Today, I ended up reading and listening to news that made me stand up.

News 1: This was on the bill on 'free and compulsory education for 6-14 yrs' biting the dust. This pivotal bill has not been introduced yet and instead would be shelved. The centre instead wants to pass over the bill to states as 'model bill'. If the state adopts this bill fully, only then it would receive 75% funding for the Sarva Shiksha Abhyan and other states only 50%.

News 2: Severe shortage of life saving drugs in the state hospitals of Andhra state. The medicines are for various heart diseases, kidney failures and cancer. This is because of apparent rules imposed. The quota for medicines are decided depending on the bed-strength. Obviously, in a country like ours the figure of patients being treated is far more than the bed strength.

The news may be just clippings for many in their newspaper but as a youth, it kind of startled me. A country like ours that boasts of 8% GDP and an emerging player in the global market, does not want to spend money on its back bone i.e. health and education. The leaders of global market ar all investing their millions in India and there is a lot of hoopla on why India is the next big thing.

We can give lands to TATA's or Reliance at subsidised rates or lands to five star hospitals to promote medical tourism but we will not invest in India's future. We surely know the importance of health and education but governments' stance on this baffles me. An office of profit bill is more important than free and compulsory education for kids. Surely, there is no mistake in prioritising. Our government needs a vision and needs to come out of its political rivalries and other games, it plays. What say?