Since the founding of TakingITGlobal in 1999, I have been incredibly inspired by my interactions with thousands of young change makers from all around the world. Through my Masters Research on youth-led action in an international context along with exposure to other studies and international conferences examining the role of today's generation of youth as change agents, I have gained an important observation. My observation is that I have seen the emergence of Six Archetypes of Youth Change Makers, which provide a glance at the roles young people are taking on in the process of creating change.


The Dreamer

The Dreamer is the driver behind new ideas. Dreamers are often the first to articulate a long-term vision for the future and think big. It is the sense of aspiration, optimism and imagination of dreamers that drive progress, innovation and change.

The Megaphone

The Megaphone is a vocal advocate for change. Megaphones are very focused on delivering the message and will campaign tirelessly and work hard to lobby for a message to be heard. They inspire action through their words and help to shift priorities on the agenda.

The Spark Plug

The Spark Plug is a catalyst and has a gift for networking and connecting people. The Spark Plug is able to foster collaborations and bring many different organizations and individuals together in dialogue, convincing diverse interest groups to come together for a common goal.

The Task Master

The Task Master is often behind the scenes making things happen and is sometimes the under-rated player within a group or organization. Often, it is the Task Master who literally keeps things together by turning ideas into manageable tasks with actionable timelines. Task Masters are practical, objective-oriented individuals.

The Sherpa

The Sherpa serves as a guide who provides mentorship, insight and training through peer education. Sherpas are natural educators with a strong interest in learning and sharing knowledge. Sherpas value hands on experiences and are able to draw upon the expertise and resources of those they encounter.

The Storyteller

The Storyteller is often the documenter of an organization and its projects, preparing short stories, interviews, blogs, webcasts newsletters and more. Storytellers become a vehicle for spreading inspiration and sharing of best practices through identifying patterns and strengthening movements through recognizing exceptional individuals.

Regional Educational Imbalance

The southern and western states are in the forefront of educational development in India. Now it is reaching such a flashpoint that higher educational institutes are popping up everywhere. Is this going to create heavy migration of students?


Hemali Chhapla writes in The Times of India “A common wisecrack among engineering aspirants in Andra Pradesh is that every second building in the state is an engineering college. It may cease to be a joke when institutes dishing out management and engineering degrees start mushrooming all over the country.

Global depression may have taken the wind out of campus placements but the rush for starting professional institutions is at an all time high. Data from the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) shows that the dash to start professional colleges is more pronounced when it comes to engineering and management as compared to other streams like pharmacy, hotel management and catering technology or architecture.

AICTE has received 886 applications for starting engineering colleges and 1,084 applications for new anagement institutes. Fie states – Tamil Nadu, Andra Pradesh, Maharastra, Karnataka and Kerala – account for 69% of engineering graduates , implying that they also have most of India’s engineering colleges

Rush year
States Engineering MBA
Existing Fresh Existing Fresh
Maharashtra 239 85 216 160
MP 161 50 63 80
Tamil Nadu 352 144 158 41
AP 527 176 255 209
UP 241 83 213 214
Haryana 116 38 66 47
Across India 2388 886 1516 1084

Source: AICTE. Fresh applications are for colleges from academic year 2009-10

Five Indian sties – Tamil Nadu, Andra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala – account for almost 69% of the country’s engineering graduates, implying that these states also have most of India’s engineering colleges.

This year, too, most applications for starting new institutes have come from these states, making educationists worry about a high regional imbalance creepin in; states like UP, Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Orissa together account for a measly 14% of Indian’s technological colleges.

Colleges that receive a nod by June 30 will be allowed to start classes this academic year itself; so officials expect even more applications to pour in.

Several academicians feel quality is losing out in the race to expand seats. “Can the country boast of even 100 engineering colleges that impart cutting-edge education?” asked a principal of Pune engineering college.
“So what is the point in a thousand new colleges every year? He asked. Part of the problem lies in the fact that most trusts running professional colleges are backed by politicians who pay little attention to quality, he added.

But the AICTE feels that meeting the massive demand for professional education is imperative. Twenty years ago, merely one per cent of a aspiring engineers got a seat.
Now nearly 70% manage to find a place, note AICTE officials, “It may come as a surprise but very few engineering seats wee left vacant last year”. AICTE chairman R.A.Yadav told TOI. “There is also a yawning gap between management aspirants and the number of seats in Indian B-schools.

“But how many management schools boast of full campus placement? And are even 30% of MBA institutes accredited by the NBA (National Board of Accreditation) asked an IIM-Bangalore faculty member.

Increasing the existing number of professional colleges is a must. In a view of the galloping population and raising educational aspirations of people more availability of higher educational institutes are must. But not by compromising the quality of the education offered.

Guesses were in the air. Whether Pranab Mukherjee, the acting Prime Minister and finance minister will unveil a voter populist interim budget? Contrary to the popular expectations he just presented the economic scenario and expenditure statement. In the past most of the heavy loaded interim budgets got backfired. The government which presented voter-centric interim budgets got defeated. This may be the dampener on the UPA dispensation. Nevertheless the politics of budget presentation was much stronger than any astrological calculations.

Sudipto Mundle writes in The Times of India (17.2.2009, p.20), reacting to the great bull run in US markets a few years ago, Allan Greenspan famously remarked that the market displayed ‘irrational exuberance’. Today it is tempting to misquote Greenspan that our our markets are suffering from ‘irrational pessimism’. The sensex dropped by about 3 per cent and the Nifty too headed down, while Pranab Mukherjee was still reading his Budget speech.

The Interim Budget is more a stock taking, along with expenditure proposals for parliamentary approval to keep the government running till the regular Budget by the next government. But even in such an exercise, which is by design underwhelming, there are a few important points worth noting. We had hoped in these columns earlier, as had others, that the government would temporarily shelve the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act. This has been done. The government has provided a huge fiscal stimulus during the fiscal 2008-09 amounting to over Rs.1,93,000 crore or 4.5 per cent of GDP over and above what was envisaged in last year’s Budget, which already provided for a deficit of over Rs.1,33,000 crore.

The true fiscal stimulus must include not only what was announced under the two packages in December 208 and January 2009, but also the expenditure under the two supplementary demands for grants approved by Parliament last September and December. It is another matter that these supplementary demands made up for the creative under provisioning of some known items of expenditure in last year’s Budget to remain within the fiscal parameters of the FRBM. The total consolidated deficit for 2008-09, including the actual budget deficit of the central government (6 per cent), the state governments (3.5 per cent) and some off-budget items such as the additional contingent liability for oil and fertilizer bonds (1.8 per cent), amounts to over 11.5 per cent of GDP or nearly Rs.6,26,000 crore.

It is this massive fiscal stimulus combined with sustained monetary stimulus measures from the RBI, that have kept the Indian economy chugging along at 6-7 per cent growth, even as most of the developed world has gone into a deep recession. It has also helped to arrest the free fall of stock market and the depreciation of the rupee. Conventional wisdom suggests that to be successful, such stimulus packages have to be timely, targeted and temporary. With these measures having come within a few weeks of the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, and with much of the stimulus directed at the worst affected sectors – exports, infrastructure, real estate, transport – the government and the central bank have clearly passed the first two tests.

But what does the Interim Budget have to tell us about the future? It provides for a central government deficit of 5.5 per cent in 2009-10, though Mukherjee indicated that this could rise by a further 1 per cent. Adding to that 3.5 per cent deficit of state governments, and possibly some further off-budget provisions, 2009-10 could also end up with a massive deficit of 10-11 per cent. Coming on top of the huge stimulus this year, this could indeed go a long way in pump priming demand, compensating for the loss in export demand from developed countries. Moreover, much of the additional spending is targeted at infrastructure, employment programmes and education and health programmes.

However, the question is how this massive deficit will be financed. The large government borrowing this year has crowded out the private sector. This is why interest-rates have not come down substantially, and banks are still shy of lending to private borrowers despite all the policy measures taken by the RBI. If next year’s deficit too is to be financed by market borrowing, that could be bad news for the private sector, and severely put at risk the recovery of private investment.

It is important, therefore, that a large part of the deficit be monetized .e financed by government borrowing from the RBI which prevents RBI financing of government deficits. The finance secretary did indicate that something of this kind may be in the offing. Low inflation minimizes the risk of inflationary pressures arising from the consequent increase in money supply. The shelving of the FRBM and the putting on hold of the MoU with RBI would set aside the two key anchors of prudence that have guided fiscal policy in recent years However, exceptional times require exceptional measures.

That being, said, it has to be added that abandoning fiscal prudence is fraught with risk, as we have learned to our cost in the past. Hence the third test of the stimulus, that it must be temporary. The fiscal and monetary stimuli are like major shocks being applied now to revive the economy. Research shows that the lag generated by such shocks being applied now to revive the economy.

Research shows that the lag generated by such shocks can last for years, making the recover itself fragile. It is imperative that the fiscal and monetary breaks be applied as soon as the economy returns to a high growth path. As Mukherjee indicated, strong fiscal and monetary compression, return to the FRBM regime and the MoU with RBI must remain high priorities. Hopefully, recovery will occur by 2010, so the fiscal consolidation can be initiated within the first half of the next government’s tenure, before the compulsions of the next electoral cycle take over.

Wisely the UPA government had presented the economic scenario as the interim budget. Without stirring the hornet’s nest it has moved to face the electoral battle. It is true that major decisions can be announced few days before the election code of conduct comes into force. In that sense one has wait for the last minute to see the government’s mood to restructure the economy. Anyway, decision without many controversies affecting public lives with adequate coalition arithmetic can win elections. One can assume that the government is steering the no controversy ship rather than high pro activity with controversies. This cool and calm may win another term for UPA not its ability to put the economy on the high speed track.

Everyone is in a hurry. No one knows where they are heading. This speed breaker free world is dangerous. Money, career, achievements, promotions ----- there is no end to the human desires. But at the end of the day those high end chasers are not happy. They are anywhere and everywhere but without happiness. After the recession they have added financial worry to their kitty of troubles. Are we in the right direction?

Sadhu Vishwamurtidas writes in The Times of India (17.2.2009 p.20)“ The best of countries and corporations are so because they have the best of budgets. Hence the concern over the national budget. However, if people spent as much time worrying about their domestic budget as they did about the national one, globally, things would be different. How many focus inwards to analyse how exactly they have budgeted their own hard-earned money.

Many of us continue to spend well beyond our income, inviting debts. Bhagwan Swaminarayan advises in his Shikshapatri, “One should keep a daily record of one’s expenditure and income and should always live within one’s means. All of us, rich or poor, should give something to charity”.

Still fewer people have worked out a ‘life’ budget for themselves. A life budget includes committing time to self, family, society and God. The lives of those who do this get enriched not just financially, but also socially and spiritually.

Many corporate executives invest all their time and effort in pursuing their careers and climbing the professional ladder. It is at all worthwhile? Most discover that their victory is empty and that they won it at an irreparable loss to their health, family and psyche, incurring obesity, heart disease and fatigue on the physiological front; separated spouse, estranged children and uncared-for-parents on the familial front; frustration, depression and stress on the physio-psychological front.

In many societies, this phenomenon has resulted in a tragic burgeoning of societies and cardiovascular and cancer-related deaths. The Royal bank of Canada devoted one of its monthly letters to this problem with the title, “Let’s Slow Down’, “we are victims of mounting tensions”, it enunciated. “We have difficulty relaxing: we are not living fully”.

For many in India too, life has taken on these contours, and living it is rather like going downhill in a truck without brakes. But it is still not too late. The World Health Organisation (WHO) predicts that stress will be the Number One killer in the world by 2020. And stress is usually nothing more than an individual’s failure to balance his lifestyle.

Living life is a healthy manner and living it fully means we have to maintain regular food habits and follow a sensible diet, regular exercise and rest, going out with family, working for charity and spending some time in reflection, mediation and prayer.

There is only one way to survive overwork or burnout. Be brave and bailout or you will be a loser. Life’s rat race only produces losers. It has no winners. Even if it does, the winner is still a rat. And usually a very large one.

A sage asked a prosperous king, “If you were about to die of thirst and starvation and someone offered you a glass of water and a loaf of bread in exchange for your wealth and kingdom, would you give them to him?” “of course I would”, replied the king. “Anybody would”. “then why”, asked the sage, “have you wasted your entire life amassing all this land and wealth when they are worth no more to you than a glass of water and a loaf of bread?”

Human life is priceless. God has bequeathed this limitless treasure trove to all. And as diversification is one of the secrets to successful investment, so is it the secret to a joyous and blessed life. Reach into your soul, and reach out to your family, society and God. Budget well.

Fast driving on the lifeway without control over the vehicle amounts to suicidal attempt. No one’s live is a straight line. Ups and downs are normal. There is no prediction or forecast which can help us to avoid. Crisis and cyclone can come without prior warning. Knowing this one should slow down and take time out to read the bold signals on the sides. Calm going can help to get rid of the bad consequences and make life ha

There is not a single culprit in the climate change crisis who wants to mend their ways. Every day new pollutants are emerging with more dangerous contributions. From electronic junks to eating habits air, water, soil and other essential common properties are damaged. In this nature destructive game advanced countries are the real villains.

The Times of India (16.2.2009) writes “When it comes to global warming, hamburgers are the real Hummers of food, scientists say. Simply switching from steak to salad could cut as much carbon as leaving the car at home a couple days a week. That’s because beef is such an incredibly inefficient food to produce and cows release so much harmful methane into the atmosphere, said Nathan Pelletier of Dalhousie University in Canada.

The livestock sector is estimated to account for 18% of the global greenhouse gas emissions and beef is the biggest culprit. Even though beef only accounts for 30% of meat consumption in the developed world it’s responsible for 78% of the emissions, Pelletier, said.

That’s because a single kilogram of beef produces 16 killograms carbon dioxide equivalent emissions: four times higher than pork and more than ten times as much as a kilogram of poultry. Pelletier said. If people were to simply switch from beef to chicken, emissions would be cut by 70%, Pelletier said.

Another part of the problem is people are eating far more meat than they need to. “Meat once was a luxury in our diet,” Pelletier said. “we used to eat it once a week. Now we eat it every day.”

If meat consumption in the developed world was cut from the current level of about 90kg a year to 53kg a year, livestock related emissions would fall by 44%.

“Given the projected doubling of meat production by 2050, we’re going to have to cut emissions by half just to maintain current levels.” Pelletier said.


No one knows the consequence of beef eating. The awareness about beef and pollution should be spread intensely. Anything excess is detrimental to both people and environment. What affects personally in certain matters undermine the environment too. Unlimited beef eating is dangerous for individuals health and ecology.

Indian courts are notorious for prolonging the legal battles. People who filled petitions in their young age of 30 are not alive today to hear the final pronouncement. It takes decades for the courts to arrive at a conclusion. By the time court decides the petitioner is not alive. Due to this inordinate delay few people have faith in the judiciary. Rape, murder, property misappropriation or arson not many people would like to lodge a police complaint and seek judicial recourse. They know very well the petitioner will be harassed endlessly without any justice coming in his or her life time. The immediate help for any justice to the crime committed is underworld and criminal gangs. The instant revenge and justice are vented by these gangsters who are fully time involved in killing. If the situation is allowed to continue the judicial and police systems will lose its relevance permanently.

According to The Times of India report (11.2.2009, p.1 & 7), 3,32,141 cases came up before the Delhi High Court in 2007-08. Each of these cases received five minutes of hearing (4 minutes, 55 seconds to be precise) and each minute of the court’s time cost a staggering Rs.6,327 to the state exchequer. Even adjournements without hearing don’t come cheap. All listed cases cost the court Rs.1,300 (on average), even if many got adjourned. The report released by Chief Justice A.P. Shah, claims HC disposed of 56,612 cases, including 47,017 filled in that year alone.

While clearing 56,612 cases, Delhi High Court worked with 32 judges, much below its sanctioned strength of 48, Chief Justice A.P. Shah said. While pointing to the “Crushing load” on the courts, the Chief Justice said at present rate of disposal, it would take 466 years for the high court to clear its backlog of cases entirely. He, however said “we have been able to reduce the cases of arrears from 79,818 in 2007 to 74,599 in 2008”.

The report adds that the rate of disposal of criminal cases in the year worked out to be 0.5 case per day. While such “working ours” analyses are done every year for bodies like Parliament and state legislatures, this is perhaps the first time a judicial body has come up with its figure.

Case study
No of cases listed before HC 332,141
Total expenditure incurred Rs. 42,45,47,490
No of cases dealt on a single day 64
Total number of working days 213
Time available for one hearing 4 min 55 sec
Cost incurred for one minute of a hearing 6,327
Average number of benches during ’07-08 24(8 division & 16 single)

The time and money spent have been worked out excluding “matters handled during summer vacation (June) and on three working Saturdays during 2007-08”. In order to calculate the time judges gave for each hearing. HC factored in the total number of cases dealt by judges. Sitting as a single bench or division bench, in a day (64 cases on average) with the total time available for them to hold court (315 minutes).

The total expenditure incurred by the court last year was Rs.42.45 crore for 213 working days. “the average cost of listing each case before a judge worked out to Rs.1,297 and the average court expenditure per minute by the court was Rs.6,327 or Rs.19,93,180 for each working days.

The judiciary must ensure justice is dispensed atleast during the life time of the petitioner if not immediately. With multiple options available for reformation, courts should not delay further. Immediately it should implement all the suggested reforms. Decentralising and expanding the judiciary are two crucial steps. Above all the top leadership should have the requisite will to cleanse the system and make it functional.

The forecasts by economists provide feel good statistics about the economic health. But on the ground nearly two-third of the citizens feels the heat of economic crisis. They do not have enough means to sustain their lives. Inadequate food, clothing, shelter and other essentials frustrate them. Without taking common people’s living standards economic data simply bracket them into Purchasing Power Parity and bundle them into the larger GDP dimension. The result of macro definition of the economic health without fine tuning the problems on the surface twists the tale and offers it all rosy. Countries like Bhutan define human happiness index along with the GDP. It is a tiny mountainous nation with no big income. People in Bhutan are bubbling with happiness despite low incomes and no skyscrapers to boost. France is trying to redefine its economic outlook. It is high time that all nations go beyond GDP and bring out the crux of the crisis and minimize people’s problems.

Sanjeev Sanyal writes in The Times of India (10.2.2009, p.14) “The world is reeling from two major crises, the financial/economic crisis and the crisis of climate change and ecological collapse. Both are a result of the same human error, a colossal misallocation of resources, financial capital in one case and natural capital on the other. A combination of counter-cyclical policies and time will eventually get us out of the financial mess. However, climate change and catastrophic environmental degradation threaten human civilization as we know it.

Many blame globalization and capitalism for the large-scale misallocation of resources. However, isolationism and socialism provide no alternative we tried them for decades with disastrous results. A market-based system is clearly more efficient. The problem is not with the tools of capitalism but the failure to define its goals. The power of the markets is being harnessed to maximize the wrong paradigm.

The most commonly used paradigm for measuring human progress is provided by national income accounts and, more specifically gross domestic product (GDP). Virtually all economic policy-making is oriented directly or indirectly towards maximizing GDP growth. It is so ubiquitous that people forget it as an entirely artificial construct created in the 1940s as part of the war effort.

Of course, rulers from ancient times have kept some record of economic activity for taxation purposes. National accounts as we know them were created during World War II by Richard Stone and James Meade with support from John Maynard Keynes, as a way to keep track of war-time economic activity. Given the circumstances, their framework was necessarily ‘industrial’ in its essence, without space for niceties like environmental degradation and socio-demographic developments.

Post-war, this framework was adapted to create the GDP number now used. Unfortunately, the system remains an arbitrary way to measure value creation, especially in areas relating to externalities and natural capital. For instance, if we cut down a pristine rain forest we are destroying value in terms of biodiversity, watersheds, carbon sequestration, flood control, non-timber forest produce and so on. Yet, in the current system, destruction of value will show up as GDP growth from logging!

This does not mean the creators of GDP were unaware of its limitation. In his Nobel Memorial Lecture in 1984, Richard Stone stated, “The three pillars on which analysis of society ought to rest are studies of economic, socio-demographic and environmental phenomena.” He added that his work had focused mostly on economic accounting and he had not spent much time on environmental accounting even though “environmental issues, such as pollution, land use and non-renewable resources offer plenty of scope for accounting.” In short, the creators of GDP thought of it as work-in progress. Unfortunately, the world has continued to focus much of its energy on maximizing an incomplete and out-of-date paradigm.

There are ways to adjust for the short comings of GDP. One is to create additional matrices for measuring progress. The Human Development Index and Carbon Footprint are concepts that can be used to enhance the raw GDP approach. Unfortunately, they failed to gain a serious following beyond the world of activists and conferences because these measures lack the simplicity of a single GDP number.

The only real alternative then is to recalibrate GDP itself to reflect genuine value generation. This can be done by assigning monetary values to things like water pollution, deforestation, land degradation and other changes in the stock of natural capital. Similar adjustments can be made to account for changes in human capital stock (health, education etc). The result would be a new GDP number more closely reflecting true value generated by various human activities.

Economists should redefine GDP and incorporate ground situation. They should make economy fly in the air when there is no possibility of sustaining its stay on the sky. By infusing a course correction they can perform a social reengineering which is need of the hour. Poor must get the attention and priority. Simply giving the number of poor people is not sufficient. Using the latest technological prowess economists should filter down the most needy people and those in the seat of power should help those identified poor people to improve their lives. There is no alternative to this model.

In the age of intellectual property rights, patenting our traditional knowledge is essential. Without patenting plagiarism will be rampant and it will affect the hard built wisdom of the age-old civilization. India has been a victim of soft pedaling patenting rights. The advanced nations with an eye on the patent rights and safeguarding its knowledge base have cleverly started patenting at an early age. As in other cases developing countries like India were dead slow in picking up patent rights. With the ball set rolling it should not stop in converting all its traditional knowledge sources into a digital form and steps must be taken to protect it from external possession and ownership.


ü India has lost over 15,000 patents of medicinal plants to the West
ü On an average, it takes 5 to 7 years to oppose a granted patent and costs between Rs 1 to 3 crores
ü Over 200,000 medical formulations have now been documented into India’s Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL)
ü Creating TKDL took over 8 years and cost Rs 7 crore
ü The library will prevent those living abroad from claiming patent for existing formulations
ü Without the library India would have lost 2000 patents every year concerning Indian Systems of Medicine (ISM)
ü At any given time, 50 patent applications based on ISMS are awaiting grant of patient
ü The decision to create TKDL was taken after wrong patents were granted on wound-healing properties of turmeric (1995) at the United States and on anti-fungal properties of Neem granted at European Patent Office (EPO)
ü The patents were revoked in 1997 and 2005 respectively
ü In the past, patents have been granted at EPO on the use of over 285 Indian medicinal plants. These include Papaya, Indian long pepper, Kali Tulsi, pudina, ginger, aloe, Isabgol, Aamla, Jira, Soyabean, Tomato, Almond, Walnut and Methi.

Over two lakh medical formulations of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani were documented by Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL). This is an outcome of eight years of painstaking efforts by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and union health ministry’s department of Ayush. This collaborative effort has converted information of traditional Indian medicine from Hindi, Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Tamil to five international languages – English, Japanese, French, German and Spanish.

All efforts must be made to dig every possible information about traditional wisdom and it must immediately digitalized and patented. This will go a long way in putting Indian knowledge on the top of global top list.

There are various reasons for the increasing mental disorders. One of the major factors is the negative social attitude towards the mental patients. Generally people misbehave with the mentally ill patients. The hospitals meant for these patients do not give adequate sympathy, love and care. Most of the mental patients feel better outside the hospitals. They are treated like animals in the cages. While this is the sorry state of mental health treatment in the country there is fast rise in the number of patients. Due to the severe economic crisis and lack of social support mental ill health is becoming common nowadays. The government is preparing for the worst. It must be countered with all out efforts.

WHO estimates 30 crore people globally suffer from mental health disorders
In India 15-20 crore people suffer from some sort of mental illness, the commonest being depression and anxiety syndromes, stress and psychosomatic disorders, bipolar mood disorders, schizophrenia and dementia.
1.6 of them need institutional intervention
According to WHO, at lease 3 in 4 mental health patients in developing countries receive no treatment
75% of mentally ill patients in India are treated through traditional interventions and by tantriks
8.1% of all disabilities in India are due to mental illnesses, as against 5.8% due to cancer and 4.4% due to heart diseases
India needs 32,000 psychiatrists but has 3300 trained psychiatrists, 3000 of whom are in metros
By 2020, depression is expected to become the 2nd largest illness in the world
Most countries allocate less than 2% of their health budget to mental disorders
Suicide is one of the commonest manifestations of mental illness
In India, 1.2 lakh people end their lives every year by committing suicide
4 lakh attempt commit suicide
Globally, one million people die from suicide annually
The global mortality rate is 16/100,000, or one death every 40 seconds.
In the last 45 years, suicide rates have increased by 60% worldwide
Mental disorders, particularly depression and substance abuse, are associated with more than 90% of all cases of suicide
Asia accounts for 60% of the world’s suicides
India, China and Japan account for 40% of this number
Over 71% of suicides in India are by persons below the age of 44.

The Union health ministry is getting nervous over the alarming rate of mental patients in the country. A shocking number of 13 crore Indians suffering mental disorders have shaken the ministry from its slumber. It is going to circulate a cabinet note next week to handle the rising mental disorders. It has proposed to upgrade the existing eleven mental hospitals, increase of at least 44 post-graduate seats in psychiatry, 176 M.Phil seats in clinical psychology and 220 seats for psychiatric nursing each years. The ministry envisages that 616 qualified mental health professionals would be produced from these centres. One hopes for the better situation in the coming days.

Private schools want freedom in deciding fees. It should be given if there is sincerity in delivering services to the public. But most of the schools are money milking machines. The over commercialization of education leaves less to desire. Human capital is the biggest source for the success of economy and society. It should be developed without compromising. Any efforts by private or public to water down the quality of education and making education unreachable for the average India should be ended immediately. It seems all the noise by the private schools about the government interference in fee decision is farce.

Manas Pratim Gohain writes in The Times of India (9.2.2009 p.2) “Schools have created a hue and cry about the “meager” fee hike of up to Rs.500 hike allowed by the government to raise teacher’s salary in line with the 6th Pay Commission proposals. But tuition fees is not the only source of income for schools – it accounts for only 35% roughly of the total expenditure that a parent incurs in sending his child to a reasonably good private school. The rest – around 65% - of school’s earning comes from transportation, uniforms, books, student welfare fund, club activities, annual day, excursions and development fund among others.

When schools determined to take their appeal for revising the hike to courts, parents are spending sleepless nights. A parent who pays tuition fee of more than Rs.2000 per month ends up paying approximately Rs.90.500 annually for transportation, school uniforms and other dresses for different fests and events organized by the school. “There are schools which charge even half yearly fees which are over and above the tuition and admission fees. We spend around Rs.1.80 lakh annually on my two kids. My husband is the only earning member and now we will have to shell out Rs.12,000 extra annually for my two kids as their tuition fee will go up Rs.500 per month,” said Monika Sharma from R.K Puram.

However schools find the government approved hike inadequate. The School Action Committee (SAC) has been meeting to discuss on fee hike of private schools in the capital on fee hike of private schools in the capital and the challenges ahead. S.K. Bhattacharya, Chairman, SAC, said: “We are going to appeal for a reconsideration on the hike. Otherwise how will the schools pay the salary of the teachers as per the 6th Pay Commission recommendation?”

Shomie Das the former headmaster of Doon School says that setting up a first-rate non-residential private school spread over a minimum of 5 acres of land for about 2,000 students would cost about Rs.30-35 crore.

“The construction cost, including the land, will lead to expenses of about Rs.25 crore. This is assuming the different buildings such as classrooms, auditoriums, and swimming pool are built over a total area of 200,000 square feet,” says Das who has helped set up 50 schools, including heritage (Kolkata) and Sanskriti (Delhi) in the past few decades.

Item Annual Payment (in Rs)
Tuition fee 6,000 -36,000
Transportation 4,800 –36,000
(School’s own transportation)
School Uniforms 3,000-4,000
Blazers* 700-1,500
Books* 3,000-4,000
Building Fund 500-1,500
Annual day 200-500
Excursion/tours 300-500
Development Fund 500-1,000
Pupil/student Fund 500,1,000
Half-yearly charge 500-1,000
Ticket Selling 500-1,000
(Given to students for selling)
Club activities 500-3,000
Festival 200-500

Total 21,200-90,500
*Shops owned or set up by schools
The list is indicative

Expensive Affair
Non-residential pvt school

• Cost of setting up a school spread over 5 acres of land for about 2,000 students Rs.30-35 crore
• Construction cost of different buildings Rs.25 crore (assuming total area is about 2 lakh sq.feet)
• Staff salaries are 70% of operational cost
• Teacher-student ratio 1:15 to 1:20

Residential school
Setting up a school over a minimum area of 20 acres Rs.75-100 crore
Construction cost Rs.50-60 crore plus the cost of land
Site development cost Rs.2-3 crore
Sports equipment, fittings Rs.5 crore
Staff salaries are 50% of operational cost
Catering expenses 30-40%
Teacher-student ratio 1:12

Keeping the crucial necessity of education for the overall development of the society, private school managements should fix their fees. Over ambition in making profit from the schools by taxing parents will lead to the large scale migration of private school students to government schools. This may create chaos and permanent deterioration of private schools financially. Better they act after analyzing the negative consequences of fee hike rather than blank demand for fee hike.

Abdul Qadeer Khan the well-know nuclear secrets peddler of Pakistan is totally free now. After five years of house arrest under the pressure from USA administration, then President Prevez Mushraff kept him inside. Khan seems to have sold nuclear bomb components and its formula to Iran, North Korea and other rogue states. He also had clandestine relations with the top leadership of Al Qaeda. No one knows the logic behind the release of notorious nuclear proliferators. It sounds death bells to the south Asian security in particular and world in general. A.Q. Khan should be tried by the international court and punished for the violation of international order on nuclear weapons.

K. Subrahmanyam writes in The Times of India (9.2.2009, p.16) “Khan was a nuclear spy who was able to obtain the centrifuge technology and the list of contractors from Dutch facilities and transfer them to Pakistan. According to the former Dutch prime minister, Rudd Lubbers, Khan was detained twice by Dutch authorities, once in the 1970s and again in the 1980s. On both occasions he was let off after the CIA intervened. In late 1980s, Richard Barlow, a assembled its nuclear weapon in transgression of the Pressler Amendment. At that stage, Pakistan was not taken to task but instead Barlow was punished for a wrong analysis; he had to fight for two decades to clear his name.

The connection between Khan and the CIA is a mystery just as the American permissiveness about China conducting a nuclear test on behalf of Pakistan on May 26, 1990. This has now been confirmed by Thomas Reed and Danny Stillman of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in a recent book. In the 1950s, Ethel and Julius Roosenberg were executed for their help to the Soviet Union in the development of nuclear weapons. Alan Nunn May and Klaus Fuchs were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for what would today be called nuclear proliferation activity. They all acted out of ideological allegiances just as Khan claimed that his proliferation was to Islamic states out of good faith. Khan’s case is unique in that he had played an active role both in inward proliferation into Pakistan and outward proliferation from Pakistan.

Khan being freed under an agreement with the Zardari government raises several issues. Benazir Bhutto in an interview in the US before her return to Pakistan had promised that if she became prime minister she would permit both Washington and the International Atomic Energy Agency to have access to Khan. In an interview she had disclosed details about the Pakistani nuclear enrichment technology exchange with North Korean missile technology. Now Benazir’s husband, as president of Pakistan has entered into an agreement to set Khan free.

Given the past American tolerance of Pakistani proliferation and Khan’s activities, is the Obama administration a party to the present arrangement previous US administrations were? What kind of message will this send to Iran and other countries? Asif Zardari and General Ashfaq Kayani were in a position to continue the Musharraf-Bush humanitarian and health grounds. But they have choosen to free him on the basis of a mutual agreement which blows up the credibility of the earlier arrangement by indicating that Khan has things to disclose which could embarrass Pakistan.

In a sense, Khan emerges as a hero whose proliferation was sanctioned. This is a defiance of the international community by Pakistan. It will mean that Khan cannot be blamed since he acted with the approval of past Pakistani regimes and the world is in no position to pressure the present Pakistani government as the international community needs their help. The way in which the Khan case is going to be handled will give a clear indication of whether the civilian government in Pakistan wants to break with the past. The chances are the Zardari government will opt for continuing past policies as it have done in respect of permissiveness towards jihadis.

The timing of this agreement and the court order is also significant. It comes in the wake of nuclear saber-rattling by sections of Pakistanis following the 26/11 Mumbai attack. It also comes on the eve of the visit of US special envoy, Richard Holbrooke, to Pakistan. Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal had been the subject of wide coverage in the US media in recent weeks. This may be Pakistan’s way of reminding the international community, ahead of the donor nations’ meeting, that it cannot be allowed to fail and that Islamabad is capable of taking a defiant stand.

The US is in a position similar to early 1980s. It was prepared to sacrifice its non proliferation policy to enlist Pakistani support for the mujahideen campaign against Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Now it may have to sacrifice its missile defence and NATO expansion policies to have logistics facilities via Russia and Central Asia to deal with the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The slap in the face for Americans implied in freeing Khan via a secret agreement makes it all the more imperative for US to make every effort to secure the Russian and Central Asian routes to complete their task in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region.

Under these circumstances it is not advisable to let A.Q. Khan roam freely. The deadly network of Al Qaeda, ISI, A.Q. Khan and the nuclear black marketers can damage the world peace. The window dressing to Khan issue does not augur well. All the governments especially USA, India and Pakistan should end his hidden death blow permanently.

Diamond shining, Gucci flashing Bollywood heroines walked with pomp and show into the Indian Premier Leauge (IPL) auction venue. Preity Zinta, Juhi Chawla and Shilpa Shetty are the star attractions in Goa. Along with the beauty ladies industrialists paraded their wealth. Blackberrys, Bentleys, Mercs and no doubt unstoppable flow of money brought IPL once again into the limelight. In this game war superstition was not staying back. Preity Zinta wore her lucky red every time she came to the bidding process. Raj Kundra sponsored his girl friend Shilpa the bid amount as valentine’s day gift. All those entered for auction were cross fingered and waiting for the luck at the end.

Defeating the popular expectation that this year 20-20 cricket show’s player hunting auction will be a flop, IPL surpassed last year’s target. In a single day it made $ 8 million worth business. Cash strap King Fisher chairman Vijay Mallaya paid $1.55m for Kevin Pietersen. This selective showering of money by Mallaya mocks his claim that King Fisher is seriously crushed by recession.

Team Chennai
Adrew Flintoff (1.55m)
Thilan Thushara (1,40,000)
George Bailey (50,000)

Bangalore Royal Challengers
Kevin Pietersen (1.55m)
Jesse Ryder (160,000)

Mumbai Indians
J.P. Duminy (950,000)
Kyle Mills (1,50,000)
Mohd Ashraful (75,000)

Kolkata Knight Riders
M. Mortaza (600,000)

Team Jaipur
Shaun Tait (375,000)
T Henderson (650,000)

Delhi Daredevils
Owalis Shah (275,000)
P. Colingwood (275,000)

Team Mohali
Ravi Bopara (450,000)
Jerome Taylor (150,000)

Team Hyderabad
Fidel Edwards (150,000)
Dwayne Smith (150,000)
All figures in US$

The spenders
Rajasthan $1.25m out of $1.87m
Chennai $1.6m out of $2m
Mumbai $1.17m out of $1.76m
Kolkata 650,000 out of $1.21m
Punjab 600,000 out of $1.4m
Hyderabad 250,000 out of $1.9m
Delhi 550,000 out of $1.45m

In the last one year of its origin IPL has glamourised and totally commercialized cricketing in the country. Adding entertainment to the game the league is spinning dollars in revenue. One has to wait and watch how far it is going to improve the cricket quality and inspire youth of India become best cricketers. IPL should focus its attention in other games to make India a formidable player in the world.

Money matters in human relationships. Few can be exceptions to this universal practice. The global economic melt down tests the love capacity of people. When the money flow is affected, jobs are cut and purchasing power is down, one can feel the heat in day to day lives. Not only his smile is missing but the real charm of life is gone. The person is pushed to the extreme of frustration. He feels empty without income and enough money to spend. Suddenly all his friends are deserting and girl friend dumped him. Love is boiling in the extreme financial climate. Very few candlelight dinners, spa tours, beach swims and exotic vacations. Romantic relationships are getting dumped and switched for the lack of money.

In another case wife is distancing and children are not taking his words seriously. Is this universal or India specific? In comparison to the western nations, India may be better off in this matter. With the strong support of family and fair saving culture, there is an insulation for men during the time of recession. Women tend to keep safety valves. Beyond these savings and safety valves some people are prone to the break offs. This is due the fragile nature of relationships. Where there is a strong human bondage, no money flow would not affect the relationship much.

When the job was there men did not have time now the reverse is happening. Time spending is not sufficient. Money is required to keep women and time happy. How can time fly without giving money punch to it? In a matter of months there is an upside down of situations. From time short to money short corporate men lives are undergoing massive changes. If the saving and alternative sources of income are there human relationship suffer less.

Anjali Kaur (23) says “Chemistry with my boyfriend topsy turved after the recession news broke. He was fired from his job. I tried analyzing from all angles. There is no point in keeping the relation alive. How far I can go with him without money”.

Aparajita Mukherjee writes in Times of India (7.2.2009, p.10) “And these power women aren’t concerned about society’s opinions on their decisions. They have a very clear idea of what they want from their relationships in the long term, ali points out, “I can’t take a man with no job to my parents and ask them to be proud of my decision, na!” Kanak also agrees, saying “Like I said, it’s important that I lead a good life. I’m making the best decision for my future and even my parents would advise me against continuing a relationship with a man who is unable of giving me the standard of life I’m used to. So I don’t care about the gold-digger tag, really!”

Fast-track relationships have a short shelf-life according to this power-woman. “Life is too short and I want to lead a good life, I have to make sure I have a partner who gives me that,” says Kanak. Charu Parashar, a designer, who’s happily married. In her perspective, “the disposable income in the hands of youngsters these days has increased and they believe in instant gratification. These days, if a woman is suddenly faced with no additional resources at her disposal, which she counts as important for fulfilling of her needs, then she makes a quick exit.”
It is nothing but natural to have such money based relationship when basic social norms were abandoned for instant happiness. Where there is no ethics human relationship are bound to fail. The current recession should bring back human instincts and ensure a strong family bondage and genuine human love. Money is required for living but it should not be a pre condition for any human relationships. There are innumerable incidents where husband and wife struggled to built their relationship and family. Who can wait? is the common question in today’s world. Remember! Relationship can be sustained only through sacrifices.

We have our stories
We have our struggles
And what we're left with
Cannot be measured

And so we question
And we dig deeper
Or aim much higher

But do we soar...?
Or feel sorrow?

Do we feel sorry
For the other
Or for ourselves?

When will we learn
It's up to us
To choose our path
And make our truth
Our dreams come true?

Oh yes they do
If we believe
That yes they can
And yes they will

We have our stories
We have our struggles
And what we're left with
Is who we are

Rulers leaving their throne to live with beloved are part of the historical folklore. In the recent times only Chander Mohan the former Haryana deputy Chief Minister did the age-old act. For the sake of his extra legal love – Anuradha Bali, Mohan deserted his first wife Seema and children. More than a month he disappeared from his government duty and family responsibility. It seems that Chande Mohan and Anuradha converted into Islam. Thus they got a new identity – Chand Mohammad and Fiza. In the dargah town of Ajmer both of them got married according to the Islamic customs. Islam provides such liberty to divorce the first wife and get married ample number of times. This kind of act was staged by Dharmendra and Hemamalini and Kishore Kumar and Madhubala.

Generally the extra lovemaking Hindus uses the Islamic provision to legitimize their illegal affair. According to the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 bigamy is strictly prohibited for Hindus. When people started using Islam, Supreme Court stepped in and made it illegal. In the Sarla Mudgal vs Union of India it was made clear that any asylum in the Islamic provision is considered void. The apex court rejected the marriage and made it illegal. Under Section 494 of the Indian Penal Code if the second marriage is void which is not the case under Muslim personal law.

Article 44 was sought by the Supreme Court from the government for implementation that wants to make a uniform civil code. But Article 44 is non justiciable directive principle of Stae policy and it is datable whether the court can direct the government to implement it.

Sudhanshu Rajan writes in the Hindustan Times (5.2..2009, p.9), “Men take refuge in such loopholes, causing cruelty to their first wives – in this case both wives – only because India lacks a common civil code. We are a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966, and International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), 1979. India is under a legal obligation to ensure gender equality but it has hardly taken any steps to comply. It accepted the prevalence of discrimination against women under various personal laws of different communities before the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in 2000. The committee noted India’s failure and had warned that “the government’s policy of non-interference perpetuates sexual stereotypes, son preference and discrimination against women.’

When the SC directed the government in Vishaka v. State of Rajasthan to make a law to stop the sexual harassment of women at work places, it ruled that the provisions of the Constitution have to be interpreted as informed by CEDAW. The SC has been emphasizing the need for a uniform civil code since the 1985 Shah Bano case when it lamented that Article 44 has remained “a dead letter”. But in the Ahmedabad Women’s Action Group case, the court held that the removal of gender discrimination in personal laws fell in the domain of State policies in which the court could not interfere.

The first major step towards enforcing a uniform civil code was taken when the Hindu Code Bill was enacted, engendering the Hindu marriage Act of 1956, and Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act of 1956. These acts did away with the prevailing personal laws among Hindus, which permitted men to keep more than one wife, denied women the right to divorce and rights over their ancestral property. Making bigamy an illegal and bequeathing the right of divorce to wives was revolutionary, since a Hindu marriage was considered sacrament.

More than laws there should be social rules and customs which motivates individuals not to do injustice to their fellow beings. Gender discrimination is socially evolved and patronized by the male mindset. Any number of laws will not be deterrent to anti-women thinking. It should be ended at the earliest to give meaning to the techno civilization.