A Conversation with the Indian Rail Minister
25th Feb' 2016, Thursday
The budget session started on 23rd Feb, and each day has been every interesting since then.
Some key highlights so far:
1. Mrs. Smriti Irani, Ministry of Human Resource Development (~ Education Minister) has made a terrific speech, or should I put it the other way... I have always considered her to be a good orator and she just proved it again.
If someone is into politics, one has to be a master of good command over speech. Why you may ask, it helps you not only get you votes, but also through the power words, you are able to justify your action each time the parliament is in session.
In the following video, she takes good 40-45 minutes to express what she has been going through for the past couple of months, and clarifies, in details, what has been going on in the universities across the country w.r.t student suicide at Hyderabad and then the JNU issue.
But, this reminds me that she has been into acting, where she played a typical Indian Bahu. That was her schooling where she could emulate from a spectrum of emotions.
This probably has helped her and will keep helping her in situations-in-need.
I just want to highlight her oratory skills, rest of the masala is in the video.
For more see the video
Click Here for Smriti Irani's Speech at Parliament
2. On the same lines,
Member of Parliament from Jadavpur, West Bengal Mr. Sugata Bose expresses his views on the current situation of universities in India. He discusses the issue of Free Speech, Nationalism along with Rabindra Nath Tagore's interpretation of the same, which is testified through his lectures given in Japan and then the USA in the 60s.
I liked how he draws inspirations from the great scholars and leaders of Bengal. And I'd be to immature at this point to appreciate Tagore on Nationalism until I read the lectures myself.
I'll do that, meanwhile have a look at the video.
This one is about a 20 min video, you should see for how a Professor perceives the issues.
Click Here for Sugata Bose's Speech in the Parliament
3. The Railway Budget 2016
Government is readily engaging over social media these days, which is something to be appreciated.
Remember how Sushma Swaraj reached out to Indians abroad during Operation Rahat through twitter?
Click to Check an Article on the same
Coming back,
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting organized this Talkathon with the Rail Minister.
So after Mr. Suresh Prabhu, the Railway Minister, delivered his speech in the parliament; he joined over for the event which was streamed Live on YouTube.
This is what I asked:
Later in the evening we'd discuss the same over dinner.
Little did I understand back then, honestly, I used to get only the popular terms, like hike in passenger fare, more new trains, electrification of routes, revamping up of e-ticketing modules etc ...
Reason behind the Q:
But, what fascinated me more was carrying of printed papers in the briefcase.
Here are some pictures depicting the same.
This practice has been repeated each year since inception.
(First Rail Budget post independence was presented in Nov, 1947).
So, whenever you see a Indian donning a briefcase to the August House (The Indian Parliament) it should be understood that he is either Rail/Finance Minster and is going to present the budget. :P
We need to Change
The world is going paper-less, going digital and going green. Probably using a tab would save paper (maybe not as much from the budget per se), BUT it would definitely give out a positive message to the fellow citizens to go paper-less as much as possible and help save those trees which are cut each year to manufacture paper.
On the other hand, this will also help India to take a step towards it's commitments to reduce it's carbon footprint as a part of the Paris Summit, 2015.
The relevant part starts 27:56, so scroll through
Here is the transcript of the part of the video pertaining to my Question:
Murli Kartik reads the question for Suresh Pradhu from the big screen
Suresh Prabhu responds:
"This could have been done even this time ...in fact I would be very happy if we could think about talking to all the members of the parliament and our honorable speaker, and everyone has to agree.
I think this will be a very good idea to go in for a paper-less budget .... I think this is the best thing ... in fact this time if you must have seen that we have started a micro website ... so ... all the information about the budget was constantly delivered to the people ... so I think it will be a very good way to do... and we have to do this.
In fact, I have been thinking that in the railways we are moving, as you have seen the online tender ... and ... everything ... so paperless governance is very important, of course I am sorry (folding his hands in namaste position) all the paper manufacturers, I seek their apology, but we already started paperless ticketing, paperless tendering, so many of the things will get over, so paper will not be used as much as railway was used to use in the past ... so that's one thing that we shall definitely like to do..."
Now then advises me ...
"I would look forward to Gunti (which is my nick), becoming a member of parliament soon, and try to bring this change".
Some take backs:
Do share if you liked it !
And yeah, do leave a feedback, Thanks
Tags: Indian Railways, e-Governance in India, Indian Government, Indian Railways, Traveling in India, Traveling in Indian Railways, Rail Budget 2016, Power of Social Media, Power of Internet, Indian Blogger, Indian Blogs, Vivek Gunawat
The budget session started on 23rd Feb, and each day has been every interesting since then.
Some key highlights so far:
1. Mrs. Smriti Irani, Ministry of Human Resource Development (~ Education Minister) has made a terrific speech, or should I put it the other way... I have always considered her to be a good orator and she just proved it again.
If someone is into politics, one has to be a master of good command over speech. Why you may ask, it helps you not only get you votes, but also through the power words, you are able to justify your action each time the parliament is in session.
In the following video, she takes good 40-45 minutes to express what she has been going through for the past couple of months, and clarifies, in details, what has been going on in the universities across the country w.r.t student suicide at Hyderabad and then the JNU issue.
But, this reminds me that she has been into acting, where she played a typical Indian Bahu. That was her schooling where she could emulate from a spectrum of emotions.
This probably has helped her and will keep helping her in situations-in-need.
I just want to highlight her oratory skills, rest of the masala is in the video.
For more see the video
Click Here for Smriti Irani's Speech at Parliament
2. On the same lines,
Member of Parliament from Jadavpur, West Bengal Mr. Sugata Bose expresses his views on the current situation of universities in India. He discusses the issue of Free Speech, Nationalism along with Rabindra Nath Tagore's interpretation of the same, which is testified through his lectures given in Japan and then the USA in the 60s.
I liked how he draws inspirations from the great scholars and leaders of Bengal. And I'd be to immature at this point to appreciate Tagore on Nationalism until I read the lectures myself.
I'll do that, meanwhile have a look at the video.
This one is about a 20 min video, you should see for how a Professor perceives the issues.
Click Here for Sugata Bose's Speech in the Parliament
3. The Railway Budget 2016
Government is readily engaging over social media these days, which is something to be appreciated.
Remember how Sushma Swaraj reached out to Indians abroad during Operation Rahat through twitter?
Click to Check an Article on the same
Coming back,
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting organized this Talkathon with the Rail Minister.
So after Mr. Suresh Prabhu, the Railway Minister, delivered his speech in the parliament; he joined over for the event which was streamed Live on YouTube.
 |
| The Poster |
This is what I asked:
"When can we see a Budget being presented through a Tab, instead of papers carried in briefcase"Now, thanks to my father, he has always pushed me to keep a watch on what's going on in the country. So, each year when this day would arrive (the Rail Budget Day), he used to ask me to come back from school and keep a watch on the news channels.
Later in the evening we'd discuss the same over dinner.
Little did I understand back then, honestly, I used to get only the popular terms, like hike in passenger fare, more new trains, electrification of routes, revamping up of e-ticketing modules etc ...
Reason behind the Q:
But, what fascinated me more was carrying of printed papers in the briefcase.
Here are some pictures depicting the same.
(First Rail Budget post independence was presented in Nov, 1947).
So, whenever you see a Indian donning a briefcase to the August House (The Indian Parliament) it should be understood that he is either Rail/Finance Minster and is going to present the budget. :P
We need to Change
The world is going paper-less, going digital and going green. Probably using a tab would save paper (maybe not as much from the budget per se), BUT it would definitely give out a positive message to the fellow citizens to go paper-less as much as possible and help save those trees which are cut each year to manufacture paper.
On the other hand, this will also help India to take a step towards it's commitments to reduce it's carbon footprint as a part of the Paris Summit, 2015.
The relevant part starts 27:56, so scroll through
Here is the transcript of the part of the video pertaining to my Question:
Murli Kartik reads the question for Suresh Pradhu from the big screen
Suresh Prabhu responds:
"This could have been done even this time ...in fact I would be very happy if we could think about talking to all the members of the parliament and our honorable speaker, and everyone has to agree.
I think this will be a very good idea to go in for a paper-less budget .... I think this is the best thing ... in fact this time if you must have seen that we have started a micro website ... so ... all the information about the budget was constantly delivered to the people ... so I think it will be a very good way to do... and we have to do this.
In fact, I have been thinking that in the railways we are moving, as you have seen the online tender ... and ... everything ... so paperless governance is very important, of course I am sorry (folding his hands in namaste position) all the paper manufacturers, I seek their apology, but we already started paperless ticketing, paperless tendering, so many of the things will get over, so paper will not be used as much as railway was used to use in the past ... so that's one thing that we shall definitely like to do..."
Now then advises me ...
"I would look forward to Gunti (which is my nick), becoming a member of parliament soon, and try to bring this change".
Some take backs:
- Power of Social Media & Internet: It's good to see the government using social media intensively not only of dissemination of information, right from the various schemes, ideas etc, but also taking suggestions/feedback from the citizens which is promoting public participation in governance.
And events like these, takes the idea further and makes it easy for the people-in-power to actually interact with people. This actually brings transparency in the system and evolves governance as a whole
Do share if you liked it !
And yeah, do leave a feedback, Thanks
Tags: Indian Railways, e-Governance in India, Indian Government, Indian Railways, Traveling in India, Traveling in Indian Railways, Rail Budget 2016, Power of Social Media, Power of Internet, Indian Blogger, Indian Blogs, Vivek Gunawat
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