Part – 1, of our constitution opens like this …. “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States”. Was it foresight, that they deliberately choose to keep both the names. Sixty years hence we are not much better in clearing this perception. While ’India Shines’ across the world, does Bharat shine equally. Paradoxically we are not one but two countries. While India races forward with its IT poweress and economic consumption, Bharat is still struggling with finding two meals a day. While Indians across the world are bringing about great changes be it in IT or science or research, 70% our countrymen living in the villages of spend four to five unproductive hours every day in the evening and night due to unavailability of electricity.  Just imagine how much more productive we could have become had been able to utilize the billion-manhours every day.

A lot of western countries are amazed as to why India was not much affected by the recession. Again we must thank our great nation builders like, Nehru, Patel, Azad, Bidhan Roy, who made great investments in making us self-sufficient and self-reliant today. The first twenty years post independence were the crucial years when we got our basics right. The only thing we have to import today is ‘crude’ to satisfy our energy needs. Just imagine if we had to import food to feed our billions, iron & steel to feed the industries. Yes we got it right (in the centre) whereas the communists, China and Russia opened up their borders to capitalists and the capitalists doled out billions to their private banks in the biggest expression of socialism. (Castro was right half a century back)

Sixty years back our leaders had a selfless vision of nation building. Its the need of the hour today. India generates 1.5 lakh mega watts of electricity today compared to 8 lakh mega watts of China. People in Purulia and many other parts of the rural Bharat, still live on ‘kendu’ and  ’mahua’ fruits for five months of the year as well as becoming a ‘begari’. A sizable portion of our population in rural Bharat still live their entire lives under bonded labour.  The benifits of the economic revolution should reach all and not only the creamy layer. The time is right for another decade of nation building and positive steps have been taken by the PM. The JNNURM, NREGA, Bharat Nirman Yojna, Gramin Vikas Yojana are steps being taken to make Bharat stronger.

As Detroit finally moves to Chenai and Pune, Silicon Valley to Bangalore, the next decade will see the seat of power move from White House to the Indian Parliament.  Jai Hind!!!

In 2006 the Left coalition had thundered to power with a two-thirds majority, riding on the urban and middle-class vote who saw the vision of a resurgent Bengal. Unfortunately the gigantic mandate has become a distant memory. The current memory is dominated by the almost shocking triumph of the Trinamool-Congress combine in the general elections post the Nandigram-Singur debacle and more recently the maoist siege of the rural areas.

This is perhaps not surprising to many, as Buddha has become a victim of the same Frankenstein the party had created in its 32 year rule. In its three decade rule it has created a society where institutions are brazenly politicized, where violence has been legitimized, and the bengali ethos has been corrupted to such a level that he has become a constantly sneering contemptuous and narrow visioned individual(with notable exceptions). The leftists disdained merit and instead of generating talent, it encouraged envy of talent. This resulted in bengalis thronging to mumbai, bangalore, delhi, etc where his talent and intelligence was not looked as being against left ideology.

With all his advantages, “Brand Buddha” sadly failed to build the political support needed for reform, relying completely on the comrades and cadres (who have by now become used to imposing their writ by force) who had become jealous of his popularity and cult. The failure of the left leaders to rally behind him and unite the party to the cause of reform led to factionalism within the left, not used to dealing with personal charisma. His own colleagues in the government destroyed the bridges he was trying to build between the party and people. The systematic destruction of Bengals intellectual capital, the culture of negativism, the development unfriendly government machinery shredded the new industrial policy and the radical changes it visioned. More sad was that, Buddha himself did not stand up and lacked the political skill to sell his policies to his own comrades. Only if he had delivered Singur, which was promised as the harbinger of a resurgent state and showed the same zeal and enthusiasm as he showed when he got Sector V at Salt Lake going, things would not have come to such a pass.

The expected regime change in 2011 will only go as so far in replacing one set of comrades with another set of party faithfuls. Bengal is being streaked with violence and blood once again as one set of violent party workers try to replace another set of violent party workers. Didi might replace dada at the red citadel and colour it white (or green) but it will take more than a change in political leadership to awaken Bengalis from the slumber it has got into and turn around the process of decay.

To Buddhas credit, he started the process and tried, now it will be upto his successor to give the final push. Will it be the deep ravine or the paradise on the other side of the steep mountain?

Chainaman to hame khatam karne pe tula hua hai.

Almost coinciding with the 13th round of Sino-Indian border talks (New Delhi, August 7-8, 2009), an article (in Chinese language) has appeared in China captioned “If China takes a little action, the so-called Great Indian Federation can be broken up” ( Zhong Guo Zhan Lue Gang, www.iiss.cn , Chinese, 8 August 2009). Interestingly, it has been reproduced in several other strategic and military websites of the country and by all means, targets the domestic audience. The authoritative host site is located in Beijing and is the new edition of one, which so far represented the China International Institute for Strategic Studies (www.chinaiiss.org).

Zhong Guo Zhan Lue Gang has served a ‘chilli chicken’ which has the sharpest chillies from China.  This Chinaman’s menu includes;

Starters – Giving political support to Bangladesh enabling them to encourage ethnic Bengalis in India to get rid of Indian control and unite with Bangladesh as one Bengali nation.

Soup – Joining forces with different nationalities like Assamese, Tamils, and Kashmiris and support the latter in establishing independent nation-states of their own, out of India. In particular, the ULFA in Assam, a territory neighboring China, can be helped by China so that Assam realizes its national independence.

Main Course – Bring into its fold countries like Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan, to destabilize India from all sides and also recover the 90,000 sq km. territory in Southern Tibet.

Dessert -The ‘so-called’ Indian nation cannot be considered as one having existed in history.

LINK

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This is not surprising as China wants India out of the way and will go any extents to do so. As to how desperate they are can be understood from this article, ‘China labels fake medicines exported to Nigeria as -Made In India’.

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They were demanding that the Maharashtra Government drop plans to build 10,000MW coal-fired thermal power plants in the region and explore renewable energy instead. The villagers said they were committed to fight the acquisition of their fertile land for coal-based power plants.

The community is opposing plans to set up thermal power plants over 8,500 acres of fertile land. The companies involved are the Tata Power Company Limited (1,200MW) and the Maharashtra Energy Generation Limited, a Reliance subsidiary, (4,000MW) at Shahpur in Alibag. The Patni group (500MW) and the Ispat group (2,000MW) want to set up their plants in the adjacent Medekhad Khadi.

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There is now little doubt that climate change will hit the poor hardest, particularly in Africa and Asia. Being unable to afford any better, poor people are forced to settle in areas that are highly vulnerable to the affects of climate change. With climate change leading to further decreases in already scarce resources like arable land and water, poor populations are going to be pushed further to, or even over, the edge.

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In a recently conducted study looking at household electricity use and transport across seven different income ranges, it was discovered that a relatively small, wealthy class (1% of the population) is hidden by the 823 million poor of the country who keep overall per capita emissions below 2 tonnes of CO2 a year.While the richest income class in this study, earning more than 30,000 rupees a month, produce slightly less than the global average CO2 emissions of 5 tonnes, this amount already exceeds the sustainable global average CO2 emissions of 2.5 tonnes per capita that needs to be reached to limit global warming below 2 degrees centigrade.

India faces two sharply contradictory realities. On the one hand there is a rapidly growing rich consumer class which has made the country the 12th largest luxury market in the world. On the other hand India is home to more than 800 million poor people who are extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The richest consumer classes produce 4.5 times more CO2 than the poorest class, and almost 3 times more than the average.

By far the most pronounced increase in electricity consumption and thus CO2 emissions from the lower income groups to higher income groups is in the use of small electronic devices that make living more comfortable for those who can afford it. They range from DVD players to kitchen equipment and from mobile phones to computers. None of these products account for a really significant share of the CO2 emissions, but together they add up to 49% of the overall household emissions of the >30k income class.

With increasing income, consumption changes from only essentials like food and clothing to a variety of life style goods including electronics. Even with an increase in efficiency of all these products, the constant addition of new goods that consume electricity would drive the life style of the >30k class over the limits of sustainability.

An even greater difference in emissions between classes occurs in transportation with the richest income class emitting 7.1 times more than the poorest class. This is due to an increase in two wheelers, the use of cars starting at an income of more than 10,000 rupees a month and an increase in air travel for people earning more than 30,000 rupees a month.

If the upper and the middle class do not manage to check their CO2 emissions, they will not only contribute to global warming, but will also deny hundreds of millions of poor Indians access to development.

The use of inefficient lighting is responsible for 126 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year (7% of India’s overall emissions). Making CFLs, tubelights and other efficient lighting systems accessible to the poor by massive price reduction and prohibiting the sale of inefficient lights like incandescent bulbs, could cut these emissions by 95 million tonnes – that’s a 5% reduction of overall annual emissions.

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Our country is now the world’s fifth biggest carbon emitter — behind the US, China, Russia and Japan — despite having one of the lowest per capita carbon emissions.

The onus of energy and water conservation should be on people who can afford it and government must offer incentives to people to install green components in buildings. These incentives should come by way of reduced electricity tariff, lower municipal/property taxes and tax breaks to builders and property owners.

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If all new buildings in urban areas were made to adopt green building concepts, India could save up to 3,400 MW of power — enough to light up half of Delhi, or 5.5 lakh homes a year, according to estimates by The Energy and Research Institute (TERI), a thinktank headed by Nobel laureate R.K. Pachauri. This would also save the country Rs 40,000 crore per annum, TERI estimates. And, given that a four-member home consumes 540 litres of water per day, about 1 lakh additional homes could get water for five years from the annual savings we would make if all new buildings were green.

In a finding that virtually slams babudom as our biggest curse, a Hong Kong-based research firm has rated Indian civil servants as the least efficient of the bureaucracy in 12 Asian nations.

In a damning judgement on the babus, the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC), which released the survey report said “India’s suffocating bureaucracy was ranked the least efficient” and that working with the country’s civil servants was a “slow and painful” process.

Numerous studies in the past has also shown India’s bureaucracy to be among the most corrupt and inefficient in the world.  Modeled on the UK and German systems, it was set up to act as an interface between the government and citizens. Instead it is mired in red tape, making even the most basic services a distant dream and leaving the citizens in despair as well as discouraging investors from other countries.

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Is there a way out?

Yes if Singapore can (which like India inherited its public service from its conolial past) so can we. They recruit their babus from among the top graduates of its elite universities.

France, Germany and UK open up their top level postings to career bureaucrats and professionals through an examination system.

In US about 400 people are recruited per year through an open exam. After two years in service they are promoted to Asst.Director and then the field is opened up to competition.

Moreover they have to be made ‘Accountable’ and a serious review needs to be done of their grading process which will only promote the most deserving ones and not the one who is the senior most.

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• Going to play a major International tournament. Transport arrives two hours late. And the transport? Two ‘Matador‘ vans.
• Since they are late, Airline denies them boarding cards. Treats them like shabbily.
• Team leaves with one player short. Why? Visas could not be arranged for the second goalkeeper in time.

A complete lack of will from the politicians and the bureaucrats is today responsible for bringing Calcutta to such a state.

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A committee headed by the chief secretary had been entrusted to monitor the implementation of the court-directed clean-air programme.

The working — or rather the lack of it — of the State Vehicular Pollution Monitoring Committee sums up the city’s foul-fume fight.

All it has done in 12 months is convene two meetings. No meeting has been held this year and so no move has been made to implement the court’s directives.

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These guys still get a 30% hike in their salaries!!! We need to give them a solid kick where it hurts.

But this person deserves all the hike and much more!

]]> http://parthakundu.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/hostage-situation/feed/ 0 ppk new http://parthakundu.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/king-of-good-times/ http://parthakundu.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/king-of-good-times/#comments Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:14:05 +0000 ppk http://parthakundu.wordpress.com/?p=186 ]]> The Kingfisher pilots will now on be called :’The Pilots of Good Times‘.

Next time you are flying Kingfisher there is more to think of other than those pretty faces!

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Jaisa raja .. waisa praja!