In Lecture

Report on Lectures by Guest Speakers

10th December 2008

Shri Jayant Umaranikar (I.P.S),spoke“Terrorism-Emerging Issues”

The emerging issue of terrorism as not spared any part of the country as the terrorist do not have any geographical barriers or international pressure which they overcome most of the times. The dastardly and bloody terrorist attack on Mumbai has brought the threat to individual security where the need to be have a rethinking about the roots of terrorism.
The threat to individual security which in turn has direct impact on human security. The roots to understand the cause of terrorism is also important; however one needs to look at the security of an individual by the state. Where internal security which is defined to guarantee order public security to protect people and normal function of the governing systems and democratic institution.

Various reasons for conflict as violence prone system as society has a social and political reason which hampers the development and threat to internal security. For long we are dealing with terrorism however, strict law for Anti-terrorism has still not formed worldwide. While taking about the recent terrorist attacks he mentioned that similar attacks with the same manner were carried out in Mumbai in 1993 where many promises were given plans were implemented and again the same systemic failure occurred.
The most important things to look at today are the counter measure to tackle terrorism. the drawback of the operation with the recent terrorist attacks were similar of 1993 where we still do not have a separate intelligence wing, equipments with the police department, depoliticizing the police, were he explained the various duties the police personal have to do in their services to protect the citizens.
In order to prevent a future terrorist attack we need to have the higher level of intelligence sharing, coordination amongst the different agencies like the Military intelligence, RAW and most important of all is the awareness and preparedness of the forces and the society to avoid a future attack. He also mentioned that terrorist incidents are rich in dramatic, shocking and tragic human interest apects, and the media, understandably, tends to overcome them. He believes that the media should work in coordination with the police forces in such terror attacks as it will help the forces to work more effectively and most of the information will not be shown or disclosed during the operations.
At the end he stated the society should maintain law and order in such situation and coordinate the police forces in case need arises.

9th December 2008

Smt.Prabha Rau ,spoke : “World Human Rights Day”’ .

On occasion of the “World Human Rights Day” the students expressed their views on the topic human rights they emphasied on the concept of human rights and need to respect the human beings , culture, ethics, moral values, religion, and also streesed on the human rights voliation by the non-states actors.Some of the important points to elaborate were in fields of education, unemployment, and food security
The later part was the speech by governor of Himachal Pradesh Smt.Prabha Rau who appreciated the students for their concerns towards the human rights voilation.
She stated the importance of the term Human rights which is used to defend Human freedom as well as destroy it. People tend to attach importance to particular human rights issue according to ideology and political convenience. if a man is not to have recourse or rebellion against tyranny and oppression, taking law into their own hands,” Human Rights" should be built into the society as a natural rule. As a last resort only, law should be applied as a protection. Human: member of the species, the single race Homo sapiens. Whatever persons are called, or call themselves, wherever they live, they are human. Therefore human rights: benefits to which people are entitled simply by virtue of being human.

The commission held its first session in January 1947. The Human Rights Commission formulates schemes for the protection of minorities and for prevention of discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, sex and religion. It may consider any matter within the realm of human rights which may impair the general welfare among nations.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights , adopted by the General Assembly in 1948, elaborated commitment to democracy by proclaiming that "the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government" and guaranteeing to everyone the rights that are essential for effective political participation. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted by the Assembly in 1966, conferred binding legal status on the right of individuals to participate in the processes that constitute the conduct of public affairs, and further strengthened the protection accorded to participatory rights and freedoms.

The middle and late 19th century saw a number of issues take centre stage. Many of these in the late 20th century were considered as "Human Rights" issues. These issues included slavery, serfdom, brutal working conditions, starvation wages and child labor. In the Americas, this was known as "Indian Problem" at the time. In the United States, a bloody war over slavery came close to destroying a country founded only eighty years earlier on the premise that, "all men are created equal." The Indian parliament has passed an Act to provide for the constitution of a National Human Rights Commission, State Human Rights Commissions in States and Human Rights Courts for better protection of human rights and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.


It is enacted by Parliament in the Forty-fourth Year of the Republic of India. It is known as Indian Human Rights Act, 1993. Political rights are an important feature of human rights. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. But democracy does not mean merely the right to vote and send representatives to the Parliament or the Legislature. It includes much more. It postulates multiplicity of parties and a politically aware electorate which can make an intelligent choice between the parties on the basis of their political ideology and manifesto. If the electorate is not politically aware, and is guided by consideration of race, religion, creed or colour or ethnicity, democracy can go off the rails.
The importance of social rights in which the family is the natural and fundamental unit of society. It is entitled to full protection by society and the state. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance.
The Right to Education where education at least in the elementary level should be free. It is very important that the citizens be educated . It is only then that they will be able to participate in the democratic process and fight when there rights are denied. The cultural rights guarantee the people the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author. every one has the right to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancements and its benefits.She stressed more on Gandhian Philosphy for explaining the cause and solution for the upliftment of the society.
At the end she mentioned the importance of  education as important tool to eradicate poverty, unemployment, and stressed on having improving relationship with the neighbours and overcoming the geographical boundaries to share our culture and thoughts.

5th December 2008.

Mr.Laxmikant Deshmukh-IAS spoke“Role of Zilla Parishad in Rural Development”

Rural development recognizes the true and pivotal place of rural improvement in the total development of nation. He stressed more on role of human development in rural development. The pace of any reform should suit the psyche of its people and a gradual and systematic approach was needed to do so. Individual development and in the Indian tradition of recognizing the village community as the custodian of human values (Grama Sudhara).
India’s agriculture growth in the last two decades, which has, been between 1% to 5% per Annum.
The negative impact of 1991 reforms were high lightened in which he included increase in absolute poverty depletion of agricultural activity to sustain life, large scale farms suicides, migration to urban areas due to deterioration of quality life in rural India. He stated reasons for need of focus on rural development existence of the wide gap between India and bharat.
The Role of zilla Parishad he mentioned that there are certain limitation with regards to hard infrastructure, like lack of funds and there is to much of dependency on government and district administration which in directly hampers the limitations in its functioning.
While mentioning the role of human development in rural development he believes that by building human capabilities is the fundamental objective as utilization of full potential and creativity of the people in accordance with their needs and interests. It also includes expansion of choices for people to help them lead a healthy and prosperous life.
The parameters on which it is measured are basis indicators are namely life expectancy at birth (Health), adult literacy (Education) and the standard of living (GDP and percapita income). The other indices developed by UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) are GDI (Gender related Development Index) and (Human Poverty Index) developed by economist noble prizewinner Dr.Amratya Sen.
At the end part of the lecture he discussed the strategies for human development at Zilla Parishad level including macro level policy making and planning and its implementation. Elaborating on the strategies he focused on the key areas namely Education, Health care, Women and child development and sanitation. Implementation of this approach requires recognition by the state of indigenous custom as the law governing land allocation and use, and empowerment of local institutions to implement this responsibility to resolve disputes.

30th November 2008

Shri Suresh Prabhu , spoke“Alternative energy Sources” ”

The emerging issues today relating to the human security which is indirectly hampering the growth of the country as unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, and climate change and along with that the most important for the survival is the availability of energy resources.
The various issues dealing with energy crisis in the villages were 45% of the household do not have electricity however they use energy to serve their basic needs.
        An overview of the various kinds of alternative energy follows. At the outset we must differentiate between alternative energy, and renewable energy. Alternative energy refers to any form of energy which is an alternative to the traditional fossil fuels of oil, natural gas and coal. Renewable energy is the forms of alternative energy that are renewed by the natural processes of the Earth, such as sunlight from the sun or wind from the air, and so are environmentally friendly.
While elaborating on different sources of energy he explained about solar power which arises from the light of the sun, which can be harnessed through the use of solar power cells, which are also called photovoltaic cells. Solar is also very environmentally friendly, as it produces no pollution or waste byproduct, and it is therefore essential for a greener future. Stressing on India to be the largest producer of wing energy, it can be used both for electricity production on a large scale with multiple turbines to form what is called a wind farm, or in other words a wind power plant, or, more infrequently, on a smaller scale for home electricity production. Geothermal energy draws heat from the planet’s core. Thermal power stations are set up which absorb energy from the planet. The heat from the planet boils a liquid which evaporates to turn turbines, producing the electricity. Geothermal heating is becoming very popular, and is a cost-effective alternative to oil or gas home heating.
Similar for Hydroelectric power, Tidal power, Nuclear power plants do not produce air pollution, so they are clean compared to oil, gas and coal. However, nuclear power produces radioactive waste as a byproduct can replace fossil fuels to some extent as they run out, where coal would last for the next 50 years.
He also mentioned about the energy and climate change where the clean source of energy is important in order to reduce global warming.
Alternative energy is attractive to all different sorts of people, including investors and entrepreneurs. A main reason for this is the fact that alternative energy can appeal to both individuals and families on the one hand and to corporations and businesses on the other hand. As alternative energy supplies become economically feasible they will be adopted by conventional businesses, to the point of becoming mainstream in the future, and the companies that supply alternative energy stand to make substantial profits by supplying energy to these companies.

8th November 2008.
Shri. Ramnath Sonawane spoke“Urbanisation”

Shri Ramanath Sonawane, the municipal corporation commissioner, of jalgaon delivered a lecture on ‘urbanization’ for the participants of MIT SOG, on 8th of November. He started his lecture by defining cities as engines of economic and social development creating jobs and generating wealth through economies of scale.  He urged the need to upgrade and augment the cities for sustainable development. According to him National economic growth and poverty reduction efforts will be increasingly determined by the productivity of these cities and towns. He stressed on the need of a world-class urban system that includes feasible political, economical and social environment. In his words, "in the present scenario there is anarchy and criminalization of politics in the name of democracy". Talking about the urbanization he explained that it is basically a movement (migration) from rural to urban areas is still continuing. He also elaborated upon the criteria for urbanization taken by censes of India.

While highlighting the growth in urbanization he mentioned that today, 285 million people live in urban areas which equates to 27.8% as per 2001 census. In 1991 Census the percentage of urban population to total population was 25.7 percent.  Thus a large population migrated to urban areas in search of employment opportunities. He stressed on the relevance of Article-243 that deals with panchayat and municipalities. He also elaborated on the level of urbanization. He pointed that urbanization rate is higher in Delhi with 93. 5%. In terms of absolute number of persons living in urban areas, Maharashtra leads with 41 million persons, which is 14 percent of the total population of the country.  Talking about the issues in urban local bodies, he mentioned poverty, unemployment, unauthorized development and lack of civic amenities and basic infrastructure as the major concern. The other issues include the unauthorized development, lack of civil amenities and basic infrastructure, and too much dependency on private sector for transport and communication. It has been found that there is greater unemployment in urban areas comparing to rural areas and among them is basically the educated youth. He discussed about the reforms required for fulfilling the concept of good governance. About urban reforms, he suggested resource mobilization and model legislation. He gave some practical measures that can be taken to overcome political stigmas, at urban level: -They is as follows. (1) Proportional representation, (2) mandatory registration of voters. (3) Compulsory voting (4) need of intellectual debate and discussions proactive role of pressure groups and
(5) Citizen’s participation by giving no room for criminals. Shri Ramnath Sonawaneji boldly stated in his speech "at present it is a boneless bureaucratic system and ruthless political system". At bureaucratic level instead of having a permanent system of employment, he stressed on the need of contractual system based on performance, which will enable efficiency and effectiveness. He also mentioned about Millennium Development Goals also.  Through his entire speech he informed the participants the various aspects of urban growth and also the relevance of efficiency in urban administration and planning.

7th November 08

MR.B.G DESHMUKH spoke on “Indian Political Parties and our chaotic democracy”

On 07-11-08, Dr.B.G.Deshmukh, former Cabinet Secretary of India, President CASP, the   distinguished well-wisher of Indian politics had visited MIT School Of Government campus and delivered his address on the topic “Indian Political Parties and our chaotic democracy”.
Indian Politics in its early ages –starting with early 20th Century-had been   analyzed by him as a West Minister kind of one in which only a single party-viz Congress- was prevalent which was also at par chaotic with the present day coalition kind of structure   which is ambiguous and unstable. Present day democracy in that sense can be coined as pseudo or false democracy, wherein the credit of sanctioning the term is closely associated with the play of political parties shielding one among them with their own vested interests.
Shri Deshmukhjis views on Democracy that where a Government by the people and for the people wields its power in an unbiased manner. State power is divided into mainly the three pillars viz Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. French scholars had added the fourth pillar as media and the newly added one is the civil society. Civil society per se according to Mr. Deshmukhji ensures the participative and empowered democracy. Then comes the role of political parties, which are infact instrumental to Government in a political system.  Political parties in the form of a responsible opposition also play its important role.
According to Mr. B G Deshmukh the structure of a political party also must be in a democratic way within itself. It must hold an enlightening ideology wherein the leaders and others are distributed in their own respective hierarchical order ensuring decentralised functioning and internal democracy. It shall not be rigid in any sense but better if resembles an umbrella organization (eg Congress before independence), which can accommodate wider gamuts and gain wider coverage. This idea as such looks back to the Gandhian version of politics which is rich with inclusion of different castes and classes of society especially women, the  “Harijan” and which represents the want to have a self sustained Economy. He had explicitly pointed out the need of a political party in order to get in touch with the Governmental power and to participate in the running of the state machinery .So people come together, forms groups (eg. Ngo), get in rapport with political parties and participate in state functioning .He also asserted that   simply having groups are not effective. If any a political party goes out of the virtuous circle of the expectation of the civil society, it is vicious which demolishes the well functioning of a Democracy.
Deshmukhji noticed that Indian Democracy is a balanced platform of various interests which arose out of its diversified nature and simply forming an association can’t bring one to the box, means that it necessitates bringing up of political parties in Indian democracy and that is the reason for the mushrooming of political parties in the present day scenario.
He had looked at the post independence politics of our country with the lack of efficient national leadership, which ultimately led to coalitions of parties. In his own words pre-election coalitions are good, but post election coalitions are like closing the mouth of the people who casted their votes with full faith and belief.  Nowadays Political parties forget the principles of Democracy and go with their own mileages only. Political will must be come out of Leaders to curb this malignancy and to reframe and reorganize Political parties and in that way we can re-organize our Democracy.
 Deshmukhji had wisely pointed out electoral reforms and well functioning of Election Commission to ensure the upbringing of the lost Democratic sense to our chaotic democracy. Election Commission must act more proactively ensuring all measures for a Democratic election the notable suggestion tabled by him was to balancing the money flow during the time of election and that the Political parties must be insisted to keep all pre election accounts truly and properly which also can be subjected to check by the authorities.  Electoral reforms only, can bring about prevention of mushrooming of Political parties. The nature of voting right can be reshaped and make it mandatory. In order to win in a constituency certain percentage of votes can be mandated which may force Political parties to come together and to adopt a strategy of gathering different castes and classes of society to bag up maximum possible percentage of votes than divide them and catch power in some backdoor ways.  In order to ensure the eligibility and qualifications of candidates, negative voting can also be sanctioned to our voting system. If the percentage of negative votes is more than 50% then that election contest must be set aside and the panel of candidates must be cancelled. State funding can be introduced in election process, which will ensure politics free from games of heavy sugars of the society and political bargaining. The feudalistic politics, which nowadays he describes existent in the form of family politics and castism as the two major vitiating factors of present day politics. The idea of proportional representation can make a larger democracy like India, more effective. We can even think for multimember constituencies to ensure efficient and effective democracy.
  He, again, pointed out the necessity of regular planning and updating of strategies that must be kept on by Political parties and even in a coalition they must come out of their stand aiming only in their own survival to remain in power. Coalition if not properly wielded can bring about only vote bank politics. Diverse interests represent the competing powers fighting for resources and to balance them we have to adopt a system of healthy democracy wherein Political parties are the major institutions. He suggested, why can’t we go for a “National minimum Programme” instead of “Common Minimum Programme” wherein Political parties stand together holding hand together at least in critical issues of national importance?
Now every questions and issues of reformation and reorganization of our Political system is left in the hand of our budding leaders and Mr. Deshmukhji delighted the audience   with his inspiring thoughts and powerful vision in this context to boost up our participants who are the aspiring to be the future Leaders of our country as well as the world.

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