All You Need To Know - "One Rank One Pension"

     The Concept of One Rank One Pension (OROP):
          One Rank One Pension basically means equal pension for army veterans and retired army personnel of the same rank. Army includes all the three Army, Navy and the Air Force. That is, soldiers with the same rank should get equal pension regardless of their age of retirement. An army personnel retiring in 1980 and an army personnel retiring in 2016 with same number of years of service and same rank should get equal pension. 

 Current Practise :
          Currently, as stated in the 6th Central Pay Commission, OROP is not applicable. Pension is calculated as a percentage of the last drawn salary, If an army personnel retired in 2010 had the last drawn salary of Rs 50000. Then, his pension would be Rs. 25000 (50% of 50000). The pension amount is revised or increased on the seating of Central Pay Commission every 10 years. The increment is done so that the retired army personnel can cope with the inflation. 
          It also implies that the pension drawn by two army personnel of the same rank and period of service is not equal. That is, an army personnel retired from service before 2006 gets roughly 80% lesser pension than an army personnel retiring after 2006. Personnel with the same rank and even their juniors get higher pension pay than those who retired before 2006. That is because, if an army personnel is retired on 1990 and his last drawn salary was Rs. 5000 and considering the pension amount to be 50%, his pension would be Rs. 2500. An army personnel who retired in 2010 would have a last drawn salary of Rs. 50000. Therefore, his pension would be Rs. 25000. Even though both the personnel served for equal number of years and are of the same rank when retiring, the one retiring in 2010 has greater benefits. This is injustice to the personnel retiring before 2006.

     A Glimpse of where it all started:
          OROP was applicable till the early 70s. Then the Indira Gandhi led government brought about some changes in the 3rd Central Pay Commission and there it all started. Colonel Inderjeet Singh started protesting against the changes and demanded for OROP with several other changes. He is still protesting with several attempts of fast-till-death. His protest made the defence ministers to rethink about reconsideration of OROP quiet a few times but even after repeated protests and efforts, it is still not implemented. 

   
  Indian Armed Forces Notable Ranks: (Army)

1. Field Marshall
2. General
3. Lieutenant General
4. Major General
5. Brigadier
6. Colonel
7. Lieutenant Colonel
8. Major
9. Captain
10. Lieutenant

     The Protesters:

          People demanding One Rank One Pension are mostly retired army personnel and army veterans as they are the most affected. Justice will be served to them when the idea  OROP is applied. 

     Why are they demanding OROP?

          The retiring age in Indian army is set for all type of army personnel according to their ranks. 

• For General, it is 62 years or 3 years of tenure, whichever is earlier.
• Lt. General, 60 years of age.
• Major General, 58 years of age.
• Brigadier, 56 years of age.
• Colonel, 54 years of age.
• Sub Major, earlier among 54 years of age or 34 years of service or 4 years of tenure.
• Subedar, 52 years of age or 32 years of service.
• Naib Subedar, 52 years of age or 28 years of service.
• Havildar, 49 years of age or 26 years of service.
• Sepoy, 42 years of age or 19 years of service.

          The primary reason for retiring age being set at 42 years is that the army needs young soldiers with enough physical strength. Also, 85% of the soldiers have a compulsory retirement age of 35-37 years. The reason for the demand arises here. Army personnel retire at the age of 42 years at the maximum. Finding an alternative source of income is very difficult with no experience and if the pension is minimum, the question of survival arises. 

     Advantages of application of OROP:

          OROP will benefit the 25,00,000 retired army service personnel and army veterans and widows and families of martyred soldiers who have served the country in a less ordinary job. All those retired before 2006, the date when the 6th Central Pay Commission was seated, will be benefited from OROP as they will get higher pensions as compared to what they used to get before. 

          Moral duty. Army personnel sacrifice their life for the safety of the nation. they serve day and night irrespective of the environment. They do so much for the country, cant we give back something in return that will encourage people to join the army and satisfy the retired army personnel that the nation cares for them. 

     Hurdles on the Implementation of OROP:

          Demands to implement OROP in the Central Pay Commission dates back to 1980s and the demands are still not met. Bureaucrats take the negative side or the budget is on the opposition. Like everyone of us, even the nation has a budget problem. If the OROP is implemented, it will cost around Rs. 8500 crores every year in the form of pensions. And this amount will only increase as time goes by because even after the retired personnel are deceased, their families have the right to receive the pension amount. Once any revision is done to the current pension pattern, the same has to be reverted to the pattern of all the retired army personnel and veterans and pension holders. Thus, it is a increasing cost and it becomes a financial burden for the government.

          An argument stated by the congress government led by Dr. Manmohan Singh for not bringing the OROP into action is that the records of the army personnel are destroyed after 25 years. Though this argument is false and the documents are never destroyed, it is still a huge task for the government. Maintenance of documents dating back to 1940s and 1950s is a tough task. It is practically very difficult and creates a lot of chaos in the system. 

          Also, there are legal issues on implementation of OROP. 

     Protests:

     Ex-servicemen protesting outside the house of Arun Jaitley, the finance minister. 

          Retired army personnel have been protesting for the implementation of OROP for more than 2 years now. Many have staged indefinite dharna at the Jantar-Mantar in Delhi and have also organised protest march to the parliament. 

          Many of the army personnel have also returned their medals and honours received during their service as a method of protest. The most latest case of protest came yesterday when a army personnel on protest committed suicide due to long delay of OROP implementation.

    The Central Pay Commission:

           It is set up by the Government of India for recommendations on change of salary structure of the Indian Armed Forces. They are provided 18 months of time from the date of constitution to provide the report on the details of recommendations. 

          The First Central Pay Commission was established in January 1946 and it submitted its reports in May 1947 and was chaired by Srinivasa Varadachariar.

          The second Pay Commission was established in August 1957 and it submitted the report after 2 years.

          The CPC3 was a important one. It was established in April 1970 and submitted its report in March 1973, after 3 long years. It brought about major changes, one of them being removal of OROP.

          The CPC4 was established in June 1983 and reports were given in three phases in four years.

          The CPC5 was constituted in April 9, 1994. It increased the financial burden of the government. after the implementation, the government had to pay roughly 45000 crores as wage, a 99% increase from the previous plan. 

          The government agreed to constitute the CPC6 in July 2006. It brought additional burden of 20000 crores added to the previous. The army personnel swore to go on strikes if there was no hike in the salary.

          The process of CPC7 has already started. Fat increase in wages and salaries is expected. Composition of the CPC7 includes, Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur, retired judge of Supreme court, acting as the chairman. Other members include, Vivek ray and Dr. Rathin Roy acting as full-time members and Meena Agarwal as the secretary.

          The Narendra Modi led BJP government has promised the implementation of OROP in the CPC7 and has said that almost all the hindrances including the financial hindrance has been cleared and it will be applied as soon as possible. 

The All-In-One Package

Love without conditions or unconditional love, a term easy to say and hard to find. The meaning of love changes from time to time as people changes. The way people of the 19^th century defined love and the way people today define it is different. It also differs from people to people, country to country and religion to religion. Whatever the definition be, people then, now and tomorrow will want unconditional love from their partners. But, in a world where people kill even their parents, grandparents, husband, wife, son, daughter and siblings, can you find true love? YES!

          How good it would be if there is someone cares for you even when you don’t see. Somebody who is happy just because you are happy and is with you when you are sad. Somebody who is equally worried just because you are. Somebody who is willing to sacrifice anything and everything for your happiness. Somebody who will help you with the best of their efforts. Somebody who will do anything for you with no expectations in return. Imagine all these qualities in a single person. It would be like a all-in-one package. A package everybody would pray to have. A package everybody would want. But, do such people even exist in this time of Kalyuga? Luckily, they do. They are around you, if you are lucky enough. 

          So, if they exist, who are they? They are your own Grandparents. There is a saying that for a moneylender, the interest amount is more dearer than the principal amount. You are the interest for your grandparents out of the principal amount, that is your parents. Your Grandparents will love you more than your parents, more than your siblings, more than your girlfriend/boyfriend, more than your friends, more than you husband/wife and more than anybody else in the world and more than you think anybody would. 

           Grandparents are your superheroes. They don't possess superpowers but have superqualities. 

          First Superquality, Wisdom. Wisdom is something which comes from experience. Not everybody is wisdomous. Luckily, you have people who love you the most with a superquality which is rare. Isn't that a jackpot? Yes. They are a sea of wisdom. Everything they speak is in some way or the other to teach you the way of living or impart knowledge in you. Relax your schedule for a while and try sitting with your grandparents for sometime. You will enjoy the time more than anything else. All the important decisions need experience and what better than grandparents. A decision with a contribution of your grandparents is always towards the right path.

          Second, Love. Children are the world for  grandparents. They are everything to them. They are their most priced possession. Do you remember when they would do weird things only to make you happy? They would feed you first and then themselves. They would sacrifice their sleep only because you cannot sleep. They would prefer staying home and spending time with you rather than an outing. They would love telling you stories. Their priority is you. They would prefer lifting you on their back and bearing the pain just because that makes you happy. They can be the type of friends to you which your parents couldn't be. On the fun side, when you are a small kid, they let you do all the things your parents won't.

          This is a story that made me write this post. I saw an old man, aged probably around 80 years with his grandchild on the roadside. They had probably gone for a walk. The grandfather lifted his grandchild because the child wished to. I could clearly feel the pain of a 80 year old man lifting a child. But, there was a wide smile on his face, wider than that of the child he was holding and a sense of happiness. His agony and pain were far lesser than the happiness of watching his grandchild enjoying the shoulder ride. This probably looks more like a simple story but the emotions on that man's face were priceless. 

          Be the reason behind their smile and you will feel at the top of the world. The all-in-one package requires just one thing in return. Your time. They will probably live for a few more years. Give them the best time and you will be proud of yourself. That smile with a simple joke of yours. That smile is priceless and you would think, why haven't I done it earlier. That proud moment for them, may that be your new achievement in business or when you have successfully won a match on a computer game. Those are priceless moments for them and they are proud form every small achievement of yours.

          In spite having a young heart and being humorous, they are lonely with everybody in the family busy in their daily routine. Their routine is you. Their day starts with you and ends with you. In our busy schedule, we often forget about what is going on with them. They often hide their sickness just because that will make you spoil your schedule and take care of them but will surely be by your side 24x7 in your sickness.  But, always remember, they are with silver on their heads and gold in their hearts. You can consider yourself as the luckiest if your grandparents are with you.

          Spend as much time as possible with your grandparents. Intake as much wisdom, as much knowledge as possible. Make them so happy that they feel complete with you. Because, soon there will come a time when they will be long gone and you wont have them to share your feelings, to play silly games, to impart wisdom on you, to shower you with knowledge and good deeds. Then, the only thing you will have is their memories. You will miss that precious, priceless, beautiful smile on their faces and you will regret that you couldn't do that more often. You wont have them to allow you to eat till you are satisfied. You wont have them to throw aside the rules and let you have fun with freedom. You wont have them to guide you through at complicated situations. They wont be there to support you in your tough times. Always remember, they are the best thing that could ever happen to you. They make our home a Heaven on earth. They are god's replacement on earth.

Introduction to Bitcoin

                                                     

 I was first introduced to this old yet new term, Bitcoin, when I was reading a novel by Ravi Subramaniam titled, God Is A Gamer.

     What is Bitcoin?
          Bitcoin is a virtual currency. It is a digital currency and cannot be printed on paper nor can it be produced as metal coins like the USD or Rupees. Unlike any other currency which is monitored or governed by a governing body ( USD governed by Federal reserve System, Rupees governed by Reserve Bank Of India and so on), Bitcoin is independent and not governed by any governing body. It is Decentralized.  The transactions between people take place directly without the involvement of any intermediaries. 
For example, when Ashutosh, from Chennai transfers Rs 100000 to his friend Nidhi, residing in Bangalore, he would do it through his bank. The money is transferred from Ashutosh's bank account to Nidhi's. Banks are the intermediaries to this transaction between Ashutosh and Nidhi. But, in case of Bitcoin, no such intermediaries are involved. Bitcoins are sent directly from Ashutosh to Nidhi without involvement of any intermediaries. This system is called P2P or Peer-to-Peer transaction.

     The Invention:
          Bitcoin is invented by Satoshi Nakamoto. He has kept his identity hidden and was initially assumed to be a Japanese national. He invented Bitcoin in 2008 and published this idea on The Cryptography Mailing List. He then released the Open-Source Software in 2009. 
          Nobody knows anything about Satoshi except his name. A coder named, Stefan Thomas would keep a close watch on when Satoshi would release a article on Bitcoin forum and the language used in the article. After monitoring 500 articles from Satoshi, he came to a conclusion that Satoshi may be possibly from Central America, the Carribean or South America.
          Soon after the invention, Satoshi started collaborating with several companies for the growth of Bitcoin. He shifted the authority of the software to Gavey Anderson. As on 20 July, 2016, The public ledger showed that Satoshi's known Bitcoin address contains nearly 1 million Bitcoins.

     Bitcoin Transactions:
          Every user has a public key and a private key. Passwords, in simple terms. Bitcoin can be used for any type of transactions given that, both the parties to the transaction has to have registered with Bitcoin. Bitcoin can be used to pay for your transactions, they can be transferred to your friend's wallet also as gifts, and almost all other transaction can be carried out using Bitcoins. When a Bitcoin transaction takes place, the transaction is recorded in what is called a block. When new blocks are created, they are added to the General Ledger,  called the Blockchain. More and more transactions take place everyday and maintaining them can be a tough task. Here, Miners come into the picture. 

     Mining:
          Mining is the process of creating Bitcoins. The system of Bitcoins was invented in such a way that, Bitcoins can be created by anybody. To possess Bitcoins, you can either mine them, or receive them from somebody else in your Bitcoin Wallet. Mining is the process in which Bitcoins are created when you solve a mathematical problem. This can sound easy to people with expertise in math, but its not. These math problems are very complicated. People earn bitcoins on solving math problems which are related to bitcoin.
          A Miner's task is to post the transactions & blocks to the Blockchain. They create a mathematical formula and turn the transaction into something very simpler, like a sequence of numbers called a Hash. This Hash is attached along with the block in the Blockchain. 
          Hash has some unique properties. Hash can be easily created from the transaction but on just seeing a Hash, it is impossible to determine the details of the transaction. 
          Another important property of the Hash is that along with details of the transaction, it also contains parts of the previous transaction or block. Thus, the process is self-checked and is in sequence and if a fradulent activity takes places, everybody would know as the Blockchain is accessible by all. 

     Limited Bitcoins:
          People can mine bitcoins after solving math problems relating to blocks. Initially, 25 bitcoins were mined per block. Roughly, every four years, the mining gets halved. That means, currently, 12.5 bitcoins are mined per block till sometime around 2020. It will again get halved to 6.25 bitcoins per block and if you calculate, the number of bitcoins that can ever be produced are limited. The halving takes place every four years and it will stop roughly around the year 2110-2140 when 21 million Bitcoins would have been mined or produced.

     Current Value:
          The value of bitcoin is volatile and can change drastically, somewhat like the price of a share. The current value of Bitcoin in terms of USD is 1 Bitcoin is equal to 575.29 USD and that's a lot of money. In terms of Rupees, 1 Bitcoin equals 38464 Rupees.

     Bitcoin Sub units:
          Millibitcoin is equal to 10<sup>−3 or 0.001 of a Bitcoin. 

            Microbitcoin is equal to</sup> 10<sup>−6
  or 0.000001 of a Bitcoin. 

          The smallest unit, Satoshi is equal</sup> 

 ^to 10^{−8 or 0.00000001 of a Bitcoin.} 

     Identity Claims: 

             Recently, a Australian entrepreneur,  Craig Wright has claimed that he is Satoshi Nakamoto along with proof. Prominent members of the Bitcoin community has confirmed his claims after verifying the proofs but many other people have asked for more proof. 

To know more and to create your own Bitcoin Wallet (Like a Bank Account in Banks), visit Bitcoin Dot Com

That Ill-Fated Day.

The date, 15th August, 1947 is considered as the greatest day in the history of India and Pakistan. India got independence from the British rule on this very day. People all over the country rejoiced this day. It also marked the beginning of a new era. Under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Muslims got their separate nation as demanded, Pakistan.

     But, was the independence truly a reason for people to be happy? No doubt, India got freed from the British rule after 350 years and after 3 decades of struggle. But, the partition was not less than a nightmare for over 10 million people. While people in majority of India celebrated their independence, many cursed their fate. Due to the greed and unrealistic demands of some politicians, millions of people suffered. 

The Idea for Independence:
          Since 1612, East India Company started ruling India, primarily for trade with European countries. People of India worked under the jurisdiction of the East India Company and on their rules for 300 years. During the first world war, India sent over one million soldiers to fight for the British in a hope that this would help India get independence. Around 75000 soldiers lost their lives in the war and another 70000 were wounded. After the war ended, British showed no signs of help. 
          Once, on the occasion of Punjabi New Year, 13th April, 1919, thousands of people gathered in Jallianwalabagh. When Major General Dyer came to know about this meet, he sealed all the gates of the park and ordered 50 soldiers to open fire at the crowd. This resulted in over 400 deaths and 1000 injured. This sparked anger among the people of India and then started the actual fight for Independence. 

The reason for partition:

           Why did the partition take place? Why couldn't all the people stay together rather than dividing themselves into two different countries? The partition took place due to the British withdrawal soon after the victory of Labour Party in the British general elections in 1945. Winston Churchill's government was ruled out of power.  Mohammad Ali Jinnah, once a Indian National Congress member and then the leader of the Muslim League pressurised the British council to divide the country into two parts on the basis of religion. One part for the Hindu-dominated and other for the Muslims. Muslim League, headed by Muhammad Ali Jinnah basically wanted a separate country for Muslims as they feared that once India gets independence, INC ( Indian National Congress) will form the government and thus Muslim interests will get neglected. During the second world war, the demand for Indian soldiers was raised. Muslim League agreed to the demand as they thought that supporting the British would lead to a separate country being granted to the Muslims, but the INC refused to supply soldiers.
          This demand for separate country also sparked controversies. On 16 August, 1946, also called as Direct Action Day is one such example. On this day, riots broke out in the state of Calcutta, between Hindus and Muslims resulting in over 4000 people getting slaughtered, 20000 injured and another 100000 left homeless. Constant riots took place between people after that tragic day. 

Doom Day:
          Though Indian National Congress was against partition, the demand of Mohammad Ali Jinnah was accepted and it was decided that partition of India would take place along with independence. Muslims dominated the northern part of the country except for Punjab, where Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs had equal dominance. The date decided was 15th August, 1947. 
        For this special purpose, Cyril Radcliffe, a British lawyer was called immediately to India. With this being his first visit to India and also with outdated maps and census reports, he was asked to draw a line of partition. The hurry in which the line of partition was drawn can be imagined as Radcliffe was given only 4 weeks to complete this task. Meanwhile, Punjab also demanded for a separate country but their request was rejected. Radcliffe then drew the line right between Lahore and Amritsar, dividing Punjab into two halves. The state of Jammu & Kashmir had the choice of choosing among the two newly formed countries. In spite being a Muslim-dominated state, the leader of Jammu&Kashmir decided to stay in India.
           Islamic Republic of Pakistan was established on 14th August and Republic of India was established on 15th August though the partition line was not declared till August 17th. The reason behind the delay in declaration of partition line was that the British did not wanted to be the reason for what they saw coming. 

Aftermath:
           The partition brought with it the largest mass migration in the history. People migrated from India to Pakistan and from Pakistan to India depending on the religion they followed.

 Around 14 million people migrated. As a result, violent clashes started between the two sides, one being the Hindus and Sikhs and other side being the Muslims. This migration resulted in death of over 2 million people and according to a census report, over 2.5 million people went missing. The migration to another country was not a easy task and millions died in the process of migration.

          The clashes between the two groups resulted  in ruthless massacre of millions of people on both side. Around 75000 women were abducted and raped. Gangs of people would burn villages killing everybody they could find were in the opposite side with No mercy shown towards kids, ladies or the aged. The partition also resulted in the assassination of M.K.Gandhi, the person whose non-violent principles and leadership led to the independence, by Nathuram Godse in 1948.