India Culture, Business, Sports and Food. Get all the buzz in India now

Gems and precious stones are worn not in India but in the world from ancient time by the Kings and nobles. It is a common belief that the gems and stones can change the destiny and bring prosperity and happiness to the man. They are permanent source of energy. They have the capabilities to increase the power of specific planet. So Gems & stones are advised to be worn for health, wealth, power and fame. The people are worn stones and gems not only to gain wealth but also to protect themselves from ill health. They have firm faith that these gems and stones not only protect them from bad evils but also increasing their longevity. The Kings and rich used to collect precious stones in their treasure. These stones and gems have different in colour, characteristics and vibrations. The different stones represent the different planets/Nakshatra and to be worn accordingly. The colour and the luster play an important role and influence the native. The planets/Nakshtras release the rays (positive and negative energy) which affect the native. It has been observed, people wearing gems without any knowledge of the astrology. Hence, it is important to learn which stone/gem should be worn and turned down the bad effect of the particular planet/Nakshatra. It is a misconception among the people that gems/stones always releases positive energy. The Gems and Stones are suggested after the analysis of the Horoscope/Birth-Chart of the native.  One should be alert while wearing the Gems/Rattans. The Gems or Rattans need to be worshipped before wearing. They should be worn in the particular time (Shubh Mhurat).Defective Gems should never be worn because they bring trouble instead of happiness. Having black spot on the surface brings havoc sometimes in life. It is necessary to consult the Astrologer before wearing the Gem/ stones.

The parliament of India, a building in light Redstone is spread in the diameter of 2 kms. In the decades of 70’s and 80’s, in the outer circle of the Parliament, all those big rooms held the name plates of Congress ministers. If you go there now, you will find that there are names like Lalu Prasad Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan, Sharad Pawar, A. Raja, Anbumani Ramadoss and Raguvansh Prasad Singh etc- people who have nothing to do with Congress. This would describe you the deep impact occurred due to the shifting of tectonic plates in politics of India.

India is no longer wearing the congress variety of tricolor. Today there are more than 20 shades which includes blue, red, saffron, green and yellow. There are 37 parties which we together know as government of India. Of course majority of them are the regional parties who have presence are not more than 2 states at the maximum. This change in the political arena has also gripped the states. There are smaller parties who are there because of their roots in caste or religion, are in power in most of the states.

In 1952 elections, 27 regional political parties got just 16 seats against the congress’s 339 in the House of 466. In 2004 elections, congress managed to get 151 seats and 26 regional parties won 126 seats. The party which once ruled in 20 of the 24 states in 1982 has its presence in 2007, in just 12 out of 29 states. This tells another story of political mutation.

Why can’t we get a single political party to rule? This would also ensure political stability. Well, on one hand we have Congress party which failed to retain its regional big daddies, on the other hand is the Janta Party which managed to disintegrate into more than half a dozen small parties. We now have local but powerful caste leaders like Ajit Singh, Lalu, Paswan, Mayawati, Mulayam and Gawda to name a few.  Even BJP, which one gave some hope by ruling the nation for six years, could not manage to stop regional resurgence.

The leadership famine being faced by both the Congress and BJP, the nation is unlikely to get a single party government in the near future. We may say it is only after 60 years of Indian Independence that India has become a true federation of states in which various castes, religions and other identities and aspirations have found their legitimate place in the ruling establishment.

NRIs are the major drivers of the real estate market especially in the northern India, in particular in Punjab. As of now the real estate market in the state was going through the regular highs and lows. When the local buyers and sellers are waiting in the annexes of the market to make attractive gains, so are the NRIs.

According to the experts the transactions in buying and selling in real estate which involves the NRI community have increased in the past two years. This rich community has helped scale up the market prices by investing heavily in the real estate sector. The NRI community and IT professionals were on the top of the list when the local and national players were busy launching their residential projects. With a positive response from the NRI clientele, most builders focused on the luxury apartments and put the comparatively cheaper segment on the backburner.

The turndown in the market disappointed the NRI investors also. In the boom years, during the festival season, NRIs invested heavily especially Diwali. The national real estate developers, a company that had reserved a huge portion of its new luxury project for the NRI population. It had also focused heavily on marketing in foreign countries for attracting the NRI community. However the company failed to get the expected response.

The strategy of the builders and developers has changed due to the withdrawal of NRI money from the market. There has been a gradual movement to budget housing from the luxury apartments. The expected growth in the IT industry in the region did not materialize beyond the initial euphoria, and the investment push expected from the NRI investors also did not come about in the last two years. So the prices of the residential projects, where were kept high keeping this clientele in mind, have become untenable with the ground reality. The result is that builders are stuck with their projects as the NRI investors have withdrawn and the prices are too high for the locals to afford.

The uncertainty of the government policy regarding real estate licensing, especially the environment policy regarding the real estate projects has also scared away the NRI investors.

It is learnt that when Amrita Pritam and Imroz moved to their Delhi residence they also agreed to the pact that the lady would cook the meals while the groom would make the tea for both. Well the pact was fine till Imroz found himself most of the time during the day in the kitchen with the tea pot on the gas stove making tea for the visitors, that too who had come to see Amrita.

People now have to do with Green Label and Tata Gold for daily cups and Duncan’s Runglee Rungliot, named after the priced tea garden in Darjeeling for formal occasions. And heres how they like to put their cup of tea. Tea leaves put in the pot and pouring hot water over it. Adding milk latter to retain the original aroma of the leaves. Another tip, use fresh water and not the filtered one.

For me tea with nostalgia was way back and now I am used to having the cup of tea that comes prepared from the kitchen.  However we do organize high tea when we use all that fine chine, teacosy and tea caps. A few die- hard tea fans are trying their best to keep the trading alive.

The young businessmen spend half an hour every morning indulging in an elaborate  tea affair. His collection includes Lapsang Souchong, Oolong Tea, Hojicha Matcha in Japanese variety, Tra Sen and Rose Hip from Vietnam, Rooibos a South African Red Bush tea, chamomlia from Germany and Hydrangea tea from Korea. He has an elaborate tea paraphernalia to enjoy each variety, the cups for his Korean tea comes with an inbuilt sieve, besides banboo whisks to make a frothy drink from the Japanese fine powdered tea. One of his Japanese tea varieties comes with puffed brown rice, a source of oxygen and energy.

When Gajendra Singh created Antakshri, a reality show, out of India’ home- grown favorite picnic and parlor game, in the year 1993, no one ever thought that one day such reality shows would be the life line of dipping TRPs of the TV channels which grew like anything in the past decade, more than 60 of them are just for news only. Surprisingly all are indigenous.

Singer from B- towns tried their luck in the yet another reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa in 1995. Then came the giant reality show- KAUN BANEGA CROREPATI (KBC). With Amitabh Bachchan as host, who was then a fading star, gambled through this show to re-establish himself in which he got a bumper success. It was this show which not only changed the host’s life but transformed Indian television, promising fame and fortune to the couch potatoes. The channel STAR PLUS, which aired KBC, was the channel # 1 with an audience of 22 million in 2001 which soared to 61 millions in the year 2005. The telecom servers were streamlined to confront a peak load of 4,000 SMSes per second traffic.

Making heroes out of nobodies, it was reality television boom which put mass into mass media. From 5 crore votes of first INDIAN IDOL finale, the response heaped to 7 crore in the third edition. With a reality show in almost every genre like singing (SAREGAMAPA), dance (JHALAK DIKHLA JA), comedy (GREAT INDIAN LAUGHTER CHALLENGE) and even for weight loss (BIGGEST LOSER JEETEGA).

It is reality shows countering the SAAS BAHU drama of the Indian television which has the maximum viewership. More and more format are being discovered and invented for reality shows. Some a made- in – India formats and many being licensed from abroad.

Now that India is waiting for a yet another generation of reality shows, broadcasters have scrubbed trade shows for the next big thing over the television. Even in the western countries, there is a critical situation in drama in the soap and successful shows have picked up reality television traits like THE OFFICE and LOST.

A new generation was churned out with the largest people’s movement in the independent India which shook Indira Gandhi’s government. It also tried to instill probity in the political life.

In the year 1974, “JP Movement was started by Jayaprakash Narayan, a charming and fiery leader, part of India’s struggle for Independence, against the authoritarian rule of the Congress, led by Indira Gandhi. He spearheaded this campaign at the fag end of his long political career and it represents a maturation of his political thinking and action.

He remembered and realized, during this movement, the power of the thought what Ram Manohar Lohia thought was his true potential—“JP can move the nation, provided the mover does not vacillate”. His role as the leader of the movement earned him the title of Loknayak—People’s Leader.

This movement provided the people an important channel through which they could express their resentment over many issues—rising prices, unemployment, food scarcity and corruption. Political dissent, public anger, the energy of the youth, and a vision for a society built on lokniti (peoples’ participation), rather than rajniti (political power) powered the movement.

The origins of the movement also lay in the Nav Nirman Movement of the youth in Gujarat in 1973-74, which was directed against corruption in the Congress government led by Chimanbhai Patel, with a demand for the government to be dismissed and the assembly dissolved.

Narayan brought together these diverse sentiments and differing political positions into a mass movement that was clearly anti-Congress, striving to establish the rule of law. The ideology of the movement developed while dealing with the Naxalites from 1969 onwards.

He felt that Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan Movement had failed to bring about change and had accepted the Congress misrule. The answer to this was a non-violent struggle, by the people, for a total revolution where Narayan would fight against the abuse of democratic institutions.

Vedas are considered to be the main source of all learning and knowledge in the world. Vedas are not written by any human being, so is Hindu Dharma.     Both of them are not created by any individual. The Vedas are articulated by the GOD. Vedas are the synonyms of the learning, science and knowledge. One must understand the Vedangs before studying the Vedas.  And if any one goes through the Vedas   without   studying Vedang, he would commit the blunder and get nothing. He would jump in the web of ignorance and baffled.  Vedang are six in number. They are as follows: -   

1. Shiksha (Education)
2. Kalp (The procedure for performing religious rituals)
3. Nirukat (Articulation of words, explanation and analysis)
4. Vayakaran (Grammar)
5. Chhand  ( Verses)
6. The Joyotish (Astrology)

  Astrology is the study of planets, zodiac and constellation in galaxy and how they affect the human-beings on the earth. The Indian Astrology has mainly three branches-                                                                                                     Sidandta (Astronomy)                                                                                                          Samhita (Mundane Astrology)                                                                                              Hora or Jatak (Natal Astrology)                                                                                    Sidandta (Astronomy) is the study of mathematical calculation of the movement of the planets; moon, angles, eclipse etc. and the rest of the two are the application of   (Sidandta) astronomy. Our Ancient Rishis (Masters of the Astrology) had done an excellent work and presented eighteen different doctrines before the birth of Christ. Varhamihir the well known astrologer and mathematician   of ancient India expressed his views only on five doctrines. Surya (Sun) Sidandta is the most accurate and nearer to the mathematical calculation of the modern world.  The second important part of the astrology is mundane astrology which is used for predicting natural phenomena e.g. Rains, Earthquake, Changes in climate, Famines, Political changes, Economic changes, Relation between countries, War and Peace . The books are known as Samhita e.g. Narad Sanhita, Garg Sanhita. The third most important part of this subject is Natal Astrology. It is the most popular branch of the astrology. It studies the affect of the planets and constellation on the native e.g. Education, offspring, Profession, Family, Pleasure, Sorrow, Development, Decline and Health etc. The word “Hora” and “Jatak” comes in the end with title e.g. Jatak-Parijatak, Brihtjatak, and Brihad-Parashar Hora Shastra etc.So they are called Jatak Granth (native). In this branch of astrology, Horoscope of the native is made with the help of the date of birth, place of birth and time of birth and then the prediction is made. The rule of the calculation to make a Horoscope is entirely different and the rule of the forecast is different. Horoscope is the detail explanation of the destiny of the native which presents what the native did in his/her lasts births and he/she can rectify with the Karmas (The World famous Indian philosophy established by Lord Krishna In Bhagvat Gita 5200 years before in the battle of Mahabhart fought in Kurukeshtra now declared a holy city in India) and improve his/her present and future. I t is very important to learn that Karmas (Deeds/ Act) makes destiny and the astrology gives the opportunity to analysis.

It is a science deals with the studies of the extraterrestrial objects and phenomena. Some eminent Astrologer and Astronomer of ancient India are-

1. Maharishi Parashara
2. Rishiputra
3. Arya Bhatta-I
4. Lallacharya
5. Varahmihir
6. Kalyan Verma
7. Bhaskracharya
8. Dhundiraj

We use terrestrial sphere and celestial sphere both in the study of astrology.

With their capacity to accommodate social movements that they bring into the political process, India’s democratic institutions are often praised. We can include demands expressed through civil disobedience and the politics of the street.

The Assam movement once seemed to be a stellar success of Indian democracy which started in 1979 and ended in 1985. But in retrospect its failures have become more apparent. The movement, led by the All Assam Students Union and the All Asom Gana Sangram Parishad, saw extraordinary mobilization against illegal immigration and the enfranchisement of non-citizens that, campaigners believed, risked turning the “indigenous” people of Assam into a political minority.

The Congress government, headed by Hiteshwar Saikia, resigned and the movement was ended with an agreement between the Indian government and the movement leaders. The Asom Gana Parishad, led by Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, in the elections that followed in 1985 was voted to power.

Assam’s population largely constitutes with the immigrants for Bangladesh. And it was never in dispute. British officials viewed Assam as one of the subcontinent’s last frontiers to be settled by immigrants. The Partition of 1947 could not stop the flow that began in the 1920s, of land-hungry peasants from East Bengal to sparsely-populated Assam. It intensified when Hindu refugees joined the flow. Identifying a Bangladeshi is not a simple matter because of extensive blurring between citizens and non-citizens. No wonder that the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act (IMDT) passed by Parliament in 1983 gave Bangladeshi nationals, suspected of illegally entering Assam, the protection of a quasi-judicial process

 There was an unofficial song for The Assam movement’s composed by musician Bhupen Hazarika in 1968, anticipated the movement and warned that “unless the Assamese save themselves, they will become refugees in their own land”. Another version of the song expressed pride that there are “martyrs now who can say that if Assam dies, we too shall die”. This part of the Assamese memory remains silenced in Indian public discourse which has little space for regional realities that don’t fit standard constructions of India’s modern national history.

Crossing two rivers on rickety handmade boats with a jumpy 5-km rickshaw ride in between, to reach there. Till about six years ago, there was no running water or even a bulb to read under in this small village in the Sundarbans. In an age when most urban Indians come home to almost 300 channels at their beckoning, the residents here had to do without the luxury of electric power.

The area Sundarbans now comprises 4 per cent of the world’s solar-dependant population—quite a large figure. Now, it gets six hours of electricity every evening, thanks to the two solar plants that were installed here in 2001. From being a no-name entity, Moushuni is today one of the 47 villages in and around the Sundarbans area that run only on alternative energy. The best thing about solar energy is that it is maintenance-free.

It is heavenly experience for the people who had to live in darkness even 55 years after Independence. Earlier, they had to cross the river and walk a dozen miles just to get a document photocopied. Now the bazaar has a photocopier and a digital studio. The village school is on its way to getting a computer lab. For Rs 75 per three-point and Rs 130 per five-point connection every month, the residents now have the comforts that many people in the rest of the country have long enjoyed— television sets, fans and even refrigerators.

A tenth of the total population of the village have subscribed to the solar connections. For the students’, caretakers  provides extra hours of electricity during examinations. And they have something in store for a rainy day. When there’s not enough sun, the plants have gasifiers where they burn twigs with the help of diesel and convert the heat into electricity. Though prolonged cloudy periods leave them with no choice. Each plate runs for 40 years, with a change of batteries needed every seven years.

Life here is fluctuation-free and as natural as it can possibly get. As the last boat sails away from the island, a tiny bulb lights up near its shore. And as you leave, Moushuni glitters in the distance.

If music is a powerful form of communication, Begum Akhtar was the first effective communicator. She was the one who realized the power of music and used this medium to convey a message. She zealously guarded a rare pathos in her notes as a stamp of her irreproducible style and identity. After 34 years since she passed away, today when there are only a few takers of classical music her records are still best-sellers.  She added ghazals to the classical stage and approachable to the common man. She knew how to communicate with her audience. She chose the lyrics carefully and furnished them to the audience in her own style, which helped her manage to achieve personal rapport.

She was born in 1914 in the Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh. Under the able guidance of Atta Ahmed Khan of Patiala, she began musical training. There she learnt the classical and semi-classical forms of singing be it ghazals, bhajans, dadra or thumri. She also has trained her students  and groomed them for their all round development of her students which is unbelievable.

She was a secularist and nationalist. Padam Shri Begam Akhtar was once approached by a few maulvis to get a favour for their masjid in Baranbanki as they claimed that the masjid was taken over by Hindus and they are performing pooja there. She replied, it is a form of IBADAT (prayer) that is being held there. She was a true patriot.

She always believed in the empowerment of women. Akhtaribai Faizabadi, popularly known as Begam Akhtar gave her first performance when she was 15 years old. Her first recording was recorded with Megaphone Record Company. She started her acting career with Mumtaz Begum in 1934. She stopped performing for five years after marriage. Once she fell ill and music was prescribed as the only remedy. There was a personal  rapport that she managed to achieve with each member of her audience, almost as if she was singing exclusively for an individual listener.

It was early morning on January 1, 1988, when terrorists had struck at Cheema Batth, a village in Amritsar district. In the farmhouse where gun shots had rung out the night before. Through the half-open door nine blood-splattered bodies on the floor were seen. Not a soul was left to mourn as the whole family, including a four month old child, was killed by a terrorist gang on the suspicion that they were police informers.

The massacres were as common as marriages during the 80s with more than 25000 lives lost including that of a prime minister. Two decades later, Cheema Batth is still haunting us. Statistics don’t do justice to the firestorm that swept Punjab in the name of the pro-secessionist Khalistan movement. What began as a non-violent political protest for greater autonomy in the mid-’70s, spiralled into a cycle of violence, fuelled by political chicanery, Sikh fundamentalism spearheaded by the preacher turned-militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, and the insidious support of militant groups from a hostile neighbour.

It found resonance in a section of their Diaspora, while the pro-Khalistan agitation got only a ripple of support amidst the Sikhs in the country. The army action at the Golden Temple, code named as Operation Bluestar, codenamed was the watershed in 1984, and the anti-Sikh riots following Indira Gandhi’s assassination, defining events that stoked a debilitating phase of terrorism, driven more by a paroxysm of revenge than separatist ideological underpinnings.

Much earlier before it was expected, public sentiment by the early ‘90s, turned against pro- Khalistan terrorists who ruled the state with a gun. When Punjab in mid 1992 had its first elected government after five years of President’s rule, terrorists were neutralized in a no-holds-barred police offensive. By 1993, terrorism was vanquished.

It the operation Blue star had not happened; there would have been no bloodshed in the state. This premeditated movement was in actual thrust on the so called terrorists as explained one of the former terrorists. They were used by Pakistan to keep the pot boiling. The militant movement was hijacked by criminals.  The violence-weary Sikh community wanted hardliners to take the democratic route and fight for their grievances but the radicals failed to do that.

The saga of satellite television in India which started almost 15 years ago, in many respects, one of phenomenal success. With an access to around 200 channels and an estimated 70 million homes enthusiastically subscribe to cable—making it one of the biggest national markets. Quality unconscious cable operators, however, are cheating the broadcasters and subscribers. The Central government has also abysmally failed to tailor the exponential growth of the industry, at times even proving to be a hindrance to progress.

It was the national broadcaster Doordarshan (DD), with a mainly unwatchable channel, for many years, was the only electronically-transmitted audio-visual presence. This supremacy was challenged in January 1991 when the US embarked on a bombardment of Baghdad, in retaliation for Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. From the rooftop of a Baghdad hotel, the Atlanta-based Cable News Network (CNN) was able to communicate the spectre of the aerial attack live via satellite to the whole world

When a word spread of this channel’s coverage, five-star hotels in India allocated rooms, otherwise utilized for banquets, to offer a ring-side view of the action. It was illegal to receive such a signal, under India’s archaic laws. But a force of technology was overtaking the nation, with the government frozen in bewilderment as the revolution rumbled on.

After a few months when Rajiv Gandhi was unspeakably blown to smithereens by a suicide bomber. Britain’s Independent Television News (ITN), in a world exclusive for electronic media, broke the story. Immediately, CNN, an associate of ITN, began broadcasting hourly updates.

Roughly 4, 00,000 households in India had satellite or cable connections on the night of the assassination and could keep abreast of developments. DD amazingly closed down without a mention of the incident, as its horrifying rule book precluded the extension of its transmission over the death of an opposition leader, which Gandhi then was.

In October 1992, with the advent of Zee TV, a Hindi general entertainment channel, that cable TV began expanding explosively. As word spread of this channel’s coverage, five-star hotels in India allocated rooms, otherwise utilized for banquets, to offer a ring-side view of the action. Today 68 m households in India have access to satellite and cable television. 54 m television households all over India have access to only terrestrial channels.

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is planning to amend the guidelines for new fund offerings (NFO) of mutual funds.

The plan is to draft a proposal suggesting the offer document should have to be bifurcated. The first part would deal with the funds’ investment philosophy and the pattern of the fund. The second part would have additional information which would include the details of the asset management company and the trust. It would also define the duties and obligations.

It has been observed that investors find it difficult to read and understand bulky offer documents filed by mutual funds for new fund offerings. It has been decided to make them simpler and leaner which would be easy to understand for investors and also it would be less time consuming. There are many other benefits like it would reduce the size of the offer document and will make it a lot more user friendly.

Experts for the mutual fund industry welcome this proposal. The basic information related to investment, objective, philosophy and risks involved in the fund would be given to the investor before investing and the same would be in much more precise manner. It would help investor understand the fund as to what the fund is all about and what are the risks involved in it. It also would help save time in reading the whole offer document.

The regulator is also working to simplify the Initial public offering documents as well so that fund raising and investments across asset classes should be simpler and faster. The regulator is also about to propose fast track issuance of debt instruments by the listed companies. It is also planning to cut the filing fee for mutual funds to 0.005% of the amount raised in the new fund offering which would be subject to a minimum of Rs 1 lakh and a maximum of Rs 50 Lakhs. Adding to this SEBI has also planned to slash the registration fees payable by mutual funds from Rs 50 Lakhs to Rs 25 Lakhs.

Punjab police has started charging “facilitation Charges” from the people is a hash over step, which has no place in a welfare state. Almost a year ago, when SAD-BJP government came into being, the police top brass introduced quietly the charge. This was called back when media reported about the same and a lawyer moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the charges.

The proposed list of the charges for services provided is long: People will have to pay Rs 100.00 for verification of Passport, no- objection certified copies for stolen or recovered vehicles, registration of vehicles, and to provide certified copies of documents. The charge for issuing a cop of an FIR is Rs 50. For character certificate verification, permission for exhibitions and fairs, verification of strangers, tenants and servants, renewal and “other services” the charges are Rs 200 each. Verification of arms license will cost Rs. 500. The proposed cost of getting a NOC from police for petrol pump, marriage palace or a hotel is Rs 1000.

This concept of police charging money for service provided is borrowed from outside India as there are some countries where “user charges” are charged by police for services provided. The New South Wales, for example has a system of cost recovery, but only in case of police services at special events, transport escorts, control of traffic for films shoots etc. However, the other services are provided free of charge to the common public.

The same concept proposed to be applied in Punjab has no basis. For example, the police charging Rs 50 for a copy of FIR is all rubbish as it is something that is intrinsic to their basic job. Likewise police providing NOC for marriage palaces, hotels and petrol pumps makes no sense. The question here is what role police has to play in this? Had it been a certificate form municipal authorities, town planning officials or even the pollution official, it is still understandable.

This ritual of police collecting facilitation charges is also fraught with danger because of corruption having seeped down the rank and file. The policing by the community has a long history in this country, for example thikri pehras in villages.  For years in order to certify a copy of document we either paid the requisite fee to notary (who incidentally is legally qualified). If we have to pay the police for the same then where is the word public service?

There are a few still alive, who are as old as independent India. Some of them had not even seen a Bus. These villagers drove into 21^st century in 2004 when their village was connected to the rural road network under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). This is the story of many of India’s 600000 villages where modern life has changed nay, arrived at humble homes.

This PMGSY is not an outcome of intellectual discussions or any policy blabber. It was in October 1999 when Nitin Gadkari, a BJP leader called up the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. It is heard that Mr. Vajpayee asked this Maharashtra MP if there is an over bridge of flyover to connect Bharat with India. Upon this Gadkari shared his experience of connecting 16000 villages including 100 adivasi villages in Melghat in Maharashtra. Since Gadkari had an experience of the construction of India’s most modern Six-lane expressway between Mumbai and Pune, under his belt, he knew the maths. Vajpayee advised Gadkari to head the National Rural Road Development Committee (NRRDC) and it happened for the first time in the history of India a former state minister was advising the Center.

It was this committee which found that 75% of the Indian population lives in 5.89 lakh villages of varying sizes scattered across 3.29 million sq.kms. its findings suggested that every day, 300 pregnant women died as they were not able to reach a health care center in time, Lakhs of children could not reach school during rains and rural incomes gone for toss because agricultural produce could not reach its final markets and perished. Most of this was known but not in such shocking details.

Vajpayee did not wait for any more debates or discussions. He right away kicked off the program. By charging a cess from diesel users to fund network expansion, the modality of a simple funding mechanism, the scheme was launched. In the first phase the NDA government decided to connect villages with 1000 as population (500 in hills, tribal and desert area). With construction of 3,68,000 kms of new roads and upgrading 3,70,000 kms the project required more than 100,000 crore for which instruments like banking and other agencies were roped in to fill the gaps in funding.