INDIA CRYING For HONEST And SINCERE CONCERN For ISSUES Of NATIONAL IMPORTANCE

Army Chief and Arvind Kejriwal of Anna's team have been hogging the limelight in all national print and TV news media during the last week over their utterances on something of utmost concern to India namely the State of Defence Preparedness and Corruption Mitigation. In both matters, the polity and the government have miserably failed to address the core issues involved and have literally left India crying for honest and sincere concern on issues of such national importance. In fact they are guilty of wasting all their time and energy on peripheral and comparatively insignificant issues.

Army Chief has raised two major issues:

• Cases of graft and bribe in defence procurements 

Surprising the whole of polity, bureaucracy and media has been talking about the timing of revelations, the motivation behind all this and what should be done to the general or the people named in these revelations. No body talks about the corruption malaise which is devouring this country's scarce economic resources and pulling back/ negating  its march to prosperity and rightful place as a global leader.

• State of Defence preparedness in a letter to the prime minister

In a letter to the prime minister, the army chief has apprised him of the deficiencies in the country's inventory of defence hardware citing some critical equipments that are obsolete and the non availability of ammunition which cast a very gloomy picture on the defence preparedness of the country. Unluckily the letter got leaked to the media which no doubt is a very serious matter. In this case also the whole discussion and the worry is centred  around  the timing of the letter and its leak. The main  and  most critical  issue of deficiencies in the combat capabilities of India's armed forces is perhaps not worth demanding  any attention  of  our  patriotic polity.

Assertions on Indian Polity by Arvind Kejriwal

Ever since Team Anna has taken up the corruption mitigation  and Lok Pal Bill in particular, the Indian Polity  of all colours has been at war with Anna and other team members. Arvind Kejriwal recently criticized the approach taken by the Indian Polity in passing the Lok Pal Bill in the parliament and categorically stated that with so many leaders with dubious records it was foolish to expect from them any stringent measures to deal with corruption.Surprisingly the total polity irrespective of party affiliations has got united and blown this issue totally  disproportionally by saying that it is an attack on the institution of parliament, an attack on the democracy and an attack on the Indian constitution. The only other time the polity has got united is on matters related to their own perks and remunerations and wars with foreign countries. Otherwise in the total history of Indian democracy they have found no issue related to policy or governance worth uniting for the good of the nation or for the good of the masses. With insufficient, untrained and many a time motivated by hidden agenda government machinery, if the country has such large number of tainted polity, it is not incorrect to extrapolate that in actual there is a vast majority of who's who of India belonging to this category.

The concern of our polity towards the menace of corruption and its mitigation is amply clear from what is said during discussions on the floor of the house "Anna and his team want a strong Lok Pal Bill passed by us and at the same time they are criticizing us. How is it possible"? Clearly it is the wish of Anna and we will be obliging him by passing it in parliament .The functioning and thought process of our leaders as also their concern for the nation can be well understood.

CARBON Is PRECIOUS: SAVE It For FUTURE GENERATIONS

Carbon is the fourth most abundant element on our earth and is mainly found as  fossil fuels and in all forms of plant and animal life. Carbon available in plants and animal life is a part of the all important ecosystem and is reserved exclusively for food chain and carbon cycle so very essential to all life on our planet.Carbon of fossil fuels is the only Carbon available to mankind to fulfil its overall requirements of metallurgy, hydrocarbons, plastics and the much sought after strong and light materials. For energy and electricity requirements the use of fossil fuels should be the last priority. 

In the light of limited resources of fossil fuels available to this world, barely sufficient to last, may be for five decades at the most, it is mandatory that we start curbing the use of fossil fuels for energy requirements which is terribly harmful to environment and tempers with the carbon cycle by enhancing green house effect thus contributing to global warming. All electricity requirements can be met easily by non fuel clean energy sources.In metallurgical industry,carbon should be used exclusively for metallurgical requirements of reduction of various ores to metals and the heating part should be looked after by energy from a renewable source.

Transport industry is another guzzler of carbon fuels and in transport/ traction industry the efficiency is highly dependent upon the weight of the vehicle. This weight can be drastically reduced by switching over to light weight high strength carbon fibres thus achieving an almost 50% increase in the fuel efficiency resulting in a two way advantage of reducing hot CO2 emissions and using carbon for a better use.

Hydrocarbons, plastics, solvents,organic fibres have a unique place in the advanced society and the world in future will be incomplete if it does not have access to these materials because the present generation depleted carbon resources by burning them recklessly.

INDIAN BUDGET 2012-13: A DAMP SQUIB As USUAL

A lot was expected out of Indian budget 2012-13, but sadly enough it is turned out to be a damp squib and is devoid of any far sight  on the part of collective wisdom of Indian rulers  to give a concrete shape to the dreams and aspirations of teeming poor millions. It is plain and simple exercise in big talk, all politically motivated with an eye on votes and votes alone without any real concern of improving the quality of life of Indian citizens.

The estimated fiscal deficit of 5.1% of the GDP is going to be the single most irritating factor to the Indian economy and is likely to be exceeded during the run of the financial year with centre and all states vying with each other to fritter away tax payers money in the form of doles, freebies, and subsidies and the associated corruption in all these activities.The resulting inflation because of fiscal deficit and  increases in petrol and diesel prices in the light of high international prices of oil will dictate Reserve Bank decisions on softening of interest rates, thus affecting growth finally resulting in lower tax collections.

The nation would have appreciated some out of the box thinking on the part of Finance Minister particularly in application of food security and food subsidy. No nation can  ever afford to satisfy hungry mouths and empty stomachs as well as unemployed people with doles and freebies. The country must extract accountable work out of this huge manpower and pay them wages for their contribution at rates linked to inflation index thus saving the nation a lot of expenses that go into pilferage and administration/management costs as well as benefits going into non deserving hands which according to many admissions of political leaders account for 75% of the budgetary provisions made for this purpose.

The Finance Minister did talk about black money stashed in foreign countries because the failure of the government in bringing back this money can easily be attributed to international laws and complications. Why does he not talk about corruption and resulting black money available in the country itself, for that will require only an executive action which is well within the purview of the government provided it is sincere in its motives.

With these two inclusions the damp squib could be converted into an economic dynamite which could revolutionize the economic growth path as well as poverty mitigation programme of the government.

TOTAL RELIANCE And SUPER THRUST On RENEWABLE ENERGY MUST For INDIA BECOMING GLOBAL LEADER

Energy security is the burning topic of the 21st century with the developed, developing and even the backward countries of this globe and everybody is clamouring for clean renewable energy sources even those who do not have them on their own territory in ample amount. Germany is a perfect example of this, even though it is not blessed with a lavish quantum of these resources, it has decided to abandon all fuel based energy sources so much so even the much touted nuclear energy in a scheduled manner. In fact it is investing heavily in Desertec Solar Energy programme across Mediterranean in Sahara desert. Japan with little renewable energy potential and a very large dependence on nuclear power finds 52 out of 54 power reactors offline and even the Japanese PM has supported a gradual phase out of nuclear power in a few decades. Simultaneously Japan has undertaken ambitious plans to harness solar energy for futuristic energy security of its nation and our globe . UK and the northern countries of European continent are pinning their hopes on 'On shore and Off shore' wind energy potential in addition to hydroelectric potential for guaranteeing energy security to their respective countries for all times to come.

In the light of all this, India with a wonderful mix of hydro, wind and solar power potential should immediately aim at total reliance and super thrust on renewable energy which will transform India into a prosperous country and is an absolute must for becoming global leaders. It all depends on Indian polity and rulers and they have to decide with their actions as to where do they stand.  The whole country expects the polity to rise to the occasion at least once at this most critical juncture by not investing in near obsolescence nuclear power choice  and not deny the country its legitimate opportunity to become a world leader in the coming few decades.Let wisdom and national interest prevail on our politicians and nuclear technocrat lobby so that we do not fall prey to US and French interests and in the bargain lose our chance of leading the world in the transition to renewable energy solutions. Let us make best use of our being backward in per capita energy consumption, for US, Europe and China combined together will not add or replace 8,00,000 mw which India is planning to add during the next decade or so.We have the opportunity of fine tuning wind and solar energy technologies and cut down their costs through development of large scale manufacturing facilities without having to bother about our earlier investments in any energy field becoming redundant and superfluous. ( excerpts from http://veekay-indiandreamsvsreality.blogspot.in/2011/04/energy-security-nuclear-energy-worst.html )

India's requirements and equitable distribution of wind, hydro and solar potential over large parts of the country require thinking outside the box on the part of technocrats and engineers to have a right kind of mix of micro, mini and Ultra Ultra Mega power plants based on renewable energy sources. Gone are the days when big was considered to be more economical in all industry and power industry was no different particularly when the available options were restricted to hydro and fuel based power generation.  To day when wind and solar energy has given a wonderful option of on site generation of power in small, medium and large quantities without affecting the cost of operation. The small to medium size power producing units with tremendous Force Multiplier Potential accruing because of redundancy of transmission costs and transmission losses as also the fuel transportation and transportation infrastructure costs .Add to this the cost of environmental damage ( green house effect ) and loss of carbon credits by fossil fuel based power industry and civil liability costs, plant dismantling cost and storage/dispensation of fuel waste costs of nuclear power industry and the capital cost reductions likely to be achieved by 100 times scaling up of solar and wind power equipment production lines, the solar and wind power options will become economically competitive to present day energy options.

ON BEING CORRUPT IN INDIA

                                               MAJORITY In INDIA Is CORRUPT: 
                                A VAST MAJORITY Of  BUREAUCRACY Is CORRUPT:
                                                                       And
                POLITY Is ABSOLUTELY CORRUPT With VERY FEW EXCEPTIONS

There was a lot of hue and cry raised by the Indian polity when Arvind Kejriwal said that most of the People's representatives are corrupt and many of them are criminals and involved in multitude of criminal cases. Did he say something that was not a fact? Perhaps yes when one thinks in the light of the current Indian definitions or perspective of Indian nation for the following:

• CHARACTER: Only includes one's attitude and behaviour and malicious actions towards women and the virtues like honesty, truth, sincerity to the nation etc. are far removed from the definition of character.
• CORRUPTION: Only includes bribe taking and pocketing money for self and family.

Surprisingly, it does not include enabling others to make money for the political party, frittering away tax payers money in the form of doles and freebies to garner votes to ensure power, discretionary dereliction of duty by allowing your stooges and cronies to amass wealth in return for votes and monetary support during elections and above all engaging in programmes with methodologies wherein 75% of budgeted allocations don't even reach the target group as per the polity's own admissions from time to time, the hidden agenda is for any body to guess.

When every action of the polity is motivated by one or more of the above considerations in the name of Good Politics one can judge for himself the observations and assertions made by Kejriwal on Indian Polity. The polity needs to answer a few more observations by a common citizen of the country.

Why do bulk transfers take place every year?

Why Group I and II officers are kicked around from one place to the other and from one seat to the other every now and then?

Why have discretions and discretionary quotas in administration?

Why do we have bad governance?

Why no concrete administrative steps are taken to do something to mitigate corruption, black money generation and its consumption in India?
Why tainted people are given party tickets for election to Assemblies and Parliament?

If the collective wisdom of our polity cannot answer these questions, more and more such assertions will come in the public domain.