The Changing Face of Campaign Journalism

The first thing that comes to my and I'm pretty sure most of your minds when we talk about campaign journalism in today's times is the unresolved case of Aarushi Talwar. The 'soap- operaisation' of the murder case by turning it into a sex-crime saga is despicable to say the least. It was a private bedroom murder and should have been left to that.

It is appalling to witness the extent to which the media can go just for the sake of TRPs. Campaign journalism has lost it's purpose with the media only taking up issues which according is event-based and interests the urban middle-class. With farmer suicides on the rise and a number of environmental problems in various parts of our country, there is certainly no dearth of 'real' issues that can be taken up by the media to campaign for.

This trend of highlighting certain issues as the lead news story and ignoring other issues, of sometimes greater importance, has dangerous ramifications as the public tends to believe the media without thinking twice. The main reason is that there is no in-depth investigation of any issue. The electronic media in particular is so dependent on 'sound-bite' journalism that all reporting is now absolutely on face value. Today, even mere allegations are passed off as 'news.'

This is not to say that some of the issues taken up by the media like the Jessica Lal case and Save the Tigers campaign are not worth campaigning for, however, the media should fulfill it's role of Public Service by covering issues of social relevance without any biased ideology whatsover.

Breaking the barriers

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Don-t-create-barriers-to-migration--promote-movement-of-people--World-Bank-expert/673449/

Traditionally being treated as separate, migration and development are today increasingly viewed through the prism of the many links that exist between these two fields. While development-oriented actions can help tackling the root causes of migratory flows, migration can, in turn, contribute positively to development, including economic growth, social empowerment and technological progress.

As legal migration opportunities and jobs are dwindling, migrants are at a higher risk to experience exploitation, discrimination and xenophobia(antipathy towards foreigners).

To ensure widespread human development, security and prosperity, Governments and all sectors of civil society need to work together to improve conditions for migrants and eliminate barriers to human mobility.

Thus, the appropriate objective of policy with respect to migration should not be to end migration, as some politicians have dangerously suggested, but rather to ensure that migration proceeds out of choice rather than compulsion.

An interesting piece I found related to the issue of women's empowerment

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2010/08/22/stories/2010082250210400.htm

Only IF..

As the PM, Mr. Manmohan Singh, addressed the country from the historic Red Fort on the occasion of India's 63rd Independence Day a feeling of discontentment overcame me. The spirit of national pride was completely missing as the PM made all these promises which somewhere deep down we all know are never going to be fulfilled. This feeling of hopelessness is what I dream to overcome if I ever become the PM of India.

The opacity of the entire system has bothered the citizens long enough. Corruption and inequality in all sectors are the two major obstacles which I would want to overcome by turning words into actions and making sure that all the programmes initiated by the govt are actually implemented and taken full advantage of by the people it was meant for. Looking at the current status this seems pretty much impossible but atleast I'd want the people to know and believe that an effort is being towards ensuring a more transparent system and that they can put their trust on their elected representatives.

Each year on this date a white paper should be presented by each constituency on the development that have taken place on the fronts of eradication of poverty, education, infrastructural development amongst others as against the current practice of rhetorics. This will ensure the citizens of the progress taking place around them and will make them feel aware and a part of the system which according to me is democracy in the true sense.

For me as the PM nothing would be more satisfactory than knowing that the citizens of my country have full faith in the system and are proud to be associated with this beautifully diverse nation.

Population Explosion - Taming the numbers

The alarming rate at which the population of our country is rising has always been a reason of great concern. Many attempts in the form of family planning and awareness programmes have been made by the government to counter this problem but the results so far haven't been too impressive.

China, the only country which is more populous than India, has taken stern measures over the last few years to successfully slow down the rates of growth of population. They have been promoting the idea of a single child and have even gone to the extent of taxing the parents who have 2 or more children. This policy no doubt has shown incredible results but it also has had some adverse effects which has led the international community to question the continuation of such a policy.

The single child policy has created a skewed sex ratio as parents prefer to have a son over a daughter. This disparity in the sex ratio can have a negative impact in the long run. Also the number of abortions have significantly increased.

In a discussion in the Parliament on motion on population stabilization on the 4th of August (report Indian Express, 5th July) the Health Minister, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad said that there is an urgent need to control population but efforts towards this end will be made through massive awareness and not through law or coercive action. He pointed out that there is a need to change the mindsets of the people, which according to me is the only way in which the population of our country will ever be able to come under control. Members of Parliament could take the lead in spreading awareness campaign in their constituencies he said.

It remains to be seen how effectively our country is able to tackle this huge issue which is a big stumbling block on the path to development.

Agricultural Extension

The well-being of the rural population worldwide is invariably linked to the performance of the agricultural sector and to the sector's ability to cope with the challenges that result from rising population pressures, changing demand for food and agricultural products, resource scarcity, climate change, and greater production uncertainty.

Public research and extension has played a major role in increasing production and productivity in agriculture and allied sectors in the past. The nature and scope of agricultural extension has undergone fundamental changes since then. Transferring research results on farmers’ fields is an important challenge facing us today.

It is important to disseminate information about new technologies so that the farmer is able to make use of the latest agricultural developments. There also exists a gap between research findings and the needs of farmers. For technology to be successful, it is important that it should serve a useful purpose to the end user.

The Department of Agriculture and Cooperation has taken several initiatives to revitalize the agriculture extension system in the India. One of the important steps being the formation of Agricultural Technology Management Agency (or ATMA) which aims at making extension systems farmer driven and farmer accountable by way of new institutional arrangements for technology dissemination at the district level to operationalize the extension reforms.

Agricultural Extension Service (AES) is an institution that bridges the gap between farmers and agricultural research scientists. This service works through an Agricultural Research System in the States.

The main objective of Agriculture Extension Services or AES's is to transmit latest technical know-how to farmers. Besides this, the AESs also focuses on enhancing farmers' knowledge about crop techniques and helping them to increase productivity. This is done through training courses, farm visits, on farm trials, kisan melas, kisan clubs, advisory bulletins and the like.

As time passes the role of agricultural extension as a facilitator of agricultural knowledge system would only increase as more participants from private sector would get involved in extension. It is likely that input related extension (seed, fertiliser, machines and chemicals) would move to private sector in the future. The public sector extension would still continue to be the major extension provider in most parts of the country as the private sector alone would not be able to meet even partially the varied needs of farmers. The ability of the system to perform these roles would entirely depend on the pace of internal reforms, the system would undergo. Experience has made it quite clear that it is easy to change farmers than to change government agencies. Internal reforms are thus going to be the greatest challenge for the Indian Extension System.