Finance Forward

Over the past few months, i have been reading a lot of Robin Sharma's wisdom. He has had a huge impact over me. You won't believe, i have started sleeping for 6 hours now, instead of 9 !! Seriously, this dude rocks. He will speak such words, which will create a sort of current inside your body. One day at the Lucknow Railway Station, i just happened to buy one of Robin's books - " The Monk who sold his Ferrari ". After reading that book, my vision has got more concrete. Since then, i haven't stopped reading. I have already finished reading 4 of his titles. The names of the books you can find on the right hand side of this page. Now, a brief about ROBIN SHARMA : He is the globally celebrated author of 10 bestselling books on Leadership and Personal Development. His work has been published in over 50 countries and in nearly 70 languages, making him one of the most widely read authors in the world.Robin is the founder of Sharma Leadership International Inc. , a ...

- My Civil Services Interview questions - First Interview - 3rd April 2008 – Purushottam Aggarwal’s Board You are from Sociology Deptt of Lucknow University. Name 4-5 Sociologists from your deptt. Who have earned a big name in Sociology. Why do parochial identities predominate in Indian society ? Tell us about Sociology of Uttar Pradesh. Tell us some famous statement of D.P.Mukherjee. If I give you Rs. 100 , what proportion of this fund will you spend in maintaining relations with which group of countries ? Don’t give the approximate %, give the exact categorization. If regional peace is important for you, then will you be able to reduce the defence expenditure of India ? If Pakistan do not remove their army from the borders, will you ask your army to come back ? Why do violence and agitations take place like – strike in universities, factories, offices etc. ? The Police always complains that it do not have opera...

Education is the cornerstone of any civilized society. I am worried at the fact that even after the completion of six decades of Independence , we have not been able to ensure the right to free and compulsory education to each and every child in the country. I understand that 50 or 60 years are not much in any country’s history and country’s performance cannot be judged in such a short span. We have made huge advances in terms of Literacy. Compare the figures of 1951 and 2001, you will see the difference. Still, we cannot be complacent and have got a long way to go. There are certain problems in Education in India which have time and again held us back in various spheres. I would like to narrate them as follows : Infrastructure Teacher Competency Content and Process of Education Quality of Education Lack of Retention Lack of Vocationalisation of Secondary Education Linguistic barrier for Tribals Lack of uniformity of sylla...

Issue : Fight against Maoists It is surprising to see that even in the wake of such brutal attacks by the Maoists, the state governments have shown a lackadaisical approach in bringing about the much needed Police Reforms.Apart from aspiring to maintain the global standards as regards the Police-Population ratio, what we also need is better working conditions, no political interference in police functioning,training in latest arm equipments and the enactment of a legislation shattering the colonial legacy of 1861 Police Act.Why cant the model of Greyhounds be replicated and emulated in other Maoist effected states ? The modern Police infrastructure is the need of the hour.

Issue : Pricing of Petroleum products T he pricing of Petro Products in the country needs to be rationalised and decontrolled.Oil is the foundation stone of any economy.If we continue with present state of subsidies, then companies like HPCL and BPCL will find it difficult to sustain and survive. If the Middle class of India can spend Rs.150 for a movie ticket every fortnight, then they can certainly shell out Rs.100 extra for a LPG cylinder.Moreover, the diesel in the country need not be subsidised as it is mostly the Upper middle and rich classes which uses it in their high end Diesel variant SUVs.The farmers using diesel for irrigation purposes should be encouraged to switch over to alternative sources of energy. Its high time Kirit Parikh committee's recommendations are implemented.To make it more bearable, we can start with an increase of Rs.25 in LPG and Rs. 0.25 in Kerosene every year, for the next 5 years.

India is a diverse country. It believes in the notion of Unity in Diversity.Our founding Fathers were aware of various regional aspirations taking birth in the country soon after independence. Perhaps, that’s why, we had states reorganization on linguistic basis. But, time and again, the regional identities have echoed their voices and have threatened and intimidated the unity of the country with their secessionist claims. The call for separate states in the country is the case in point. Today, we have plethora of voices coming from different parts of country viz. Telangana (Andhra Pradesh), Vidarbha ( Maharashtra), Saurashtra (Gujarat), Maru Pradesh (Rajasthan), Harit Pradesh (UP), Bundelkhand (UP), Poorvanchal (UP), Mithilanchal (Bihar), Gorkhaland (W.Bengal), Bodoland ( Assam ) etc. The regional developmental imbalances , lack of opportunities, abject living conditions etc. are given as the varied reasons behind such voices.But I fail to understand that why no one ta...

ISSUE : BJP on Marathi Chauvinism BJP is following double standards.The veracity of its intentions about criticising Sena and its theory remains doubtful.The editorial ('A new kind of Dicordance') rightly points out that BJP has unabashedly pursued a policy of 'anti-minorityism' .Be it Gujarat pogrom or Orissa or saffronisation of textbooks or Ayodhya, their actions have always intimidated and threatened India's unity and abased the vulnerable minorities.Marathi chauvinism is, no doubt, condemnable but BJP would find no takers and sympathisers with its recent approach, which do not seem to be bona fide in spirit.