Sunday, January 1, 2012

That's all, your honour: Dec.25-31


1. Did you know that Srinivasa Ramanujan ran away from his house at the age of 18? And more interestingly, his father wrote a letter to The Hindu giving details, so that if anyone finds him, they can report it! This letter was carried out by The Hindu last week and it was a very pleasant surprise. Take a look at the letter here. Also, The Hindu carried out a special supplement on Ramanujan and about the growth of maths in India, career opportunities in India etc. The supplement was very enlightening with even photographs of inscriptions showing old numbers. This year is being celebrated as the National year of Mathematics, commemorating the 125th birth anniversary of Srinivasa Ramanujan. Hope that more and more students will get interested in mathematics in the coming years :) . The only sore point in the whole celebrations was a speech by Kapil Sibal. Another empty promise by him - exam centric system to go. How? Please don't ask how - Sibal can only talk pompously! 

2. The Lokpal bill continues to dominate the political discussions in the country. I will write in some more detail later about how the ruling party cheated people at every stage of the bill. Last week, the bill was passed in Lok Sabha but the game changing idea of Rahul Gandhi - to give Lokpal a constitutional status was defeated in the Lok Sabha. An earlier blog gives details of that session. Next stop was Rajya Sabha. The bill was tabled only on wednesday evening in the house, and it took up discussion only thursday. Even the ally of the congress, Trinamool Congress was very unhappy about this bill. The opposition too was deeply disappointed with this bill. A total of 187 amendments were moved by TMC and the opposition parties. The government realised late into the night that the session has to end at 12am, and since there was no time, the bill was to be deferred. Opposition parties said they were ready to sit through the night, but the government said they need time to go over the 187 amendments. After a shameful ruckus orchestrated by the ruling party in the presence of the Prime Minister, the house was adjourned sine die. The Lokpal bill debate now moves on to the next session. More drama awaits us in the budget session

3. Meanwhile, the congress government in AP is spending more on ads than on actual schemes in Andhra Pradesh. And after telling us that "a year later, the state is even better", the government is now increasing power tariffs in the state. An expected increase in revenue is about Rs. 5000 crores from this increase. This is just one amongst a big list of burdenous policy of this government! And the year just began - dreaded to think what lies ahead for us! 

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