Ground Reality

On a frigid day, she ditched me, apparently taking cover of heavy veil of mist hanging atop a sprawling park.  I was dejected to lose her warm company which was really soothing during bone chilling winter nights in the national capital, notorious for extreme weather conditions.  Refusing to accept the realty that she is lost, I embarked upon the operation search. All bids turned abortive but it was not enough to discourage me from the frantic hunt. I looked into all corners to pick up her trail which many times took to me strange places like heavy bushes in park, cupboards  in home, meditation halls ,petrol pumps, market places etc. Frustrated over the loss, I sought help of a bureaucrat to spot her if she is found in gracing any stroller in parks around. After a few days I resigned to the reality that she is lost for the good but not before making many in suspect in my eyes that they had stealthily laid hands on her. I was repenting to have roma...

   Unbridled mushrooming of engineering colleges like “Chemist shops” is despairingly blighting national goal of producing engineers of excellence and quality in India, reveals a well-researched book- “Path to Excellence” by academician Pritam B sharma who calls for a thorough review of the policy before it is too late. Driven by a quest to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), the regulatory system in the country allowed “mushrooming” of engineering and technology colleges and deemed universities, thinking that the engineering colleges are like chemist shops required in every nook and corner of the nation, the book mentions. They overlooked that the engineering institutions are required to attract best of talent both in students as well in its faculty community …. “But for the crazy policy makers and regulators responsible for assuring quality this was not the agenda as they primarily focused on achieving an accelerated increase in GER from almost 9% in ...

 By Neeraj Bajpai “ It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness….,It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair”. This Historic quote of eminent writer Charles Dickens aptly fits in the current political scenario in the world’s most populous and vibrant democracy -India. Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest is order of the day.Opposition parties,which used to be most vociferous on the government’s policies and ruling party,are reduced to a rump apparently because of their own doings. Credibility of even some notables of the Grand old party (GOP),Congress, is at stake, and almost in every major election held since 2014, the party’s political space is getting shrunk and  marginalized. Prospects of its revival in near future look dim given a sense of despondency visible among rank and file after every defeat- especially Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.The phenomenon has its cascading impact ...

One hundred one years ago When Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa ,He had not seen a spinning wheel,Charkha,but his strong penchant for Khadi made tidal waves during the Swadeshi movement,But now again the wheel has taken full circle ---Khadi cult is picking momentum afresh.  Millions of people passing through Rajiv Chowk rivet their eyes to a huge charkha which was  unveiled there this Sunday. The 2.5-tonne large steel charkha is made of high-quality chromium nickel stainless steel and is corrosion resistant, non-magnetic and not hardenable by heat. The order to make this 12 feet tall and 25 feet long spinning wheel was given to Prayog Samiti, KVIC unit, near Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat. The high quality stainless steel for the charkha was donated by Steel Authority of India (SAIL). In what comes as the first initiative to link Charkha with tourism, The charkha was unveiled by BJP President Amit Shah on Sunday. A Charkha Museum – consis...

बिजली की बढ़ती हुई मांग को पूरा करने के लिए जलवायु और नवीकरणीय ऊर्जा संसाधनों के दोहन की सुरक्षा के दोहरे उद्देश्य को पूरा करने के निर्णायक कदम से नरेंद्र मोदी सरकार ने अपने शासन के तीन वर्षों के दौरान अभी तक की सबसे बड़ी नवीकरणीय ऊर्जा उत्पादन योजनाओँ की शुरूआत करके हरित ऊर्जा के लिए अपनी प्रतिबद्धता को और आगे बढ़ाया है। जलवायु परिवर्तन पर संयुक्त राष्ट्र फ्रेमवर्क सम्मेलन में प्रस्तुत भारत के इच्छित निर्धारित योगदान (आईएनडीसी) के अनुरूप   भारत प्रौद्योगिकी  के स्थानांतरण की सहायता से  2030 तक गैर-जीवाश्म ईंधन पर आधारित ऊर्जा संसाधनों से 40 प्रतिशत सकल विद्युत  ऊर्जा क्षमता को प्राप्त कर लेगा। नवीकरणीय ऊर्जा क्षेत्र में मेगा योजनाएं लागू की जा रही हैं। दूरदराज के ऐसे ग्रामीण क्षेत्रों में जहां ग्रिड की आपूर्ति उपलब्ध नहीं है ऐसे क्षेत्रों में विद्युत की आपूर्ति सुनिश्चित करते हुए ये पहल ऊर्जा की सुरक्षा का मार्ग प्रशस्त करेंगी। वर्तमान में  देश में प्रति व्यक्ति विद्य़ुत की खपत विश्व की औसत खपत का पांचवा हिस्सा है। नवीकरणीय ऊर्जा क्षेत्र पर जोर देने के पीछ...

देश के पेट्रोलियम और प्राकृतिक गैस क्षेत्र के इतिहास में नरेंद्र मोदी सरकार ने अपने शासनकाल के पहले तीन वर्षों के दौरान उज्ज्वला योजना, सब्सिडी छोड़ो योजना, ऊर्जा गंगा योजना सहित कई नई पहल शुरू करने के साथ ही अंतरराष्ट्रीय तेल बाज़ार में उतार-चढ़ाव जैसी परिस्थितियों का सामना किया। ऊर्जा सुरक्षा के उद्देश्य को पूरा करने की दिशा में निश्चित कदम उठाते हुए सरकार ने एलपीजी नेटवर्क को फैलाकर इस क्षेत्र को समृद्ध बनाने की योजना पर काम किया। ऊर्जा सुरक्षा के लिए रास्ता तैयार करने की दिशा में निम्न, मध्य और उच्च वर्गों के लिए कई पहलों की शुरुआत की गई और कई अन्य पहल अभी विचाराधीन हैं। प्रधानमंत्री उज्ज्वला योजना (पीएमयूवाई) के तहत गरीबी रेखा से नीचे जीवन यापन करने वाली 2 करोड़ से अधिक महिलाओं को गैस सिलेंडर वितरित किए गए। सरकार ने प्रधानमंत्री उज्ज्वला योजना के अंतर्गत अगले तीन सालों में गरीबी रेखा से नीचे रहने वाली 5 करोड़ से अधिक महिलाओं को नए एलपीजी कनेक्शन उपलब्ध कराने के लिए 8000 करोड़ रुपये को मंज़ूरी दी है।   अन्य प्रमुख योजनाओं में से एक प्रधानमंत्री उज्ज्वला योजना नए कनेक्शन...

By Neeraj Bajpai Once Ace politician and Former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh was sitting in a thatched Chaupal in agrarian Baghpat area in Western Uttar Pradesh when a middle aged villager trooped in with bleeding head injury. He was seeking justice from the prominent Jat leader as local urchins who had belabored him belonged to his community. Apparently upset over the incident, undisputed icon of his community Charan Singh,in his characteristic style ,stoked his hair and adjusted his sparkling white Gandhi topi and ordered immediate first aid for the injured from fellow villagers. He directed the motely crowd of attendants to summon attackers for immediate punishment. Everything was done with lightning speed, but when the injured man, a local teacher, was about to leave .Hiding his seething anger, Charan Singh , in polite tone, asked him to sit down .He told him point blank that his wounds would  heal soon, but posed a poser him whether he had ever realize...

By Neeraj Bajpai She is young and beautiful.She is trying to gain weight for last one month to win over enraged mother who had abandoned her and refused breastfeeding as she was unlucky underweight at time of birth. But now,she is in company of a stuffed toy, purposefully gifted to ward of loneliness.  she plays with stuffed towys- a white tiger and a leopard. Her special diet is flown from America to Kanpur, infamous as the dust bowl of Uttar Pradesh.Within a span of a month, she has won over hearts of many in the city’s sprawling zoological garden with captivating charms of twinkling eyes ,baby whiskers and cushy paws. Lured by her looks, wild life authorities fondly call her " Sundari". She was given birth on April 10 , this year by lioness Nandini  who had mated with fierce  Ajay,king of jungles from Raipur in sprawling green confines. Soon after birth in a zoo enclosure,Sundari was deserted by mother who  chose not to  rear the weak and d...

By Neeraj Bajpai  Carving out niche in annals of the country’s Petroleum and Natural gas Sector, the Narendra Modi government, during its first three years of governance, unveiled a raft of path breaking initiatives including Ujjwala Yojna, Give Back Subsidy, Urja Ganga and weathered international oil markets fluctuations. In a determined move to accomplish energy security, the government chased plans to enrich the sector while spreading LPG connections network. I nitiatives were launched in lower, middle and up streams, and many are on the pipe lines to lit up the oil sector to pave way for the energy security. Over two crore LPG cylinders were distributed to BPL women under the PM’s Ujjawala Yojana.  Government has approved Rs. 8000 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) for release of 5 crore deposit free new LPG connections to women of BPL families over next three years. PMUY, One of the Flagship schemes,  surpassed the targets for the finan...

The City Palace museum in Udaipur, India is reporting that 2016 saw a million visitors pass through its 450-year-old gates for the first time, with Britons forming one of the largest groups of overseas visitors. The spectacular 200,000 sq ft museum is rated as one of the world’s most significant heritage sites and is one of the finest examples of the living heritage of India. Sitting on the banks of Lake Pichola, the museum houses exceptional collections of paintings, photography, silver, armoury, textiles, besides vintage cars and crystal. The City Palace Museum, which is still owned and curated by the former royal family of Mewar, said visitor numbers had also doubled in the last ten years with consistently high numbers of heritage tourists from the UK as well as Europe, Australia and North America. Domestic tourists made up the largest number of visitors. Shriji Arvind Singh Mewar of Udaipur is the 76th Custodian of the House of Mewar and the Chairman and Managing Trust...

By Neeraj Bajpai As I wanted to leave early, so I was up with the lark on this Friday. Summer heat was lashing like a merciless whipper once  I reluctantly left cool confines of air conditioned bed room. But mere thought of having dip in icy cold Ganga water at Hari ki Pauri in Haridwar-“Stepping stones to the doors of Gods’ Abode"-by  that afternoon hit me with an avalanche of thoughts – road journey in the scorching heat, quality of breakfast and food en-route, tricks of taxi driver, toll plaza and parking lot hassles, notorious traffic jams, swarms of alms seekers at Ghats and many unforeseen problems. Much to my delight, all apprehensions gave way like quicksand as the day bode adieu. On my return from the Hill state of Uttrakhand  by early evening same day, I was dishing out a crisp advice to many acquaintances to leave behind work for a fresh cool break for the day with family. A piece of caution, however, was laced with the advisory for th...