Banning Small metalized plastic pouches : welcome measure !

I read this mornings news, a small piece stuck in one of the inner pages, that the Indian government is planning to ban all small "gutka" pouches with great satisfaction and a new set of expectation.

Some months ago, I spent time on a couple of postings related to this menace (and it is a big menace in India). The so-called "smart packaging" and "bite-sized" dosage revolution that is being discussed by the marketing folks so eloquently is growing to be a MAJOR ecological issue.

Any walk in the hinterland (not just the cities) will show tons of small "paan" and "gutka" packages lying all around. These are too small to be collected and deposited / segregated. They are collectively big enough to form a major portion of animal feed if we do not take care.

A few years ago, we'd have people commenting on the quantum of cigarette packs, gum wrappers etc. Today, all that is completely overshadowed by these "smart" packs.

It is time we shunned this "smart" pack .....

What should governments be involved in other than governance ?

For this post - am not writing a new set. This is a cross post from Sikshana.blogspot.com

There is growing concern about PPP model in the secondary education (proposed).
Please see this posting :

http://sikshana.blogspot.com/2009/10/ppp-in-secondary-education_11.html#links

My comments on the post being
_____________________________________________________________
Dear ESR,
Long ago (while I was still fresh out of Ayn Rand readings), I was asked what should the government be responsible for. This was for a debate. I still remember that after much thought I had come down to the crux of governance and social equality that would be covered by
a. Defense
b. Law & Order
c. Healthcare
d. Education till 10th

Over time, having seen the power of government sanctions (where LAND and Industry allocations / grants are made) and having read the farce of boards eg. WAKF etc, I've come to add another item to this list and that is "livelihood". My guess is that the NREGS is possibly a close example.

Why the background - IMHO the government has NO business running the road business ?

Your concern on secondary education is very valid and is something that we need to discourage actively !

We, as a nation, are only growing to address the growing rural-urban divide by taking schools / hospitals and livelihood to the rural areas and NOT by allocating "x" % of seats in urban schools to the BPL section ?

Let us see how we can bring this under the bigger "urban-rural" divide discussion as that may have better traction / purchase ?

Time off on Gandhi Jayanthi : Is it the right thing to do ?

I'm sure people all around have been exposed to this "timely" debate. I saw a twitter like snippet off Shashi Tharoor and a longer debate over the news hour.

I'm surprised at the level of hypocrisy in the debate .vs. actual demonstration of thought.


I heard Tushar Gandhi ask for social work to be given time off while picnic/ timeoff be marked as absent. I'd like to ask him a question :What would his inaugural attendance of the Mont Blanc pen "Gandhi special" be termed as ? Would that qualify as social work ?

For the un-initiated : there are 2 "luxury" brands who've released Mahatma Gandhi specials - one is LLADRO with their figurine. See picture below


and the other is the Pen from Mont Blanc - see picture below (Mr Tushar Gandhi releasing it)



Again for those who've not been watching the news. The Lladro figurine costs USD 700 while the limited edition pen costs USD 25000 ! (yes, that is right, there are 3 zeros at the end and it is in USD)

What a change from the edict of simple living and high thinking ?

Atleast, people like us (the Aam Janatha) do not preach on simple living as we do enjoy the occasional high living. I wish I could state the same for the thinking side too ;-) when I generalize ?