Let's not take resilience for granted
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Last Friday, on March 27, part of the country celebrated their new year. This New Year tradition started as "Vikram Samvat" in 78 BC or as Shalivahan Shaka in 57 AD. Both King Vikramaditya and King Shalivahan were heroes of their era whose leadership successfully retaliated the external barbaric attacks and defeated the invasions. It is ironic and to some extent unfortunate that even today both Kings Vikramaditya and Shalivahan and their actions have relevance more than ever. I am sure any Indian can (or should be able to) guess why. But if not, then think about the terrorist attacks that took place in the past 2-3 years in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ajmer, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi and Imphal. We are already paying a heavy toll in the form of the killing of innocent people, policemen and other law enforcement authorities by terrorists all around India. Innocent families of those who....
The great democratic exercise
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The countdown has begun. The 14th Lok Sabha is about to be formally concluded on June 1, 2009. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the nation will display the great democratic exercise, commonly known as the General Elections. According to the Election Commission of India, 714 million people are eligible to exercise their voting rights and their right to elect their representative, in effect, the next elected Government of India. To put this number in better perspective, it represents almost 1.46 times the combined population of the Western Europe and the United States. There will be voting booths in schools, colleges, public buildings. There will be voters representing cross-section of society, although the percentage from each section will be differing. Voting machines will travel to and fro by you-name-it types of transportation - buses, rail, road vehicles, boats, aeroplanes, helicopters and even to the remotest of the remote places - by....
More about Vithal Deshpande
Vithal Deshpande, a civil and environmental engineer by profession, hails from Thane in Maharashtra. His experience in public and private sector encompasses the fields of sustainable development, policy development, engineering and management. He has been living in the US for the past 17 years and has been an active within Indian and American communities in cultural, entrepreneurial, environmental, educational and political activities. He had been the past president of New England Marathi Mandal and also served as a Chair for Environmental Technology Group for Boston Society of Civil Engineers. Presently he is a co-chair for The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) Boston's Social Entrepreneurs Group, dedicated to foster social entrepreneurship, track chair for Social Enterprise for TIECON East 2009 - a business conference for entrepreneurs. He also advises several non-profits groups in various capacities.
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