Book Review: Poor but spirited in Karimnagar; Field notes of a Civil Servant

As a guy who is from Karimnagar, and who witnessed Smt. Sumita Dawra's administration first hand. i wanted to read this book since it was published. There are a few things which persuaded me to read this. As an aspiring civil servant, i wanted to gain experience to become better acquainted with grass root level administrative process, and there is no best way than to learn it from my childhood role model.

I firstly bow down to the commitment of all the sincere civil servants like Smt. Sumita Dawra, who have dedicated their lives to make things better. This book has gained my respect for its pragmatic approach and for the experiences author has shared. Though I do have some ideological differences with some of author's  points, there are a lot of things I would appreciate. I should say that this book is a compelling read for people who want to know real India. All this humdrum about politics has made me think how people are "Educated illiterates", including me! how much of what we discuss and debate is futile and how there are people right now, burning midnight oil for a better India.

Coming to the book, It might not the best book for policy making, but i can assure you that this book has a lot of merit in connecting dots between policy making and reality. A benevolent administrator meets, macro level policy making through her experience as well as case studies, summarizes this book in a single line.

Book has eight chapters, every chapter has three sections - identifying the problem, providing the context and the author's solutions for those problem. The book starts with an introduction of Wicked problems. how the fields of poverty alleviation, education, health care, agriculture, water and sanitation and urban governance, are stuck in wicked issues. How solutions based on greater community involvement, decentralisation  of administration, innovation, feedback mechanisms, proper accountability and an able leader can change the fabric of stagnant country.

The narration of experience of author as an administrator are inspiring and moving simultaneously. Especially in the chapter three, Epidemic and Malnourishment in Karimnagar, author's recollections, reminded me of why I wanted to prepare for civil services. This chapter shows how different sections of society live different realities.

Finally I would definitely recommend this book to people who are preparing for civil services and other people in general. I am giving links to buy the book. If you have any personal thoughts please drop them in comments. I will try to review more books, which I find interesting as well as important.

Thank you,
Shiva


http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/senior-ias-officer-sumitra-dawra-pens-a-collectors-copy/article3732494.ece
Flipkart:
http://www.flipkart.com/poor-spirited-karimnagar-field-notes-civil-servant/p/itmddt4qbperntb7
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.in/Poor-But-Spirited-Karimnagar-Servant/dp/9350291509

Issues of contemporary India: Desertification

These days everyone seems to be interested in making the world a better place. They want better governance, better utilisation of resources. They want to make Government and other organizations to take reponsibilty. But I'm going to ask one question, How many of us are ready to accept responsibility and do something for a better world?. Its easy to blame others for what is happening, it is hard to own responsibility and do something about it. I'm going to write a series of blogs on different issues destroying contemporary India.

Desertification

The defiinition in Wikipedia is

"Desertification is a type of land degradation in which a relatively dry land region becomes increasingly arid, typically losing its bodies of water as well as vegetation and wildlife. It is caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities. Desertification is a significant global ecological and environmental problem."

Now, I know most of the people who are reading this are unaware of the fact that 1/3rd of all the land in India is at a verge of Desertification. No one seems to care about it, though it is as important as climate change and whose effects are immediate and drastic. A report submitted to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) by the Environment Ministry in fourth week of April 2013 described that one third of India’s geographical area is undergoing the process of desertification despite of the efforts made by it to combat the problem. But  what are the effects of desertification? is it really serious? whose responsibility is it anyway? what is causing it? What can we do to stop it?, these are some questions we are facing today. 

India's growing population and dire need for food production to meet the population, exerts an enormous pressure on land. The socio-economic and cultural effects of desertification are disastrous.With 60% of the population depending on land for income directly or indirectly, it would be of huge economic consequence. Social effects like unrest, poverty and cultural effects like migration may be of dire consequences. So desertification needs our immediate attention. 

Out of India's 328 mha total area nearly 69% of our land area is arid, semi-arid or dry sub-humid. A moajor part of these areas is prone to desertification. In report to UNCCD, MoEF has analysed land usage pattern in India with the help of ISRO concluded that 106 mha i.e 1/3rd of area is undergoing desertification. 

The causes of desertification are vegetal degradation, water erosion, wind erosion, wind/eolian degradation, frost shattering, salinity/alkalinity, mass movement, water logging, rocky areas/barren land, man made, frost heaving and others. 

      Process wise distribution of the area under land-degradation for India

Lets look at the causes one by one. 

Vegetal degradation: it is observed mainly as deforestation/ forest-blanks/ shifting cultivation and degradation in grassland/grazing and scrubland. This happens in both warm and cold areas. 

Water erosion: Sheet erosion/rill network/ shallow gully erosion fall mainly under this category. It comprises mainly of agricultural land. 

Wind erosion: mainly happens in the close proximity of deserts mainly because of lift and drift effect of wind

Salinization/ Alkalinization: Mainly in cultivated lands because of excess ground water usage, soil erosion, usage of different insecticides and pesticides. 

Water wasting:  happens due to rock, regolith and debris movement down hill due to land slides, creeping. 

Man made: though most of the above causes are indirect effects of man made causes. There are a few direct causes like Mining, brick kiln, industrial effluents, city waste and others

Desertification map of India

If we see above pattern, almost all the causes of desertification are man made directly or indirectly. Indirect causes like global warming, deforestation, unregulated cattle grazing, excessive usage of pesticides and insecticides, over exhaustion of ground water and many others, while making a mess directly by mining, industrial  effluents, city waste, improper drainage and others. There is no easy solution for stopping desertification, the first step towards it should be efficient utilization of resources by every individual, economic usage of ground water, awareness of renewable and bio-degradable sources of consumption and others. It would be hypocritical of us, if we just accuse the Government and others of not maintaining India in perfect health, when we the people are causing the problems and not doing anything about it.

regards,

Shiva :)

Reference

http://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs/desertification-affects-over-onefourth-geographical-area-of-india-report-1367145703-1

http://www.moef.nic.in/sites/default/files/desert_atlas.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertification

http://www.wrsc.org/attach_image/risk-human-induced-desertification

Yellow brick road to "Success": A step by step approach to UPSC India, Civil Sevices, Part-I

Everyone says that preparing for civil services is laborious. Traditionally, since the time civil services was started by Lord Cornwallis in 1853, everyone believed and still believes that hard work is key to success in Administrative Services examinations for IAS, IPS, IRS etc. I tend to deviate from the tradition, I believe that a perfect blend of hard work, smart work (sometimes both of these are not too different) and quick wit (presence of mind) is the key. However,  it is easier to preach than to follow. Throughout this year, I'll show how I came up with that perfect blend and hope you find yours in the due course of time.

I aspired to become an IAS officer, after witnessing the actions of then collector of my district, Sumita Dawra (Author of book "Poor but Spirited in Karimnagar"). She came to my school for Republic Day, saw an under-aged child working for mic setup, and immediately took action against the owner. Then she went on to implement strict laws against child labour in the district. Her actions, triggered a mixture of emotions in me. The humanitarian vigor, sense of justice, quest for betterment and overall the power she wielded to implement the right thing, made me aspire a future in administration.

So at the onset of my research,  I was riddled with a lot of questions after understanding, how UPSC conducts it, what the syllabus is, how long does it take and a lot of other things.  Questions like, "Where should I start?" "What is the pattern?" "What are the books?" "What should be my optional?" "Is the optional I took right for me?"  "Why are the questions in the exams different from what we are taught in coaching centres? ""What attitude should i maintain?". I'm pretty sure that a lot of UPSC exams related websites will give you a lot of answers to these questions. Here I'm going to add a little bit more.

First question I'm going to take up is "Where should I start?" 

Start by understanding the time it takes for an average person to prepare for the exam. It is normally 1-2 years. Then decide the year of your examination. That is the first step. Then choose your optional, this is first hurdle in your path. I would like to caution you about the people who suggest you to opt for "scoring subjects", do not follow the herd. Remember that even though a certain subject is mark fetching for a lot, that does not mean it will fetch marks to you too and do not forget that you have to master that subject and it takes hours of work, understanding and interest towards it. My suggestion would be, start with reading NCERT text books of class IX, X, XI, XII classes, of all the subjects which are your probable optionals. Subjects like, History, Geography, Economics, Political Science, Sociology and Psychology. If you can't understand the NCERT books of XI and XII of a particular subject, that is definitely not an option for you. If you don't understand any of the subjects, choose the one you understand, and enjoy reading the most.This process normally takes almost a month for a person. Even if you are decided on your optional, I suggest you to read these books, because comprehensive knowledge of all these subjects is a must for Civil Services exam. 

Next comes, Deciding if you need coaching or not. The answer to this question is biased in almost all the websites. The websites tend to prefer coaching. Though I joined a coaching centre, I do not say it is a necessary condition, there are a lot of success stories of people who have not gone coaching centres. My favourite teacher in school, Mr. Shareesh kumar, who is in service now, never took coaching, and another interesting thing about him is, he never took same set of optionals twice in his four attempts. So, neither taking coaching nor sticking to same optional is necessary. People who are working, or people cannot afford them need not feel left out. If you have right attitude and an infallible plan, you are at a good start. 

Now for people who want to go to coaching centre.  There are a lot of renowned institutes around, though they are famous that does not imply that they are best for you. Deciding the suitable Coaching centre for you depends on a few things and remember choosing a wrong one can demotivate certain people. The checkpoints for deciding are:

•  Is the pace of course right for you?
• Is the peer group comfortable?
• Is the coaching centre well established and organised?
• Is the fees in your budget?

There are some low impact checkpoints too, which vary from person to person.

I'm going to give some basic information about coaching fees, cost of living in renowned areas for good coaching centres, like Rajendra Nagar and Mukherjee nagar in Delhi. Normally Institutes charge 75k-1 Lakh for GS Mains+ CSAT for 4-6 months. Optional is charged around 30-40k for 3-4 months. Cost of living in Mukherjee Nagar is 12k and Rajendra Nagar is 15k. One can squeeze it a little if they are ready to travel to get to coaching centres.

With this I conclude first part of the journey, hope you find the information and suggestions informative. In next part I'm going to talk about the physical and psychological conditions good for maintaining the zeal in the long run, and some of the books, magazines and news papers relevant for the preparation.