Though patricide, fratricide and familial coups were a common occurrence amongst the various dynasties the world over, it has done nothing to deter business and politicians from using family to maintain power. Dynasties be it business or political have played important roles across continents, the Rothschild’s financed the Napoleonic wars, the Kennedy’s ruled America, the Tata’s, one of India’s first business houses, have ventures across the world and the Gandhi’s are touted to be the first-family of Indian politics.
There is good reason why kin are sought as business and political partners – it keeps the money and power in the clan. There is another reason for getting family into business and politics it allows newer members to milk the goodwill of the brand while also perpetuating it.
It is for this reason that the Indian National Congress christens most development projects after their past leaders – Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. This is a leitmotif reminding people of the antecedents of the party. This constant reminder of lineage gives budding leaders like Rahul Gandhi a platform from which to speak from.
Besides encashing on the brand, building on it and ensuring stability, family in politics helps in pushing agendas without much party disapproval. Family in politics also provides stability within the party as it reduces the possibility of infighting for top-jobs. In other words it maintains status –quo, keeping other hands out of the honey pot.
Even outside the party the family plays an important part in a politician’s life. Politicians use their wife, children and other family members as fronts to horde money. So it comes as no surprise to see a non earning wife with a bank balance as large as that of the husband when the politician makes his accounts public before elections.
Much like politics, business too makes use of family, for three major reasons one is to ensure that money remains within the family, the other is to keep power in the family and the third is to reward family. However unlike politics, business uses another set of people – close friends. Doing business with friends allows leeway that may not be there with others, it reduces the cost of risk, and it is a form of investment - collecting brownie points that can be exchanged at a later date. Friends are a special breed of venture capitalists who instead of only looking at future monetary gain look at such investments as future leverage or a form of ‘repayment’ for past favours or even as a cross that needs to be borne for being friends.
Thus, it is no surprise that Lalit Modi filled the Indian Premier League (IPL) and its ancillaries with friends and family. For one, being a new venture, people willing to take a financial risk and put money into his idea were needed, family and friends met the requirements. Also by getting family into the IPL, money did not change ownership nor was making deals difficult. Finally, filling the IPL with family and friends gave Lalit a free hand over the functioning of the IPL.
It was not only Lalit who used family and friends, it is alleged that a member of the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), under whose wings the IPL grew, used his authority to change the rules of the BCCI to allow him to purchase an IPL team.
This kind of leverage that the use of family bestows in business and politics is mirrored in government bodies - the Indian nuclear establishment for example.
The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) was setup on August 3 1954 under the direct charge of the Prime Minister. In 1958 the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was established in the DAE. The resolution creating the AEC acknowledges giant strides made in the peaceful use of the atom since the creation of the DAE in 1954 and thus finds need for the creation of an organisation ‘with full authority to plan and implement the various measures on sound technical and economic principles and free from all non-essential restrictions or needlessly in-elastic rules. - - -’ The Secretary to the Government of India in the DAE is ex-officio Chairman of the Commission. Other Members of the AEC are appointed for each calendar year on the recommendation of the Chairman of the AEC and after approval by the Prime Minster. The functions of the AEC include formulating the policy of the DAE, preparing the budget of the DAE, implementing policies of government on Atomic energy
There are a number of organisations under the AEC; the Nuclear Power Corporation, Heavy Water Board for example; R & D institutions like Babha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) also come under AEC. The Atomic and Energy Regulatory Authority (AERB) is another institution under the AEC. It was constituted on November 15, 1983 by the President of India through the powers conferred by the Atomic Energy Act to carry out regulatory and safety functions under the Act.
As per the AERB Constitution Order DECEMBER 31,1983/PAUSA 10,1905[PART II-SEC.3(II) AERB ‘[AERB]shall have powers to lay down safety standard and frame rules and regulations in regard to the regulatory and safety requirements envisaged under the Atomic Energy Act,1962’ The Order lists out the functions of the Board which include developing safety codes, guidelines for site selection, design, construction, commissioning, operation and decommissioning of the different types of plants; ensuring compliance of regulations by DAE and Non-DAE bodies, reviewing from safety angle requests for authorising/commissioning/operation of DAE projects. These standards ensure the health and safety of the workers and the public.
So what we have here is a body that is supposed to ensure that all organisations working on different aspects of nuclear science and energy meet certain standards. To do so there is need for the AERB to be independent and immune to pressures. Instead the AERB, like the organisations that it is supposed to regulate, falls under the AEC, the patriarch. Thus we have a case where the AERB tattles on its siblings to the father which is the AEC.
This is made clear in Subsection (xvi) of Section 2 of the Order. It states that the AERB will ‘Send reports periodically to Chairman, AEC on safety status including observance of safety regulations and standards and implementation of the recommendations in all DAE and non-DAE units. It will also submit an Annual Report of its activities to Chairman, AEC.’
It is not enough that the regulator and regulated fall under the AEC; the last paragraph of Section 2 of the Order makes the relationship even stronger. The DAE Science Research Council (DAE SRC) along with the Directorate of Radiation Protection at BARC will assist the AERB to enforce the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 for radiation safety in the country and under the Factories Act, 1948 for industrial safety in the units under the control of DAE. They will review health and safety aspects of modifications in design/ operation involving changes in the technical specification adopted in any of the DAE units, review from the safety angle requests for authorising/ commissioning/ operation of DAE Projects/plants and ensure compliance by DAE and non-DAE installations of safety codes and standards during construction commissioning stages.
DAE working with the AERB to check on safety and other aspects of its own units is incongruous. How different is this from the lie of self-regulation? Or is this a more refined version of setting a thief to catch a thief? Or has the nuclear establishment created a self serving mechanism that allows it to perpetuate unhindered. This is quite similar to the ‘Governing Body’ setup by the BCCI whose members were from BCCI and were also part of the IPL working either as commentators or brand ambassadors. The fact that the wheelings and dealings of the IPL was carried out under the nose of the BCCI created Governing Council indicates the kind and level of latitude given within the family.
The ‘self serving mechanism’ of the nuclear industry in India is built on a close knit family. Like in business and politics, the consanguineous of the nuclear establishment ensures that operations continue unrestricted no matter what. The AEC through the family it has created is fulfilling its mandate to free the nuclear establishment from ‘all non-essential restrictions or needlessly in-elastic rules - - -‘ an objective of any other business and political party using similar means.
The charges against BCCI, IPL and Lalit Modi are no different from the charges made against the nuclear establishment. The lack of oversight, transparency and accountability, financial opaqueness are hallmarks of any establishment that uses family.
The human tendency to overlook misdeeds because of family considerations has been morphed into a business, political and a regulatory tool. But the BCCI IPL saga shows that the weight of family is insufficient to keep the lid on a can of worms, a lesson that the AEC should take to heart.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Avatar, the Bo, colonialism and technology
It was the 6th February when I watched Avatar and also read about the extinction of the Bo tribe in the Andaman Islands. The last remaining member of the Bo tribe was a woman (Senior Boa), in dying she took along with her a language, a culture, history and whatever else transforms individuals into a family, community and a tribe. The piece hovered between an obituary (to a person and a tribe) and a crime report.
As shown in Avatar the process of colonisation is filled with good intentions. Avatar has an anthropologist studying the Na’avi indigenous of the planet Pandora because their existence is being threatened by a mining company. She uses technology to gain their trust and to understand their culture, learn their language and become one with The People. She hopes to communicate the danger that surrounds them. She wants to tell them of their predicament - to survive they need to give up what they hold sacred. Her intentions are commendable - to keep the collateral damage to a minimum, while recording the culture of a race soon to be decimated. Much like other movies being churned out by Hollywood the hero begins his day with ulterior motives. However, by evening he transforms into a rebel with a cause saving The People he initially cheated and getting the girl.
The movie is not about the ‘we are the world, we are its children’ rhetoric, it also goes beyond the regular feminist cliché here the heroine kills the villain. It is also not promoting a Luddite principle because Pandora is a non-threatening, non-polluting industrial complex which not only sustains life but also produces a material similar to carbon fibre used by the Na’avi in their weapons.
The movie speaks about the process of colonisation and the manner in which this occurs.
Colonisation has many layers to it; it does not happen over night. History is replete with examples be it in the America’s, Australia or India. What begins as a challenge for an adventurer or a vocation for the religious or a small business venture grows into an enterprise based on usurpation. Riding tandem with the appropriation of wealth is the subjugation of people, culture and language, the introduction of disease and new ways of life. This is a common baggage that all colonisers carry, something depicted in Avatar and that finds reality in the extinction of the Bo. Survival International puts it succinctly in its report of Senior Boa’s death and the extinction of the tribe ‘Most were killed or died of diseases brought by the colonizers. The report adds “Having failed to ‘pacify’ the tribes through violence, the British tried to ‘civilize’ them by capturing many and keeping them in an ‘Andaman Home’. Of the 150 children born in the home, none lived beyond the age of two.”
As seen in Avatar, colonisation brings out the best and the worst in people. The battle between good and evil fought in such new territories has little to do with questioning the presence of colonisers but with the method of arrogation. The means differ, but the ends are the same. The dilemma is whether the process of dislocation/assimilation/seizure should begin with education or would education be a natural corollary of forced eviction? Colonisation is sold as emancipation, as a form of civilising the ‘savages’. Colonialists refuse to accept that the colonised have a culture, a language and a history.
The question that rises from a sci-fi film like Avatar and the extinction of the Bo is whether there should be limits to our search for knowledge. The idea of ‘knowledge for knowledge’s sake’ has never found resonance because ‘progress’ is an outcome of knowledge. Astronomy helped adventurers plot navigational charts, making it easy to reach the New World and colonise it. The very concept of ‘knowledge is power’ stems from what can be done with it. For all the good it has done technology has been used as a weapon both literally and figuratively.
It can be argued that there is a good side and a bad side to science. We know this because today there is a repository of events that show science can jeopardise our existence. It has been said that the road to development is littered with good intentions, the same goes for science. The good intentions with which scientists look into their microscopes in their sterile world gets morphed in the real world. Pesticides kill and maim people besides the bugs they target; nuclear energy finds itself in hot water because of nuclear waste and radiation leaks that go along with it. Besides this, good intentions transform into political machination and business interests in the real world.
Today the saga of colonisation continues with the need to save the world by venturing into new frontiers of science. One may ask how? Colonisation through science occurs when technologies like Genetic Engineering are packaged in terms like ‘fighting hunger’, ‘green revolution’; ‘drought resistance’ which exclude reasons that caused hunger, drought and the need for a ‘green revolution’ in the first place. These are terms of the modern colonists who see the need to ‘civilise’ and ‘modernise’ agriculture using modern technology. Like the Lost Generation of Australia who were forcibly relocated and taught or the American Indians who were put in reservations or like the Bo who are extinct, technologies like Genetic Engineering have the potential of subjugating many, destroying diversity and cultivating homogeneity all in the garb of good intentions.
There is need to pause and question how much more science do we need and if we do need science then what kind of science? The villains in Spiderman movies evolve from the failures of technologies they conceive and develop to save the world. The reason for science is because it is assumed that it can be transferred from a laboratory Petri dish to a real world cauldron.
There is another set of movies that deal with the thirst to understand our past. Most Indiana Jones movies see ancient relics being sacrificed at the temple of knowledge or to save the world. There is an ongoing debate whether anthropology actually begins the end of a tribe under study because in effect the baggage brought by the anthropologist is no different from that of the coloniser. There was a raging debate in 2000 about anthropologists studying the Yanomami tribe in the Amazon because of the kind of research done and the manner of interactions between the tribe and the anthropologists.
Colonisation in any form is an unnatural process of evolution. It does not give the evolutionary process time and opportunity to create checks and balances necessary for a species to adapt and survive. Put colloquially it’s similar to putting a gun in the hands of a child or contaminating a sterile laboratory.
We need to see what technology has done to us and what we are doing in the name of technology advancement. Once this is done then there is need to put in measures to ensure that there is no recidivism. However even as we wait for this to happen technology is being used to stem this new-age colonial onslaught.
The Surui tribe living in the forests of Brazil are using Google Earth and GPS to fight illegal logging. More recently the Dongria Kondh, an ancient tribe in Orissa fighting a steel conglomerate, invited James Cameron to make a movie on them and their struggle.
Foresight may not come naturally to us, but we have a lot to learn from the past - learn of what we did right and wrong when we used technology. This gives us scope to choose the kind of science and technology required. It gives us enough material to chart a course into the future where technology does not become a tool for colonisation but one of the choices at hand for improving our life’s if we so desire.
As shown in Avatar the process of colonisation is filled with good intentions. Avatar has an anthropologist studying the Na’avi indigenous of the planet Pandora because their existence is being threatened by a mining company. She uses technology to gain their trust and to understand their culture, learn their language and become one with The People. She hopes to communicate the danger that surrounds them. She wants to tell them of their predicament - to survive they need to give up what they hold sacred. Her intentions are commendable - to keep the collateral damage to a minimum, while recording the culture of a race soon to be decimated. Much like other movies being churned out by Hollywood the hero begins his day with ulterior motives. However, by evening he transforms into a rebel with a cause saving The People he initially cheated and getting the girl.
The movie is not about the ‘we are the world, we are its children’ rhetoric, it also goes beyond the regular feminist cliché here the heroine kills the villain. It is also not promoting a Luddite principle because Pandora is a non-threatening, non-polluting industrial complex which not only sustains life but also produces a material similar to carbon fibre used by the Na’avi in their weapons.
The movie speaks about the process of colonisation and the manner in which this occurs.
Colonisation has many layers to it; it does not happen over night. History is replete with examples be it in the America’s, Australia or India. What begins as a challenge for an adventurer or a vocation for the religious or a small business venture grows into an enterprise based on usurpation. Riding tandem with the appropriation of wealth is the subjugation of people, culture and language, the introduction of disease and new ways of life. This is a common baggage that all colonisers carry, something depicted in Avatar and that finds reality in the extinction of the Bo. Survival International puts it succinctly in its report of Senior Boa’s death and the extinction of the tribe ‘Most were killed or died of diseases brought by the colonizers. The report adds “Having failed to ‘pacify’ the tribes through violence, the British tried to ‘civilize’ them by capturing many and keeping them in an ‘Andaman Home’. Of the 150 children born in the home, none lived beyond the age of two.”
As seen in Avatar, colonisation brings out the best and the worst in people. The battle between good and evil fought in such new territories has little to do with questioning the presence of colonisers but with the method of arrogation. The means differ, but the ends are the same. The dilemma is whether the process of dislocation/assimilation/seizure should begin with education or would education be a natural corollary of forced eviction? Colonisation is sold as emancipation, as a form of civilising the ‘savages’. Colonialists refuse to accept that the colonised have a culture, a language and a history.
The question that rises from a sci-fi film like Avatar and the extinction of the Bo is whether there should be limits to our search for knowledge. The idea of ‘knowledge for knowledge’s sake’ has never found resonance because ‘progress’ is an outcome of knowledge. Astronomy helped adventurers plot navigational charts, making it easy to reach the New World and colonise it. The very concept of ‘knowledge is power’ stems from what can be done with it. For all the good it has done technology has been used as a weapon both literally and figuratively.
It can be argued that there is a good side and a bad side to science. We know this because today there is a repository of events that show science can jeopardise our existence. It has been said that the road to development is littered with good intentions, the same goes for science. The good intentions with which scientists look into their microscopes in their sterile world gets morphed in the real world. Pesticides kill and maim people besides the bugs they target; nuclear energy finds itself in hot water because of nuclear waste and radiation leaks that go along with it. Besides this, good intentions transform into political machination and business interests in the real world.
Today the saga of colonisation continues with the need to save the world by venturing into new frontiers of science. One may ask how? Colonisation through science occurs when technologies like Genetic Engineering are packaged in terms like ‘fighting hunger’, ‘green revolution’; ‘drought resistance’ which exclude reasons that caused hunger, drought and the need for a ‘green revolution’ in the first place. These are terms of the modern colonists who see the need to ‘civilise’ and ‘modernise’ agriculture using modern technology. Like the Lost Generation of Australia who were forcibly relocated and taught or the American Indians who were put in reservations or like the Bo who are extinct, technologies like Genetic Engineering have the potential of subjugating many, destroying diversity and cultivating homogeneity all in the garb of good intentions.
There is need to pause and question how much more science do we need and if we do need science then what kind of science? The villains in Spiderman movies evolve from the failures of technologies they conceive and develop to save the world. The reason for science is because it is assumed that it can be transferred from a laboratory Petri dish to a real world cauldron.
There is another set of movies that deal with the thirst to understand our past. Most Indiana Jones movies see ancient relics being sacrificed at the temple of knowledge or to save the world. There is an ongoing debate whether anthropology actually begins the end of a tribe under study because in effect the baggage brought by the anthropologist is no different from that of the coloniser. There was a raging debate in 2000 about anthropologists studying the Yanomami tribe in the Amazon because of the kind of research done and the manner of interactions between the tribe and the anthropologists.
Colonisation in any form is an unnatural process of evolution. It does not give the evolutionary process time and opportunity to create checks and balances necessary for a species to adapt and survive. Put colloquially it’s similar to putting a gun in the hands of a child or contaminating a sterile laboratory.
We need to see what technology has done to us and what we are doing in the name of technology advancement. Once this is done then there is need to put in measures to ensure that there is no recidivism. However even as we wait for this to happen technology is being used to stem this new-age colonial onslaught.
The Surui tribe living in the forests of Brazil are using Google Earth and GPS to fight illegal logging. More recently the Dongria Kondh, an ancient tribe in Orissa fighting a steel conglomerate, invited James Cameron to make a movie on them and their struggle.
Foresight may not come naturally to us, but we have a lot to learn from the past - learn of what we did right and wrong when we used technology. This gives us scope to choose the kind of science and technology required. It gives us enough material to chart a course into the future where technology does not become a tool for colonisation but one of the choices at hand for improving our life’s if we so desire.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Colour - Dark Green.
Colour blind! All colours merge into black or white. How black is dark green on a scale that turns dark to light? Is this colour a bit more of this and less of that?
Green a colour. Dark green a mood? A brooding green? A blue green? A green with the blues? Daaaaarrrrkkk Greeeen!
A natural process of decaying light green- fresh, dark green on deaths door.
Green a colour. Dark green a mood? A brooding green? A blue green? A green with the blues? Daaaaarrrrkkk Greeeen!
A natural process of decaying light green- fresh, dark green on deaths door.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Mr. Jairam Ramesh’s bold proposal had possibilities
India wants the world to recognize it as a nuclear and emerging economic power but does not want to take the responsibility that comes along with it. This is seen in the ongoing climate negotiations where the Indian position is no different from that of developing countries and China. This position is based on historic emissions of the developed countries. India, the developing and less developed world, countries that form the non-Annexe 1, do not have binding carbon emission targets as laid down in the Kyoto Protocol. This has lead the United States of America and others to not ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh nicely summed up India’s position when he stated that India’s per capita emissions will always be less than that of developed nations.
This stance which India held for almost 2 decades was in muddy waters a few days earlier. A letter from Mr. Jairam Ramesh the Indian Minster for Environment and Forests to the Prime Minister states that India should no longer toe this line and should break from the G 77 developing country ranks and take on emission reduction targets. The letter went on to suggest that this be done without any counter guarantees of finance and technology.
Politicians (both from the ruling party and BJP), and civil society groups saw the suggestion as detrimental to India and to other developing countries. Even though not much has been made public from this letter one does discern a ‘out of the box thinking’, which takes a relook at India’s international stature in and outside these talks.
The recently concluded UN climate talks in Bangkok saw the G77 countries staging a walk-out. Negotiators were trying to find ways to get countries including the US to accept binding targets this lead to fears that developed countries were trying to dilute their emission responsibilities in the new climate pact due in December. The need for a global climate compact is a no-brainer however it needs a leader to step up to the plate. Though the US sees itself as a world leader it has effectively destroyed the Kyoto Protocol and may just do the same in Copenhagen.
Jairam Ramesh saw this debilitating vacuum in the ongoing climate negotiations and proposed India take up pole position. This suggestion would have done many things -first it would have recognised India’s technical prowess, second it would have coerced the US and others to play game and alienated the Chinese and mostly importantly there were political and economic reasons for such a proposition clearly elucidated by Ramesh earlier ‘We are not doing the world a favour; rather we are doing ourselves a favour by undertaking these actions'.
Estimates from ASSOCHAM suggest that from July, 2008 to February, 2009, average annual CER from CDM projects grew by 20.92% from 218,345,930 to 264,022,976 respectively. However at the same time Indian companies are earning CERs through technical innovation, for example the Tata Steel plant in Jamshedpur has installed a Top Pressure Recovery Turbine to generate electricity replacing power from a coal powered thermal plant. Their Clean Development Mechanism Project Design Document Form states that approximately 66.68 GWh of electrical energy per annum will be generated which would lead to a reduction of 60,811 tonnes of CO2 per annum, which is the expected amount of annual CERs. According to the annual report of ITC, the ITC Sonar hotel in Kolkatta is the only project in the building sector that is earning CERs. There are other innovations that are reaching the lay person. TataBP and New Delhi Power Limited (NPDL) are planning to install solar panels on residential rooftops in Delhi which will be connected to the grid, this will not only generate power but provide additional income to households if they choose to sell the additional power to the grid.
Mr Ramesh saw the climate negotiations as a real opportunity for India to make a global mark. The new position suggested by the minister embarrasses developed countries to better their emission targets because the suggestion is being made by a poorer country. India would have become the ‘gold standard’ and provided relieve to developing nations who till date have not been very successful in forcing the developed world to reduce their emissions. A few weeks earlier the minister acknowledged that the Indian position is not favoured by small island states and others thereby recognizing the uncertain future the small island states face and the traditional role India played being non-conducive to the talks. His new suggestion indicated that India was in a position to do something more and provided a direction on how it intended to go about it
The new stance was a diplomatic barb against the Chinese who have been very active against India in the past months. The minister’s proposal would have isolated the Chinese internationally as they do not want to take emission commitments - a major reason for the failure of the Kyoto Protocol. This shows a high level of maturity in dealing with the Chinese who have found ways to constantly unsettle India. In dealing with China in such a manner India shifts focus to its positives while directing international pressure on the Chinese for its bull headedness. The proposal which would have plugged the flaring nostrils of the dragon has been nixed and the elephant has got into a warm embrace with the dragon.
A recent Maplecroft study states that between 1980 and 2008 the mean annual natural disaster economic loss was 1600 million dollars for India. An Oxfam study predicts that there will be a 9 to 13 per cent of loss of GDP by 2010 due to climate related disasters. The recent few months have seen India swing between droughts and floods. A lack of water in reservoirs and rivers not only threatened agriculture but power generation faced a dip. Then in October floods destroyed paddy in Andhra Pradesh, submerged the hydel power station in Srisalem, while also rendering over 1.80 lakh people homeless in northern Karnataka.
The suggestion made by the minister is path breaking and commendable because it sees the threat of climate change and the opportunities that come from mitigating it; these include improving the Indian economy, making it climate resilient and enhancing India’s position internationally.
Mr Jairam Ramesh had made the first step and it should have been taken further. However shortsightedness on the part of those who claim to speak for equity and for the rest of political India ensured that India remains like the veritable Indian crab.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh nicely summed up India’s position when he stated that India’s per capita emissions will always be less than that of developed nations.
This stance which India held for almost 2 decades was in muddy waters a few days earlier. A letter from Mr. Jairam Ramesh the Indian Minster for Environment and Forests to the Prime Minister states that India should no longer toe this line and should break from the G 77 developing country ranks and take on emission reduction targets. The letter went on to suggest that this be done without any counter guarantees of finance and technology.
Politicians (both from the ruling party and BJP), and civil society groups saw the suggestion as detrimental to India and to other developing countries. Even though not much has been made public from this letter one does discern a ‘out of the box thinking’, which takes a relook at India’s international stature in and outside these talks.
The recently concluded UN climate talks in Bangkok saw the G77 countries staging a walk-out. Negotiators were trying to find ways to get countries including the US to accept binding targets this lead to fears that developed countries were trying to dilute their emission responsibilities in the new climate pact due in December. The need for a global climate compact is a no-brainer however it needs a leader to step up to the plate. Though the US sees itself as a world leader it has effectively destroyed the Kyoto Protocol and may just do the same in Copenhagen.
Jairam Ramesh saw this debilitating vacuum in the ongoing climate negotiations and proposed India take up pole position. This suggestion would have done many things -first it would have recognised India’s technical prowess, second it would have coerced the US and others to play game and alienated the Chinese and mostly importantly there were political and economic reasons for such a proposition clearly elucidated by Ramesh earlier ‘We are not doing the world a favour; rather we are doing ourselves a favour by undertaking these actions'.
Estimates from ASSOCHAM suggest that from July, 2008 to February, 2009, average annual CER from CDM projects grew by 20.92% from 218,345,930 to 264,022,976 respectively. However at the same time Indian companies are earning CERs through technical innovation, for example the Tata Steel plant in Jamshedpur has installed a Top Pressure Recovery Turbine to generate electricity replacing power from a coal powered thermal plant. Their Clean Development Mechanism Project Design Document Form states that approximately 66.68 GWh of electrical energy per annum will be generated which would lead to a reduction of 60,811 tonnes of CO2 per annum, which is the expected amount of annual CERs. According to the annual report of ITC, the ITC Sonar hotel in Kolkatta is the only project in the building sector that is earning CERs. There are other innovations that are reaching the lay person. TataBP and New Delhi Power Limited (NPDL) are planning to install solar panels on residential rooftops in Delhi which will be connected to the grid, this will not only generate power but provide additional income to households if they choose to sell the additional power to the grid.
Mr Ramesh saw the climate negotiations as a real opportunity for India to make a global mark. The new position suggested by the minister embarrasses developed countries to better their emission targets because the suggestion is being made by a poorer country. India would have become the ‘gold standard’ and provided relieve to developing nations who till date have not been very successful in forcing the developed world to reduce their emissions. A few weeks earlier the minister acknowledged that the Indian position is not favoured by small island states and others thereby recognizing the uncertain future the small island states face and the traditional role India played being non-conducive to the talks. His new suggestion indicated that India was in a position to do something more and provided a direction on how it intended to go about it
The new stance was a diplomatic barb against the Chinese who have been very active against India in the past months. The minister’s proposal would have isolated the Chinese internationally as they do not want to take emission commitments - a major reason for the failure of the Kyoto Protocol. This shows a high level of maturity in dealing with the Chinese who have found ways to constantly unsettle India. In dealing with China in such a manner India shifts focus to its positives while directing international pressure on the Chinese for its bull headedness. The proposal which would have plugged the flaring nostrils of the dragon has been nixed and the elephant has got into a warm embrace with the dragon.
A recent Maplecroft study states that between 1980 and 2008 the mean annual natural disaster economic loss was 1600 million dollars for India. An Oxfam study predicts that there will be a 9 to 13 per cent of loss of GDP by 2010 due to climate related disasters. The recent few months have seen India swing between droughts and floods. A lack of water in reservoirs and rivers not only threatened agriculture but power generation faced a dip. Then in October floods destroyed paddy in Andhra Pradesh, submerged the hydel power station in Srisalem, while also rendering over 1.80 lakh people homeless in northern Karnataka.
The suggestion made by the minister is path breaking and commendable because it sees the threat of climate change and the opportunities that come from mitigating it; these include improving the Indian economy, making it climate resilient and enhancing India’s position internationally.
Mr Jairam Ramesh had made the first step and it should have been taken further. However shortsightedness on the part of those who claim to speak for equity and for the rest of political India ensured that India remains like the veritable Indian crab.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Kaminey – Or the Art in Stammering.
So, I haven’t seen the current bollywood blockbuster ‘Kaminey’ but its all over the news that the hero of the hour Shahid Kapoor has done a great job in playing the part. He has a double role and the best part is that diction is not a prerequisite. One of his roles requires him to stammer and the other to lisp.
The problem with stammering is that it takes too long to say something and the problem with lisping is that one does not quite understand what the lisper is saying. So when one goes to watch Kaminey should one be prepared to sit for a very long movie (considering the time taken by the stammer to speak) or sit close to the speakers or to the screen to carefully hear the lisper speak or to read his lips? It seems that the time for this bollywood flick is the same as any other flick coming out from this side of the wood and no one seems to be complaining about the inarticulateness of the actor.
So one question is whether Shahid has really done justice to his roles of a lisper and a stammer? The other question is whether Indian audiences really appreciate good acting? Well, the fact that there are a quite a few acting awards instituted by different companies/magazines giving the same award to different actors shows that the Indian populace really have no idea of what good acting is (being an Indian I don’t know either). So answering the former question now, if the movie has a stammer and is of the same length then he hasn’t done justice to the art of stammering.
But, the good thing is that stammering has got into the mainstream. In flicks the character who stammered had the time he did because he needed that time to say the lines. The case of the stammering lawyer in ‘my cousin vinny’ is a case in point. The stammerers usually provided comic relief in bollywood flicks, just as a cross in the cleavage indicated the vamp turned sacrificial lamb.
So, even though Shahid was faking it, twice at that, he finds himself in the news, getting pats in the back and lugging trunks full of money to the bank. Which means that those who really stammer have a chance to get into the really big screen, directors are always looking for ‘naturals’ stammerers can raise their hands and stammer their way to the bank. Stammering and lisping may become the next big thing in the fashion and media bazaar and could even help relationships as one could spend more time ‘whispering sweet nothings’ and understanding them.
The problem with stammering is that it takes too long to say something and the problem with lisping is that one does not quite understand what the lisper is saying. So when one goes to watch Kaminey should one be prepared to sit for a very long movie (considering the time taken by the stammer to speak) or sit close to the speakers or to the screen to carefully hear the lisper speak or to read his lips? It seems that the time for this bollywood flick is the same as any other flick coming out from this side of the wood and no one seems to be complaining about the inarticulateness of the actor.
So one question is whether Shahid has really done justice to his roles of a lisper and a stammer? The other question is whether Indian audiences really appreciate good acting? Well, the fact that there are a quite a few acting awards instituted by different companies/magazines giving the same award to different actors shows that the Indian populace really have no idea of what good acting is (being an Indian I don’t know either). So answering the former question now, if the movie has a stammer and is of the same length then he hasn’t done justice to the art of stammering.
But, the good thing is that stammering has got into the mainstream. In flicks the character who stammered had the time he did because he needed that time to say the lines. The case of the stammering lawyer in ‘my cousin vinny’ is a case in point. The stammerers usually provided comic relief in bollywood flicks, just as a cross in the cleavage indicated the vamp turned sacrificial lamb.
So, even though Shahid was faking it, twice at that, he finds himself in the news, getting pats in the back and lugging trunks full of money to the bank. Which means that those who really stammer have a chance to get into the really big screen, directors are always looking for ‘naturals’ stammerers can raise their hands and stammer their way to the bank. Stammering and lisping may become the next big thing in the fashion and media bazaar and could even help relationships as one could spend more time ‘whispering sweet nothings’ and understanding them.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Ticking to Tock.
The way time has come to be measured has evolved over the ages. Actually the way we ‘look’ at time is not only a measure of technological advancement but also a measure of the distance between us and nature. From looking up at the sun, to having giant constructions whose shadow would indicate the hour, to having sand pass through fine apertures, all showed the silent progress of time. Until things turned mechanical then time began to tick and tock. But technology came full circle with the advent of the digital clock which is as silent as the passage of time.
But the question is what makes these instruments tick? Do they understand their relevance; do they know how much they have impacted our language? Do they want us to show our gratitude; if yes, how? If only they could tock! They would answer questions like whether they appreciate being used in terms like ‘sands of time’, whether they like to be linked to unknown people, tide for example - ‘time and tide wait for no man’. Or whether they like to be used as a threat ‘ - - - the clock is ticking’.
Strangely, time which denotes a passage is used for a beginning or an end – ‘its time to - -’, ‘its high time’. But what is worse is this instrument, its working and measure which has never asked anything of anyone, is extremely unassuming and whispers past us is being used to suggest future calamities and potential threats. A ‘population time bomb’, ‘AIDS time bomb’ or ‘xyz is a ticking time bomb’ all signify a potential future peril which has got nothing to do with time per say except for the fact that things could have been better if ‘we went back in time’ or ‘stopped the progress of time’. However, man in his ingenuity has been able to transform a potential threat into an instrument of death and destruction. A ‘time bomb’ uses an explosive that detonates ‘when the clock strikes - - -’ thus life which is a linear natural progression of time from birth to old age suddenly becomes a pawn in the unwilling hands of time. The phrase ‘when your time comes - -’ which is supposed to alleviate the suddenness of an incident or to give courage before an act gets a whole new meaning.
There is one clock that is quite undecided where it wants to go; the ‘doomsday clock’ has gone back and forth between 11.43 pm and 11.57 pm since its inception in 1947, the only instance where a clock can tick forward or backward depending on mans activities.
But the question is what makes these instruments tick? Do they understand their relevance; do they know how much they have impacted our language? Do they want us to show our gratitude; if yes, how? If only they could tock! They would answer questions like whether they appreciate being used in terms like ‘sands of time’, whether they like to be linked to unknown people, tide for example - ‘time and tide wait for no man’. Or whether they like to be used as a threat ‘ - - - the clock is ticking’.
Strangely, time which denotes a passage is used for a beginning or an end – ‘its time to - -’, ‘its high time’. But what is worse is this instrument, its working and measure which has never asked anything of anyone, is extremely unassuming and whispers past us is being used to suggest future calamities and potential threats. A ‘population time bomb’, ‘AIDS time bomb’ or ‘xyz is a ticking time bomb’ all signify a potential future peril which has got nothing to do with time per say except for the fact that things could have been better if ‘we went back in time’ or ‘stopped the progress of time’. However, man in his ingenuity has been able to transform a potential threat into an instrument of death and destruction. A ‘time bomb’ uses an explosive that detonates ‘when the clock strikes - - -’ thus life which is a linear natural progression of time from birth to old age suddenly becomes a pawn in the unwilling hands of time. The phrase ‘when your time comes - -’ which is supposed to alleviate the suddenness of an incident or to give courage before an act gets a whole new meaning.
There is one clock that is quite undecided where it wants to go; the ‘doomsday clock’ has gone back and forth between 11.43 pm and 11.57 pm since its inception in 1947, the only instance where a clock can tick forward or backward depending on mans activities.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Indian Nuclear Plants Secret Fuel
Now the secrets can be unveiled
Buried underground, for years sealed.
Indian nuclear power plants use a different matter
Not ending in an ‘ium’ but still a heat generator.
It looks no different and thus comes as a shock
Containment dome et al, but what is, is not.
Renewable energy it is touted to be
Tis true it is mined and harnessed differently.
The containment dome protects the energy source -
Windbags that generate hot air in variable force
Dr Homi Bhaba was the first when he did decree
8000 MW of Nuclear energy by Nineteen Eighty.
43500 MW by 2000 predicted the AEC
That was in 1969 without a nuclear plant generating energy.
The nuclear power plants now produce electricity
On windbags that promise 20,000MW by 2020.
Buried underground, for years sealed.
Indian nuclear power plants use a different matter
Not ending in an ‘ium’ but still a heat generator.
It looks no different and thus comes as a shock
Containment dome et al, but what is, is not.
Renewable energy it is touted to be
Tis true it is mined and harnessed differently.
The containment dome protects the energy source -
Windbags that generate hot air in variable force
Dr Homi Bhaba was the first when he did decree
8000 MW of Nuclear energy by Nineteen Eighty.
43500 MW by 2000 predicted the AEC
That was in 1969 without a nuclear plant generating energy.
The nuclear power plants now produce electricity
On windbags that promise 20,000MW by 2020.
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