Bullet trains in India – railway officers getting trained in Italy on the nitty-gritty of the new era

India has mentally prepared to welcome bullet trains into the country and, in order to learn the system of handling such a sophisticated setup, officials of the Indian Railways have been sent to Italy to learn all there is to know about track maintenance, the security aspects and other infrastructure required for such trains.
The first batch of 30 divisional railway managers (DRMs) have left on 6 September for a 15-day specially-designed course at SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 18 September 2015.

The delegation, which includes DRMs of Izzat Nagar division, Bareilly, Lucknow and Firozpur, will gain expertise in running these trains at SDA Bocconi school of Management in Milan. Obviously, these are the areas where high-speed trains are scheduled to run.
It is understood that the decision of the government is to introduce high-speed trains on Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Chennai and Lucknow-Delhi routes in the first phase. Subsequently, it would be extended to other routes.
Moreover, a site in Bareilly, along with two others in North India, have been identified for setting up a factory to manufacture high-speed train engines. 'Achhe din' on the cards for Uttar Pradesh.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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This may sound ridiculous but in UP, 23 lakh unemployed youths applied against 368 vacancies of peons

This may sound ridiculous but in UP, the government had advertised for 368 vacancies of peons in secretariat and received more than 23 lakh responses who included graduates, post graduates and even PhD holders. The minimum qualification was a pass in Class five and should know cycling!!
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 18 September 2015.

Of the total 368 posts, 268 are in the general category and the rest are for SC, ST and other reserved categories in the age group of 18 to 40 years. However, the response has put the government in a quandary and has highlighted the plight of the educated unemployed. They have acquired degrees bur are unable to convert them into jobs.
The governments of the day talk of ‘achhe din’ (good times) but the reality is different – students struggle to acquire good education but, having acquired them, are not able to get jobs. It is a plague that has affected the whole country and a total overhaul of the system is needed.
It may be recalled that chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had gifted 8000 laptops to students in Ghaziabad in 2013. What use is there for these kids with the knowledge of laptops if they have to ultimately compete for posts of peons?
The students must be guided to choose suitable areas of education and not go in for general education or education is specific branches where competition is high. If properly guided in their formative years, the unemployed would not need to stoop so low to earn their daily bread and butter.
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Skyrocketing price of onions make the Modi government cry like UPA before them

The Modi government at the center is faced with the same problem of skyrocketing prices of onions as the previous governments and, while mouthing words like ‘achhe din’, the leaders have no answer but to go in for imports. In 2013, the very same BJP had agitated against high onion prices when the UPA was in power!!
Governments may change but the sufferings of the common man will remain.
The price of onion has shot up by Rs 10-15 in the past one week in Delhi, and there has been similar spike in prices in Mumbai and other cities. The government has, therefore, asked the state-owned MMTC to import 10,000 tonnes of onions immediately.
The commerce ministry has also been asked to consider increasing the minimum export price (MEP) of onion to ensure that export of onion remains suspended during the crisis period.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 19 August 2015.

During June-July about 60,000 tonnes of onions are usually exported from India. Following increase in the wholesale prices in June, directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) had increased the MEP for onions to $425 a tonne for all varieties from $250.
Government is eyeing import of onions from overseas markets such as Pakistan, Egypt and China. Meanwhile, traders from Punjab have started importing onions in small quantities from Afghanistan through the Attari-Wagah land route.
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Amit Shah’s foot-in-mouth comments ‘achhe din will take 25-years’ – BJP rushes in to clarify

Narendra Modi, during his aggressive campaign in the last Lok Sabha elections had promised the electorate that ‘achhe din’ or ‘good days’ will soon come for one and all. However, BJP President, while talking to his party workers in Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh has said that the BJP will take 25 years to deliver "achhe din" that had been promised by the Prime Minister before the 2014 elections.
In his words - "achhe din aane mein 25 saal lagenge (It will take 25 years to bring achhe din).
This has been reported in ibnlive.com dated 14 July 2015.

The statement must have taken the BJP unawares and they have rushed in to defuse the situation and clarify what exactly Amit Shah had wanted to convey.
Clarifications given by BJP secretary and media cell in-charge Shrikant Sharma is that Amit Shah had said that the BJP government had curbed corruption and brought down inflation and is working to end corruption and create many jobs in five years. However, the dream of making India 'Vishwa guru (world leader) will take 25 years to realize.
Shrikant Sharma has gone on to explain that in its five-year term BJP will reduce inflation, ensure secure borders, make a strong foreign policy , achieve economic development, provide jobs and remove poverty.
In his words, BJP's concept of ' acche din' was far broader than fixing the ' bijli, pani & sadak issues'. In the eyes of the BJP, ' acche din' means restorig the glory that India enjoyed before the British occupation.
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The other day there was news about increase in smuggling of gold into India and now it seems smuggling of cigarettes is also on the rise as indicated by WHO and reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 30 May 2015. Obviously, some people know how to get the tag of Achhe Din!

The fourfold increase in cigarette smuggling during 2012 and 2014 is by value as per seizure data of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. This data has been cited in a latest draft working paper prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO). It contends that illicit trade in tobacco products undermines the various policies of tobacco control policies and leads to considerable loss of revenue.
Warnings on cigarette packets is mandatory as well as pop-up of ‘Smoking kills’ in movies whenever someone lights up. Ads of cigarettes have also been banned but still there are people who crave for the desire to inhale the smoke.
As per estimates of WHO, the import duty evasion from smuggling of cigarettes into the country would work out to approximately at Rs 2,363 crore for 2014-15. Most of the smuggled cigarettes are believed to be from Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China and the United Arab Emirates and the common transit points are Delhi, Singapore and Dubai.
Smugglers of cigarettes are having a field day because such cigarette packets do not have the pictorial warnings on the packets and are available at cheap rates – hence these appeal to youths as well as adults of low income groups.
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The Modi government is swearing by its tag line of ‘achhe din’ and while everyone is stung by the bug of high prices, one really wonders when the common man will see the first light of the so-called ‘achhe din’ – for those who do not know the meaning of ‘achhe din’, it translates into ‘good days’.
However, if a newspaper report is to be believed, it seems one section of people has already entered the zone of ‘achhe din’ – they are the gold smugglers. For the first time in the history of gold smuggling in India, the seizure of the yellow metal has gone beyond the Rs 1,000 crore mark in one financial year.

It has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimesofindia.com dated 27 May 2015 that customs, police and revenue agencies have seized in excess of 3,500 kg of gold in 2014-15. By contrast, the corresponding figures of 2012-13, were hardly Rs 100 crore with just about 350 kg gold seized. Obviously, thanks to Modi government, gold smuggling has increased by 900% within one year.
Authorities have identified certain routes through the yellow metal is smuggled in – these are the Morey border in Manipur, Kandla port in Gujarat, Bangladesh border in West Bengal and the old tested routes of Sri Lanka to ports in Chennai and various airports from Dubai and Thailand. Moreover, smugglers are using camouflaged courier parcels. Some examples - a torch where the batteries are made of gold, or a mixer with golden blades or a transistor which has a capacitor made of gold.
(Image source wikimediacommons.org)


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