Bunch of Thoughts

As the Narendra Modi government completes 2 years in office, his development and governance model is becoming clear. There are 3 key principles that drive Narendra Modi's governance and development model ..  1) Integral - Governance has always been driven by a 'either-or' paradigm. A government is either pro-middle class or pro-poor, either capitalist or socialist , either urban or rural focussed, either pro-industry or pro-agriculture. Modi's government seeks to integrate these so called bi polar opposites. Modi talks of taking electricity and roads to our villages in the same breadth as smart cities. Startup India is spoken in the same breath as Stand Up India. Increase in FDI comes with a record outlay for agriculture spend. It is for the first time in the world that a development model does not make one part of society compete with another. It is integral in nature.  2) Digital -  India for the first time has a 24x7 government with a wide digital presence. P...

There cannot be a better way of celebrating the 100th birth anniversary of the founder of the BJP - Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. Today in India, there remains only one truly national party i.e BJP, the rest are best strong regional players who existence is limited to a few states. Lets first analyse the results state by state before looking back at the national picture 1) West Bengal - Left paid a very heavy price for the JNU episode. Those who were chanting to break India in pieces, found themselves in pieces. Not only did Mamta win despite the corruption scams and lack of performance, even an un-organisesd Congress won more seats than the Left. Today the Left is not even an Opposition Party in Bengal. The people of Bengal gave a fitting reply to the JNU styled politics. BJP peaked in Bengal with 3 seats and best every performance. 2) Kerala - What saved the Left in Kerala is that it distanced itself from the Left in Bengal. A growing BJP with their partners left a big enough d...

Attending a Maha Kunbh is truly a once in a life time experience. There is a lot of folklore around the Kumbh ... the stereotypical Bollywood brothers who get separated, naked sadhus smoking pot etc. My experience has been anything but the image created of the Kumbh .. Lets start with the myths ... 1) Naked Sadhus - The most common image of the Kumbh projected by the media is that of a crowd of armed naked sadhus rushing towards the river bank. The sight of ash smeared, trishul/sword wielding sadhus may lead one for believe that the Kumbh is not a place for a family to be. As I made my way to Ram Ghat in Ujjain, I saw around me extended families who had come together to take a dip .. there were kids, grand parents, uncles, aunts ... the great Indian extended family dominates the demography at Kumbh. There were no naga sadhus with weapons roaming around the streets. The naga sadhus are a very small minority who are largely confined to their own camps. 2) Dirt & Hygiene - ...