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Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Religion of Pure Love
SWAMI CHAITANYA KEERTI


The world has become clearly divided between two expressions of religion. The choice is between the religion of terrorism and the true religion of self-transformation and compassion. Religion of terrorism may be divided into thousands of sects and ideologies but it is united by one common goal that has only one name: terrorism. Those opting for this religion will live and die for it.The religion of sane people is without any name and can be called `pure religiousness of self-transformation'. It helps people evolve as better human beings with values of love, compassion and non-violence.They may or may not believe in any ideology , or god or not, but through meditation, they transform themselves and share their awareness, bliss and compassion with all who come in contact with them.
There is an urgency to restore the balance between these two forces, otherwise the oscillation towards violence will destroy the world very soon, whether Nostradamus predicted it or not. Hundreds of thousands of people are needed around the world to meditate and create good vibes to balance the forces of death and destruction.
In view of the explosion of population taking place in the world, a few individuals cannot do a thing. Now something tangible can be possible only if, commensurate with the huge population, hundreds of thousands of people are influenced and involved in spiritualism.If a few people form a nucleus and begin the work, India can play a significant role in that momentous fight.
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Tuesday, March 29, 2016


What’s special about the Humanities?

The Humanities stream is increasingly finding more takers now. Let’s look at what it offers.

In the past, for a long time, no one really planned a career in the humanities nor prepared hard to get into a reputed institution to study Humanities. Most of them just stumbled upon it or landed up in such courses by sheer elimination of other options. Today, the entire scenario has changed and many students specifically choose the humanities stream in Class XI & XII and are keen to explore it further. There are also those who typically join the Science or Commerce stream, and towards the end of their schooling, decide that they are passionate about pursuing a degree in the humanities.
What is the humanities stream all about? It encompasses the study of diverse subjects falling under arts, languages and research techniques. Thus, a degree in the humanities will entail studying subjects such as history, political science, philosophy, economics, literature, performing arts and similar subjects.
More often than not, a degree or a postgraduate programme in the humanities serves as a platform to “discover” a student’s innate yearning for a particular branch of study, say, Creative Writing or Health Economics. These UG and PG programmes in Humanities are neither narrow in scope nor limited in opportunities; rather, they offer a wide and expansive scope for research and higher studies in a range of subjects.
Career options
The humanities is an emerging field in India, and one of the fastest growing, too. However, students are sometimes hesitant to apply to a programme as they are not quite aware of what lies ahead after completion of a five-year integrated programme. Here are some pointers.
Civil Services: A five-year MA programme offers a perfect platform for those inclined towards a career in the Indian Administration Services (IAS). Wide exposure to subjects such as economics, logic, law, mathematics and statistics, English gives them an edge in the CSAT examination leading to IAS.
Journalism: As the curriculum of most Humanities programmes involve the study of English at a higher level, exposure to creative writing coupled with opportunities to edit newsletters and journals help students to spot their journalistic leanings and kindle their enthusiasm to pursue a career in journalism.
Banking and related sectors: Students who like subjects such as statistics, risk analysis, management and economics can seek careers in economic policy formulation and research, especially in RBI, NABARD, IRDA and research institutions.
International organisations: Opportunities are plenty for those who graduate with specialisation in Developmental Studies in organisations such as UNICEF, UNDP, Amnesty International, and so on, as project heads, programme directors for their varied projects undertaken in India and abroad.
NGOs: The role played by NGOs world over towards uplifting the quality of lives of the lower income groups and disadvantaged sections of society in many developing nations is widely recognised today and has thrown open a vast array of work opportunities for those with a specialisation in development studies.
Consultancy firms: Top consultancy firms such as Mckenzie, Price Water Coopers, Frost & Sullivan and Goldman Sachs are perpetually on a lookout for dynamic, young postgraduates with a strong economics and research background for various openings in their organisations. High salaries and a challenging work environment are the hallmarks of this career.
Higher studies: With an excellent grounding in multi-disciplinary subjects, students emerging from this course find it easy to choose their specialisation and also the best university across the globe for doing a doctorate programme.
Some institutes where one can study humanities at undergraduate and postgraduate levels are — IIT Madras, TATA Institute of Social Sciences, English and Foreign Languages University, Azim Premji University, and University of Hyderabad.
Special focus
If one wants to pursue a specialised course, the department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Madras has a five-year programme titled ‘Integrated M.A in Humanities.’ This course, which can be taken up after Class XII, has opened up vistas for students broadly interested in the humanities, but are unsure of the particular subject they are interested in pursuing as a career. This course is multi-disciplinary with a number of electives and offers two major specialisations —English and Developmental Studies. It has become popular with students as they get to choose their electives and freely explore subjects. The programme involves studying a couple of foreign languages and opportunities to sharpen their research and mathematical skills.
Students who are interested in pursuing this M.A. programme have to write an online entrance test (Humanities and Social Sciences Entrance Examination) conducted by IIT Madras in April. Admissions to the course are based on the results of this test. This admission test comprises MCQ questions on English, elementary mathematics and analytical reasoning, general knowledge which includes economics, history and society, environment and ecology and contemporary world affairs. The entrance test also includes an essay on a general topic. This year, the HSEE-2016 examination will be conducted on April 17.
The writer is a trainer at Sriram Law Academy, Chennai
Source: The Hindu, 29-03-2016
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Technology will be the great unifier of government programmes


The Budget this year is a milestone for the Central government. It addresses issues relating to Bharat with time-bound pro-poor, pro-farmer programmes, creates productive capacity through public investment without cutting expenditure, and provides a roadmap to a stable and transparent tax regime. The government has shown its commitment to ‘minimum government, maximum governance’, using ‘technology’ as the catalyst.
The Digital India programme augments the priority areas around the rural sector, skills, job creation, and financial sector reforms identified in the Budget. A Digital First ecosystem is being created, and in it the government is a major user of technology for rolling out schemes, project management, data empowerment and government-to-citizen interfaces.
With Aadhaar receiving legislative backing, the Narendra Modi government has shown its commitment to move to a single number-linked platform to ensure that the benefits reach the deserving. The passage of the Bill shows the government’s commitment to use technology to fix the plumbing and reduce leakages from the expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund of India.
The seeding of the Aadhaar number in various government-to-citizen databases and strengthening the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile framework for developing social security platforms are transformative. After a successful rollout of direct benefits transfer (DBT) for LPG, the government is encouraged to introduce DBT on a pilot basis for fertilisers in a few districts across the country.
A Unified Agricultural Marketing e-Platform has been proposed to provide a common e-market for wholesale markets, which will connect up to 250 ‘mandis’ by September this year, and another 335 by March 2018. This is in line with the goal of doubling farm income in the next five years. To ensure that the benefits of technology reach the grassroots, a Digital Literacy Mission Scheme has been announced to cover 60 million additional households in three years.
With the revamping of the National Land Record Modernisation Programme, the major components of computerising land records mutations, digitising maps and integrating textual and spatial data, updating all survey and settlement records, computerising registration and its integration with the land records maintenance system will be linked to Aadhaar. This will lead to better tax realisation and help in dispute resolution, better credit facilities, etc.
A Financial Data Management Centre is to be set up and it will help in streamlining tax collections and act as a hub for recording and analysing the data collected. The continued emphasis on self-certifications and e-assessment will also pass on the benefits of technology efficiency to the citizens as well as overloaded government departments.
Harnessing the power of the JAM trinity, payments infrastructure, paperless culture, big data and internet technologies, both horizontally and vertically within the government, can transform processes and result in knowledge-based governance. While the challenges faced by governments are colossal, these technologies provide opportunities for enhancing the power of the government to take decisions and provide transparent, cost-effective, accountable, time-bound solutions and services to its citizens and businesses.
Source: Hindustan Times, 29-03-2016
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Remain Still & Constant


The tree is mostly unchanging while everything around it changes. In the spring, there are freshly formed buds. In summer, the tree is bedecked with rich green leaves. Then, in autumn, the leaves turn to red, orange, yellow and golden colours. As winter approaches, leaves fall off revealing the branches and limbs of the tree.
Although the outer dress changes, the tree remains fairly fixed. The constancy of the tree provides an instructive lesson. Success on the spiritual path rests on stilling the mind. We need stillness to meditate successfully . Meditation is a process of focusing on the Light and Sound within.

If we are like the tree, then thoughts can come and go around us like the changing seasons, yet we remain unaffected. No matter what season we experience in our life, we need to be like the tree, unchanging and constant, with our attention fixed on God during our meditations. We may experience daily fluctuations.

One day , we are the beneficiary of good fortune, and the next day , ill-luck comes our way . Or there are ups and downs in relationships. Our emotions are on a roller coaster as we go from joy to pain.When we cannot find a solution, the mind conjures up one reason after another to explain things. Let us not be sidetracked by the mind. If we can still our mind, no matter what is going on, we will find quick progress in meditation and attain the goal of God-realisation.
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Half of working women take fin decisions on their own, says survey
Vipashana V K & Reeba Zachariah
Mumbai:
TNN


Not long ago, most working women were mere signatories to investment products chosen by their fathers or husbands. But now, more than half of them make their own financial decisions. The percentage of women making investment decisions independently has jumped from 37% three years ago to 52%, shows data from Nielsen.Vinita Shekhar (name changed), a 25-year-old event management professional who has been working for three years, had been relying on her banker father to invest her money . This year, she decided to take charge of her money and draft her own investments, with some advice from her father on tax-saving mutual fund schemes.
Vinita joins the growing number of women professionals who own and manage a host of financial products from the basic recurring deposits to the complicated demat accounts.
This money management by women has been influenced by various factors like increased awareness spread by financial product companies through advertisements and other nitiatives, companies educa ing employees on tax planning and peer encouragement. In ernet has also aided women with their investments as it al ows them to research and zero n on schemes fit for them.
In comparison, nearly 80% of the men decide on how and where to park their money .Though the percentage of wor king women managing their fi nances started at a low rate, i has seen a steady rise from 37% in fiscal 2013 to 41% in fiscal 2014 and now to 52% in fiscal 2015 according to Nielsen.
“Women financial advisers have boosted the growth of wo men making their own invest ments,“ said Ajit Menon, head strategy , Tata Asset Manage ment. “The women financia advisers help them draft long term wealth creation as well as accord for expenses such as children's education.“
Interestingly , women from non-finance background are be coming more proactive with their investments. “I'm increasingly seeing women architects, creative professionals, consultants and advertising executives coming forth to manage their money ,“ said Sujata Kabraji, a women-focused financial adviser.
Kabraji said that women play safe with their money , opting for fixed deposits and taxfree bonds. “It takes a while to show them how to build a corpus but once that is done, they are good at it as they are disciplined and practical.“
Financial services industry observers pointed that the proportion of sole decision-makers among working women is significantly higher among single, divorced and widowed.
The rising trend proves that women no longer blindly sign the dotted line-they decide on the financial scheme before subscribing to it. As Harsha Kavin, an executive with a leading IT firm, asks, “I take decisions at work, why not with my finances.“
Source: Times of India, 29-03-2016
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Dispelling Fear Is An Act Of Compassion
Sudhamahi Regunathan


What causes fear? A feeling of not being good enough, a feeling of insecurity with espect to a more powerful being, gnorance of the rules that operate in he world, the possibility of losing material wealth or relationships, the apprehension of being called to own up or a wrong, a revengeful enemy , the crying ache of lust. All these feelings ause or bring in their wake, exploitation.And this gives birth to fear.Jainism believes removal of all fear, known as abhayadanam, is the highest quality , greatest charity and best action ... the supreme manifestation of compassion.
Compassion is interchangeably called daya, anukampa, karunya, dana or maitri and each term has its own specific conno ations and some overlapping commona ity. Essentially they all indicate empathy with the other, a close appreciation of the other's pain, being moved by it, alleviating it by donating something and nurturing universal love towards all. Compassion is present in any of the above ideas or a combination of them.
Compassion forms the very basis of faith. The reason why dispelling of fear is considered paramount is because every soul is equal. So to cause harm to another is to cause harm to oneself. It is disrespecting the universality of the soul.Even if it be an insect or a plant.
Jaina compassion caused monks to study non-human life in such detail that they have classified them as having one, two, three, four or five senses.Further, they all also have a soul which desires to live: `To each, his life is dear'. Even the cockroach that you spray against or the mosquito that you slap dead, desires to live just as much as you or i do. Therefore it is that one finds many goshalas and bird hospitals set up by Jainas. Jainas have been leaders in setting up medical services for animals.Jaina idea of compassion goes beyond human life to all living beings. Though this is contained in their concept of ahimsa, it is more than ahimsa for it is an understanding and a true appreciation of other life ... it is not limited to just refraining from doing harm.
It may appear obvious to many , but the subtle difference in understanding compassion in the Jaina world arises because it talks about compassion at the level of the soul. To recognise that one should not cause fear and that everyone should be able to live free, s an understanding of the equality of one soul with other souls. And souls look after each other's interest. It is said souls render service to one another. The core act involved in this kind of compassion is to spread the word of restraint ... do not be led by temptation to commit remiss such that you fall low in the type of birth you may get in the next births and lose all the merits you have so far acquired. That is why much importance is given to listening to wise words, to the sermons of monks and nuns for it is generally they who direct erring followers.
Sometimes it can happen the other way round too, as in the case of a monk who was doing penance in a dancing girl's house. He was actually testing his will power and steadfastness, but lo, the charms of the lady soon made him forget that. Even as lust was overtaking his spiritual inclinations, the lady rebuked him in such a manner that he became conscious of his folly and got back to the path of rectitude. The courtesan had been compassionate to the monk of several years.

Source: Times of India, 29-03-2016
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Monday, March 28, 2016

Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents


Vol. 51, Issue No. 13, 26 Mar, 2016

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