Wednesday, March 02, 2016

Meditation: Multivitamin For Spiritual Health

Swami Chidanand Saraswati

In order to maintain inner peace, calm and stability regardless of external circumstances, we need a daily multivitamin of meditation, no reaction and introspection. Meditation is the best medication for all agitations.People have so many troubles today , mainly related to the stress in their lives. To address this anxiety , sleeplessness and discontent, people take pills and fill their lives with excessive, material “pleasures“. For example, when people feel stressed they frequently attempt to forget about it by going to the movies, shopping, drinking alcohol or indulging in sensual pleasures.However, these are not solutions, as they neither address nor alleviate the underlying issues. They are simply first-aid bandages to a wound that runs deep beneath the surface.
Meditation truly calms the mind, fills the heart with joy , and brings peace to the soul. The serenity and joy found in meditation last throughout the day and throughout life. Meditation is not a simple diversion which works only as long as you are actively engaged in it.Meditation is not a pill whose effect quickly wears off and carries unpleasant side-effects. Rather, meditation brings you in contact with God; it changes the very nature of your being. It brings you back to the world from which you truly come: the realm of the Divine.
As you sit in meditation you will realise the insignificance of that which causes anxiety; you will realise the transient nature of all your troubles. You will realise the infinite joy and boundless peace that come from God and through union with your own divine nature.
Try to make a time each day that is “meditation time“. It's no problem if you only have five or ten minutes. Don't worry . Just do it. Do not say, “Well, i don't have an hour to sit so i won't bother.“ Commit at least a few minutes to meditation each morning. Try to set time aside for meditation in a quiet, serene atmosphere. It's not crucial that meditation be for an extended period of time. What's important is that you get connected.
When you're travelling, maybe on a trip away from your loved ones, you don't need to talk for hours on the phone each day , but you do yearn to call and just “check in“ with each other, to hear each other's voice, to “get connected“. It's the same with God. Even though ultimately we are one with Him He is inside us and all around us until we can deeply realise this Oneness, we feel separate. As long as that feeling of separateness is there, we need medita tion. It is the time in which we reconnect with Him, delving deep into the inner core of our own being, merging and melting into the Divine Ocean of bliss.
Then with practice, slowly you will see that your life becomes meditation. It will not be restricted to one time and place. Even when it is not “meditation time“ or when you are away from your home, away from your “meditation place“, do not think that you cannot meditate. Take five minutes at work to simply close your eyes, watch your breath, focus on the Oneness of us all, and connect with the Divine.
Eventually , your life will become meditation and you will become a torchbearer of peace, spreading the light of serenity , love and brotherhood wherever you go. (The International Yoga Festival is being held at Parmarth Niketan, March 1-7, in Rishikesh.)
Follow Parmarth Niketan's Swami Chi

Now, majority of families have 2 or less kids

Subodh Varma

New Delhi:

For the first time in the country's recorded history, more than half the families do not have more than two children, according to Census 2011 data released on Monday.About 54% married women reported having two or less children, significantly up from the 46.6% two-or-less children mothers counted by the previous Census in 2001, reflecting a pan-India desire for smaller families.
There were about 34 crore married women who had about 92 crore children in 2011: an average of about 2.69 child ren per married woman. In 2001, the corresponding figures were 27 crore married women having 83 crore children at an average of 3.03 children per woman. The dip in the average number of women is the sharpest compared to earlier decades.
Another feature is that women are deferring child birth to later years. Among women in the 20-24 years age group, 35% had no child in 2011 compared with 32% in 2001, and in the age group 2529, 16% had no child compared with 13.4% in 2001.
As a result of these changes, the period fertility rate -the average number of child ren that a woman in the age group 45-49 years has ever borne -has declined by a drastic 16% between 2001 and 2011. The fertility rate of women between 45 and 49 years, that is, when their child bearing days are over, is considered a standard measure by demographers for defining average fertility.
The 14% decline in Muslim fertility rate is significant because in the previous decade (1991 to 2001) the decline was only 5%. So it appears that Muslim families too are quickly catching up with other communities, impelled by similar economic and social considerations.

Source: Times of India, 2-03-3016

Tuesday, March 01, 2016

Holding the newspaper to account

A decade with our independent news ombudsmen.

Newspapers continue to play an important role in society and politics. In some respects they play an enhanced and widening role in this digital age, even as they have come under disruptive pressure of varying degrees. Typically, in India as well as in most other countries, daily newspapers have become contested, at times bitterly contested, sites where various extraneous as well as internal factors and interests are at play, often having it out. The rise of social media — its positive, corrective, and value-adding side as well as its trolling, noisy, and truth-distorting side — has increased in no small measure the daily pressure the mainstream press and professional journalists face in the increasingly contested space.

N.Ram

In this situation, protecting and revitalising the core functions, standards, and values of professional journalism has become absolutely vital to democracy, to the public interest, and, of course, to the newspaper industry’s own health. Newspapers perform several roles in relation to their vast and diverse readership, and some of these have declined, faded away, or simply changed over time. But the two central functions of serious, independent journalism have remained constant — the credible-informational and the critical-investigative-adversarial. There are also derivatives of these central functions, notably the agency of the press in public education, serving as a forum for analysis, criticism, disputation, comment, and agenda building, which are all invaluable to any society. Newspapers that perform these functions effectively over the long term establish a reputation for reliability: in other words, a bond of trust forms between the newspaper and its readers and this gets strengthened over time, provided the functions, standards, and values are protected and nourished.

Demand for regulation

There is a new challenge newspapers face in many countries, including India, and this is the increasingly heard political demand for regulation of the ways of an allegedly irresponsible, wayward, and venal press. There is little question that in many cases the demand reflects, or at least draws upon, public dissatisfaction and disenchantment with the performance of influential sections of the press (in juxtaposition with the noise, froth, and mindless chatter generated ceaselessly on news television, with which the press’s performance is, from time to time, confused by the public). There is nothing wrong with regulation per se. But regulation is of two kinds — external and internal — which from the standpoint of professional journalism is like chalk and cheese.

It is in this stressful context that the institution of a news ombudsman becomes not just a virtuous option but an existential necessity and even a priority for Indian newspapers.

The Hindu is the first newspaper in the history of Indian journalism to appoint a news ombudsman — an independent, full-time, empowered professional, known as the Readers’ Editor (RE), with a clearly defined daily role in the newspaper and transparent terms of reference. And this happened in 2006, when the newspaper was 127 years old. The inspiration had come from the exemplary practice and experience of The Guardian, whose pioneering RE, Ian Mayes, had set the bar high.

Over the past decade, The Hindu has had three Readers’ Editors, all of them journalists but with different backgrounds and experiences within the profession. The first, the newspaper’s vastly experienced former chief News Editor, K. Narayanan, gave shape and meaning to the office, winning the trust of a legion of readers. The second, S. Viswanathan, a veteran correspondent with considerable field reporting experience, helped consolidate the office of the news ombudsman, focussing as much on socio-political and media and society issues as on professional matters. The third and current RE, A.S. Panneerselvan, a versatile writer with a multi-media background who has published 177 RE columns so far without missing a step, has re-energised the office and expanded the RE’s role by taking on the challenge of looking into the newspaper online in addition to the printed editions.

The Terms of Reference for the Readers’ Editor, which are the same as The Guardian’s, can be read atThe Hindu’s website (http://bit.ly/ODhIGQ). They go hand in hand with the newspaper’s Code of Editorial Values, adopted in 2011 (http://bit.ly/QlODhS).

What in essence is the RE’s job?

It is, to quote Ian Mayes, to work independently within the newspaper “at the interface between readers… on the one hand, and journalists and editors on the other” — with a position like that of “a referee in a football game… that can get pretty rough at times.” He adds that the news ombudsman represents “a form of self-regulation… the only kind of self-regulation that has the effect of building trust between a specific news organisation and its readership or audience, through the systematic, impartial and public handling of complaints, and through the open discussion of issues raised by readers concerning the journalism.”

What deserves emphasis here is that The Hindu’s RE, who is appointed for a fixed term by the Board of Directors of the company owning the newspaper, is totally independent of the Editor and the editorial team, yet works in their midst and with their cooperation, which is mandated by the Terms of Reference.

In practical terms, the RE oversees the process of publishing corrections and clarifications on a daily basis; attends sympathetically to readers’ complaints and concerns that his or her office receives; writes a weekly column on a range of subjects related to the newspaper’s performance, various aspects of professional journalism and best practices, the newspaper industry, the media and society, and ethical issues; and inquires into, and recommends appropriate action on, specific cases of plagiarism, other ethical transgressions, and inappropriate or unprofessional journalism that are referred to him or her by the Editor.

The RE’s is a post-publication job; he or she rarely comes in pre-publication, and even then only when the matter is referred to him or her.

The data available at the office of The Hindu’s RE reveal that between March 2006 and February 2016, as many as 70,519 communications (by email, telephone, regular mail, and fax) were received from readers. During the same period, 8,236 corrections and clarifications were published in a prominent demarcated space — the opinion page opposite the main editorial page. This is important because readers need to know where precisely to go to see the RE in action, which means visibility is the key (“visible mending” is a term of art in the RE’s trade). Not all corrections came from readers; many of them were made suo motu by the RE’s office and, interestingly, the newspaper’s journalists began to send in corrections before anyone else could point them out. In other words, self-correction has become an objective process in this newspaper, making it unlikely that major factual or contextual mistakes would escape public attention.

During the decade, close to 400 columns written by the three Readers’ Editors have been published on the same page. In effect, the REs have owned the space demarcated to them for publishing corrections and clarifications and also their independent views, findings, and, whenever they deem necessary, criticisms of the newspaper’s journalism in their columns. At the same time, care is taken not to personalise the issue by naming the journalists or other contributors, unless there are ethical transgressions or major mistakes suggesting irresponsibility.

Benefits of self-regulation

What have been the benefits of institutionalising over a decade the practice of this distinctive form of self-regulation through the work of the Readers’ Editor?

First, it has sent out the message to readers that The Hindu, which constantly attempts to hold various institutions, actors, and ideologies to account, regards itself as responsible and accountable to readers when it comes to living up to the highest professional standards and to the editorial values it proclaims.

Second, although a vocal section of readers continues to send in its complaints and concerns about the newspaper’s coverage of issues, sometimes accusing it of being “anti-Hindu,” there is tangible evidence of a shared feeling among the larger body of readers that here is a real institutional mechanism to correct serious mistakes and remedy inappropriate journalistic practices whenever they arise.

Third, I have the sense that the newspaper’s reporters, who took their time to get comfortable with the news ombudsman’s active refereeing role that some of them would have considered meddlesome, have generally come to the view that this empowered office protects them from motivated attacks, especially from the trolls in the social media.

Fourth, although there is no direct evidence on this point, it stands to reason that this form of unilateral and quick-acting self-regulation — which is not mandated by law — brings down both the incidence and the risk of litigation against the newspaper by those who feel aggrieved or offended by something it has published. The Hindu’s Vice President (Legal), for one, is of the view that the RE’s office has been able to absorb the anger of a section of readers “like a sponge.”

The Hindu as an institution committed to the highest standards and values of journalism remains firmly committed to continuing and strengthening the office of its Readers’ Editor. It takes pride in being the first Indian newspaper to have this office and make it responsive to the needs of the time. However, it has mixed feelings about being the only Indian newspaper to have an independent and regularly functioning news ombudsman — for the simple reason that this does not seem to reflect well on the priorities of the Indian newspaper industry.

(N. Ram is Chairman of Kasturi & Sons Limited and Publisher of The Hindu.)

Source: The Hindu, 1-03-2016

Transforming India: Socialism for the Poor

Allocations for agriculture, social sector, rural welfare & infrastructure are commendable. The continuing challenge remains that of effective implementation

An oft-repeated moan in India has been that, quite perversely, economic policies tend to promote socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor. Budget 2016-17 clearly attempts to achieve socialist objectives for the poor at the cost of the `well off'. In this respect, the ethos of the Prime Minister and the Economic Survey is visible all over the FM's Budget. Undoubtedly, the massive allocations for agriculture and rural welfare, social sector, including healthcare, education and skills development, and infrastructure are all very commendable. The continuing challenge remains that of effective implementation of these laudable objectives.As regards taxation proposals, there are some welcome initiatives on dispute resolution as well as procedural irritants, as pointed out in the Easwar committee on tax simplification.
To begin with, the one-time compliance window for domestic taxpayers to declare undisclosed income by paying 45% thereof -if the design is simple enough and gives assurances against future investigation -may receive a good response, unlike the offshore undisclosed income amnesty, which proved to be a damp squib. Similarly, the new dispute resolution scheme for past cases is welcome, except that the requirement to pay 25% of the minimum of the imposed penalty on such disputed tax in excess of `10 lakh can be a dampener. While the FM has fallen short of scrapping the levy of retrospective tax on indirect transfers altogether, there is a one-time scheme for ongoing cases where payment of tax will ensure closure of such cases without any levies of interest and penalty. There is also a welcome provision for compulsory grant of stay of demand by the assessing officer once the taxpayer pays 15% of the disputed income which is pending an appeal at the appellate authorities. Lastly, the much overdue revamp of the penalty provisions by making them graded in the range of 50-200% is a welcome step. When it comes to personal tax proposals, as expected, the threshold exemption limits as well as the slab rates remain unchanged, except that the FM has donned his hat to his predecessor by actually increasing the surcharge from 12% to 15% on the super rich earning income of over `1 crore. In addition, there is now a levy of 10% tax on dividends received by individuals in excess of `10 lakh per annum. As regards corporate tax reforms, it seems to be a mixed bag.
While there is clarity on the roadmap to removal of exemptions, with a sufficient long gestation of 2020 being provided for SEZ units, the proposal to reduce corporate tax rate to 25% (in lieu of not availing exemptions) to be applicable only to manufacturing companies may fall short of industry's expectation. There is an interesting provision for a lower, 10% rate of tax on income from worldwide exemptions of patents developed and registered by a resident in India and if designed and implemented properly, will be a huge incentive for IPR development in India. The new `equalising levy' of 6% of revenue raised by nonresidents for ecommerce services seems to be in line with the so called `Google tax' introduced by some overseas tax jurisdictions and, along with the requirement for country-by-country reporting, signals the government's resolve to be aligned with the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting provision on cross-border transactions.
All in all, if one considers the signals given by the government in the corporate tax reforms proposals earlier in the year, the recommendations of the Easwar committee and finally, the tax policy discussion in the Economic Survey, there are no major surprises in this Budget and it is on a firm footing for a move towards a more transparent and fairer tax regime.

Source: Economic Times, 1-03-2016

Wishing You The Best For Your Board Exams

Swami Swaroopananda

Dear Students,Be confident:
Often you become very anxious about whether you will get high marks or not. But if your teachers have prepared you well and you have put in your best, then never fear. Have faith in yourself. There is greatness and capacity in all of us. If you are well prepared, don't doubt yourself. Be confident. Prepare well but once that is done, do not worry .Confidence comes when we (a) have prepared well; (b) have faith in ourselves; (c) have the blessings of teachers and parents; and (d) have faith in goodness and justness.
Comparisons are odious:
There are many weaknesses in us. On the one hand we prepare well but on the other hand, we sometimes feel jealous when we compare ourselves with those who are better prepared. Each one of you is unique in your own way. Just do your best.
Be consistent:
Have consistency , and some control over your senses. During examination time, don't get distracted either by external or internal temptations.Keep yourselves in control. Keep your mind clear for studies. Keep away from all sources of distraction at least on the few days of your final revision.
Understand what you study:
When you read a book try to understand it; don't try to cram it or blindly memorise it.When you try to cram, it makes you nervous because then, if you suddenly forget one word, you are likely to forget the whole paragraph.
Don't study just for marks:
Good marks alone don't make you successful in life. It is how many marks you got by understanding the subject that matters. Therefore try to study with the idea of absorbing and retaining the knowledge.
Picture what you study:
A simple but very effective way to remember something is to visualise it and retain it as a picture. Once you have read a particular page or your notes, close your eyes and see those notes in your mind. If you study with this type of concentration, your memory will be very good and you will remember what you have learnt for a long time.
Fight the tendency to copy:
In copying, half your time passes in thinking when and how to copy . How much time is wasted in merely thinking of copying! Have faith in yourself for honesty pays, because one day all this is going to help you in the journey of life.
Set big goals:
Let not get ting marks or admission to a course be your only goal. Let knowledge be your goal.
Never despair if things do not go your way:
Remember you are never a failure unless you think you are one. Do your best and life will bring you the best.
Plan a job not just for money but to serve more:
Don't take a job just for money . Take a job to serve people and benefit them more and more. If you want to become an engineer, dream of building the best structures. When you plan to serve others you will never compromise your values. Whatever you want to become, dream of serving others as much as is possible by you.
Money will automatically come but your real satisfaction will be from your service. Such people become truly great.And this is the greatness that every child ought to achieve.
I wish you the best in your examinations, professions and your entire life! Wherever you are, God's love will always be with you. (Swamiji is director, Chinmaya International Residential School, Coimbatore.)

To really transform India, focus on women first

Rebecca Reichmann Tavares & Yamini Mishra

Addressing gender in equality is essential to implement the finance minister's Budget agenda of `Transform India'. Markers like allocations for women's ministries and Gender Budget Statement (GBS) can help assess the gender responsiveness of this Budget.While allocations to National Mission for Empowerment of Women have doubled to Rs 50 crore, the increase is nominal for ministry of women and child development and National Commission for Women. The GBS shows how ministries prioritise gender concerns, but its magnitude has remained unchanged at 4.5% of the Budget while the number of ministries and departments reporting in the GBS has reduced from 34 to 31 this year.
Critical issues faced by women, such as violence, need to be reflected in budgetary priorities. Allocations for schemes to combat trafficking, and empowering adolescent girls have increased. However, the scheme meant for implementation of the Domestic Violence Act has not received any allocation.
Women's declining participation in the labour market is another area of concern. Cuts in social sector spending disproportionately affect women by increasing their care work.For instance, allocations to core Integrated Child Development Services and Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY) have declined marginally since last year.
In 2013, cash incentives provided under IGMSY were increased from Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,000 to comply with the minimum maternity entitlement provision of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013. Given the need for maternity entitlements to be universal, the current fund allocation (Rs 400 crore) will be insufficient for implementing the scheme in all districts. The current proposal is to implement it in 200 pilot districts.
Also, MNREGA has proved to be an important employer of women with 55% of all workers being women. While its budget has increased to Rs 38,500 crore, the amount might be insufficient as the Centre owes Rs 5,595 crore to states.
Concerted efforts are needed to ensure that planning, budgeting and auditing processes contribute to gender equality . A good example comes from MP where the government has issued policy directives to include gender issues in the annual administrative reports of all departments, ensure representation of the women and child development department in the approval committee for new programmes and set up gender budget cells in all departments. AP and Odisha have also committed to creating institutional mechanisms.
Tavares is representative, UN Women Multi-Country Office for India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. Mishra is a gender-responsive budget specialist for Asia-Pacific, UN Women

Source: Times of India, 1-03-2016

Followers

Wednesday, March 02, 2016

Tuesday, March 01, 2016

Holding the newspaper to account

A decade with our independent news ombudsmen.

Monday, February 29, 2016

Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Vol. 51, Issue No. 9, 27 Feb, 2016

Subscribe To

Contact Form