Nuclear Power In India:Our worst enemy

Those who are advocating the case of nuclear power for India are the worst enemies of the country and are in fact playing into the hands of Western Giants by nurturing their quest to remain global super economic powers and technology leaders for the coming fifty years at least. Let us not fall into this trap and place trillions of dollars as the cost of nuclear power plant technologies in their hands. These technologies are definitely defunct and out of sync with the energy security concepts of  21st century. The huge sums of money gained by these countries through sale of these technologies will enable them to remain technology leaders through major researches and engineering infrastructure development in the upcoming fields of wind and solar energy. Let those in power and policy makers of the nation show to the nation that they are working for Indian National Interest in the same way as US and French leaders are working for their country's interests.

It should be clear to one and all of this country that western nations have not suddenly developed special love and concern for India and its poor masses for nothing. They are only ensuring their own economic interests. For if today India does not buy 30000 mw of nuclear power plants, all their efforts and investments in research and technology infrastructure development for nuclear power plants will go unrewarded as none of their favored friends are willing to buy new nuclear plants or replace the earlier ones.They have little incentive for pouring in large sums of money in solar and wind power as catering to replacement requirements of nuclear and thermal power plants is a smaller economic activity and new economic powers like Germany, Japan, China and India are also gearing up to have a share in this pie.

For India, the opportunity of developing wind and solar energy is something like 75000 to 80000 mw in the coming decade. If we harness our research talent and expertise of engineering giants of the country for technology development, we will reap the benefits of this massive in house requirements and opportunity of massive scale up of engineering operations. We can easily become the world leaders and exporters of these technologies to the whole world.

So far for the opportunity to become world leaders in the field of power generation. Let us now concentrate on the problems associated with nuclear power generation which in themselves are strong enough reasons for abandoning the path of energy security through nuclear options.

• No nuclear reactor can be 100% safe. A normal accident of whatever magnitude in any industry can at worst affect a couple of lives for once, whereas the worst possible nuclear accident can destroy thousands of lives,affect very large tracts of lands and couple of generations of those involved in the accident. These accidents could be a result of engineering failures, natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunami, terror attacks etc.
• The capital cost of  1 mw of nuclear power plant is approx. 40 crores which as it is exorbitant. If we add the cost of radioactive waste management ( about 10% ) and insurance liability cost against terror attacks and accident damage ( 100% or even more ), nuclear power  becomes only a liability to the nation. This is perhaps the reason that no new nuclear power plants came up in USA during the last three decades and Germany has decided to totally abandon it by 2025. Japan will be no longer be replacing their old reactors. Australia the second largest producer of nuclear fuel has no nuclear power plant.
• Problems of proliferation, susceptibility to theft or sale to terrorist and criminal organisations
• Extremely long gestation periods of 10 - 15 years
• India will always be prone to blackmail at the whims and fancies of fuel suppliers. After all we have been subject to this blackmail earlier also.

Indian Reality:Rudderless Education system

Successive governments have been telling us that education is the foremost priority for them. In spite of that we still have millions of illiterates even after 64 years of independence. The first and foremost priority must be accorded to literacy drive and simultaneously evolving an education system and infrastructure that could do some value addition to the earning prospects of an individual and his contribution towards the growth and prosperity of the country.
We are producing graduates and post graduates in large numbers and a majority of them in mere IIIrd division. We do not realise that we are wasting our money and scarce resources on these people. All such students or candidates get through in examinations because the universities as well as teachers do not want to have low pass percentages. Additionally it encourages discretion, graft and favouritism etc.during selections in jobs and puts sub standard candidates on government posts.
Our education system produces about 3 million graduates ( B.A.'s ) , about 1 million technical graduates, 0.18 million MBA's, 0.27 million polytechnic diplomas and 0.75 million ITI's. Out of all these so called educated and qualified class about 80% are simply unemployable. Instead of contributing towards India's progress, they are just a drain on the system as a lot of government money is spent on these colleges and institutes. These people invariably find jobs in the government sector wherein utter discretion is used in the name of  'Interview' and a lot of money changes hands in the form of bribe. One is not surprised to read reports in newspapers that over 8000 teachers in Bihar failed class V test. Only 5% of our Information Technology graduates are employable in the real sense and when it comes to Engineering Graduates and MBA's, a vast majority of them get placed at sub 1.00 Lakh annual packages. So far for the story of white collar job aspirants.
In the Skilled manpower segment which is the essence of progress of productivity of a country the situation is all the more worse. Firstly the quality and standard of skilled labour and supervisors is simply not up to the mark. Secondly we have a very distorted pyramid structure when technical manpower is in question. Imagine for 1 million engineering graduate pass outs per annum, we produce only 0.27 million diploma holders and 0.75 million ITI's. On the top of it we have about 200 million unskilled workers who just have two hands as their competence. There is an urgent need to convert these hands into Semi Skilled ones or Blue Collar Manpower  which includes Plumbers, Masons, Carpenters, Electricians, Drivers and workers in leather, jewellery and textile industry to name only a few. It is only in India that in these categories we have only 2% of manpower with any formal vocational training. In Industrially advanced countries more than 90% workers have proper vocational training which helps increasing the productivity and quality of produce and earnings of the individual.
This is the result of collective wisdom of our elected representatives who claim to have only nation's interest and the welfare of poor masses in mind when they form policies. The fact is that they have not shown any sincerity or concern towards the country or its Aam Admi during sixty years of meaningless and politically motivated governance. My Country men, it is time to wake up, for only good, selfless, sincere and honest people at the top can guide the nation and its poor millions to prosperity in less than a decade.

Indian Governance:Motivated and Guided by Corruption

The menace of corruption should only be talked of and should never be addressed to is the guiding principle of all political parties in India. If it were not true we would have seen some measures, some activity to fight it and reduce it over the last six decades. If only our rulers were  a little sensitive to this problem or in fact not motivated to let it escalate for their personal,  party or political gains, it would not have grown exponentially. Even to day when we have a very large parallel economy affecting the achieving of social and economic goals  at the desired speed, there seems to be little effort to put even a symbolic control on corruption, an effective control is perhaps expecting too much from our motivated politicians.
Corruption results in black money which in turn is a result of discretionary powers vested with the authority in our country where discretion is only motivated by self interest rather than the good of organisation and country. This fact is known to all those in power whether in States or Centre but self interest and political interests and compulsions force them to keep their traps shut and make them insensitive to the demons of corruption and black money.The total polity of this country talks only of black money stashed in foreign banks, for getting it back is a long drawn affair and is riddled with so many international complications and the time so gained gives them a golden opportunity to carry on endlessly in mud slinging on each other and keep all avenues of earning ill gotten money for themselves, their parties and their relatives, friends, cronies and political clout.
We have never heard of 10 to 15 lakh Crores of black money being generated every year which is almost equal to our annual budget and it requires action solely by the Centre and State governments. Surprisingly no politician of this country has ever talked about it. The reasons for not doing so are best known to them but do not require any rocket science for a common man to guess their ulterior motives. Imagine how fast  poverty eradication, education and health care for one and all and giving a comfortable and meaningful life to the have nots of this country can progress if our annual budgets can be doubled through controlling black money generation.
Sisters and brothers of India, whether from villages or cities, from  any religion, caste or creed,rich or poor, don't be taken in by any of the tricks of politicians, for end of corrupt people  and corruption will be the end of your poverty and miseries.Your poverty is a direct result of  corruption  by  those in authority and power.

The true colours of Indian polity

Lok Pal bill logjam has rocked entire India excepting the polity who are only playing  a game of chess or just doing shadow boxing. Every politician who counts in this country has been talking  that Anna's fast should end. Wise men, if you had even an iota of sincerity of purpose and honesty streak in you, you could have done something substantial during ten days of  his fast in parliament with all the good intentions you guys have been claiming to have to get his fast ended. Instead we had a stunningly weak bill introduced in the parliament, raised the normal political bogey of simultaneous murders of democracy, constitution of India, institute of parliament, social fibre of the country, even the integrity of the country etc. etc.. and finally that Lok Pal is not the panacea for eradication of corruption and it needs many more laws and enactments. In fact it appears that all these bogeys and wise talk is resorted to so that their right of colluding to and perpetuating the corrupt practices in this country is not taken away.

Gentlemen, nobody is against parliament, no disrespect to the institution but the leaders have collectively made a joke of themselves by safeguarding  personal and party interests by dillydallying even on the first small step towards having a corruption free India. You have to find ways and means of " How to do something and not how not to do it. " Even now nothing is lost , use all your discretion for once for something that is for the good of the country and its poor masses and save Anna for guidance on many other crucial matters of concern to poor and downtrodden of the country. You will be doing  great service to this country.

The lure of being a politician in India

When India got independence, politicians were a very respected lot for they had entered this arena with a strong urge to do something for the country and its masses. But today it is a different story all together. It is not for nothing that every individual in the country who is not barred from entering politics by being in government service is lured into politics. You only need to monitor the wealth accumulation in the hands of those in politics, starting from a street level, panchayat level or municipal level politician to state level , all India  level  etc., you will know the reason. The deeds of bigger politicians are there in the newspaper or electronic media for everyone to see but it does not mean that others are saints. All the smaller fish in this profession get paid through allocation of property, purchase orders, contracts. export licences, transport licences, managing selections, transfers, postings and promotions of government officials as touts to those in power. So much so even helping in getting a ration card or a voting card is also business for some.

The centre and state level politicians have access to a bigger pie for they can enact laws and bend rules to further the interests of their stooges and cronies. They keep on hiking their perks, salaries and pensions without obligation to any code of conduct. They have a special right to interfere in matters pertaining to executive decisions under the garb of looking after the interests of their constituency and its voters. They have huge funds to give as doles to a selected few in their constituency. They can float various corporations and psu's to favour their friends with big fat salaries and perks. All this is not for free as the famous axiom ' You scratch my back I will scratch yours ' is the rule of the game.

Enough to highlight the furthering of self interests in the name of shaping the destiny of this nation and improving the lot of masses. Little is done and more hype is created to fool their vote banks. It could very easily be said that politics is the first love of corrupt, corruptible and tainted citizens of this country.

Indian War against Corruption - Whose War

Surprisingly we have many voices from polity of the country and intelligentsia of the country who tell us that corruption will not end by having a strong Lok Pal but still nobody seems to have the inclination or honesty of purpose to spell out what measures are required. The aim seems to scuttle the movement against corruption by not letting materialise even the first important step towards the ultimate goal.
These politicians through their cronies and stooges along with certain persons with distorted thought process and vision are making the last ditch losing battle to ensure that Anna's ( India's ) fight for corruption does not culminate into a success story. Ever since Jan Lok Pal Bill draft has come into public domain and war against corruption has gained momentum, we are hearing all kind of bizarre, crooked and distorted arguments against Anna as well as the bill. It all started with the rhetoric of the movement being anti Parliament, anti constitution, anti people and what not. Then it was called the tyranny of the unelected and unelectable. Next attack was on the honesty of the the whole team Anna and because they were falsely labelled as corrupt they had no business or right to talk about mitigation of corruption. Perhaps that is the reason all our politicians have never tried any meaningful approach to fight this menace. Suddenly some people came up with the idea that since foreign countries are not happy with the  rapid progress being made by India, they are trying to destabilise the government of the country. What rotten argument ! These foreigners are wise enough to understand that if India can destroy the demon of corruption and black money, it can progress at may be double the present pace. Or may be they are wise enough to understand the pulse of Indian Polity, in that, these people  will hang on to any straw to maintain status quo. After all we all know that there is no business that gives returns higher than the business of politics. One earns tons of money without any investment, without any professional earning ability, only through unabashed use of associated power and authority, discretion and manipulations of rules and regulation, nepotism and favouritism etc. etc.. Lastly it is being made out by a few   that this is a movement of middle class urbanites as if the benefits of ending corruption will accrue only to this class and as if the downtrodden have nots will be more miserable  if this fight succeeds. What dirty politics to divide the masses! Sisters and brothers of India, whether from villages or cities, from  any religion, caste or creed,rich or poor, don't be taken in by any of these tricks of politicians, for end of corrupt people  and corruption will be the end of your poverty and miseries.Your poverty is a direct result of  corruption  by  those in authority and power.

Corruption in India:Apathy or Compulsion of politicians

Corruption is the biggest menace and enemy of our country. You hear this day in and day out from politicians of all shades and colours. BJP the main opposition party says that they have been raising this issue all along and have been fighting tooth and nail in parliament on various scams that have rocked the country in recent times. BJP, Samajwadi Party, Communist Party of India (M) and Bahujan Samaj Party are only maintaining an anti government stance on the issues of Lok Pal and fight against corruption. They do not want to take any initiative in these issues of utmost national importance.Because both, those in power and those out of power cannot win elections unless they give corruption empowerment to their cronies and followers down to the level of village and mohalla leaders. The government on its part claims to be equally concerned about corruption and quotes the prime minister message on this independence day wherein he declared war on graft. Surprising still no word on black money. Is it a slip or a calculated omission? 

Some excerpts from PM's speech :

"In the last few months many instances of corruption have come to light. In some cases, functionaries of the Central government face allegations of corruption. In other cases, it is the functionaries of various State governments".

The Extent of Corruption Menace is being undermined in this statement. There may not be even 5% cases where  corruption is not there.

"Any government awards contracts worth thousands of crores every year. There are frequent complaints of corruption in these decisions. We had constituted a committee to suggest measures to reduce corruption in government purchases. The committee has recommended that, like many other countries, we should also have a public procurement legislation which lays down the principles and practice with regard to government purchases. We will introduce a Bill in Parliament by the end of this year to enact such a law".

 As if the country did not have procedures and principles all these years.This just appears to be an effort to show some thing to the simple masses of the country so that they remain silent for another six decades. Incidentally, all government contracts are awarded through various committees and after getting a certificate from the chairman that the prices are reasonable.

Sometimes the government talks about compulsions of coalition governments when dealing with corrupt people. The same is said when some path breaking economic or administrative action is to be taken. Are we not being made to pay too high a price for coalition governments.Why can't the government or any other party  put up bills in the parliament with an honest approach to kill corruption from this country and show it to the country once and for all who wants to kill this demon and who wants it to grow.This has not been done in the last six decades and is perhaps not likely to be done in future also for they know that someone out of them only has to be the winner in elections irrespective of whether ninety percent vote or abstain during elections.