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Porn Ban in India : Open letter to Modi from his fan on politics of censorship

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Porn Ban India

Dear Mr PM,

I was one of those millions who supported you even before it became cool to do so. I am one of those who are still a vocal evangelist of your government to this day. I see a lot of the good that your government is doing, I see the effort you and your govt are taking in undoing some 50 years of decay, barring a few good 5 year runs we have had in the interim.

Off late though, I think you are losing me and that should cause you worry. I am not just one person, but I represent many millions of your urban, educated, vocal support base. Is it because of policy or governance failures? No. I think you are doing a stellar job there. It is solely because of you and your government giving into YOUR own vision of India.

When you came in, I thought that India would have a clean start, that we would wipe away any traces of the Lutyens clique that has dominated India since Indira. This included a a slow but steady dismantling of the censor regime that has been put up by the Congress over the years. While you have brilliantly bypassed the establishment when it comes to the MSM, you are only strengthening the retrograde and archaic dinosaurs of the Indira era which includes the censor board.

Why are a few so insecure that “Indian culture” will be wiped out because of insignificant things like porn? The culture that has not only withstood, but absorbed invaders from the dawn of history is now being threatened by 800 porn sites?

What business does the state even have in governing the personal lives of the citizens? Why should we be told that watching porn is bad? When you promised Minimum governance, maximum administration, I for one did not have this…nanny state in mind.

If the state is worried that children being exposed to porn is altering the social fabric, sanction studies, put it in the public realm and help parents do the parenting. Yes, India has a very skewed gender relation engagement, but you know sir, the problem is not porn, but next to no interaction between the genders. From school till college, across the formative years men and women are kept separate and THAT is the cause for many of our dysfunctional adult males who view women via a very parochial prism, not porn. This requires deep systemic change, one that I thought your government would bring about, banning porn is a very easy way out.

What then is the difference between Rajivji banning Satanic Verses because a minority of the Muslim community felt that this violated their rights and banning porn because a tiny tiny minority of the majority community felt that it violates THEIR concept of Indian Culture.

I have always been told that Indian culture tolerated differences, it celebrated them even, it was very open about natural things such as male and female interactions (as evidenced by our own temple walls), if anything our forefathers would be laughing at us trying to impose a Victorian era morality upon Indians and saying that this is Indian culture. The argument that porn causes violence is just not borne out by reality – young people have since time immemorial seeked out the forbidden fruit when they were in their early Teens. Advanced societies such as the Nordic states are very open culturally and don’t have half the social problems we have and are not even a percent as repressive as ours.

Sir, as an avid supporter, I fervently want you to win 2019, and even 2024, but then with a very young population and one that is increasingly coming online and getting exposed to a wide variety of ideas, you are at the risk of alienating your own voter base – the youth.

We are adults, we know what is good for us and what is bad for us. We need a govt that lays roads, bridges, constructs ports, that connects millions to an electricity grid. We need a state that looks out for the welfare of its people over the welfare of the party it represents. We need a govt that takes us and keeps us on a path of 8%+ growth for decades from now. We don’t need a state that imposes its own (and maybe a few cabinet minister’s) narrow and parochial view of culture upon millions.

I write this to you in good faith as I wanted you to hopefully hear directly from the trenches.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Himachal Watcher.

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Shimla City – Private Bus Operators Seen Creating Nuisance by Blocking Road

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Shimla-private-buses 2

Shimla-In yet another instance, two private bus operators in Shimla city were seen creating a nuisance for the public by jamming the traffic. A reader clicked some pictures at the BCS bust stop in Shimla city on February 19, 2022, at about 8 PM and shared them with us. The reader alleged that two private bus operators, namely ‘Komal’ and ‘Chadda’, indulged in a verbal spat, most probably over their schedule. While the drivers argued, one of the buses remained parked in the middle of the road, choking the traffic. The staff of these two buses indulged in a verbal spat for about 5-10 minutes during which the general public faced a huge inconvenience. The reader has requested the Traffic Police Shimla to take action against such operators and discourage them from adopting such a bullying attitude that they don’t even hesitate to block the entire road.

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If you have relevant issues/complains that you want the people and the government to see and read about, you can publish blogs on Himachal Watcher. Send us your blogs with pictures/videos at editor [at] himachalwatcher [dot]com

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Littering – A Grave Threat to Sundernagar Lake and Its Aquatic Life

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sundernagar lake littering

Sundernagar-Many people visit the Sundernagar lake in Mandi district and litter along the road. Winds carry all those packets and plastic bottles into the lake. This practice of littering is unlawful because it costs millions in clean-up projects. It portrays a bad picture of an area. Littering is a huge threat to the aquatic life too. In my view, the solution is awareness, responsibility, sensibility and concern for nature. We as a society need to play a big role. At least, dustbins should be installed along the lake. Otherwise, the negligence in the present will affect us in near future.

-Blog and Picture By Divya Acharya, Sundernagar

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If you have relevant issues/complains that you want the people and the government to see and read about, you can publish blogs on Himachal Watcher. Send us your blogs with pictures/videos at editor [at] himachalwatcher [dot]com

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Shimla-Based IT Start-Up Scaling Global Market in Short Span of Time

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Shimla based it company netgen solution

Shimla-A youth from a small town of the Mandi district – Sarkaghat- started as a freelancer and went on to launch his own start-up in 2014. By 2021, the start-up grew into a company that has garnered international clients  and also designed and developed websites and web apps for several Departments of the Himachal Pradesh Government.   

Netgen IT Solutions Pvt Ltd- a young agile company- has, so far, developed websites for the Department of Information Technology,  Women & Child Development, Rope & Rapid Transport Development Corporation, HP Milk Federation Cooperation,  and the HP AIDS Control Society.

Besides, it also developed  HimSuraksha Abhiyan App (National Health Mission) and the website of the Department of Tourism & Civil Aviation along with a  Services Portal.

Further, the website of the Department of Information & Public Relations and the single window system was also developed by NetGen.

Having developed over 2500 websites, Netgen IT Solutions has an imprint of having worked for clients spread over 25 countries in Europe, America, Asia and Australia.

Bootstrapped as a Start-Up on 7th July 2014, the company has evolved to offer a diverse set of services for web, e-commerce and mobile solutions that have enabled Global and Indian business to adapt to a Digital First environment. In seven years, this Shimla-based company has carved out a niche for itself.

The company started with a small team of just four people, and today it employs strong-heeled 25 IT professionals. The skillset of web developers, designers, networking specialists, social media marketers and others is expanding with the growth of the company.

To mark the NetGen Foundation Day, the company hosted a live inter-action of the team members with some clients to understand the need for future technologies and solutions for a fast-changing business environment in the shadow COVID pandemic.

Mr Rajneesh Rana, Founder and Managing Director of the company, is a computer science graduate. Speaking about the company’s journey, Rana’s says, “Stepping out from working as a freelancer at the small township of Sarkhaghat, in Himachal Pradesh, to launching a start-up company, was my first step in entrepreneurship. The company was founded on a shoe-string budget with a small capital outlay. After overcoming the initial hesitancy, we’re on the firmer ground today.”

With the growth in demand for IT Services, the company in the initial year faced manpower shortages. The management took to train and equip freshers in a mentorship program to meet its needs for IT Professionals and also to equip others to find gainful employment elsewhere. Netgen till date has trained over 50 freshers with essential and advanced IT skills. Most of them for the first time in their careers got exposure to the IT Industry.

The company’s IT Technical Team today is professionally equipped to work in 20+ technologies that can be deployed across a vast network of industries. 

The Netgen team of IT professionals has expanded the services that the company now provides. A multitude of projects employing creative website design-development; customised software products; e-Commerce solutions; server administration – web security – networking services; mobile application design – development; social media marketing; stand completed.

“There is a growing demand for many other IT and IT-enabled services that the company has successfully delivered for Global and Indian clients,” said Rajneesh. 

“Since the breakout of the COVID pandemic, the demand for online services has increased. It created an environment that demands moving things onto digital platform, bringing more opportunities for the IT sector ,” added Rajneesh.  

“Take the case of the Government of Himachal Pradesh, India. To secure baseline health data of the over 70 lakh residents in the state and to prepare effective strategies for countering the spread of the pandemic in challenging hilly terrain, the state government needed a simple but effective IT-enabled solution to capture the data as fast as possible,” he said.   

“The ‘Him Suraksha Abhiyan’ application designed and developed by NetGen IT Solutions was used by thousands of teams spread under 2300+ sub-centres. In just over a month, the software solution created successfully captured the data of over 68 lakh residents of Himachal Pradesh,” he added.

The 70:30 Percent (%) Global – Domestic revenue stream of Netgen has prepared the company to expand both its export and domestic service portfolios, said Rajneesh. 

Mr Ravinder Makhaik, Director of the company says, “growing steadily, Netgen is a debt-free, profit-making company. A healthy mix of domestic and international businesses, with sound financials, gives the company strength to take up more challenging projects. Our portfolio of government projects is making good progress.”

Founded as a 1 lakh authorized capital company and with annual revenues rising at a 25 % compounded annual growth rate, the Netgen Board of Directors has decided to expand the authorized capital of the company to Rs 10 lakh to meet future growth needs.

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