Democracy Index: India stands 35th out of 167

 This news source is heavily sourced form Wikipedia and Rediff news portal.

India is not a full democracy but a flawed one, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2008 Democracy index. The conclusion is drawn on the basis of the country's performance on 60 indicators which measure electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation and political culture.

The Democracy index ranks India 35th out of 167 countries, among other nations considered 'flawed democracies' including Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil.

Pakistan ranks at 108 out of 167.

The good news is that with an overall score of 7.8 out of 10, India is close to the category of 'full democracy' nations.

India's scores take a beating in the category of political participation and political culture. The index also points out that "unwieldy and sometimes uncooperative coalitions" often hinder economic reforms. Though government functioning scores decently, corruption and lack of government accountability drags down the score in this category. Hence, "uncooperative coalitions "dragged India down in this ranking! (That is why I say that bar must be raised for regional parties for a national participation otherwise they will continue to play spoil-sport!)

The Economist has in a study examined the state of democracy in 167 countries and attempted to quantify this with an Economist Intelligence Unit Index of Democracy which focused on five general categories; electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation and political culture.

The countries are categorized into:

1. Full democracies—scores of 8-10.
   
2. Flawed democracies—scores of 6 to 7.9.
   
3. Hybrid regimes—scores of 4 to 5.9.
   
4. Authoritarian regimes—scores below 4.
   

Sweden scored a total of 9.88 on a scale from zero to ten, which was the highest result, while North Korea scored the lowest with 0.86.

According to Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index 2008:

# 1: Sweden

# 2: Norway

# 3: Iceland

# 4: Netherlands (Holland)

# 10: Australia

# 17: Japan

# 18: USA

# 21: UK

# 108: Pakistan

# 161; Saudi Arabia

# 163: Burma (Myanmar)

Last (# 167): North Korea


Methodology

As described in the report, the democracy index is a kind of weighted average based on the answers of 60 questions, each one with either two or three permitted alternative answers. Most answers are "experts' assessments"; the report does not indicate what kinds of experts, nor their number, nor whether the experts are employees of The Economist or e.g. independent scholars, nor the nationalities of the experts. Some answers are provided by public opinion surveys from the respective countries.

1. "Whether national elections are free and fair";
   
2. "The security of voters";
   
3. "The influence of foreign powers on government";
   
4. "The capability of the civil servants to implement policies".
   

The details of this study can be found in this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index

Unite against Criminal Candidates: Do not Vote for them!

Of course we know (literate as well as illiterate voters) that goons are ruling us. Some of the  political leaders have criminal records (hence we can call them criminals), majority are tainted: tainted by corrupt practices, nepotism, and favoritism and inefficiency. The charges against many of these leaders have not come into light or have not been proven! But the major perception is that the current herd of political leaders- spanning across all political parties - are self-serving.

Thus it is clear that 2 major diseases that afflict our democracy are: Criminalization of politics and lack of accountability.

Thus does this slogan make any sense: Vote and choose a clean leader? This voice has become very prominent particularly in these elections, thanks to the technology (blogs, text messages, social networks, twitter, TV and radio, etc). When all political parties are giving tickets to goons in these upcoming Lok Sabha elections of 2009, who do we choose? The dilemma is understandable.

Let me express what I feel on this issue:

Decriminalization of politics requires policy changes. Elections are a few weeks away, so we can not count on this. Whereas the public, NGOs, eminent social leaders and activists must continue their struggle to press for the electoral reforms on a national basis, for the current Lok Sabha elections, here are my simple formulas:

1. Vote we must. Each vote counts. We get a holiday from the government on this day (hence it makes much more sense to at least perform this holy ritual!). Meanwhile have we secured our papers for the eligibility to cast a vote?

2. Best value of vote: Let us make a pledge: Whatever political party I like, my vote will go to the best candidate among the current contestants. That means, who is least corrupt, who has shown interest in public affairs, who has done the best development work (may not apply on a newcomer), who has ignited least of the caste and religious passions. 
Hence, I will vote not on the basis of caste, creed and religion.

3. Vote for national parties:  Without sounding like contradicting my point # 2, I would urge to vote for a national party. These are Parliamentary elections, not assembly elections. The regional parties by securing tits and bits of LS seats will play the role of middle-men and will 'hang' the nation! They will always look for opportunity to stall the central governments even on regional issues (now think, is that justified?). They will be on big sale during festivals like "No confidence motion). 

4. Vote one and motivate another to vote: Let it be a chain reaction.

 It is generally seen that illiterate voters come out in good numbers and vote en-bloc or en-masse! No grudges! At least they are voting. But educated voters need to come out and vote. 

As I wrote yesterday that in the survey by The Economist , India stands at 35th out of 167 and we are classified as a "Flawed Democracy" and not even a full democracy: thus much needs to be achieved in that direction! Our struggle is long, but first step first: let us focus on these elections: try to choose the best lot!

# Cast your vote: each vote counts!
# Motivate others to vote. Wake them on the voting day!

# Let law-breakers not become law-makers!

Pilibhit Drama

The comments by Varun Gandhi in a public election meeting invoked NSA ( National Security Act) against him. Now he is behind bars at Etah Jail in Uttar Pradesh.If we see teh scenario from starting it raises so many questions in my mind which are as follows :-

- First One is that District Administration acting on behalf of the central powers who might want to play a similar game as happened in Royal family of Nepal few years ago means to damage/end the carrier of Varun Gandhi.

- Secondly does history is repeating itself, as in the case of Mr. Sanjay Gandhi S/o Late Shri Indira Gandhi, Ex-Prime Minister of India, When Sanjay Gandhi publicly stands against the wrong policies & decision (according to him).

- It may be also possible that by highlight the issue BJP wants to attract more and more Hindu votes in view of its failures in construction of Ram Temple at Ayodhya.

-May be media is highlight the issue more than required and taking this oppourunity for increasing their popularity and revenues

- BJP is trying to re-draw the Mr. Narendra Modi Victory in Gujarat in last election due to hard hindutva face of Mr. Modi.

- Mr. Varun & Mrs. Maneka Gandhi trying to implement the thinking of this father Late Shri Sanjay Gandhi who died in a accident due to unknown reasons.

- Madam Mayawati, BSP Leader may wants to take election benefit (making alliance with congress/shifting other castes vote banks in his favour) by posing herself as a strict administrator in front of Janta(Common men)

DEAR READERS,

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Reason of Corruption

We all knows about the corruption in our country. We talk about it, raise many question and wants solution of corruption which had very wide reach in the system. It is increasing everyday like anything and had its roots and branch in every department of the system whether private of government sector. But what are the reasons behind the corruption? Why does it happens? I think there are many reasons behind it some of which are as follows :-

- Inability to meet the basic requirements of life

- Greediness to become more rich

- Fear of survival against changing circumstances

- Wish to become more powerful

I think corruption is somewhere has its roots deeps in our history. The TIP given to waiter, INAM given to maid, festival gift given to sweeper/dhobi/guard/driver/others are all branches of tree of corruption in one or other way.

Lets take a example of Some Big Land Lord in a village in ancient era of India or pre independence. Landlords used to keep the lower class / middle peoples for households, farming and others jobs and takes lot of work from them without any defined time limits and criteria to pay, landlord used to pay them a very little/small amount against their services which is not sufficient to complete the daily needs of workers so they request something extra which is given to them in the form of small Inam/ little value Gift on Festivals/functions to show the kindness of landlords. Actually this is the stage from where corruption starts, with the passing time this inam/gift system after the work has taken form of bribe and its is now a part of system. So to remove corruption we need to improve the condition of lower class peoples by stopping their exploitation.

In modern times small class peoples are known as lower class/4th class peoples working in offices and still not getting proper reimbursement against their services to complete their daily needs by wrong means they tries to do earn some money. To become richer and more powerful senior officers take bribes and increase corruption due to their greed. They think that with the help of money and power they will be able to sustain themselves in case of any problem/tough time. In between senior officials/lower class middle level executives working feels that when everyone is earning by wrong (corruption) means so he also get involves in the same thing due to environment effect, stressful life and his wish to go upward.

To remove corruption we must stop exploitation of small peoples/lower class and Implement Anti-Corruption measures from TOP ORDER/Upper Class the results will definitely improve. Anti-Corruption departments performance must be analysed on regular basis by independent bodies whose members are from Government, NGOs, RWAs, etc.

Antarctic Peninsula - Ice Textures [PICS]

Amazing photos from The log of Rachel and Kevin Fox's trip to the Antarctic Peninsula.

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Huge Antarctic Ice Shelf Headed for Collapse

The Wilkins Ice Shelf has been cracking in new places recently and images released by the European Space Agency show that it will probably very soon break off entirely. A 62 square mile piece broke off in May 2008.

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Eye Blindness & Eye Donation

In large population of India many peoples are suffered from the problem of blindness. Many of these patients are not aware about the solution of the problem or feels that solution is not located in their nearby area and even many thought that it is not possible to restore their eye sight. Eye vision of many blind peoples can be restored by giving them the donated eyes but a large number of peoples are not taking initiative for registering themselves for eye donation due to religious views, less awareness, hesitations etc. Many times some peoples are not able to register because of formalities involved or don't have the time to go to the eye bank/hospital to register them so online registration facility for eye donation must be started. It may be available right now but I was not able to find it. In comparison to other countries India is far behind in eye donations instead of its large population.

Government/NGO's are working hard to fight this problem but results are not up to the mark. As per my observations, in small towns peoples are ready to donate but in big cities don't because of busy life or some other reasons as mentioned previously.

I think some eye donation camps must be organised like blood donation camps in big factories/corporate sector/colleges where a large number of peoples works and gather regularly.

I am in the process of doing the registration for eyes donation and I request all the blog readers to register for eye donation so that when you go from this world someone else can see the world through your eyes and in this way you will live even after your death. We should remember that Indian history/culture is known for its kindness and many of our religious leaders & famous kings in the history have donated themselves so lets come forward and keep our culture alive.

Dial 1919 in eye donation helpline.

Dear friends please come forward and post your ideas for eyes donations.