Singur Row & Fundamental right to property

The Singur row is interesting not just because of the strange set of bedfellows it is producing ( Tatas, Sitaram Yechury & Co on one side ranged against Medha Patkar, Rajnath Singh & the BJP, Arundathi Roy, Mamta Didi et al ) but because of where this whole ability of government to usurp property comes from.

It started with the First amendment to the Constitution in 1951 which inserted article 31A. This article allowed government to take over any estate/property by passing laws. The underlying idea for this was to introduce the Land Ceiling acts. Better still was the article 31B, which created the ninth schedule and stated that acts placed in that Schedule(i.e the Land Ceiling acts) would not be open for judicial review.

All would have been hunky dory, only the courts intervened on the ground of inadequacy of compensation. So various amendments were tried till in 44th Amendment, the right to property was altogether dropped. Instead you got Article 300A which stated that persons are not to be deprived of property save by authority of law. This article does not mention that such deprivation can only occur for public purpose or that compensation should be paid.


So what started as attempt to take away from the rich and give to poor has come a full circle. What is the way out of the mess ? Bring back fundamental right to property. Let people decide if they would rather sell their land or continue using it as they deem fit.

Schools in Hyderabad

Note : The data in this post is for academic year beginning June 2007. Dates, Fees, etc may have changed for the academic year beginning June 2008

Note 2 : A publicly editable spread sheet is now available. Click here to view/edit that spread sheet. Click here to view the original spreadsheet.

This is a compilation of information about some schools in Hyderabad and Secunderabad. Hope some one out there finds this useful as a starting point for the dreaded "searching for a good school for my child/children". This was the information I had gleaned while searching for what school to put my niece/nephew into in Hyderabad , when they return from the US next year. I have considered 15 schools which might fall into the wish list of a SEC A parent in the city .

Here are some "findings" :

* The sought after schools charge upwards of Rs 25000 p.a
* The upcoming schools are located in places like Kompally , Cyberabad, Kondapur etc - These are the places where the real estate market is booming as well.
* The application forms are issued for barely a week . And sometimes filled in forms are to be submitted within 2 working days.So it's best to check out the newspapers everyday for their adverts
* They do have entrance test for 1'st std in Maths and English . This is followed by an interview with parents and the child. HPS insists on a parent interview.
* Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and HPS do not admit students into pre primary. They take students only at 1'st std level.
* Among the surveyed schools , DPS and Oakridge International . seem to tout their teacher calibre the most .
* The new age concept schools like Gowtham Model , Narayana Concept etc , do not have a play ground even for nursery. However they do take students( primary upwards) to the Corporation Park twice a week for PT Classes.

Here is the complete spread sheet


Schools covered
Gitanjali
Hyderabad Public School
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Bhavan's Vidyashram
Vidyaranya
Chinmaya Vidyalaya
Gowtham Model School
Narayana Concept School
Delhi Public School
DRS International
Chirec Public School
St Anns High School
Slate-The School
Little Flower High School
Oakridge International School

Columns in the spread sheet
School Name
Location
Phone No
Type
Comments
Streams offered ( CBSE,ICSE, SSC)
Admission process
a.Application Form
Prospectus Cost
Registration Fees
b.Test
c.Interview
Entry Level
Age eligibility
Fees
a. Tuition Fees
b.One time Fees/deposit
Facilities offered
a.Play Area
b.Library
c.AC Classroom
d.Transport
e.Swimming Pool
Other information
Student Profile
Web References

Guess who holds the balance of power in US Senate elections

No .. No .. its not the court this time .. Its the Indian Americans.. Don't believe me ? read this

Well should we also claim credit for holding the balance of power in the world, for after all if we hadn't laid the claim for inventing zero, then zero would not have been invented and the world would not have had any power. No power so no question of balance of power. Did any of that make sense ? It didn't to me. So may be I should send it to Times Of India and try my luck in becoming a TOI columnist ....

The 6th of the same

Hyderabad now has six FM radio stations and they all appear to be chasing the same audience.
We now can boast of 6 of the same( OK one slightly different .. but five essentially the same )
and here is what appears to the target market for the stations

• AIR : Oldies ( or rather whoever has not migrated to other stations ? )
• AIR Rainbow : Youth
• Radio Mirchi : Youth
• Radio City : Youth
• Big FM : Youth
• SFM : Youth

hmm.. All of them have a mix of Telugu & Hindi songs. Shouldn't one of them just stick their neck out and go "only Hindi" ? or go "only Telugu" ? How many "me too" stations do we need ? In fact things come to such a pass, where unless the stations play their signature tunes or RJs recite ( yell ? ) their slogan, you don't know which station you are listening to.

Is there no market for Classical (Hindustani/Carnatic/Western) music ? How about a station that plays only English Music?

Extrapolating the Indian Listenership Track to Hyderabad, We should have about 25% of 5 Million = 1.25 Mn listeners. Surely there must be space for more niche stations.

Weird justification

From The Hindu

Islamabad, Nov. 3 (PTI): Former Test captain Intikhab Alam, who was a member of the Pakistan Cricket Board's Drug Tribunal, has justified the harsh two-year ban on fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, saying his fast lifestyle warranted such a punishment.

"If people read our statement they will understand. He drinks alcohol, has an active sex life and has been part of anti-doping awareness programmes," Alam said.

What ??? Why should Shoaib's lifestyle be a factor in the punishment ? If he were goody two shoes and had been in the same position should he have been let off ?

Every time you thought the the Pakistan Cricket establishment has made the weirdest statement ever, they go ahead and make one that would outclass the previous one in its weirdness

Only 1 in 3 Passengers in the AC Coach is a paid passenger

What is the paid occupancy of an A/C coach ?

Using the same data in the previous post,
We get average earnings per day as Rs 18,265 per coach = 54,795 for the three AC Coaches
Now Lets say there are 2 III AC coaches & 1 II AC coach. Total expected earnings ( again for 900 Km approx ) would be 2*64*800+46*1250 = 159900.

Paid Occupancy Ratio ( as a percentage ) = 54795 *100/159900 = 34.26 %

Wow .. At an average 2 in 3 AC seats are empty or unpaid ...

And from this article

Another unique initiative of his and his Officer on Special Duty, Mr Sudhir Kumar, is random and automatic upgrade of passengers without extra payment. For instance, during summer and festivals like Diwali the trains run full, but at other times AC I Class and AC II Tier coaches run only with 60-70 per cent occupancy

It looks like at an average in AC coaches 1 in 3 seats is paid, 1 in 3 is unpaid and 1 in 3 is empty.

Looking at this data the free upgrades that railways is offering makes immense sense.

One more trick that the railways can think of is to offer paid auto upgrades i.e. I want to travel by III AC but no confirmed tickets are available but confirmed tickets are available Sleeper class. Railways can offer an option to book a confirmed Sleeper class ticket while holding you on as a wait list for III AC. In case the wait listed III AC ticket does not get confirmed, You get a refund of the difference between Sleeper & III AC.

How many people can you fit in an unreserved coach ?

Wonder why the Mumbai folks make such a hue & cry about their locals being so crowded. Here is a nugget from the Railways which leads one to believe that the average unreserved compartment in the Mail/Express is twice as crowded!! .. Read further to find out how ...

From Hindu

Referring to the economics of train operations, he said a mail or express train with 16 coaches earns Rs 72 crore a year. Its eight sleeper, four unreserved and three AC classes earn Rs 19 crore, Rs 51 crore and Rs two crore respectively.

So here is the per coach breakup for each class per day
AC : 2/3 = 0.66 Crs/365 = Rs18,265
Sleeper :19/8 = 2.37 Crs/365 = Rs 65,068
Unreserved : 51/4 = 12.75 Crs/365 = Rs 3,49,915

And now assuming that the train travels for about 900 Km and the average unreserved passenger travels 100 Kms ( i.e pays a Rs 35 as fare ) we have 35*9=Rs 315 as the amount paid for the entire 900 Km.

So at any given time the average number of persons in the unreserved coach is 3,49,915 /315 = 1100 . Now that is double of Mumbai Local Peak which is about 500 .

Now you can play around with these numbers, decrease the average Km per passenger, increase the distance travelled by the train, double its frequency (i.e consider that the above figures are for a pair of up/down trains) , but you would still find that worst case it is still at least as crowded as the Mumbai Local at its peak....

Now did the railways get their statistics wrong ? Or are the Mumbai folks just a bunch of whiners ? ;)

Back to AIR

After a short tryst with private FM, I am back with All India Radio (AIR). Nothing beats AIR especially their evening 9 to 11 programs : Kahkashaan, Ek Fankaar, Chaaya Geeth & Aap ki Farmaaish. Private FM ( In Hyderabad you get Radio City, Radio Mirchi, Big FM ) seem to lack content, their RJs lack poise and have low Music to Noise ratio.

Scary ?

Selected Extracts from Business Standard . Full article

Air Deccan will now outsource cabin crew from training institutes and get paid for it in the bargain.

While this arrangement will give aspiring cabin crew of various institutes the chance to train on the job, the airline will not have to hire additional cabin crew. The institutes will pay Air Deccan for giving their trainees this opportunity.

They added that the airline was in talks with aircraft maintenance companies to work out a similar arrangement which would enable it to cut down the cost of regular maintenance.

The last part scares you the most. Now not only will be be flying with a bunch of not yet fully trained cabin crew, You will also be flying in aircraft whose maintenance is being done as a training exercise !!