What is an ideal 'Budget'?

Just asked #ChatGPT😉

#Budget2023 How do you lower the fiscal deficit?

#ChatGPT #Budget2023

It was great to meet with @CPPuneCity to discuss various traffic issues plaguing #Pune. The meeting was coordinated by @ppcr_pune

Various representatives from industry, academic institutions, students and others participated. Would like to thank the Commissioner and his team. .@CPPuneCity and his team patiently heard all the inputs and macro suggestions. A detailed list of over 200 individual suggestions (crowd sourced by @sudhirmehtapune on Twitter) was also shared with the @PuneCityPolice.

The highways from both sides of the Mumbai-Pune E-way (Pune bypass and Panvel-Sion) are a big mess...for years.

Chronic issues - road quality, lane markings, lighting, encroachments, illegal stopping, and more.

No attention paid to these key link roads by @NHAI_Official, MSRDC? For the Pune bypass - No maintenance of the road median, debris lying around the service roads, no maintenance of the service roads at all (major safety risk), buses stopping illegally - blocking traffic, vendors occupying road medians and more.

Today is the 250th death anniversary of Madhavrao Peshwa - one of the great leaders of 18th century India.

Taking charge at a young age of 16 amidst multiple serious setbacks (Panipat loss, and later the death of his father) - he helped stabilize & strengthen the Maratha Empire.

Madhavrao successfully confronted the Nizam, Hyder Ali, British and consolidated Maratha Empire in the north. In less than a decade after Panipat, Marathas had regained supremacy at Delhi.

He achieved all this while facing an internal power struggle (uncle) and a failing health.

Jagannath 'Nana' Shankarsheth Murkute was one of the key 'builders' and 'architects' of modern Mumbai, and Indian Railways in the mid 19th C. Today is his 157th death anniversary.

Unfortunately, few people in Mumbai and Maharashtra know about him today. In 1845, Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy and Jaganath Shankarsheth formed the Indian Railway Association, which later was incorporated into G.I.P. (Great Indian Peninsula) Railway - modern day Central Railway.

GIP ran India's first passenger train between Mumbai and Thane in 1853.

Students in Japan (as early as 1st standard) clean their own classrooms and school toilets

Cleaning practices followed by students in Japan help build their character to develop them into model citizens.

indiatoday.in/education-toda… "This is not a government mandate, but every school follows this national trend with little variations. In fact, this practice may be familiar to some in other parts of the world as it is shown in many anime series depicting Japanese school life."

indiatoday.in/education-toda…

"Texas stands to be among the major beneficiaries because it’s the second-most-populous state and the fastest-growing one. Since 2010, Texas has added 4.1 million people — over 1 million more than Florida and nearly 2 million more than California...."

dallasnews.com/business/econo… "Dallas-Fort Worth added 1.27 million people in the past decade, surpassing the growth of larger metros like New York and Los Angeles."

dallasnews.com/business/econo…

DFW is now the 4th largest metro area in the U.S.

Also among the fastest growing - nearly doubled since early 1990s.

‘India to have nine nuclear reactors by 2024’: Govt informs Rajya Sabha

India is counting on its nuclear program to help meet its Paris climate commitments to reduce emissions intensity of its economy by a third from 2005 levels by 2030

hindustantimes.com/india-news/ind… @DrJitendraSingh "By 2024 you will have nine nuclear reactors plus 12 new additional ones which were approved during the Covid times with a capacity of 9000 MW. Five new sites are also being identified in different parts of the country," the minister said.

hindustantimes.com/india-news/ind…

New Covid variant roils global markets with oil sinking 5%

cnb.cx/3laDxAy The World Health Organization will meet Friday to address the emergence of the B.1.1.529 variant, which South African scientists have said contains more than 30 mutations to the spike protein.

cnbc.com/2021/11/26/new…

Scientists warn of new Covid variant with high number of mutations

The B.1.1.529 variant was first spotted in Botswana and six cases have been found in South Africa

theguardian.com/world/2021/nov… "Scentists have said a new Covid variant that carries an “extremely high number” of mutations may drive further waves of disease by evading the body’s defences."

theguardian.com/world/2021/nov…

India's journey with the #Olympics started at a sports meet of the #DeccanGymkhana Club in #Pune in 1919.

Sir Dorabji Tata was so impressed with the performance of the athletes that he decided to personally finance a team for the Antwerp games (1920).

business-standard.com/article/sports… The Deccan Gymkhana Sports Club, #Pune was set up as far back as 1906, with a vision to provide good sports facilities to the local population (clubs back then were exclusively for the British). One of the key persons involved in this was Lokmanya Tilak.

deccangymkhana.co.in/history/

#Pune - Bengaluru Highway (Bypass from Dehu Road, where the Mumbai-Pune Expressway ends ...all the way to Katraj) is in a very bad shape.

Usual issues:

Potholes
Missing lane marking
Encroachment by fruit vendors
Illegal parking.

Big safety risk!

@NHAI_Official @nitin_gadkari Similar issues with the Sion - Panvel Highway as well.

June 28, 2021 is the 100th birth anniversary of P. V. Narasimha Rao, the 9th Prime Minister of India.

#PVNarasimhaRao oversaw a major economic transformation with the 1991 reforms.

"Rao was personally responsible for the dismantling of the Licence Raj."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._V._Nar… "...his knowledge of Sanskrit was profound."

"His roots were deep in the spiritual and religious soil of India. He did not need to 'Discover India'"

"President Kalam described Rao as a "patriotic statesman who believed that the nation is bigger than the political system"."

Today is the 133rd birth anniversary of the legendary Marathi stage actor and singer Narayan Shripad Rajhans (popularly known as #Balgandharva). "पुण्यातल्या बालगंधर्व रंगमंदीराच्या उदघाटन प्रसंगी एक गीत हवे होते,पु.लं नी पंचवटी गाठली व गदिमांनी गीत दिले

"जसा जन्मतो तेज घेऊन तारा!
जसा मोर घेऊन येतो पिसारा!
तसा येई घेऊन कंठात गाणे!
असा बालगंधर्व आता न होणे!"

पु.लं नी याला संगीत दिले..."

(via -facebook.com/gdmadgulkar/ph…)

Today is the 147th death anniversary of Ramachandra Vitthal Lad (Bhau Daji Lad).

Bhau Daji Lad was an Indian physician, Sanskrit scholar, and an antiquarian. He studied medicine at the Grant Medical College in #Mumbai (part of GMC's first batch: 1850).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhau_Daji "In 1851, he started practising medicine in Mumbai and became very successful. He studied the Sanskrit literature of medicine."

"Being an ardent promoter of education, he was appointed a member of the board of education in Mumbai."

Today is the 60th death anniversary of Professor Parashuram Krishna Gode.

Professor P.K. Gode was the first curator of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.

facebook.com/BORIPUNE/posts… @BhandarkarI "His discerning curation was pivotal in developing the manuscripts department at the institute.

A multifaceted genius, he was a prolific researcher and writer. He has more than 1200 essays, monograms and papers to his credit."

It's Time For America's Fixation On Herd Immunity To End, Scientists Say

(the world's fixation as well...)

npr.org/sections/healt… - @gbrumfiel ""This pandemic ends when enough people are protected from severe illness, and selfishly you want to be protected from severe illness," says Devi Sridhar, a professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Vaccination "helps you and it helps your community""

Government of India provides advance information on Vaccine Doses Supply availability till 15th June 2021 to States and UTs pib.gov.in/PressReleasePa… "According to the advance visibility provided by Govt of India to States/UTs, a total of 5 crore 86 lakh and 29 thousand doses will be provided free of cost by Govt of India to States from 1st May 2021 to 15th June 2021."

pib.gov.in/PressReleasePa…

Finished reading this excellent, short book by Ambassador @VGokhale59.

Highly recommended for anyone who is interested in learning a bit more about our northern neighbor - their leaders, their policies, their thinking, their actions during a crisis... and a lot more. The book describes the tumultuous events that happened in the heart of Beijing in 1989.

Amb. Gokhale (then a junior diplomat) was posted there at the Indian Embassy in 1989. He describes his first hand account of what happened on the streets and what happened behind the scenes.

"Reddit image has recently come to the attention of netizens that appears to probably be one of the most detailed images of the Moon ever captured. Captured by 16-year-old Prathamesh Jaju from #Pune..."

A composite of 55,000 images - over 186 gigabytes!

news18.com/news/buzz/16-y… “This is my most detailed and clearest shot and my best work of the third quarter Mineral Moon. I captured around 50,000+ images over 186 GigaBytes of Data which almost killed my laptop with the processing."

news18.com/news/buzz/16-y…

#otd 263 years ago (May 8, 1758) - 'The Battle of Peshawar' took place, between the Marathas and the Durrani Empire.

The Marathas, led by Raghunathrao and Malharrao Holkar were victorious in the battle, and Peshawar was captured.

(route map via @LiveHIndia) Ten days earlier, the Marathas had won 'The Battle of Attock' and planted their flag on the Fort of Attock, located besides the Indus river.

The Maratha empire was at its peak, stretching from 'Attock to Cuttack' - covering large part of India.