Farm Technocrat's Forum

Farm Technocrat's Forum

It has been rightly said that knowledge must not be confined within oneself only, it should be delivered in every possible way for the betterment of society. Something similar is being carried out by some of the alumni members of “Palampur agriculture university”(HPAU). Many of them are retired scientists from the mother university. They are the volunteers who have not settled after just completing their job terms ,they are using their cognition which they have gained through their hard work during their jobs as well as during their graduations when at that time 60% of the country’s economy was dependent on agriculture, so as to make Indian agriculture more productive and less harmful for the environment.

Coming to the crux of the story, Its Farm Technocrats Forum (FTF) what we are talking about. Its an NGO,formed by the alumni of”HPAU”. Mainly I am going to talk about one of the most common beverage in India, especially in northern India. But I’ll not be talking about tea production going in India, rather than I’ll be considering the “Kangra TEA” .

Kangra is one of the biggest districts in Himachal Pradesh with its beautiful valley shape. Tea of this place is well known for its quality as evidenced by the Gold and Silver medals won in London and Amsterdam markets during 1886-1895. Presently, the total area in Himachal is around 2300 hectares with annual production of 14lakh kgs, but the biggest impediment is that this tea is not able to compete with other teas in national auction centers due to which the growers are loosing interest towards this industry. The Farm Technocrat’s Forum being a group of professionals skilled in different fields, administratively experienced, socially creditable people can play an invaluable role in bridging the link among the growers for the upliftment of this industry.

The main Aims and Objectives of FTF are:

· To improve tea productivity of Himachal Pradesh popularly known as “Kangra Tea”

· To bring the neglected and abandoned tea gardens(about 47% of the total area)under organic production.

· To develop organic tea plantations in non-traditional areas of Chamba district.

· To promote organic tea production so as to identify Kangra Tea as a distinct product in comparison to teas of other regions in the market as Certified Organic Tea.

· To help the growers in proper marketing in organic sale centres established in different cities.

So from this NGO i.e. Farm Technocrat’s Forum, we can hope for the better future of distinct flavoured Kangra Tea.

Himachal pradesh and its neglected water resources

There is absolutely no scarcity of the rivers and its tributaries in Himachal Pradesh. Our state has been blessed with lots of river out of which the major include Satluj, Beas and Ravi. More than 80% of population has been benefited by the water pipeline spread by Irrigation and Public Health Department of our state.

The most unfortunate thing is that there is hardly any concern about the Potable water reservoirs known as ‘Bowries’ and ‘Khaatris’ in local language. While traveling across our state, one can see various fresh water sources and these reservoirs which have been made by carving out small hillocks or a portion of the ground. These reservoirs are hardly used for drinking purposes anymore, though they were of great importance during ancient times. My concern is that these reservoirs have now became a history and their condition is getting worse day by day. They need to be looked after, even if they are not used, let us preserve them as our heritage. They can also prove of great importance during the scarce conditions.These reservoirs have to be saved from getting destroyed. Our Govt. is spending lot of money in finding out new ways of water conservation but our traditional water sources are extinguishing. Not only Govt. but we the citizen of Himachal Pradesh should also take steps to save these important reservoirs.

As it is difficult to make somebody work but someone can be motivated by your efforts!

Google:-A monopolistic Brand

This is an internet era and you must not be unaware of Google, the internet surfing giant.

In mid 1990s many search engines were being developed. Many of them were starting and then getting folded up. But there were 2 men who were making the ultimate search engine. They were “Larry Page” and “Sergey Brim” from Stanford University. In 1999 with a starting capital of $100000, they found it “Google”. Whenever we go for internet the first thing which comes to our mind is Google. Whatever you want to find you just type in Google page and you get hundreds of thousands of results. Maximum percentage of internet users today use Google. In 2005 Google had a gross turnover of $6.1 billion and a net profit of $1.5 billion. Google makes its money by advertising. Whenever you use Google, you find your search results on the left side of the page and the advertisements related to that search on the right hand side. So Google is giving enough opportunity even for start-ups for competing with renowned firms on advertising platforms. It is trying in every possible way that its users don’t have to read newspapers or even see television or move on to some other search engine so as to remain updated in this fast world. Today Google has made the web search much more convenient for its users, so why should they move on for some other search engine. It is now also providing printed materials and books online from various libraries. In various ways Google is trying to attract more and more users.

But there are various questions which generally don’t come into our mind like Wouldn’t be Google a monopolistic brand over the whole internet market ?

Wouldn’t it lead to the homogeneity among the ideas of people using the same search engine all over the world?

Yes it may because same queries-same results-and then same opinions. That is all which could end up with. So don’t you think that there is a need of some search engine may be better than Google which could not only attract internet users towards it but also lead people to have distinctive views regarding same things?

Only then better would come out of good, because there can’t be a good government without a strong opposition.

Nokia

NOKIA

It was 1865 when Fredrik Idestam built wood-pulp mill in southern Finland, after few years he built second mill next to the Nokianvirta River leading to the name recognised by the world today: NOKIA.Over 145 years company has evolved from a paper manufacturer to rubber boots and power cables to the world’s largest mobile handset maker in the world.

Indians have witnessed the wireless telecom sector being revolutionised by Nokia, since it entered India first in 1995.The market for Nokia in India was perfect-there were no local vendors, no domestic manufacturing and no black market dvices.Nokia walked in with in various ranges of mobiles along with reliable services and quality standards. For a decade Nokia had a command over 70% of the Indian GSM handset market but now the scenario has changed now.

Consumers who can make calls at 30 Paisa /min or half a paisa /sec are no longer willing to pay Rs 1200 for a handset, In contrast newer players like Miromax and Karbonn and even operator Vodafone Essar are offering devices in the Rs 800-900 range. As a result Nokia’s market share has tumbled. In April-June 2009 Nokia’s market share was 51.4% which has nose-dived to 39.3%.The Giant didn’t fall overnight, path was laid down with the launching of Apple iphone in 2007 and then entry in India in 2008, August.Young users were willing to pay Rs.30000 for iphone and rural consumers unwilling to pay Rs.900 for basic phone.

However Nokia has tried to enhance their services like launch of Nokia Life Tools service for farmers and selling handsets in rural market through ITC’s e-chaupal network.But Nokia’s buggest handicap was the delay in launching a dual-sim phone.Although Nokia has launched these mobiles in September,but the market had been covered by companies like Zen Mobile,Micromax and Karbonn.The next threat to Nokia in India was Chinese handsets which do not pay taxes and other levies to the govt. as a result of which exchequer loses Rs.100 crore every month.

With the entry of smartphones from Apple and Google who are providing vibrant application ecosystem, the Indian handset market will be divided into three segments.At lower end ,it would be the Indian and Chinese manufacturers, the middle would be occupied by Nokia and the higher segment ruled by manufacturers like Apple,Blackberry and the android-based handsets.

Nokia believes that its devices are for all-youth,rural users, smart-phones users ,but only time will show us who’s gonna be the leader.

STARTUPS

Startup is starting some company or company like activities without having any operational background.All the big companies which you see today were startups earlier.For instance if you see google,it was a startup earlier founded by Lary Page and Sergen Brin ,both were students at Stanford University.

One more example is Microsoft,which initially thought of selling softwares but came as a big OS giant.So these are some examples of startups.

In startups not a good idea is required but way to implement is required.However startups mainly start in colleges because there ,fresh minds with innovative ideas are present and moreover to implement those ideas are present.An individual cannot go on starting it,because he may have one skill,but it requires other skills also.So by hiding an idea is harm to society as well as to that individual.So sharing of ideas is must.

This view of mine,I am posting for the college students as well as those who have ideas but are not willing to throw light on it with a combined effort.