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There are many successful professionals who complain about the current politicians, elected officials, leaders, etc. Some of these professionals are ready to give up their professional career and join politics but wonder how to do that.

The phrase "all politics is local" is now commonly said in the US. Following are some excerpts from the wikipedia entry on "all politics is local".

… coined this phrase which encapsulates the principle that a politician’s success is directly tied to his ability to understand and influence the issues of his constituents. Politicians must appeal to the simple, mundane and everyday concerns of those who elect them into office. Those personal issues, rather than big and intangible ideas, are often what voters care most about, according to this principle. … The concept is contrary to the notion that most people, somehow, in local elections are casting votes to "send a message" to the highest levels; instead, the principle predicts that most people will not vote for local politicians simply as a means to act on feelings about higher politicians, …  The prediction is that most people who vote, or debate issues, are focused on resolving their local issues.

Based on the above principle my suggestion for professionals who want to help people via active politics is to go to the "local level" and run there for posts such as a ward member or sarpanch. From that perspective I admire the following attempt:

What not to do?

Unless one is super famous or is a descendant of the Nehru-Gandhi family or (Biju) Patnaik family one should not think of coming to Odisha from outside, create a party and project himself/herself as the Chief Minister. 

This is a mistake which a recent professional who returned to Odisha after a long stint as an IAS officer in another state did.

One should learn from his mistake.

What has/had he done for Odisha that people in Odisha would vote for him.  As a result this person could not even win his own seat.

He should have first focused on doing something for the people at a local level, run at the local level as a Sarpanch, Ward member etc. and tried to move up from there.

I hope others learn from his mistake and the above article in Sambada highlights the right path being taken by an outsider.

An approach that may work but most likely may not!

An approach that may work is for the professional (coming from outside) to convince a recognized party to field him/her as an MP/MLA candidate. This may work, but often does not because there are already a lot of local people who have done social service at the local level for years and if the party ignores all of them in favor of an outsider then it may result in a revolt within the party. So unless the outsider is really famous this approach will not work, and again the best bet is for the outsider to immerse himself/herself in helping people at the local level before trying for a candidacy at the MLA/MP level.

Thanks very much Bikash Dash for the pointer to http://wiki.iricen.gov.in/doku/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=9209%3Aabkhare.pdf. The solution presented there to expand the current Bhubaneswar station to 10 platforms is very good. Since the expansion of existing Bhubaneswar station is deemed economically feasible, they should just go ahead with that immediately (asap) and at the same time start acquiring land in the New Barang location so that a large station can come up there in 10-15 years when that will be needed.

Following are some pictures from the above mentioned slide sets.

The main hurdle with respect to the above plan is the private land that is marked as "to be acquired". That part is shown in red in the map below.

I hope that hurdle is overcome and the expansion gets going asap. If there is trouble then a simple alternative is to move the commercial part to the area marked in green (in the map below) and make the parking area marked in orange a multi-level one with the underground part going under the Janpath to the commercial complex marked in green.

Since the land marked in green is government land this would not cause a lot of trouble and as mentioned before it will connect the station complex with the IG park, Secretariate, Assembly, and Rabindra mandap. In the future there may be a Las Vegas style monorail connecting all these parts. (Note that this plan will not affect the existing coaching yard much. That money can be used in making the underground path connecting the green part and the orange part.)

But in 10-15 years the ten platforms will not be enough; especially when there will be many suburban routes with more frequent trains. Examples of such lines:

• Bhubaneswar-Puri-Konark (Puri-Konark extension is expected)
• Bhubaneswar-Berhampur-Gopalpur (Berhampur-Gopalpur extension is expected; post connectivity)
• Bhubaneswar-Khurda Rd-Nayagarh (part of Khurda-Balangir line)
• Bhubaneswar-Talcher
• Bhubaneswar-Rajathgarh-Tangi
• Bhubaneswar-Bhadrak
• Bhubaneswar-Paradeep
• Bhubaneswar-Barang-Astaranga (new port connectivity)
• Bhubaneswar-Puri-Baliharchandi (new port connectivity)
• Bhubaneswar-Jakhapura-Sukinda

So the alternative plan of a major station near Barang should also proceed but with a slower speed. Especially the land should be acquired asap before the prices become very high.

Update: Thanks very much Bikash Dash for the pointer to http://wiki.iricen.gov.in/doku/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=9209%3Aabkhare.pdf. The solution presented there is good enough. My only comment would be that since the expansion of existing Bhubaneswar station is economically feasible, they should just go ahead with that immediately (asap) and at the same time start acquiring land in the New Barang location so that a large station can come up there in 10-15 years when that will be needed.

The Bhubaneswar railway station currently has only FOUR platforms. That is too little for the volume of trains and passengers it caters to and will cater to in the future. Besides being on the main Howrah-Chennai line and the ECOR headquarter, with the Bhubaneswar metro area growing and many new lines in the anvil (Khurda-Balangir, possible new line to Astarang to serve the proposed port there, Khurda Rd To Rajahthagarh completing a circuit)  there will soon  be need for many local train circuits with more frequent trains.

All this means that even if a new station near Barang (15-16 kms from Bhubaneswar) is constructed with enough platforms, because of the central location of the Bhubaneswar station, the later needs to be expanded with additional platforms.

But there is no horizontal available land in parallel to the exisiting platforms.

I envision two possible solutions:

(i) Going vertical and creating another layer of platforms either under or above the existing platforms. But that would add may be another 4 platforms.

(ii) Another possibility is to go under and create a terminus under the area marked in blue in the pictures below. All those land is owned by the Odisha government. So land acquisition is not a problem.

As can be seen from the pictures above one can add 8+ more platforms perpendicular to the existing 4 platforms. All this can be done in a PPP mode with making good use of shopping, pedestrian plaza and surface transport center all in the ground level and higher and stretching all the way up to the Indira Gandhi park and the Assembly Hall, Secretariat, Rabindra Mandap etc.

The new platforms could mostly be used for trains origniating and terminating at Bhubaneswar; thus  not hampering the stopping times of thorough trains which would  need an engine direction change if they go to the new platforms.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer. 

With top software companies chalking out their strategies for growth, the top administrators in the Information Technology (IT) sector in Odisha say that by 2013 the state will have more than 10,000 seats for software professionals.

TCS, Infosys, Wipro and above all MindTree have started their plans for expansion in Odisha in a big way, said an official in the Department of IT(DoIT).

MindTree, a global IT and Product engineering services company, is starting work on its 20-acre campus from Thursday, said sources.Though MindTree wanted to open its campus way back in 2004, bureaucratic wrangles forced the IT major to wind up its plan. However, with the intervention of the top officials in the DoIT, it has once again taking up the job to set up 2,000-seater campus by 2013, which will ultimately a 10,000-seater campus in future.DoIT Secretary and IDCO CMD Pradeep Jena played a crucial role in roping in the Global IT company to Odisha by providing 20-acres of land in Infocity I.

… Wipro has also started construction of its campus in Infocity I, said an offcial.

This will be a 3,000-seater campus with the latest facilities for software development.Similarly, Infosys has decided to be co-developer of a 50-acre zone in Info Valley SEZ coming up near Khurda.

DoIT sources said 5,000 seats would be developed in next two years.TCS has also started adding its second campus with 3,500 seats in Infocity I.All these companies would be adding 10,000 seats by 2013 …

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.

Mid-sized IT solution provider MindTree Ltd has plans to complete its Orissa project by 2017 and the first phase by June 2013 …

… MindTree will invest Rs 250 crore in a span of five years to build the facility, which can employ 5,000 persons and can train 1,000 freshers, he informed while saying that the entire campus will have the touch of Puri temple along with modern architecture.

In its Bhubaneswar campus, the company will provide all its services including specialised Product Engineering Services that accounts for a third of its revenue. After its completion, it will also look for universities which can make changes in their curriculum to suit the business requirement, he said.

Following is a list with some links. Please let me know if I am missing something.

1. Gotipua Dance Festival, (15th-17th November 2011).
2. Puri Beach Festival (23rd – 29th November 2011).
3. Konark Festival (1st – 5th December 2011).
4. International Sand art Festival (1st-5th December 2011).
5. Dhauli Kalinga Mahotsav (10th – 14th December 2011).
   1. Dhauli Mahotsav (10th-12th December 2011)
   2. Kalinga Mahotsav (13th-14th December 2011)
6. Shreekhetra Utsav, Puri  (14th-25th December 2011) ???
7. Toshali National Crafts Mela (15th – 27th December 2011).
8. Odissi International (18th-22nd December 2011).
9. Eastern Jatra Festival (24th – 30th December).
10. International Odissi Dance Festival (23rd-30th December 2011).
11. Odissi Music Festival (8th – 10th January 2012).
12. Ekamra – the Temple City Festival (10th-20th January 2012)
    1. Mukteswar Dance Festival (14th – 16th January 2012).
    2. Rajarani Music Festival (18th – 20th January 2012).
13. Adivasi Mela (26th January – 5th February 2012).
14. Kharavela Mahotsava (30th January – 5th February 2012).
15. Konark dance and music festival (19-23rd February 2012).
16. BYOF (Bring Your Own Film) -21st -25th February 2012.
17. Drama Season in Bhubaneswar: February – April.
18. Samrachana: Choreography Festival (1st March to 5th March 2012).

This year some of the festivals are new. They are: Gotipua festival, Sand art festival and the Odissi music festival. All of them are great additions. 

In the future years perhaps additional festivals that would include Pala/Daskathia, Sambalpuri music, Sambalpuri dance, Chhau dance, Ghumura etc. can be included. Chhau and Ghumura may be part of the adivasi mela, but giving them a solo dance or music platform (not part of a mela) would be great.

Following is an op-ed from Samaja. (Thanks to S. Karmee for the pointer.)

I personally feel that Odia has become too sanskritized and writings in Odia often do not use the words that are used by people in normal conversations. The Odia speaking people use a rich vocabulary of  words, which if used in the written literature will enrich Odia. In that regard I came across and bought the following two books published by the Odisha Sahitya Academy.

• Dakshina Odishara kathita Odia bhasha. By Dr. Satya Prakash Das.
• Paschima Odishara kathita odia bhasha. By Shri Gopabandhu Ratha.

Both make wonderful reading.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

Though the AAI had asked the State Government to make available a total of 815 acres of land for the airport project, the latter had requested the AAI to scale down the land requirement since maximum 734 acres are available in the area.

Now, the State Government has assured the AAI to provide additional land of around 40 acres for upgradation of the airstrip. Patnaik said the 40 acres of land would help construct a 6,000-feet-long runway. The district Collector has been told to identify suitable land and clear the encroachment, if any, before handing over the land to the AAI.

Although the above is a good step, considering the important of this airport towards well-rounded development of Odisha the government is too slow. It needs to move faster.