Prakash Kumar

 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...

Some time back I read an article on improving productivity and came across a fine definition of personal thinking  which all leads to the loss of productivity and slowly affects other sphere of life. To improve productivity we need to understand  and stop these unwanted mind games and idle thought making.  1. Procrastination " I will do it later." 2. Low Confidence " Will I actually succeed." 3. Perfectionism "It is just not good enough." 4. Judgement "What will my network think of me." 5. Competing commitments "If I do this ,will it get in the way of my other Goal."

     Farmers are sitting on protest at Delhi border against the newly enacted farm bills which promises to open up the transaction of primary farm produce with anybody, anywhere and anytime. In short a forward looking reform but without any mechanism to empower farming community to prepare themselves to this level leaving behind the Mandi system and MSP route. I don't understand what was the hurry, first it was promulgated through ordinance and then in a much hurried way passed in parliament. This makes the whole process looks suspicious from the beginning and put this forward looking reform in a mess of controversy. Agriculture is a state subject and having these acts without consulting states  makes the good intention to bad one.  Secondly farmers organizations were also not consulted . In sum total there was no pre-legislative exercise to bring these laws. All major stakeholders were left out of any consultative process before bringing such an important legis...

     One thing which invariably puts extra life in me is travel. Travel anywhere! In India, outside India , to rural areas , urban areas, to mountains , plains, to sea coast or just driving on the road. It is one thing that is close to my heart and as I age it is getting more intense and I wanted to do it more and too often. Whether there is a company or not it does not matter, just travel solo as a soul traveler, with friends, family and colleagues. And it is just travel for which I am most consistent in my life. I covered a quite lot of places in India and abroad. But the more I travel more intense it become. I am all for it.      During corona time I was stuck at Patna in March and having a long time with family but I miss my usual self when I travel for learning and unlearning.  I travel not for a purpose but just purposely travel to new and some places which I keep repeating and that one place is Ramgarh , Nainital where my antarman dwells. I am v...