Discussing Discounted Diesel

Availability, Accessibility, Affordability, and Acceptability – these form the conceptual framework for India’s energy security to support its economic growth and developmental goals. Modern world’s success parameters have primarily been economic, where energy consumption has become both a necessary condition as well as an outcome of it. India lacks capabilities to meet all its energy demand from domestic sources and it has sought to achieve its energy security through multiple partners like Indo-USA nuclear deal, Oil import from Middle East etc. Further, one can see a heightened focus on developing renewable and alternative sources of energy, particularly nuclear, solar and wind. Yet the bitter truth is that presently India is heavily dependent on imported oil.

India’s oil import bill for financial year 2021-22 has doubled against previous year, and it’s natural gas import bill have risen by 61%. It paid USD 82.4 billion for the crude oil in first three quarters,till December 2021, as opposed to around USD 39.6 billion for the same period year before,a jump of 108%. Russia-Ukraine conflict has been the primary reason for the surge in crude prices, which soared to a 14-year high of USD 140 a barrel on March 7, 2022. Amidst this, India has continued to import oil from Russia, and seems to be a target of negative campaign.

India gets bulk of its oil imported from middle east, around 8% from the USA, and in the past maybe less than 1% from Russia. “When the oil prices are high it is natural for countries to go out in the market and look for what are ‘good deals’ for their people,” said External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar. He added, “We have seen for sometime what looks like a campaign on this issue. I was reading a report. Europe has bought 15% of more oil and gas from Russia than it did a month before. If you look at the major buyers of oil and gas from Russia, I think you will find most of them are in Europe.” Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman has also hit back saying, “why shouldn’t we buy cheap oil from Russia. We need to take care of our national security.” She also said the decision of continuously buying discounted oil from Russia has been taken keeping India’s overall interest in mind, ‘If the fuel is available at a discount, why shouldn’t I buy it?’ Reaffirming India’s position on continuing trade with its all weather friend Russia, despite the western sanctions on it, Finance Minister said, we need to protect our own interest.

It is common knowledge that India’s fragile energy security is under severe strain due to its dependence on imported oil, where monopolies and opaqueness reign. The growth aspirations of this young nation has seen long term increase of energy demand, which has been around 3.6 % pa over the past 30 years, and is likely to grow faster. In this backdrop, the impact of simmering Russia-Ukraine crisis has rightly been summed up by EAM when he says, “I think the real problems are still to come certainly for our part of the world. The financial world is disrupted, the logistics world is disrupted & markets are in turmoil. All of this is going to have consequences on rest of the world.”

Movement for Exam Stress Management

‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’ is part of the larger movement – ‘Exam Warriors’ – led by the Prime Minister to create a stress-free atmosphere for youngsters by bringing together students, parents, teachers and the society to foster an environment where the unique individuality of each child is celebrated fully. The event is preceded by ‘Pradhan Mantri – Mentorships’ Scheme for Young writers (PM-YUVA), a creative programme to further ignite their passion for excellence. It was organized by the Ministry of Education for young writers up to the age of 30 years. For the first time, Raj Bhawans of all the states and UTs had also been connected virtually in the programme and the selected students were awarded with the special kits by the state Governors.

Education is a subject of concurrent list. In a unique departure from the past, PM Modi has often been seen stressing on the need to leverage co-operative & competitive federalism to achieve all round growth. And mass events like Pariksha Pe Charcha, PM’s direct interaction with winners of Bal Puruskar awards, and his messages to students through Exam warriors book and often through his monthly radio program Mann Ki Baat, are connecting government and administration with young minds and seekers at grass-root level. These efforts are resulting in enormous churning in terms of strengthening the role of the centre and its efforts of heading towards ‘Cooperative Federalism’, centre’s new vision which aims to empower different states equally with boost to Federalism.

India is a diverse country and is rightly focussing on nurturing the unique talent and skill-development and entrepreneurship among youth as it also tries to make people aware of unknown leverages they have but fail to recognise, like the power of language, culture, food, local history and speciality, hyperlocal tourism, power of regional arts, traditional dances and games, local traditions and regional attractions, etc. and building on it in the advanced digital way. NEP 2020 offers a plethora of such opportunities as it focuses on developing both soft skills and technological engagement and learning. PM Modi stressed on the importance of skill along with knowledge, highlighting why skilling has been included as a part of the National Education Policy. He also underlined the flexibility provided by NEP in the choice of subjects, saying proper implementation of NEP will open up new avenues in life and career. He urged schools all over the country to find new ways to implement the new technologies invented by the students.

When PM says, ‘Appear for the exams in a festive mood without any stress and treat technology as an opportunity, not as a challenge”, he doesn’t limit himself to just guiding lakhs of students for their immediate examinations, but try to prepare them for life by injecting into them elements of flexibility, adaptability, acceptance and a clear realization of life. It’s a fact, substantiated by the experts from top notch health institutions that emotional quotient is the key to success in this very fast changing age. Being emotionally healthy promotes productivity and effectiveness and plays an important part in maintaining cordial relationships with all kinds of forces touching upon our life, which is crucial for the all round development of the children. Good mental health helps us cope up with adversity which has amply been reflected by Covid-19.

Clearly, the Prime Minister in a stretch addressed several issues which have far reaching ramifications for the education, social, psychological and economic life of crores of people including students. He also referred to the new educational policy policy at the same time. When he says, “Daughter is the strength of the family. What can be better than seeing our nari shakti excel in different sectors of life”, he gives out a strong message for their educational and economic empowerment, which is a must for the formation of a knowledge based 21st century economy and society.

NEP par Charcha

The working landscape of India is being changed through transformational reforms and also according to how technology is shaping up in the third decade of the 21st century. While the first two decades of the century were driven by jobs being done by people falling in the age group of 25-35, since last couple of years, the world has rightly shifted its focus on nurturing young minds (age group 15-25) and on the endorsement of developing a skill-based and tech-oriented mindset among youth. As the work culture evolves rapidly around the globe and as more and more people switch to gathering domain knowledge and intellectual finesse, India’s implementation of NEP 2020 is going to be a key factor in its aim to equip manpower to lead unprecedented industry change.

National Education Policy 2020, one of the landmark and transformative ideas in higher education policy promoted by the Narendra Modi government, lays emphasis on inquiry-based, discovery-based, and analysis-based ways to help children learn. Under NEP 2020, a well designed framework is all set to bring deep educational reforms which focus on development of both technical and soft-skills among scholars. Employability is also in fact one of the parts of the policy. Indian students have for so long failed to get decent and appropriate employment opportunities on the basis of their earned professional degrees. The NEP fixes this as it envisions to empower students through encouragement of a set of vocational, employable & entrepreneurial skills provided to them at different stages of training & education. This will also inspire talented youth to become self-employed professionals.

In addition to this, engaging with them on a mass level through various educational and vocational training programmes has been a good thing to start with, bringing the kind of momentum students and seekers need to find their spots in the fast-evolving educational landscape, which is both practical and agile.

Efforts are also being made to further get the change rightly incorporated in the minds of the students on a very early stage, one of the initiative being the Pariksha Pe Charcha programme. There is a phenomenal response from the students, parents and teachers alike over the programme which is moderated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Lakhs of people have shared their valuable insights towards this year’s ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’ too. PM Modi is going to interact with students, teachers, parents in a hybrid mode from Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi on 1st of April.

This is the 5th edition of Pariksha Pe Charcha. Earlier, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan called upon students, teachers and parents to make PPC 2022 a public movement. Underlining the importance of initiatives like PPC in building the knowledge-based economy of 21st century, Pradhan said that PPC is becoming a formal institution through which Prime Minister interacts directly with students. India has ushered in a new era of educating Indians as well as the international community through multi-modal ways and digital platforms to create One India, Excellent India. Indian students have been going abroad for pursuing higher education for so long. With new changes, the country now seeks to reverse the process by having a world-class flexible education system and is already on the task.

Today, India is well on its way to having a decisive decade of growth in the 2020s, backed by a reformist government that has consistently provided policy support to boost the economy. The country has emerged as a favoured investment destination, giving boost to industries, creating new jobs, attracting latest technology, and providing fillip to new and upcoming sectors. Core to all of these is reforms in the education process, being led from front by NEP.

Tourism in Military Establishments of past, present and future

Military Tourism, a not very widely used term so far, is gaining traction in more than one ways. It has historic, economic as well as strategic significance. Travel and tourism is not just a leisure activity anymore. With the advent of digital connectivity, many opportunities are opening up in the domain of tourism for employment too. Accoding to FY18-19 data, among the ten most popular monuments in India, in terms of number of visitors, stood the Agra Fort (2nd Rank with 5.2 lakh foreign visitors), Red fort (4th Rank with 1.26 lakh foreign visitors) and Shanirwada (Rank 7). All the three sites are enriched with India’s historical legends, showcasing especially its defence chronicles, mesmerising visitors with its militarical finesse and bringing tourism from both India and abroad.

War sites have always lured a section of tourists who find themselves drawn towards the thrill of understanding the past. For a history buff, these sites offer a great insight to events that have occurred in the past and have shaped the present & future of a country. Hence, various countries across the globe have leveraged on their past to attract tourists, which therefore contributes to the overall economy of the country. As defence Minister Rajnath Singh recently launched the BRO Tourism portal and also directed officials to devise a plan to promote ‘Defence Tourism’ in the country, India’s tourism growth is expected to rise exponentially.

The concept of Military Tourism was introduced by MESCO for the first time in India in 2016 as they starte ‘Veer Yatra’, offering civilians an opportunity to experience the brave and thrilling world of our heroic defence forces from up-close. MESCO provided tourists a chance to experience War Memorial, Army Workshop, Defence Academy, Naval Base, Warfare Centre, Military Management techniques, Art of War and Survival techniques. In 2019, the government decided to open the entire area from Siachen base camp to Kumar Post for tourism purposes. Other such fascinating defence sites include the Kohima War Cemetery, Nagaland, the Jallianwala Bagh in the National Capital, and the Wagah Border ceremony that is held daily for two hours, where the flag ceremony is conducted by both Pakistani Rangers and Indian Border Security Force (BSF).

The world is marching on the roads of an unprecedented transition into an entirely new dimension of advanced living. And every such high-end technology or product is experienced first by either the military of the country or its youth. Defence sector is always keen to use emerging technologies to adapt to evolution and enhance their training & combat readiness. Many unique and useful technologies like RADAR, jet engines, satellite navigation, and a computer networking system that we now know as the internet today, have in fact, been invented by militaries, which later got adapted for civilian use. Thus, envisioning the growth and popularity of ‘digital defence tourism’ is also setting a place for itself in a world where people, especially young folks are engaged in using and enjoying their time on things like VR products and services, e-learning, digital photography, navigation, cyber collaborations, digital marketing and entrepreneurship and what not! Events like the annual DEF EXPO and Aero India, India’s India’s military aviation expo, also not only inspire common folks but propel the economic growth for the country in more ways than imaginable.

Global Cultural Village and India

Towards the end of 18th century, Europe had experienced unprecedented economic growth, with a wealth that had rapidly surpassed figures of all other regions. Later, by the twentieth century, economists began to lose interest on studying impact of culture on economic growth and prowess internally and between regions, with the rise of ‘Asian tiger economies’ and the growing prevalence of data, which gave rise to more quantitative theories to study both markets as well as economic explanations of sociology. Culture signifies human emotions, which may not prevail over economic interests in today’s world, however there is little doubt that they make things easier even within two nations. When Britishers came to India around 275 years earlier, they just didn’t trade with the country, but established themselves by propagating their cultural elements like language and others, which without doubt helped them establish firmly here on the Indian soil.

The 21st century world however, embraces all theories. Economies around the world are exchanging cultural views and practices, now especially the digital way too and this is being done worldwide on personal, professional, religious, local, regional, inter-governmental and even International level. India, a land of diversity where people revere their cultural identities with utmost discipline and love, is gaining huge importance in modern global village.

Indian government gives more than 3500 scholarships annually to foreign students to study in India. ICCR sponsors various cultural programmes including dance, music, performing arts, fine arts, Yoga, seminars, exhibitions and study of languages like Hindi, Sanskrit, Tamil and Bengal in foreign lands. The efforts have deep significance not just in cultural and intellectual terms between two or more nations, but they also invariably facilitate economic relations between them by keeping wrangling at bay when it comes to going ahead hand in hand.

Organization of the ten-day mega Red Fort Festival – ‘Bharat Bhagya Vidhata’ which was attended by foreign nationals, as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is also something on this line. The event showcased the achievements of India and its rich culture. The government has also stepped up its efforts to bring back cultural artefacts from different countries. Where only 13 artefacts had returned to India in 46 years, now almost 228 artefacts have come to India in the last 7.5 years. During the inauguration of Biplobi Bharat Gallery at Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata, PM Modi had highlighted India’s nationwide campaign to increase heritage tourism, which is being given impetus through several schemes like Swadesh Darshan, which will directly generate huge economic output.

India’s varied arts, sweets, monuments, history, food, artistry, languages, dialects and dance forms have started becoming popular in the digital age and the country is rightly building on the opportunity as the government encourages people to step up, with growing popularity of entrepreneurship, global networking, growing smart-city ecosystems, digital literacy and new innovative ways of cultural exchanges in a post social-distancing era. This unprecedented global cultural engagement is bringing prosperity from all sides.