My thoughts on some socialistic policies adopted by Govts.

Any country will have sectors that do not earn but required to be funded for the development, well-being and sustenance of the community.

Some examples of sectors where subsidies are required are

1. Food and Nutrition
2. Water
3. Primary Health
4. Education
5. Defense

However subsidies can be removed from other sectors like

1. Art and Culture (Important but not essential)
2. Entertainment (Important but not essential)
3. Construction and Maintenance of religious institiutions (they can run on donations and charity of people but not through a secular government)

Lets see points 1, 2 and 4 of the subsidised list above:

Food And Nutrition:

Food Security Bill has come and it is laudable. I really appreciate it. But the way it is implemented has scope for misuse. 30 Kgs of rice per person per month is too much for an Indian family. I have personally come across people who sell it to provision stores. Even the distributors can hoard the provisions.Poor people (destitutes) who dont have a permanent address cannot avail this scheme at all.

An alternate scheme that I think would be good is government subsidised cafeterias distributed everywhere

1. Food may not be completely free, say 8 Rs for meals and 4 rupees for breakfast and 1 Rupee for tea/coffee. 
2. All poor people can avail this irrespective of whether they have address proof or not.
3. Will prevent misuse of the provisions.
4. Will give employment to many people.

I wish governments adopt this policy.

Water:

As Arvind Kejriwal rightly said Water is the lifeline. Charging for it is criminal. However considering the huge population and lack of water what we can do is
1. Limit the water subsidy to poor people
2. Limit the water subsidy to basic usage (potable and basic hygene)

By making 700 Ltrs free and charging full if the usage exceeds more than 700 Ltrs,  AAP achieved both the points above. Note that this is not a robinhood scheme where you steal from one and give to another. The people who can afford (reflected by their high usage) will just pay fully for their own usage not for others.
This will also ensure that people conserve water by not exceeding the usage.

However the limit 700 Ltrs is a bit high. Considering a leniant 100 Ltrs of water per head, a 4 member family uses only 400 Ltrs of water per day. So limiting the margin at 400 Ltrs would be better.

Education:

We definitely need subsidies for eductaion, without that atleast I could not have completed my BE. Those who have taken subsidies (Govt Seat) and now tell that it is not needed are hypocrites.

A govt seat subsidy has following advantages:
1. It will provide an incentive for students to study hard.
2. It will allow poor students to fund their education.

Recently during my wife's PG admission, the government removed all GM seats and gave it to management of colleges. The private colleges did a comed-k entrance and charged 10x, 20x for
the same seats that were subsidised the previous year. Because of this we could not afford some good seats though she had good ranking. Now even for BE they had brought the same policy but people opposed fervently and forced the Govt to withdraw it.

According to me the college should distribute the seats as follows.The ratio could be varied, but the model should be somewhat like this.
1. Completely Government Subsidised seats
2. Private seats where there is 50% Govt Subsidy and 50% for college management to charge based on the quality they provide.
3. 100% private seat where govt will not interfere.

AAPs approach of
1. Monitoring donations (there by making it white) is laudable.
2. The idea of completely removing management seats might be an hindrance to competition and quality. We can have an option of management seats once in two years atleast.
 
I think this model is a combination of capitalistic + socialistic approach.

My Ideas on Taxation

Consider this.

--You travel by road, you pay road tax

--You watch a movie, you pay entertainment tax

--You purchase some commodity, pay VAT

--You sell something pay sales tax.

--You buy a house, you pay property tax.

Still when you get "Salary" or "Income" you pay "Income Tax".

Is it not "Double Taxation"?

Why should we pay "Income Tax" ??

Is it for public welfare??

Is it for Parks , Hospitals and Educational Institutions?

If this argument is correct all our Income Tax should be spent only for public welfare because for

services that we have utilized or enjoyed we have already paid taxes as above!

See the condition of Parks -- Are the well maintained? And of Hospitals, I daily go to Victoria Hospital in Bangalore, condition there is pathetic, one becomes a patient if he goes there. Educational Institutions, I dont see any Govt School / College which gives quality education, how many Govt Colleges are there? How many Govt Merit Seats are there?

Our Income Tax is either going in drain or to the pockets of politcians.

Can we avoid it by having this?

Non Public Services

--Pay direct taxes on the Services you enjoy/utilize.

--Govt utilizes this tax for improving specific sectors, Eg. "Road Tax" to improve Roads.

Public Services like Parks, Hospitals, Educational Institiutions, Defense Expenditure,

--Govt should raise fund for public services by issuing Shares, people purchase it.No income tax here.The profit is nominal, this is similar to People Provident Fund or post office savings or National Savings Certificate etc.

--People should pay for the services for Gvt to maintain profit, "No Free Lunch". If you are not able to pay, Govt will pay from its profits. To avoid such things in the future Govt will improve the quality of people and slowly increase the "profits" and also the people's earning capabaility.

This is transparent and hence quality gets ensured.

No Income Tax to be collected as the public does not where it gets spent.

WIll this model work?

Is it being followed anywhere, a country without taxes?

the song that I still sing in mind at least once in a week before I sleep...

ಅಮ್ಮ, ನಿನ್ನ ಎದೆಯಾಳದಲ್ಲಿ
ಗಾಳಕ್ಕೆ ಸಿಕ್ಕ ಮೀನು
ಮಿಡುಕಾಡುತಿರುವೆ ನಾನು
ಕಡಿಯಲೋಲ್ಲೆ ನೀ ಕರುಳಬಳ್ಳಿ
ಒಲವೂಡುತಿರುವ ತಾಯೆ,
ಬಿಡದ ಬುವಿಯ ಮಾಯೆ

ನಿನ್ನ ರಕ್ಷೆಗೂಡಲ್ಲಿ ಬೆಚ್ಚಗೆ
ಆಡಗಲಿ ಎಷ್ಟು ದಿನ ?
ದೂಡು ಹೊರಗೆ ನನ್ನ
ಓಟ ಕಲಿವೆ, ಒಳನೋಟ ಕಲಿವೆ,
ನಾಕಲಿವೆ ಊರ್ಧ್ವ ಗಮನ,
ಓ ಆಗಾಧ ಗಗನ

ಮೇಲೆ ಹಾರಿ, ನಿನ್ನ ಸೆಳೆತ ಮೀರಿ,
ನಿರ್ಭಾರಸ್ಥಿತಿಗೆ ತಲುಪಿ
ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಾಂಡವನ್ನೇ ಬೆದಕಿ
ಇಂಧನ ತೀರಲು,
ಬಂದೇ ಬರುವೆನು
ಮತ್ತೆ ನಿನ್ನ ತೊಡೆಗೆ,
ಮೂರ್ತ ಪ್ರೇಮದೆಡೆಗೆ

-ಬಿ ಆರ್ ಲಕ್ಷ್ಮಣರಾವ್.

Totally Dissatisfied with Blue

If this movie has become a hit its only because of curiosity of people and because of the fact that it has been released during Diwali Holidays. Otherwise it has so many flaws that it can be classified as a comedy not a thriller.

Zayed Khan destructs so many cars, a huge lorry and kills so many people in traffic accidents. Is 50000 $s worth that much??

People have gone to the depths of abyss discovering lost ships, is it such an impossible mission that the Lady in Blue which was lying in continental shelf remained unexplored for more than 50 years?

People really appreciate movies that are logical in their respective genre whether they are fictious/mythological/thriller/drama/comedy. Otherwise it becomes a farce.

I dont know till how long Indian directors believe that with only item numbers/star cast/and stunts people accept any crap.

ReInterprete Advaitha!!!

Cells contain genetic material; a cell divides and divides and becomes a body, gives a feeling of sensation to the mind by electric signals .... muscles contract and relax through electric signals again...finally a day comes when electric signals no longer flow...is that death?It could be but what if one of those cells has gone to create a progeny? The genetic material continues to flow.So there is no death for the genetic material unless the person dies without a child, but ofcourse because of so many branches it had in the past (through siblings), the initial genetic material is continuing to exist, evolving through mutations and crossover...So it is eternal and evolving.

But of course an individual copy of the genetic material dies, so death is for individual cells. When all of them die the macroscopic organism also dies. An individual organism contains millions of cells, each with a phase of birth(mitosis), and death. So Jivatma, should be applied at a microscopic level, for each individual cell.

What I mean to say is with the new knowledge , what Sankara told about Self and Self manifesting itself through body and senses should be applied to individual cells....

How would Sankara interprete things with the new knowledge if he were in the contemporary world? Has anybody thought about reinterpreting Advaita in the current context?

It was a very tragic event that YSR died in AP. Our CM Mr. Yeddiyurappa declared holiday as condoloence.I dont know the motivation behind giving that holiday, may be a real condolensce or a gimmick to woo Telugu Voters of Hyderabad Karnataka...whatever be the reason, I have a basic question on the practice of giving holidays when some VIP dies..

1> Will people mourn?
2> Should people mourn leaving their duty?
3> Giving holiday to public service like hospitals may lead to some more deaths..is it necessary??

Actually people will celebrate any holiday be it for condolensce or festival....Now when this si the case, our CM is indirectly celebrating the death...too bad.

ಕೆಲವು ಯೋಚನೆಗಳು

ಹೋದವಾರ ಶಿವಮೊಗ್ಗಕ್ಕೆ ಹೋಗಿದ್ದೆ. ಅಲ್ಲಿ ರಸ್ತೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿರುವ ವಿಷಯ ಆಗಲೆ ಹಳೆಯದು..ಆದರೆ ನನಗೆ ಈ ಯೋಚನೆ ಯಾಕೋ ಈಗ ಬ೦ದಿದೆ.

ರಸ್ತೆಗಳನ್ನು ಇಷ್ಟು ದೊಡ್ಡದಾಗಿ ಒಡೆಯುವುದು ಮತ್ತಿನ್ಯಾವಾಗೋ ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಈಗ ಒಡೆದಿರುವಾಗಲೆ ಏನೇನು ಸುಧಾರಣೆಗಳನ್ನು ಮಾಡಬೇಕೋ ಅದೆಲ್ಲ ಮಾಡಿದರೆ ಒಳ್ಳೆಯದಲ್ಲವೆ...ನನ್ನ ಕೆಲವು ಅನಿಸಿಕೆಗಳು ಹೀಗಿವೆ..

೧. ಸೈಕಲ್ ಸವಾರರಿಗೆ ಒ೦ದು ಕಿರುರಸ್ತೆ, ಬಹುಶ: ಹೊಸ ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆಗೆ ನಾ೦ದಿ?
೨. ಬಸ್ ನಿಲ್ದಾಣಗಳಿಗೆ ಪ್ರತ್ಯೇಕ ಕವಲು
೩.ರಸ್ತೆ ದಾಟಲು ಸೇತುವೆ
೪.ಮಳೆನೀರನ್ನು ಇ೦ಗಿಸಲು ಮೋರಿ
೫.ಮು೦ದೆ ರಸ್ತೆ ಒಡೆಯುವ ಪ್ರಸ೦ಗ ಬರದ೦ತೆ ಒಳಚರ೦ಡಿ ಕೆಲಸಗಳಿಗೆ ರಸ್ತೆಯ ಕೆಳಗೆ ಅಲ್ಲಲಿ ಸಣ್ಣ ಸುರ೦ಗ ಮಾರ್ಗ
೬. ಆಪ್ಟಿಕಲ್ ಫೈಬರ್ ಅಳವಡಿಸಲು ರಸ್ತೆಯ ಉದ್ದಕ್ಕೂ ಜಾಗ

ಈ ಕೆಲಸಗಳಿಗೆ ಎಷ್ಟು ಕರ್ಚಾಗಬಹುದು (೧೦ ಕಿ.ಮಿ ಬಿ.ಹೆಚ್ ರಸ್ತೆ, ೨ ಕಿ.ಮಿ ನೆಹರು ರಸ್ತೆ), ಈಗ ಸಣ್ಣ ಊರಾದರೂ ಮು೦ದೆ ಬೆ೦ಗಳೂರಿನ ಒತ್ತಡ ಕಡಿಮೆ ಮಾಡಲು (ವಿಕೇ೦ದ್ರೀಕರಣ?) ಅನುಕೂಲವಾಗುತ್ತೆ.ಬೇರೆ ಊರುಗಳನ್ನು ಹೀಗೆಯೆ ಕ್ರಮೇಣ ಉತ್ತಮಗೊಳಿಸಬಹುದು.