HOW TO DEPLOY SUMMER VACATION FOR QUALITY LEARNING OUTCOME?

Dear Mrs. Usha Padhee,

With reference to recent news report about inauguration of smart class rooms in 5000 Govt. schools recently. This is some thing unprecedented and achieved in very short time. Kudos to you and your team who conceived and executed the program.

I wish to suggest the following to Improve Quality Learning & Encourage Leadership in Students Community.

1. Very Very Bright Students could be deployed as Teachers in rural areas for two-four weeks to teach(MATH, ENGLISH, SCIENCE,GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY) those interested and bright students of rural areas. Apparently, we could improve the learning outcome from class I-Class X where we can't provide Quality Motivated Faculty and at the same time we could give opportunity to  'Students Teachers' in Leadership by exposing them to Work and Rural Landscape/Urban Areas who could not otherwise afford the cost.

THIS COULD BE A LOW COST SOLUTION FOR OUR STATE VIS-A-VIS THE CHALLENGES.

2. Summer Camps can be organised in Schools for a week for those students who are interested and those teachers wish to volunteer with interest. In Sports, Fine Arts, Music,Creative Writing, Story Telling. Corporate Resources can be sought to augment the human & material resources for such a program.

THIS SHOULD IGNITE CREATIVITY AMONG STUDENTS WHICH NORMAL CLASS ROOM INSTRUCTION AT PRESENT UNABLE TO CAPTURE.

 Hope you will explore the possibility of doing a Pilot Project to assess the cost vis-a -vis the return before implementing the project in the large scale in this summer vacation.

Thanking you.

Kind Regards,

Bikash Choudhury
9853426657

AAP—A GREAT BETRYAL

BIKASH CHOUDHURY

AAP party generated unprecedented interest among people and therefore spread through out the country in a very short time and many outstanding persons from various walks of life have joined them and created hope for corruption free good governance with committed delivery. But, unfortunately, AAP and its leaders have managed to become drama queens or item number girl the next door. They complained too much against every thing and every body and offered no solutions. Kejriwal says his party would corner 100 seat in Lok Sabha and no party would have the numbers to form a Govt. and his party would not form the Govt. neither support any other party and he himself does not wish to be the Prime Minister if his party voted to the power. Our constitution has provision of Presidents rule in the State but not in the Central Govt.; therefore, his utterance seems to be utterly childish or plain irresponsible. His 49 days Govt. in Delhi gave ample demonstration of their potential for great anarchy. AAP apart from being a bunch of liars; they are also hypocrites of highest order. As they have been past master in saying some thing, doing another and still think of some thing totally opposite of their thought and action. But, they have managed to garner a significant amount of support on the streets and have very committed workers in many parts of the country; however, the future looks very bleak for the party as they would likely to meet the same fate as countless Anti Corruption Crusaders before them like V.P.Singh. Corruption targeting is important but it is also very important to gather the thoughts to govern the country efficiently. Those who have been lionized by the media have suffered the mortification of its ire if they do not play by the rules set by themselves; shifting goal posts continuously can’t be an option and holier than though approach would prove counter productive. End of the road for AAP if it does not change its irritable, illogical and at times uncouth approach to Politics. Millions and millions of Indian people had very high hopes from AAP; but, it has grossly betrayed them all.      

SMART FUND RAISING

BIKASH CHOUDHURY


Reaching out to 800 million electorates in 2014 general election and
for three state assemblies prove to be a Herculean task for the top
National & Regional Political parties in the country whose numbers
could be between 50-100. If the task was not difficult enough the fund
raising to meet the cost of reaching out to voters in the election
season makes the task really daunting and certainly not for the
chicken hearted. Earlier Political parties raised funds from their
members, legislatures, parliamentarians and business houses; but, now
the demand for political funds is far out stripping the supply with
mushrooming of political parties. AAP, the first political party in
the country which is following the foot steps of USA by organizing the
fund raising with 'dinner' with its top leader. There can be other
innovative and socially appropriate methods of Political Fund Rasing
in a transparent manner; however, copy & paste and reverse engineering
have now been the forte of Indians and Chinese. Here I wish to toast a
novel method of Political Fund Rasing which could also be equally
appealing to the donors.

                                                  Political Parties
could now raise substantial amount of funds from high net worth
individuals (HNI) and even corporate sector by organizing "Art
Auctions" in collaboration with Art Galleries in the city with little
amount of connoisseur foods, drinks-preferably non-alcoholic and some
soul melting music thrown in combo. And, donors would gleefully open
up their purse strings to collect 'donor passes' paying a decent sum
of money and also signing cheques generously for owning the master
pieces of art by bidding boisterously over a good drink while keeping
their inflated egos in their wallet inside pocket. I am sure Political
Parties (with followings in the classes & masses) would go all the way
to the bank laughingly. In fact Political Parties could kill three
birds with one stone. Connect with people in a creative way while
sharing the message of the party among the connoisseurs of art and at
the same time they would help finance the Artist community in our
country who are yet to break even due to paucity of a vibrant art
market and last but not the least; the funds collected for the party
could be a real bonus to further spread the message of the party. Any
takers?

DECIMATION OF CONGRESS IN ODISHA

BIKASH CHOUDHURY

Congress Party in Odisha would be wiped out in the 2014 election next month and could even disintegrate after the election is over. The Jena duo running the affairs of the state have already driven out the leader of the opposition and many senior leaders from the party recently and party workers are now being forced to desert the party in droves to keep their bread and butter while adjusting their sail to the powerful wind blowing against the Congress Party  due to the anger and frustration of people on price rise and monumental corruption in last five years and on top of it the Central gross neglect to Odisha at the time of distress has terribly angered and hurt the sentiment of people. Further, the machination of Jena that prevented Biju Patnaik from becoming Prime Minister of India has not been completely forgotten. The powerful Patnaik faction of former Chief Minister after being completely sidelined in the party affairs in the state are keenly watching and patiently waiting for their pound of the flesh after the election. If they were not reinstated in the driving seat of the party after the election they are likely to split the party in the middle and could float a Regional Congress Party in Odisha. Be that as it may, the decimation of Congress Party in Odisha is matter of months if not in days.   

CAPITALISM NEEDS CORRECTION

Apropos Crumbling Capitalism. Author says “with capitalist prescription failing the nation and its people, time now to take a look back at socialism”. This would be as good as prescribing open heart surgery; where, a simple medication would do. However, it is true over a period of time Capitalism leads to concentration of wealth with a few and with very wide disparity of income; but, solution to the problem lies else where and certainly not in socialism. Speaking for India, in totality Nehruvian socialism has done more harm than good to Indian economy in comparison to ‘Bombay Plan’. In hindsight, we can say Bombay Plan if accepted and implemented by Nehru along with ‘Gramya Swaraj’ policy of Gandhiji; then, our country would have become a developed country by now in all its parameters. Socialism only creates more of License and Permit Raj with bolted bureaucracy which is inefficient and devoid of creativity, enterprise and entrepreneurship. Capitalism could undergo course correction that would encourage philanthropy in the larger interest of Capitalist while providing opportunity to more and more people to lift themselves from poverty with their own sweat and blood. Modified CSR policy is just a small step in this direction and the pioneering work of Azim Premji Foundation in the domain of primary education is another path breaking example how Capitalist could be put into self correcting mode; but, it is true that quantity and quality of such efforts are in nascent stage which require more awareness and activism. However, one would have to concede that no economic system in the World could completely eradicate disparity of income; as it is God who created Rich & Poor, Talented & Average and Hard Working & not so Hard Working people on earth and he must have very good reason to do so. Can we challenge the wisdom of God?  

INDIA NEEDS MODI IN 2014

BIKASH CHOUDHURY


President of India on his  Republic Day address to the Nation set the agenda for its people in very unambiguous terms—vote for a stable and strong Govt. in the general election as a rag tag coalition Govt. after the election could be disastrous for the economy and thus for the poor people of this vast country. Same sentiment was echoed by RBI Governor little earlier. The logic was if a weak Govt. of a decade were replaced with another weak govt. with a weak leader at the center; then, country could soon go down the road of not so peaceful spring revolution out of deep frustration.

India urgently needs to get its act together in the sub-continent to capture the benefits of synergy in the economy and the polity. It also needs to clamp down on the internal security challenges of Naxal movement to speed up the development process inside the countryside. It has also to pull up the bureaucracy to walk fast to meet the aspiration of this young Nation. On top of all, it has to rekindle hope while managing expectation. All of these and more could land on the plate of the new Govt. that would assume office in the middle of this year.

India would need an experienced leader and a seasoned administrator who could hold on to his own and give direction for National Renewal with a vision to catch up with time lost in last six decades. Narendra Modi sits head and shoulder above his competitors in all the faculties of a great leader that could bring laurels for the country next. Therefore, India needs Modi as its supreme leader in 2014.    

   

NATIONAL HIGHWAY IN BAD SHAPE

BIKASH CHOUDHURY

After a long time I had to travel by road to Govindpur near Dhenkanal to attend a marriage of a relative on 26^th January 2014. I have never been as scared for dear life as, while traveling down the NH-42 that connects business capital of Odisha with the industrial hub of Angul & Talcher. In last two years the vehicle population and its frequency has grown manifold while the road space and the quality of road elevation that much poorer and traffic discipline much worse. Four Laneing of NH-42 remains in the drawing board for the better part of last decade and by the time four laneing would be completed the traffic volume would have grown beyond the capacity of four lane highways. And, we would be back to square once again. Therefore, there is an acute need for a perspective plan for our logistical need that centers on the multi-modal options both for passengers & cargo transportation at an optimal level; taking into account our constraints like land, labor and capital while exploring the alternative means for transport. In the specific case of NH-42; we could plan for a mono rail for passenger transport and Talcher-Dhamara water ways for cargo to bring little sanity to our roads in future and save the fear for life of road users in this busy national highway. Any takers?