also have Microsoft Office applications.
Thus, a cell phone arrival of latest technologies and services is making cell
almost doubles as a personal computer. The cell phone is
of immense help when one is stuck in an emergency
situation and needs help. It is also very easy to track the
exact location of a cell phone and thus, tracking criminals
becomes possible for the police in some cases. It is also
used by institutions or companies to conduct detailed
surveys.
Many young entrepreneurial brains have devised new
and innovative ways of using cell phones. Some vegetable
vendors in Delhi have begun to take their orders on cell
phones and deliver vegetables at the doorsteps. Many
companies are promoting their products by sending mass
SMSs. Today most of the orders, be it for a pizza or a
bulk supply of manufactured goods, can be placed through a
cell phone. In fact, Ideal Cellular, one of India's premier
telecom companies, promotes itself by suggesting (as a
comic relief) various innovative ways to use cell phones
like use of mobile numbers as people's identity in lieu of
names.
The concept of education through cell phones, i.e. m-
learning, focuses on constant mobility of the learner. M-
learning basically implies that the plethora of untailored
information available on the Internet or through the
other services that a cell phone offers, can be gathered
by the learner instantaneously with the help of a cell
phone.
Recendy, Microsoft announced the release of new mobile
hotmail SMS service, which will enable all the hotmail
users to receive and read e-mails as also reply through
SMS. This will be useful for India's over 600 million cell
phone users, only 18 million of whom have GPRS-enabled
cell phones. As and when recommendations made by the
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in
August 2008 to permit Internet service providers to offer
unrestricted Internet telephony, are cleared by the
government, the charges of domestic long distance calls
are expected to halve and those of international calls are
set to fall to a fifth. The much anticipated 3G technology
has also arrived in India, which will earn much higher
revenue for the service providers due to its value-added
services. The technology, intended for multimedia-enabled
and smart phones, provides up to 3 Mbps speed for
downloading, video broadcasting, stock transactions, e-
learning, Internet surfing, fax services, etc. Thus, the
INDIA'S WILDLIFE HERITAGE
India is extremely fortunate to have been blessed with a
vast range of wild flora and fauna by Mother Nature. If not
in gold reserves or other conventional wealth, at least in
green wealth, India is certainly very rich. Since ages past,
scientists, poets, writers and others have marvelled at and
extolled India's abundant wildlife heritage. A great
number of animals and plants of various sizes have made
India their home. The protection of these various,
marvellous creatures is our bounden duty However, of
late, with the effects of globalisation and industrialisation,
the Indian people have shown a marked tendency to ignore
these indispensable traditional assets of ours. If the
situation continues to be so, we will certainly regret our
actions in the long run. Or if not us, our descendents
certainly will. Protecting India's wildlife heritage has become
for the people of the nation a sacred responsibility.
42
phones a much more comprehensive machine as compared
to earlier versions.
However, cell phones have come to be blamed for a lot
of troubles like disturbance caused by them in classroom
environment, official meetings, formal functions, in a flight
and cases of vehicular accidents when people drive while
talking on phone. But these problems have cropped up due to
human negligence and non-adhcience to rules. These can be
prevented with a little effort or alertness. Another strand of
argument is that cell phones are considered to be an
intrusion of one's privacy as they can easily be hacked to steal
one's personal information. Besides, it can also compromise
one's security as the user's exact location can be traced by
tracking his/her cell phone. Further, camera-enabled phones
can be used to take one's offensive photographs without
his/her knowledge and can later be morphed. What is more,
scores of researches have revealed that excessive use of cell
phones can cause tumours and cancer.
Cell phones can also pose threats to national security.
One example of this is the recent BlackBerry controversy in
India. Two BlackBerry users can exchange encrypted
messages which cannot be decoded even by Research In
Motion, the makers of BlackBerry. The Government of
India is of the opinion that this service can be misused by
criminal elements, and hence it has made it clear that if
the manufacturers do not work out a solution to this
problem, this particular service will be blocked in India.
Concerned with security issues, the Department of
Telecom had disconnected about 24 million Chinese
handsets in 2009 as they did not possess the International
Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, which allows
lawful tracking of a particular handset. It is also known
that cell phones were also used to coordinate the 26/11
Mumbai terrorist attacks. In the light of national interests,
these security issues must be handled with greater vigilance so
that untowrard occurrences could be avoided.
Cell phones have become a part and parcel of our lives,
affecting all sections of the modern society, in one way or
the other, transforming our lives in myriad unimaginable
ways. Being the speediest mode of communication, it
has ousted all its rivals from competition in no time. It
has evolved far more than what it was intended to be; it
has intensely touched our lives and hence is definitely a
boon.
Preserving this bountiful treasure of nature is of crucial
importance; every Indian should make it his/her priority.
The present times in India are characterised by
indiscriminate deforestation and a callous, mindless
exploitation of natural resources. In the backdrop of such
an alarming scenario, every Indian should do his bit to
make sure that the nation's wildlife heritage is not lost. A
sustainable use of available resources is the pressing need of
the hour; such an approach will go a long way in
ensuring that the survival of the nation's various species
of flora and fauna is not endangered. Nature maintains a
fine balance among its various facets. The delicate
mechanisms of nature bring to mind the proverbial Sword
of Damocles which hangs from a single horse-hair atop
our eponymous protagonist who is sitting on the hot seat.
In this case, nature's inherent balance is the sword and
COMPETITION SUCCESS REVIEW, NOVEMBER 2010
 underneath it is mankind, awaiting government of the country and the conscious citizens
looming doom with an look helpless. A sad state of affairs, indeed.
all-pervading sense of dread. If the "A thing of beauty is a joy forever", said the great
string snaps, the sword falls down English poet John Keats, who perhaps was the
point-first onto the head of mankind. greatest of the second generation of English Romantic
A dangerous thing indeed ! If a single poets. Reviled as a bad poet during his lifetime, his
species from the group of flora and subtle prominence was acknowledged only much
fauna is lost, then because of the later. A true worshipper of beauty as noticed in his
nature of Mother Nature, all the poems, he had given up a possible career in surgery
organisms in its food web are to write poems and so would have been hit hard by
affected—some adversely, some this lackadaisical attitude towards his work. Me
favourably. This in turn has other however had an eerie knack of hitting a nail on its
consequences and in the end, the head as can be gathered from the above quote. The
overall effect will be always negative. aesthetic brilliance, beauty and peace provided by the
Negativity, unfortunately, is a lot like richness of our wildlife heritage j u s t
the thermo-dynamical concept of Pratheek Praveen Kumar cannot be overstated. According to our
entropy—especially so when it comes First prize winner of CSR Essay Writing old Hindu customs, a man is supposed to
to nature. It always increases. If Contest 598. spend one-fourth of his life—the last
someone or something disturbs nature, Mr. Pratheek Praveen Kumar is from part, incidentally—in the forests. This
the total effect is always bound to be Bengaluru, Karnataka. He is a student custom aims at providing ourselves with
negative. It however differs from ofB.E. (Telecommunications) at the R.V. a serene backdrop in which to analyse
entropy in a singular way; it is possible College of Engineering, Bengaluru. our life and meditate. Our wildlife
to reverse the flow of negativity, heritage can thus be seen to have massive
albeit with a great aesthetic and artistic value.
amount of difficulties and tribulations. The haphazard But this is not the end of the value of our environment. It
and capricious way in which we are currently disposing of is not the be-all and end-all of what nature can give us. Life
the biosphere around us is causing a huge increase in itself for humans is possible only because of our wildlife
negativity which, needless to say, will be difficult to erase, heritage. And it is not only about just survival. The word
even in the long haul. opulence is in the dictionary because of nature. Why, even
India has about 350 different species of mammals, 1,200 the very pages of a dictionary are but examples of how vital
different species of birds which cover 14 percent of the Mother Nature is to mankind ! The old yet timeless story of a
world's avifauna, 453 different species of reptiles, 182 tree giving away anything and everything it has to fulfil the
different species of amphibians and 14,500 different species of needs and desires of a young boy who grows old, gives us an
angiosperms. Also, India boasts of 45,000 plant species that enduring image of the beastly nature of man and the humanly
constitute 6.4 percent of the total plant species on Earth. nature of Mother Nature. India's wildlife heritage being as
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands alone house 2,200 rich as it is, demands a great amount of caring and we should
species of flowering plants and 120 species of ferns. When at all costs extend a helping hand as far clown the line as we
all is said and done, India has 77,000 species of animals, can.
about 50,000 species of insects and about 13,000 species of A country's wildlife heritage is the gift that the country
butterflies and moths. The sixteen major forest types of has received from the Almighty. Whether to exploit it
India are distributed in 10 distinctive biogeographic unsustainably or sustainably is that country's choice. Since
zones, having 25 subdivisions and a much larger variety of the days of yore, Indians have learnt to live with and in
ecosystems. However, mere dry statistics represent only a the forests. Since the beginning of human civilisations in
unidimensional perspective. All these facts and figures give this great nation, generations of Indians have come and
us just a bland, insipid view of the total richness of gone, giving respect to and loving wildlife. It is a fact that
India's ecosystem. The true picture can be perceived those times are long gone and can never be brought back
when one visits the lush green, thriving forests of India. again. In the fast-developing and growing world of present
Visitors to India often say. that India has a particular times, India cannot just merely keep pace with others. For
'smell'. An earthy, inspiring odour filled with the excitement of all-round development to happen, our nation must step
adventure. Or something like that. One hears the echo of on the gas and continue doing so. However, the legacy of
similar sentiments a great many times in the accounts of our farsighted forefathers remains. The richness of India's
foreigners who have visited and lived in India for an wildlite heritage is perhaps unmatched in today's world. It
extended period of time. These words come with deeper enables us to use our resources to the fullest, which only
conviction from especially those foreign tourists who have a handful of countries other than India can afford to do.
spent time in the hill stations of India. In reality, this But all that our ancestors did will be wasted if we decide
"smell of India" is nothing more than the odour of India's to throw caution to the winds and proceed, laxly in a
forests. An odour that has influenced many people from manner usually called laissez-faire in economics. A strong,
different countries to choose India as their abode over positive, proactive approach must be made. Each and every
their respective lands of birth. One would surmise that conscious and conscientious Indian is of this opinion. It
when people from other countries have done so, it must has been often said that the common man does not know
be but a 'no-contest' that majority of Indians wrould too what is good for him and \vhat is not. However for once,
feel the same way about these things. But alas, no. Many in our leaders would do well to follow the words of their
India, living right in our midst, think and feel differently and esteemedCvoters. CSR
resort to destroying the wildlife of the nation by way of
varied, cunning means. The devious ploys used by these
people for fulfilling their self-seeking goals have made the

44 COMPETITION SUCCESS REVIEW, NOVEMBER 2010