2012 Primary Debate Schedule

May 5th, 2011 Watch Entire Video (83 minutes)
Location: Peace Center in Greenville, SC
Sponsor: Fox News and South Carolina Republican Party
Participants: Johnson, Paul, Cain, Pawlenty, Santorum

June 13th, 2011 Watch Entire Video (100 minutes) – Post-Debate Analysis
Location: Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH
Sponsor: CNN, WMUR-TV and New Hampshire Union Leader
Participants: Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Paul, Pawlenty, Romney, Santorum

July 10th, 2011 Postponed Indefinitely
Location: The M Resort, Las Vegas, NV
Sponsor: The Daily Caller, Americans for Tax Reform and Citizen Outreach Foundation
Participants: TBD

August 11th, 2011 Watch Entire Video (80 minutes)
Location: Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa
Sponsor: Fox News, The Washington Examiner and the Republican Party of Iowa
Participants: Bachmann, Romney, Pawlenty, Paul, Cain, Huntsman, Santorum, Gingrich

September 5th, 2011 Palmetto Freedom Forum
Watch Entire Video (2 hours)
Location: Columbia, South Carolina
Sponsor: Senator Jim DeMint and the American Principles Project
Participants: Romney, Gingrich, Bachmann, Cain, Paul

September 7th, 2011 Watch Entire Video (108 minutes)
Location: Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA
Sponsor: Reagan Library, NBC News and Politico
Participants: Perry, Paul, Huntsman, Romney, Santorum, Gingrich, Bachmann, Cain

September 12th, 2011 Watch Entire Video (100 minutes)
Location: Florida State Fair Grounds in Tampa, FL
Sponsor: CNN and the Tea Party Express
Participants: Perry, Bachmann, Romney, Paul, Gingrich, Cain, Santorum, Huntsman

September 22nd, 2011 Watch Entire Video (2 hours)
Location: The Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL
Sponsor: Fox News, Google and Florida Republican Party
Participants: Perry, Bachmann, Romney, Paul, Gingrich, Cain, Santorum, Huntsman, Johnson

October 11th, 2011 Watch Entire Video (2 hours)
Location: Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH
Sponsor: Bloomberg, The Washington Post and WBIN-TV
Participants: Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Huntsman, Paul, Perry, Romney, Santorum

October 18th, 2011 Watch Entire Video (1 hr 40 minutes)
Location: Sands Expo Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV
Sponsor: CNN and the Western Republican Leadership Conference
Participants: Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Paul, Perry, Romney, Santorum

November 9th, 2011 8pm ET on CNBC
Location: Oakland University in Rochester, MI
Sponsor: CNBC, the Michigan Republican Party and Oakland University
Participants: TBD

November 15th, 2011 8pm ET on CNN
Location: Washington, DC
Sponsor: CNN, The Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute
Participants: TBD

December 1st, 2011 Air time TBD on CNN
Location: Arizona
Sponsor: CNN and the Republican Party of Arizona
Participants: TBD

December 10th, 2011 Air time TBD on ABC
Location: Des Moines, IA
Sponsor: ABC News and Republican Party of Iowa
Participants: TBD

December 15th, 2012 9pm ET on Fox News
Location: Sioux City Convention Center in Sioux City, Iowa
Sponsor: Fox News and Republican Party of Iowa
Participants: TBD

January 12th, 2012 Air time TBD on PBS
Location: Iowa Public Television in Johnston, IA
Sponsor: Des Moines Register and Iowa Public Television
Participants: TBD

January 16th, 2012 9pm ET on Fox News
Location: Myrtle Beach Convention Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Sponsor: Fox News and Republican Party of South Carolina
Participants: TBD

January 19th, 2012 Air time TBD on CNN
Location: Charleston, SC
Sponsor: CNN and the Southern Republican Leadership Conference
Participants: TBD

January 26th, 2012 Air time TBD on CNN
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Sponsor: CNN and Republican Party of Florida
Participants: TBD

January 30th, 2012 Air time TBD on MSNBC
Location: St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, FL
Sponsor: The St. Petersburg Times, NBC News, the National Journal and the Florida Council of 100
Participants: TBD

February, 2012 Air time TBD on ABC – Likely between February 7th and 13th
Location: NH
Sponsor: ABC News and WMUR
Participants: TBD

February, 2012 Air time TBD on Fox News – Likely between the 19th and 27th
Location: SC
Sponsor: Fox News and South Carolina Republican Party
Participants: TBD
March 5th, 2012 Air time TBD on NBC
Location: Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA
Sponsor: Reagan Library, NBC News and Politico
Participants: TBD

March 19th, 2012 Air time TBD on PBS
Location: Portland, OR
Sponsor: Oregon Public Broadcasting, NPR, PBS, and The Washington Times
Participants: TBD

The 2G scam – Learning’s for Free market system

Lot has been talked about the alleged corruption on the 2g scam. Scam they call it because the exchequer lost thousands of crores in revenue, something the government could have earned otherwise. However the question is “Where did all the money go”?

The money probably remained in the cash reserves of the telecom company or as it was with many telecom companies they did not have to borrow it from banks at high interest. Now as this resulted into reduction in the license cost, the sole benefiter remained the end consumer as the 2g services that he was enjoying came at a reduced price. The point to be analysed is “The loss of revenue to the government = Economic benefit to the consumer”.

This brings us to the fundamental question of “How much must the government intervene in the private sector by its means of taxes and regulations”. In my opinion NIL! The thick presence of regulations simply kills the competition as it results in corruption and creation of monopolistic environment. Take our telecom sector as an example – Pre liberalization India had only government run MTNL/BSNL as the providers of telecom service. This resulted into absolute monopoly of these entities, the one people benefiting out of such an arrangement were the company officials who often use to take bribe for a quick connection. The end users always ended up on the losing side as they had to suffer delayed/poor service and more importantly an outdated product.

Liberalization of the telecom sector brought lot of benefits to the consumer, the most important being “Competition”. This dethroned the government as being the most influential stake holder and the focus was on consumers. However in 1997 TRAI was formed by an act passed by the parliament.  On its Website TRAI states: “One of the main objectives of TRAI is to provide a fair and transparent policy environment which promotes a level playing field and facilitates fair competition.” It further goes to say “The directions, orders and regulations issued cover a wide range of subjects including tariff, interconnection and quality of service as well as governance of the Authority.”  By doing this the government has placed immense power in its hands.

Should the government be regulating the tariffs in a sector with private players? Or should it be left to the basic principal of Demand and Supply with competition to influence the tariffs. Who decides a standard quality of a service? If the government forces the service providers to maintain a high quality of service as it says in its motto and it does this by ignoring the cost associated with it. Wouldn’t it increase the operational cost just to maintain a high standard which the consumer might not actually desire as he is enjoying a reasonable quality standard by paying less? This very important as India is not Europe.

The government has no right intervening in a private sector; this is because government intervention results in government accumulating unnecessary power. This results in associated ministers getting powerful authorities which motivate private sector players to bribe them so as to create policies favoring them. This again results into a wide scale corruption and formation of monopolies, something which was witnessed during Mr. Pramod Mahajan era (Then Minister of Telecom). Why else is that despite India being the second largest telecom market in the world, still has the least number of international service providers?

Infinity and beyond

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so“

– Mark Twain

Sitting on my flexi chair in my computer room in my house which is located in the suburbs of Mumbai which is on the west coast line of India which is located in South Asia continent on Earth which is a part of a galaxy which is a part of a universe …………… tiring/boring…isn’t it? …but does the story ends here or has the mystery just begun …I always wonder.

Like mentioned earlier by someone that there cannot be a smallest part of something as there is always a smaller part of the so called smallest part, likewise is there an upper limit of anything? Does the outer space keeps on expanding in its quietness yet having a violent nature. Is there a possibility of a better Earth in this vastness?

Mind wonders in figuring out whether this complex phenomenon is a result of a reaction or of some purpose. If the answer is “Reaction” then what existed before that? And if the answer is “Purpose” then is there an end to this?

We have advanced a lot in astronomy; it is a science which helps us to understand the past and the present of stars & space proving it to be a reaction, an occurrence. It tries to fix the meaning of this matrix. But is it not possible that we are the ones who are being observed?…… are we an experiment or a result of some experiment………

self appraisal

 

It might not always be about keeping your head high, it might also be about checking how low you are

 

It might not always be about thinking what you can achieve; it can also be about how much you already have

 

It might not always be about how much you have to worry, it might just be about the things that you own to relax with

 

It might not always be about the things to can you be proud of, it can also be about the selfish deed that you have committed

 

It might not always be about blaming the system full of corruption, it can also be about the environment that you created for the corruption to survive

 

It might not always be about the tiresome travel to the work daily in the crowded city, it might also be about the starvation death for others

 

It might not always be about the money you didn’t have to buy stuff, it might be the lack of motivation to earn

 

It might not always be about the competition that killed you, it can just be you who didn’t realise the true self

Life or something like it

I remember the school bell ringing, it held a lot of significance for it was a signal of freedom, freedom for all the built up energy inside the body, but which was bound by the determination to adhere to the rules learnt some months ago. Then we ran, ran out of our KG class rooms, some to the canteen, some to the drinking area, some to the toilet to relieve themselves, some where the teacher led them & some just for the sake of running, happy to have their miniscule hands and legs to enjoy it.

How insensitive were we to all the surroundings (Babri masjid etc) yet how sensitive we were of each other. How individualism made no sense for all had unknowingly decided to face any uncertainty together, may it be a new ugly snack from the canteen or homework or a new subject, a new teacher or an occasional visit by the school principal, all shared the same emotions and we all shared a common view point about it.

How was it that instead of remembering our parents we looked at each other’s face seeking comfort during nervousness? The only few things which did manage to create imbalances amongst us were those fancy pencil boxes or school bags, the owner of which hardly cared for it, but it was the unfortunate others who knew its true value. How was it that those vibrant colored fancy pencil, pencil boxes, erasers, foot rulers, Tiffin box looked more beautiful than today’s modern world’s sophisticated lifestyle gadgets. Probably because back then we never focused on its performance but we just admired its beauty. May be back then it was all about the beauty and never about duty.

Would you call this lack of intelligence or was it just Innocence?

Was it ever meant for us to move out of this innocence & work for a selfish world? & to live on selfish principles just to get lost in this industrial waste? Why has the world evolved into this complex matrix, to understand which we have to undergo not less than 16 years of education just to conclude to exist as an n^th unit of this complex mass.

Is it only few of us who are trying to fight their way back to their innocence or have we all lost ourselves in this race of life, in this complexity of life? Have we and all our emotions been confined to a small block in this vast matrix, where our happiness behave like free radicals but which cannot move out of the box to be observed and absorbed by others. They just rebound from the thick walls of the block.

Is this life or something like it ….. still waiting for the bell to ring one more time ….