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Showing posts from January, 2024

Budget: Known Unknowns

  Today the was the most important day in lives of 12.3 Lacs JEE aspirants This year's Joint Entrance Examination JEE Main 2024 set a new record with  12.3 Lacs  aspirants for the January session, surpassing last year's cumulative (January and April) registration by nearly 68,000. Compared to the first session in 2023, there's an increase of 3.7 Lacs applicants. February 1st will be the most important day in the lives of 7.86 Cr. ITR filing Indian Citizen's Union Finance Minister  Nirmala Sitharaman  will present the Interim Budget 2024-25 on  February 1 . The full budget for FY25 will be presented after the formation of the new government following the general elections. The IT Department, in their press release celebrated the highest number of ITRs filled which almost doubled in 10 years, for a country which is  the most populous country in the world with one-sixth of the world's population. According to UN estimates, India overtook China in having the largest pop

Coach-innings Over or In

 It's 4am and the alarms go-up in the neighbouring flats on either side of my apartment complex, the frenzy of activity is visible in the study rooms and kitchen, this follows the late nights in the study room. I bumped into the kids in the evening, while coming back from work, which was a bit late, I asked them why are they carrying the bag full of books, they replied, that they are coming back from coaching centre after a 12 hour session, with 2 hour travel time makes it a 14 hour shift with loads of home work to finish before they call it a nigh the and the alarm goes up again. This is the routine of most of the kids, from their 7th standard in few cases and from 9th standard in most cases,  their childhood, teenage is engaged in books, mocks, preps, exams and solving papers. Few even do not have time to pick up life skills and social skills. Why this mad rush, there is peer pressure kids within the group, pressure from parents and as peer parental pressure to get the ward into

Social Media platforms and citizen Policing a Boon or a Bane for Police endeavours

If you are from Bangalore, you would have received a whatsapp message seeking support in searching a missing 12 year old boy (Not taking his name) I received the first message on January 21st in the evening in my apartment community whatsapp group, the boy was missing from the coaching centre in Whitefield and was spotted in that area walking alone and has left the coaching centre alone instead of waiting for the parents to pick up, which was the routine. Then the same message I received in 8 other groups in Bangalore, the next day, got a message with the latest finding of the boy and the chase he was giving the parents, police and citizen volunteers who were searching for him in the vicinity, going through volumes of street camera videos, this turned into a massive chase as he managed to dodge the search party twice. The chatter in all groups with possible solutions and assumptions were running high, across 9 groups. Towards day two in the afternoon, I received another message to join

Insure to ensure a billion GIG-a-Workers

When India woke-up to life and freedom, after the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world was asleep. It has a long list challenges before it to address as a nation, which fought for years, now had to plan, provision, account for the population which has dreams and aspirations. The first was job creation, to spur the economy and be sulf sufficient a focussed industrialisation plan was laid and the government offices were in hiring spree, with thys came the need to provision for welfare of employees, this have birth to Employee State Insurance corporation was incorporated in 1947 to provide Employees State Insurance for people working in Industries and organised employment. This has been the most attractive lever across industries to attract human resources, this was a social security cover / measure of the government. This has taken many shapes and forms, today this caters to organisations with more than 10 employees and in scope are employees earning less than Rs. 21,000/- per mon

Dump the Dump yard

During this week, I happened to visit Indiranagar 100 FT road a couple of times, and I was reminded of the Mankhurd - Thane road in Mumbai. The Kanpur tannery stench and specific odors came back, and my natural reaction was to reach out for my handkerchief and cover my nose. For those of you who are not from Bengaluru, Indiranagar is a high street featuring the best brands in retail, investment banking, and all consumer businesses. The locality also houses traditional large houses, burgeoning startup office spaces, and a few IT parks. The stench was so strong that it lingered in the senses for a few more kilometers. I learned that the reason behind this was two events happening simultaneously: 1. The sewage pipeline broke due to road expansion, and 2. The local garbage collection area, situated in the heart of the locality, had not transported the waste to the landfill in the city outskirts due to a long festive weekend, leading to an increase in the waste collected. The world generate

My Confession on My Tryst with Public Policy

During my visit to the recently held Bengaluru Tech Fest, to meet and network with Tech enthusiast, founders and thought leaders, I was moving from each kiosk to other, understanding the innovation in the Tech space and the way it is changing the lives, processes and every aspect of human civilisation. I wanted know how the Tech is pivoting the businesses. The passion and spark in each of the participant at the kiosk representing her or his idea, was infectious, the zeal to change the world and lead the country to be a flag bearer of tech innovation.  As I passed through various kiosks, I saw the kiosk of Takshsahila, the name intrigued me, I had briefly read about the institute in the past and has seen the office once, when I visited the neighbouring organisation. I was curious to know what they were doing and trying to showcase at the Tech Fest. Here, I was greeted by Carl, who slipped in a captivating sun kissed flyer with details on their flagship program GCCP (Graduate Certificate