E-currency system: an instrument of efficient governance

It has been said that this is an age of information technology. Introduction of computers and networks in the information technology have revolutionized not only the Information technology but it also made a huge impact on business world and scientific research.
But if we imagine the power of technology, we will realize that it is still underutilized. When the information will reach to fingertips of the common man and the poorest of the poor can benefit from it, then only we can say that it is an age of information technology.
Despite of the revolution in IT, we witness widespread illiteracy, inefficient public distribution systems, corrupt public administrations and growing corporate malpractices.
The IT in real terms has the power to curb all these things. There is only a need to harness its power in proper direction. For that, bold steps must be taken by our leaderships in all arenas.
E-currency system is an attempt to fully utilize the power of IT in reviving information and control system of the state. It can then be extended as a system of empowering poorest of the poor.

Problems with the current information systems
There is a time dimension to the information. The information must be available at the right time then only it is utilized efficiently. The problems with the information systems of today are that they are far from being real time systems. Governments have to manually collect the data and then manually process it. This is not only a time consuming process but also a very erroneous process. With the huge growth in population and also in the sizes of the governments and their roles as welfare states, these systems are generating the evils like corruption and unequal and imbalanced growth. The governments are far from being efficient. And this is a global phenomenon. This inefficient governance is a main culprit of depriving many people in the third world countries from right kind of knowledge and hence the technological advances in these countries are also poor which only helps them in lagging behind the world.
What is e-Governance?
In simple terms Electronic Governance can be defined as giving citizens the choice of when and where they access government information and services. While e-Governance entails the processes used to provide services to the public, e-government is the tool to accomplish e-Governance.
Putting the citizen at the center of government means taking a delivery channel view. This would mean using more and more of Electronics & Information Technology in many of the government functions.
There are three aspects to the e-Governance - a) IT enabling the government functions -something similar to back-office automation; b) Web-enabling the government functions so that the citizens will have a direct access; and c) improving Government processes so that openness, accountability, effectiveness and efficiency may be achieved.
Typically, this would mean web-enabled applications, but e-Governance would also cater to automated applications for the government sector, which helps in achieving SMART governance which some define as -
Simple
Moral
Accountable
Responsive and
Transparent Governance
According to one school of thought, e-Governance is not just about government web site and e-mail. It is not just about service delivery over the Internet. It is not just about digital access to government information or electronic payments. It will change how citizens relate to governments as much as it changes how citizens relate to each other. It will bring forth, new concepts of citizenship, both in terms of needs and responsibilities.

Is the e-governance a solution?
The solution definitely lies in e-governance. Government cannot exist or function in isolation. For a government to operate effectively, a government-community-citizen infrastructure should be in place. This would result in a sturdy and meaningful information flow between the government and citizens of a nation.
A close-knit infrastructure would yield two fold benefits, which would save time and money for
all concerned:
First, citizens can enjoy faster, effective and timely government services. This would also evolve a culture of self-service wherein citizens can help themselves wherever and whenever required.
Secondly, government can become more integrated into the community itself. Also government can focus its resources where they are needed the most. Governments across developing nations worldwide have more challenges and responsibilities to bring their nations at par with the developed nations. To face such challenges, government can bring in e-Governance reforms. E-Governance offers a new way forward, helping improve government processes, connect citizens, and build interactions with and within civil society.
What reform has e-Governance has in store? According to one school of thought, at root it provides three basic change potentials for good governance for development:
• Automation: replacing current human-executed processes, which involve accepting, storing, processing, outputting or transmitting information. For example, the automation of existing clerical functions.
• Informatisation: supporting current human-executed information processes. For example, supporting current processes of decision-making, communication, and decision implementation.
• Transformation: supporting new human-executed information processes. For example, creating new methods of public service delivery.
These change potentials, in turn, can bring – singly or in combination – five main benefits to
governance for development:
Efficiency gains:
• Governance that is cheaper: producing the same outputs at lower total cost.
• Governance that does more: producing more outputs at the same total cost.
• Governance that is quicker: producing the same outputs at the same total cost in less time.
Effectiveness gains:
• Governance that works better: producing the same outputs at the same total cost in the same time, but to a higher quality standard.
• Governance that is innovative: producing new outputs.
Hence, with e-Governance, a reinvigorated, digital-era government is at hand. When governments, citizens, and private sector partners redefine and reengage their roles, better government—better governance—will be the result.

E-Currency system
E-currency system means electronic currency system. It enables real time recording of all the monetary transactions. It also stores data of all resources including human resources and also stores the changes in their value, location etc.
It consists of centralized server (or group of servers) which stores following type of data
1. human data and data of their wealth, education and etc.
2. data of various organisations and their products ,services, human resources and raw materials used etc.
3. geographical data of all the resources.
The other component of e-currency system is pocket-size instrument (similar to mobile phone) which will be owned by every person living in the territory of the country and by every entity which gets involved in monetary transaction (like various organisations). These pocket size instruments are such that one can make monetary transactions with them and will be able to communicate these transactions to central server. It will also store the data of its owner. It will act as most necessary document which is required for the survival within the country. Thus every birth will be recorded and no illegal migrant will be able to survive in the country.
E-currency system thus is efficient accounting system. One can query the system (with the help of computers) to extract the whatever kind of information. One can send this information to anyone’s pocket size instrument . And thus it also becomes the most efficient and effective information system. Government can also use these facilities and can control the welfare activities.
It thus promises maximum transparency in the public life and ensures corruption free state.
Lets call pocket size instruments as e-currencies and the whole system as E-Currency System.

Feasibility of E-Currency System
Implementation of e-currency system is the most challenging task. But with the help of extensive requirement analysis , system analysis and system design it will be certainly a simplified effort. But before that, one must be sure about feasibility of the system. Though feasibility analysis is out of the scope of this project, it is pertinent here to discuss it in brief.
The feasibility has to be checked from two point of views:
1.Technological Feasibility
2. Socio-Economic Feasibility
Though the aim of this project is not to establish the feasibility of the e-currency system, it is pertinent to discuss it briefly.
Technological Feasiblity
The current development in the computer hardware, networking , database management technologies and wireless communication is mind boggling. We can see the growth in cell phone users. Ultimately the aim of cell phone companies is to sell their cell phones to each and every person in this country. If that is possible then the e-currency system is also possible. Current object oriented database management systems can ensure storage of vast amount of data and also its evolution in the process of time. Countries like India have extensive network setup. They also have the command over satellite communication. India is a upcoming superpower in Information technology. Considering these factors, the country like India should not face a technological problem.
Socio-Economic Feasibility
In the third world country like india, there is a huge illiterate population. One can say that this population will not be able to use e-currency. But we must remember that these illiterate people can operate TVs, Radios, Cell Phones and many other kinds of machines. These illiterate people can do their monetary transactions despite of not been able to read anything. This is an ample justification for imposing e-currency system on them. Because ultimately good governance will be the most helpful thing that can happen to them.
As per as the cost of e-currency system one must consider that india does not have a good technology to manufacture processor chips which are used in pocket-size instruments. Importing these chips and then manufacturing the pocket-size instruments is certainly an costly proposition. One must keep in mind that on current prices a cell-phone instrument costs around Rs 3000. Considering the population of around 1 billion , the project cost will become unmanageable. Therefore it is necessary to acquire microprocessor-chip technology. Once india has that technology, we can definitely be able to make such instruments by 100-300 Rs. (Considering the mass-production of billions). This definitely makes the project more viable. One can expect india acquiring such technology shortly considering the rapid research growing on this field.
India has the enough public administration setup to distribute these instruments. But the most difficult task is data-entry. Whole historical data is needed to be entered in the centralized database system. This is the task which may take years. But if managed correctly, it can open the door for large-scale employment.
Thus the e-currency system remains a very difficult system to implement. But considering the huge amount of benefits which it can bring it is desirable to implement such kind of system. Only leadership with great vision and self-belief can take such bold step to implement this system.

Assam bomb-blasts and growth of militancy

13 bomb-blasts in 4 districts of Assam killing more than 100 people and injuring more than 500 people during the festive season of Diwali and Eid shocked entire India.
Prima facie it looked like a handiwork of ULFA, a separatist organization in Assam, but eventually needle of suspicion is pointing to Bangladeshi terrorist organization Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI).
Though ULFA has categorically denied any role in serial bomb-blasts, its Bangladesh connection is well known. Today ULFA is based in Bangladesh.
Had anyone predicted this 25 years back, people would have laughed at him. This organization was established in 1979, that was a turbulent period in History of Assam. AaSU (All Assam Students Union) was agitating against Bengalis. These bengalis were mainly illegal migrants from Bangladesh and Marwari businessmen from West Bengal. Ulfa grew with this agitation. When agitation ended, ULFA took its own stance. Now it wanted separate Assam. As per ULFA, Assam was never a part of India. It started developing links with other secessionist organizations like NSCN. So now the focus of organization changed from anti-Bengali to Anti-India.
Irony was that in 1989 Bangladesh allowed ULFA to establish camps in Bangladesh. The organization established to protect Assamese interests against Bangladeshis is now under asylum of Bangladesh.
Decade of 90 in Bangladesh is marked with the growth of fundamentalist politics. Various Islamic fundamentalists organizations were formed with the help of ISI. And as a larger conspiracy to weaken India, ULFA was given full support from these organizations and ISI.
The next decade saw ULFA turning into a puppet of ISI and therefore has completely lost its base and popularity in Assam.
Though still it can not openly claim responsibility of the bomb-blasts, but definitely this is one organization which provides basic infrastructure on which Bangladeshi terrorist organizations are thieving upon.

Need for Judicial Reforms in India

Few days back a historical case was closed after 65 years. It is historical, because perhaps it was the longest running case in India.
The case was to recover money of Jaggery sold to some party which then refused to pay back. Looks like a trivial matter, isn't it? But still it took 65 damn years..the 4th generation of the petitioner got the justice(?).

This case is not an exception in our judicial system. There are so many pending cases and the least unit of time-line for closure of any case is years (and not days or months).

Here are some facts around our judicial System:
Pending cases: 25 millions
Out of which Criminal cases are: 18 million
Cases pending with Supreme court: 50000
Cases Pending the lower courts: 15 million
Yearly Increase in pending cases: 2 million

With such a dismal state of judicial system, no one expect justice from it. People think hundred time before approaching courts. There is a old proverb 'Justice Delayed, is Justice Denied". So it is not even appropriate to call our judicial system as 'Judiciary'. Because it is no longer able to deliver justice to common man.

On the contrary, this same system is being used by rich class to get away with any crime. One just need enough money to hire a good lawyer who will be able to postpone the case for years. But there is a problem if you don't have money and that is a problem of 80% of Indians. So Indians please don't expect any justice in the current system. It is not meant for you, but to protect rich class from the rule of law.

This is one side of the story. The other hand it shows the state of our society and the growing criminalization. As a society are we progressing? The answer is sad, no. The morality of society is degrading. There is no value of 'values' and ethics. The more ethical your conduct is, more is the chance that someone will fool you.

While degradation of our society is rampant, the judiciary is not ready to change. It is following the same old procedures. Even the laws need to be simplified and our legislative system should work upon that. Computerization will help a lot. If every panchayat has a facility of teleconferencing, it could be used by the courts instead of summoning people in the court. There has to a time-line for each kind of case. Each case need to handled as a project and enough resources should be allocated to it.

I think it is all about following good management practices than following old bureaucratic processes. With good management practices courts will be open more than 190 days a year, at least we can expect a norm of 225 days of work per year followed by our judiciary.

Truth of RRB exams

Recently there was controversy in Maharashtra over exams held by Railway reservation board.
MNS and Shivsena tried to protest and stop this exam. They are being criticized by entire media.
Here is a truth. Every Punjabi, Gujarati and Maharashtrian should protest

In 1976, Central home ministry created guidelines based on which the India is divided into three lingual zones

* Group A (Hindi Zone): This includes All hindi speaking states like UP, Bihar, Rajastan, Madhya-pradesh, harayana, delhi etc.
* Group B: This includes all the developed non-hindi states. Maharastra, Gujarat and Punjab (chandigarh included)
* Group C: This includes rest of the states.

Everything was going fine with this division. Each zone was conducting exam in the local language and all the schedule of all the exams used to get published in the local newspapers.

But in 1988, there was a change made in this guideline. For Zone B, Hindi was made an alternate language, making people from Zone A eligible to write exams conducted in Zone B. Also it was made clear in this guideline that the advertise of these exams will get published in the local news papers of Zone A and not in Zone B. So people in Zone B always have to rely on employment news and not on the local newspaper. Most of the time Employment news goes out of circulation. So many people in Zone B miss the exams.

Shivsena is fighting for it since 1988. But no one listen to them. The national media is biased. Hence now Shivsena is coming on roads since last 3-4 years on this. This treatment is unjust for all people in Punjab, Gujrat and Maharashtra.
Everyone should protest against these regulations.

Article 370

article 370 was introduced to abide by the terms of J&K's accession. The accession of J&K was conditional.
India desperately wanted to prove 2-nation theory wrong and wanted a muslim majority region under its fold, also the strategic significance of Kashmir and willingness of Kashmiri leaders to have separate state for themselves (under protection of India) were the main reasons why India went ahead for accession of J&K.
When Instrument of Accession was signed, constitution of India was not ready. As per clause 7 of the Instrument of Accession, J&K was not committed to accept the future Constitution of India.
In 1949 november when all the princely state heads and provincial heads of Indian dominion were supposed to issue proclaimations making Constitution of India operative in their respective states and provinces, J&K refused such proclaimation refering to the clause 7 of Instrument of Accession. This is because the draft form of constitution refused separate constitutions for the states and J&K always wanted their own separate constitution.
There was a legal imbroglio in this situation, the accession issue was already with united nations and in such situations India has to abide by its promise. This lead to Article 306-A of the draft Constitution of India (which became article 370 in the actaul constitution).
Considering the overall situation prevalent, Article 370 was a major step forward at that time. The Article at least paved the way for the Republic of India to make several laws and provisions of the Constitution of India applicable to Jammu & Kashmir State beyond the strait jacket of the Instrument of Accession. Besides, Article 370 was conceived as a temporary arrangement, with hopes of a full integration in time to come.

Prime Minister Manamohan Singh on Nuclear Deal

What is the nuclear agreement about? It is all about widening our development options, promoting energy security in a manner which will not hurt our precious environment and which will not contribute to pollution and global warming.


India needs to grow at the rate of at least ten per cent per annum to get rid of chronic poverty, ignorance and disease which still afflict millions of our people. A basic requirement for achieving this order of growth is the availability of energy, particularly electricity. We need increasing quantities of electricity to support our agriculture, industry and to give comfort to our householders. The generation of electricity has to grow at an annual rate of 8 to 10 per cent.


Now, hydro-carbons are one source of generating power and for meeting our energy requirements. But our production of hydro-carbons both of oil and gas is far short of our growing requirements. We are heavily dependent on imports. We all know the uncertainty of supplies and of prices of imported hydro-carbons.


We have to diversify our sources of energy supply.



We have large reserves of coal but even these are inadequate to meet all our needs by 2050. But more use of coal will have an adverse impact on pollution and climate. We can develop hydro-power and we must. But many of these projects hurt the environment and displace large number of people. We must develop renewable sources of energy particularly solar energy. But we must also make full use of atomic energy which is a clean environment friendly source of energy. All over the world, there is growing realization of the importance of atomic energy to meet the challenge of energy security and climate change.


India's atomic scientists and technologists are world class. They have developed nuclear energy capacities despite heavy odds. But there are handicaps which have adversely affected our atomic energy programme. First of all, we have inadequate production of uranium. Second, the quality of our uranium resources is not comparable to those of other producers.Third, after the Pokharan nuclear test of 1974 and 1998 the outside world has imposed embargo on trade with India in nuclear materials, nuclear equipment and nuclear technology. As a result, our nuclear energy programme has suffered. Some twenty years ago, the Atomic Energy Commission had laid down a target of 10000 MW of electricity generation by the end of the twentieth century. Today, in 2008 our capacity is about 4000 MW and due to shortage of uranium many of these plants are operating at much below their capacity.


The nuclear agreement that we wish to negotiate will end India's nuclear isolation, nuclear apartheid and enable us to take advantage of international trade in nuclear materials, technologies and equipment. It will open up new opportunities for trade in dual use high technologies opening up new pathways to accelerate industrialization of our country. Given the excellent quality of our nuclear scientists and technologists, I have reasons to believe that in a reasonably short period of time, India would emerge as an important exporter of nuclear technologies, and equipment for civilian purposes.


When I say this I am reminded of the visionary leadership of Shri Rajiv Gandhi who was a strong champion of computerization and use of information technologies for nation building. At that time, many people laughed at this idea. Today, information technology and software is a sun-rise industry with an annual turnover soon approaching 50 billion US dollars. I venture to think that our atomic energy industry will play a similar role in the transformation of India's economy.


The essence of the matter is that the agreements that we negotiate with USA, Russia, France and other nuclear countries will enable us to enter into international trade for civilian use without any interference with our strategic nuclear programme. The strategic programme will continue to be developed at an autonomous pace determined solely by our own security perceptions. We have not and we will not accept any outside interference or monitoring or supervision of our strategic programme. Our strategic autonomy will never be compromised. We are willing to look at possible amendments to our Atomic Energy Act to reinforce our solemn commitment that our strategic autonomy will never be compromised.


I confirm that there is nothing in these agreements which prevents us from further nuclear tests if warranted by our national security concerns. All that we are committed to is a voluntary moratorium on further testing. Thus the nuclear agreements will not in any way affect our strategic autonomy. The cooperation that the international community is now willing to extend to us for trade in nuclear materials, technologies and equipment for civilian use will be available to us without signing the NPT or the CTBT.


This I believe is a measure of the respect that the world at large has for India, its people and their capabilities and our prospects to emerge as a major engine of growth for the world economy. I have often said that today there are no international constraints on India's development. The world marvels at our ability to seek our social and economic salvation in the framework of a functioning democracy committed to the rule of law and respect for fundamental human freedoms. The world wants India to succeed. The obstacles we face are at home, particularly in our processes of domestic governance.


I wish to remind the House that in 1998 when the Pokharan II tests were undertaken, the Group of Eight leading developed countries had passed a harsh resolution condemning India and called upon India to sign the NPT and CTBT. Today, at the Hokkaido meeting of the G-8 held recently in Japan, the Chairman's summary has welcomed cooperation in civilian nuclear energy between India and the international community. This is a measure of the sea change in the perceptions of the international community our trading with India for civilian nuclear energy purposes that has come about in less than ten years.


Our critics falsely accuse us, that in signing these agreements, we have surrendered the independence of foreign policy and made it subservient to US interests. In this context, I wish to point out that the cooperation in civil nuclear matters that we seek is not confined to the USA. Change in the NSG guidelines would be a passport to trade with 45 members of the Nuclear Supplier Group which includes Russia, France, and many other countries.


We appreciate the fact that the US has taken the lead in promoting cooperation with India for nuclear energy for civilian use. Without US initiative, India's case for approval by the IAEA or the Nuclear Suppliers Group would not have moved forward.


But this does not mean that there is any explicit or implicit constraint on India to pursue an independent foreign policy determined by our own perceptions of our enlightened national interest. Some people are spreading the rumours that there are some secret or hidden agreements over and above the documents made public. I wish to state categorically that there are no secret or hidden documents other than the 123 agreement, the Separation Plan and the draft of the safeguard agreement with the IAEA. It has also been alleged that the Hyde Act will affect India's ability to pursue an independent foreign policy. The Hyde Act does exist and it provides the US administration the authorization to enter into civil nuclear cooperation with India without insistence on full scope safeguards and without signing of the NPT. There are some prescriptive clauses but they cannot and they will not be allowed to affect in any way the conduct of our foreign policy. Our commitment is to what has been agreed in the 123 Agreement. There is nothing in this Agreement which will affect our strategic autonomy or our ability to pursue an independent foreign policy. I state categorically that our foreign policy, will at all times be determined by our own assessment of our national interest. This has been true in the past and will be true in future regarding our relations with big powers as well as with our neighbours in West Asia, notably Iran, Iraq, Palestine and the Gulf countries.


We have differed with the USA on their intervention in Iraq. I had explicitly stated at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC in July 2005 that intervention in Iraq was a big mistake. With regard to Iran, our advice has been in favour of moderation and we would like that the issues relating to Iran's nuclear programme which have emerged should be resolved through dialogue and discussions in the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency.


I should also inform the House that our relations with the Arab world are very good. Two years ago, His Majesty, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was the Chief Guest at our Republic Day. More recently, we have played host to the President of Iran, President of Syria, the King of Jordan, the Emir of Qatar and the Emir of Kuwait. With all these countries we have historic civilisational and cultural links which we are keen to further develop to our mutual benefit. Today, we have strategic relationship with all major powers including USA, Russia, France, UK, Germany, Japan, China, Brazil, Nigeria and South Africa. We are Forging new partnerships with countries of East Asia, South East Asia and Africa.

Swiss bank reports

As per the recent survey, the biggest customers of swiss banks are Indians. Indians have kept $1400+ billion dollars and topped the list followed by our traditional friends Russians who kept $750+ in swiss account.

This shows the amount of undisclosed black money in India and Russia.

foreign tours of ministers

Just read a news about the amount spent in the foreign tour of our PM. It cost 120 crore rupees to our economy in 2005-06.
Is it really worth spending so much of money?
We have become a democracy, where in we elect and then pay political leaders to exploit us.

Deficit in food supply

After a long time, India is facing scarcity of Wheat and Rice. Despite having good mansoons since last four years, this situation has arised. What are the reasons.
The reasons are political. For that one should know how the public distribution system works in India.
The agiculture is a state subject. Whatever surplus production of cereals take place in State, it becomes a responsibility of the state to make this surplus available to the public distribution system of our Country. But the states which do not have Congress or its ally in power did not contribute to the PDS. Same is the case of states ruled by the left parties. Now these states are the traditional suppliers of wheat and rice to the country. It is unfortunate that the politics has creeeped in such vital national issue. It's a really shameful situation. Therefore Government of India has to procure a third grade wheat from Australia and it gave a political weapon for opposition and left parties.
Now when union PDS minister Sharad Pawar declared in parliament the contributions made by the states ruled by opposition and left parties to the PDS, the real issue came to forefront.
With the changing food consumption patterns the demand of wheat and rice is increasing all over the India, the politics between the BJP led NDA, Left parties and Congress has aggravated the situation. India is really in the hands of third grade politicians. Unfortunately the media is also not interested in bringing such issues to the forefront. The people of India are really not well informed about the government machinery and the way it functions. The media is doing too little to change this.

Stock market fluctuations:Signal to Indian organized sector.

For quite a few days now, the stock market indices are fluctuating like the voltage fluctuations in rural India. At the same time the gold prices are increasing constantly. But Indian economy as such looks stable and its prospects of good show are nowhere deterred. What is this phenomenon?
For some years now Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) invested heavily in the Indian stock market, thanks to the growth of our organized sector. But the just the investments can not lead to high growth of sector; there is a limit up to which growth is possible but beyond that the environmental factors play major roles. Hence to persist with a same growth rate is difficult even if you have enough funds and liquidity in the market. To achieve further growth of our organized sector, the environmental factors like taxation system, transport, communication and other social-infrastructure like law and order, education, training and health sector should also progress. These factors are limiting the potential of growth of Indian organized sector. It has reached to a saturation point and after this it can either decline or remain stable.
The FIIs do not prefer such situation, they want higher returns. Hence they go out of the stock market. This has widespread effect on small investors and speculators which causes panic in the stock market and share prices fall down. With lower prices, the bigger investors again jump into the fray increasing the share prices. This continues. This ripples in the share market, are enough to lose trust of the ordinary investors, who then prefer to invest into Gold as it is more reliable and stable investment option.
The Indian economy still looks good, because still the contribution of the organized sector in the Indian economy is much less. And looks like plane of our economy has already made a take-off and it is on auto-pilot. Now it is only going to fly unless some accident takes place. It just needs good economic environment. It’s high time now that government should start thinking of clearing this economic environment instead of trying to control the plane of our economy otherwise the Hindu rate of growth will prevail again.

Tribute to Indian HE-MAN

The year 2007 marked the comeback of Dharam paaji with consecutive 3 hits...Metro, Apne and johny Gaddar..
He is the only one hero who could play all kind of roles and succeed in all of them.
Come 1971..two movies were released on the same day...Naya Jamana and Mera Gaon Mera Des..two entirely different genre of movies and both were super hit...That was the charisma of Dharamji...Such was his screen-presence, he used to make every frame real. Remember him in the song "Hum bewafa..hargiz na the..." from Shalimar. His close-ups bring a kind of sadness to the entire frame. His personality had no limitations. Right from the uneducated loafer, truck-driver, jambura to highly qualified engineer, doctor, pilot, inspector he made characters look real.
Winner of Filmfare talent hunt in 1957, he was supposed to work with Bimal Roy and Guru Dutt...Bimal Roy offered him film like Bandini, but the movie with Guru dutt could never kick-off. But he learned a lot from both of these legends. Till 1966 he appeared in the films like Dil Bhi Tera Hum Bhi Tere (1960), Boyfriend (1961), Shola aur Shabnam (1961), Soorat Aur Seerat (1962), Shaadi (1962), Anpadh (1962), Begaana (1963), Bandini (1963), Pooja Ke Phool (1964), Mera Qasoor Kya Hai (1964), Main Bhi Ladki Hoon (1964), Ganga Ki Lahren (1964), Aayee Milan ki Bela (1964), Haqeeqat (1964), Aap Ki Parchhaiyan (1964), Purnima (1965), Neela Aakash (1965), Kaajal (1965),Chand Aur Suraj (1965), Akashdeep (1965), Mohabbat Zindagi Hai (1966), Mamta (1966), Dil Ne Phir Yaad Kiya (1966), Devar (1966), Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi (1966), Aaye Din Bahar Ke (1966). Majority of these films were woman oriented films with Bengali background and Dharemndra used to play a modern liberal Bengali intellentsia who eventually protect the leading lady from the social atrocities. Some films like Aayee Milan ki bela and Haqeeqat were exceptions. In Aayee Milan ki bela he played a negative role which was well appreciated and he got more sympathi from the crowd than the actual hero of the film. Haqeeqat was the film made by Chetan Anand and Dharmendra got a very good role in it. Though he did not have any song in this movie, he left his impression on the movie.
His struggle continued till 1966 when his path-breaking film Phool and Pathar was released. The role of Shaka, gave him his first nomination for filmfare best actor...those were the days when there use to be only three nominations and only one award :), the other two nominated were Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand. Dev Anand got the Award for Guide, but Dharmendra did not lose heart from that..He continued his good work with the films like Anupama, Aankhen, Yakeen, Baazi, Shikar, Izzat, Aya Sawan Jhoom Ke, Satyakam, Aadami Aur Insaan, Jeevan Mrityu, Guddi, Naya Jamana, Mera Gaon Mera Des, Yaadon Ki Baaraat..etc.
When the Storm of Rajesh Khanna swept the Industry, the only one who survived from it was Dharmendra. He had his own place in Industry and was considered Hero number one between 1972- 1975. This was the period when he did Jugnu, Pratigya, Seeta aur Gita, Kahani Kismat ki, Chupke Chupke, Sholay and many more hits...
By the time Sholay released he was already 40. He still continued his good work between 1975-82 with Charas, Dost, Blackmail, Azaad,Dream Girl, Shaalimar, Ram-Balram, The burning Train etc.
In the decade of 80’s he transformed himself in the role of He-Man. With the growing age he could not do the same romantic movies and hence he extended his career by doing many excellent action films like Bazi, Rajput, Raj Tilak, Gajab, Ghulami, Batwara, Hukumat, Loha. His films like Ghulami and Batwara are considered as classic films on Social issues like feudalism in India. With the film like Naukar Biwi Ka, he started a new genre of time-pass comedy movies which was later continued by Govinda.
Decade of 90s seen him retire from the A-grade movies. He did lot of movies in this period, but they were only for the purpose helping the small film makers. His films used to be hit in the Rural north india. But this made a very bad impression of him on the new generation, which now started considering Dharmendra as a hero of bad films...
From 2000-2005 Dharmendra was in semi-retirement phase. Then he relaunched himself with the film ’Kis Kis ki Kismat’ which was a flop, but 2007 he came back strongly with 3 consecutive hits.
I wish he continue his good work as a Character Artist on the model of Ashok kumar. Dharmendra has still lot to offer to this film industry, provided his potential is tapped properly. Despite of his some great performances, I think his best is yet to come. And as he himself said in Johny Gaddar..
"It’s not age, but the mileage...."

IPL Auctions

In IPL auctions, cricketers were sold and there was a huge hue and cry all over. Right from common man to Balasaaheb Thakare everyone expressed their rage over these auctions.
Our Cricketers are commodities which sell in the market. It was clear from the days when Ganguly first did Coke advertise and then shifted to Pepsi. But the IPL auctions have brought this fact more vividly to the forefront and suddenly everyone realised what is going on.
Accumulating wealth is not a bad thing if it is earned through a correct means. Apparently The cricketers are earning them through their skills and hardwork. But if we go to the root of this money, we will find who are paying this money, the companies or indian consumer.
The companies who have paid such huge sum of money to these players want to promote their brand on the pretext of serving cricket. Though they will enlarge their market presence through it, this costly advertsing will increase the cost of their products/services. This cost will have to be beared by the ordinary consumners.
So cricket will become more popular, but we should remember that we are paying for it, for our national obsession and not BCCI or any sponsor.

Raj Thakare Episode: The larger picture

Raj Thakarey's agitation against north indians in Maharshtra was criticized heavily by everyone right from the pseudo-intellectual news media like times of india/ndtv/cnn-ibn to the psuedo-dashing media like aaj-tak, ibn-7, star-news,india-tv etc..
But unfortunately no-one has even taken a notice of the fact that Raj Thakarey got the support from common Maharashtrian people. Is it the indicator that the most progressive state of India is facing a social mass-paranoia?
Let's analyze the scenario.
There is a nation who adopted federal polity. Some states are developed while some are underdeveloped. The underdeveloped states remained underdeveloped not because of the lack of natural resources, but because of the gross mis-management, corruption and social issues. The people from such underdeveoped states migrated to the developed states. The developed state was pretty liberal and already had a sizeable amount of rich class people who are immigrants and the native people of those developed states are mainly into manual labour and unskilled jobs. As the influx of people from underdeveloped states increased, the competition in this labour class people increased. The immigrants live in slum illegally with extremley low standard of living and hence are less costly.
Slowly these migrants start displacing the natives and many native become unemployed. As the size of the migrants increased, the natives become restless.
On the backdrop of this situation, the politicians from the underdeveloped states start increasing their presence in the developed states considering the high number of migrants. These politicians want to polorize the immigrants and to convert them into their vote bank. And for that purpose they incite the immigrant community by distributing weapons.
They receive a strong reaction from the politician who is trying to establish himself in the state politics. Both are successful now. In this fight the immgrant and native communities get polorized. The law and order situation becomes serious. Since the natives are in huge numbers and immigrnats are minority, the immigrants suffer badly in this conflict.
The politicians from both side daily take care of fiercing this battle by issueing new statements. And the media who considers itself equivalent to judiciary, has already passed a judgement putting the native maharashtrian people in bad light.
No one even remotely reckoned that their exists an issue due to which there is a widespread recentment in the native people of maharashtra. The economic issue is important and also important are several other issues.
Cultuarally maharashtra is going through a kind of downfall wherein marathi language is suffering a lot. Once the rich in literature/sports/theatre/music with some stalwarts like V.Shantaram, Lata Mangeshkar, Sunil Gavaskar,Tendulkar,Shirwaadkar, p.l.deshpande and many others have created very high level of standards which the modern day marathi literature, cinema, theatre, sports, music are not able to match. The western culture and literature has started dominating marathi minds and has literally overwhelmed them. Natives started losing their faith in Marathi language and maharshtrian culture. Though they can not express that social feeling openly and hence entire maharshtra is in state of cultural anxiety.
Examine maharshtrian in this state. On top of that they started facing the unemployment issues due to growing influx of North Indians into the state making the natives unemployed.
That's the reason why Raj got such overwhelming support from the common people of Maharshtra.
Though Raj is using these sentiments in his favour, people of India should understand these sentiments and should not take comfort in just criticizing Raj.
This issue is widespread. Since the Raj Thakarey is soft target (and even he wanted the reaction from north indian politicians), all the North Indian politicians right from Mulayamsingh to Laloo Prasad raised voice against him. Where were these leaders when more that 500 biharis were killed in Assam, Punjab, Kashmir during last 2-3 years and where was media and what was its verdict on that?
The main issue is not whether Raj is correct or not, but the main issue is why is he getting support? If we did not address this issue, we will find several Raj Thakares emerge from different regions of India.