India’s Tryst With The Moon

Image source: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The count down to India’s first un-manned mission to Moon, code-named Chandrayaan-I has already begun. The 1.38-tonne spacecraft will take approximately eight days to travel about 386,240km before reaching its final orbit 96km above the surface of the Moon.

The lunar orbiter’s main mission is to look for water and Helium-3. An Indian flag will also be dropped on to the moon. A small probe will be released, which will then hurtle down towards the moon’s surface. The probe will transmit pictures, data regarding the moon’s atmosphere, and then finally data of the soil analysis when it strikes the moon’s surface. This probe will also be carrying the Indian flag.

Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), G. Madhavan Nair has said that this is an ideal launch pad for a mission to Mars. The GSLV rocket can take a nearly 500 kg spacecraft to Mars and hence this is a certainty in the coming 3-4 years. He has given a rough cost estimate of Rs.100 billion for a manned mission.

In the past, India has completed 21 successful rocket launches bearing satellites since 1980. If this mission is successful, then it will make India the fourth country to join U.S., Russia and Japan to have its flag on the moon.

The ISRO chairman gets very defensive when probed about the feasibility of the mission in current economic conditions. He points out that the budget for the entire space program is a miniscule one, when compared to the total budget of the country. Conservative estimates put this mission at less than 300 crore INR.

If the weather permits, we are set for a lift-off at 6.20am on Wednesday morning.

Is India shining? Definitively, if you look at the moon!

Pink Slipped? Do Not Worry. It Happens Only In India!

Enshrined in the Constitution of India, Article 41 of the Directive Principles of State Policy states that: The State shall, within the limits of its economic capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, and in other cases of undeserved want.

Right to work is an unenforceable right, not a fundamental right. The manner in which the sacked employees of Jet Airways went about protesting their “unceremonious sacking,” made me wonder whether the Indian Constitution has been amended to the effect that “ Right to work is a fundamental right (birth right).”

I couldn’t digest the fact that a multi-national corporation was arm twisted (blackmailed / whitemailed – take your pick) into reinstating around 1900 of its staff, barely a day after they were sacked (pink-slipped).

Some of the legal eagles have pointed out emphatically that Jet would have “force landed” into a soup over the issue of sacking its employees as they had not given a proper termination notice and compensation. They also pointed out that the sackings were completely illegal as there was no notice nor was government’s permission taken to sack 800 employees.

Correct me if I am wrong, Jet Airways is a not a public sector company. So the question of taking the government’s permission is absolutely ridiculous.

A Jet Airways spokesperson re-iterated that the sacking of the employees was done legally. There was no violation of legal or labour ministry guidelines at any point in time. The company had paid a month’s salary while showing the door to the employees, including the probationers.

Then in must be truly a change of heart for Naresh Goyal, Chairman of Jet Airways, unable to see the sufferings, pain, and insecurity in his employees’ eyes, to order the reinstatement of sacked employees with immediate effect.

Or is it? A number of political outfits have staked their claim that they have been the major influencers behind Goyal’s decision to take back the sacked employees. Aviation minister Praful Patel puts it discreetly that it was his stern warning did the trick. Also doing the rounds is that Raj Thackeray’s (MNS) involvement made Jet Airways to blink. Bal Thackeray’s Shiv Sena too is claiming undue credit.

I do wonder whether this fiasco would put off other MNC’s looking to set shop here in India. Here the private corporations are forced to dance to the tunes of whims and fancies of the local politician cum goonda. Corporate policies are as good as toilet paper in a dustbin.

So if you are working for a MNC (and it happens so that, it is here in India) and get pink slipped; where the company describes it as a part cost cutting measure in response to the global melt down. Don’t worry. All you have to do is to vociferously protest against it in the streets, make sure either the MNS or the Shiv Sena take note of it. That’s it. You are back to the office the next day!

Two things: I am an Indian and it happens only in India. Boy! Am I lucky or what.

Here’s My Two Cent’s Worth On Poverty

Interestingly Wiki describes poverty as “deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty, and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens.”

Here in India, we have gotten used to it so much that poverty has become a way of life. It is truly an eye opener when one comes across people who have made it as a career. Yes! That is exactly what I have said. A Career! To be poor, is no longer blamed on one’s fate, in fact; it is looked upon as a blessing in disguise.

At one extreme end we have the destitutes who beg on the street. On a good day, they (some of them) get to make at least around 500 INR. Most of them even sport mobile phones. Networking among fellow beggars is a top priority for them. Having gotten the taste of making the money the easy way, they wouldn’t have it any other way and proudly pass on their “begging skills” to their children.

The government has literally turned a blind eye towards them. Though rudimentary facilities have been put in place to tackle this issue, ignorance and reluctance from the destitutes has made the maters worse. Spiraling numbers of destitutes has compounded the woes. The facilities meant for them are either being misused or are in ruins.

Next comes the category of people who are better off compared to the destitutes, but are woefully below the poverty line. Majority of them have a roof on their heads, occupying the lower rungs of the society. People belonging to this category have had maximum support from the government in terms of policies and schemes. But getting through corruption and red tape is their biggest hurdle, preventing them from making optimum use the existing infrastructure.

The word “poverty” is a much abused word in India, thanks to our ever enterprising politicians, whose only aim is to fatten up their bank accounts. After all, they have an illustrious reputation to be maintain, apart from their crime sheet. There is talk on poverty virtually everywhere during the elections. Promises are made; dime a dozen. When everything is done and dusted, the funds meant for the welfare of the poor gets rerouted into some politicians bank account.

I will stop ranting as there is no point. I will not even bother to offer suggestions or solutions because we need to wake up to the simple fact that there is none (I mean the practical ones). Like I said earlier, poverty has become a way of life. Nobody bothers about it anymore. With our population numbers hell bent on overtaking that of China’s, our country being the largest democracy in the world, do we still stand any chance? We are hurtling back into a black hole, at warp speed. I wish we could escape from all this. I wish I could say, “Beam me up Scotty.”

But I have dared to dream.