WB: India to face water shortages

Telling us what we all have been yelling about for so long, the World Bank has warned that India is very likely to face severe water shortage and conflicts as rivers dry up, groundwater is depleted and canals are polluted. The water situation has been worsening for a long time now. With almost all cities expanding rapidly, with people leaning towards more western lifestyles (which consume way more water in every respect) and with absolute no intelligent water planning by successful governments, we are headed towards severe water scarcity soon.
With falling water tables, there is only so much longer farmers can rely on ground water for irrigation. Water conservation is not very difficult and can be practised at the small scale. Proper implementation and awareness can avoid this imminent water scarcity with our active participation.

The maturing of India - on Indian aid for Katrina victims

Barely a couple of months after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's US visit and the announcement of a joint US-India Disaster Relief Initiative to contribute to disaster preparedness and relief operations, in response to the wide and crippling devastation caused by hurrican Katrina, the Indian government released $5 million in aid to the US. The US .. the worlds largest donor had earlier let it be known that it would accept help from outside. Aside from the $5 mil given to the American Red Cross, and Indian military transporter plane carried 25 tonnes of aid including 50,000 first aid kits, 25,000 cots and 500,000 packets of rations.

The Russian built transporter has been sent to "stand in solidarity and sympathy with them in these trying times”. The plane also carried its own boats and a team from the Indian Army Medical Corps. The team includes a surgeon, an anaesthetist, doctors, nurses and paramedics who have had first-hand experience in handling the effects of natural disasters. The team also brings in its own stock of medicines including medicines to deal with water borne diseases as well as a portable water purification plant.

So whats the big deal right? The big deal is that India needs to act as a responsible, developed nation if it wants the world to accept it as a developed nation; to rid itself of the 'developing' tag.. which it very much wants and needs to do in order to be taken seriously in any matter. It needs to rise up to the responsibilities of a big player in the world. And this is exactly what it is doing. If we look at some natural disasters over the last year -

India immediately sent out troops and naval medical ships to help Tsunami victims in Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia. In total, the Indian Navy deployed about 32 naval ships, 41 aircraft including at least 16 helicopters, several medical teams, a mobile hospital and over 16000 personnel for disaster relief operations and sent out over 10,000 tonnes of relief material.

India (initially) refused foreign aid for its own Tsunami relief operations.

India again refused offers of foreign aid when commercial capital Mumbai was paralysed by heavy monsoons leaving hundereds dead.

These are steps towards showing the world that India has grown up and is now ready to stand up and claim its position.

Posted by anya at 03:30 PM Category: India | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Supporting Project Why

IdeaMani has a post up on supporting Project Why. Check it out, read more about the project.
Along similar lines, dont forget ILP.

PM begins US visit

The Indian PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh began his official visit to the US today. Even as the media are playing their part by reporting every detail of the visit including what the PM and his wife were wearing (and no doubt, later on had for dinner), we all wait to see what actual work is done during the 'historic' meet.
The highlights will be the PM's address to the US congress, the talks for elevated nuclear cooperation, talks for sharing defense practises and technology and also two new initiatives - the CEOs forum and linking the agricultural universities in India with those in the US. I like this new agricultural focus as if undertaken properly, it will renew agricultural research in India.
In the CEO's Forum. 10 CEOs from each side will sit down and discuss FDI inflow into India. The forum will also address the difficulties in setting up investments in India, including but not limited to Red Tape, and also aim towards cooperation in research in various fields. This is a very good step - leaving politicians and the babus out of this discussion. It will probably be 'guided' by bureaucrats, but hey, something is better than nothing. The selection of both groups clearly indicates the wide spectrum of discussions to take place. It is a neat mix of Infrastructure support in the areas of Finance, Agriculture, Industry and Technology.
The list -
CEOs from the US-
• Charles O. Prince, Citigroup
• Paul Hanrahan, AES
• Stanley Warren, Cargill
• David Cote, Honeywell International,
• William B. Harrison, Jr, J P Morgan Chase
• Harold McGraw III, The McGraw Hill companies
• Thomas J. O’Neill, Parsons Brinckerhoff
• Steve Reinemund, Pepsi
• Christopher Rodrigues, VISA International
• Anne M. Mulcahy, Xerox

CEOs from India-
• Ratan Tata, Tata Sons
• Deepak Parekh, HDFC
• Mukesh Ambani, RIL
• Nandan Nilekani, Infosys
• Ashok Ganguly, ICICI OneSource Ltd
• Y C Deveshwar, ITC Ltd
• Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Biocon
• Analjit Singh, Max (India) Ltd
• Pratap C Reddy, Apollo Group of Hospitals
• Baba N Kalyani, Bharat Forge Ltd

Lets hope this is the start of a new path leading towards cooperation and mutual benefits.

To helmet or not to helmet?

I read in todays timesofindia (pune edition) (the epaper .. i dont visit the website) that the helmet rule is to be extended (yet) again. The article says that the State Govt pleaded the Bombay High Court to extend the deadline for making helmets compulsory. It also states the reasons the state govt has given in its case. No, I'm not providing a link .. its not that important.

Now, either history is repeating itself or the Times, having totally lost all creative talent and journalistic ethics, is reprinting old stories on its front page. Helmets were supposed to be made compulsory some 5 years back. Either enforce the rule or do away with it .. whats this .. trying to sneak it in once every few months??

Personally, I used to use a helmet while riding my motorcycle. It made me 'feel' safe .. I dont know about actual safety as never got the chance to test it. Matix, on the other hand had more chances to test it than anyone else I know. Right dude?

No protest left behind..

When you are out of power, you protest. Thats the rule Indian political parties go by. No matter whether you are protesting against the same things your party came up when you were in power. The ruling party is enforcing it and you are not the ruling party, so you protest. Simple.

Now, this is not actually directly related, but SS activists burnt MSEB offices inAmravati as well as Pune. Now how ridiculous can you get? Theres a power crisis, you are a political party, so you set fire to the electricity board office. Wonderful.

Race for Literacy

I meant to do this on Monday but ever since I got back, I have been swamped with work. Finally forcing myself to put it down before its too late. This is especially for those of you around the bay area .. and for those of you away from it too.

India Literacy Project is a non-profit organization having an aim to make India 100% literate. Having recognized the problems associated with illiteracy, it now actively seeks to spread awareness, identify organizations in India working for the cause of literacy, and raise funds to support these organizations.

Visit the website. Initially I thought they are a bunch of over enthusiastic desi housewifes in the US .. who need something like this to mark them apart from the usual desi housewifes of the US and to make them feel that they are indeed doing something special. But no. I was grossly mistaken. And I apologize. These people are doing good stuff, and they are doing it because they want to do it. They have practical, well set out goals for ILP, USA and for ILP, India.
The website is pretty well maintained and reflects the transparency within the organization. They have a list of on-going literacy projects and a list of funds sent to Indian NGOs.

The ILP holds an annual 'Race for Literacy'. They have a 5K walk/run and a 10K run. The race is this weekend in the Bay Area (Mountain View, CA). So, if you are in the area and can run.. then go for it! Else .. visit the website, find out more about them. They have various ways in which we can help if we feel like it.

R-day musings

What exactly does the republic day stand for? We have learnt that on 26th Jan 1950, India became a soverign state, a republic. By adopting the Indian Constitution. We, it seems have forgotten the significance of this, and remember 26th Jan more for the parade, the holiday and the small paper flags that spring out of nowhere.
While the parade is a magnificient display of our military might, it also serves to showcase the discipline and vigour the armed forces instill in one. It would do well for ourselves as well as our lawmakers to learn something from this. I wonder what goes through their minds on republic day? Does their spine tingle when the army marches past, or when the national anthem is being played? For the politicians it is something exactly opposite to a hopliday. It is a day to make patriotic speeches. They must be a patriotic lot, these politicians. Else what are they doing in politics in the first place. No? From fist-fighting in the parliament to making amendments to the constitution, they are quite flexible.
Anyways, back to my original point. What is the republic day? Why do we celebrate it? Do we mark the occassion of adoption of the constituition? Do we revel in the mlitary might of a soverign India? Do we acknowledge the maturity we have attained as a state? Yes. That and more. This day is being marked as a celebration of the idea that is India. And the celebration is for us being a part of it.

ONGC looking up

ONGC has been in the news a lot these days. This represents a totally new approach for PSUs. A professional approach. I think this is a whole new perspective Indian companies have nowadays .. they are getting to know themselves better. They know they can compete in international markets. The way these companies are carrying themselves shows a new confidence. ONGC in particular has been eager to make investments in foreign soil, participate in exploration of new fields and set up infrastructure where it is lacking. This not only generates some amount of goodwill, but also strengthens the PSUs hold on other markets.
P.S.: No, I dont own ONGC stock.

What estimate?

I was just browsing the Planning Commission of India's website. The site itself surprised me pleasantly, and I spent a lot of time taking in some of the information available. One thing that I had been thingking about for a while struck me again. While looking at the status of ongoing irrigation projects, the increase in the estimated cost of each project shocked me. Now, in India many projects are delayed over a lot of years and this itself increases their cost by a large amount. But these figures definitely have something more to them. I hope it is something that I failed to understand and there exists a simpler logical explanation to it. I will list a few examples .. the order is
State - project name, initial estimated cost --> latest estimated cost (Rs. crore).
Andhra - Sriram Sagar 40 --> 2600
Maharashtra - Kukadi 18 --> 1600
Maharashtra - Mor 1 --> 49
Rajasthan - Panchana 1 --> 125
Tripura - Gumti 6 --> 50
UP - Sarayu Nagar 78 --> 2765
Gujrat - Sardar Sarovar 4600 --> 30000

WTF?? Almost all the projects read this way. The only estimates that havent been raised yet are of those projects which are yet unapproved. The whole list is numbing. Hundreds and hundreds of projects each costing way more than originally expected. Why so? Normally in any project you can consider the estimate to fall short by a small margin, thus the total cost may come to 110 - 150% of the original estimate. But many projects here have exceeded their estimates 20 to 50 times!! We can consider that some projects were expanded to make them bigger etc .. but surely not all!
More importantly -- who is answerable to this? Where is all this money going? Can any particular official be questioned on why the costs spiral out of control? If contractors are given jobs, why arent they fined when it is not completed on time and not within the given budget? How long will this bleeding of the public continue?

Too bad

Until recently, (read before the elections) the BJP looked all set to become a matured political party with a well-set economic agenda to lead India forward. However recent events (read the disastrous elections) prompted the party think-tank to work overtime. The earlier revival of the BJP was largely credited to the Advani rath-yatra and such .. so again, it seems, the BJP is willing to lean on the Hindutva issue. Chuck out all the real, important issues and focus on the sentiments of people. Bring out the ayodhya issue, lead people to believe that it is what our nation needs right now; not a good economic policy, not a common minimum program, not many other things which may seem important, but really all bow before religion and other sentiments. Yeah! Thats the way to go!! If you can't convince them, confuse them. Idiots.

This, I think is a serious setback. We are slipping back into the mesozioc era instead of gearing up and lunging for the prize .. an all-over booming economy and a stable, healthy nation. Hell, I am gonna ignore the BJP for now (they deserve it) and be critical of the current govt. Atleast they remain the same old reliably non-performing group.

the same non-performers?

The Maharashtra Election was something I was taking some intrest in, though I am not sure whether it was worth the time. Really. It's not like the overall result bothers me .. (strangely, it does not .. whichever party came to power the state of the state would have been the same). However theres this dull feeling of restlessness within me which I sense increasing as I think about politics whether in Pune, Maharashtra, India or the US.

Heres a parting shot. [Arun Gawli got elected]. [.. The tally did not include his (Gawli's) vote because he refused to step out after seeing an 'encounter specialist', Senior Inspector Vijay Salaskar, posted outside his home in Dagdi Chawl, south Mumbai].

Here are the constituency wise results. [Its fun to read aliases that they have listed .. e.g. Arun Gulab Gawli Alias Daddy]

Veerappan shot dead

[Finally] Notorious scandalwood smuggler and elephant poacher Veerappan was shot dead on Monday night. Veerappan reigned in the forests bordering Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and started off as an ivory smuggler, killing over 6000 elephants. He took up scandalwood smuggling in the late eighties. An entire industry developed around the attempt to capture the fugutive smuggler. The Tamil Nadu and Karnataka governments formed special joint task forces to hunt him down but Veerappan eluded them all and put to shame all efforts of the state to capture him. The total price on his head was Rs 3 crore [USD 600K]. Over the years the bandit had over a 100 murders attributed to him. Cruel and deceitful, I will remember him for murdering officials after offering to surrender, raiding police stations and shooting policemen while they were sleeping and evading capture for more than two decades.

There was a time

I feel less of a man today. There was a time when my blood boiled when I read about atrocities like this. Now, sadly .. I have been reduced to a person who no longer feels as angry and ashamed as before. This is a case of the utmost contempt .. which showcases the abuse of power by some in the police force. About how the police can turn some innocent's life into a living hell and how we as a nation are helpless to do anything about it. About how such incidences have so impregnated our lives, that we no longer feel surprised and indignated by them. Now, when I read the news .. all I can think of is 'bullshit .. let me see the policemen get punished, fined, jailed first'. So many times has the system been abused, so many times have the guilty gone unpunished that now it seems 'just another incident'.
Read the news, see if your blood boils. It does, I hope.

Young Innovators..

Cool. Something like this article is what I'd like to read more of. The International Exhibition of Young Inventors in Japan was held last week, and India showcased 10 entries. From low-cal biscuits and Herbal Pesticides to Carbon Nanotubes using plant oils .. a wide range of inventions were exhibited.

As part of a joint initiative of the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Department of Science & Technology, to promote inventions and innovations among students and youths and instil the innovation era, CII and DST organised the Indian participation at the Tokyo exhibition.

---

Much like AnarCapLib, the Minister for Science & Technology Kapil Sibal stated that the large population was not a bane but a boon, and all efforts should be made to harness the budding population. [which; is very true]. The minister also said that the task of the State was to encourage the children of today and tomorrow to nurture the genius and give them the confidence to grow. What is the Libertarian stance on this? Would anarcho-cap-libertarians have the govt. not meddle in anything, yet provide encouragement to such innovations? Is it the government's job to stimulate such growth or should it wait for the market forces to take care of it? If so, the govt taking an initiative and supporting and encouraging research is essentially a bad thing?

Rejuvenating the daak

Rediff has an article on how the Indian Postal Service is reinventing itself. [Postmen to deliver more].

In an innovative move the Department of Posts has joined hands with Idea Cellular and will soon be marketing Idea SIM cards from post offices in regions where the cell company operates. There are also plans to tie up with Nokia to sell handsets in the future. ... There is also a proposal of post offices doubling as "delivery centres" of Kodak Colour Labs in semi-urban and rural areas. ... Meanwhile, the postal department has also started marketing the non-life policies of Oriental Insurance from the beginning of the year.

This was a very pleasant surprise for me. I had always imagined the Indian Postal Service to be an outdated, slow, dying behemoth; and the postman an overworked, underpaid sorry man. More so after coming to the US, where the USPS [United States Postal Service] (a giant in its own right) runs an amazingly smooth job and is top notch in it's service and facilities offered. The Indian post is subsidised by the govt. not so the USPS. Of course they are greatly helped by the tons of junk mail in the US, but that deserves an entire entry of its own. Our own daak tried to modernize themselves a while back .. by providing email services from post offices. I have no idea whether it was implemented widely and how well. But good news this. If the Indian Post is able to pull it off, they will greatly profit by these value added services provided to the junta.

A Bandh to Bandhs

In a landmark order, The Bombay High court fined the Shiv-Sena and the BJP Rs 20 lakhs each for calling, supporting and enforcing a bandh in July 2003, in the wake of the Ghatkopar blast. The Maharashtra Govt listed some measures that would be brought out in the near future to combat frequent calls for such bandhs by political parties. Apparently, the decision was a result of a PIL filed in the High court claiming a loss of Rs 50 crore as a result of the bandh . While no Indian court would have fined the ones responsible the whole (or even a significant part of the) amount (even if they were held fully liable for the loss), this is a step in the right direction.

The state listed out four broad measures it planned to implement. It said that any party, organisation, group or individual calling for bandh will be served a notice under Section 149 Cr.PC, which will state the illegality of bandh. The notice will also state that the person or organisation calling for bandh will be liable for legal action for any loss of life, injury or property damage.

This is a major step by the state to reign in the sundry political parties and the way they treat the state as their baap ka maal. Lets just hope this would lead to people thinking twice before calling a bandh and enforcing it in the way it has historically been done. And if that IS done .. then lets hope the said measures are brought into immediate effect.

Related:
The BJP says it will appeal in the Supreme Court against the imposed fine [Link]
So will the Sena [Link]

Portugal witholds Abu Salem from India.

Abu Salem was caught in Portugal a few years back. Indian officials were jubilant and we all talked about how justice prevails. After a lot of talks and hype, finally Potugal told us they refuse to extradite Abu Salem because he might be given the capital punishment when handed over to India. The Acorn talks more about it here.

well well well

Hmmm ... thats all I can say. The political turmoil happening back at home has left me confused and surprised to say the least. I wish I was at home .. it would have been fun. Or maybe even in Duluth .. (I am not .. and limited net access takes its toll).

Meanwhile, I am in Chicago, trying to have fun with fellow desi Duluthians before eberyone leaves for where their lives lead them.

Sonia as PM .. accept it.

Sonia will be pm. the more i think of it .. the surer I am. It may not be as bad as I was thinking it would be. chalaychaach. yahi to politics hai. as long as this govt does'nt interfere with the economic reforms I am fine with it.

The thing I find more disturbing is Mulayam as deputy pm .. or maybe Laloo. Mulayam has no political ethics (is that an oxymoron?) or standards. He is too scheming to be comfortable with. Laloo is notorious, but is not as bad as Mulayam. Still I would prefer some other deputy pm.

If anything good comes out of this govt .. I would say Jairam Ramesh as Finance Minister. That guy would definitely get to work.

Somehow, I find it more palatabale than others that Sonia will be pm.

We are a democracy, and we ourselves are responsible for our actions. India has got the goverment, (and prime minister) that she chose. (and maybe even deserved). Even though I did'nt want sonia for pm .. it looks like many many more people chose her, over Vajpayee .. which I find extremely hard to digest. The result was highly surprising, but as I have learnt over the past year .. life dishes up a lot of things which are hard to digest. We, personally and now as a nation should be ready to face this instead of bickering and thinking up alternate forms of government or thinking up ways and new rules of trying to prevent Sonia from becoming prime minister.

The Grand Salaam

Time magazine in it's current issue, has a small piece on the increasing desi cultural influence on Amrika. A Cultural Grand Salaam covers Bollywood in general and Bombay Dreams in particular. It's almost like an ad for the later, coinciding with it's opening on Broadway this week.
Anyhoo, the article itself is okay .. could have been better. Time has consistently been covering India and related issues. I can't say the same about NewsWeek, but then I subscribe to Time and only glance at the other when I get the chance.

Ready, set ..

The Indian General Elections are less than a week away. Though I am sitting here half a world across, the excitement still grabs me as it would have had I been back home. Lets hope the electronic voting machines do their job well, with minimum glitches. If theres anything I hate abt our elections, it's the sundry re-elections that take place later due to various technicalities. That apart, it's gonna be fun.Heres a link to get you into the spirit.

WTF?

21 Killed in Sari Stampede.
Links to articles inThe Times of India, CNN, NYTimes.
I fail to understand this mob mentality. It happens disturbingly frequently in India. People rush to get ahead and not notice that they are trampling children underneath? How can you do that? Not just one person, but thousands of them .. stepping on, ignoring the muffled cries .. its sickening. I am not even up to the usual polit-bashing for the politicians who were distributing free saris just before the elections.

Doordarshan's piracy..

TVR Shenoy talks about Doordarshan's Piracy regarding the forceful wrenching of telecast rights from Ten Sports. I was thinking along the same lines myself since the SC intervened and forced Ten Sports to give rights to DD.
I mean .. what is this? Its like some kind of extortion .. Strangely I have not found anything along these lines in the media as Shenoy also rightly mentions. And I always thought the Indian media was pretty impartial and did not play for the crowd.

Rambo wannabes?

The US and India seem to be conducting joint military exercises with regularity these days. Just a month after the joint AirForce exercises in India .. now we hear of US soldiers learning jungle warfare from their Indian counterparts. This will be conducted in the Indian Army's hush-hush Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare school in Mizoram. A Non-NATO ally status seems imminent, after Pakistan got it a while back.
[Related] The Acorn asks whether an ally's ally is an ally?

Did we win yet?

*Baaaaawl* I can't watch the end of the match bcos - I have to take a lab right now .. my poor students can't understand why I am glued to the computer instead of joking and talking with them as usual.
Did u guys see Sachin's catch?? Awesome!!! Inzy was stunned. Hell everybody was stunned.

yo

We won!! Well earned victory. Dravid rocks!!
This is Life in Duluth .. not a care in the world .. watch cricket matches live, enjoy.

decongesting pune roads..

I may .. for obvious reasons .. not be the proper person to talk about Pune traffic conditions, but I have survived in the same for 22 years. A post by Gautam had me thinking. I came back home after an year last august .. and the traffic was worse if anything. Karve road is congested all hours of the day. One solution I have long been stressing upon is paving the road along the Mutha river-bank and opening it properly. It runs almost parallel to Karve Rd and that part of the same can be made a one-way. It would definitely be the swiftest (and cheapest) solution towards easing the traffic up somewhat. (Let the Rs 5000 crore plan be implemented afterwards). The environmentalists are holding up this plan saying it will harm the 'oxygen channel' running along the river. My foot. Any sane person would'nt call it a river in the first place.. and me thinks the benefits far outweigh the downside here.

Maybe thats why this solution had been on the backburner for so long. The PMC has till date spent crores on a plan of Rs. 5000 crore is benficial for everyone involved isn't it? God knows what percentage will go where, and what the final cost would be. Do you?

Elexon ka mausam hai

Elections in the world's largest two democracies within 4 months of each other. Time to rejoice. India in Apr-May and the US in Oct. While my interest in the US elections is growing, I am missing out on the election action back in India; being all the way over here and plus my overall schedule keeps me from reading all I want to about the same. General elections in India are always interesting. The BJP is still fielding Vajpayee as the Prime Ministerial candidate. The Congress(I) is floundering and really has no grounds to bark at the NDA except for secularity etcetra. That the economy is doing well despite the govt .. may be true or not .. what matters is it is doing well.

To me, the BJP looks ready to rule the roost. And Bush the US. But only due to the lack of a strong Democratic candidate. Lets wait and watch.

world's greatest democracy

In India, I always thought that our voting turnouts were abysmally low. They actually vary a lot from place to place .. going from 30% to as high as 65% me thinks. The general average for urban turnouts has been somewhere in the late forties, sometimes around fifty. That means 50% of the people eleigible to vote actually get out there on their asses and do it. The rest don't. as simple as that. Of course in a system such as ours the voting register itself is archaic and horribly un-updated. What concerns me is that increasingly the younger generation (people my age - or our age if you prefer that) are shying away from voting. Anyways, I'm not here to discuss that.

While browsing the lush green meadows of BusinessWeek, I chanced upon the a paragraph about voter turnouts here in the US. The younger generation here is more or less aloof about politics in general. They were brought up in a secure world, which probably they feel; will not be harmed even if the politicians run amok (which is widely felt as true). Only 50% of eligible voters cast ballots in the Presidential election in 2000, down from 63% in 1960. Pathetic -- and even worse when you consider that roughly half the adult population doesn't even register, which means only 25% of voting-age Americans actually vote.