​The "Silent" Crisis: Why India’s Constitution Must Regulate Political Parties

​In the grand architecture of Indian democracy, there is a curious, almost haunting silence. While our Constitution meticulously details the powers of the President, the procedures of Parliament, and the independence of the Judiciary, it remains largely silent on the most powerful entities in our system- Political Parties.

​Through my recent reflections and discussions, it has become increasingly clear that this constitutional vacuum is not merely a legal oversight—it is a structural flaw that allows vested groups to capture authority and, gradually, erode the democratic fabric of our nation.

​The Original Silence and the 1985 Shift

​When the Constitution was enacted in 1950, political parties were not mentioned at all. The framers focused on individual rights and state institutions. It wasn't until the 52nd Amendment in 1985 (the Anti-Defection Law) that the term "political party" even entered the constitutional lexicon via the Tenth Schedule.

​However, this inclusion was reactive. Instead of regulating how parties operate, it focused on how to keep legislators tethered to their party leadership. Ironically, this "safeguard" often silences the independent voices of our elected representatives, making them subservient to the "High Command."

​The Case for Internal Democracy

​In many modern democracies, such as Germany, the Constitution (specifically Article 21 of the Basic Law) mandates that the internal organization of political parties must conform to democratic principles.

​In India, parties often operate as "black boxes" or private clubs.

Without constitutional directives the following undesirable situations arise:

​Dynastic Politics: Power becomes concentrated within specific families or small coteries.

​Lack of Accountability: There is no legal mandate for regular, transparent internal elections.

​The "High Command" Culture: Decisions are made at the top and imposed downward, stifling grassroots leadership and diverse opinions.

​Breaking the Nexus: State Funding and the 10% Threshold

​One of the most significant threats to democracy is the influence of "vested interests"—large corporate donors or opaque financial entities that fund election campaigns. This creates a "Policy Capture" where the government becomes indebted to its donors rather than its voters.

​A logical solution emerged in our discussion: State Funding of Elections. By providing government financing to parties that secure a significant mandate.

For instance, 10% or more of the vote share—we can:

​Ensure Independence: Parties would no longer be forced to "sell their soul" for campaign funds.

​Filter Quality: The 10% threshold ensures that public money supports serious contenders while discouraging "spoiler" parties.

​Level the Playing Field: It allows merit-based leaders to compete with those backed by immense private wealth.

​The Need for an Independent Overseer

​To make these safeguards work, we cannot rely on the parties to police themselves. We require an independent constitutional authority—perhaps an empowered wing of the Election Commission or a dedicated "Registrar of Political Parties."

​This authority must have the teeth to:

​Audit internal elections to ensure they are not a sham.

​Monitor financial transparency in real-time.

​Ensure compliance with constitutional values in party bylaws.

​In my considered opinion, if India needs to progress as a Constitutional Democracy ensuing Good Governance the political parties should not be allowed as  Private Clubs. They should evolve as properly monitored Public Organs!

​A constitutional democracy can only work consistently if the units that comprise it are themselves democratic. Currently, we have a democratic "shell" (the government) powered by often undemocratic "engines" (the parties).

​If we are to prevent vested groups from ruining our democracy, the Constitution must evolve. We need Directive Principles for Political Parties just as we have Directive Principles of State Policy. Only by bringing parties under the umbrella of constitutional supervision can we ensure that the "will of the people" remains the true north of our nation’s journey.

​What do you think? Should we advocate for a German-style constitutional amendment for our parties, or is our political culture too far gone for legal fixes? 

Let’s discuss in the comments.

Fixed Doze Combination Drug Ban in India: An Unbiased Analysis!

In a surprise move on 10th March 2016, the central government of India has banned about 340 combinations of orally consumed drugs produced and marketed by modern pharma companies in India for various ailments such as cough, allergy, fever, cold, influenza, etc.(See this report) Many of these so called medicines have been in common use for quite some years and have been used by the common folks as over the counter (OTC) medicines without the prescriptions by any medical doctor.

The following gives the list of the banned  combinations- also called fixed dose combination (FDC) drugs - of medicines that are banned in accordance with the powers entrusted with the government under section 26A of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940 and the Drug Rules 1945 of India:

 

  

  

I do not know whether this sudden action by the government is the right initiative or not. Apparently, the government has done this to safeguard the citizens health. However, all industry experts and users may not agree to this (Click here to read this!). I too am of the same opinion, as governmental decisions are mostly seen as governed by political or extraneous considerations and not always based on well informed and logical reasoning! (Also read my earlier blog on 'the politics and strategy of bans') 

The India government combination drug ban is estimated to cause the immediate disappearance of nearly 1500 popular prescription and over the counter English medicines from the medical shops across the length and breadth of India which is likely to cause much difficulties for the patients, doctors, the drug retail shops and the pharmaceutical companies. The problem would have been less severe, had the government did this in a planned manner with due diligence and planning!

The following are some of the very common medicine brands that would disappear:

Anti diabetic drugs : Tribet, Gemer P, Gluconorm, Triexer
Cough syrups : Phensedyl, Tossex, Ascoril, Zedex
Fever, cold, pain relief: Sumo, Vicks Action 500, Zerodol-P

There are hundreds of others for other kinds of ailments!

The governmental action is reportedly on the basis of several research studies which suggest possible adverse effects of using such fixed combinations of more than one drug. However, all these research findings are debatable issues as there are other research studies which support alternative views.

The authorities have been telling the pharma companies and the medical community not to use brand names while prescribing medicines. Instead, they were advised to use the original chemical name (generic name). However, the pharma companies and the medical doctors have just ignored these guidelines for quite some time now.

The pharma companies have been making huge profits from the medicine business. Most of the medicine suppliers are not original manufacturers of the basic drug. Many of them import or buy the basic medicine in bulk fro original drug producers from India or abroad and convert it into very small tablets, capsules, injectables, oral syrups, etc containing few milligrams of the original drug and market those in various kinds of fancy trade names. 

The sales representatives of these pharma companies, called the medical representatives, go to the hospitals and the medical doctors and educate them about the method of use of these so that the doctors remember these names to prescribe them to the needy patients. There exists an unholy nexus in this business and this is known to all concerned. The companies have devised their own systems wherein the prescribing doctors and the medical shops get good rewards when a particular brand of medicine gives good sales returns to the company.

There is nothing very surprising in this. Doctors, hospital managements, the medical shop owners and the pharma company people are all humans and they are all in this business for making some profits or earning a livelihood. 

But the markets operate in a competitive environment. The government allows so many drug makers to start business and operate. They simply cannot exist, unless they make profits. So they too are compelled to device marketing techniques of various kinds.

Fixed combination drugs are essentially a kind of marketing technique. In this method, more than one drug combination allow the pharma company to market a drug combination product under a brand name different from that of its competitors and reap better benefits and returns commensurate with its own marketing efforts.

While the law of the land has been in existence for decades, the drug enforcement authorities have never been publicly against any pharma company as the pharma companies know pretty well how to take care of the statutory authorities. It has been a win-win situation for every one. Even the poor patients too benefited to some extent as many had the choice of buying the medicines over the counter without actually being in the crowded lines in front of the hospitals and the medical doctors for small ailments like cough and cold that is so common. Their experience with the drugs have been better than many of the doctors!

And India is no USA, Canada or the European Union. In the latter, the prime responsibility of the citizens' health vests with the government and the government and the medical systems reportedly work pretty well unlike in India.

So India has been different so far and we call it as the Indian way of working. Even the foreign companies understood how to work in India. They work differently in India as compared to their own mother nations. So they make and market drug combinations that they do not make and sell in their own countries.

When we consider all these, the sudden ban of the combination drugs looks a bit absurd and perhaps even motivated with agendas other than citizens' health. What will happen when all these common remedies vanish from the medical shops? What will the common man do? Rush to the already overcrowded hospitals for seeking alternatives? Will our doctors be competent to prescribe non-combination alternative medicines to manage an ailment in such a short notice? We should consider the fact that they have been in the practice of remembering mostly trade names of common combination drugs!

Will this cause a sudden shortage of all kinds of life saving drugs and medicines when the pharma companies retaliate with their own methods?

Muhammad-bin-tugluq thought of many good things to give better administration to his people of his time. But all those good ideas became miseries for the people and this ruler has never been admired for his good ideas and deeds!

Is the present government doing such a thing by the many bans that it has initiated in the name of good governance?

Only time will tell!  

Why Should We Invest in Big Business if it Generates Only Meager Employment?

Today is Vishvakarma Puja Day in India, the day in which the working class Hindus in most factories and work places across the nation to pay homage to the divine architect god, Vishvakarma Bhagavan (god). The practice of worshiping Vishvakarma on a working day at the work place was started in a big way by the management of the first integrated steel plant in India -The Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO) at Jamshedpur, Jharkhand state, India, several decades ago. It is celebrated generally on 17th September every year and is very popular in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Odissa, West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, etc where most of the iron and steel industries of India are located.

Some decades ago, the integrated steel plant managements allowed general public to visit the large works areas on the Vishvakarma Day and the steel workers and their families and relatives celebrated the day by conducting pujas (worship) of the god in the various productions shops and offices of the steel plants with full enthusiasm. This practice of allowing the general public to the work places of the steel plants got stopped when some governmental authorities put an end to it citing security concerns.

But the practice of worshiping the god in the work place on this day by the employees is being continued in these work temples of modern India. The day, though not a holiday, is a practically a kind of holiday for the workmen as the main work during this day is the puja activities!

The Tata steel management has perhaps sponsored this puja in a big way to promote the concept of work is worship and to keep the morale of the working class high by attaching divinity to work and also to invoke the god for their safety and prosperity in an otherwise risky working place.

In those days, an integrated steel plant used to be the real prime mover of the economy as it provided employment to millions of people, directly and indirectly. The government too used to consider the steel plants with due respect and regards as they knew its importance to the economy of the nation well, regardless of the fact that a steel plant actually showed any profits on its balance sheets. In reality, the integrated steel plants generated huge wealth and distributed it by being the main economic driver and the employment creator even when they showed meager profits or even losses on the balance sheets.

Moreover, the integrated steel plants never used to be considered as an industry which needs to show quick profits. It used to be a stable and steady business operation in a massive way and provided much income to the government by way of direct and indirect taxes and also provided direct and indirect employment to so many people who earned decent incomes.

In later years, some unthinking economists and media men made so much hues and cries over the balance sheets of the steel plants and stupidly declared them as wealth destroyers on the basis of the balance sheet evaluations which forced the steel plants to change track from their earlier concepts. Then began the foolish acts where profits were projected above employment. The future generations lost the opportunity to work stably in these work temples of India (perhaps elsewhere too, like the USA)

The thrust of the steel industry shifted to final balance sheet profit making rather than overall wealth creation! As a result the steel industry globally resorted to massive investments to enhance capacities to produce massively without creating equivalent employment opportunities! On the other hand, stupidity of economists and media caused fly by wire industries and businesses to get prominence in the society as main wealth creators. The stress shifted to quick profitability rather than consistency and overall benefit to society on a long term basis.

This stupidity of the so-called media savvy economists caused great damage to all nations due to the stupid globalization that set in without any one seriously studying the overall imbalances that could potentially generate. No one really realized the great harm due to such imbalances in the economies of the world working under conditions that are in no way to be termed as a level playing field! The market driven economies of the world forcibly came in to existence by the vision-less policies of some of the world leaders under influence by the modern day short sighted economists have now come to a stage of full scale collapse. It is affecting millions of young people across the world now. Young people in millions are becoming jobless now and their populations are increasing.

While the media savvy economists keep playing with their macro economic theories based on statistics of numbers, the ground realities are some thing else.

See these reports which should be sufficient to open the eyes of any one with some common sense:

In the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, for 368 posts of the lowest paid peon's job 2.3 million young jobless people have sent their applications! The report says that out of these some 175000 are engineering and commerce graduates. There are also some 255 odd PhD holders!(Read this report!)

On the other hand, highly skilled Indian youths are just fleeing the country for job opportunities abroad as they fail to find any worth while job within their own country! ( Read these: Report-1 & Report-2). Some say the brain and arm drain is good for India as it brings valuable foreign exchange to the country to make its monetary system strong. Some others are of the opinion that the high exodus of Indian youths to other countries in search of employment should be encouraged at all costs by training the Indian youths for employment outside rather than for their own country. Yet some others see the migrating Indians as a great opportunity to spread the Indian culture worldwide. I am not going in to that debate.

The reality is that India is failing to provide employment to its millions and millions of youths within the country. Some Indian industrialists keep complaining about the Indian education system; the education system of India does not enhance skills of the youths that they can be employed, they argue.

But the Indian policy makers and administrators seem to lack the sense and ability to convert the potential strengths of India to more and more opportunities. There actions are not enough to tackle the growing problem of unemployment. They should introspect why the 'make in India' campaigns are not giving measurable and notable results.

As I have written in some blogs earlier, one of the most important action that the Indian administration should do is to enhance the incomes of the people at the lower economic strata so that domestic consumption of goods and services increase and demand rises.

There are many ways by which the government can boost the employment opportunities in the country. But the first objective and priority of the government should be employment generation and nothing else. The government should consider giving appreciable tax rebates for companies and organisations who are good in creating more and more permanent jobs with salaries of employees above the minimum income taxable level. In other words, corporate tax level should come down as the employee strengths above taxable salary level increase.

It should be the priority of the government to find new job avenues. Firms that come up with new concepts and ideas which enhances employment should be given priority for government approvals rather than those coming up with higher capital expenditure or higher returns only.

Technical and financial audits of all investments should be made mandatory. More and more private audit organizations should be allowed to be set up for this purpose. Similarly for all doctors and hospitals, it should be mandatory to provide the medical reports to the patient within a reasonable time of say one week so that the report could be filed with the medical insurance companies or for other purposes as decided by the patients or their relatives. The authorities should study the employment generation potential and the practice of medical transcriptions within India in the coming years.

Social security system should be enhanced with higher returns to the participants instead of the peanut schemes of the government as of now. If needed more and more social security organizations should be set up. Contributions to the social security system should be made mandatory for all working individuals. All working individuals should have just one social security number and the system of joining, continuation and getting benefits should be simple and practical instead of the present member unfriendly systems. 

Real estate companies should be allowed to run and manage the colonies and the flats they build and sell on a long term basis on a chargeable basis in a professional manner. The present system of forcing the owners associations to manage the residential colonies and apartment complexes should be discontinued. The real estate companies should also be allowed to set up residential complexes with units leased on rental charges. 

Skills and training need to be given due importance. It should be mandatory for employers to employ people with proven training and skills for a particular technical or professional job. In other words, the skills imparted at professional college levels should continue in the job front as well. The practices of employing any tom-dick-and-harry for any job should be restricted by statutes. Employers must be mandated to issue specific skill and experience certificates to employees on an annual basis which should be used to build the national skill and experience pool.

It should be mandatory for professionals to be members of their professional associations or institutions which are recognized by the government. Those who are not members of such professional guilds should not be allowed to work in that profession. It should be the responsibility of these guilds to ensure minimum professional skill and experience levels for their members for a particular professional job.

There are several other things that could be thought of. But for all these, the primary objective should be employment generation and all other objectives should come later.

If there is a will, there is a way.

Will our leaders listen? Will our leaders lead this country to prosper for the benefit of each and every citizen? Will they use their thought faculties properly and act? Let us wait and watch. After all, our leaders too are from our own lots! If we think better, they too would.

10 Successful Indian Women Entrepreneurs Who Converted Challenges into Opportunities!

I honor entrepreneurs more than the politicians and the bureaucrats because they are the real managerial leaders who successfully mobilize men(women), material and money in a sustainable manner to enhance wealth of the nation. More importantly, they are the ones who create sustainable employment opportunities to those of their kind who are not so enterprising. 

It is very much possible that the entrepreneurs, industrialists and the businessmen have been generally identified as a kind of workaholics in the society who are mostly interested in making profits for themselves at the cost of others. The communists call them capitalist exploiters of the society. It is not that this definition is without any substance. 

It is a sad reality that a good majority of capitalists are domineering exploiters who in the process of achieving greater heights of business success become prey to their over ambitions and greed that they fail to recognize the genuine aspirations and needs of the working classes. 

In reality entrepreneurs are ambitious people who have a greater degree of enthusiasm to do some thing big and a greater desire to make money than the common people. They are driven by the passion to work and overcome challenges to achieve big. No doubt, these are good qualities. But the problem comes when their ambitions turn into over ambitions and their love for money and power get converted in to insatiable greed. And that is philargyria-the insatiable greed for money and material pleasures! I had written about it some time earlier also.

But greedy businessmen and women are becoming a thing of the past. Now more and more young entrepreneurs are arising in the society who are driven by the passion to do some thing good for the society instead of satiating their own selfish needs. And that is definitely a good sign!

When such good leaders arise in the society, it is our duty to honor them and appreciate their good deeds. We should also appreciate the fact that no business can survive unless it is sustainable. Sustainability requires that the business processes are reasonably profitable and are done in accordance with the laws of the land as far as feasible. A business is good when it provides employment and satisfies the needs of the society honestly with out adopting fraudulent practices.

But setting up a business and managing it successfully in an environment of conflicts, unfair competition and impractical laws and governmental systems is indeed a challenge that can make a normal leisure loving human to lose his or her cool. It is a stressful feat indeed that could make even a strong man to become weak both mentally and physically.

When that is the case, what should we say when we find successful first timers belonging to the so-called weaker sex from an underdeveloped nation like our India who had over come myriads of life challenges to become successful entrepreneurs? 

I simply say, salute them! They are real heroines of not reel life, but real life!

I have read about the achievements of a few of such ladies of India in some of the websites. I am sharing below the links that give some salient information about 10 of them with my readers:

1. Jyothi Reddi - the farm labourer who became an IT CEO 

2. Roopa Hungund- the technology entrepreneur 

3. Rashmi Singh _ The art entrepreneur

4. Kalpana Saroj- the exploited girl turned CEO of steel industry

5. Kiran Majumdar Shaw- the formidable women entrepreneur

6. Chanda Kochhar- the woman who made ICICI bank click.

7. Neelam Dhawan- the non-IT lady who took IT under control

10. Shahnaz Husain- the pioneer in beauty clinic  business

The above are just illustrations. I have omitted the names of ladies who took the reins of family businesses.

While I honor and salute the success of such ladies, I also earnestly wish that they do their entrepreneurial responsibilities honestly without getting trapped in philargyria-the insatiable greed for money and power that keep trapping several of their male counter parts!

Do You Expect Prime Minister Narendra Modi Resolve the Address Proof Crisis of Indian Citizens?

Have you ever experienced the address proof crisis of modern India? If you have not understood what I meant, either you are the real permanent resident of India or you are one of the invisible kinds for whom such proofs do not have any relevance!

Let me make things clear, if you have not understood what I meant. This blog is of some importance in your life if you have to shift your residences in India on a few occasions on account of any one of the following reasons:

1. You have to change your residence because your employer keep transferring you from place to place and you do not belong to the special privileged category of the ruling class of India such as the Ministers, MP, MLA, Judge, IAS, IPS, IRS, IFS, Political Leader, Prominent Media Personality, Celebrity of India or any one enjoying the government security cover and the like.

2. You are a businessman who needs to change your place of residence for various reasons but neither one holding much influence on the ruling class nor having your own agents to resolve petty headaches that require interactions with any one of the ruling classes.

3. You are a self employed person who needs to change residence occasionally.

4. You are a student staying in hostels and keep changing your residence in connection with your studies

5. You are an young professional who keep changing your job seeking better options.

6. You  have been a non-resident Indian but have come back to India to live here.

7. You do not have your own home and live with some well wisher for some time 

8. You have to live in rented home or room and have to keep shifting for various reasons.

9. You are a Public Sector company executive who needs to change the place of residence for various reasons.

10. You are unemployed and is in the look out for a job and keep changing your place of residence in your job hunting pursuit.

11. You live in the rural area in a temporary hut or in an urban slum.

12. You are land less and homeless.

13. You had a job, but now jobless and no need to stay in the place where you lived in connection with your job.

14. You have retired from active service and now wants to settle down in a new place in a new residence, either rented or purchased or leased or to share the accommodation with some one related to you.

Now for availing the basic minimum services in this country, you need an address proof. But from where you get the address proof? Who is the authority who attests your place of residence? The stupid government authorities who keep drafting the rules and procedures do not foresee this.

The government of India do not have a law which stipulates the procedure to make an address proof by a citizen. Only recently they have come up with the idea of making an identity proof based on bio-metrics called the Aadhaar. But this in itself has no statutory relevance. Our law makers do not see any benefit for them to spent time to draft and pass such laws. Instead, they leave it to the officers to make rules and procedures the way they understand the things only to be challenged by the courts of law.

Now how to get the damn address proof in India? (Click this link to read the anguish expressed by an Indian citizen and the responses in the social media)

The manner in which the stupid Indian civil servants have worked out the rules clearly shows the lack of intelligence in the Indian bureaucracy. The so called Indian civil servants who join the service by passing the most difficult selection tests for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre seem not so intelligent as we the common folks used to think. Otherwise how could these stupid rules in India? Else, these IAS bosses never bother to read the rules that keep getting issued in India that determine the day to day Indian governance system. Perhaps, these are the brain work of lesser order officers of the government and there is no one who bothers about the bad impact these have on the overall well being of the country as a whole!

When the new Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi ji, keeps talking about good governance, we wonder why such small things are ignored. It is the prime duty of the government to make rules that are practical and workable. It is the right of the citizens to get an address proof document without any hassles. If the government cannot think of a good system, they should simply get rid of the rules that insist such documents for availing simple services such as making a bank account, purchasing a vehicle, getting a mobile or telephone connection, getting a gas connection, etc.

The government should review whether its rules in this context reflect governmental stupidity or not. Why do the government needs to have these so called bureaucrats when they fail to evolve proper rules that helps to achieve good governance?

When privatization is an acceptable principle of the government, why do the governmental systems still try to cling to the pre-independence bureaucratic practices even today? For example, why don't the governmental rule makers do not allow a recent private bank statement from even the most reputed banks such as the ICICI, IDBI, Axis etc as a valid document for address proof? Mere stupidity or irresponsibility? Remember, they had been clinging to the age old practice of attestation of documents by gazetted officers so long. Only very recently, the Modi government could issue a circular that allows the citizens to self attest their own documents!

If good governance to really happen in this country with deep rooted systemic rot, the top boss needs to be an assertive task master. Not only he does that, he should have some real systems to know the real pulse of the people. Often, people fail to respond with their real problems when responses from them are solicited in a formal manner!

Coming to the address crisis of India: Whom do the governmental bureaucrats think as the best person to certify where he or she lives? Is it the person concerned or some babu sitting somewhere? For that matter, how many babus personally know the people other than their households and their offices? 

Some years before, the best address proof document accepted everywhere as the most fundamental has been a self addressed post card posted and delivered by the most people friendly national level government office- the Post Office. Why is it not so now? Why do some of the babus try to belittle one of their own departments? The government which cares for good governance should feel ashamed of this! What is the harm in accepting such a post card as the primary address proof for opening a bank account? When banks can handle and recognize a person for the most important function involving money transactions, why banks should not be entrusted with the task of certifying a person with regard to his or her identity and address?

The first and foremost requirement for good governance is the coordination and inter departmental trust the various governmental functionaries have to develop. If they function with malice towards each other, no one can ensure good governance. Government officers and staff can and will perform well towards good governance when they honestly feel that their political bosses are reasonably good people who could be trusted! But when this trust is broken, they could also work in such a way that peoples' anger is directed towards the political bosses!

When the government employees work in that fashion without any logic or justification, it would be better to remove such a person from government service. He or she is just not fit for the good of the nation! In the long run, it is not the politicians that ultimately brings good governance! It is the millions strong government staff that is government for the people. If the peoples' representatives cannot make the government machinery to work for the people, no good governance can come in to effect!

So, what is your opinion? Will our PM succeed in achieving good governance? 

Some Useful Financial Information and Calculators For Planning Your Loans and Pensions in India!

The following gives some useful links that may help people from Indian who are reasonably tech savvy to quickly ascertain their financial standings and to take informed decisions on availing home loans, personal loans, car loans, insurance and also make informed decisions to invest their money safely as per the services offered by various Indian banks and financial institutions. 

Whether it is saving money in bank deposits or availing loans from the banks, individual financial management needs to be done with due diligence. In other words, careless financial planning could bring great miseries!

Some time ago, I had written about the online banking service integrator portal, the bankbazaar.com which is an emerging IT company in India which helps people to take well informed decisions with regard to their banking needs. This blog is in continuation to that and may contain some redundant information.

Click on the following images to reach to the relevant pages of the best on line banking comparison and information site, bankbazaar.com:

Reviews and Comparison of Indian Banks FD interest rates!

Compare, Select and Apply for the Best Indian Credit Card!

Are you looking for some bank loans in India? But before you do that check your eligibility and resources by taking help from the financial calculators given in this page. For more financial online calculators visit this site!

For various purposes like registering some one for online money transfer etc, one occassionally needs to know the Indian Financial System Code (IFSC) of the bank branches in India. You can get it from this page! 

The bankbazaar portal also facilitates one to get appropriate life, health or car insurance from the various insurance companies in India.

Incidentally the bankbazaar company is in the expansion mode and they are in the look out for more people. Interested people with the right aptitude can lookout for their career options here!

Ramifications of the Great Indian Noodle Game for 'Acche Dins' Ahead!

A couple of days ago, early in the morning I got a call from my son from Bengaluru. He was anxious to discuss about the sudden disappearance of Maggi noodles from the Bengaluru markets and making him and thousands others like him starve for their daily calorie needs.

" Dad, we have been eating Maggi from our childhood days. We never had any problems. Then what is this thamasha (Indian word for irresponsible acts) this government fellows are doing now?" 

He seemed a bit agitated and that was quite a natural response because, youngsters like him who are working in India's metros for making India shine have been dependent on this quick-to-cook-and-eat noodle packs produced and marketted by one of the world's largest and reputed food product companies from their childhood days. Parents like us have been taking advantage of the modern food technologies as brought in by innovative, technology oriented multinational companies like Nestle.

In fact consumers like us have been happy and believing. Believing the company and its decades old reputation. We also believed the wisdom of the governmental authorities who apparently did the detailed investigations before giving the licences for such companies to produce and market their food products in India just as they did it in their own countries and elsewhere. I remember reading the company's noodle packs and their ready to cook soup packs containing the details of the contents and the declarations and cautions about these tasty foods containing MSG (mono sodium glutamate) as a taste enhancer. [Note that this substance is found in many naturally occuring food items such as tomatoes, cheese, mushrooms, etc and has been in use world wide for more than a century now!]

But that was not any botheration for us. Because we considered the foods made by the company's fully automated plants much more safer than all other kinds of ready to eat food as available in the Indian markets. We also knew the limitations and competency of the government's food testing laboratories and their inspectors and it was quite logical to believe the company more than the latter!

As ordinary citizens of a democratic country, having its legacy from several kingdoms and the later British rule era, we had been always under the notion that governments are for the good of the people. It is very difficult for ordinary citizens to assume that the government could do any thing detrimental to the people. If at all such things, that were only possible during any foreign rule like what we had during the British times. Our own governments that get formed by our own people can never do any thing wrong! That have been our wishful thoughts all these past decades. 

It has been very difficult for us to believe in the unholy nexus between our own people directly linked with business and the governments and about the possibility of their unholy mutual enmities which could develop as cold wars affecting our own lives!

Businesses are essentially a service to the citizens at large and no population or country can exist without some people doing business activities. Under this concept, businesses involve providing essential human service. Businesses provide the opportunity for all to meet their essential needs to survive and no one can imagine a situation where in businesses do not exist. Human civilization will vanish when businesses cease to function. They are the essential human invention by which we do and regulate all our activities. When there is no business, perhaps there is no nation or no government. We go back to our primitive days of tribal existence in the jungles. 

Industry and business are needed for us to progress and it is essential that we keep on inventing new avenues for doing more and more business activities as our populations keep growing.

While businesses give benefits to the consuming public, the business owners get a chance to make money. Ideally, they should make reasonable money as a reward for the services they do. From the money they make they should also share a part with the government as taxes for meeting the expenses of the governments. But when things go unreasonable, the society at large suffers either directly or indirectly. 

When businesses are managed  by unscrupulous or incompetent  people, detrimental problems to people arise. So, in the interest of the people at large, the people are required to develop rules and regulations for doing business. Governments are for that purpose.

But governments are also formed of people and when unscrupulous and incompetent people manage governments, detrimental problems to people arise. 

Thus it is the unscrupulous and incompetent people in the business and in the government that create problems for the people in general.

Unscrupulous people in the governmental systems might do acts arising out of vested interests, lack of knowledge or pure incompetency. 

Let us take the Maggi noodle case as an example. The company developed a process by which this food product with a long shelf life is produced. The government gave the permission to the company to produce it in their factories and do the marketing in accordance with the laws. Maggi became a house hold name and gradually became the major profit earning product of the company in India in a time span of about thirty years. The company contributed to the government in taxes and also provided direct and indirect employment to thousands of Indians. For all these years, the governments food inspecting authorities and licensing authoritied did not find any fault with this company or its product. In my knowledge, no government authority of India gave any public caution notice about this product so far during the last three decades.

When a product is existing for such a long period with full public and governmental patronage, it is normally assumed as a reputed product. But then what has happened all of a sudden in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh that the food inspectors of that region find this household food product tested as unacceptable for human consumption? Why did many states like the NCR react immediately by almost making a kind of ban on this product?

Going by the past experiences the following could be the possible reasons:

1. Possibility of mischief: There could be some vested interests somewhere who wants to tarnish the image of Nestle so that they could possibliy gain. Business rivals doing such mischiefs are not uncommon in modern history! They can do it in many ways by manipulating the samples or by manipulating the tests done in the food testing labs. Personnel that man these systems  are not fully unpliable!

2. Possibility of error in sampling and testing due to incompetency of the food control staff. The governmental laboratories usually do not have very good test facilities or very good analysts if one goes by the usual standard with regard to governmental facilities in India.

3. Manufacturing process errors. This is very unlikely as the company has been doing this for years under strict quality control systems. Being a multinational technology innovator, the company is likely to have a better testing and quality control facility than the governmental labs.

4. Impractical chemical quality norms as fixed by law:  The problems highlighted in Maggi's case now is with regard to the allowable limits of lead content and MSG content in the noodles. India does not have authentic research facilities of its own to arrive at conclusions of this kind. When even the technologists and scientists are not sure about the impact of a micro constituent in any food or drink, how could it be made for sure as a legal norm? It is normally as a result of lobbyists  or the law drafting technocrats copy pasting some foreign study materials to be evolved as some impractical laws of the land which cannot be so easily reversed. The difficulty with this kind of technical laws are that they are never understood by the legislatures nor the enforcing agencies who are all essentially non-technical as far as their competencies are concerned. Once an impractical law gets enacted, it provides much under-the-table opportunities for many enforcing authorities to be too whimsical in their acts!

5. An effort to arm-twist the business entity for various reasons: It is a common practice in many countries to use law to arm-twist peoples, groups or companies. Some people having power of governance do this for various reasons. This happens when they work essentially for self satisfaction rather than the common good of the nation.

6. Absence of governmental authority: Govermental determination and decision making go here and there when the govermental leadership is practically weak and visionless. In such a scenario, errors due to incompetence and ignorance keep happening at various levels of governance resulting in unpredictable governmental actions and responses. In the Indian context, it is normally the genaralist bureaucrats making the final directions towards decision making. When highly technical issues are involved, these directions become mutually contradictory and often funny.

It could be any one or all or several of such reasons that creates this kind of situations in governance which for the learned citizens appear as directionless and contradictory to the generally perceived vision of the top leadership of the country. For the ordinary common folks, it makes no difference as they are always confused and divided as ever!

In this case of Maggi noodles, such administrative goof ups might be creating tensions for the Nestle India officers, distributors, stock holders, suppliers ,  employees and perhaps consumers like us who have to think now for alternatives for meeting their easy food solutions. 

And incidentally the air that we breath has more lead than in the Maggi!

But what are the ramifications of incidences like this for the whole of India?

India keeps on proving that it is not a business friendly country. Not that any one should be allowed to do any kind of business by violating all rules. But, there should be transparency and governmental ethics that reciprocate with business ethics.

I have heard Indian small and medium scale company promoters talking about the umpteen numbers of fines and penalties that the authorities now force on companies for silly matters. The Indian bureaucracy does not offer solutions to the problems faced by the industries while they seem happy to enhance problems. Perhaps, it could be due to their unhappiness over their equally non-responsive political hierarchy above!

Will 'acche din' (good days) ever come for business and industry to do make in India honestly a success? It is easy to dream about beating China and going ahead in full steam. How many in India really understand the fundamental systemic efforts made by the successive Chinese governments that enabled China to go far ahead of India in the last 20-30 years? 

India keeps failing to learn from others. Rather it refuses to do so. This reluctance in the whole system is too visible now than in the past. That is my experience. The reason are many. Most importantly, there are few who understand the root causes to make any intelligent effort to correct areas that went wrong.

Systemic errors can even make great nations humbled. Erstwhile USSR was one typical example. Perhaps, the USA too is moving in certain wrong paths here and there which could make that country too humbled in the near future unless they become wise to correct it. Fortunately, these nations have competent people who realizes mistakes and helps them to correct their wrong course.

But in India, apparently things are not appearing as so easy. Lack of competency and character in key positions is one major factor that is unfavorable for India as of now. 

Though difficult, it is not something impossible. But to make that happen, there should be honest efforts to recognize our weaknesses and rectify the cumulative errors that keep braking our progress ahead!    

Role of Chemical Engineers in Indian Progress in the Field of Water and Waste Water Engineering!

Among the natural resources essential for sustenance of life on earth, air and water play the most important roles. Though air is the most important resource for life, it is water that has been determining the development of human civilizations on earth. Water   continues to be of prime importance for life and its importance is on an increasing trend as we move on.

When water is in abundance, we normally do not pay much attention to it. But as the population grows with more and more industrialization and human activities, safe water has been becoming a scarce resource for us. 

In the past, we could have lived with simple knowledge about water. But now, knowing more about water is becoming more and more important. Air, water and land constitute the most important environmental issues that concern all human beings on earth now.

As a chemical engineer professionally involved with water and environmental issues, I have been quite fascinated and interested in the topic of water. 

The following are some of the blog articles that I had written where water is the main theme: 

1. My Love and Hate Relationships with Water !

2. Raw Water Filtration: Some Technical Tips For Major Users

3. Water Supply , Sanitation and Solid Waste Management : Why does India Fair Poorly ?

4. How Safe Is Your Drinking Water in India? Be Aware of These!

Water and waste water technologies and engineering require multidisciplinary skills and therefore engineers with chemical engineering background are the most suited to get trained and develop as water experts. In fact, most of the reputed water technology firms of the world now are predominantly run by chemical engineers. It would not be so difficult for young chemical engineers to grasp the various aspects of water technology, water usage and application technology, treatment processes for water and waste water, water quality control, equipment designs, pumping, piping and process instrumentation, automation, water treatment chemicals and the like. Since they possess the basic educational skills to understand the wider scope in the practical field, they would be better equipped to make improvements and developments in the field as they gain field experience. However, most of the Indian industries and utilities seldom realize this and chemical engineers are hardly employed by them for water and waste water related jobs.

Water Brought For Use in An Indian Industry

As a result several of the users of water (in India) are not always not so well versed with the various engineering and technological aspects of water. For any technology to advance, the users also need to have fundamental knowledge and understanding.

During my long experience in the Indian industry, I have mostly found conventional engineers with civil, mechanical and electrical or science backgrounds getting associated with jobs related to water and waste water technology and engineering. Though by experience and on the job learning they keep enhancing their knowledge in this field. But most often there are some grey areas in their understanding that they keep making serious errors in decision making that cause much distress to the industry, without any one really realizing! Many Indian industries and utilities keep incurring heavy losses on account of this neglect or lack of understanding!

On the other hand, the developed nations keep advancing in their knowldge in technology and engineering related to water, waste water and pollution control fields. Many progressive companies have realized the potential of chemical engineering that they keep recruting them and providing them the work platforms for proving their creativity and multidisciplinary engineering education. Most of the high technology companies in the world employ large numbers of chemical engineers. That is true for the technology suppliers in the field of water and waste water engineering as well.

As a result of the lack of understanding of the Indian employers about the potentials of chemical engineering training, the employability of chemical engineers kept on reducing. None of the hundreds of new engineering colleges and institutions in India have chemical engineering as a field of study. I had written about the failure of India in promoting the growth of chemical engineering education in the recent years. Chemical engineering curriculum as developed in the western nations has been so devised as a versatile modern engineering stream that the young chemical engineers are equipped to handly any kind of modern engineering jobs. Unfortunately, many academicians and industry leaders (in India) have pretty no understanding about this!

Most of the chemical engineers trained by the IITs and the other reputed colleges in India migrate to the western worlds due to the lack of opportunities in India. Fortunately, the developed nations realize the value of these engineers and do provide them the opportunities to prove their skills. The loss of India is gain for others!

Remember the comments of some writers that appeared in the social media in the recent past. The critics highlighted about some chemical engineers of India from the IITs venturing in to jobs and business ventures that are not even remotely connected to their basic engineering studies! Of course, the Indian industry and the policy makers caused them to shift away from their basic training and be successful in other fields. True, India gained at the cost of some critical field of work!

When I began to write today's blog, my idea was to provide some information to those who might need some good information about water and waste water technologies. I know, my thoughts have shifted from the original.

I realized that it is not so important for me to duplicate the knowledge that is already available and accessible to the public as published in the various internet sites. 

Yet, people who are not so conversant with the subject of water may find it difficult to get the appropriate information using the internet search engines due to their lack of understanding in the key words that they need to use for such purposes.

Therefore, in this article, I attempt to give some important links to some useful websites that provide the much needed water and waste water related information. A click on these linked titles below would take the reader to the pages where more information can be found. Besides, these key words could be used to find more reading materials.

One of the websites that provide much information about water and wastewater, especially for industrial users is the site of M/s.Lenntech BV Netherlands. This company specializing in water and waste water technologies is a business venture started by a group of Dutch chemical engineers in their university campus some two decades ago. Will the Indian universities allow their students to do some thing similar? Never! And that is one of the reasons why India could so far not mature to the status of a developed nation from the perpetual conundrum that keeps it self declared as a developing nation! 

Coming back to the most important information that one can get from the Lenntech site, I find the following interesting and informative:

1. Salient features of integrated turn-key water and waste water treatment projects by Lenntech 

2. Information on containerized Water and Wastewater treatment plants as supplied by Lenntech

3. Definitions on process water, demineralized water (DM water), drinking water, drinking water standards , drinking water standard comparison,  Irrigation water, Ultra pure water, etc

4. Salient information about water treatment technologies such as : sea water desalination, surface water treatment,   Water softening, water disinfection, water re-mineralization ,  Membrane Bio-Reactor (MBR), Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR), Waste Water Treatment, Pesticide removal from water, Iron removal from water, Arsenic removal from water, Heavy metal removal from water, Nitrates removal from water, Ion exchange water treatement, Reverse Osmosis (RO) Water treatment, etc

5. Water and waste water calculators for process engineers

6. Water treatment equipment information on: sediment filters, sand filters, Activated Carbon Filters, Iron Removal Filter Plants, Arsenic Filters, Remineralization Filters, Electro De-ionization (EDI), Oil filtration, Nano Filtration/ Ultra Filtration/ Micro Filtration, Coagulation/Flocculation,  Clarification,  Adsorption, Chemical Oxidation, Catalytic Wet Air Oxidation, Sludge treatment, Thickening, Stabilization, Centrifugation dewatering, etc

7. Information on Water treatment Chemicals, Water testing instruments, Water testing Lab Procedures, etc

Various types of pumps, valves, pipes/pipe fittings and other chemical process equipment are used for water treatment and industrial waste water treatment and sewage treatment plants.

The technology of water and waste water treatment plants employ various unit processes and unit operations of chemical engineering. Experienced chemical engineering companies are the developers of many modern water treatment technologies and they put the chemical engineering theories to practice.

With the advancement of human needs and comforts, advanced materials and equipment are getting produced year after year. This in turn burdens the environment and causes air and water pollution. To reverse the bad effects of water pollution, we need to develop new technologies that can offset the water pollution by appropriate water and waste water treatment technologies. 

Waterborne diseases are on the rise now-a-days and it is necessary to know the causes and the remedial measures. There are various microbes that causes problems for drinking water supplies.

Microbes also create problems for industrial water consumers.  But some microorganisms can be effectively used for treating waste waters that are rich in biologically degradable wastes such as municipal sewage and industrial wastewaters containing organic contaminants. Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) are two parameters commonly used to measure the organic contamination of water.

Wastewater treatment plants where BOD treatment is predominantly done using biological processes is commonly called BOD plants. 

Another informative website that I would recommend for those interested in enhancing their water related knowledge is the website of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In this site one can find useful information on a number of topics such as: Drinking water test (analytical) methods, Drinking Water Regulations, Anaerobic digestion, Classification of water types, Water pollution control guidelines, Source water protection, wastewater technology fact sheets, etc.

Water and wastewater engineering and technology is a vast field which needs to be given importance for any country to progress in a sustainable manner. 

Awareness in about the various aspects of water , in my opinion, should start right from the schools and there should be efforts to enhance this awareness among the populace.

The government of India now has began to take up this issue in a big way. Recently, some understanding has been signed between India and Canada for the exchange of clean water technologies.

But Indian industry and the big and small Indian cities are pretty poor in understanding the importance of water for them. As a result, they tend to neglect this area and keep proceeding as if they were in the 19th century! As a result, Indian water and waste water plant projects take decades to complete! Even when completed, they fail to provide the desired usefulness.

On the other hand, the water technology companies in the private sector in India has been making good progress and many of them are competent to handle any kind of water treatment challenges. Many of them are trying to market water technologies that are developed in the developed nations in India. 

Unfortunately, many of their potential Indian clients do not have the essential skills to realize the benefits of the new technologies or to make use of the available technologies in a knowledgeable manner! 

There exists a wide gap between the knowledge levels of the suppliers and the users! This actually creates a big challenge for the Indian water and waste water technology suppliers.

The knowledge and competency levels of the Indian policy makers seems to be text bookish with no practical experience. This creates the Indian policy makers to copy foreign rules and regulations on water and water pollution control to be imposed on the Indian industry without really understanding the various technological implications. With poor technical understanding, it would be easy for interpreting the rules in any manner the authorities prefer. This poses many challenges to the Indian industry as a whole!

Unless the competency and knowledge levels among the users, suppliers, policy makers and interpreters go hand in hand, this area would remain as a difficult one. 

The Clean Ganga Mission could also misfire just as its earlier version, the Ganga Action Plan in such a scenario!

This has no doubt affected the Indian efforts in improving the environmental developmental issues with regard to water and air. 

Indian companies can take challenges in water and waste water engineering and technologies. There are young Indian engineers who can take such challenges. Unfortunately, Indian technocrats, both in the private and public domains, do not have the managerial confidence to take up the challenges their own! That is precisely due to their lack of comprehensive understanding in this field!

If India still keeps looking to foreign nations for technologies on water and wastewater, it is because of the lack of confidence in its top decision making levels.

It would be interesting to watch the developments in India in this field in the years to come!