Wednesday, January 27, 2016

ART AND HOME INTERIOR


                                                             Bikash Choudhury


Odisha has remained the heavenly abode for Art, Craft and Architecture those are showcased abundantly in its temples and ubiquitous craft items that emanates from different corners of Odisha. In recent times interior decorations have eclipsed its presence in the contemporary fast paced life styles of metro-sexual living beings. While SMART Interiors brings convenience, utility and comfort inside our homes; the much needed embellishment of Art and Installations add the soul to a home that bring a few tired bodies and exhausted minds to live inside the confinements of four walls that is called sweet home; as art adds the fourth dimension to an environment which most of the time able to cool down the frayed nerves of a person at the fag end of a busy day just like a soul full music instantly connects with the inner being at a subconscious level. As we more often live from suitcase and hardly have time to spend with nature which is rejuvenating and meditative; alternatively, we can embellish our bed room walls with suitable art work on nature complete with sunshine, flowing water, thick foliages and people with cheerful demeanor starting their day; that would have a very soothing impact on the body and mind as we leave our bed. Because, the mind fresh from sleep would capture the positive vibrations of art work not just its colors and would create a feeling of contentment inside and that would linger through out the day. Again, while going for your morning ablution to the wash basin if eyes were treated with Small Art Work on vibrant and very colorful flowers then again your mind would be imbued with freshness, which flowers always stands for. Again, while sharing a cup of steaming tea with your spouse in your dinning area if you had a look on a Art Work depicting some ecstatic children at play; then, that would fill your heart with love for your kids who would have already left for the school. Further, while leaving for work, one glance on the art works with myriads of colors in the walls of living room would certainly uncork the stream of creativity in the start of a day full of appointments, tough negotiations and hard decisions.
                                                          But, it is very important for an individual to consult an expert while choosing art work for home or office; or else you could also rely on your instinct by examining the impact of Art work and its colors on your mind. If you carefully observe some Art Work would definitely start a conversation or you would be able to relate and feel happy spending time with it. The size of the Art Work would also matter while selecting for the different empty walls of your home. It would be ideal to go for a proportionate size of Art Work relative to the size of the wall you wish to decorate with.
                                                 The capital city of Bhubaneswar has seen a spurt of activity in the Art World as dime a dozen solo art exhibitions are screened in regular interval; prominent and much talked about art shows were conducted by Kumari Sonia titled Abyakta that dealt with  unexpressed emotions, thoughts and images of a hearing impaired girl with powerful brush strokes with equally provocative colors that would bring excitement and joy at the same time; and the other powerful art show belong to Sushmita Sahoo titled Puri: Era and Aura who has taken enormous courage to depict important images and events of Puri the seat of Jagatara Natha-Jagannath on water colors. Water color is the first love of the lady artist Ms. Sahoo and she plans to continue with this series for a few more years to cover rich repertoire of Puri and Jagannath culture. A lot of new Art Galleries have opened their doors for increasingly aesthetic conscious and upwardly mobile denizens. Biju Patnaik International Airport has now earmarked a space for an Art Gallery to show case the art works of young and enterprising artist of Odisha free of cost and Ila Panda Centre of Art (IPCA) is soon going to be launched in the city with its treasure of over 600 paintings collected over decades. However, Orissa Modern Art Gallery remains the oldest (uninterrupted display of art work for over thirteen years) with round the year display of varied and diverse genres of Artists and even Art works. Bhubaneswarites now wish to make a fashion statement about their respective lifestyles through their private Art Collections. Unfortunately, Artist community in the country are in deep fear to express themselves fully, clearly and boldly because of compelling and competing political environment prevalent in the country which at times unleashes violence at the doors of an artist for any provocative or controversial piece of Art Work. It is imperative to have creative freedom to produce World Class Art Work that would be sinecure of the Global audience to preserve and protect our rich heritage of art and our ancient civilization.     

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Monday, January 4, 2016

Odisha Budget 2016-17 Suggestions



Revenue Mobilization:
  1. All street vendors with permanent or semi permanent structures to be covered under Self Assessment Minimum Value Added Tax to increase the tax base. This measure would add popular grocery and textile stores and street vendors who currently do not pay tax at all.
  2. Green Tax on consumption of Water and Pollution of Air by Industry & Trade; keeping in view the higher incidence of Climate Change Natural Calamities.
  3. Educational Cess on all levies to fund the intractable problems of Contractual Teachers Salary.
  4. Non-Tax Measure for Revenue Mobilization---Govt. could explore the possibility of raising funds from the rich & powerful citizens by auctioning the City Roads/ State High Ways for Naming/Branding.
  5. Consider additional VAT for Luxury Goods and Negative Goods, VAT on Residential Rental Income.
  6. Higher Professional Taxes on Individuals.
7.   Exploring the possibility of bringing Rich Private Higher Education into the   
      Tax Net.
Cutting Cost:
  1. Govt. could reduce its administrative cost by outsourcing the requirement of Automobiles to new Technology enabled logistic companies like Ola/Uber.
  2. Substantially reduce Project cost by deploying Project Management Technology through timely completion of projects.
  3. Govt. could substantially invest in Training of its personnel in modern technology and management practices at All Levels to enhance efficiency and reduce overall cost of delivery of Public Services.
  Non-Tax Revenue:
  1. Govt. could consider monetizing its unused assets after taking its proper inventory.
  2. Govt. could organize all its Public Sector Under Takings into a suitable Holding Company under a Competent Business Leader like Nandan Nilekeni/Suresh Senapati to unleash RoI on expensive Public Investment and Growth in GSDP.
 Proposal:

  1. To address deep distress in the Agriculture Sector; Govt. could consider multi prong strategy apart from low cost credit and augmentation of Irrigation. Govt. could earmark Rs.100 Crore for cluster development in Oil Seeds & Cereals. Govt. needs to attract Modern Corporate Farming Companies to the State for speedy development of Farm sector in the State.
  2. Govt. could attract Automobile & Auto Component Companies into our port cities like Paradeep, Dhamara and Gopalpur with suitable and long term incentives just like Tamil Nadu which is now considered the Detroit of India. Keeping in view of growing Traffic Congestions and Climate change compliance; Odisha could give priority to two wheeler manufacturer targeting South Asian Market. 

Sunday, January 3, 2016

How the Youth can be involved in the process of Nation Building?



  1. Identification of Youth Leaders in High School/College/University through Problem Solving Method: Our country has suffered in the domain of Innovation and Leadership because our Youth do not give importance to the ‘Idea’ of problem solving; neither our Institutions offer opportunity to apply Learning in solving Real Life Problems in the society and in their immediate Habitat. Govt. could design a program around the idea of problem solving and identification of young leaders.
  1. Program could be designed to Identify interested students of High School/College/University with Aptitude for Leadership; in each District Head Quarter of the country.
  2. Program could allow the selected students to Identify a Pressing Problem in the Society and find solution for the same and execute the project. In this method we can address the problems relating Open defecation (Swachha Bharat), Water Conservation, Atrocities on Women, Generation of Green Cover through Plantation, Female Feticide and Pollution Control and many others respective to the habitat.
  3. Such projects should be continued in a sustainable manner through successive student leaders till that nails the problem in its entirety.
  4. With this method we can identify most effective young leaders through the outcome of projects, incrementally solve social problems in an organic manner and top of all generate public awareness about relevant issues and finally we open the doors for Innovation and Enterprise at a very little cost to the Public Exchequer.


  1. Catalyst Youth Leaders for Governance: Our bureaucratic system was designed in the laboratory of British Empire for their own benefit and we have inherited that archaic system after our Independence without much modification. Therefore, the DNA of our bureaucracy is Imperial in nature and that is generally against Innovation-Excellence-Enterprise. We now need Young Catalyst to change the Imperial nature and Feudalistic Culture of our Bureaucracy without creating upheaval or rancor.
    1. Govt. could design a program to select Young Leaders in age group of 25-35 yrs with Education, Experience with interest in Governance, Public Service and Activism.
    2. Govt. should deploy such leaders for 2 years in a group of 3-5 from Prime Minister’s office to the office of District Magistrate with a mandate to optimize the Bureaucratic System with their Innovative Approach, Excellence in Execution and Entrepreneurial Mindset; that would rub off on our bureaucracy over a period of time.
    3. After 2 years Govt. could retain those found suitable for bureaucracy, Facilitate those who are interested in Social/Business Enterprise and encourage those who wish to join Political Leadership.
    4. With this method we can enhance the bench strength of Young Leadership.