ROAD SAFETY: MEASURES FOR A SAFER JOURNEY

Two days ago, a narration by Ira Singhal about her experience of witnessing a road accident whle returning back from Mussoorie , raised many questions on the road traffic safety measure in India and also towards the insensitive behaviour of the common people in this regard.

Road Traffic Crashes which we call as "a road accident" in common language, occur in every part of the world, in very state and in every continent. Every day it takes the lives of many; many gets injured and many gets disabled for life. Even a minor crash of low density sometimes proves fatal.

Worldwide around 50 million people succumbed to death every year due to the injuries caused by the road traffic crashes. According to a report submitted by World Health Organisation(WHO) 22.58% unnatural deaths occur only due to these road Traffic Crashes. These are the reasons why, The United Nations declared 2011 to 2020 as the DECADE OF ACTION FOR ROAD SAFETY.

Even in India ,in the 2015 itself, a total number of 1,54,600 deaths occurred due to the road accidents and a total no. of 30,92,000 people got serious injuries and around 1,08,22,000 people with minor injuries were reported. The data are certainly brain shocking and more shockingly the no. of crashes are increasing monotonically every year. 

These road traffic crashes are not only fatal to human life and health,but, it has also adverse effect on a country's Gross National Product i.e. GNP. The reports by WHO claim that there is always a depreciation in the GNP ranging from 1% to 3% every year. This depreciation is more fatal to the third world countries like India. According to a report published by Ministry Of Road Transport & Highways (MORTH) Government of India, every year there is around 3% of decline in GDP  only beacuse of the road traffic Crashes. It costs around around 55,000 cr. upon the nation every year..

MAJOR CAUSES OF ROAD TRAFFIC CRASHES IN INDIA:

In India very minute a road accident occurs and in every 3.7th minute a person succumbs to death because of the injuries caused by an accident. Now, the question arises what may be the causes of such deadly results.  The major causes may be categorized as follows:

1. Fault of the Drivers: Around 77.5%

2. Defects in Roads:    Around 1.5%.

3. Weather Conditions: Around 1%

4. Defects in Motor Vehicle: Around 1.6%

5. Faults of Pedestrian:Around 2.4%.

6. Fault of Cyclist: 1.3%.

7. All other Causes: Around 14.8%.

Around 77.5% road accidents in India occurs only because of the faults of drivers. In India, people are not that much trained and educated  in regard of road and traffic education. Very less no. awareness camps are organised by the governmental and non-governmental organisations. Most of the professional drivers have not even the proper knowledge and training about the measures to be taken to avoid these kind of incidences. They just hold the wheels and run the vehicle with nitrous speed. Speed is a game of pleasure and adventure for them. There is a lack of organisations in India who work in this regard. They are countable on the fingertips and are not working properly for the safety measures.

WHAT INDIA NEED TO DO?:

An issue of   'Transport and Communication Bulletin'  has suggested outstanding solutions in this regard. It suggested the 5Es FORMULAE. Every nation must follow these 5Es to reduce the increasing no. of Road Traffic Injuries:

1. ENGINEERING:  Defining the built environment for designing both vehicles and the roads.

2. ENFORCEMENT:  Laws and rules must be followed strictly and the citizens must be made aware about it.

3. EDUCATION:  Teaching good behaviours through awareness camps both at school and non-school levels.

4. ENCOURAGEMENT: Rewarding people for their good behaviour and extraordinary works towards road safety.

5.EMERGENCY CARE: Increasing the road side medical care and provide better medical help in the 'Golden hours'.

Implementation of these 5Es in the Indian system is the need of the hour. In my view, there must be a medical care centre on every 25th km on the roads specially on the highways, where it is tougher to provide immediate relief in the golden hours. People must be educated about the road safety measures and about the first-aids in case of any misshapenness. They must be mandatorily forced to keep medical first-aid in their vehicles and more importantly every individual must be educated about the legal consequences and procedures. Usually people don't help any road accident victim only because they want to get trapped in legal procedures and police investigations. They must be educated about it through legal awareness camp. People who follows road safety measures and help the victims of road traffic crashes must be encouraged and awarded by the government, only then this insensitivity may vanish out of the society. Government must encourage more non-governmental organisation to come forward and work in this regard. There are no doubts institutions established for road safety measures but the point is they are doing nothing other than collecting data and catching drunken drivers. Mere institutional set-ups are not enough there is need of action both at governmental and personal level. 

  MODI GOVERNMENT AND ITS LOOK EAST POLICY

The year 2015 will be known as The Year of Foreign Policy. PM Narendra Modi since assuming the office as Prime Minister of India on 26^th May,2014 have taken many initiatives to revive or to initiate good foreign relations with many Asian as well as many northern first world countries. When it comes to the policies of Modi Government, it is more inclined towards the Asian Countries; as making economic tie-ups , maintain trade and commerce with these is more feasible and may help in maintaining inflation rate and growing the GDP(Gross  domestic Product).

Contrary to the negative perception which is grooming all around the country nowadays, the foreign policy of Modi government has been ‘vigorous and ingenious’.  Also by reviving the foreign policies it is stepping towards economic growth. In the era of globalisation and liberalisation, where countries are inter mingling with each other in every sphere i.e.  Economic, social, cultural and political; regionalism plays a vital role in trade, commerce, security, co-operation and Co-ordination. Most remarkable initiative by this government may be considered as focusing moreon the neighbouring countries and its ‘Look East policy’. He has made visits to Nepal, Bhutan and Japan and also hosted Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister of Vietnam in first few months of his government.

Some of the achievements of this government which  may be considered as landmark ones in terms of foreign policies are ‘India Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement’; ‘First ever visit to Mangolia by any Indian Prime Minister’; ‘Visit to UAE  in 34 years by any Indian Prime Minister’; ‘visit to U.S west coast or Silicon Valley’, ‘Introduction for the project  MAUSAM’. In coming years it may be forecasted that this government is going to make many more tie-ups either through bilateral or multilateral treaties to strengthen its ‘Make In India’ project and to let the Indian Market flourish worldwide.

India shares important relations with Nepal in bilateral trade, security relations and trade transitions which was started by ‘Indo-Nepal Treaty of Peace and security’ in 1950. This treaty also includes ,’neither government will tolerate any threat to the security of the other by a foreign aggressor’, and Indo-Nepal border will open for each other. Now Nepal has promulgated its new constitution and Indian immigrant Madhesis, the Janjatia nd the Tharus, who have been considered the disadvantaged groups felt that they were being left out. India has condemned this move and also demands for amendment in its new Constitution. Later on blockade was created around the border because of the movement started by the Indian origin Madhesis community which lead to the shortage of important materials in Nepal. Because of which Nepal has directly slapped India for this blockade which in recent times hampering the relation.

At the same time India has promised 1 billion financial aid to Nepal towards recovery and reconstruction of the quake hit Nepal. This aid is in addition to India’s ongoing economic development and cooperation programme with Nepal that means the total would be around 2 billion US dollar in next five years. During operation ‘MAITRI’, India provided financial aid worth 67 million US dollar to Nepal. All this policies will help to check china in long run was also kept by PM Modi.

PM Modi’s foreign policy towards Pakistan started on a good note when he called Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif to Delhi on his swearing ceremony. But the tension along the international border and LOC make this government to cancel scheduled foreign talks and planned meeting between national security advisors. The strong message was put forward at the starting of his tenure that talks cnt’t go along with terrorist activities across the borders supported by Pakistan  which takes life of Indian soldiers on routine basis. Although over the shadow on talks Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Pakistan during Russian tour aggravated a chance resume talks which will solve many issues between the two nations.

During the current NDA government the bilateral trade risen to 7 billion US dollar with Bangladesh. Another big achievement which is achieved by the Modi government is the India Bangladesh Land Boundary agreement. Kolkata-Dhaka- Agartala bus service is started which will reduce the cost of transportation as well as reduce the time. This government has also involved in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal Corridor which will take the tie to a greater height. India’s Act East policy will start from Bangladesh and Modi government is wholly dedicated towards this policy. Although the Teesta river water dispute was not resolved by the current government as the Chief Minister of Bengal , Mamta Banerjee disrupted the tasks and the solution can’t be formulated until the 2017 assembly election of Bengal.

Many initiatives are also taken which will bring the resources to ‘Make In India’ . As the PM’S visit to Mangolia which was the 1^ST visit by any Prime Minister to Mangolia and also signed the memorandum of understanding for infrastructure development in Mangolia which will also built pressure on china, At the same time PM’s visit to Vietanam also started a next step in bilateral ties and raised the south china sea’s issue which will make India’s position on a stronger footing in Asia. Ties with Iran for supply of Uranium and with Russia on security sector which will help in ‘Make in India’ initiatives. Stronger ties with Japan and recent visit of Shinjo Abe make a boost to ‘Make in India’ .

As one year is a very short period to evaluate the impact of these policies in a vast country like India , policy transformation to every corner takes time. Since, after two decades India got a government with a single party majority. We have to wait and watch how much these policies will prosper India in near future.

        FREE BASICS IN INDIA: THINGS TO BE KNOWN

For the past somedays, every time I was opening the Facebook Application on my cellphone, I was finding notifications loaded with informations about people signing petition in support of Free Basics addressed to TRAI. I was curious and excited "woohoo...my friends are signing the petition and so I must also"; I opened the letter of petition but suddenly a thought stopped me. Should I sign it or not without knowing the idea behind it. Loads of questions flooded my brain like,' What this Free Basics is all about?' ' Is it the same thing called the net-neutrality?' 'Why do Facebook is asking to sign a petition in support?'
Then, I decided I will try to fetch out the right answers to all my doubts. So, if anyone of you has ever felt the same like me and have doubts in their mind regarding the basic concept of 'Free Basics' ,'its positives' and 'the reason behind the outrage against it in India'; here are the answers:

WHAT IS FREE BASICS:

Free Basics ia a platform provided by Facebook which provides free access to free basic internet services to billions of people around the world. Free Basics facility is available through the domain internet.org, where any producer may upon some conditions and considerations broadcast their services and websites freely to the internet users.
I was launched two years ago in the year 2013 globally in partnership with Samsung, MediaTek, Ericsson, Nokia, Opera and Qualcomm with the name 'internet.org' which was later substituted with the term 'Free Basics' earlier this year.

DOES FREE BASICS WORK ON 'ZERO-RATING' PRINCIPLE ON WHICH EARLIER AIRTEL HAD OFFERED A SIMILAR PLATFORM NAMED 'AIRTEL-ZERO':

Yes, Free Basics works o 'Zero-rating' Principle. Zero-Rating is a principle where Internet Service Providers(ISPs) donot charge customers for selected applications they use.

WHAT FACEBOOK SAYS ABOUT 'FREE-BASICS IN INDIA' AND ITS POSITIVES:

Facebook says that 'Free Basics' will help the Indian developers and businesses to provide their services and websites free of cost to all the internet users and will be able to reach larger masses. Thus, it will help grow the business of India worldwide and thus will strengthen the 'Make in India'.Free Basics is an open platform and is available to all.

WHY DO FACEBOOK IS MAKING THE USERS SIGN THE PETITION  TO TRAI:

TRAI in December this year had put a stop on the proposal of Facebook. It said that it wanted to examine the details and intrinsics of the offer first. Reasons for this rejection may be the opposition by the Net-Neutrality Supporters  and Security issues to India, as the Facebook provides all its infos and data to National Security Agency of US.

WHAT ARE THE REASONS WHICH THE NET-NEUTRALITY SUPPORTERS ARE CONTENDING IN SUPPORT OF NOT SIGNING THE PETITION:

According to an organisation 'savetheinternet.org' which supports net-neutrality, allowing the 'Free Basics' platform to work in India may be very dangerous to the concept of net-neutrality and sovereignty of India.
It raised the following oppositions against Free Basics:

1. By allowing 'Free Basics' Facebook must not be given a competitive advantage as there are other other much better options available to provide free internet access.
2. The whole burden of the internet cost will be on telecom operators. Facebook by providing free basics will lead to increase in data costs for paid internet access.
3. Free Basics is the violation of the concept of net-neutrality as it discriminate between the providers.
4. It is not completely an open platform. Facebook has defined the technical and participation guidelines and has reserved the rights to change it.
5. Facebook gets access to all the usages and data of all websites and provides the information to NSA of US and thus a grave security issue to India.

SO ITS TIME FOR YOU TO DECIDE:

Every side of the debate has their strong points to contend. On the one had Net-neutrality supporters completely opposes it and consider it a grave threat to net-neutrality and security of the nation; while on the other hand Mark Zuckerberg contends that  completely free access to internet is not feasible practically. So, its up to us to decide whether to sign it or not.

Merry Christmas everyone... We are back with our Indian Diurna once again on a day which inscribe in itself a lot many occasions .....This time we are dedicating our first post to the former Prime Minister of India Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ji who is the most beloved leader for the children of the 90's decade and even for the adults too. He was a man of courage, determination and esteem. We wish him a very Happy Birthday and present you one of his very well known poem titled "Unchai" which proves how much down to earth he is.

ऊँचे पहाड़ पर,
पेड़ नहीं लगते,
पौधे नहीं उगते,
न घास ही जमती है।
          जमती है सिर्फ बर्फ,
          जो, कफन की तरह सफेद और,
          मौत की तरह ठंडी होती है।
          खेलती, खिल-खिलाती नदी,
          जिसका रूप धारण कर,
          अपने भाग्य पर बूंद-बूंद रोती है।
ऐसी ऊँचाई,
जिसका परस
पानी को पत्थर कर दे,
ऐसी ऊँचाई
जिसका दरस हीन भाव भर दे,
अभिनन्दन की अधिकारी है,
आरोहियों के लिये आमंत्रण है,
उस पर झंडे गाड़े जा सकते हैं,
          किन्तु कोई गौरैया,
          वहाँ नीड़ नहीं बना सकती,
          ना कोई थका-मांदा बटोही,
          उसकी छांव में पलभर पलक ही झपका सकता है।

सच्चाई यह है कि
केवल ऊँचाई ही काफि नहीं होती,
सबसे अलग-थलग,
परिवेश से पृथक,
अपनों से कटा-बंटा,
शून्य में अकेला खड़ा होना,
पहाड़ की महानता नहीं,
मजबूरी है।
ऊँचाई और गहराई में
आकाश-पाताल की दूरी है।
          जो जितना ऊँचा,
          उतना एकाकी होता है,
          हर भार को स्वयं ढोता है,
          चेहरे पर मुस्कानें चिपका,
          मन ही मन रोता है।

जरूरी यह है कि
ऊँचाई के साथ विस्तार भी हो,
जिससे मनुष्य,
ठूंट सा खड़ा न रहे,
औरों से घुले-मिले,
किसी को साथ ले,
किसी के संग चले।
          भीड़ में खो जाना,
          यादों में डूब जाना,
          स्वयं को भूल जाना,
          अस्तित्व को अर्थ,
          जीवन को सुगंध देता है।
धरती को बौनों की नहीं,
ऊँचे कद के इन्सानों की जरूरत है।
इतने ऊँचे कि आसमान छू लें,
नये नक्षत्रों में प्रतिभा की बीज बो लें,
          किन्तु इतने ऊँचे भी नहीं,
          कि पाँव तले दूब ही न जमे,
          कोई कांटा न चुभे,
          कोई कलि न खिले।

न वसंत हो, न पतझड़,
हों सिर्फ ऊँचाई का अंधड़,
मात्र अकेलापन का सन्नाटा।

          मेरे प्रभु!
          मुझे इतनी ऊँचाई कभी मत देना,
          गैरों को गले न लगा सकूँ,
          इतनी रुखाई कभी मत देना।

- अटल बिहारी वाजपेयी