It is very heartening to note that RBI has taken some steps and some special schemes for the benefit of the senior citizens. Issue of digital life certificates for the aged people and easy methods of transactions will benefit them a lot. RBI has made a special appeal to banks to make their services available to challenged and senior citizens at their door steps. I hope banking people would heed RBI’s suggestion as soon as possible.
The whole exercise of going to bank each time is not only cumbersome but also very risky now a days, if they carry cash. Even ATMs are not safe as many attacks on women and senior citizens are reported from time to time. Even submission of Life certificate every November is made easy by thumb impression through biometric machine. In this connection I would like pour out the woes of public sector retired employees. As is well known PSU retiree’s staff won’t have pension facilities.The pension on EPF is very meagre, that is to say, an employee retired in the position of a senior manager, is getting Rs 10806/. The lump sum amount on retirement after meeting of expenditure for children’s marriage, education, and clearing old debts, is deposited in TDRs and the interest thereon is only the source of livelihood. However to our misfortune every year the interest rates are dwindling and retired PSU employees, are unable to make both ends meet. It is a very serious matter . The RBI should look into this suo-motto, and enhance the interest rates for senior citizens of PSUs employees.

After three years, of the present government, the economy is back to where it was, in the last days of Manmohan Singh government and for the same reason it was rejected by the people of India in 2014. Our present PM rode to power on the twin planks -- growth in jobs and eradication of corruption. If you see the today's report there is no sign of 10 million jobs promised over five years, and now even the growth also crippled. The latest RBI figures, suggesting that 99 percent of the banned notes 1000 & 500 denominations have come back to banks, have raised the questions over the rationale and efficacy of demonetisation. Critics argue that the economic objectives of Demonetization have not been achieved. If the quantum of banned currency notes, returning to the banks is taken as measure, of black money in the system, the the figures reflected by RBI show it is a total failure. The Oxfam international's global inequality report, last year stated that the richest one percent in India owns 58% of country 's wealth. The disruptive move should have hit this one percent hard. But we have noticed, is that the other 99% went through torturous time lining up in serpentine queues before banks to take out their own money. Instead of taking up demonetization they should have gone for healthcare improvement and revamping of Education systems which is the need of the hour.
Through series of tweets former Finance Minister Chidambaram has criticised demonetization in strong words. His sarcastic comments have drawn the attention of the nation,.people have supported the government of its bold move with the hope that black money will be unearthed and economic offenders will be brought to book. But lack of followup measures and negligence in implementation of this move made even neutral analysts to suspect the motive and its catastrophic effects on every sector significantly outweigh any obscure benefits it may have in the long run. The objective of reducing the counterfeit currency seems unachieved and neither has the government tackled terror funding nor corruption. Ofcourse government takes credit for promoting cashless economy, but was that the main objective? If it was , then lives of more than 100 people and loss of thousands of jobs must be huge price to pay. Infact, this move was clever strategy before the Assembly Elections in five states, in which it succeeded.
Here I must say that Mr Krishna Sagar BJP spokesman wrote an article defending the action of the government, which I too read it fully .He was only struggling to justify the shock of demonetisation administered on the common man. While defending the action he showed three objectives::weeding out fake currency. Unearthing black money, and closing the funding channels to terrorist outfits. These motives were not achieved and what Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram said had come true. The fact is that the circulation of fake currency has not stopped, while fake currency of 2000 rupee notes still in circulation, .the second objective of unearthing of black money and bringing back the 80 lakh crores of black money stashed away abroad, and depositing 15 lakh rupees in every account, must be only a dream as poor people are eagerly waiting for that day. The third objective of destroying terror funding channels .If this is achieved, then why do we see so many terror attacks,and why hundreds of innocent people are loosing their lives? 
The fact of the matter reported by RBI is that it had gained 16000 crores, but lost 200000 crores, in printing new notes. Itis also reported that there is slowdown in Industrialisation and Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing, while the Construction sector had slumped. Of course, both Krisnasagar and FM Arun Jaitley are supporting it still, as the government is coming out with new reasons for Demonetisation and making the honest common man to live in fools paradise.

In the month of August Governments of Telangana and AP celebrated 154th Anniversary of Harikath Pithamaha "Adibhatla Narayana Das". Harikatha is reminiscent of 1950-60's era for me. I was in my teens and thermal power project was just coming up in my native place Ramagundam. And the place was bustling with all kinds of people as establishment activities were in full swing around that time. My father who was sarpanch of that area facilitated the construction of a 'Veeranjaneya Temple". In this temple festivals like Ganesh Chathurthi, Dasara, and Rama Navami were organized by the locals with full fervour. During these festivals they used to call 'Haridasus' from Vijayawada, Guntur and Vemulawada. Couple of popular names popping up in my mind are Bezwada Nagarajakumari and Kesinagri Rajanna. The most popular art form at that time has almost vanished these days and current generation is totally unaware of this art form. 
Harikatha is an excellent blend of storytelling, music and dance, spiced up with jocular comments on the contemporary political and social scenario of the by-gone era. Infact it is an unique art form that reflects the culture and heritage of India in general and Telugus in particular. The Haridasus with their marvellous performance not only entertained but also educated and enlightened the people with with stories from our epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavatam and also lives of great Indian saints. It was delightful to watch Haridasus sing Padyams so mellifluously, dance so rhythmically narrating the stories so skill fully laced with relevant humorous anecdotes. And also commenting incisively on the contemporary social and political affairs of the state and nation, enthralling the audience. I still cherish those pleasant memories and now feel quite sad, about the disappearance of this great art form from our modern lives. It is time for both state and Central Govts to revive this art form through the Department of Culture and save it from extinction.

I had high expectations regarding the quality of food served in trains. My hopes were also high as Suresh Prabhu took over the as union minister for railways.
But my hopes dashed when I saw inferior quality food being served on my trip to shiridi.
Later I also read reports of adverse observations by CAG. Railway teams and CAG inspected 74 railway stations and 80 trains. Their joint report states that the food being served is unfit for human consumption. We all are very well aware that the railways as such is India'slife line for more than 8.6 billion passengers every year. We all are aware that corruption in awarding the contracts to private players for food supply and callousness of officials are responsible for the poor quality of services. Successive Railway Ministers, have traditionally focussed on populist measures while basic issues of passenger amenities cleanliness,and quality food, have been neglected over the years.
.IRCTC manages catering services but it doesn't cook or supply food that is served to passengers. This is done by private firms which run on contacts after having got in an open tender.

Railways have improved its efficiency in certain areas in the last few years. It has attracted massive investments ,undertaken projects with private participation and made efforts to reduce the cost of transportation affordable. However safety, hygiene, Quality food, and punctuality are of primary importance.

One of my cousins who was very senior officer retired from Railways told me that the same set of contractors would manage to get the contracts every year. But Suresh Prabhu known for his dynamism and no-nonsense approach tried to break this contractor nexus, by encouraging E-catering business but it is yet to take the shape fully. But I feel travelers safety, hygiene, quality food, and punctuality of trains, are the issues the Minister is expected to keep a watch.

On the 1st July, we stayed at our village Ramgundam. There I just wanted to go round to see, and in the process I also went to see my old government  school where I have studied up to 4th class, then from 5th class onwards we all went  to the only school at Ramgundam Zilla Parishad High school which is about 2 km away from my village. After seeing the school in my village, some stray thoughts have come to my mind, and I feel  some of my FB may also appreciate it.  The village school is now a High School but  after seeing the students studying there in that school, I strongly feel that the reservations are required for the students studying in only such government schools. Every one should ask oneself which category of children need reservations? It is the children who are studying in convent or corporate schools or children studying in government schools? Well nourished children studying in well furnished schools or malnourished children studying in ill furnished Govt schools? The children who study under strict supervision in private schools or those children studying under no supervision in government schools? We all know rich sections send their wards to international schools in cities including Hyderabad. Do they need support of reservations just because they belong to so-called OBCs, SCs & STs or minorities? 

Reservations should be given to those who are socially disadvantaged, economically deprived educationally discriminated. But where do you find them? After seeing the school, I felt, no surveys are needed or statistics are required to identify them as they are found in government schools and these are the children who need the support because in government schools the academic standards the less said the better it is as the parents of these children come from lower strata of society and they show little interest in their children and take no interest in functioning of the school. They are voiceless sections of the society.  The Ramagundam school lacks infrastructure, and it may the same case with other schools in other villages as well. Some schools that have infrastructure, there will be no strength and in some schools might have strength but there may not be sufficient number of teachers.  After looking at this case in particular I strongly feel that these children studying in these government schools do need the support of reservations. Maybe its time to rethink caste based reservations to economic condition reservations.

Indian judiciary is respected world over ,for its independence, fairness and impartiality while enjoying unflinching public faith. But of late, the unsavoury episode involving a confrontation between judge of Calcutta High Court, Karnan and the Supreme Court, has created, severe embarrassment to the institution and exposed the deficiencies in The collegium system of appointment of judges. The judges of higher courts, trading charges, and pronouncing jail sentences against each other, has shocked the legal fraternity.  The seven judge bench of Supreme Court ordered arrest of Karnan, and sentenced him to six months imprisonment, for contempt of court, and also issued a gag order preventing the media, from carrying any statement by the defiant judge.

A High court judge being punished for contempt of court is unprecedented in the history of Indian judiciary. Such indecent internal battle will only erode the dignity of judiciary. If you really see the sequence he made charges of corruption against his own fellow judges of High Courts and Apex court stayed his own transfer order, issued strictures against Chief Justice of Madras High Court, and on the top of it, ordered the arrest of seven Supreme Court judges including the Chief Justice.

The unpleasant situation arising out of the judgements vis-a-vis the behaviour of Karnan, should serve as wake up call. It is not enough to think, in terms of enforcing rules and regulations as it would be viewed as strangulation of freedom of speech. The more fundamental problem that needs to be addressed is sound procedures in selection of judges. We have already seen the dissent, note of one of the judges in the collegium, Justice Chalameswar, who said that he will not be attending the meetings of collegium as it lacks transparency in selection of judges. Taking cue from the systems used in the selection of administrative jobs, police, Railways, and Revenue  services, similar approach is required in judicial administration as well.  I feel "Indian Law service" must be put in place, with meritorious Law Graduates,. These Law Officers can be promoted over a period of time based on certain criteria to become judges across the country. The selection of judges could be from the pool of meritorious Law Officers. If we can make judiciary stronger we can arrest the growing erosion of faith in judicial system.

In the instant case if Karnan, who was once a polling agent of AIADMK, and later for some time associated with Congress, is a product of defective Collegium system. His elevation as Judge raises many questions because he had virtually no known practice at the Madras Bar. By ordering his arrest and imprisonment, the Supreme Court might have sent a strong message against those making all sorts of attacks on judiciary but what is required is the correction of system. There is need for introspection and transparency in selection mechanism.

There is lot of discussion on Indo-China bilateral relations and media showing the pictures of movement of arsenal by China, which is very disturbing.The confrontation has been raging for over here 3 weeks at Doklam plateau in Bhutanese territory which forms a tri-junction between Sikkim, China and Bhutan. As I understand from the reports that China has violated the Bhutanese territory and Indian soldiers obstructed this move of China. And this is supposed to be the cause the tension. Later Army Chief Rawat made statement that India is ready for two -half -front war , and Chinese media warned India of consequences citing 1962 war. India is at a disadvantage, but the situation may not be that bad. Drunk with economic and military power China seems to be moving with terrorist mindset. Their designs in Bhutan, Arunachal Pradesh will not succeed by holding out threats and it's ways are always unpredictable, for example closing the route Nathulal-pass, for our Indian pilgrims to go to Mansarover shrine. The new Yatra route was apparently opened by Beijing to show mark of respect to Hindu religious sentiments and deepen ties with new Government under Modi, and it is not surprising that Beijing has now taken a U-turn, on the issue and stopped our pilgrims which shows how unpredictable they are.

  I have read in one of the articles, that during the period when communism was at ascendency, the then king of Sweden had remarked that "if one is not a socialist till the age of 21 it shows he /she has no heart, and if he/she continues to be a socialist after 21 years it shows the person has no head." It has back - stabbed India by occupying our Aaksaichin area, and it is hand in glove with Pakistan, and opposing India at every stage on many issues concerning India, like Entry into Nuclear Suppliers group and the UN ban on Masood Azhar have soured our relations with China.

 Both the countries have escalated the matters to undesired levels. We all know India and China put together makeup one third of humanity and do you feel can they afford to be neighbours at each other's throats? Whatever may be postures and provocations, the standoff has to be resolved by diplomatic means, but even today's morning news bulletin also says, the alarming situation on the order and it was announced that the Modi-Xi jinping meeting at G20 summit in Germany also ruled out which was not in good taste seeing the border situation. 

  India and China may have many boundary disputes but  to avoid casualties of men and material both need to pursue peace talks through bilateral efforts. India must be sticking to Mc Mohan line, and disputed areas which we have lost and efforts should be made to reclaim but not at the cost of lives of our people.