It has been a long time since I came on to add a new blog. Just read the budget and could not resist to type out this blog. This is a new phrase on nowadays - "India and Bharat". This it seems is a new way found out by the politicians of fooling the Indians. What did we see as one of the surprising highlight of the budget? Eradication of all slums in 5 years? It happens only in India - governments that make such announcements and a population which believes in these. For more than 50 years the government indirectly did everything to see that the slums come up.... the so-called vote banks which are often in limelite during election time. Last week, I travelled from Mumbai airport to our Goregaon factory with a couple of German colleagues. It is not the first time that I have been with foreigners in Mumbai but this time around it felt very strange to note the fact that in the entire strech of about 10-12 km, it was slums which were everywhere. And thats what we call the financial capital of India? People talk of China and India. Last month I was in Beijing and before that in Shanghai. From what I saw I can tell that apart from the mastery on English language and the IT and Engineering skills, India is far behind China - especially when it comes to infrastructure. They have highways that would not get crowded for the next 10 years. We have roads that are built 10 years after the feasibility reports are submitted. They have power generation as a major task for nation building. We are moving from 4 hour power cuts to 6 hours or 8 hours!! They built infrastructure like airports and railways which will connect them to the developed world and also take them one step closer to it. We build everything to grab votes - Janata rail, freebies to passengers and so on. SIngapore airlines staff took a voluntary cut in pay though the company reported profit. Air India staff threatened to go on strike inspite of a huge loss and a pathetic service level. What does all this show? It only proves that a country's people get a government that it deserves!! We always think of income tax reliefs when the budget is announced and we get it. We tolerate bad roads, drainages, power cuts, water cuts and hence we hardly get anything on those fronts. Then we say that is Bharat and what actually we want to have is India. Just a play of words. Majority government or alliance government - they are all of the same feather.
Long-live Bharat alias India!!
Atul
7th July 2009 - Singapore
3 Comments
Kaustubh
8/2/2009 02:44:49 pm
Very well said !!
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Kaustubh
8/2/2009 03:08:59 pm
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/M0XTPSYdP08&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/M0XTPSYdP08&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
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Kaustubh
8/2/2009 03:11:48 pm
I was trying to embed the video..in this section
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Atul BivalkarI am a Mechanical Engineer with a passion for travel, reading and music. Forts in India, different religious philosophies, history in general are topics close to my heart. Categories
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