Showing posts with label Andhra Pradesh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Andhra Pradesh. Show all posts

Friday, January 8, 2016

Joblessness is a state of Mind

Unemployment is a myth according to some, if that is the case, why are there so many who are apparently listless and jobless. At the same time there is a section who speak about lack of talented/ skilled people for the work on their hands. Where is the dichotomy.

In the Indian context, it is a noted fact that, people want things to be served on a platter literally. Was talking to a activist who is part of an NGO, which worked in certain rural districts of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, who detailed a thought process of the youth and their parents living in those places.

Thanks to the available resources, today education has been made available to all classes of people and
irrespective of their caste or social strata youngsters are completing degrees and are waiting for Government jobs. On the other side parents who have gone through the trouble of educating them, do not want to see their ward getting back in to the traditional work which the parents have been undertaking through the ages, be it farming or weaving or any other so called Chores that created the caste system in our country.

Thanks to various pay commissions, today government posts are the most sought after because, it gives the permanency for the job and very good salaries in addition to the potential of making money on the side, if one is inclined. So people are willing to stake it out by writing various talent exams and wait for the results and those who cant pass them through normal means, even are willing to buy their way through.

In spite of all these, there is a good section of people, who are 'Job Less' and they are the people whom we see getting abused at home for their status and generally cursing everyone and everything around them for their state of affairs. Are these people right, are they ever introspecting for themselves, as to why they are not able to land a job, are they simply waiting for the better job the proverbial hanging fruit which always eludes them. Most people don't introspect and those who do, generally start finding their way towards either self employment or some earning mode.

Those who don't introspect, keep cursing the system, their parents and everyone else for their state of affairs. What about these people, if you go and tell them, their plight is more to do with their 'State of Mind' will they accept it, no they wont but, that is the reality. This segment are the ones who are lured by easy money and might even end up as criminals, which could be avoided if their energies are channeled properly.

While the idea of Start up India is very ideal, like Swach Bharath, there has to be a holistic mind set change required at various levels from people, to bankers to potential investors. In addition to all these, there have to be channels for budding entrepreneurs to interact with professionals and subject matter experts, to ensure their ideas are converted into a success. Only then the job less people can become entrepreneurs and probably even provide employment to other job less people too.

In addition to all these, many people take voluntary retirements from various places including armed forces. Some of them pursue alternate employment, some people generally remain jobless because, they are yet to get a "suitable" job for themselves. This suitable job is the problem of mindset and many of them might continue to be jobless, just because they don't want to compromise on their position or earlier salary.

There are another set of people like me, who would have quit a position for pursuing enterprise or having decided to use the experience to deliver knowledge services. In the event we want to pursue a career once again we will suddenly face the lack of "qualifications" and most of the time experience does not get counted. Now, the unemployment becomes a matter of choice once again, as wanting to land up a job equivalent what was performed earlier, may or may not materialise.

If one seriously makes an effort, there are avenues to make money by either working for someone or themselves. It is that effort that is needed and of course right channelising of these efforts. Look
Various kinds of self employment on display across the world
around us we will find many a person, who makes vending his job and makes an effort to reach to people, if you don't give up you will find success, but, learning on the job is a must.




Copyright of all pictures used in this blog rests exclusively with the respective owners

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Screwed by the Government

This is an interesting story of a prime property in Hyderabad city, which has seen many a twist and turn.

During the famous rule of Sri YS Rajasekara Reddy as CM, then government of AP decided to auction various properties of Hyderabad and it's surroundings by public auction for development into various categories. Only issue, as realised much later by the successful bidders, with these auctions was the lack of clarity on the background of these properties and or no clear vision on the likely impediments for the planned development.

LANCO hills has the issue of WAKF land sitting around its neck, where politician after politician using the blackmailing tactics on the developer irrespective of the fact it was a government auctioned site, which is supposed to be a clean sale. Similarly the land that was auctioned in Kokapet by the government, which got later embroiled in litigation on ownership, the buyers are not even able to get their monies back from the government for the reasons best known to all of us 'Speed money demand'.

I am more keen to discuss the famous triangular plot in the heart of the city. Here lies a plot measuring about 6 acres abutting the famous green corridor KBR park and positioned in the 'Çheck post' junction of Jubilee Hills.

The plot was put up for auction on 21st Feb 2006 with offers from bidders having stopped at Rs.1,35 lakh per Sq. Mtr, they opened the sealed bids which surprisingly had a bid for Rs.1.42 lakh per Sq. Mtr (Which roughly translates to Rs. 1.18 lakh per Sq. Yard), which was the highest transaction value in those days in the given area.

Government having got a sale value of Rs.333.70 crores from this sale, was quite happy. The successful bidders were told they can do any kind of development in that place. Bidding consortium being Nagarjuna Construction Company, Maytas, ICICI. The consortium then started working on the project and wished to build a high rise commercial complex.

Problem 1: Being a prime piece of land that was auctioned with a 'Áll Go' statement by the government, the bidders went without a worry and offered the highest price. Once they firmed up their plans and sent the plan for approval to the competent authorities, they were told they cannot have a building higher than 3 or 4 floors, this being in the funnel of the air traffic of Begumpet airport, the then primary airport of the city.

Problem 2: One of the consortium partner Maytas went into a huge turmoil after its associate company Satyam founder chairman B Ramalinga Raju, confessed to accounting malpractices in Jan 2009 in a letter t the SEBI.
Google Earth Images of the said property from 2005 to 2015

The Begumpet airport became only a VIP and Air force airport from March 2008 after the opening of the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Shamshabad. However considering the 'Funnel' route there was no improvement in the plan sanction. Meanwhile Maytas started going into further problems with its accounts being seized and assets being attached etc. Maytas was taken over by IL & FS and named as IL&FS Engineering company.

Finally Mantri Developers of Bangalore walked into the consortium as a developer in December 2011 and decided to change the plan to a high end residential complex and targeted a price of 13 to 15 k per sq. Ft of constructed area. Building height was reduced to the statutory needs and construction work started in right earnest. Other builders / developers were waiting for the success of this project as it would have created a new benchmark for pricing in the heart of the Hyderabad city, the much wanted improvement in a city which went through the separate state agitation and suffered in brand image.

Luckily the pace of work picked up in 2014 as the new Telangana state was formed and the new government was in place. Here started the travails for the consortium. The new government had its own vision for the city and the new state. In the process the CM of the state Sri K Chandrasekar Rao wanted to make the city of Hyderabad a no signal city by building flyovers across the city where today there is congestion.

Jubilee hills near the Check postth of May 2015 asking for stoppage of work at all projects where (Including the ones where plan approvals are in place) these flyover projects are proposed to come up.

junction happens to be one such place where government wants a new flyover. They issued a fresh GO on the 30

Now this project is one of those affected by this GO, for the consortium as they are licking their wounds of 2006 this bolt from the blue, is a bigger threat, as until government decides on the design of the flyovers, they cannot progress on their plans. Even some of the luxury apartments they managed to sell will get delayed.


Would you call this triangular plot a 'Jinxed' plot or something else and would you not categorise it under the 'Government f**ks me' category as far as the developers are concerned. They could be big and might be able to manage their way, but the interim delay cannot be compensated by anyone.

(This article is based on inputs from industry players)

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Government – Schools – Students – The Aadhar connection

When i got the circular from my daughter's school seeking her Aadhar number, the immediate thought that came to my mind was , why couldn't they adopt a similar method which was adopted by the Election commission, PAHAL the LPG subsidy site.
Apparently there is a huge gap between the above two programs and the schools info. First two are more or less Central govt projects and there is some primary data available, where as the schools coming under state subject education, we have to go through a long process of making this info connected.
However, if it was done the way the central issues were linked with Aadhar, there could have been lot more transparency for the parents. Not that they are providing some confidential information. What i have in mind is simply the following.
Government will first list out all the recognised schools in a designated website, listing out the permissions granted up to which class they can operate, category (Aided, Unaided, partly aided etc), which board (State board/CBSE/ICSE etc) they are authorised to offer, medium of education permitted and location where the school is situated in, The organisation which runs the school (usually trusts if the school is private) etc. After this the school would be provided access to the website to upload their student data.
Schools, on obtaining the access to the govt website, will start uploading the data of their pupils, class, section wise. Since the data will be based on school records it will be more or less accurate. Once this exercise is done, the schools will ask the parents to link the child's Aadhar number in this website. Parents can authenticate the input through a OTP (One Time Password) that will be sent from this site while updating the child's Aadhar number.
Parents will visit the site and select the school, class, section and identify their ward name and input the Aadhar number after getting a OTP. After doing this, it would be easier for the parents to verify the permissions the school has got and whether they got the permissions where their child is studying in specific. There are instances in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, where schools have been operating branches with one single license, a status which can put the child's education in danger if the authorities decide to disallow students of the branches which are not permitted.
This Govt. website can also capture the info and Aadhar number of the teaching staff. It is possible many a Govt. Teacher is teaching in a private school drawing double wages and depriving the Govt. school students of a proper teaching. Particularly it is more likely to happen in rural areas. Even parents can verify this info, if photographs and education qualifications are also listed.
This whole exercise will help bring in transparency in the education system, where parents can verify the schools permissions, staff qualifications. Govt will have total input on the schools admission process, RTE admissions (they could ask the schools to categorise the admissions) even fee structure prescribed to that particular school could be displayed, helping the parents to know whether they are being over charged by the school.
When a student is leaving the school, both transfer certificate (TC) and Marks list can carry the child’s Aadhar number, so that next institute can record the same while admitting the children be it at school level or higher studies. Even for a Banker while disbursing education loans this school record would be handy to know, whether the loan seeker has the required qualifications to pursue the next level of studies.
What i am writing about may not be too far from implementation and could be easily done under Digital India as visualised by the PM.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Song on present state of affairs in Andhra Pradesh, my home state

నీ బిడ్డ కోసం కల గన్నవా సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
మేమంత నీ బిడ్డలం కాదా ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
రెండు సార్లు నీ పార్టీకి ఓట్లెసి గెలిపించినాం ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
మా ఎంపీల దన్ను తొ చేసావు దోపిడి ఈ దేశాన్ని సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో

మా పెద్దొల్లు చెప్పారు తెలుగు మీ ఇటలీయన్ అంత తీపని, ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
మా అమయాక తెలుగు జనం నమ్మారు అదే నిజం కాబోలు అని, ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
నువ్వు ఇటలీ మేము తెలుగు ఆహ కుదిరింది మంచి లింకు అని, ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
ఆడావుగదా మహా తల్లి, ఓ ఆట మా తెలుగు వాళ్ళ బ్రతుకులతో ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో

బాశారు అశువులు, మా తెలుగు బిడ్డలు వెయ్యకు మించి, ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
వేశావు కమీటులు లెక్కకు మించి, ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
కాని ఏ కమిటి చెప్పింది మా బతుకులతో ఆడమని, ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
తొక్కావు తుంగలో శ్రీ క్రిష్న కమిటీ నివేదికని ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో

ఎక్కారు రోడ్డు పై మా ఆడవాళ్ళు, మా చంటి బిడ్డలు ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
వీధికేక్కారు మా చదువుకునె బిడ్డలు, ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
ససేమిరా అన్నారు మా ఉద్యోగ సొదరులు   ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
మా కలల మాటెమిటీ ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో

నా బిడ్డకు నేను గన్న కలే ముఖ్యం అన్నావు ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
మీ బిడ్డలు, మీ కలలు ఎటు పొతే నా కేమిటి, అన్నావు ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
మీ అత్త ఇందిరమ్మ నమ్మింది మేమంతా ఒకటిగా బతకాలని ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
అత్తా లేదు దుత్తా లేదు నా మాటె ఇక పై చెల్లు అన్నావు ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో

డూడూ బసవన్నలు మా మంత్రులు, ఎంపీలు ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
ఆడారు నీ మాటకు నాట్యం, చేసారు నువ్వు చెయమన్నదల్లా, ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
పాపం చూసారు ఈ రోజు, ప్రజా ఆగ్రహం   ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
ఇల్లు ఎక్కడొ, వాళ్ళు ఎక్కడో దిక్కు తొసక ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో

మా చంద్రన్న, జగనన్న తిట్టుకున్నరు నువ్వేంత నువ్వేంత ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
మా కిరణన్న ఎగరేసిండు తిరుగుబాటు జెండా ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
నీ కాడ తోక ఊపిన సత్తెన్న పెట్టిండు పోలీసుల్ని ఇంటికి కాపలా ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
ఈ నాయకుల్ని నమ్మిన మా బతుకుల్ని కాలరాయకె ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో

మాది తెలుగు, నీది ఇటాలి, బాషలు రెండు గొప్పవే తల్లి ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
చెయవే మా బతుకులు బాగు బాగు ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
విడదీసి న్యాయం చేస్తవో, కలిపుంచి బాగు పరుస్తవో ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో
కాని చూడకే తెలుగోడి కోపాన్ని, బగ్గుమంటది నీ  కాంగ్రేస్సు ఓ సొనియమ్మో, అమ్మో సొనియమ్మో