Making it Happen: Genome Valley, the biotech hub of India

March 1, 2021

A world class life science cluster in the outskirts of Hyderabad would have gone unnoticed but for COVID. This is the place where, led by Bharat Biotech, 4 out of 6 home grown vaccines are being developed (some already developed and being manufactured). Genome valley has about a third of...

MAKING IT HAPPEN: TRANSFORMATIVE EXCISE POLICY

February 23, 2021

It is a moot point whether respective State Governments should impose prohibition, banning sale of potable alcohol. Some States like Gujarat and Bihar indeed have. There are arguments both for and against it. However, everyone admits that excise revenue arising out of tax on liquor sale constitutes a big chunk...

MAKING IT HAPPEN: REVIVING ECOSYSTEM OF RAMNAGAR

February 16, 2021

Ramnagar I is a coastal Block in Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal. It is vulnerable to coastal erosion. On account of climatic events of Bay of Bengal, it experiences periodic shocks in the context of livelihood. There were two primary issues that were plaguing the villages near the sea...

Making it happen: Mukhipata waterfall

February 9, 2021

Madanpur Rampur is one of the 13 Blocks of Kalahandi District in Odisha and is located 65 kilometres away from District headquarter, Bhawanipatna. This Block with a population of about 92,000 comprises 19 graam panchayats. There are 235 revenue villages and more than 50 hamlets and forest villages. Nine of...

Making it happen: The long road to freedom

February 2, 2021

The Banjaras or the Lambadas are historically a nomadic tribe who ancestrally are of Rajasthan descent and are housed in hamlets called as “Thandas’’. One such hamlet is the Sarwapuram Thanda in Mahabubabad District, Telangana State, 200kms away from Hyderabad. The only connectivity this Thanda had until Nov 2020 was...

Making it happen: Gram panchayat development plan

January 26, 2021

It was the first Monday after the Union Budget of 2015, when S M Vijayanand, an IAS officer belonging to Kerala cadre took over as Secretary, Panchayati Raj, Government of India. There was a palpable gloom in the Ministry. The annual allocation of the Ministry had been slashed from over...

Making it happen: Transforming solar energy sector

January 19, 2021

It was 2014. Consequent to the “findings” in a CAG report and subsequent endorsement of the report by the Supreme Court, all hell seemed to have broken loose in the coal sector. I was posted as Coal Secretary to clear the mess. In the following couple of years, the coal...

Making it happen: Revival of tourism in Madhya Pradesh

January 12, 2021

The tourism scenario in Madhya Pradesh in the summer of 2004 was dismal. Despite its amazing bouquet of tourist destinations and cultural offerings it was nowhere in the front league of tourism in the country. The tourism corporation that was mandated with the task of developing tourism was in a...

Making it Happen: Namodag, a success story

January 5, 2021

After superannuation in June, 2018, I worked for a few months as Chief Executive Officer of State Planning Board, Jharkhand at the behest of the then Chief Minister, Raghubar Das who trying his best to foster development in a state that had been left behind such other states that had...

Making it happen: Action against domestic violence

December 29, 2020

The noise of yelling and screaming, accompanied with a clatter of a leather belt hitting a human being, were common sounds that the neighborhood had grown used to as a routine in some parts of the pristine hills surrounding Pune City of Maharashtra. There was almost a fixed protocol that...