Saturday, June 09, 2007

Only in India

Would a bunch of people ask to be relegated in the social ladder (Read background here or here) (I promise I did not read the article before writing this :-) ). This is a sure sign that the 'Reservation or Quota' system, the equivalent to a government imposed, regulated and enforced affirmative action system is *NOT* working in India.

Here is one of the MAIN problem with the quota system that India currently has:
When the reservations were made, there was never a clause that discussed how and when these quotas would be rolled back in the future - once they achieved what they were expected to achieve. With an open ended legislation, motivated by the politics of vote, the regression of the Indian masses was bound to happen. Even water flows through the easiest path.

Without a system that was based on the economic (and other) condition of a person, the system was based on a class system, a caste system. A system that we are suppose to root out. But instead, with the sole motivation of gaining votes of a certain section of the society, the wheels of democracy has once again taken India backwards.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Delhi Metro

For a looong time, I wanted to write a bit about this phenomena - bringing about a change in the whole environment of Delhi.

With the Commonwealth Games in 2010 a very real deadline, the Delhi Metro has been moving at a steady pace to bring about a real change in the mentality of Delhiites and the whole of India.

Recently I have been reading about the metro for its energy savings, economic savings and last but not the least, saving human lives.



(click on the maps for larger images)

Till date, it has saved 33,000 tonnes of fuel, 280 lives - er - human lives, about Rs. 400 cr when combined. In addition, it has prevented about 2,276 tonnes of poisonous gases from being released in the environment (as a result of less vehicles on the road, a total of 17,00,000 vehicle kms). The summary can also be read here or here.

Other facts (as of June 2007):
Total number of trains - 64
Total Kms of track - 65
daily number of commuters - 5,50,000
Number of stations - 59

For more information - go here.