Anand Matth Blog - Nationalist Indian celebrating 75 yesrs of Indian independence

  How will efficiency of parliament increase?   Congress objected to Parliament session at night to commemorate passing of GST bill but the ruling BJP were determined to hold a night session of Parliament. Their logic was – why will only Jawaharlal Nehru have the monopoly to hold night session of parliament? GST tax system initiated by UPA government of Dr. Manmohan Singh but they can’t clear the bill due to policy paralysis associated with that government. Opposition BJP and BJP chief ministers including Gujarat CM Modi opposed UPA’s GST bill. But the same GST bill with some modifications were passed by BJP government under PM Modi. GST bill itself was not bad as it unified the country with ‘one country one tax’ system and eliminated variation of tax from state to state creating inefficiency. The GST implementation was chaotic to say the least. However, few years later, GST collection in all months of year 2021 is above Rs 1 lakh Crore, symbolizing stability in GST sy...

Who is the most eligible successor to PM Narendra Modi in BJP?   In 1996 Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) was formed by the Shiv-Sena-BJP government of Maharashtra to create better roads under PPP model. The first ‘expressway’ in India came up between Mumbai and Pune and Nitin Gadkari was behind this project. The expressway fully opened in 2002 giving Indian commuters a new experience. Two-wheelers and slow vehicles were not allowed in this expressway and commuting time was greatly reduced. The next expressway in India was Noida-Agra ‘Yamuna’ expressway initiated by UP government under CM Mayawati. This was north India’s first expressway and it created lot of political resistance by opposition parties in UP. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi led farmer’s resistance against land acquisition for the expressway. He visited a greater Noida district ‘Bhatta Parsaul’ village where land acquisition resistance was going on to revive congress’s political fortune in. R...

Is Indian Railway doing well under the Modi government? I visited Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, Gujarat for the first time in 1988 as one of my relatives joined an electronics company there in 1987. Gandhinagar Electronics Zone Industries Association (GEZIA) ( website: http://www.geziaonline.org/) was established since 1987 it the capital of Gujarat zone and is the first and foremost Industrial electronics zone established and dedicated to electronic industries there as city planners wanted private sector non-polluting industry jobs in a predominantly government employee city. Gandhinagar was well planned city just like Chandigarh and its central sector was sector-21, just like Chandigarh has sector-17 but it is too small compared to Delhi. It has the state assembly and people were mostly state government employees. That changed in mid 1980s when GEZIA helped some big players like BPL electronics, Tata Telecom etc. open their shop. Most of the non-Gujarati corporate people who came th...

Is there focus on tourism under the Modi government? Can India become a tourism hub, considering the rich heritage and natural diversity of India? What is the biggest barrier?   In 2021, UNESCO nominated two Indian sites as UNESCO world heritage site - Rudreshwara, popularly known as Ramappa Temple in Telengana and Dholavira city which is similar to Harappa of ancient Indus valley civilization. “Since 2014, India has added 10 new World Heritage sites - one-fourth of our total sites. This shows PM @narendramodi's steadfast commitment in promoting Indian culture, heritage and the Indian way of life,” the Union minister for culture G Kishan Reddy tweeted. Before 2014, there were only 30 such sites in India, and in last 7 years, 10 sites have been added making total count 40. This means a significantly higher focus to promote Indian culture and tourism under Modi government. UNESCO generally nominates one site per country per year but in India, more than one site was nominated pe...