Prakash Kumar

 Value buying, value education, value opinion ......likewise value should be given while aging and may be called as value aging. One has to value something before going for it or to say investing in value proposition. But it is just opposite in case of aging , our thinking of aging is of diminishing, decline , loss, decreased strength,decreased income,retirement,decreased responsibility, decreased mental activity etc which is not true from any angle.    As we age the aging also opens several new opportunities to contribute in many spheres, opportunity to live longer with quality life,thrive longer, and to be valued part of community as mentor. One has to start investing in aging early on to get the full benefit while aging gracefully. And the best investment is in health literacy, stress free living, physical mobility, listening to others and oneself and contributing to society and developing understanding with young generation. 

 After a very long time one can have a budget which is more on substance rather than rhetoric. This budget is truly an exercise to keep India going after a prolonged 2 year hardship caused by Corona. The thrust is building India and keeping the momentum of pre covid to make India 5 trillion economy by 2025. First time after independence the focus is on  growth rather than keeping the fiscal deficit within some theoretical benchmark. In fact for developing countries like India the focus should be always on growth rather than keeping fiscal deficit under control. However it is important keep the focus on capital and infra building which also creates job opportunities. 

Since last few years Grant Funding for climate and broader environment areas is decreasing and in all probability post COVID it will be further decreased.  In 2020 US Grant for this area was in % terms as below, 1.Air, land and water conservation :19  2. Environment education,justice and resource rights :19  3. Sustainable Fishing and agriculture : 16 4.Energy resources and access :18 5.Forestry :1 6. CLIMATE CHANGE: 23 7. Waste management :4  To Restrict warming to 1.5 degree c requires major GHG reductions by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050. This requires trillions of dollar of capital spending and more funding to improve resilience against physical hazards. Apart from this lot of funding is required for developing scalable low carbon technologies such as  -Renewables Solar/Wind  -Green Hydrogen -Carbon capture , utilization and storage -Natural Climate solutions (NCS) such as reforestation to achieve 1/3rd reductions  -Battery-electric vehicles ...

     India is now a World COVID hotspot. How fast situation reverses, just few months back it seems that India is on top of chart to manage COVID wave one but suddenly a Global problem when Covid wave 2 hit India. But not that we are unaware of it but we allowed this Covid Tsunami to engulf the entire country.      The political leadership which took decision so early in COVID one when death was so less but this time devoted full time to elections and more particularly to West Bengal elections. It looks that the only national agenda is to dethrone Mamata Banerjee. The full state powers were behind it. But what happens at last Didi -O -Didi  failed miserably and TMC back to power in West Bengal. It was a double whammy for BJP losing the West Bengal and also allowing the COVID wave to engulf the country. We failed at almost all steps. Starting from taking the mutation of COVID lightly and also not taking seriously the warning of covid 2 in India th...