The National Anthem

What does are national anthem signify? History? Progress? Glory? Pride?..Well the list goes on...
It means different things to different people. For many of us it signifies our independence, a reminder of our difficult history. Today's Republic day parade was also a statement to the world and to every Indian, that we are indeed coming up economically and socially.
Coming back to the National Anthem; I sometimes wonder, why don't we celebrate it. It is always sung at the end of any event, not at the beginning. People leave the hall silently after it has been sung. There is no sense of mass celebration, "clapping of hands" for example. Why is it so? The reason surely can't be that we have always had it this way for the past 50 years.
Personally I feel it should be celebrated, and sung at the beginning of any event. It should instill that sense of pride in every Indian before starting any new activity.

As always, this is highly debatable because the National Anthem means different things to different people, but as a whole it does make every Indian feel more Indian when he/she listens to it or sings it.

India has one of the largest pool of talented manpower, but few innovations and patented products

India does indeed have a large and a talented workforce. The question here is; are we harnessing it properly enough. Are we getting the best out of them?
The Indian education system is a gigantic machine churning out millions of capable students year after year. Some might say that a majority of them are not employable because of lack of proper training and exposure; but the core issue here is different.

The main reason for the lack of innovations and patented products is because of the lack of a comprehensive and independent patenting body. There should definitely be present in the system an unprejudiced body that can arbitrate over product patents of different companies across varied sectors. Once this body is in place, MNC's and home grown domestic companies will start setting up R&D facilities in India. R&D facilities are the basic requirement to foster innovation and thus create new products and patents. India's large pool can easily be tapped when such measures are taken by the Government.

The next reason that could lead to this dearth of innovations could be the issue of brain drain. Over the past decade a multitude of students have been leaving abroad to pursue their higher education. They get their graduation done in a decent enough college in India, and go on to specialize in US and across Europe. Though they might in the future contribute to the growth of India's economy, it will definitely be lesser in amount than their contribution if they had stayed at home.

This again leads to my core point that if we have enough R&D facilities in India, then students will automatically stay back in India to finish their studies.
Every student looks for challenges, and if India is able to provide the same over time, brain drain will be a no drainer.

Let us take the example of Pharma. Pharma is budding industry with plenty of new products getting pushed into the market regularly. There is heavy competition and if a company is able to come up with a successful drug, then the profits are limitless. There are major players in the Indian industry who compete globally. But due to the lack of a proper patenting system, each company is vulnerable to copied versions of their drugs. The issue inevitably goes to court and becomes a huge mess.

Finally, I would like to conclude and reiterate my point for an individual body to overlook the entire patenting process. This can be brought about by a consensus among the various major players in the industry in collaboration with the Government.

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Sting Journalism

This is an opinion on the article "Stop sting journalism, now!" by Arvind Lavakare.

According the author and plenty of other people, sting operations by journalists and normal people are immoral and unethical. Hence this should be restricted to one particular body of the government. This is the way it is handled in the US; where only the FBI has the right to perform sting operations, that too under strict supervision.

The first flaw in his argument is the comparison of Sting operations in India and the US. The US
Our system is definitely more corrupt and the only way people are going to be shown the truth behind a Politician's or an Official's image is through these sting operations that are cropping up all over the place.
I accept that if Sting operations go out of hand; i.e. if Security related or Sensitive issues get out in the open, then there could be chaos and turmoil all around. Even the Media can manipulate pictures and videos in order to increase their coverage and viewer ship.

My solution:
What is required is an individual Commission that particularly looks into Corruption charges that consist of visual images. This will help create an unprejudiced arbitrator that can decide the legitimacy of certain pictures and videos.

This Commission should also be given the power to discipline media bodies abusing information and data that could be detrimental to National interest.

As in every country, there will be sensitive information that if leaked could spark widespread public hate towards the policies of the Government. Everything cannot be done legally, hence it is better that such information is withheld from the public for the better common good.