The protests against reservations initiated by medical students in Delhi is now spreading throughout the country.

A group of 200 medical students was lathicharged in Mumbai on Saturday when they blocked a road to the Raj Bhavan to protest against the government’s reservation proposal.

Services at three government medical colleges in Cuttack, Burla and Berhampur cities of Orissa were affected when about 1,200 house surgeons and junior doctors in government medical colleges went on strike...

Reports are coming in on how young medicos in hundreds have taken seige of the Connnaught Place area in New Delhi and have stopped movement of all traffic.

Demanding a reply from the government on the reservation issue, they are holding hands and standing ground against water cannons being used by the police to disperse them.

Let us not delude ourselves. IIT is a very efficient and consistent breeding ground for productive mediocrity.

It is very fashionable for the young upper middle class `global' Indian citizen to inveigh against the `sectarian', `populist' and `parochial' policies of the government. The article `Reservation saga' (Open Page, April 23) denouncing 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in the IITs and IIMs falls under this category. It seeks to question the validity of the anti-reservation lobby. As a specific case, we will examine their claims with regard to IIT.

The most feasible approach towards analysing the argument against reservation in IIT is to view the underlying axioms that its proponents cheerfully assume to be unquestionably true.

I am an MBBS student at AIIMS (All india Institute of Medical Sciences). I was one of the protestors at the New Delhi incident on 26th. Believe me, the feeling of hatred, bitterness and the sense of abandonment that comes over you when you see your friends and classmates struck by water cannon and having tear gas shells thrown at their faces can never be explained in words.

I felt like my nation has betrayed me, and the criminals in the government are not listening.However even as I write this, our organisation YOUTH FOR EQUALITY (comprised of students of all five delhi medical colleges) is trying to shore up suport for our cause from all sources....

Young India is finally beginning to believe. On Wednesday, April 26 medical students in Delhi took the reservation debate right back to Arjun Singh's home.

The anger and frustration brewing among students over the proposed government move to reserve seats for other backward classes in Central educational institutions degenerated into a mass protest on Wednesday when hundreds of medical students staged a strong protest right in front of the residence of Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh.

Police fired water canons and tear gas in an effort to prevent the students from staging the protest.

"We were protesting peacefully, they started treating us like animals. We work so hard and the to the top medical colleges and suddenly this reservation comes up," one of the protesting students said.

Read more on IBN Live, DNA India and Telegraph India.

The Congress is hell bent upon furthering its agenda of populist, divisive and pseudo-developmental initiatives. The latest salvo is the growing voices in the party for legislation to enforce reservation in private sectors.

Corporate India has still not taken a stand against it, although Azim Premji recently put forth his scorn for reservation.

One wonders what happened to the reformer called Manmohan Singh, and why the hell is he letting all this crap fly.

After carrying the relics of the 200 yr old British rule, India is finally getting rid of some useless baggage from past.

Their Lordships will henceforth just be their Honours. 'My Lord' and 'Your Lordship', the two phrases used since the British Raj by lawyers to address judges of the Supreme Court and high courts, have just been confined to history by the Bar Council of India. In a recent resolution amending the rules, BCI replaced the two most important phrases with 'Your Honour' and 'Honourable Court' saying that words 'My Lord' and 'Your Lordship' are "relics of the colonial past" which need to be weeded out. In the lower courts, lawyers can address the presiding officers as 'Sir' or the equivalent word in the respective regional languages.

We inadvertently link rich people with a flamboyant and lavish lifestyle. However, it turns out that the average billionaire is pretty modest. Rediff reports that the life of most rich people is not what we expect it to be.

India's 23 billionaires (2006 list) have a combined net worth of $99bn, surpassing former Asian leader Japan's 27 billionaires with their total worth of $67bn. ... Most also lead lives of boring rectitude. At the least, they maintain boring public personas. Indian billionaires are, individually and collectively, devoted to their respective spouses and families. Many are vegetarian teetotallers, with strong religious-spiritual convictions. Shockingly high energy levels and 16-18 hour days are routine. Quality time is spent chilling out with family and close friends. They are careful with money; many travel economy class and quite a few self-drive middle-aged, mid-range cars.

Now even the dead are not spared. India Shining Anyone ?

No sooner were the big blaze doused that miscreants and criminals reportedly had a field day. They came to the ground like vultures and took out bangles, mangalsutras, nose rings and finger rings from dead bodies.

Read More ...

Rediff is running an engaging article detailing the economics and logistics of deploying IT in rural areas.

The success of ITC's 6000 odd e-choupals covering over 35000 villages, has made many believe that this model can be made viable. Big boys are jumping onto the bandwagon - ranging from top IT companies, NGOs, technology providers and the government.

Not only are these initiatives helping to build the digital divide, but efforts to make such projects economicaly sustainable has met with much success.

A printer and software for desktop publishing ensures that you can publish marriage or invitation cards or even a CV for a nominal Rs 10 to Rs 12 a piece.

And as PCs our loaded with Windows Media Player - many local kiosks owners have converted themselves into mini movie halls - offering movie shows at a nominal Rs 2-3 a show... says Ranjivjit Singh, group director, consumer business, Microsoft.

Read the entire piece here.