WINNING FRIENDS
   Date :20-Jun-2019

 
BY EXTENDING assistance to Niger worth $ 15 million to host African Union (AU) summit next month, India has reiterated its commitment to aid development in various countries that deserve and need such help. As far as Niger is concerned, like several other poorer African countries, India has been engaged with that country and helping it in development in areas like transport, electrification, solar energy and potable drinking water. In recent years India is trying to reach out, besides Asian neighbours, member countries of the African Union and providing aid in diverse fields. The aid is purely based on mutual trust and is a strictly friendly gesture, without harbouring any territorial ambitions or hegemonistic designs. This is one reason why several countries in the African continent accept Indian aid which is without any strings attached. Many of the South Asian nations are once again turning to India for being a facilitator of development not as one who would have expansionist, territorial designs but as a friend. This is true to India’s time-tested non-interference policy.
 
GOOD METHOD
 
THE Indian Railways has done well to ask its officers to travel in all classes to take accurate passenger feedback and then suggest ways and means to respond to the people’s actual needs. Even as we realise that the Indian Railway is the largest in the world, we cannot overlook the reality that it needs a lot of improvement in the quality of its services to various user-segments including the commercial sector depending upon the railways for the freight carriage. The current directive to officers may not cover the freight sector, but carrying out a detailed and truthful survey of all user-segments would make a lot of positive difference to the quality of services the Railways offer. Currently, because of the high density of passengers, the Railways find itself strained at the seams. A proper feedback from the user-public would help officers draw up policies that would take care of most, if not all, demands of the travelling public. Such a practice would remove any possibility of perception dominating the thought, and offer actual information from the user front.