AMbedkar's ways and anna's ways

·         Ambedkar warned of 3 possible dangers to indian dmeocracy

o   Hero worship

o   Social and economic inequalities

o   Use of unconcsitutional methods

·         Hero worship

o   Indians have tendency to lay down their liberties at feet of great men and trust them with powers to subvert their institutions

·         Inequalities

o   For political democracy to succeed , sociala nd economic inequalities must be reduced

·         Use of unconstitutional methods

o   People must abandon coercive and violent methds to bring abt hcnage

·         Ambedkar himslef used peaceful mass movements and legal instruments to bring about change like temple entry In kalaram and access to wells in mahad

·         Indian consttn provides ample opportunities for advocacy through discussion with MPs, standing committees etc

·         Civil society has played important roles in drafting RTI, RTE, forest rights act and proposed food sec bill

·         Hence civil society must to consituttional emthods and reinforce people’s confidence in them

·         Our democracy still works within frakme work of uindemocratic relations based on caste

·         Corruption and unotuchability are embeded into social fabric of our society

To bring about change there needs to moral regeneration

Taking RTE to next level

·         PM in I day speech made 2 important announcements regarding education

o   Education commission to advice on improving quality of education at all levels

o   Universalizing secondary education as a follow up to RTE(9^th an d10th standard)

·         Kothari comission-1964-66

o   Expand education based on manpower needs

o   Ensure equalization of education opportunities

o   Education for improving productivity and accelerating modernization

o   Introduce common school system

o   Focus on vocational subjects and science

·         RTE in most of states rules not framed

·         SC on TN samcheer kalvi case

o   Right of child shouldn’t end with free and compulsory education , it must extend to quality education without any discrimination

o   Samcheer kalvi is aimed at equitable and standard education

·         To ensure equitable education, following issues need to be tackled

o   Caste based prejudice

o   Gender bias

o   Community based discrimination

·         Infra facilities need to be improved

o   Well qualified sincere teachers

o   1:30 ratio

will russia turn saviour for iran

20th aug, Hindu Op ed

·         Russia making efforts to revive talks(p5+germany) on irans nuclear program

·         Lavrov plan Calls for a step by step approach to resolve nuclear problem

·         Iran should be rewarded for every step it makes to clarify questions about its nuclear program

·         US and its allies have called for stopping of enrichment by iran which russia doesn’t support

·         Last year russia supported UN sanction on russia and stalled its S 300 missile sale to iran

·         Both share common views on afghan , west asia and north africa

·          US is committed to dual track of pressure and engagement

·         The recent attacks on libya and mounting pressure on libya has escelated threats against iran

·         Russia is aiming to avoid any large scale war in west asia and improv ties with iran

·         However there is no hopes of immediate breakthrough as bost sides have stuck to their stance

o   Western antions expect rian to stop its enrichment while iran expects the west to cancel all sanctions and recognise its right to enrichemnt of uranium

Important features of national mineral policy 2008

1.      

• Seamless and transparent grant of mineral concessions and Security of tenure to a holder of a

concessionaire.

• Arm’slength distances between State agencies that mine and those that regulate.

• Preference to value addition industry in grant of mineral concession.

• Development of a proper inventory of resources and reserves - priority to a mining tenement registry and

a mineral atlas.

• Strengthening of Geological Survey of India, the Indian Bureau of Mines and the state Directorates of

Mining & Geology, with manpower, equipment and skill sets up graded to state of the art.

• Development of framework of sustainable development to take care of biodiversity issues.

• Special care to protect the interest of host and indigenous (tribal) population through developing models

of stakeholder interest based on international best practice.

• Assistance to State Governments to overcome the problem of illegal mining through operational and

financial linkages with the Indian Bureau of Mines.

• Development of a comprehensive institutional framework for R&D and training.

• Development of capital market structures to attract risk investment into survey and prospecting