Revist Facts on Andhra Pradesh Economic Statistics

There have been lot of comments in various forums stating that Telangana region is being ignored for development. I have not seen any references for the data that was presented. Tried to dig through AP Census website(Refs below) and wanted to publish some FACTS.

There is no denial that one of the most backward districts "Adilabad" is in Telangana, but there are backward districts such as Srikakulam, vijaya nagaram, ananthapoor in "Andhra" and "Rayalaseema" as well. There are some districts like "Ranga Reddy" & "Karimnagar" which have higher growth than many other districts in the state. I have consciously excluded "Hyderabad", "Vizag", CITY_NONE_OF_SEEMA from the list as it is obvious for these.

THIS POST IS NOT TO COMPARE EVERY FACTOR OF DEVELOPMENT BETWEEN DISTRICTS, BUT ONLY TO REVISIT FACTS AND PRESENT THAT BACKWARDNESS IS EVERYWHERE. ALL THE FACTS ARE VERIFIABLE AT REFERENCES BELOW.

There have been many issues before I was not even born, which I cannot go back and change. It does not help if we just keep looking at the past and generate hatred against each other. This era is not for separatist politics. Together we have 2nd wealthiest mine region, have huge reserves of gas, huge reserves of coal, 3rd in overall GSDP, 4th in per capita GSDP.

We have had just enough reasons to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another. Let us find those together.

REFERENCES:
1) AP GOVT CENSUS ALL DISTRICTS MAP
2) DISTRICT STATS
3) Jalayagnam Budget Spent 2004-06

Three days after mumbai attacks

People of Mumbai and India again proved that they are strong and resilient. We have faced tough times with so many separatist movements, naxalism, religious fundamentalism and yet we are together in harmony and we will continue to do so. Many across the country (including Jammu) have come together lit candles, showed placards, shared SMSes, to express solidarity and pay tribute to the victims and the heroes of the mumbai attack. The difference this time has been the anger that has came out of people's voices. For the first time I think, the Indian politician felt the heat.

Heads started rolling - First to go was the home minister Shivraj Patil after being disowned by Sonia, at last. I think the credit should go to media and people who left her with no choice. It is still a long time to go for India before the leadership is chosen based on credibility than loyalty to a person or a family. RR Patil, the Dy.CM who refused to step down till 15 min before his resignation has to bow down to public anger. The next one in the list is none other than the CM, Vilas Rao Deshmukh, who has to face the public rage for visiting the devastated Taj and Trident like a city tour with his actor son and the film director Ram gopal verma. He has resigned bowing to public outrage and the coalition parties (congress and NCP) are still trying to find an "acceptable solution" for the replacement.

It is also time for some action in the red tape community of the Indian bureaucracy who has not done enough to protect the country even after 14 terror attacks in the past 3 years. Ironically they did not learn even after this attack and just started blaming each other with no one taking up the responsibility. Sheela Butt has written an article on Rediff about the crumbling state of the India's intelligence agencies.

India's premier intelligence agency has been in a coma for many months and neither the Prime Minister's Office nor the National Security Advisor's office have any solution-oriented approach. If RAW was built in the last 35 plus years, it has crumbled in the last 35 months.

I think it is high time to make them accountable and start rolling the heads in these institutions.

There have been debates on TV on what should be done next and many different suggestions were given including a very ambitious one to go on a war with Pakistan. On one of the show, there was this touching story of a Mumbai muslim Shameem, who lost six of his family members and did not even have enough money to bury them. People across the states, across religions came forward to support him. Ironically on the same show, popular TV personality Simi Garewal, talked about some homes in Mumbai having Pakistani flags, without knowing the difference between a religious flag and a country flag. Though she later apologized and stand corrected, it is very important for all of the India to be responsible and not to get polarized in this highly sensitive and inflammable situation. As mentioned by the film director Sudheer Mishra, on a show, we should probably come with a new terminology to not use "Hindu" or "Muslim" when we are referring to the religious extremism.

Without being polarized, we all should continue to show the anger and channel it in the right direction. Showing anger on the incompetence and audacity of the Indian politician did work to some extent - though these actions were taken because of the state elections and union elections around the corner.

On a separate note, Vishal of the Vishal Sekhar duo has created a petition @ http://smallchange.in on the role of TV channels during the crisis time and regulating them in crisis situations to enable the security forces to handle better. Though I hailed the TV crew in my previous post for bringing the live telecast risking their lives, I do take offense on the following
1) Showing the live telecast of the terrorist telephone conversation where he was talking about his motive
2) Showing the strategies and positions of the security personal, jeopardizing the operation and the lives of our security forces
3) Being insensitive to the victims by forcing microphone and cameras to them when they are not even fully out of the shock
4) Showing which room the survivors are-jeopardizing their lives and showing how many security personal were killed-giving a boost to the terror elements

I have signed this petition and please do so if you agree with ...

Mumbai Attack and Aftermath - My View

Why is this attack different from any earlier terrorist attacks in India

We may have seen so many terrorist attacks in India, reports (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2312796.cms) may tell us that India has highest number of civilian casualties after Iraq, we may have been used to going back to our regular life next day after any attack, ...but ... it is not the same this time.

There is rage when you realize the terrorist is face to face with your fellow Indian and firing at will in a barbaric manner. The rage aggravates when you know that just a dozen gunmen from another nation has kept the entire city of Mumbai, in fact the entire nation, at hostage.

Why

1) Destabilize the tourism and economy of India by passing a message to the world that India is as vulnerable as Pakistan

When you hear the comments from the Pakis saying "India is also now like Pakistan and we should work together" - you only think if they have been eagerly waiting for this opportunity to tell that they are not alone anymore

2) Gain more funds by showing off their capability - Striking the iconic place like Taj in the commercial capital of India. They have got lot more attention than they would have thought as they could target Israelis, American and British very easily.

Awful Leadership

I know I should also start pointing my fingers to the "elements across the border". But I think more than anyone, there are elements inside our country (not talking about the few Muslim extremists) who should be mopped out first. And those elements are none other than our own POLITICIANS. And obviously we are to blame for their creation.
The PM, who is not only uninspirational (with his emotionless robotic mouth movement 18 hrs after the attack) but incompetent, the home minister who is not only inept but a joker to gave a statement saying the terrorists left the place before he went there (http://tinyurl.com/5wq7q7). And then, there is this Deputy CM of the Maharashtra who thinks that this war ( I prefer using the term 'war' as apposed to 'attack' ) is just another incident and such things do happen in big cities (http://tinyurl.com/6haptg).

This is the state of our awful leadership.

How many times our PM has come up on TV to say that he is going to create central agency for internal security (I guess every time a blast or terror attack occurs)? What happened to the police reforms he promised three years ago? Well ... if the PM himself is not keen, then what do we expect from the other politicians or bureaucrats.

Based the on reports, as of the beginning of 2007, India had 145.2 policemen per lac of population compared to Mexico 491.8, USA 326.4 and Australia 304. Even Nepal had 192.7. The avg expenditure per month on each police person is a meagre Rs.12,488 including the salary. We can imagine how much is left over for other aspects like training and modernization.

Mumbai Mirror photo journalist Sebastian D'Souza who took the first photograph of the terrorist Ajam was furious when he saw the armed police men after spotting the two terrorists at CST, went hiding instead of firing at the terrorists(http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article14086308.ece). Even after D'Souza shouting at them to fire at terrorists, they did not. Though I share his anger, I have to say that I pity those policemen. These are the policemen, who would have got into their "stable government job" by bribing someone-These are the policemen, who all their lives lived by controlling the crowds for so called VIPs and the elite with substandard ammunition. What they can do, but to hide.

Pakistani Response

On the other side of the border, president Asif Ali Zardari and foreign minister Qureshi has been trying hard on Indian television to send across a message saying that they have no role, they are impacted as much as India by the terrorist attacks and they will do everything to help Indian investigation.

Lets for a moment think that we should not blame Pak govt for direct involvement, one question that comes to my mind - Who do they mean when they refer to pak govt? Is it Zardai, Gilani and Qureshi or is it ISI or is it Gen Kiyani? If that refers to someone who has power to act, then it has to be ISI or Kiyani. If ISI has links to the attack, then in that sense Pak govt does have direct involvement.

Also it is evident from this post from Pakistan's dawn news http://tinyurl.com/5rslca that the new civilian govt is no different to that of the earlier govt and they also want to blackmail US by saying that they will withdraw forces from Afghan border and post them along the Indian border. As usual US will try putting pressure on India to be lenient on its actions - which they did successfully in 2002.

Pakistan apologists

It is not so surprising from the reactions of the western media that they want to push their own agenda before anyone else'. But it is outrageous in the manner they tried to please Pakistan (http://tinyurl.com/6fg53q) and called India's reaction as "knee-jerk reaction". When they did the same with Iraq and Afghanistan - it is justified with "war on Terror". Give us a Break!!!

Salute

Despite all these villains, there are heroes. There are heroes in the NSG, MARCOS and POLICE who put peoples lives ahead of their lives and fought their guts out to kill the bastards. There are heroes in the hotel staff who shielded, hid or evacuated their guests from militants. There are heroes in the media (few exceptions) who even took bullets to bring us the coverage. I salute all the heroes.

Finally I salute the brave and resilient Mumbaikar, who bounced back as usual.

As one Mumbaikar's placard read

"Mr Terrorist, I am alive, what can you do? Mr Politician, I am alive, despite you!, Proud to be Indian"

TED Talk: Web Secret Stories

Artist Jonathan Harris presents at TED about his projects "We feel fine", a project which captures the emotions of the people on web by browsing through the blogs, and the "Yahoo! Time Capsule," which preserves images, quotes and thoughts snapped up in 2006. He also premiers his current project "Universe", which presents secrets of web through a constellation of words. This is pretty interesting project which captures data from the news articles and transforms to present an artistic view of the todays world.