MyVoice: Views of our readers 31st March 2022

Good initiative by Hans to elicit views

I congratulate The Hans India for eliciting the views of youth, educationists, and the society on the importance of skill development in education. I keenly read these views everyday for the last few days. It's a great education itself to know the maturity and level of thinking of our society. I have been in the field of skills development, more specifically excellence, for the last more than 3 decades. After some experience in 'teaching' excellence, I wrote my first article with the title 'Achieving excellence through development of skills.' in the well-known 'Current Science,' Bangalore, in 2002. We sent our article to then President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, our mentor since he was Defence Advisor. He not only appreciated our efforts in spreading excellence but endorsed the FIVE Core "Skills" or "Tools" to achieve excellence and named them as Essence Of Knowledge Acquisition. Our emphasis was on FIVE core skills: Self-esteem, Enthusiasm, Humility, Positive Attitude, and Communications Skills. And our training programmes are called Essence-Cum-Knowledge Acquisition (ECKA). ECKA is not merely for the educated. I extended it to universalisation of excellence to anyone and everyone, even the illiterate. This concept was elaborated in a 4-page article in University News, November 1-7, 2021.

Professor B R Sant, Hyderabad

Indian Pestered League

IPL-15 came to an end with the final ending up as totally one sided and we lost the glimpse of a fitting final. Instead of opting to bowl after winning the toss, Sanju Samson made the clinical mistake of opting to bat first and thereby gave a glimpse of a chance for Rajasthan Royals to achieve championship win after the year 2008. Gujarat Titans achieved the title in the inaugural year and made history. Instead of making clever moves, RR fell into the hands of GT in a battle of supremacy. But for Butler there was no depth in batting and the bowling headed by Chahal never appeared to win the cup with his deadly bowling. By putting Hardik's team into bat RR could have applied pressure from the world go with Boult making early breakthroughs. RR batting was in a shambles and while resisting a total of 130, RR failed to make an experiment with the new ball and both Pandya and S Gill made a match of it. Miller played his customary role in the end and a seven wicket victory was through hard work. Hardik Pandya won the man of the match award for his all round show. Both Butler and Chahal won the orange and purple cap but in a losing cause in the end.

C K Subramaniam, Mumbai

Can AP govt sustain welfarism?

The YSRCP-led Andhra Pradesh government with Jagan Mohan Reddy at helm has completed three years in office. It has successfully registered its own stamp of welfare-oriented governance in contemporary times defying all odds due to severe economical constraints. The two-year-long pandemic, other global downturns and inherent disadvantages due to new state formation have added to the woes to a great extent. Still the government went ahead with its welfare activities in a big way. The village secretariat system and empowerment of weaker sections of society with more than what constitutionally mandated are hallmarks of this government. One has to see fingers crossed how the momentum of welfarism be sustained in coming trying times of economy. A much toughened balancing act is on the anvil for the AP government.

Dr DVG Sankararao, Vizianagaram

Why Modi ignores Nehru's contribution

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is more inclined to quote every time the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel only. Are these two political visionaries only the sole builders of India? It is observed from the inception of BJP government in 2014, Modi never ever stated the name of another stalwart, freedom fighter and spent ten year term in prison, one of the Chairmen in the Constituent Assembly, and first and fourteen-year PM of independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru, on any occasion. It is distressing to see some leaders intentionally vilifying the errors made by Nehru only to appease their bosses. On the eve of 75 years of free India Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav is being held without remembering Nehru. It is an unpardonable sin indeed. It can stoutly be said that BJP has not yet reached out to poor in eight years of its rule. The dignity of them has further deteriorated with the ever spiralling prices and static pensions for past two decades. EPS-95 is a glaring example to cite.

Dr NSR Murthy, Secunderabad