BE A LIFE SAVER...

	Dog Adoption and Cat Adoption Did you know that approximately 4 million adoptable dogs & cats are killed each year due mainly to overpopulation? Did you know that 25-30% of dogs for adoption in animal shelters are purebred? The other 70-75%, of course, are lovable, wonderful mixed-breed pets, just waiting for a chance to be your perfect new friend. In an effort to help people make good choices when they adopt a dog or cat, many humane societies, SPCAs and pet rescues provide adoption counseling to help match you up with a pet for adoption. If you have your heart set on a specific breed, before you check out a dog breeder or pet store, why not adopt a pet from a breed rescue organization? Breed rescues are groups that specialize in a particular breed of dog or cat. Don't be fooled into thinking that animal shelters and pet rescues are filled with dog or cats that were discarded because they're "bad". Shelter pets for adoption are wonderful companions who became the victims of family tragedy, unlucky circumstances or irresponsible owners. Did you know that many backyard dog breeders and pet stores who supply the majority of purebreds simply are selling inbred pets without care for preventing genetic problems? Mixed breed pets have less inbreeding, generally less inherited genetic disease, and therefore overall lower vet bills and happier pets! And the best place to find a mixed breed dog or cat is at an SPCA, a humane society or an animal shelter.

	THEY NEED YOUR LOVE :
	25% of pet dogs put to sleep in animal shelters are purebred. Approximately 4 million pet dogs and cats are put to sleep each year due to overpopulation. Adopting a dog or cat from a humane society, an animal shelter, an SPCA, or a dog rescue or cat rescue group saves a life!

HERE COMES THE TIME TO RECREATE OUR HISTORY....

Transforming India Into an Economic Power & Developed Nation

SOME SUGGESTIONS TO TRANSFORM OUR LOCAL STATUS INTO A GLOBAL ONE....

Priority 1
Relevant HRD, Education & Training

1. 100% Primary Functional Literacy - Learn to read & write any Indian Language in 40 to 60 hours @ 1 hour per day for 5 days a week. Nearly 500 million people need to learn the 3 R�s. Which means reading, writing & arithmetic. As per the government of India, the average literacy rate is 63%, based on the indian definition, if you can write your name. If one uses the international definition, like minimum primary education as the criteria, the actual literacy rate could come down to 40%! We need to achive 100% functional literacy in the next 5 to 10 years!
2. Primary & Secondary Education - The dropout rate of 90% to 94% in schools, from kindergarten to class 12th, must be reduced to less than 10%. This includes children who have never attended school.
3. Enterprise Skills Development or ESD- We suggest that this should be started from class 5th right upto class 12th. ESD is 'about enterprises and how the real world works'. Help's decide future choice of profession for the youth. Build�s confidence in one self. Only two hours per week are required.
4. Vocational Education & Training or VET-VET teaches the youth a skill or a competence or a trade. One learns to do some skilled job! In developed countries, 80% of the youth from age of 14 to 35 should go in for VET. This would mean about 50 million people per year.
5. Excepting for I.T- which is 2.0% to 2.5% of world�s GDP, where there may be 50,000 private training centres operating in India; where are the training centres to run the balance 97% of the skills, trades, competances required to run the nation?
6. Liberalize Education - Decontrol and privatize all forms of education like business was in 1991! Make India a Hub for Education.
7. The I. T. business- Ever since inception, has been outside the control and regulation of the central and state governments. Market forces, fierce competition, and constant innovation has allowed Indian I. T. education to be world class.
8. Private and NRI participation in Education - Government should concentrate up to high school only, from class 1 to class 10 only. The rest thay should leave to the private sector.
9. Entrepreneurship Institutes in each Block- Entrepreneur promotional institutes, in all the blocks of the states. 97% of new employment is in the unorganized sector and SME�s. We need skill sets for the youth.
10. India will only prosper when the Godess of Learning, �Saraswati� is unshakled and unchained as was the Godess of wealth �Lakshmi� in 1991.

Priority 2
Good Governance

Benefits of leadership & good governance are highlighted in ten different articles. If one looks at the contents page, one will notice that nearly 70% of our articles are �People Dependant�, Nine on Governance and eight on Human Resource Development and three on Employment Generation! One can understand Good Governance, only if we understand the effects of bad governance. Many such examples have been given in our articles for this very reason

Priority 3
Central government policy changes

1. Removal of SSI (small scale industry) reservation. Reservation does more harm than good.
2. Amend 'Labour and Employee Laws' and give local enterprises and organizations a level playing field on par with other developing Nations of Asia.
3. Encourage "labour intensive" technologies for employment generation.
4. Recognize the meaning and importance of 'SME's (small medium enterprise) and not 'SSI's (small scale industry). We must understand the importance of the 'M' and the 'E' in SME's as 'SME's account for 90% of the Indian Economy against 7% in SSI. This recognition should also be understood & supported by the Government of India, financial institutions as well as trade & business. World over SME�s are the main drivers of the world economy. Large organizations sub-contract most of their non-core business to highly productive and cost effective SME�s.

Priority 4
Export activities of the Economy, other than software

Software and I.T. is 2.5% of the World's GDP, we need to look at the balance 97.5% of the economic sector! The five areas of economic activity, mentioned below, are only some examples, there are many others.
1. Trading, Wholesale & Retail, is 15 times bigger than I.T. (big employment and GDP generator)
2. Manufacturing, as an enterprise, is 11 times bigger than I.T. (generates about 75% of government revenues)
3. Health Care, as an enterprise is 4 times bigger than I.T. (big employment and GDP generator)
4. Travel & Tourism, as an enterprise is 6 times bigger than I.T. (big employment and GDP generator)
5. Education,as an enterprise is 4 times bigger than I.T. (big employment and GDP generator)

Priority 5
Funding Infrastructure (US$ 500 Billion)

Infrastructure needs funding at 5% to 7% per year, rate of interest. The tenure of borrowing needs to be extended to at least 10-15-20 years, since it takes nearly 5 years for 'Building' and another 5 years for 'Gestation and Break-Even'. These bonds should be of low-interest but with incentives and tax breaks.

We still have a few good human beings around who are doing some yeoman service without expecting anything in return.... God Bless Such Souls !!!!!

'I don't feed beggars. They can look after themselves. The mentally ill won't ask anyone for food or money,' says N Krishnan who has been feeding them thrice a day for the past seven years.

Left 5-star job to feed the mentally ill
N Krishnan feeds 400 mentally ill people on the streets of Madurai three times a day, every day, all 365 days of the year.
The 28 year old has been doing this for seven years via a charity called the Akshaya Trust.

A look into the kitchen reveals a spotlessly clean room.. Sparkling vessels stacked neatly, groceries and provisions all lined up in rows -- rice, dal, vegetables, spices -- all of the best quality.. One would think this was the kitchen of a five star hotel.

Maybe Krishnan achieves that effect because he was once a chef at a five star hotel in Bengaluru.

"Today's lunch is curd rice, with home made pickle, please taste it," he says, serving me on a plate made of dried leaves.
The food is excellent.

"I change the menu for different days of the week. They will get bored if I serve the same food every day," he says with an enthusiastic and infectious smile.


Krishnan feeds 400 mentally ill people every day
Krishnan cooks breakfast, lunch and dinner with the help of two cooks. He takes it himself to his wards on the street each day.

"I don't feed beggars. They can look after themselves. The mentally ill won't ask anyone for food or money. They don't move around much too. I find them in the same place every day."

That morning he put the food in a large vessel, the pickle in a smaller one and loaded it into a Maruti van donated by a Madurai philanthropist.

Ten minutes later we stopped near a man lying on the ground by a high wall. Krishnan put the food next to him. The man refused to even look at it, but grabbed the water bottle and drank eagerly. "He will eat the food later, looks like he was very thirsty," said Krishnan.

At the next stop, he laid the dry leaf-plate and served the food. He then scooped some food and started feeding the mentally ill man himself. After two morsels, the man started eating on his own.

We then crossed a crowded traffic signal and stopped the vehicle. On seeing Krishnan, four individuals moved slowly towards the Maruti van. They stood out in the crowd with their dirty, tattered clothes and unshaven beards.
They knew this Maruti van meant food. But they did not hurry, knowing that Krishnan would wait for them.
Krishnan served them under a tree and carried water for them. "They are not aware enough to get their own water," he explained.

And thus we went around the city till the Akshaya patra was empty. Of course, it would be full again for dinner later in the day.
Image: Krishnan's wards often approach him when they see his food-laden van


Past 7 years
As we returned, a startling fact hit me. Not a single mentally challenged person had thanked Krishnan. They did not even smile or acknowledge him. Still Krishnan carried on in a world where most of us get offended if someone doesn't say thank you, sometimes even for doing our jobs.

The food costs Rs 8,000 a day, but that doesn't worry him. "I have donors for 22 days. The remaining days, I manage myself. I am sure I will get donors for that too, people who can afford it are generally generous, particularly when they know that their hard earned money is actually going to the poor. That is why I maintain my accounts correctly and scrupulously."
He then pulled out a bill from the cabinet and showed it to me. It was a bill for groceries he had bought seven years ago. "This bill has sentimental value. It is the first one after I started Akshaya."

The economic slowdown has resulted in a drop in the number of donors. Earlier, they sustained meals for 25 days.
Software giants Infosys and TCS were so impressed with his work that they donated three acres of land to him in Madurai . Krishnan hopes to build a home for his wards there. He has built the basement for a woman's block which will house 80 inmates, but work has currently halted due to a lack of funds.


Five idlis
This, however, is not the sum of his good deeds. Krishnan also performs the funerals of unclaimed bodies in Madurai . He collects the body, bathes it and gives it a decent burial or cremation as the need may be.

He gets calls, both from the municipal corporation and general hospital for the funerals.

He recalls with a little prompting how one day he saw a mentally ill man eating his excreta. He rushed to the nearest restaurant and bought the man five idlis. The man ate voraciously, and then smiled at him. The smile made Krishnan want to do it again and again.

Krishnan has not married and wonders if anyone would want to marry a man who spends his days cooking food for others. He is firm that his life partner has to agree to this kind of life.

His parents were initially shocked, but are now very supportive of their son. They advise him about the cuisine and also about how he can streamline the process.
One wonders why he left his job in a five star hotel to bury the dead and feed the mentally ill. To this he just smiles and says, "I like doing it."
For more information on N Krishnan's trust, log on to: http://www.akshayatrust.org/