CORRUPTION BLOWING AWAY INDIAN DREAM OF GETTING PROSPEROUS

21st century belongs to Asia , the oft repeated words of Indian prime minister along with a host of other assessors and analysts of world economy and on paper India is perhaps the strongest contender. This global opportunity because of a combination of  factors like favourable demography, cheap labour, abundant human resource of all skills and levels and above all perhaps the right time for an impending change in global economic order because of slowing down of developed economies, depletion of their resources and gross overspending on social welfare measures.

The Indian nation and polity understands this fully but the polity chooses  to ignore comfortably the first and foremost condition of corruption mitigation and good governance for such revolutions to occur in the history of a nation. Not even a single day passes without the surfacing of a new scam or reports of large scale corruption by mighty and powerful of the nation. The apathy of the government is reflected in the fact that hardly anyone gets punished or money gained through illegal and dubious means recovered. On the contrary the whole polity divides itself into two teams, one vouching for that nothing has gone wrong and that the powerful are not involved while the other raises the rhetoric of  asking for the head of individual name involved. The mudslinging and rhetoric created goes on with complete understanding that the gains and losses must be confined only to the aim of getting votes. It is always ensured that no personal or financial harm should come to any individual.

The nation, citizenry and the common man is suffering because of corruption, bribe and black money generation and is well aware of the massive magnitude of these problems. But strangely, the total polity of the country makes an all out effort to undermine the extent, so much so that it is taken to be a minor aberration in the total financial activity of the nation. The most recent case of involvement of a relative of a minister involved in a bribe for the promotion of a railway officer is a typical eye opener to the extent this malaise is eating into the national wealth and hampering India's dream and chance of becoming world leaders. This particular officer's total earnings of the last ten years will not amount to the princely sum of Rs. 90 lakhs, the amount paid as the bribe. This throws open two basic questions. Firstly, the amounts that are being earned through dubious means in this country and secondly the scope of earning much bigger amounts with the likely promotion.

This is as far as the colossus bribe is rampant in Indian government and is a minuscule sample of what has come to light. There is another angle to this which is all the more shameful and deleterious to the growth of nation. The minister in question says that he has no business dealings with this relative as if corruption is a business and he wants the country to believe that all corrupt people have scripted business partnerships with their relatives, cronies and stooges for bribe and corruption money. The officer who paid the bribe was an idiot who paid the bribe without ascertaining that it will produce the desired result by reaching the person concerned.

The country is getting ruined in this game and corruption is blowing away Indian dream of getting prosperous. Corruption has given two separate and distinct methodologies for the functioning of executive and the legal process. Executive thrives on the motto of  'How not to do a thing instead of how to do it' and the legal process thrives on 'How to save a guilty rather than how to nail him' and this is such a win win situation for the persons who are mired in corruption. They not only eat, drink and sleep corruption, they breed corruption too. If such are the nationalists of this country, the persons working under oaths, persons subject to some semblance of controls and accountability, imagine the state of persons who are under no oath and are accountable to no agency.

INDIAN CHANCE TO BECOME AN ECONOMIC SUPERPOWER

India   is  at  the  thresh  hold  of  a  huge  step forward to become one of the economic super powers of  21st century and the opportunity is there for the taking  if and only if the country's rulers and planners put their best foot forward rather than  moaning and groaning  about  the financial problems faced by world  in  general and the developed economies in particular. In fact if there were no problems in the developed economies of this globe this much talked about opportunity  window   would  not   have been available to India in spite of huge technical and management  human  resource,  an  awesome demography  advantage   coupled   with   an enormous demand for all kind of consumer goods, infrastructure, housing and healthcare needs even if one talks about extending  the benefits of development to a level of reasonably good living as per the European standards to the 1 billion plus population of the country. Add to this the need and inner desire on the part of all nations to shift over to renewable energy sources for energy security because of global environmental concerns and finite nature of all fuel based energy.

The Indian polity and planners must understand that prosperity and global leadership is something that they have to strive for and no other country of this globe will help them achieve this by jeopardising their own global leadership status.After all it is not wrong to presume that leaders of western economies shall work in the best interest of their own countries and economies and leaders of countries like India who are looking up to them for their salvation will end up with crumbs only.

Let Indian polity not wait for the improvements in global economic scene and work single-mindedly on problems that are dragging Indian growth. The two main present problems of Indian economy i.e. the inflation and rupee depreciation are both interlinked and require stringent and harsh measures on many fronts and cannot be sorted out with patchy controls by Reserve Bank of India (RBI). This has been seen in the case of efforts to rein in inflation through rate increases by RBI and the results are there for every one to see. The inflation menace has resurfaced after a small time correction and the negative effect on growth as surfaced with a big bang. Similarly, the efforts to control rupee depreciation has not lasted beyond a couple of days even. The real answer to both these problems lies in a path guided by good economics, governance and increase in productivity with politics taking a back seat for some time. If the fiscal deficit and current account deficit are managed well through austerity measures, control on imports, wise pruning of the Indian budget, corruption mitigation and management of energy resources through governance, ( India calling for nationalistic polity) the retrograde effects of policy paralysis could take the back seat.
Let the country understand that big dreams are realised through hard work,dedication and sincerity of purpose and not through mere wishful thinking and vote catching rhetoric as is being done by Indian polity at large. Otherwise the Indian dream and chance to become world leaders will end up in fiasco.It is now or never. Let us not waste this God sent opportunity.

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.

Energy Security - Nuclear Energy:The Worst Option

While the advanced countries on this globe are working towards abandoning the nuclear energy options, we in India true to our tag of third world nation are going gaga  over nuclear energy options. Surprisingly our policy makers very conveniently prefer to close their eyes to 3 mile island, Chernobyl and Fukushima Dai-ichi disasters. The nation is constantly being fed on half baked truth of Nuclear Energy as the only viable Energy Security available and the accompanying safety concerns are being underplayed. By selling nuclear energy plants to India, the US and French presidents may be guilty of working against the humanity but they are certainly working in the best interests of their countries.Through these sales they are ensuring extra jobs to their countrymen, earning huge  amounts from investments made by their countries in the fields of infrastructure and technologies for nuclear plant engineering in sixties and seventies of last century as also making these huge funds so earned available for research and technology development in solar and wind power sectors which will enable them to retain their status as world leaders even in the upcoming field of renewable energy science, engineering and technology. But why are our leaders, policy makers and technocrats helping them out in realising their goals? Why are they ignoring what these advanced countries are doing for their own energy security during the coming decades?

Let us do a little bit of fact finding regarding status of nuclear energy programs of these advanced countries.

• In USA during the last 25 years no new additions have been made to nuclear energy. During the same period they have added about 80000 mw of wind and solar power and as an endeavour to have more and more of clean energy, huge sums are being allocated to these energy sectors to replace conventional thermal power plants in spite of a very powerful nuclear lobby.
• France is perhaps the only country which has been increasing its dependence on nuclear energy up to now. They are also feeling the heat of lagging behind in renewable energy which is the most sought after and viable technology on a major part of our globe.
• Germany is going ahead with the complete phasing out of nuclear power by 2022 simultaneously aiming to boost electricity generation from non polluting sources like wind and solar to 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2050 from less than 20% now.
• South Africa is seriously thinking about not going ahead with proposed nuclear energy plants. Rather they think it will be wiser to invest in the new energy solutions i.e. renewable sources like wind and solar.
• Japan has placed a moratorium on setting up of new reactors and are seriously reviewing all present installations.
• China has an installed renewable energy capacity of  80000 mw ( wind and solar ) while they are aiming at about 40000 mw of nuclear power by 2015. Their priorities on energy sources are quite inevitable in their policies.

It is very clear that whole world including nuclear energy reactor designers and fabricators namely US and France are going slow with this much touted energy security solution. The reasons are not very difficult to apprehend when we go into the details of economy and problems of proliferation, nuclear waste management and safety concerns.Nuclear power plants come at an exorbitant cost of Rs 25 crores / mw and in fact this may escalate to about Rs 50 crores when measures for waste management, disaster compensation insurance and stringent safety norms likely to be imposed in the light of Japanese disaster are taken into account. In comparison wind, hydro and thermal power can be installed at a cost of about Rs 5-6 crore per mw and solar energy could be installed at Rs 16-20 crore per mw. Additionally nuclear power plants have a very long gestation period of 10-15 years and investment recovery period of 25-40 years.

The radioactive material is susceptible to thefts by or eventual sale to terrorists or international criminal organisations. The accidental release of radioactivity as a result of reactor accident, terrorist attack or as a consequence of some natural disaster can be catastrophic. The scientists and technocrats would like to say that chances of such an occurrence are 1 in a billion or a trillion but can they deny that such an occurrence could as well be the 1st one and the balance of (1 trillion - 1) occurrences can be catastrophe free.

The environment hazards arising as a result of nuclear power plants cannot be ignored. For India add to this the all time dependence for nuclear fuel on other countries rendering us prone to blackmail at the whims and fancies of these suppliers.

In the light of all this is it advisable to go in for this option when much better and safe options are available? 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.

Indian Dream:Our Chance To Become World Leaders

For long India has been the country of people who have been denied and deprived of prosperity and modern day comforts of life. When we take into account any of the prosperity indices like per capita earnings, per capita consumption of steel, electricity, cement, milk, cloth or for that matter any other parameter, we are no where near even to post world war II figures of advanced nations. This huge gap and magnitude of increase that is required to fulfill the dreams of one billion people is a God sent opportunity to make this country technology leader in many fields. Let us not waste this opportunity by bringing in prosperity through a route which has evolved in this world because of the then limitations in the field of science and technology and material development.

Electricity generation and connected technologies should be topmost priority as its consumption index is the mother of all other economic development indices and we have to increase its production manifold to catch up with the western world. Surprisingly our politicians and technologists both have chosen a path where we will all the time be following the developed nations and be dependent on them. It is not that developed nations do not understand that ultimate answer lies in the Renewable Sources of Energy. These nations themselves will also ultimately  switch over to these sources when their present power plants and plant manufacturing technologies become obsolete and they have squeezed full value by selling them to nations like India. Till such time the use of renewable energy will be kept at exorbitant price. It is for us to seize this opportunity and make power from these sources at prices comparable with power from present day conventional sources through research, technology innovation and scale of production. We should not forget that even with our meagre per capita consumption of electricity we are fifth largest producer in world. Therefore our targeted yearly additions in power production are far more than the yearly obsolescence of American Plants. Since they have all the technologies for setting up of conventional and nuclear power plants available in house they will not be interested in large scale spending on researches in the fields of utilizing renewable energy sources at present.

The present world leaders in science and technology are at that position not because of sheer coincidence or stroke of luck but because of long term vision and thinking on the part of their leaders and technocrats.If only Indian counterparts are true and earnest in their approach to fulfilling the aspirations of masses in the field of power generation we will become world leaders in harnessing renewable sources of energy in a decade or so.