Declaring Bhagavad Gita as national script

Email sent to Sushma Swaraj on 9-Dec-2014

Dear Sushmaji

You wanted to make Bhagavad Gita as national script. I have a few questions

1. How many Indians understand Bhagavad Gita, particularly 'Biswarup Darshan' and 'Nishkam Karma'?
2. How many Indians aged between 18 to 25 have actually read Bhagavad Gita at least once?
3. Why should Tripitaka not be declared as national script also? Is it because number of Buddhists in India is less or Tripitaka is inferior to Bhagavad Gita? In other words, you are either trying to bully Buddhists or presuming Bhagavad Gita is superior to other religious scripts. Can you please prove that Bhagavad Gita is absolute supreme? If not, you have to declare Tripitaka also as national script.

If PM Modi indulges such crazy ideas, tomorrow a crazier person will declare Physics as national subject, Gujarat as national state, Chess as national sports. There is no end to make things 'National'. Will the philosophical value of Bhagavad Gita increase by declaring it as national script? Does Bhagavad Gita need any kind of endorsement from Sushma Swaraj? 

I can clearly see a great element of fanaticism and complete ignorance in your desire to glorify Bhagavad Gita. I cannot believe anyone can dare to propose Bhagavad Gita for national script. I find it insulting for 5000 years old script. Are you suggesting that Bhagavad Gita has been ignored for so long and you want to rescue Bhagavad Gita? 

Declaring Bhagavad Gita as national script is not going to solve unemployment and poverty issues of India. Understanding of Bhagavad Gita requires great level of intelligence. You and I can never practice 'Nishkam Karma'. Because we need name, fame, glamour, claps, recognition and above all power. 

Let me tell you a story. During the construction of Birla Mandir in Kolkata a person asked one of the workers what was he doing? He replied ' breaking stone. Life is hell.' He asked the same question to another worker. He replied 'I am making world's best temple'. Second person was excited that he was part of a great architecture. He understood the essence of Bhagavad Gita.

Let's make India great together. Let's write a new script which is more powerful than any religious script for aspiring India.

My earnest request to you please don't embarrass PM Modi. Let's focus only on development, nothing else. You don't have to appease RSS. It is PM Modi who is bringing votes to BJP not RSS.

Smart City

R – Block, C1 to C4 – Zone, A – City Centre

Salient features of Smart city

Topography

1. Total population – 25,000 - 200,000
2. Population density – 2,500 per sq km
3. Smart city should be within 3km from highway or rail line
4. Airport should be 15 km away from smart city
5. Nobody can buy land in smart city
6. City is to be divided into 3 concentric zones (C2, C3, C4) with a radius of 3km, 6Km, 9Km respectively
7. Each zone is divided into multiple blocks as designated by R.
8. Zone C1 – It is city centre with 0.5 km radius. It will have landmark architecture, big malls, cinema halls, railway terminus station, central bus terminus, entertainment parks, museum
9. Entire city will be encircled by
1. 300 meter wide, 20ft deep lake (Red circle),
2. 1 km wide forest (Cyan circle),
3. 0.5km wide 30 ft high hillock (Green circle)
10. Circular road and slightly elevated railway track along the lake for the tourists
11. Cruise ride on the lake
12. Forest will have open zoos, deer park, Crocodile Park, all sorts of animal including tiger, lion, bison, rhinoceros etc. It will be like mini wildlife sanctuary. Tourists can have elephant, jeep ride
13. All hotels, warehouses will be on the other side of the forest
14. There will not be any polluting industry within smart city
15. All polluting industries should be 10km away from the smart city
16. Four corners of the city must have some unique structure like palace or fort or tower or rose garden or sculpture park like Frogner park in Oslo for tourist
17. Smart city should not have any fly over or metro
18. Smart city will not have any religious structures

Transport

1. City will have 3 circular 4+4 lane elevated highway plus 2 emergency lanes (in black) and 8 diagonal 4+4 lane elevated highway plus 2 emergency lanes (in blue). Diagonal highways will pass under circular highways with adequate number of exits and merges
2. Trees must be planted on both sides of highways and on divider.
3. There must be water bodies along both sides and divider of the highway
4. Each block must have grid like road system
1. with 2+2 lanes for motor
2. 1+1 lane for cycle
3. trees between cycle and motor lane 
4. 2 emergency lanes with trees
5. 15-25ft wide footpath with trees
6. 10-15ft wide divider with trees and water body
5. Residence to office journey time by car must not be more than 25 minutes
6. Roads must be designed keeping in mind that every family will have 2 sedan cars. There must be provisions for Limousines also
7. Distance between two junctions should be around 300 meter
8. Emergency vehicles will have the ability to convert any red signal to green or prolong the green signal till the vehicle passes through
9. Traffic in smart city must be disciplined. We must set a target of zero fatal accident
10. There must not be any auto rickshaw, van, hand pulled rickshaw on the road
11. Lights on the road must be bottom up instead of top down. It is sufficient to light up 8 ft from the surface rather than 25 ft from top. It will reduce global warming. All lights must be LED.

      Safety

1. There must be CCTV cameras all sides of every house, all open spaces within condominium
2. Every road should be remotely monitored using CCTV cameras
3. Smart city must use Drone technology for policing
4. Number of police per 100,000 population should be 300
5. 1 fire station with 10 fire fighting engine to cover an area of radius 5km
6. Police stations must look compact and iconic. It must be fully computerized
7. Smart city must have emergency service like 911 in US
8. Since the smart city is protected by lake, there will be fixed number of entry and exit points at the smart city. Number plate of all vehicles entering and leaving smart city must be captured automatically

Housing

1. Each block will have as much residential office as possible so that people don’t have to travel by bus or car. It will keep the pollution level down during week days as there will be lesser number of vehicles on the road. Another advantage is that commute time will be reduced to almost zero and productivity will increase
2. No  office or residential building should be taller than 5 storied.
3. Houses will be part of condominium/office complex with playground, swimming pool, club house and grocery shops
4. There will be 1,000 sq ft open space in front of every house for kids to play
5. Carpet area of each house should be at least 1,500 sq ft for 6 member family. Each house must have a garage and an area for gardening
6. 20% of the house will be reserved for retired people living alone
7. Each house must have a solar panel  at the roof for heating water, cooking
8. Each house must have a green roof along with rain garden
9. Each house must have a provision for rain water harvesting
10. House must be designed in such a way that it does not require AC during summer.
11. All commercial building must be green building with LEED Platinum Certification

Market

1. Each block will have 1-3 market complexes (not mall) depending on the size of the block so that people don’t have to walk more than 500m. Market complex will consist of convenient stores, restaurants, meat and vegetable corner, Gym etc
2. Each zone will have 2 or more malls with multiplex, within 3km of each household
3. Supply of meat in the smart city will be done by big companies. There must not be any roadside local slaughter house
4. There must not be any vegetable seller on the footpath

Education

1. Each condominium/office complex must have 1-2 play school and 1 primary school
2. There should be 3-5 higher secondary schools in each block depending on the size of the block with teacher student ratio of 1:20
3. Students will go to school using school bus only
4. Each zone will have one or more graduation, engineering, paramedical, veterinary and medical colleges depending on size of the zone
5. Each zone must have 1 school for physically and mentally challenged people
6. For every 1 lakh population there must be 100 medical seats, 300 engineering seats and 500 graduation seats
7. Each block must have 1 public library
8. There will be 2 universities on the periphery of last zone (C4)
9. All schools, colleges and universities must be of same standard
10. Each smart city must have an innovation centre with a fund between Rs 10- 50cr per year
11. There must be a school within 2km of a household
12. Political student union must be banned in schools, colleges and universities. Class representatives should be selected through computer based lottery
13. Each house must get 100MBPS last mile internet connection through fibre optic
14. There must be high speed Wi-Fi in all public places, educational institute, public libraries

Judiciary

1. In smart cities judicial process must be fast and swift so that all cases can be solved between 1 day and 365 days
2. Mandatory use of lie detector on both accused and victim can greatly reduce investigation and prosecution time
3. There should be 1 Lok Adalat for every 5 blocks
4. For every 100,000 population there must be 10 judges with maximum number of cases handled per year not more than 100

Sports

1. Each block will have indoor, outdoor playground for cricket, football, hockey, tennis, badminton, swimming, athletics and other sports
2. There should be a sports complex with 50,000 capacity multipurpose stadium on the periphery of Green circle 

Sewerage System

1. Sewerage system of the smart city must be state of the art. Each condominium/office complex, mall must have its own sewerage and solid waste management system so that a drop of waste water doesn’t go out of local area
2. Only fully treated waste water should go into water bodies
3. All drains must be underground
4. Each household must be encouraged to segregate recyclable and non-recyclable waste
5. Local administration should buy recyclable waste from citizen
6. Public place must have two bins – one for recyclable waste and other for non recyclable waste
7. Each block must have adequate number of compactors to collect garbage from houses
8. Solid waste must be segregated between bio degradable and non degradable waste
9. Solid waste must be recycled as much as possible
10. Rain water drainage network must run along with road network so that rain water drains into encircling lake within few minutes
11. Use of plastic bag should be banned completely. All plastic bottle should be charged e.g. Rs 10 which is refundable on return
12. There must an auto clean coin operated toilet every 1Km like in London
13. School, College, Malls, govt offices, all public places must have modern ladies and gents toilets
14. Toilets must be cleaned every hour
15. Toilets must have tissues paper, soap dispenser, hand drier, auto flush system like Delhi airport
16. Toilets must be reasonably spacious

Water

1. Smart city must not use Underground water in principle. People must be encouraged to conserve water. So water must be taxed on difference of consumed water and released water to sewerage system
2. Drinking water must be piped
3. Water supply should be 24X7
4. At least 150 litre of water per person per day should be supplied

Power

1. Smart city must have 24X7 power supply to industry as well as to residential area. So, it must have its own power plants. Transmission efficiency must be one of the best in the world. Power plant should be 100km away from smart city
2. Street lights must be solar powered
3. We must try to generate as much wind power as possible
4. Citizens must be encouraged to use energy efficient lights. All rooms of the house should be fitted with a motion sensor so that light gets automatically switched off if there is no movement for 5 minutes. Stairs should also be fitted with motion sensor so that light gets switched on automatically whenever someone climbs the stair
5. Smart city must implement smart grid for effective transmission and distribution of electricity

Beautification

1. Smart city will remain calm and quiet  like Ghum in Darjeeling except for festive days
2. Smart city must be declared as political ad free city in public place
3. Anybody littering the city must be fined Rs 1,000 per incidence
4. There should not be any overhead telephone line, cable TV or electricity line. All cables must be underground
5. There must not be any street dog or cows or other animals
6. Highway divider and both sides of the highway must be filled with flower garden, fountains and trees which has long branches
7. There must be 5 ft wide space between footpath and building for planting big trees
8. All public service must be fully computerised
9. Each block must have adequate number of water bodies and parks with full of trees
10. In smart city there must not be any poor, beggar or unemployed person
11. Smart city must be completely pollution free
12. All public service must maintain help desk so that people can resolve issues over phone

Health Service

1. Each zone must have enough hospitals so that number of hospital bed per 1,000 population is 5
2. Each zone must have adequate number of veterinary hospitals and clinics
3. Each zone must have adequate number of diagnostic centers
4. Each block must have adequate number of clinics so that average queue time for a patient is not more than 30 minutes
5. Doctors should be available within 1km from residence from 8am to 11pm. A pharmacy must be attached to each doctor’s clinic
6. Each block must have adequate number of well equipped ambulances. Ambulance must have access to real time data of nearest available bed
7. Each hospital and clinics must offer telemedicine service
8. Each hospital must provide tertiary care

Art & Culture

1. Each zone must have art hub consisting of theatre complex, concert hall, auditorium, artist studio, school of fine arts (dance, music, drama, painting and instrument)
2. Art Hub should also contain big multipurpose stage like Royal Albert Hall of London
3. Artists from all over India and abroad must be invited to perform in smart cities
4. Each block will have a community center and multipurpose ground for cultural programme and observing religious festivals
5. Religious procession on the street or political rally must be banned in smart city

Financial Sustainability

1. Smart city will have 1-3 anchoring manufacturing unit that will employ 5,000 to 25,000 people
2. Manufacturing units should be 10km away from the smart city
3. Smart city should be self sufficient on agriculture, textile and fruit processing
4. Minimum salary in smart city should be Rs 25,000
5. If 35% of the population is engaged in industry like agriculture and manufacturing, it will generate enough opportunity in other areas to employ remaining 65%
6. Education from play school to university must be almost free. Every earning member must spend 5% of their salary or Rs 5,000 per month whichever is lower for education. Employer should also contribute similarly
7. Agricultural land lost in creating smart city can be compensated to some extent by pomology as source of income
8. There is a huge opportunity of generating ad revenue in smart city. Prominent ad places are bus stops, buses, parks, reception area of govt offices, classes of schools and colleges. If Kellogg or Colgate sponsors a class, it will generate brand loyalty of those  products among students

Polygraph Test

Email sent to Chief Justice of India on 11-Aug-2014 as a followup email of 3-Jun-2014

Dear Chief Justice of India,

Pending cases against politicians specially law makers should be expeditiously concluded so that people of India can get rid of corrupt politicians sooner than later. 

India deserves to be number one country in the world. 

We cannot be number one unless we eliminate corruption from our society. 

We cannot eliminate corruption until we bar dishonest people from entering politics. 

We cannot remove dishonest politicians if we cannot build a case against them. 

We cannot build a case against corrupt politicians if we don't have proper evidence

We cannot have proper evidence unless police investigates

Police cannot investigate unless they get witness and forensic evidence

Police cannot get  witness and forensic evidence unless they are free from political interference

Police cannot be free from political interference so long corrupt politicians continue to be law maker

So, it is a vicious circle. The only way we can come out of this circle is by using lie-detector in every case. As part of proof of concept we can apply lie-detector or brain mapping on cases which are more than 5 years old. For sake of 1 billion Indians please device something so that investigation and trial can be completed in a year. 

---

Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2014 14:52:43 +0530

Dear Chief Justice of India,

There are 32 million cases pending in different courts of India. Investigation and prosecution take ages to complete. Corruption of investigative agencies, political interference, hostile witness and dishonest lawyers make the situation worse. Thousands of crimes are not even registered for various reasons. Court monitored cases like CWG, 2G are taking years to come to logical conclusion.

In last 3 decades many social activists, professionals, intellectuals are trying hard to bring an end to corruption which spread at all levels of our life. But unfortunately they have limited success.  Last couple of years we have seen Anna Hazare and others are trying to pass an anti corruption bill in the parliament. I believe such bill is not going to eliminate corruption overnight. But we want to see end of corruption as soon as possible so that billions of rupees that are invested in various schemes are properly utilized to the benefit of common man.

The only way we can speed up conviction rate is by use of technology. One of them is polygraph test which is highly reliable. However there are two major concerns against polygraph test

1. False positive - The response of a truthful person is determined to be deceptive

2. False negative - The response of a deceptive person is determined to be truthful.

I am not overly concerned about false negative for two reasons. 1. Number of such cases will be low. 2. Such deceptive persons can be prosecuted again by conventional method of cross examination and witness. 

False positive situations can be eliminated beyond reasonable doubt if 

1. We carefully set the questions. 30% of the questions should be relevant to the issue or crime being investigated. The other questions should be  controlling questions which should be so generic and obvious that respondent cannot tell a lie
2. Question set must be approved by the court and must be given to the subject 7 days before the test. He must be given the opportunity to try out the questions by himself before sitting for the actual test. This will remove the nervousness factor of the subject.
3. The test should be conducted twice with a gap of 3 days and if the results are same on both occasions, it should be accepted by court without any further deliberation by respective lawyers and cross examination.
4. Test should be conducted in presence of a magistrate and should be video recorded

To begin with, polygraph test can be started in the following situations where both victim and accused have no criminal past. So, the chance of false positive is virtually zero and percentage of false negative would be from low to insignificant.

1. All IPC 498 related cases 
2. Domestic violence
3. Political violence
4. Charges against govt employees
5. Sexual harassment
6. Harassment by police, government employees, politicians
7. Small time bribe taker like traffic police, lower division clerks 
8. Family dispute

To sum up when technology is available we must close certain categories of cases within 7 days.

Clean Ganga

Email sent to PM on 5-Sep-2014

Dear PM,

Thank you for appointing group of IITians to look into Clean Ganga project. I have some raw ideas which I would like to share with you over email since Clean Ganga group is closed in MyGov.nic.in .

1. Fence both banks of Ganga so that garbage cannot be dumped into the river by people. We should fence those areas where population is more than 50,000.
2. Rain and flood water carry lots of garbage to Ganga. Fencing will prevent large part of that garbage coming to the river.
3. Put boulders on the banks of Ganga to prevent soil erosion.
4. Demolish all structures after proper compensation (unless it has historical or architectural value) within 1,000 ft of banks of Ganga and plant millions of trees in this 1,000 ft strip.
5. At every 50 km put a net/permeable membrane across Ganga to collect floating garbage and silt.
6. Remove silt manually or with machine during winter season when water level is low. Silt can be used for landscaping of the town, for enhancing fertility of the land and other purposes. Please see how river bed of Yellow river is lowered by removing silt http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2357967/Open-floodgates-Millions-tonnes-silt-forced-downstream-giant-dam-China.html 
7. We must aim to lower the bed of Ganga by 2 meters in 3 years and 6 meters in 8 years.
8. Ban immersion of idols in Ganga.
9. Move all burning ghats away from Ganga so that ashes cannot be thrown into the river.
10. At every ghat across the length of Ganga, cover one area of the river to perform rituals and 'Puja' so that flowers and other materials do not spill over into main river. Covered area must be cleaned every day. In Varanasi, Haridwar and other places people float lamps with flower which should be collected within half kilometer.
11. No picnic at the banks of Ganga.
12. At every 500 km specially after polluting cities like Varanasi, install basic water treatment plant over Ganga to remove suspended particulate and colloidal substances. 
13. Replace all boats by Ferry similar to Sydney Harbour at major Ghats across Ganga.
14. Clean each ghat and convert them into multi storied pavilion with shops and car parks where people can enjoy wonderful view of Ganga, see evening Arati, take bath and perform rituals.
15. Create theme park with ferry ride like Millennium park of Kolkata at 47 towns across Ganga.
16. Make ghats free from religious touts. Maintenance of ghats should be given to private company.
17. Millions of litres of sewage are dumped into Ganga every day. Expert panel can find a solution how to treat them before dumping into river. My solution would be to dig a canal circling the city and pour the sewage on the canal and reuse it for the water need of the city. We don't need to dig underground water. In Varanasi alone 2000 million litres of sewage are produced every day. 
18. Seek help from Japan, Germany how to manage solid waste. Reusable material should be separated from solid waste before it is crushed to 1/20th of its original volume. 
19. Buy out non biodegradable materials like plastics, metal cans etc from household so that people don't throw it into garbage bin. This will help to manage solid waste better.
20. I believe laws are in place for managing industrial waste.

Primary/Secondary/Higher Secondary Education

Email sent to HRD Minister Smriti Irani on 02-Jun-2014

Dear HRD Minister,

Congratulation for being the youngest cabinet minister in the parliament. I believe you already got hundreds of suggestions, advice on what you should do in next 1 year (10 suggestions from Sagarika on twitter). This mail is no exception. We know that education is a state subject, but centre's role should not be limited to formulating strategy like RTE and do nothing.  Let me share my ideas what HRD ministry at the centre can do to compliment state investment on education.

Primary/Secondary/Higher Secondary  Education

Build at least 5 iconic schools (from primary to H.S.) in each block in next 3 years totalling 25,000 schools. These schools will have all the modern facilities like spacious class room with big LED TV and projector, good library, educational software, 1 computer for every 10 students, state of the art practical room, big kitchen with dining hall to accommodate 1,000 students, playground, swimming pool, auditorium, facility for indoor games like badminton, table tennis, branded school bus.

Number of students in each class should be limited to 100 divided into 2 sections. Number of teachers should be at least 40. Lunch will be cooked and served in the school itself.

I guess each school will cost onetime Rs 4 crore to build and running cost of school maintenance, teachers' salary and mid day meal. Big question is who would finance it? Short answer is We. let's work out some out of box ideas

a. Corporate finance: For every 25 employees, company has to buy an education bond which is equal to the average annual salary of the company or Rs 1 lakh whichever is lower. The bond will mature after 20 years with certain percentage of interest. Company has to purchase this bond each year for next 5 years.

b. Individual finance: Each individual earning more than Rs 20,000 per month must buy similar education bond which is 3% of his annual salary. The bond will mature after 20 years with certain percentage of interest. Individual has to purchase this bond each year for next 5 years.

c. Each student owes to the school Rs 2,000 per month as tuition fee which needs to be paid off within 3 years of getting a job. 

d. Part of education bond money will be paid off on maturity from recovered loan to the company and individuals

e. Allow advertisement within the school premise to raise money

f. Companies whose average salary is more than Rs 50,000 must sponsor a teacher for every 25 employees

Identify 10% of the school where special emphasis will be given on all kinds of sports specially Olympic events. So, additional investment is required to build indoor sports complex. We should hire a consultant from Russia or Germany to advise the ministry how to build world class sports infrastructure in the school.

We should encourage students to study astronomy. Powerful telescope should be installed at minimum 1,000 school premises.

Every school should be attached to an industry and experts would hunt for talents who will receive scholarship for higher study and special mentoring session. Number of scholarship may be limited to 1 or 2 per school.

I think centre needs to invest Rs 100,000 cr to build these 25,000 schools in next 3 years.

Right to Education Bill

Email sent to HRD Minister on 09-Jun-2014

Dear HRD Minister,

I have following comments about Right to Education Bill

1. Compulsory education of all children between ages 6 to 14 years 

We have to ensure that parents send their children to school on a regular basis. I think government should pay Rs 20 or 200 gram of food grain per student for each day of attending school. It might cost Rs 20,000 crore annually, but it will be a great incentive for parents to send their children to school. It will also eliminate management overhead of running Mid-day meal program like cooking cost, transportation of food grain, salary of cook, construction of kitchen and store.

2. Out-of-school children to be admitted to a class appropriate to their age, with special training to help them 

There are millions of students who require special training. We do not have that many teachers. Why can't we use our under graduate students for such special training for 2 weeks in a year. Each under graduate students will spend 2 weeks in some village every year to train a group of 20 school drop outs. Each drop out student must get at least 10 such 2-week special training in a year.

3. Children will not be held back, expelled, or required to pass through a board examination until Class 8

I think same syllabus is not suitable for all students. We should have two standards in CBSE/ICSE/state boards, one for brilliant students and other for average students. Up to class VI all students should follow one syllabus. Bifurcation should start from Class VII.

I think whole examination system should be revamped. 

1. We should introduce computer based exam system. For open ended questions student can either type or write on a digital pad. It will be a paperless exam system. Since answer sheet is digitized, examination and moderation of answer can be done online.
2. Question paper should be randomly generated for each student.
3. 20% of the questions should come from the chapters of her/his choice. Each subject should have predefined set of chapters.
4. 30% of the questions should come from question bank
5. Student can take exam any day any time from 9 am to 5 pm on any subject within a period of 30 days. 
6. Student can appear for any exam more than once during that 30 days window.
7. Questions should be comprised of multi-choice and open ended
8. We have to build permanent exam centres all over India and install 100,000 computers with LCD monitor
9. Exam duration can also be extended by 50% of standard duration so that no student submit incomplete answer sheet due to lack of time

 4. Within three years of the commencement of the Act, the state government is expected to establish a school in every neighborhood 

a. How do you ensure that all neighborhood schools maintain a minimum standard?

b. Definition of neighborhood school is not yet defined. India has 600,000 villages. Eighty percent of them have fewer than 1,000 inhabitants. Do you intend to establish one school in each village?

c. What will happen if state government does not establish a school in three years?

d. What will happen to those schools which have poor infrastructure?

I think there should be a strict guideline on size of classroom, number of students in each section, student teacher ratio, quality of table, chair, blackboard, computer facility, internet bandwidth, LCD TV in each class room, use of educational software, library, size of playground, facility for indoor game like badminton, table tennis, basketball, school bus facility. 

Guideline should be given on design of school building with respect to number of levels, number of classrooms, toilets, auditorium and indoor game area, swimming pool, overall ambiance etc. We should try to create a brand image.

5. Teacher standards, including minimum qualifications, to be enforced 

This is the greatest challenge. There is a shortage of quality teachers. Every graduate, post graduate and engineers with good academic result must spend at least 1 year as a teacher in these schools before taking up other profession. HRD Ministry should produce educational video for each subject based on curriculum for each class. Such video may be played in the class.

Lecture of eminent teachers may be video streamed live through internet.

Doordarshan should broadcast 1 hour program for each class on each chapter of the subject for that class.

6. Maintain records of all children up to 14 years of age

This is not an easy task. Biometric id and CCTV in each class will help to monitor proper attendance of both students and teachers. CCTV will also help to evaluate quality of teaching remotely.

7. All schools have to form a School Management Committee (SMC), comprising of parents, guardians, and elected representatives, with 50 per cent seats in it reserved for women

The SMC will monitor the working of the school, prepare a development plan, and monitor fund utilization. 

In every locality there should be a panel of educationist. Panel should be created by an independent body. There must be a minimum qualification and experience required for the individual to be part of the panel. SMC should be formed from the members of that panel in rotation. Tenure of the SMC should be 2 years. Elected representation is not required. Active members of political parties, MP, MLA and other elected members should not be part of SMC. Why do you want to reserve 50% seats for women? Can you really meet the number?

  

8. School to maintain minimum standards on number of teachers, school building, number of working days, per week working hours, library, and sports & games equipment 

There should be a central agency like national highway authority that should develop and look after infrastructure of all government aided schools. 

9. No child shall be subjected to physical punishment or mental harassment by teachers/officials

CCTV should be made compulsory in each class room.

Health Infrastructure

Email sent to Mamata Banerjee on 02-Mar-2012

Dear CM,

Health infrastructure has long been ignored by both state and central government. I have few suggestions to improve health infrastructure of Bengal. I have categorized my suggestions into short and long term strategy. These suggestions are equally applicable for other states.

Short Term Strategy

1. Outsource cleanliness of all government hospitals to a reputed private company. It is a common practice in private hospitals also.

2. Outsource management of pharmacy in all government hospitals, block primary health center and primary health center to a reputed private company to avoid distribution of fake, expired medicines.

3. Outsource maintenance of equipment of all government hospitals to a reputed private company.

4. Deploy Mobile Medical Van with small OT, pathological lab, X-ray, USG machine in each of 341 blocks of the state. It  can treat at least three hundred people plus immunization and awareness to more than one thousand people, per day.

5. Setup 24X7 Call center for Medical advise. Recruit 200 para medics to run the call center.

6. Connect 9 medical college hospitals, 16 district hospitals, 45 sub divisional hospitals, 34 state general hospitals, 269 rural hospitals and 99 block primary health center with video facility.  

7. Provide an ambulance to all government hospitals and block primary health centers.

8. Every year 3.5 lacs new babies are born in WB. When a woman becomes pregnant, give a food coupon of Rs 1,000 every month till delivery, to buy food and mineral water to families with monthly income less than Rs 15,000. This will greatly reduce mortality rate and ease the pressure on BC Roy like Hospitals.

9. All kids from poorer section of the society must be given Pediasure kind of food supplement till the age of 5 free of cost.

10. Purchase few basic equipments like portable ultrasonography, portable x-ray and portable pathological equipment in each sub divisional hospitals, state general hospitals, rural hospitals and block primary health center. 

11. Every doctor who is doing private practice must see at least 10 patients either in person or through video link everyday for a fee not exceeding Rs 50 per patient. Every primary health center must have a complete list of doctors in the state and must be able to seek an appointment with any doctor on behalf of the patient.

12. 10% of hospital beds must be reserved for economically weaker section of the society and the total cost of treatment per patient not exceeding Rs 50,000 has to be borne by the hospital.

13. Every surgeon must offer 20 hours of operation time to poor (specially footpath dwellers) free of cost every month.

14. Tag all hospitals (medical college, district/sub divisional/state general/rural hospitals) with private hospitals/nursing home for better management.

15. Let state government define a citizen charter which must be followed by each government and private hospital. An independent private body must monitor the quality of service provided by hospitals. 

16. Doctors and hospitals must be evaluated by patient through online/manual feedback form.

17. Department wise complete information of all doctors like specialization, address of chambers, number of patients treated/operated per day, success rate etc should be available online for patients to choose from.

18. Set the upper limit of charges of all hospital services like doctor consultation, investigation, bed, operation theatre etc.

Long Term Strategy

1. Appoint an expert from Germany or France or UK to guide the ministry to improve health infrastructure of the state.

2. Medical Tourism - national and international. Build four Vellore like super specialty hospitals to attract patients from all over India, sub continent and other parts of the world.

3. Manufacturing hub for medical equipment through PPP channel.

4. One stop hospital for sports injuries in line with Kuala Lumpur Sports Medicine Centre (http://www.klsmc.com/)

5. Improve doctor patient ratio for the state. National figure is 1:1700. Cuba has the best ratio in the world - 1:170, US - 1:390. If health infrastructure improves, more and more NRI 

doctors will return to WB.

6. Currently WB produces 2,000 doctors every year. It should be increased to 10,000 in next 5 years.

7. Build 500 bed modern hospital like Columbia Asia in each district and 50 bed sate of the art smaller hospitals in each block through PPP channel. All newly built hospitals must follow general international hospital standard. If 80% of the population is covered under insurance, there is no reason why private companies will not build hospitals in rural areas.

8. Upgrade existing government/private hospitals and nursing homes to international standard if found below standard. 

Finance
1. Improve VAT collection process. Government loses great amount of VAT due to non payment. Make debit/credit card mandatory for all transactions over Rs 2,000 in cities and towns.

2. 10% cess on hospitalization expense above Rs 100,000 and 7% cess on OPD Doctor fee above Rs 300

3. Every person with monthly income of Rs 50,000 must bear the premium of medical insurance not exceeding Rs 7,000 per year for the family of his housemaid/driver/security guard. All business unit big or small must compulsorily provide medical insurance for the family of its employee. All taxi/auto drivers and Rickshaw pullers must buy their family insurance and Govt should impose Rs 2 insurance tax per trip on customer so that drivers can earn extra Rs 30 per day for 250 days a year to pay for the premium. Similarly for landless farmers, carpenters, porters and others, increase daily wage by Rs 30 per day so that they can pay their premium. For unemployed/partially employed persons who cannot bear the insurance amount, government must pay the premium for them till they get fully employed.

4. Introduce insurance for medicine consumed for normal illness which does not require hospitalization with 25% deductible. Medicines which are sold under controlled doctor's prescription will be covered under this insurance.

5. Corporate must support our kids whose parents are below poverty line up to age 5. Each corporate must take charge of kids twice the number of their employee strength. For example TCS has 100,000 employees. They should sponsor 200,000 kids. Corporate must provide food, clothes, toys and food supplement like Pediasure to the kids. Corporate should enjoy complete tax exemption on the investment.

6. To attract investment in health care, provide non agricultural land, electricity and water free for 10 years. Waive custom duty for equipment purchased for hospital use.

7. Government of India along with state governments must deploy medical vans with OT, X-ray, USG and pathological lab facility @ Rs 30 lacs per van to all blocks of India. Big corporate houses like Tata, ITC, Wipro and others should come forward to donate medical vans.

8. Advertisements could also be a good source of income for hospitals. Make all prominent spaces of the hospital like reception, nursing stations, doors, OPD etc available to advertisers.