Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Professional integrity.



Professional Integrity.

In his op-ed, It's not the market, Pratap Bhanu Mehta (IE,20/10) has rightly drawn our attention to the lack of integrity in the professions such as law,medicine, accountancy, management, academics etc. The professional integrity could have reduced, if not prevented, the lack of integrity in public life. The professional bodies have failed in their task. As he has pointed out societies cannot be held together only by coercion ( state) or money (markets). Norms and values in in life were called Dharma – that which sustains life and society – by our ancients.

Every thing today revolves around money but money alone cannot bring peace and happiness, not even self-satisfaction. Wealth really belongs to the society ( as society creates the environment for wealth) whether it is in the hands of an individual or the state and that is why Mahatma Gandhi advocated the concept of trusteeship. It is easy to follow norms when one considers himself as a trustee of the profession – every profession is a service to the society. It is time a reputed public-spirited institution brings together some of the leading lights of all professions, including politics, on a platform to discuss this issue and try to formulate some guiding principles of functional and institutional norms. It may set the foundation for a new society and a new state which is beyond the acquisitive societies created by capitalism and socialism.

October 21,2008.

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Friday, October 17, 2008

Conversion & Diversity.



Conversion and diversity.

In his piece, Respect an individual's decision (TOI,5/10) Shashi Tharoor has almost justified the inducements by Christian missionaries and asked others to compete with them for the upliftment of the poor bringing the missionaries down to the level of politicians who bribe voters in many ways to get power. Does that mean both are in the game of numbers rather than in real social service ? It is sad that this comes from a person who served the United Nations which seeks peace and harmony in the world rather than conflict and aggression. He has not mentioned that providing health and education is the responsibility of the government in which it has failed in these 60 years.

In his book, The Hindu View of Life, Dr.S.Radhakrishnan, former President of India, says " We cannot have religious unity and peace so long as we assert that we are in possession of the light and all others are groping in the darkness. That very assertion is a challenge to a fight....To obliterate every other religion than one's own is a sort of bolshevism in religion which we must try to prevent. We can do so only if we accept something like the Hindu solution, which seeks unity of religion not in a common creed but in a common quest... The world would be a much poorer thing if one creed absorbed the rest. God wills a rich harmony and not a colourless uniformity..." This view of life is summed up by the poet W.B.Yeats in his immortal words, " The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity".

These are the words of old secularists ( sarva dharma samabhava) like Dr.S.Radhakrishann and Mahatma Gandhi but our new secularists like to promote denigration of other faiths and conflict.

October 17,2008


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Where is Indian creativity and innovation ?



Where is Indian creativity & innovation?

In a newspaper article the well-known Industrialist Anand Mahindra wondered why Indians are not ambitious but always cautious. He said that Indians like 'technology transfer' rather be technology pioneers. He was writing about lukewarm response by Indian government to scale-up and commercialise solar power technology which holds promise of energy security and energy availability all over India. He suggested R & D effort through private-public participation for solar energy.

Solar power.

Solar Thermal Electricity Generation (STEG) technology, he says, is a simple technology that consists of curved mirrors that concentrate sunlight onto a receiver tube to heat a working fluid flowing through it. The remaining part of the plant is very similar to a conventional power plant.

A 50-MW plant would save around 90-120 million kg of greenhouse gas emissions and the energy payback is five months with a useful life of 25 years. This technology provides "firm" power and allows plants to dispatch power when demanded. It can also work in a hybrid mode enabling solar heat to be backed by co-firing with natural gas or coal. Waste heat from the combined generation of heat and power can be used for industrial applications, district heating and cooling and sea-water desalination. The experts are of the opinion that just 0.3 percent of India's land area for solar power could meet all electricity needs of the country.

The big hitch is the cost. It costs between Rs.7.50 and Rs.17 per kWh to generate electricity through STEG while it is just Rs.1.40 for certain coal-based plants. However, diesel power costs Rs.17/kWh without subsidy and we have 20,000 MW of diesel power used as back-up power by industry. The US Department of Energy estimates that the cost of power generation by STEG would come down to Rs.1.50-2.50 /kWh in the next 15 years. USA and Spain are taking the lead in commercializing this technology.

While some countries which receive half the sunlight that India gets are going ahead with research on this technology, India has "a timid and incremental policy support", Mahindra observes. The MNES ( Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources) incentive scheme provides a maximum incentives of Rs.10 per kWh to STEG plants provided these plants are in the 1-5 MW range when it is cost-effective in more than 50MW range. " This is a nice gesture, but it can hardly be said to open the floodgates for speedy development", he sarcastically comments, and adds, " We are not ambitious enough". Yes, indeed! 'Thinking small' has been the bane of India since its socialist days ! We have still to get over it.

India is endowed with abundant sunshine ( 250-300 days in a year) and a 1,70,000 sq.km desert which is a natural energy generator waiting to be harnessed, says entrepreneur Anand Mahindra, and adds, " What on earth are we waiting for ? The time is ripe for a public-private partnership to help this technology – and India – attain its place under the sun." And then adds, " Let's not revert to our pre-reform avatar, and wait for a beneficent western power to find the solutions, and then go round with a begging bowl for 'technology transfer'".

High price of thermal and nuclear power.

We always take the easy way out – buy the technology from other countries or resort to what is called, ' re-engineering'. We do not look at the other way, the hard way – research and development leading to innovation. We do not want to develop our own resources – solar energy and other non-conventional energy sources which are abundantly available in our country. We want to depend on other countries and then complain about the price fixed by various cartels. The price of crude oil which had gone up to $ 147 per barrel has now hovering around $ 80 which can again go up after the melt-down in he world economy and the growth of all developing countries, especially China and India. Nuclear power may not be cheaper as the price of uranium has also gone up – from $20 to $ 85 per kg in the last three years, says Dr.P.K.Iyengar, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. Problem of radiation, accidents and disposal of nuclear waste are also there.

Why not encourage indigenous technology ?

We boast about our IITs and IIMs and how graduates from these institutions have brought laurels to India but enriched USA and other countries. A research report by Vivek Wadhwa of the Pratt School of Engineers(USA), who is himself a co-founder of two start-ups, states that Indian immigrants created 450,000 jobs and $52 billion in sales in 2005. Immigrant entrepreneurs founded 25% of US engineering and technology companies in the decade 1995-2005 and 26% of this is by Indians.

We have innovators in our villages as well. Anil K.Gupta of the National Innovation Foundation has created a knowledge bank of 75,000 innovations and practices of little-known pioneers living in towns and villages. We have innovators everywhere but their expertise and talents have not been encouraged and used for nation-building.

Indians of yore have invented zero, chess and many other things in art and architecture, science and medicine.

Creativity and innovation.

Where are Indian innovations ? Why Indians are not creative today ? Is the economic and political environment is not conducive ? The very fact that so many engineering and medical graduates had to migrate to developed countries is an indication of the not-so-conducive atmosphere in the country. Even industry had to wait for P.V.Narasimha Rao and Dr.Manmohan Singh to liberate industry from the permit-license raj. Now the time has come to liberate IIMs and IITs from the strangle-hold of the government of the day and encourage R & D both in the private sector and the public sector. Both are national sectors as both have money from the public and should be accountable to the public. Let hundred flowers bloom and hundred schools of thought contend. We have to encourage IIT graduates to work on Indian problems and find Indian solutions.

We have floods and droughts at the same time in different parts of the country. We have yet give serious thought to solve this recurring problem. Of course we have many dams and hydro-power projects. But in many parts of India all that we do every year is to provide relief and temporary shelter. According to newspaper reports breach of river embankments have taken place in Bihar in 1963, 1968, 1971, 1980, 1984, 1987, 1991 and now in 1998. Every year North Bihar has floods in an area of 9 lakh hectares and 80 lakh people are affected even in a normal year. Flood in Brahmaputra is an annual event. Almost all rivers are in flood just now. Network of canals and inter-linking the rivers may provide an answer. At least we can start with a few.

We see monsoon waters draining into the sea and later during the summer, we have the problem of water in all coastal regions. How to harness this water, there is no answer with the government. Rain-water harvesting in large scale has not been explored in these regions. It has well-said that the next war would be fought for water. Water is really manna from heaven which is being thrown away in many parts of the country while many in other parts die in thirst.

Thousands of farmers, especially cotton farmers, commit suicide but we have only one answer – debt waiver, that too partial. What about diversification of crop and supplementary income from dairy farming and poultry farming? Educate the farmers and the poor to empower them.

Need for a think-tank.

Our problems are big but our human resources are bigger. If we can overcome food-grains shortage with a Green Revolution, send satellites into space and develop nuclear weapons, we can also find solution to energy problem, use the monsoon waters efficiently and find a solution to recurring floods and droughts. It requires a vision and a plan of action. We have to be ambitious and bold. Bold is beautiful too.

Let the planning commission be a think-tank and produce papers and notes on some of the persistent economic issues of the country and lead discussion sessions to bring about a consensus. We can overcome all these problems. 'Harvest the human resources and reward the entrepreneurship' should be our mantra.

October 17,208

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Terorist is a social activist gone wrong.



 Terrorist is a social activist gone wrong.
 
The analysis of terrorist given by Stuart W.Twemlow,editor of The International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, in the interview (TOI,15/10) should be studied by our political establishment and police administration. As he says the terrorist is created by the social system. A terrorist or an extremist/ religious zealot/Naxalte is truly a social activist gone wrong. He finds something is wrong in the society and tries to change the society by violence. While maintaining the rule of law and  punishing the violent acts, we have to listen to his grievances and try to find a solution which is acceptable to all - consensus. Democratic system may be slow but it is the only way of life for any civilised society. All those who have been arrested for violence should be interviewed by social scientists to find their way of thinking and convey to them how the democratic society can provide scope for the redressal of their legitimate grievances.
 
October 17,2008

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