Happy headlines today

I was happy to look at The Hindu before I started for work today. The entire front page had something to feel good about. Although, in a strict sense the news was more about promises of good things in the future than about good things right now, I am willing to be pleased with promises. This is also because there is some track record behind these promises.

Ms. Sonia Gandhi wants to materialize the food securities act -- this holds credibility given the implementation of national rural job guarantee scheme and the right to information act.

Mr. Nandan Nilekani is all set to take charge of the unique identification project. "It is a new agency set up to provide unique identification numbers or UID numbers to all citizens for accessing various government services." This looks bright because of a number of reasons: one, the government has had success with online income tax processessing, two, Mr. Nilekani has burned his bridges by resigning from all offices he held with Infosys, and three, he will hold a position of authority -- that equivalent to a cabinet minister. The government chose the right man for the job and gave him the right means to work with.

HRD minister Mr. Kapil Sibal has proposed to enact the Right to Education bill of 2005. It is my general opinion that such bills are usually drafted by a competent set of bureaucrats and field experts, but unfortunately many of them are never enforced. I hope this is just the beginning of much needed improvements in our education system. I also hope the Mr. Sibal will also redeem the image of HRD ministry, whose name conjures up an uneasy picture no thanks to Mr. Arjun Singh. That would only require some meaningful and fruitful work. This may not involve a drastic shift from the reservation policy, that would be wishful thinking.

And the front page also had the picture of the completed first phase of Bandra-Worli sea link, long awaited.

I'm glad The Hindu decided to put all of these things together on today's front page.