The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Consumerism in all its full glory

Correspondent

Correspondent

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 29, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Consumerism in all its full glory

Consumerism was at its best (or, worst) display at a special three-day discount drive that a leading mall in the city at Governorpet offered. So unprecedented was the rush of the shopping-hungry denizens of the city, who were obviously thrilled by the attractive bundled offers and discounts, that the mall’s managers had a difficult time controlling the crowd. By the late evening, the scene in front of the mall resembled that of the devotees waiting in a long queue for a darshan of the Lord on Tirumala. The mall’s managers tied ropes to streamline the movement of the crowd and kept announcing on a public address system that every one would get a chance to enter the shopping arena. The cellar of the mall brimmed with cars and the nearby parking lot of the municipal corporation was hired to allow the shoppers to park their vehicles there. The mall, surely, would have earned in just these three days the money equivalent to what it must have earned until now after it was set up in Vijayawada.

Quizzing best

It was a brainy affair at the one-day workshop on ‘Water and energy saving in agriculture sector’ when farmers were at their quizzing best to identify the world’s best practices for better conservation of water and energy, given the significance of water in the paddy-rich delta area. There were no shrieks of joy or moans of disappointment, but serious discussions considering the gravity of the matter. Organised by the local chapter of the Institution of Engineers (India), the workshop witnessed wider participation of farmers, scientists and experts for brainstorming on the need for wider propagation of water and energy saving methods. The need for this was all the more stressed, as paddy cultivation consumes 85 per cent of water used in agriculture, while the farm sector accounts for 85 per cent of the water consumed by the human world.

Caught unawares

Chief Secretary J. Harinarayan was taken totally unawares by APNGOs (non-gazetted officers’) association leaders when he came here to lay the foundation stone for their community building. Association’s local leader P. Ashokbabu said that the NGOs had no demands and they were very happy that he had come exclusively to lay the foundation stone. Mr. Harinarayan was visibly relieved to hear that he need not give any assurances on behalf of the Government. But the State leaders P. Gopal Reddy and P. Subbarayan observed no restraint, and put forward all the demands that the NGOs have. Mr. Reddy went to the extent of saying, “If we don’t ask the Chief Secretary, whom will we ask.” When Mr. Ashokbabu came on to the dais again, he clarified that he was speaking only for himself. “We, in Krishna district, do not have any demands,” he said, and made the best of the opportunity to lavish praises on district Collector Navin Mittal. The other IAS officers present on the occasion were evidently unconvinced and were saying to each other, “Never trust a unionist who says that there are no demands.”

Career awareness

Career Awareness and Recruitment Drive (CARD) is supposed to create awareness among students on industry skill requirements, but APSCHE believes in targeting only the final year students on the verge of entering job market. When its chairman KC Reddy was questioned by mediapersons why new entrants into higher education were not being targeted under the programme so that they could identify their deficiencies and faculty could help them overcome them acquire new skills, he evaded an answer. The programme schedule does not have an awareness session for anyone from industry except of a speech as part of inaugural ceremony, but it is called CARD. The APSCHE arranged one-to-one meeting with industry HR personnel for students seeking job and proposes arrange training for them in the form of certificate courses in the areas of their deficiencies, but its chairman did not buy the idea of training entire lot of newcomers to university/college.

K. Srimali ,

G. Ravikiran and G.V. Ramana Rao in Vijayawada and

Ramesh Susarla in Guntur

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh