Whispers Forum

Over 40 people died due to stampede in Prayagraj Maha Kumbh. This accident has once again raised the question that why do fatal accidents keep happening in events with huge crowds in our country? It was already possible that eight to ten crore devotees could come to the Maha Kumbh on Mauni Amavasya. Obviously, no administrative staff could have had the prior experience of handling such a large number. In such a situation, the administrative officials made a mistake in estimating and planning. Vehicles coming from the surrounding districts had to be stopped after the stampede in the Maha Kumbh. It also highlights that when crowd management was looking to be a difficult and challenging task, then why no action was taken to restrict the number of people who could reach Prayagraj on Mauni Amavasya.
Ankita Malviya

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which is called the lifeline for rural livelihood, is once again struggling with lack of funds. There is no doubt that the MNREGA has played an important role in reducing visible and invisible unemployment in rural areas. While on the one hand this scheme has played an important role in providing employment to rural consumers near their villages, it has also reduced inter-state migration, and the purchasing power of rural consumers has also increased. The government should make a practical budget for MNREGA. Along with this, priority should be given to removing administrative hurdles for transparent implementation of the scheme. Undoubtedly, the allocation of funds in MNREGA is continuously decreasing in proportion to the demand. This is the reason why the expected crisis is arising in the middle of the year due to lack of funds.
Raj Singh Ahirwar

If we look at India's development journey from 1950 till now, we see many glorious achievements. Obviously all these achievements are glorious, yet a lot remains to be done. It is true that we are the fifth most powerful economy in the world, but the country also has a debt of lakhs of crores of rupees. In this perspective, the harsh truth is that since the size of our GDP is large, hence we are a big economy, but we are not a debt-free economy. Actually, freebie culture has also become a big challenge for the Indian economy. Economists are very worried about free schemes because they have far-reaching disadvantages. But unfortunately our political parties are not worried about it.
Neha Kumari

Donald Trump's economic policies may be against India's interests. Trump's claim of calling India a tariff king on the basis of its highest duties is not correct, because many other countries have higher duties than India. Japan's highest duty is 457 percent, South Korea's is 887 percent and America's highest duty is 350 percent while India's highest duty is only 150 percent. The highest duty is usually imposed to protect sensitive commodities. For example, Japan imposes high duty on rice to protect the interests of its farmers. In fact, the true picture of a country's import duty is obtained only from its average tariff. However, the rules of global trade are set by the WTO and India does not violate its duty-related rules, but America does so. Although America often expresses concern by naming India, it has not challenged India's high tariffs in the WTO because it knows that India's tariffs are within the limits agreed by the WTO.
Nancy Singh

America had vowed to eliminate the Taliban and kept seizing control over Afghanistan for 20 years. America handed over Afghanistan to the Taliban after 20 years. The Taliban is still alive. Similarly, Israel pledged to annihilate Hamas and carried out collateral damage to Gaza killing more than 46 thousand innocent Palestinians. Israel killed Hamas and Hezbollah leaders but failed to ensure safe release of Israeli citizens in the custody of Hamas. Now, Hamas came face to face to strike a deal with Israel to get released Hamas militants in Israeli jail. Hamas is still alive despite having carried out heavy aerial bombardment on Gaza.
Sunil Kumar

As per guidelines issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), the period of deputation may not exceed after five years.
Kusum
Congratulations ISRO!
The ISRO scientists and the entire space fraternity of the country deserve applause for demonstrating capability in successfully docking its two satellites and achieving rendezvous in space. Manoeuvring the orbital speed and distance between two satellites is a complex process. The magnificent feat has done India proud. The secret of success lies in the total autonomy and relative freedom granted to organizations like ISRO and the Deptt of Atomic Energy by the successive political dispensations since inception in scientific and technological pursuit. The ISRO is now close to setting up a permanent space station to facilitate further space experiments. This is bound to impact the global order.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)