India Still Living In The Dark Ages
India may be one of the fastest growing countries in the world but it seems to be living in the Dark Ages. When it comes to providing electricity to its cities, towns and villages, it ranks abysmally low as compared to its developed peers. As today's chart of the day shows, the electrification rate in India is as low as 56%. In comparison, other countries forming the BRIC nations, chiefly China and Brazil have electrification rates of 99% and 98% respectively. While the importance of infrastructure and power have been given its due in Budget speeches, obviously the Government needs to give equal importance to execution as well. How many times have we heard in the past that the the proposed targets of the Five Year Plans have not been met? Sadly, often enough.
(Data Source: United Nations Human Development Report)
An Indian Solution To The Very Indian Problem Of Spitting On Stairwells
I recently visited the SBI Zonal Office in Secunderabad and noticed that their stairwells were clean! No Red Pan Stains at all! And that threw me. These bright red stains adorn almost all Indian buildings, particularly public buildings like Banks. So what was SBI’s solution?
I found that the mandarins at SBI have found an uniquely Indian solution to an Indian problem. First of all they have put up a plaque requesting people not to spit. But then everybody does that and nobody pays any attention to those.
Plaque Requesting People not to Spit on the walls (Apologies for the blurred photo).
So SBI has gone a step further.
At every corner at the foot of the wall, they have placed 4 ceramic tiles depicting the Devine Hanuman, The Goddess Durga, Jesus Christ & one with the holy symbols of Islam. Problem solved!
The Solution to the problem of Spitting on Stairwells!
That covers almost all Indians. The Hindus will not spit on any religious symbol, theirs or anybody else’s. By using symbols from Christianity & Islam SBI has effectively covered their bases. This leaves out the Sikhs who are a decent lot and not given to spitting on other people’s Gods anyway. So they are covered too. The other religious minorities are also covered because most of them too follow the Hindu way of reverence to all Gods, their own and everybody else’s.
Nice move, SBI.
Tirupati Ladoo Awarded Geographical Copyright
Tirupati Ladoo
The Press Trust of India reports that the Lord’s Prasadam, commonly known as Tirupati Ladoo, has been awarded a Geographical Copyright. This of course means that only the TTD can make and sell these Ladoos.
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