Introducing "The Spark"

The period of 2007-08 has been proving to be a year of dramatic ups and downs for the world economy. The whole world has constantly been shaken by the mighty ripples of the U.S. financial crisis. As most of us must be knowing, this is the worst crisis the world economy has faced since the Great Depression of the 1930s. With the fading glory of the world capitalist system, the India Inc story, as the mouth-piece of capitalist houses call it, is also sinking. The IT sector has lost thousands of jobs since the inception of the present crisis. The banking sector, share market, aviation etc also are in dire straits. Share market sank below 10K, Jet Airways announced retrenchment (which it had to roll back), India Airlines announced to send 15,000 workers to send on leave without pay, a number of banks have announced retrenchment and various financial firms have been rocked to the hilt. Clearly enough, the "India shining" fable has come to an abrupt halt!
However, somewhere deep inside our hearts, don't we know that the India has always been shining for a certain minority? All ages have been Golden Ages for the richer classes and Dark Ages for the common masses. The Arjun SenGupta committee concluded that 77 percent of Indians live on Rs.20 or less per day; W.H.O. report tells us that 46 percent of Indian children are malnourished; even countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ghana and Senegal are ahead of India in the human development index of the United Nations. So, as concerned scientists we must not forget the other picture, which is in fact the true picture of India and we should adopt a scientific approach of analyzing every problem with the aim of resolution.
All of us know that everything has order behind it. From H-atom to sun, everything has some rules and laws governing it. The basic brick of the constitution of all matter is atom (which is composed of even more subtle particles). Different constitution and configuration of atoms give different forms to different matter; physical conditions on earth allowed development of organic matter and finally organic life, humans are the highest form of this organic life; Since, their inner physical world is governed by some set of laws, the society which they have created has evolved through some laws and follows certain laws of motion. As scientists concerned with the problems of the society in which we live, we must understand the laws of motion of the society apart from the natural laws of motion. We as sensitive youngsters must understand and find the way out of this misanthrope system and society which has profit motive as the principal mover and inspiration behind every economic and social activity. Social needs and 80 percent of the total population has been pushed into the oblivion and the interests of capital and corporates rule everything.
‘The Spark’ is a platform which intends to bring social scientists together, invite rational and justice-loving sons and daughters of Indian people to come and join a drive to understand the society and its laws and understand, not just for the sake of understanding it but for the sake of changing it. We invite all such friends to discuss about what role we can play in bringing about a radical change in the system and the society and what kind of alternative should be put forward. We wait for you...