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when will the 2nd issue gonna come because first one is totally amazing and instead of buying online i buy the hard copy…….so just wanted when it comes so i can grab another one……really great work guys………..

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The Miracle Man

He is a harbinger of change and has brought joy to the people of Tousem, a Manipur subdivision considered one of India’s most backward, by giving them what they needed most — a motorable road that connects them to the outside world.

Wouldn’t you want to know about him!

Armstrong Pame is a 2009 batch IAS officer.

Armstrong Pame belongs to Tamenglong district of Manipur.

He is the first IAS officer from Zeme Tribe of the Naga Peoples.

He graduated from St.Stephens College, DU.

The People’s Road

He is acclaimed for building a 100 km road famously known as the “Peoples’ Road“.

The road connects Tousem with the rest of Manipur, as also with Assam and Nagaland.

Now let’s see the inspiring, exciting, sometimes depressing but fascinating story of People’s Road…

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Why take so much trouble?

Pame recounted the incident that led him to launch the 100-km road: “In 2012, I became SDM of Tousem. I travelled to many villages and saw how people were carrying sacks of rice on their backs, walking for hours, and patients being taken on makeshift bamboo stretchers due to the non-availability of motorable roads. When I asked villagers what they wanted me to do for them, their only wish was for a road.”

He was moved by the plight of people when he saw how they had to trudge for five hours by first crossing a river and then a stretch that can by no stretch of imagination be called a road to reach Tamenglong just 50 km away.

Hear it in the voice of ‘The Miracle Man’ himself!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvee9TA4LKk

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The fund raising… no government help…

In August 2012, he raised INR40 Lakh for this purpose through Facebook page.

Mr. Pame said he asked the government for funds to build the road but his proposal was turned down due to paucity of resources. But he was really moved by the plight of people; so he decided to raise the funds on his own in August 2012 through Facebook.

Charity must begin from home; so he put in Rs. 5 lakh and his brother, who teaches in the Delhi University, donated Rs.1 lakh. Even his mother paid his dad’s one month’s pension of Rs. 5,000.

He recalls, “One night I got a call from a person in the U.S. who wanted to donate $2,500 for the road. The next day a Sikh gentleman living in New York said he would give $3,000. And after the media reported about this effort, we never looked back”.

In a short span of time, Rs. 40 lakh was raised for the road.

The Recognition

For his efforts in building road with donation and volunteers he was invited to Facebook headquarters in California.

In 2012, he was nominated for CNN-IBN Indian of the Year in Public service category.

But was 40 lakhs enough?

Since Rs. 40 lakh was not a huge amount for building a road, he convinced local contractors to give earth movers and road-rollers for free.

Enthused by the way Mr. Pame was able to put together the resources, the residents of Tousem volunteered to build the road — thus saving labour costs.

The people’s support

In an interview he said: For me the most touching part was the day when I came to see the work, about 250 people including more than 100 women folk came with spades and tools to work in the road. I asked them “What are they doing?” They replied “It is our road we are doing it with you Sir.” I was speechless.

It’s a miracle…

He says, “Sometimes I still cannot believe that we have done it. It’s a miracle. I don’t know whether I can do it again.”

“I was called crazy, but I was determined.”

His message to the youth

In his own words- To everyone, I would like to just give words of encouragement to give your best in whatever you do. You should live life to the fullest. When life is lived beyond me, I, and myself; life is just not about surviving but should be a living one.  Let’s live life to the fullest.

Published with inputs from Swapnil | Image - Quora

Hi Can you provide me the link where all the papers of GS has been divided sub-topically?
Help would be appreciated..

Thanks & Regards,

Context: MGNREGA scheme just turned 10 years old.

Q. What are some of the salient features of this scheme which made it different from other government schemes?

1. It’s a ground up, not a top down scheme. Even the law was passed on demand of people.
2. This is a demand driven scheme not supply driven i.e. if people demand work, govt can not deny them work.
3. Self selecting, no apl/bpl funda. Rich would not be willing to do hard manual labour.
4. Inbuilt provision of social audit

Q. How successful the scheme has been?

1. It has made a fundamental difference in the lives of poeple, it could have made more with more govt support.
2. Generated employment in the countryside and prevented distress migration.
3. It has created assets in the villages, improving agriculture productivity.
4. Raised rural wages.

Fact is where it runs well, it has achieved great things, where it doesn’t run well, it has given people bargaining power, dignity, a sort of marketing mechanism.

Q. What are the concerns articulated by critics?

1. Money is being allotted for earth work (temporary work), not for creation of permanent assets. Dig the pits, fill the pits.
2. Work design is very poor. For instance, wells are dug on impermeable surface. Project completion rate is poor.
3. Huge corruption in implementation, fake job cards etc.

We need to link this scheme to skill development and focus on creation of permanent assets which increase productivity.

Q. What are the concerns raised by the proponents regarding implementation of scheme?

1. A demand driven scheme can not run without money. Govt is killing the scheme by benign neglect.
2. Lag in issuance of work is dissuading people from seeking work. Demand is being artificially suppressed.
3. Linking of adhar to bank accounts will be a disaster. Biometric do not work in Indian conditions for manual labourers.
4. Person-day employment has come down.

Q. What’s the way forward?

1. Let us identify the problems that exist, let us overcome them.
2. There should be more participation. People should own the project. Empower the people.
3. Use social audit mechanism to weed out corruption.
4. There should be more frequent evaluation along with social impact assessment of the projects undertaken.
5. Prepare a proper plan according to which the work would be done. Work has to be prioritized.

 

Why the news card from editorials from hindu and indian express have stopped coming??
They were really good and their links were a good way to get the article directly.
please restart it.

Hello hello,

Since the beginning of time or so, everyone wanted a sitemap to civilsdaily, right? We finally let go our procrastination spiral and did a video to make you comfortable with the web offerings.

Please bear with minor digressions. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGu0Glgpcsw&feature=youtu.be

If you have any further queries, do drop in.

So I read somewhere that increase in FDI increased the FOREX reserves and also that a strengthening rupee increases the reserves. Can anyone explain me the basic ideology or principle behind this

Context: Government just released the list of 1st batch of 20 cities selected for the smart city project.

Q. What is a smart city?

1. Smart city is one that “enables a decent life to the citizens, and green and sustainable environment, besides enabling adoption of smart solutions”.

2. Smart cities would create virtually new business districts in several cities, marking a departure from the disaggregated urban development witnessed in the past.

Q. How was selection of these 20 cities done?

1. Selection was based on city challenge competition.

2. Selection process has been very transparent and competitive.

3.  It was a very rigorous process with detailed criteria and marking on 41 questions on template.

Q. Now that cities have been chosen, what are the issues on which further clarity is needed?

Smart cities will be developed by by a special purpose vehicle (SPV). Clarity is needed on –

1. How will SPVs function?

2. How much of freedom of action will they get?

3. Where will they get funds from?

4. Interaction b/w civil services and elected municipal representatives?

5. Role of SPV and role of elected representatives need some clarity.

Q. What’s the concern with regard to role of SPV?

1. We seem to be handing over entire governance responsibility to SPV against the whole democratic framework.

2. Smart cities have to be led by mayors not bureaucrats and consultants. There is a democratic deficit.

3. There’s a provision that an officer from the central govt. will be appointed as executive in SPV who can only be removed from the permission of centre. In such circumstances what would elected representatives do.

Q. Then why is such model chosen and how does govt intend to hold SPVs accountable?

1. Municipalities don’t have the type of capacity to implement such projects.

2. Project selection itself will be in the domain of elected bodies. They will make the policies while SPVs which have the capacity will execute it.

3. SPVs are created precisely for the purpose that generation of resources is possible, there is accountability, results are delivered rather than process lingering on.

4. Will have to build a working system, SPV will have to be accountable to municipalities.

5. SPVs will be held accountable for generating resources, executing projects, deliver smart solutions.

Q. Where will funding come from?

1. For every city 500cr by centre, equal amount by state and roughly 1500cr by outside sources.

2. It is here that functioning of SPVs would be imp. Do they freedom to go out and generate resources?

3. But there are concerns that only way funding is gonna come from is real estate and prime land will be given to builders.

Q. There’s is also concern that already better off cities are selected which would result in even more regional disparity?

Yes. It’s true.

1. There’s too much focus on limited no. of cities, earlier programmes were open to all.

2. Northern belt and eastern belt is virtually empty.

3. Selection criteria itself favour better off cities.

State is supposed to help cities which are not up to the mark, have the potential are gonna grow but whole philosophy is reversed here.

Moreover they are planning to develop only a part of city in effect creating gated colonies. There will be only 1 pan city programme.

Counter argument is that whole city could not be turned smart overnight and one had to start from somewhere.

Q. What about consultation? Were citizens consulted in choosing area to be developed or amenities they would want in smart city?

Yes, consultation with citizens was imp. Citizens were involved in every process.

Counterargument- Consultation was a sham. Citizen were asked to give their opinions on FB, twitter and via email. In a country like India, this is no consultation.

 

In the previous chapter (written light years ago), we read about how the imperialist “Marquess of Wellesley” extended the british dominion in India but putting an end to Mysore and doing more nasty things like extending the subsidiary alliance to most of the indian kingdoms (like a boss).

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Now the plan was to continue presenting the indian struggle for independence from the side of firangis, but some of you wanted to know more about the anglo mysore wars and so, here is an attempt to make things easy for you.

Admittedly, these 4 wars, fought from 1767 to 1799 (32 years!) span a really long time in history. The timelines criss-cross with 3 empires which were humbled in course of time by the firangis (Marathas, Mysore & Nizam of Hyd).

Here’s a really quick timeline of what all happened – 

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4 wars – 4 legions – 3 treaties and the great mysore rocket

I hope you know about the mysore rockets right? No? Let’s tackle this bit of trivia first. The Mysorean rockets used by Hyder Ali during the Battle of Pollilur (2nd anglo-mysore war) were much more advanced than any the British East India Company had previously seen!

So, after they slay Tipu in the fourth and final battle, they (the firangis) took their indigenous rocket development to the next level to use in the Napoleonic wars. 

#1. First Anglo-Mysore War

1. Hyder Ali had just made peace with Marathas so that they don’t team up against him when he goes on to attack the Brits at Madras
2. Brits had support from Nizam but that guy just balked out in the last moment! He gets bullied again by the brits (at a later date)
3. So, Brits were from two places – Bombay Brits & Madras Brits. But somehow the daring Hyder that he was, he kept on with the fight that led the Brits to conclude a peace treaty with him

As per the Treaty of Madras:

1. Both the Parties returned the areas won by each other
2. The District of Arcot was given to Nawab of Arcot
3. British & Hyder Ali promised that they would support each other if there is any foreign invasion

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#2. Second Anglo-Mysore War

Now, what happens when you (allegedly) have a strong ally with you? More ambitions, more audacity, neh? That’s what Hyder thought after signing that treaty of madras. He started demanding tributes from the smaller states on the border of Maratha and Mysore. The Marathas responded this in 1770 with a force of over 30 thousand. This is the point when Hyder rings up the Brits to come for the rescue! Of course they did not. Hyder lost the battle – had to pay a huge tribute to the marathas and this episode left him high and dry.

Hyder did not like this one bit and he swears revenge from the Brits FOREVER.

The second anglo-mysore war begins now. It was one of the most bloodiest battle in the history of India (exaggeration helps). If you consider the 2nd anglo-mysore war as a T-20 world cup, then there many minor-major battles held in this 4 year period. Also, please note that Hyder Ali died during this prolonged battle period. So, Tipu Sultan rose to the occasion and marched ahead.

• The siege of Arcot – Hyder won
• The battle of Porto Novo – won by Sir Eyre Coote
• The battle at Pollilur – won by Hyder (remember the rockets!)

So, anyway – you win some – you lose continued and eventually the war ended with the last British-Indian treaty with an Indian ruler on equal footing, the 1784 Treaty of Mangalore. 

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#3. Third Anglo-Mysore War

Mangalore Treaty of 1784, which was signed on the end of the Second Anglo Maratha war had an article regarding transfer of the Prisoners. Now it is said that Tipu Sultan did not honour this part of the deal – strike 1. 

It so happened that Tipu developed a beef with the local raja of Travancore about a disputed land. Travancore was a British ally, so when Tipu moved against him, Brits got a chance to home in on Tipu.

Where were the Marathas and the Nizams or the world? All credit goes to the diplomacy of Lord Cornwallis who kept Tipu aloof from the Marathas , Coorg and Nizams.

Result? Tipu lost. The peace was restored by the Treaty of Srirangapatnam which was signed in 1792.

This treaty was a big blow to Tipu Sultan. Half of his territories were snatched away and divided into Marathas, British and Nizam. Many would have thought it wise to retreat now but Tipu was seething with fear.

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#4. The Final Battle

Marquess of Wellesley was a shrewd imperialist. He had got a wiff of a possible french-mysore collaboration and he did not want to give Tipu another chance. This battle was just a formality now. Tipu’s troops were outnumbered 4:1 in this war. The Nizam of Hyderabad and the Marathas launched an invasion from the north. Phew!

He lost. He died fighting. The Wodeyar dynasty was restored its place in Mysore and rest of the territory was divided by the Brits, Marathas and Nizam.

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If you just joined us into reading the firangis, give the previous ones a quick read. Part 1 is here.