billion ( Rs.5 lakh crores ) on activities like these can do to our economy !
Within 5 years, it will pull-up 500 million people above the “ Poverty Line “.
My request to Baba Ramdev :
Please refocus your strategy.
With regards
hemen parekh

Crows are black everywhere

That is how an Indian proverb goes.
Indian political parties are no exception. All of them harbor politicians having criminal cases pending against them.
For a good reason too.
Apparently , a political party’s chances of winning an election , seem to be directly proportional to the number of MLAs ( Member of Legislative Assembly ) it has, having criminal cases pending against them !
Wonder why Trinmool Congress ( in West Bengal ) and AIADMK ( in Tamil Nadu ) won the recent State elections with such huge majority ?
Just look at their strength of newly elected, criminally charged MLAs :
 Trinmool Congress ………………….. 69 MLAs [ 38 % ]
 AIADMK …………………………………….. 46 MLAs [ 31 % ]
 Congress …………………………………… 17 MLAs [ 41 % ]
 DMK ……………………………………………. 7 MLAs [ 30 % ]
 CPI ( M ) …………………………………… 7 MLAs [ 18 % ]
( Source : MID DAY / 17 May, 2011 )
I would not be surprised if losing political parties are rethinking their poll strategies for next national elections !
With regards
hemen parekh

Every 5th Person ?

Times of India [ 05 May,2011 ] quotes a UN report which says, by 2030, every 5th person in the world will be an Indian.
Over the next few decades, the scenario of India’s Population / Median Age, will look like this :
 2010………….. 1.2 Billion / 25.1 years
 2050…………… 1.7 Billion / 37.2 years
 2100 …………….1.6 Billion / 45.8 years
By the turn of the century, less than half of India’s population will be working, the rest dependent on it.
It is similar situation in Middle East / Africa / Asia / the entire developing world.
Will the world’s jobless / starving millions simply march across international borders in search of food / jobs ? And can anyone / anything stop them ?
President Barack Obama did not say this in so many words but the new Mid-East Policy that he announced today hopes to prevent such a scenario by creating job opportunities everywhere.
Let us support him and hope that he succeeds.
With regards
hemen parekh

TEXT RESUMES

18 May 2011

TEXT RESUMES

Text resumes will be around for a long time. Because everyone can type.

But everyone cannot write a story or a poem.

So, there will also be a demand for expert  /  professional resume – writers, for a long time to come.

But with thousands of ( often well-written ) resumes flooding the mail-boxes of recruiters, even these get " deleted " without being opened !

Ever-increasing number of recruiters feel that graphical / visual / audio resumes have an edge over plain text resumes – prompting Human-Resource managers to patronize path-breaking job-portals such as

·     www.VisualCV.com

which inspired me to come-up with my own innovative portal

·     www.CustomizeResume.com

( it is easy to be inspired, but , at the age of  77  , difficult to implement !  )

With regards

HEMEN  PAREKH