Omkar Dattatray
The year 2022 which was more or less like other previous years came to an end and the New Year 2023 took its birth and we woke up in the New Year and embraced it with great enthusiasm and joy. Like all other years the bygone year 2022 was a mixed bag of achievements as well as failures. As we embrace the New Year 2023 and bade good bye to year 2022, we have the memories of the bygone year fresh in our mind and welcome the New Year with great fanfare and fervor. The occasion of the New Year provides us the opportunity to resolve and make New Year resolutions and pledge to work for the unity, integrity, sovereignty, peace, security and development. We also resolve to weed out corruption, drug addiction, militancy and hatred from the country. On the New Year eve while we celebrate the New Year with gaiety, we also will have a look on the achievements and the failures of the year gone by and resolve to make the new year more fruitful for us and the country.
There were key positives and negatives of the bygone year and the union budget 2022. There were various positive points in the budget of the bygone year. It has listed some first time initiatives with emphasis on digital technologies and climate action while it had been criticized for being capitalistic budget with negligible mention for the poor people of the country. The budget 2022 had received various mixed reactions from experts, politicians and the common citizens. Ranging from the 5G auction which was conducted in 2022 and the announcement and implementation of National Tele Mental Programme is an outstanding achievement of year 2022. Digital revolution in education and catering to the removal of gaps which had come due to COVID 19 and due to closure of schools in imparting the classroom education is another milestone of the year gone by along with the implementation of on line education. Digital university was established to extend world class education for all. The schools were opened in the year 2022 as the country under the leadership of Modi had fought coronavirus and won victory over the pandemic. Indian efforts of fighting coronavirus which started in 2020 and were carried to 2021 bore its fruits in 2022 and the year saw almost all elimination of COVID 19.
The normal activity took momentum and this is a plus point of year 2022. However at the end of the year and close of December there were some positive cases of the new variant of coronavirus, but the country is armed to combat the new variant of coronavirus. This is no small development. 5G auctions and increased connectivity was another feather in the cap of the people.
The implementation of PM Gati Shakti plan was an important priority of the budget 2022.
E-Passport and digital banking ,digital payments and fintech innovations was another achievement of year 2022.
One of the limitations of the budget 2022 is that it was bound to make rich, richer and poor, poorer.
Inflation ,soaring prices of the essential goods and services was the failure of the government.
The inflation has broken the back of the common man, Joblessness and unemployment is also a main minus point of the year which has gone. We faced terrible inflation and there was no tax relief for the middle class. Digital and crypto currencies was another innovation in the economy of the country.
PM Modi made a significant announcement in June of providing 10 lakh government jobs to the educated unemployed youth and its implementation began in October 2022. The centre government is thinking to revive and restore the old pension scheme for its employees and it will benefit government employees on a big scale.
The nation has celebrated 75th year of independence themed as 75th Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.
Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav has been celebrated in the nook and corner of the country with fanfare. We have excelled in many areas but have failed in some others.
The country has failed in key areas that include poverty, health, education, equality and fraternity.
India has become a fifth growing economy in the world.
Recently we have been decorated with the crown of the presidency of G20 and this is a very big achievement which we have got in the year 2022 as India will be in a position to lead the world.
The mantle of G20 presidency is a matter of pride for the countrymen and it has given India an opportunity to lead the world.
There was calm on the Indo-Pak border and the LOC .There was complete silence between India-Sino LOC throughout the year baring the efforts of crossing the line by the Chinese troops recently but they were sent back by our brave army Jawans.
The peaceful assembly elections in UP, Punjab, Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, HP, Gujarat is also a great democratic achievement.
The nation has also elected the first women Dalit as the president of the country and it proved that anyone can assume the mantle of presidentship in the country .It is the empowerment of the weaker section of the society.
The killing of 56 foreign terrorists in J&K is not an ordinary feat.
To the close of the year four local terrorists were neutralized in December in Jammu.
Modi diplomacy and foreign, bilateral and multilateral relationships were cemented with different countries during 2022. The friendship with Russia, USA was strengthened.
The year 2022 showed that the Indian say matters in the international spheres and the status of India has increased because of the diplomacy of Modi .While there have been a number of plus points of 2022,the failures are not hidden from anyone .There was an increase in the road accidents in various parts of the country and thousands of the people have died because of road accidents .In Jammu and Kashmir we have witnessed an unprecedented spurt in the road accidents and a big number of precious lives have been lost due to these accidents.
The country has witnessed brute silting of the throat of a number of youth belonging to the majority community at the hands of radicalized youth of the Muslim community.
The hatred has increased in the country .Due to the cases of love Jihad and live in relationship many women had been brutally killed their partners and it has shamed the relationships. The case of killing and cutting the body of a girl named Shraddha into 35 pieces by her living partner is unprecedented and it has brought down shivers in the people.
The radicalization, extremism and fundamentalism was on increase and so was the hatred and this hints towards our failure.
We were back with our annual list of the worst technologies of the year.
Think of these as anti-breakthroughs, the sort of mishaps, misuses, miscues and bad ideas that led to technology failure.
There was and is tension and war between Russia and Ukraine and the tension between India and China.
The clouds of world war third are still hovering over our heads. Thus in short the year 2022 was a mixed bag but we should welcome new year 2023 with open arms.
(The author is a columnist, social and KP activist).
