Feels wierd…

Bt Brijal was given an approval for commercial cultivation in India [1, 2, 3].I did my bit by sending a fax about this, and am consciously trying to do my bit by doing other things, and writing about them.Interestingly, the Govt body employed to be in charge of genetic products has been called “Genetic Engineering Approval Committee”. It’s URL has a one line explanation about its’ role. I am curious as to why this body is called the “approval committee” as opposed to “regulatory committee” or something else. Guess the underlying assumption is that somehow GE is already going to be approved and, once it is approved there would be little there to be regulated.  Incidentally, all the safety reports related to Bt Brinjal were from the company Mahyco itself (URL).

But this is not the only thing I am feeling wierd about…

China is pretty pissed that our PM visited Arunachal Pradesh [1,2], and our media did give a whimper of response [1]. China had sometime back also started issuing visas to J&K/Arunachal residents on a piece of paper, as opposed to stamping them on the Indian passport [1]. China’s attitude reminds me of a distant cousin who used to resort to cheap tricks in order to make me look bad in front of parents.

I believe that India can be very strong when it comes to things like these. But my belief aint good enough, a billion other folks need to share the belief. Ahem… well, a few among the billions would be OK.

Maruti suzuki presents Independace day special.

And the special is supposed to be sponsoring five movies on Star Movies. Nice… And I am pretty sure there are other Indian firms doing ditto. Problem with us is that the private industry needs to operate on a profit basis, and the Govt. will insist that profit is a bad thing. Hence private companies are always parasitic, and contribute little to nation/society building. This is very much unlike the GE, Siemens, Philips or other companies established elsewhere.

Profit can be good and it can be bad. But in our country, it necessarily has to be bad; the governing body is designed to penalize profit. Hence, profit turns into what it is in India; it makes everyone a market that is based only on goods that do not necessarily enhance society but parasite on it. I recently had a friend talk to me about the General Financial Rules, which indicate how the Indian Govt. must disburse monies. This was a good coffee chat, and a brief reading of the GFR confirmed what was told to me. The GFR is a complex set of rules designed to keep public money in public hands. I have a lot more to learn about grant fundings in India, but I am being told that it is extremely difficult to allow public money into private hands.

Fear of the unnatural

This was an article by SANTOSH DESAI in the Times of India, Banglore Edition July 20 2009, page 12. The whole thing can be read here.

Awesome article related to the recent flurry of activity around homosexuality and article 377 of the IPC [1]. A few extracts from the article:

What is it about homosexuality and its apparent legalisation that causes such consternation?

….

The argument put forward is that partnerships of the same sex are unnatural. Men and women have been outfitted with sexual equipment in certain ways because they have defined roles to perform. On the face of it, this is a robustly commonsensical argument

…

The catch is, of course, that there is nothing very much that is natural about hallowed social institutions like marriages and families. These are cultural institutions that have been superimposed on natural instinct. Monogamy is not an inevitable natural condition but an institutional mechanism devised for a very specific purpose. Civilization is the human rejoinder to nature; it seeks to curb our natural instincts so that we can build a sustainable long-term habitat. Without a well-defined system of marriage, property rights, for instance, are difficult to administer and without these rights, the need to invest in the future beyond producing offspring diminishes.

….

strange, for culture almost by definition seeks to control what is natural. Culture routinely uses the body in ways not intended by nature. If we were meant to wear ear-rings, we should have been born with pierced earlobes, for instance. And certainly, nature did not mean for us to wear clothes; that is an act of culture alone.

….

We do not accept that humans were meant to travel only as fast as their legs can take them simply because that is the nature of our physical equipment, so why should we argue in this case?

…..

What is being called natural is being mixed up with that which occurs more often.

The conclusion of the article is a very interesting. Please do read all of it. The line in red above gels very well with what I have been mulling over for quite sometime. But I firmly believe that nature will have the last laugh, no matter what mould civilization seeks to put it in. BTW, nature could indeed have the last laugh on gay parades as well…

Freedom Team of India – press coverage of our first talk.

Shanthanu Bhagwat who runs a very well-read blog is in India to talk about the Freedom team of India. The first talk by him was at the Indore Management Association on Wednesday. FTI’s first first press coverage was this talk event by Shanthanu. The article is scanned:

Article on Shanthanu's talk at Indore

Excerpts from the article (Transliteration followed by the Hindi words):

madhyamavarga isa desh kii riiD ke samaan hai lekin maujuudaa daur me.n vah nirNaayak bhuumikaa nahi.n nibhaa paa rahaa hai.n| aaj sTUDe.nT voT dene se pahale puuchhate hai.n ki sabhii bhraShTa hai.n aakhir kise cune.n | ham kyo.n jaati dekhakar vot dete hai.n |

मध्यमवर्ग इस देश की रीड के समान है लेकिन मौजूदा दौरमें वह निर्णायक भूमिका नहिं निभा पा रहा हैं| आज स्टूडेंट वोट देने से पहले पूछते हैं कि सभी भ्रष्ट हैं आखिर किसे चुनें| हम क्यों जाति देखकर वोत देते हैं |
hame.n sochanaa hogaa ki swatantra hokar bhii ham swatantrataa se vyavahaar kyo.n nahI.n kar sakate| kyaa is desh me.n sabhii naagarik pulisa yaa netao.n se swatantrataapuurNa sawaal kar sakataa hai.n|

हमें सोचना होगा कि स्वतन्त्र होकर भी हम स्वतन्त्रता से व्यवहार क्यों नहीं कर सकते| क्या इस देश में सभी नागरिक पुलिस या नेतओं से स्वतन्त्रतापूर्ण सवाल कर सकता हैं|
abhii tak hamaare 70 sadasya ho chuke hai.n aur hame.n puurii ummiid hai ki me.nbaraship baDhatii jaaegii| hame.n chune hue 1500 sadasyo.n kii jaruurata hai.n kyo.nki ham una bhaaratiiyo.n ko khoj rahe hai.n jinakii netrutva kshamataa kaa laabha desh ko mil paae|

अभी तक हमारे ७० सदस्य हो चुके हैं और हमें पूरी उम्मीद है कि मेंबरशिप बढती जाएगी| हमें चुने हुए १५०० सदस्यों की जरूरत हैं क्योंकि हम उन भारतीयों को खोज रहे हैं जिनकी नेत्रुत्व क्षमता का लाभ देश को मिल पाए|

A dry borewell, water logging elsewhere

Last Saturday, I got our borewell in Hyderabad tested for water. There had been no water coming through it for the past couple of years. Parents were obviously concerned, and it had to be fixed. Interestingly, it is rather trivial to dismantle your average bore and pull the pipe out. Our pump was at ground level, and was not a submersible pump.There is a filter at the bottom called “foot fall”; the man at the local borewell store said that there could be 3 issues: The bore went dry, the footfall got rusted, there is dirt in the foot fall.

When the two workers got to our house in the afternoon, it took them about half an hour to dismantle the motor from the bore pipes. They then simply pulled at the pipes, and out they came – all 100 feet of it. And the footfall – absolutely dry. There was no rust, and marginal dirt. There was not even a drop of water;I did not even feel that the cloth tied at the end of the foot fall was dry.

The guy exclaimed that almost everyone in the vicinity of our house had bores going upto 300 feet. It would cost about Rs 70-100K getting such a bore done. We considered our options and decided against it. Besides, in about a couple more years, we would have people digging bores upto a thousand feet. Or maybe we should dig. Who knows, we may reach the other end of earth as we dig our bores. Or better still, find some oil in Anand bagh.

Elsewhere in the city, there are water logging problems. When my in-laws were dropping me at the Kacheguda rlwy station, my FIL lamented that certain parts will be water logged when rains hit us, and at the same time our locality does not have water. I noticed that not one person had left any sort of setback in their homes. Setback is a gap of about 5-10 feet between the residential house and the compound walls. It is equivalent to the lawn in front of US homes. Most metros in India have distinct rules about keeping setbacks. Setbacks also allow rain water to seep back into the ground, replenishing ground water for one, and take away the heavenly downpour to where it needs to go (into the earth). We have about 5-10 feet of setback on different sides of our house; many people seldom have setbacks in Hyd. In Bangalore, it is even worse. I recently visited a house worth Rs 1.4 crore; the guy there had left about 1.5 foot of setback, and had aptly concertized even that space.

Today, there was flooding in Koramangala. Sure enough; it would be all over the media. The residents would crib hajaar about how the storm drains got stuck and the water was logged. The media would lay blame on everyone except the Lord. God, they would do not touch cause TRP benefits are not much.

BTW, I also wonder if the loss of ground water in our area is related to the coca-cola plant that is located barely a 2 Kms. away from our house.

News summary May 21 2009

‘Ultimate fighting’, a sport with few rules, has raised a storm in Germany
TOI, Bangalore Edition, Editorial page

Just when I was beginning to think that news has become boring, did something very titillating appear in the editorial pages. Apparently:

‘Ultimate fighters’ are men who maul each other with bare knuckles and feet in octagonal cages, a setting straight out of Mad Max. And they can go all out in terms of brutality. About the only thing a UFC participant can’t do is bite his opponent or gouge out his eyes.
….Why do men no longer kill each other in duels, sword fights and other blood-andgore exploits, as they once did with little or no social disapproval? The reason is a civilising process that turned man from savage to human being.COUNTER VIEW:

That the level of violence on display in the mixed martial arts franchise can be difficult to stomach for some people is understandable. But the contestants are willing participants and the viewers are not coerced. They are acting out of free will and there are simply no grounds to deny them that right. Fears that it will contribute to a culture of violence are overblown.
…
There is an element of hypocrisy on display as well. If Ultimate Fighting is to be reviled, what of boxing? The contestants in the latter wear gloves but it can be every bit as bloody. There are well-known instances of serious injuries and even death in the ring. Or what, for that matter, of bullfighting? It does not make it any less of a blood sport because animals, not humans, are being butchered.

One author wrote against the Ultimate Fighting sport, while the other wrote for it. I wonder how much the prize money would be for the winner of this game. And also, which ads would appear during the “breaks”.

An unfinished agenda
TOI, Bangalore Edition, Editorial page

The article is mainly about decentralizing power from Delhi, and the oft-repeated quote that democracy has to come from bottom up. It claims that the Congress will lead to increased strengthening of the Panchayat and Nagarpalia (local governments). Excerpts from the article:

It has long been obvious that India needs more decentralisation. The freedom movement required rallying an entire nation. A centralised political organisation fighting for one cause was needed. After independence, a different political pattern was required. Mahatma Gandhi convened a meeting of Congress leaders in Sevagram in March 1948 to discuss how the organisation could reform itself to meet the challenges of social and economic development. Though he was assassinated in January, the meeting was held as he had desired. The record of that meeting was published in 2007 in a fascinating book, Gandhi is Gone. Who Will Guide Us Now?
In the meeting, Vinoba Bhave made a case for a new form of organisation unlike the hierarchical entities then considered necessary for government, political parties and large businesses. It would be a network of local organisations. He explained that only such an organisation could preserve the spirit of service whereas hierarchical entities would dissipate their energies in internal matters and power politics.
Acharya Kripalani supported Bhave’s argument. “Without decentralisation, democracy is an empty falsehood,” he said. “Centralisation brings bureaucracy. Bureaucracy and technocracy are both equally the enemies of democracy.” Others in the meeting, however, wondered how activities managed in the loose manner Bhave proposed could ever be ‘scaled up’ to have a widespread effect.
…
India is diverse and has huge challenges of sustainable social and economic development. Unlike China, it also has political plurality and democracy.
…
But the critical requirement is to decentralise power. Rajiv Gandhi moved amendments to the Constitution to pass on power to panchayats and urban local bodies. Politicians and bureaucrats, however, will not let go of the power they have. Therefore, it is for Congress leaders to fulfil the unfinished agenda.

The writer is quite supportive of the Congress. When I woke up today morning, DD had a long infomercial about Rajiv Gandhi and the Panchayati Raj. Here is an excerpt from his speech: PDF file. NREGA is a good scheme created by the Govt. But it also has a dole out model built in. I wonder if these well-meaning ideals may turn socialist.

Hillary trashes 30 years of US policy towards Pakistan
TOI, Bangalore Edition, page 18
One more reason why humans fight:

“I think that it is fair to say that our policy toward Pakistan over the last 30 years has been incoherent. I don’t know any other word to use. We came in the ’80s and helped to build up the Mujahideen to take on the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. The Pakistanis were our partners in that. The Soviet Union fell in 1989, and we basically said, thank you very much; we had all kinds of sanctions being imposed on the Pakistanis,” Clinton said at a White House event where she announced an emergency $ 110 million aid to Pakistan for the humanitarian crisis in Swat.

Nearly 20,000 slots still left in H-1B visas
TOI, Bangalore Edition, page 18
I guess one can still go to Buffalo after all !!!

7-yr-old found dead in state BJP chief’s car
TOI, Mumbai Edition, page 1
The excerpts of this article should say it all:

Maharashtra’s BJP boss Nitin Gadkari was embroiled in a nasty controversy on Tuesday following the discovery of the body of a seven-yearold girl from one of his cars and allegations that the class III student had been raped.
…
a local doctor had been summoned to Gadkari’s home immediately after the body was discovered. The doctor declared the girl dead and Yogita’s body was then taken to her home in a rickshaw by her mother and sister. The girl’s father Ashok Thakre said that he was shocked when he saw his wife Vimla entering their home with Yogita’s body. “We rushed her to the Government Medical College and Hospital,’’ said Thakre. Surprisingly, no one bothered to inform the police and a case was filed only after a local activist, Kishore Ingle, intervened late at night.
…
“It was hot and she (Yogita) could not endure the heat with her frail heart. All other theories behind her death are politically driven,’’

News summary May 19 2009

PG-hopper busted for serial thefts
TOI Bangalore Edition, page 1

Ms Devi Mahalakshmi, apparently a “God-fearing girl” stole about half a KG of gold and other assorted stuff from her roomies. She is also a software engineer. “God fearing” and “software engineer”, and to top it all off, a “girl”. She sure has managed to break a lot of stereotypes. What I wonder is, how nicely these stereotypes are broken everywhere else.

Big loss of face for 353 candidates
TOI Bangalore Edition, page 4

The whole of page 4 is an analysis of the current elections. Apparently, some members from major parties also lost their deposits.
Of the 428 candidates who contested for the 28 Lok Sabha seats of Karnataka, 353 lost their deposits.

The BJP has done very well in the Karnataka area.

Money on English
TOI Bangalore Edition, editorial

It is all about English; it is related to the Mulayam Singh manifesto that was anti-English and anti-computers [1]. Apparently, the politician who claims that computers take away employment sends his kids to English schools. I am positive they also do computers and own a few playstations, nintendos and the like at their official residence. Mulayam also has an online profile on UP Govts website.

Sometime back, there was the story of Raj Thackeray going against English, Hindi, and basically everything and anything that they could lay their hands on. Incidentally, his people vandalized Bombay Scottish, for having Bombay instead of Mumbai in its’ name [1, 2]. Raj Thackeray sent his kids to, where else, Bombay Scottish.

News summary – May 18, 2009

Enter: Old Faithfuls, Young Turks
TOI Bangalore Edition, Page 1

A stable Govt. for the next few years. On 17th May, there was also news that Advani will be stepping down. Regional parties, who till recently were considered to be indispensable [1, 2] are now being pooh-poohed. Ah, for the world of unexpected events. The market is sure to respond +vely. And it sure did; the sensex rose by more than 2000 points in a little over a few minutes to 14,272.63 [1, 2].The circuit-breaker system designed to stop the sensex from growing arbitrarily kicked in twice today, and trading was finally suspended at about 12:00 noon. More about the circuit breaker system and how it is intended to help investors can be seen here:[1, 2]. No, I do not own any stock. Life sucks, right???

Tamil Tigers finally concede defeat
TOI Bangalore Edition, Page 1

The Sri Lankan forces have found Prabhakaran’s body [1]. Several pictures of his family are presented here. More images of the destruction with earlier reports of the death of his son, Charles Anthony.

Love for Vivekananda, clean politics
TOI Bangalore edition, Page 5

Article about Trilochan Sastry , the founder of Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). He is a bachelor with multiple advanced degrees working towards better electoral reforms.

150 MPs with crime cases in new LS
TOI Bangalore edition, Page 8

The title says it all, need I say any more? Quote from the article:

An analysis of the affidavits filed by contestants reveals there has been a 22% increase in MPs with criminal cases compared with those elected in 2004. About 150 newly-elected MPs have criminal cases pending against them. These include 73 who have serious charges under various counts of the IPC pending against them.

300 crorepati MPs in new Lok Sabha
TOI Bangalore Edition, Page 9

Another set of numbers about our elected reps. Apparently:

The maximum number of crorepatis were found to be from Congress (137), followed by BJP (58), SP (14) and BSP (13).

Newspaper summary May 15 2009

I do not think I would be consistent with the summaries; they take way too much time. But anyhow, it is an honest revival.

SC awards techie Rs 1 cr damages for medical negligence

TOI, Bangalore Edition, page 1

A story about one Prashant S Dhananka, 39, in whose case the supreme court ruled in favor of a compensation of Rs 1 Cr. for gross negligence during chest tumor removal. He was paralyzed waist down after a surgeon damaged his spinal chord during an operation. He was initially ruled to get Rs 15 lakh amount awarded by the Andhra Pradesh high court.

II PU students can change college: HC

TOI, Bangalore Edition, page 2

A Pre-University Education department circular prohibits a student who joined PUC in 2009-2010 academic year from shifting from one college to another when they move into second year in 2010-2011. The Karnataka high court stayed the application of this circular for students who have joined I PUC in 2008-09.

This could be closely related to the dismal PUC-2 results recently seen. Apparently, many NRIs are also moving back to India due to recession and other factors, especially from the middle east.

Traffic curbs on Saturday

TOI, Bangalore Edition, page 3

Interesting to note that traffic would be diverted in view of “Lok Sabha election counting”. Wow. Rule for the people really wants people to make sacrifices.

BDA’s Arkavathy Layout is in no man’s land. While landless farmers will soon lose health cover under the Yeshasvini scheme as they do not have documents, it is an endless wait for those allotted plots

TOI, Bangalore Edition, page 4

Once lush fields and farms were bulldozed and so was the livelihood of nearly 15,000 farmers. This month-end, their Yeshasvini health insurance cover will end. This means they cannot get free medical facilities anymore. Reason: they’ll no longer be farmers as their ‘paani’ (land document) will cease to exist.

The once-rich landlords’ wives who would look after the labourers and the cattle, are now forced to do menial jobs. “One blessing in disguise is that there are many apartments around the villages. Our women do household chores, eat leftovers. It’s very painful,’’ says Patalappa.
The plight of Appaiahanna is pathetic. He owned 12 guntas where he grew jasmine and reared a cow. His family, wife and two children, led a contented life by selling flowers and milk. Today, he has no land and goes for construction work at an apartment site. He pulled out his children from school unable to support their education and they are doing barbending work at the site.

Wednesday, I was having a discussion with folks from office who insisted that urbanization was solving the caste problem. I wanted to say that Urbanization is likely to create other problems; caste has to be solved organically within a rural setting. Could not express the thoughts then, this article explains a few problems that urbanization could cause.

They own plots but cannot build a house on it

TOI, Bangalore Edition, page 4

The other end of the story:

H G Prakash, 76, an ex-serviceman and son of a freedom fighter from Subramanyanagar, made at least four attempts for a 30 ft x 40 ft plot there. His first attempt under the ex-serviceman quota was not even considered. He finally succeeded in getting a plot allotted and it took him another two years to register it, after countless visits to the BDA office. His struggle still continues, and as time goes by, his hopes of building a house are slowly fading. He paid Rs 2.3 lakh for it and Rs 2,000 more for the little piece of additional land around it. Little did he realize the long struggle ahead until he submitted his building plan for approval on October 10, 2008. He still can’t do anything with the land because of the reserved Supreme Court judgment.

There are nearly 8,800 such people who own land but can’t build houses on it. Some are paying a steep interest on money borrowed from banks and other financial institutions. The BDA scaled down the allotment from the initial 20,000 sites to 8,800, but the disturbing wait continues for allottees. “Our money is locked. My father availed of a loan for the plot and with no progress on the layout, what are we to tell the bank?,’’ says Sanjay.

HC: police need common sense, if not intelligence

TOI, Bangalore Edition, page 4

SC frees Varun of NSA charges

TOI, Bangalore Edition, page 4

They say that the BSP Govt. was vindictive. Going by earlier comments that Varun had gained sympathy, this whole NSA thing would have been a “favor”.

Times of India special pages on LOk Sabha Elections May 16 2009.

A Cursed Partnership

TOI, Bangalore Edition, Editorial page 14

Nice article on why Indian and US policies on terrorism are different. The article gives eight reasons, but the last one sums it up nicely:

Eighth, the US has exerted undue pressure on victim India. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton has disclosed the reason why New Delhi did not take the mildest diplomatic action against Pakistan after Mumbai: “We worked very hard, as did the prior administration, to prevent India from reacting”. She indeed wants India to suffer more Mumbais silently, saying America has “a lot of work to do with the Indian government, to make sure they continue to exercise the kind of restraint they showed after Mumbai…” Doing deals with militants and paying growing amounts of ransom money to Pakistan are no way to fight terror.

Mountains need legs

Business Line – Life – Page 3, by Shyam G. Menon

Shyam Menon has written a very humorous article, highlighting an interesting aspect of our society. It is not just about ecology, it also relates to  how human endeavors are concentrating on titillation more than anything else. Excerpts:

Several Englishmen had walked up to Everest Base Camp (EBC) and played a match of cricket on a nearby plateau resembling London’s Oval, 17,045 ft high in altitude. Their reward — potential entry into the record books for the highest altitude at which a field sport has been played.

….

It is harder still to accept that no field sport was ever played when EBC is said to resemble a small tent city in peak season. Nevertheless a record is a record; this was the first time anyone went specifically to play a proper cricket match and not climb the mountain. The team had a Guinness Book official along to ratify the proceedings, reports said.

….

If I were Everest and looking down after all this at a full-fledged game of cricket at EBC, I would strain every sinew in my mountainous body to heave my bulk off the ground and flee further into Tibet. Perhaps relocate far beyond, to the middle of the Taklamakan.

In an age when people play chess underwater, all it takes is one businessman to vault what those Englishmen did for publicity and record, into the stuff of a regular media circus. It may not be at EBC but somewhere else, equally picturesque and hospitable to showcasing a saga of athleticism for the cameras. Gnarled landscape, snow-capped peaks, television and plenty to gloat about low oxygen. Imagine the wealth of statistics for commentary!

Richard Kirtley, who organised the T20 match on the Queen’s birthday, said chasing the altitude record was “a quintessentially British thing to do”. There was no mention of owning up the consequence of examples set on a fragile environment rimmed by the most populous and freshly rich countries on the planet.

Doordarshan plans to offer Mobile TV services

Business line, Front page

We will now have motorists not just speaking into their phones, but even looking into their latest gizoms as they speed on our roads…

Forms of Democracy

Democracy was introduced in several of our history or civics books as “Government for the people, of the people, and by the people”. The statement came from Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address. Most arm-chair politicians in India (The middle class has scores of them) have passed judgment that democracy has ceased to serve its intended purpose. But has it? Is there nothing we can do to improve upon what we have? There are several variants of democracy; some are practiced, and some are in theory (These subjects are poorly studied *). We follow a parliamentary democracy with first past the post system of elections. A few salient repercussions of our form of democracy, and how we could improve:

1. A representative is elected by a very large population of people; it is unrealistic that the representative can directly interact with even a small percentage of people that voted for him. For a population of a billion people, we have 543 representatives [1, 2].
2. It is difficult to dismiss or replace the representative. I think the only legal option for people to demand that an Lok Sabha MP step down is to file a Public Interest Litigation. The executive (Rajya Sabha / President) positively does not have any powers to recommend that an Lok Sabha MP should be fired. The speaker can suspend a Lok Sabha MP (Rule 374A). The only conclusive, and fast way is for an MP to resign voluntarily. In such a scenario, our rules specify that another MP may be delegated the functions of a resigning MP, or a request would be sent to the election commission to organize bye-elections. Bye-elections are often expensive [1]. A Rajya Sabha MP may be disqualified if he changes his political affiliations after getting the seat; he may not even vote against his party opinion.

The US has a presidential system, and you can read about the differences with a parliamentary system here. A couple of interesting democracies are:

Direct Democracy [1]: This is a system where all citizen directly participate in the decision process for their community. A partial version of this is present in the California Government.

Liquid Democracy [1, 2]: A concept where people can transfer their votes to each other. For example, 100 people decide to give their votes to X. Then X will have 101 votes (100 votes given by others plus his own vote). X can also transfer these 101 votes to another person. Further, a voter can take his vote back at any time. Variations of liquid democracy have the ability to solve problem 1 given above, and to a certain extent even 2.

Primaries among political parties: Political parties hold internal elections to determine who their candidates for a particular constituency should be. LokSatta is one such party in India; when two or more LokSatta members wish to contest elections from a single seat, an election is held by the party in that constituency, and the member who gets most votes is taken as the candidate [Example: 1, 2].  In the US, primaries are held slightly differently; only members of the political party get to vote during the primaries. This is a simplistic explanation though, there are rules like for example senior members of the democratic party having more weight [1].

One model is better than the other in certain aspects, and some could be very useful to enhance the system in India. But until the electorate get interested in their society, no system would help.

*The formal study of politics is limited to humanities or social sciences.The low market value of these studies is stark in India, but it is equally true elsewhere. Typical US University budgets allotted to areas like the humanities are lousy; humanities cannot be “sold” unlike an ipod and this makes it a less attractive magnet for funding.