Essay on Indian Premier League Cricket match

The Indian Premier League (IPL) has taken the Twenty-20 Cricket's popularity to dizzying heights. The IPL fever has gripped the minds of the people in its full intensity. When the Twenty-20 cricket was on, IPL and its probable winner was one _ of the hottest topics of discussion everywhere. Many people are of the view that it is one of the best things that ever happens to the game of cricket. In fact IPL has become so popular worldwide that Australian Captain Ricky Pointing had to issue an appeal to his countrymen to focus more on their national team's recent series with West Indies than to watch their retired cricketers perform in IPL. The entire IPL tournament was broadcast in Australia as free-to-air and it had become a huge craze.

With the invention of Twenty-20 matches, the cricket has become an industry now. This industry has evidently stretched India's economic liberalization to ludicrous lengths. We had DLF-IPL flogging Twenty-20 matches as entertainment product that sold to cricket consumers by the seat - costing anything between Rs. 200 to Rs.5000 per fixture in Chennai. A season ticket was cost Rs 30,000/-(Chennai rates).

Seven other cities also franchised by the league promoters mainly to corporate helmed by folk such as Mukesh Ambani and Vijay Mallya; and Bollywood celebs ­Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla (jointly holding Kolkata franchise) and Preity Zinta (part-holder of Mohali franchise). These people had paid-big money. Mallya was reported to have paid $111.6 million for Bangalore and spent another Rs.15.2 core acquiring players for the city team.

Players were auctioned and even the game was mutilated in form and substance to suit the requirements of a day/night fixture. Imagine the power bill involved in such a match. Cricket, as most lovers of the sport envisage, used to be a day-light game. Haven't we seen Test matches being curtailed by poor natural light? We haven't checked if they had a fixture on April 22; and if 'Earth Day' enthusiasts have plans to protest such conspicuous power consumption in the name of cricket.

We also heard that IPL promoters tried to dictate terms to the media, laying down conditions for newspaper coverage and tried to put a cap on the number of action photographs a newspaper can upload to its web editions. No self-respecting newspaper editor could be expected to accept such conditions: What's more, the league promoters claimed unfettered access to media material and visuals as a free lunch; and this, they demanded as a right, to be fulfilled by the media at its cost.

IPL promoters or the franchise holders did' not even appear to care for the interests of spectators. In my reckoning the Twenty-20 league organizers take for granted a multitude of their customers - cricket-loving public. May be IPL is aping the US business model for sports such as baseball, basketball or football. Is anyone addressing the issue whether turning cricket into a mega-buck entertainment business is conducive to our socio-economic reality? Besides, is it such a good idea to let a real-estate developer transplant in India a business model for cricket (which is almost a religion with our sport-loving multitude) for the benefit of a bunch of investors and a select group of auctioned .. Players. If this Twenty-20 league gets going, it would not be long before we have multinational investors and take over tycoons evincing interest in India's cricketing entertainment prospects.

It is for sure that in cricket crazy nation like India popularity and craze for Twenty-20 will surpass the One Day International and that is the reason why rebel Zee Group has also started with Twenty-20 and BCCI has also mulling over in this direction. England had also announced hike of 25 per cent in the Twenty-20 games from next season. So Twenty-20 seems the future of cricket which is capable to revolutionize and globalize the game.

Essay on the merits and demerits of the present system of examination

Examination is to most of the students a matter of botheration, standing in their way as forbiddingly as the tree of wisdom in the Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve. On the face of it, the plea for their abolition cannot be supported.

For it goes without saying that there must be periodical tests and assessment of merits to measures the progress in studies, achieved by students during a specific period of time. An annual or half-yearly examination with this object seems the only way of doing this. But whether it really serves this purpose depends on a correct analysis and evaluation of the merits and demerits of this examination system.

The fact is that at the end of an academic session students must pass an examination, too often has an undesirable influence on teaching. The teacher will always have his eyes on the examination and his teaching will be more in the nature of coaching students for a pass than building up his mind.

Thus, teaching has now largely become examination-oriented. It has become a paradox, like the tail wagging the dog, i.e. education is for examination and not the vice versa. It is today the system of examination that precisely sets the tone of teaching in classrooms how much and in what way a particular topic is important from the examination standpoint. All that a student acquires in the process is the crammer-art, which may help him through the examination. Students depend more upon memory-work and a mechanical preparation of answers to questions than upon a proper assimilation of knowledge.

Furthermore, there is the subjective factor. Examinations have their whims and fancies widely diverging. Different examiners, or even the same examiner at different times, award makes inconsistently. These difficulties are more than ever accentuated in examination involving a large number of candidates. Because of the time factor, the work of examination has to be rushed through, making assessment hasty as thereon unreliable. Clearly, the system does not inspire confidence or does justice to the examinees.

Examinations are competitive tests in which each student rise to surpass his rival. A spirit of healthy rivalry is not to be discouraged outright, but rivalry soon degenerates into selfish competition. Rich students take the help of private tutors, which place them in a position of advantage. It makes students narrow-minded and selfish. It also puts on ambitious students unnatural strain. Instead of knowledge being the end of learning, the art of managing in examination becomes the be-all and end-all of study

It is to be admitted that fear of examination keeps students at their books when they might have wasted their time otherwise. There it serves the purpose of compelling students to read their books and thus to acquire at least some of the rudiments of learning.

As to the test of merit, examinations, however, do not to absolute justice to the examinees. Answer scripts that are considered ‘marginal cases’ receive weightage or extra benefit on compassionate grounds.

In our country, a better alternative to examinations has not yet been devised. For this reason examinations must continue in our schools, colleges and universities. The USA is ready to finance more expensive alternatives like the objective or precision-machine based on ones progress. Even then examinations cannot be entirely abolished. But the nature of the test might be suitably amended in order to obviate or minimize the defects.

Thus, greater stress should be laid on the oral tests. It may be difficult to gauge the actual proficiency of a student from his written answer but in an interview for a quarter of an hour will soon convince the examiner as to his true caliber. Greater importance should be attached to class examinations. A student’s month-to-month record of progress ought to be taken into consideration on a semester system. The final assessment should depend on a consideration of effort on the part of the students on final or public examinations. The stress is more on systematic work all through the year. The reform might not be so very difficult to organize with the co-operation of all concerned.
By bharatwaj rao

Essay on River Water Pollution in India

'Holy rivers' has rather become a myth today. According to a report of the National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) all the fourteen big rivers of India are badly polluted. They cover 85 per cent of the surface flow of water in the country.

The main pollutant of river water is industrial waste. River Jamuna in Delhi receives 6000 kg of dissolved solids, 3000 kg of heavy metals and 200 kg of detergent every day. In its 48 km stretch around Delhi Yamuna gets polluted through 17 drains that bring toxics, acids and a number of chemicals that affect the health of the river and consequently of all those who depend on it for drinking and bathing water.

The Ganga starts getting polluted by chemicals from Rishikesh itself. It receives effluents from the Indian Drug and Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (IDPL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL). The flow of toxic effluents including chemicals, metallurgic deposits and fertilizers to river Periyar in Kerala is so great that the people living on its banks have a high incidence of skin diseases.

Cauvery and Kapila in Karnataka are so polluted that in a stretch of 10 km of the banks of Cauvery people suffer badly from skin diseases, boils and burning sensation. Cauvery receives industrial wastes from Tamil Nadu. The story of Godavari is no different. It receives 4,500 gallons of toxic waste everyday from Andhra Paper Mills alone. Plankton on which fish live has been dying in large numbers in the river. Similarly Hooghly and Damodar, receive untreated waste from coal washeries, pulp and paper mills, steel mills and chemical industries in Bengal.

Hooghly receives industrial wastes of 150 big factories including jute mills, textile mills, paper and pulp factories, distilleries and tanneries. Even the fish have been greatly contaminated causing bone diseases and arthritis among those who eat fish in the area. The waste of fertilizer plant and Indian Oil Corporation flowing into Mahi Sagar in Gujarat has killed fish, cattle and even elephants.

Human and animal excreta flow to all the rivers in India. As it is untreated it is responsible for almost all water borne diseases. Untreated sewage flows into the Jamuna in Delhi through 17 open drains. Chambal a Tributary of the Jamuna is the most polluted river in Rajasthan. The people between Rajpura and Nagda suffer from acute skin diseases because of water pollution.

Efforts have been made to remove the pollution of the Ganga through the efforts of Central Ganga Authority (CGA). No serious efforts have been made anywhere else. Three things are essential to let the rivers flow as pure as they were in the past.

All industries in the cities on the banks of rivers should, under strict vigilance, treat their effluents before the water flows to the river. Municipalities and Corporations should have treating centers for their drain water. These will provide energy besides supplying pure water to the rivers.

No government efforts can make the rivers unpolluted if the common man has no consciousness how to keep the rivers too unpolluted as he keeps his house neat and clean. Non Government Organizations (NGO) can play an important role in educating the people both in cities and the rural areas.