Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP/ Petrohol): An Opportunity Lost for India due to Maximum Government!

Recently, the Obama government in the USA made an apparently atrocious policy declaration that in effect was equivalent to a declaration of war on coal. What the policy actually meant is the reduction of coal based power production facilities in the US as a commitment towards saving the planet from global warming that the environmentalists are worried about much. Because, fossil fuel burning causes too much of carbon footprint with enhanced presence of green house gases in the atmosphere responsible for global warming. 

Fox News observed that this policy is 'all pain and no gain'. 

I am not going to enter in to that debate. But I feel that the US president has given too much thought to it before making such a declaration. It is time that we start doing some thing seriously to reduce our dependency on all fossil fuels which are going to be permanently out of stock some time later.

It is not that we reduce burning coal in our thermal power stations to make electricity. We should also reduce burning petrol and diesel in our automobiles and airplanes.

There are plenty of alternatives to fossil fuels which we now call as the renewable energy sources. Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) which is sometimes also called petrohol is widely used successfully in Brazil for the past many decades. The USA too has advanced much in this field (Read this official article about ethanol use in the US) EBP is nothing but a mixture of normal petrol and ethanol in the ratio 85:15. In the USA all gasoline sold now is blended with about 10% ethanol. Thus, USA has achieved a reduction in the consumption of petroleum to the extent of 10% which is remarkable. It seems they are planning to make further progress in this field. Brazil is the pioneer in this technology. In Brazil EBP is mandatory and the ethanol mixing is as high as 25%. 

Bio-diesel is another alternate renewable liquid fuel which could be produced without much difficulty. It could be easily used in all auto engines that use petroleum diesel.

While India spends much money for importing petroleum products and much is dependent on the prices of petrol and diesel, people like me who are in the technical field keep wondering why our Indian leaders keep inactive on taking any decisions in line with Brazil or the USA while politicizing the petrol price issues as much as they can!  

Petroleum is big money for some and it is a big item for international trade and economics. There are many shrewd economists and policy advisers who can manipulate petrol price fixing an issue not easily understood even by the professionals who toil hard with the complex technologies of producing these fuels. I had earlier written about this in a previous blog article. 

Recently I had gone through a paper on ethanol blending policy authored by some policy researchers attached with the ICRIER ( I could find the full form of this acronym only after some web research. It stands for Indian Council for Research and International Economic Relations. Its website declare that it is a is an autonomous, policy-oriented, not-for-profit, economic policy think tank.

Typically this is the manner in which our technical people associated with governmental affairs handle things. They bring out many facts and figures and finally give out some recommendations which would never be anything concrete, but confusing. In my opinion, this kind of policy papers make things complicated for the decision makers.

No wonder then why India keeps on dilly-dallying with the various alternate energy programs. No wonder why EBP and bio-diesel are yet to hit the Indian markets.

It should not be any thing of a big issue when two big nations, Brazil and USA have gone ahead with the production and marketing of EBP and bio-diesel in a big way including many policy decisions. But of course, that happens only when vested interests give way to national interests.

If India is determined to produce industrial alcohol for the production of mixed petroleum fuel such as the EBP, the farmers would benefit much. Millions of jobs would be created. India as a nation would spend less for importing petroleum.

But a government surrounded by all kinds of researchers and advisers who are good at making sophisticated research publications and economic policy papers with inconclusive recommendations to the government are not going to do any good. 

Will the new government make any difference?

Only time would tell.

Suicidal Corporate Drivers Who Over Speed To Destruction !

Today morning I was reading the views expressed by the lady CEO of Axis Bank as published by a leading Indian business newspaper. She had opined that Indian Businessmen and entrepreneurs are intrinsically risk taking. So long as they are risk taking, there is not much problem for the banks to disburse their monies as business loans with potentials for good earnings.

On the other hand there are news in the media regarding the resignation of the lady CEO of an Indian Public Sector bank -the United Bank of India. This bank is burdened with a heavy non-performing asset or NPA. NPA is nothing but the unrecoverable loans of the bank. The bank officials perhaps had distributed heavy amounts as loans to many 'risk taking' entrepreneurs who had taken the risk of pleasing the bank officials with 'necessary' documents and the bank officials had in turn taken 'the risk' of clearing those loan applications expecting big success of the risk taking businessmen. But in this case, the risks actually became real and the money has become non-recoverable!

People are of essentially of two kinds. The majority are non risk taking and less adventurous. They will not risk their lives by venturing in to dangerous adventures. But then there are another group, a minority who are risk taking and adventurous in nature. They are the brave men and women of our world. They are the ones who move ahead for achieving their goals. Their goals could be anything. Exploration, travel, sport, business, politics or anything of that sort. In these, business and political risk taking are a bit different from the others as these two are determined by what is known as greed. The greed for money and power! 

The minority of people who are greedy for money and power too are essentially risk taking in their nature. However, their risk taking nature is not only detrimental to them, but also catastrophic to several others whose lives are directly or indirectly dependent on them. 

The risk taking politicians could drive the entire nation and its people to miseries for generations. Businessmen manipulate money, men and materials (the so-called 3 M's of management) for making more money while trapping more men and materials. In their high enthusiasm and high ambition many of them set high and achievable targets for them to accomplish. They dislike the word, impossible. For them there is nothing impossible. If there is a will, there is a way. That is what they prefer to believe!

Short and long term success of some others are their examples that they wish to emulate. Per se, it is not something bad. But what actually happens to such people is the manner in which impatience becomes too visible in their actions and decisions. They fail to recognize the fact that impatience is a mind poison.

Thus their business enthusiasm and ambition become poisoned by impatience. Impatience for achievement of high targets. Impatience for doing things or achieving results in the shortest time. 

What happens when you drive a vehicle at 100 km/hr speed when the road conditions do not permit you to drive more than half that speed? Even when your vehicle is capable, you are bound to make accidents and destroy your vehicle and yourself! But if you happen to be a good driver who knows well about your vehicle, the road and the rules, you would not venture into such an adventure of over speeding.

In a similar way, there are over speeding businessmen and chief executives who try hard to push their business organizations to impossible tasks and performances. It they are knowledgeable about the intricacies of the business and their business organization (the company or the firm that they manage or own) they may not take such a risk that might eventually cause great harm.

Unfortunately, in the world of high competition that we have today, there are chances that the businessmen and their chief executives are mere manipulators who are not competent in many other aspects of their own business processes. They may be good in one or two aspects but not in all. Since they are successful in their own areas, they tend to consider other areas of work also to be like their own and force others to fall in line without realizing the consequences.

Let me explain this by a simple hypothetical example. Imagine that there is a real estate developer.He is not a technical man but he knows the technique of getting the land purchased and also getting the approvals from the statutory authorities by hook or crook. He has experienced that the approval process which takes usually a few months time got reduced to a week because he could 'manage' the authorities. He had seen that the architect who asked for three months time to develop the drawings finally agreed to give all the drawings in a month's time when he put sufficient pressures including some inducements. But in this process he failed to understand that the drawings the architect now supplied were some quick copies with some quick manipulations and not something specifically made for him by applying proper mind. The result was that this builder was going to spend much more money, efforts and time to complete the work later, though he apparently made a quick success to get the drawings much earlier.

In a similar manner this builder could force the civil contractors to speed up the work to such levels which are neither practical nor technically justifiable. If he forces them, they are likely to adopt short cut methods in construction to speed up the work. They may even start building the higher floors without giving enough time for curing of the lower floors or reinforced cement concrete (RCC) construction. This could cause heavy structural weakness  to the building which might even cause total failures some time later. If that happens, this builder might even land in jail. But if he a risk taking sort of a man, these eventualities may not deter him. He would proceed in a haste and make some quick bucks. If nothing serious happens, that becomes his benchmark of success. 

The organizations of today's world are more and more getting created or managed by people of this sort- the so-called successful leaders who maintain their success projected by hook or crook till proved otherwise by some untoward happenings. Since organizations are more and more getting responsible for the economic activities of people, their failure is bound to affect people adversely.

Organizations are essentially to ensure long term sustainability of collective work and activity of people and hence they are supposed to last for a few generations. If organizations are created only to disintegrate in a few years, that is not a desirable thing and if it happens too frequently, it is a sign of ill health of the society or the nation where it belonged.

If organizations are disintegrating, it is often the top directors or top executives of the organization who are responsible for such breakups. And often, it is the suicidal risk takers at the top decision making levels who are responsible. They are like the captains of the large ships who pilot the ship to destruction and escape using the only one life boat in the ship leaving the rest in the ship and the ship to destruction. The maritime laws consider this as a punishable offense. Unfortunately, the captains of large organizations who do such acts to destroy their organizations are not often taken to task.

It is a serious issue and the right thinking should think about it for some solutions.

The Dilemma of Public Decision Makers of Democratic Institutions in an Era of Material Comforts!

If you have to purchase a TV, refrigerator, air-conditioner or a car, what will you do ? You can take the purchase decisions as you wish. It is your money and no one is going to question your decisions, except perhaps your spouse or some one in your family who could dare to do it. 

There are hundreds of models and several manufacturers. The costs also vary widely. Now-a-days, many final products, for example, say the home PC, is an assembly of so many well known parts, both hardware and software. How can you assess the qualities of all those and their effects on the final product ? As an individual customer, you are bound to get confused. The money, model, make, looks, service, spares, are all important to be looked into. But, comparing and comparing, you are likely to get fed up. Finally you take your decisions from your assessment based on what is called your gut feeling ! 

And perhaps your decision was neither wrong nor right. No one, including you, can prove it either way, even if the product did not give you full satisfaction. On the other hand, you and your near ones could keep finding fault with the product you have purchased. If it failed in some aspects, you may or may not play the blame game. But, no one can hold you responsible and initiate a criminal prosecution procedure against you for the decision that you had taken. After all, you are the sole authority for your decisions and the sole recipient of the results.

But this is not the case when you take decisions on behalf of a group of people. You could be an elected representative or an official holding a public trust office. If the group you are representing is going to find fault with your decisions, you are likely to be discouraged from taking any decisions. By taking decisions or by not taking decisions you are likely to antagonize some of those in the group you are representing. 

Unless all in the group have a common mindset, it is extremely difficult to arrive in any decisions which are acceptable to all.

And this is the great problem of democracy and democratic institutions, at present. A democracy for unequally developed persons with unequal mind qualities could create chaos and anarchy. You are likely to get disillusioned with the non performing democratic systems that you have today. 

Imagine the situation when a public trust official has to purchase a PC for his office. How could he do it satisfying each and every one, ensuring the most appropriate purchase decision? Whatever he does, there could be some some grievance for some one. In many instances, when he is out from his position after some time, the blame game can go to such an extent that his seemingly innocent decision could be termed as a criminal offence !

The more you make procedures to make your decision making system transparent, the more it becomes complex and counter productive! The reason for such an outcome is because of the unequal competencies and characters of the people involved. 

A democratic system incorporated for a group of people with varying mind capacities is bound to become an antagonistic one towards the progress of the same people. 

And the mind capacities of people in an era of material comforts are not going to improve in one or two generations. It might take several generations before the majority of persons become advanced in mind capacity. When such a situation evolve, we can perhaps say that our civilization is one which respects wisdom and knowledge. That would be the time when the majority aspire for wisdom and knowledge.

There would not be much dilemma for public decision makers in a civilization of people respecting wisdom and knowledge. From this time onward, democracy and democratic institutions are bound to leap forward.

So, presently we cannot be satisfied with our democratic institutions and our democratic representatives who are there to take the decisions for us. 

Because we all are presently in an era of material comforts and we have not yet developed our minds collectively to that of wisdom and knowledge. We cannot expect the democratic representatives different in mind capacities augmented by wisdom and character, than what we ourselves are.

We have not yet learned the benefits of achieving wisdom, even while we might have achieved certain levels of knowledge ! Unless our knowledge is polished by experience, we cannot possibly attain wisdom.

And when we are in our lazy comfort zones of material pleasures, we are not going to acquire the much needed experiences. And generations are ahead of us for gaining the required levels of knowledge and wisdom !

No point in worrying about the failures of our democratic institutions and those representatives of ours who make those democratic organizations. 

Without the necessary levels of knowledge and wisdom for the majority of us, we are not going to resolve our present day problems in our present generation.

But surely, we need not be pessimistic. Our future generations are going to resolve these issues. That is the manner in which our world is designed by the Original Designer of our evolving world.

Time is the sure shot healer of our problems. We need to learn the benefits of patience. 

And that too is part of our learning experiences!



[Read the previous blog for knowing more about the eras of human progress !] 


  

Let Not Your God Gifted Free-Will Reject the Love of God !

One of the the greatest gift that God has given to human beings is the gift of making a choice using his or her mind which is under the full command of the individual and fully free to make any kind of decisions. Practically humans are with free wills ! Even while the human mind could be influenced by many factors, the final choice vests with the individual.

While creating humans, God in his wisdom, had determined that nothing whatsoever would be done to remove this power of free will from them. And that is a universal law of God. God being the designer and creator of life, could have done it in any other way. He could have made humans just as programmable robots. But that was not the case !

But that does not mean that God is not guiding human beings from knowing what is good and what is bad for him. He has given that capacity too to humans and together with it the capacity to choose, either good or bad !

What could be the reason for this ?

Imagine for a moment that you were in God's place. Imagine that you had designed and produced a few humanoids which are programmed to know what leads to destruction and what leads to survival for them. They are also programmed to know what ways some tasks could be accomplished that are beneficial to everyone. And more importantly they can do and decide things for themselves ! They are designed with superior intelligence to decide and act the way they like.

Suppose that I were in the team that designed such a group of humanoids. I would never like those humanoids to use their decisive powers to do bad things that eventually cause much harm to them and may even destroy themselves. Because each them is valuable to us, their creators ! On the other hand, we would be very happy if they decide to do good things for every one including themselves. Such of them are precious for us. Not only they know how to do things, but they also know how to do  good things always after considering all pros and cons !

Perhaps we are like these humanoids that we might work to create, for God and his team who created us !

An intelligent being who can know good and bad and select good always is better than a being who can do good in a situation that permits only good ! At least that is how I see it !

Why does a created being with intelligence to know good and bad with the ability for a free choice often prefer to err rather than proceed the way that would perhaps cause its creator to be happy ?

I think it is some inherent desire co-existent in such beings to rise above the creator even when it knows well that it is not possible ! And that desire transforms it to be a rebel against the caring love of its creator. And that rebellious attitude is denial of the love and care of the creator to such an extent that it feels that it can exist even without creator. A foolish attitude by forgetting the superiority of the creator over the creature !

This situation is the one that transforms a human being, though intelligent but with limited capacity and power, to be over zealous about his or her own abilities to become selfish and egoistic. Selfishness and ego then elate pride to the extent that going against the desire of the creator becomes more important in life even when the individual knows well that it leads to wrong choosing and bad acts. And doing bad things would be detrimental to his or her own life and also to the lives of his or her fellow beings !

This way a human being, a precious being for God, with all the God given abilities might chose to deviate from a good path and chose a path that leads him or her away from the love and care of his creator- a situation that he or she needed most for maintaining his or her life without untimely cessation.

I think most of us have a tendency to deny love ! We have a tendency to underestimate love ! We consider some one who is loving and caring as a weak hearted person. We adore those who terrorise us with the power to cause us harm ! Because, we  erroneously decide that the display of destructive power is the real power !

A child may not obey its parents who are always loving and who do not take the stick to punish it every now and then for its wrongs ! An employee may consider an non barking boss weak and may not like to do the things such a boss lovingly demands !

A citizen might give more respect and show more obedience to the street police officer than his or her head of state because the formers' wrath he or she knows as immediate and sure while about the latter he or she is not that sure, though the latter's immense power is well understood !

But does an intelligent human being need to be reminded of the stick always just as an immature child or an unintelligent beast ?

Perhaps God does not want it to be like that. That is why God is not using his power to punish humans for all their wrong doings every now and then.

But God does not need to do that. He had made the unchanging rule in the beginning itself ! All human beings would face the consequences of his or her wrong choices and acts some time, though not necessarily immediate !

Those who will fully deviate from God's will are doing sins and the outcome of sin is an ultimate cessation of God's love that maintain the individual's potential to live for ever like God !

Knowing this would any one  like to reject the love of God ?

Perhaps yes, if their bloating ego and pride have caused them to be mentally blind ! I think the majority humans have made themselves to fall in this group !

I earnestly wish they realize this !


[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link which gives the   list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

How Do We Make Collective Decisions Against Our Own Convictions ?

Yesterday I was watching a TV programme aired by the Asianet News Channel in Malayalam language titled ' Akalangalile India' (അകലങ്ങളിലെ ഇന്ത്യ) which means the India far away. Every week this programme took up a news story that normally those Indians sitting in their comfort zones fail to realize about the realities of life their own country men face else where within their country.

Yesterday the theme that they covered was the plight of common people living on either side of the India-Pakistan border in the north-west.

Political ambitions of a few elite Indians belonging to two prominent religions caused India to be divided into two while the Britishers decided to hand over the reigns of governance to the locals some six decades ago. Many in the British political echelons of those days perhaps were of the knowledge about the rivalry of a few emerging Indian leaders in the Indian political organization that the British had created and nurtured for training the locals for future democratic governance of India. After all the British had realized the aspirations of the emerging educated non-royals of India in getting themselves elevated to the neo-royalty of modern India of the twentieth century. Politics has always been a life threatening adventure of those who have overcome the basic needs of life and the emerging leaders of India were no different !

The British could have tried to bring about a forceful peace among the warring Indian leaders and extended their decision of handing over power to the locals at an appropriate time later when the leadership issues among the Indians are sorted out. But the Indians outsmarted the British by instigating religious passions of the illiterate masses and the British had perhaps no alternative but to divide India, that too on a totally arbitrary basis quickly worked out on the basis of religious proportions, something never tried in administrative parlour  ever before in this land.

A Himalayan blunder was made by a few that caused the Indian holocaust of 1947. Had a little bit of wisdom prevailed in the minds of one or two Indians of the emerging Indian politics and one or two in the British government, this blunder and this holocaust could have never happened.

For the mistakes of these handful of people, thousands killed each other and committed all sorts of inhuman acts of  butchery that even the beasts would be ashamed of.  

They had unknowingly became the pawns in the hands of their ambitious leaders and committed such a deadly sin that even their future generations were not going to be spared !

And those who were directly in the midst of all these have all perished. It is their future generations who have ultimately became Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis who keep paying for their sins !

It is generally believed that seven generations have to suffer for such sins. That is believed to be a divine decree.  When no one of their future leaders of these countries appear to be so unconcerned of their plights, one may be inclined to believe in the prevalence of such divine decrees.

If you ask any of the leaders of these countries individually and personally, they all admit their sympathies with the suffering of the people at the borders of these Indian origin nations. They are all concerned when they speak personally. They are all humane when they speak out their minds.

But when they take collective decisions, their decisions never reflect their personal feelings. All their decisions are for aggravating the sufferings of the border land peoples.

I keep wondering about this kind of a situation in governance. Who or which is that force that directs the decisions in any government ? Individually you talk to all of the top functionaries in private. They all would perhaps say something quite contrary to their own collective decisions.

Why is it like that ?

How do we make our collective decisions ?

Is it actually a democratic majority decision ?

Is there any unseen and unrecognized force that causes such decisions that go against the self convictions of the individuals in the collective governance ?

In any case, the Indian border lands appear to be cursed regions. We may have to wait for seven generations to over come the curse ! Otherwise why these Indian nations collectively decide to spend all their resources in gathering arms and ammunition to be put on fire across these borders that used to be their heartland some time ago ?

I have no answer !

Do you ?


[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link which gives the   list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

Inhuman Land Acquisition for POSCO STEEL in Odisha: Is There a Better Way ?

I felt very bad when I watched some TV news programs showing the flight and plight of the poor peasants of Odisha (formerly Orissa State) whose land the state government wants to forcefully occupy for leasing out to a Korean steel company POSCO for their proposed 12 Million Tonne Per Annum (MTPA) integrated steel plant (ISP).

I watched news clippings showing the brutal way the Odisha Police acted on the helpless villagers including the women and the children who have been resisting the state administration to forcefully occupy their only means of existence and survival-their small pieces of land. The policemen who were being used for this purpose looked no different from the villagers, except that they were wearing the uniforms and had the weapons of torture. In all possibility some of them might have been acting against their own mothers, brothers or relatives helplessly obeying the orders of their bosses.

Just as the villagers were helpless, the policemen (and women) too were helpless! Perhaps those bureaucrats and administrators through whom the eviction orders were passed too were helpless in their own individual capacities!

Again all these for a company who boasts of high human values boldly in their website [just open the Indian website of POSCO which displays their mission, vision and core values. Had they honestly stood for these, perhaps such things would never have happened ! ]

And what necessitated all these inhuman acts?

POSCO responded to the state government’s call, agreeing for investment in the state, rich in mineral resources, to set up a big ISP. Accordingly a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between the state government and the Korean steel company some time in 2005. The deal was going to be a boon for both sides.

Seven years passed and nothing happened. No steel plant so far came up.

The actual reason for this delay is said to be the dirty politics between the Central and the state governments. India is truly a federal country with various constitutional authorities fully free to work in the way think the best which usually end up contradictory to each other! Democracy here seems to be something which is directionless !

Now finally the Supreme Court came to the support of the state government by giving a verdict in favor of it to acquire land for the project the way they had planned for handing it over to the Koreans.

For setting up their steel plant, POSCO wanted about 4000 acres of land in one stretch and based on various considerations they have finally zeroed in to the land in some villages in the Lanjigarh Tehsil of Kalahandi District of Odisha State.

Out of which some 2500 acres of land belonged to the state government and the rest with the villagers. It may also be true that many landless or poor peasants might have been using some stretches of the government land for the past many years for seasonal cultivations of various crops as they find it lying vacant without any useful activity. Over the years these people might also have become wholly dependant on this land for their survival, though legally they have no right over those lands.

For acquiring the land- the villagers land-  the government has fixed a price of Rs.100,000/- approximately per acre of land [equivalent of about US$ 2000] as compensation for those who owned the small pieces of land.

Who owned the land and who possessed it illegally are all matters to be decided by the law.

India is a very peculiar country. There could be many countries like it in this world as far as peculiarities are concerned.

It is a country where the laws are truly blind. Blind to understand the feelings of helpless individuals who get trapped pathetically when laws get applied blindly! Both the law makers and the law executors seem to be proud of this fact. They are often proud to declare the blind nature of the laws for which they are the custodians and the executors.

Once the authorities decide to acquire lands of the people for the purpose of something that they had decided for general public interest, the ordinances are promulgated blindly.

It is the duty of the affected ones to find whether such ordinances have been issued by the authorities or not. The authorities are not responsible for telling each and every one affected. Their responsibility is over by publishing the order in some newspapers or in the government gazettes.

The affected land owners and landless land users, whether they know reading or writing or not, have to approach the authorities in the towns or cities or in some unknown location or hideouts (because it is not easy for anyone to locate a government office easily !). They have to prove the ownership of their lands that they have been using for decades!  They have to accept the compensation or no compensation as decided by the authorities and quit their homes and lands on which they have been existing so far.

Most likely some of them, even those of them who are legal owners of the land, may not get the compensation so easily in the near future, unless they complete all formalities. It is a lengthy legal procedure. Again remember, the law has no eyes and ears! Those occupied the government lands, no doubt will not get anything, eventhough they are all Indian citizens having the minuscule fractional power to elect their democratic governments.

Where do the poor villagers go? Even if they get their compensation money, that will not be sufficient for them to get another house or to set up their livelihood. But that is not the problem of the government or its executors. Because they all work for and with the blind inhuman laws! Don't ask them how these laws came. Most of them are bound to put the responsibility of all the ills of the laws on those Britishers who all perished centuries ago !

If the villagers have no shelter from the next day and they are going to be starved to death, that is their problem. If they refuse to obey the laws on account of their problems, the laws will not act immediately to solve their problems. But the laws will ruthlessly and swifly act if the dictat of the laws are opposed ! Because laws are indeed without ears and eyes (to hear the cries and the tears of the helpless citizens)!

Indian laws may be slow to act to provide relief to any one, but they are indeed quick to act against those who do not obey certain kind of laws. If those fellows, who have been ordered to get out, do not obey, they will be kicked out using brutal force! If they get killed, that would not be seen by the laws!

Only those not connected with the laws could weep and sympathize for them. They can  see their plight and hear their cries. But they too can only weep with them, nothing else! Because interfering while the law is acting is a much more serious offence ! The majority Indians have learnt this by experience. It is better to be far away from the laws and the law enforcers if you want to live peacefully !

When the process of the law and justice proceed blindly, no one with some clear common sense can think otherwise !

But I was just thinking, a wishful thought, knowing well that it is not going to make any difference.

I was thinking about this land acquisition affair of Odisha for POSCO.

Can it not be done in a better way? Is it such a big problem to do it in a better way ?

After all, the POSCO people have estimated their plant to cost US$ 12 billion. That is nearly Rs.60,000 Crores.

If 10 % of that cost is towards land acquisition (which is normally the case in the case of any green field industrial project) Rs.6000 Crore should be available for land acquisition. That amounts to a neat Rs 150,00,000 per acre of land [6000,00,00,000 / 4000].

But here the compensation decided to be paid to the villagers is just Rs.100,000/-. That means the villagers are paid just not even pea nuts. I have no idea, how much was paid to the state government for its 2500 odd acres of land !

Anyway these are wild guess from  a common man ! I am not considering those deals that happen behind the curtains !

Now, let us assume that the government and M/s POSCO had thought to do it adopting a humane approach instead of going for the blind law approach.

Let us assume that the 1500 acres of land the villagers have to part with belong to about 2000 families and M/s POSCO  are willing to spend  a lump sum of about Rs 1000,000 per each of the family affected in addition to money at Rs.100,000/- per acre of land as compensation.

POSCO could have easily planned a sector in their proposed steel plant township for accommodating all these 2000 families. This rehabilitation work could have been started in the government owned land first. By earmarking about 2000 sq.ft of land per family this would have needed a maximum of about 90 acres of land or just 2.25 % of the total land requirement. It is yet another matter that they could have even reduced this further by considering multi storied dwelling units.

The maximum cost for rehabilitation of the affected villagers this way could have been just Rs 215 Crores or a mere 0.35 % of their estimated project cost which included the costs for a decent rehabilitation of the villagers by providing them decent accommodations and giving compensation to their lands as per present market rates.

The state government and the company also could have thought of providing jobs to each of the affected family members in their proposed steel plant or making some other provision for ensuring their livelihood on a long term basis.

None of these provisions would have any adverse economic impact on the techno-economics of their proposed steel plant.

After all, if the government and the company do not think about their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) why should anyone need a steel plant?

Once the steel plant is established and towns develop around it, the cost of the land around it would sky rocket. The company and the governments would be the biggest benefactors. Besides the many thousand people from other parts of the state and the country.

But that should not exclude the poor residents of the area. Their rights should be protected and honored.

For that you need to interact with the people of the area in a civilized and humanely manner. You have to convince them of the benefits and show honestly that you would not cheat them and backtrack from your promises. You should not scare the people with your beaconed lights and your offical weapons.

If the laws of the country do not allow such a thing, not even God can save this country ! The people want their elected representatives to serve them and not to exploit them !

That was why they rallied behind those leaders of yester years to oppose the British rule.

That time it was rather easy. To get rid of the foreigners.

But now what do they do ?

Hypocrisy Is In My Indian Genes; I Can't Get Rid of It!

A few months back, a few of my country men from Kerala proceeded to fish in the Arabian Sea as usual in their motor boat named after their venerated Christian saint Antony. In their hard toils in the sea, their small vessel crossed over to the international waters beyond the water line borders of our country.

In the recent years, this same international maritime zone to which our friends have entered has become a dreaded one for all kinds of marine vessels that ply through it, due to the sea-pirates from the African coast who feared or obeyed no authority in this world. And this pirates moved in small motor boats similar to the harmless fishing boat my country men used for their livelihood.

Many of my country men who worked as sailing crews in large merchant vessels from various countries have been the victims to the cruelty of these ruthless pirates. This situation has prompted the affected countries in the world to work out some ways to check the menace of these pirates in the seas.

My country, India too, have been very active in deploying its full fledged naval forces in the region to checkmate the pirates. but not with full success always.

Deploying frigates and other warships accompanying each and every merchant ship plying in this route was not going to be a practical approach for those affected nations.

So they decided to send armed sea-marshals in the merchant vessels to take the pirates head on, just as they changed the laws to send sky marshals in the aeroplanes to checkmate the hijackers.

Of course, this development was a new one. It has not become a wide spread or well known practice. Earlier, our sea going fishing vessels used to go near the big ships merrily without any problem. Big and small never used to make any difference in the vastness of the seas !

But now the possibility of the sea-marshals armed with sophisticated guns with long distance fire power suddenly became a reality. 

There is no reason to believe that such a development is without the knowledge of the  countries who have waterline borders just as my own India.

Some how the authorities were not quick in notifying this to all sea going people and have not ensured that all the subordinate authorities know about this new development. They should have also notified the safeguards to be adopted in such a situation just as we had changed the rules of security checks in the airports when such exigencies arose.

In a similar way the sea marshals of those countries who deployed them in their merchant vessels were also new to the situation. They were doing this kind of a duty for the first time. Many of them were with out any formal training for their new job. They were drafted from their respective naval forces where they had a different kind of responsibility. What they were trained for was to trigger their guns in the event of a suspicion.

So a stage was somehow set for committing a serious error of judgement by all concerned.

The error test case arose when our Kerala fishing boat St.Antony came in the visibility range of a large Italian oil tanker named Enrica Lexie on 15th February 2012 moving in the high seas about 20.5 nautical miles from the Kerala coast.

Our fisher folks inadvertently happened to move some hundred meters away from the Italian oil tanker ship passing through the waters near to India's coastline border, but technically in the international waters. The ship had its sophisticated navigational aids to prove its location while the small fishing boat had nothing of that sort to know exactly where it was.

The big ship had the marines who were there to eliminate the small speed boats of the pirates who came in quick maneuvers to its hull side to get their armed men climb up the ship through ropes.

The bare bodied Kerala fisher men looked no different than the pirates to the marines  that they had perhaps seen in only in videos earlier .

On the other hand, the innocent Kerala men had never thought that this time the foreign merchant vessel could be armed like the warships or the vessels of the armed coast guards of their own country.

The marines of the ship were scared of the pirates and the boat fellows thought of no impending danger.

That caused the Italian catholics to fire at the Kerala catholics killing two of the latter. The former did their duty of saving their ship and their ship moved on safely ahead.

Very unfortunate thing indeed !

But  more disgraceful is the way the things happened later to the extent of sparking of an international controversy and near break up of the ties of two friendly nations.

Just because some people goofed up the entire episode ! (Read that story here: Marine case: Is Italy's decision a well-crafted strategy to beat Indian legal system?)

I am remembering what Jesus advised the fellows who brought the lady to him accusing her of wrongs and requesting him to judge her.

He told them that they could stone her if they had not done such crimes themselves earlier ! But the Jews of that time were honest to some extent. They simply vanished from the scene as none of them were not so perfect. They knew they were all uncaught criminals or sinners ! Therefore they were not perfect to punish someone like them, just because she happened to be caught ! At least their inner consciousness did not allow them to face the perfect man that Jesus was !

Now coming to the story of the Italian marines. True, they did a man slaughter. But that was what their government deputed them for. They were trained to kill with their guns. Kill any one who trespass their domain. Then how do they make their judgements is another thing.

But then that is what all security personnel all over the world do. They would act ruthlessly if any one violates what is adjudged by them as a violation. Their judgements and acts go wrong here and there occasionally. Innocents have been at the receiving end several times on several occasions. This is a universal trend and governments that depute these security men keep justifying them in almost all times.

The Indian security forces are no exception. And the Indian governments are no exception.

It is not that the Indian authorities do not know all these things.

But some where some one wanted to make things go differently. Why did the Indian authorities at Mumbai called the tanker that had already reached the Srilankan waters for reporting and then decided to detain it at Kochi without taking a diplomatic recourse ? Who leaked the information to the media and was that with the concurrence of the Indian government ?

There are so many ifs and buts.

I was just thinking. What would I have done if I were in any of the decision making positions ?

What would have been the same case if the marines were the  Chinese or the Russians instead of the Italians ?

I know it would have been very different.

Because I am an Indian. I will raise my voice only if I find the situation safe for me !

If it is safe and no one is going to catch me, there is no problem for me if I can fish in the troubled waters ! No problem for me if it causes some problem for others as long as I am safe !

I show respect and obedience to those with power and those who do not hesitate to use their power ! Not because I respect them from my soul, but because I am fearful. I know that I am a coward even though I try to pretend that I am not !

I know there are many way of sorting out this issue amicably instead of blowing it up, even though it had caused an irreparable injustice to some innocent persons.

But I cannot do it as per my inner consciousness.

Because I am fearful. I fear everyone around me. I do not have the courage to face the truths and take proper decisions ultimately good for all in the appropriate time.

I am very sensitive to public opinion, even when I know that my own country men like me manipulate the public opinion for their own vested interests.

Oh ! Why is it like this with me ? Why can't I proceed according to my inner convictions ?

I remember reading the book written by our first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The intelligent statesman and writer he was, he had found out that we Indians are intrinsically cowards.

Cowardice leads to hypocrisy ?

I know it is in me. I want to get rid of it, honestly. But I can't. It is in my genes !


No, neither me nor our system won't be any different for the time being !

[Please do take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please also use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might need. Here is the page link which gives the   list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

Do We Indians Have A Leg-Pulling Nature In Our Genes ?

Many educated Indians keep on joking about themselves by telling the story of the Indian frogs in the well. They can never come out of the well because they keep pulling the legs of others from escaping the pit that they are in.

There are many such jokes about India and the Indian nature and attitudes.

Even the westerners keep advising their citizens who wish to visit India about the cultural shock that they might face in this country.

But even while we are able to detect our own follies and attitudes, we seldom collectively or individually do any thing to overcome such attitudes and behaviours.

Quite unaware to us, retrograde nature of ours come out and create problems to every one.

A joke about the Indian 'babus' (administrative personnel in the government) is very common. They are very infamous for their negative notes and observations in 'files' (internal office memos moved for approvals from competent authorities).

The government employees hold various forms of strikes and protests for getting certain perks for them. Finally some minister asks the concerned secretary to move a note for the approval of the cabinet. 

So a paper is initiated by some department. It moves from one department to other. Some babus keep writing such notes and observations that ultimately the note gets additional note papers attached for every babu to write their points, counter points, study notes, etc etc to eventually become a big file bound by a red-tape. It never reaches the authority concerned for giving a final approval !

Even when it was for their own benefit, it is never done in time ! Otherwise why should  they take so much time in finalizing their pay and perks and the so-called pay commissions and the like ? 

When this is the situation for some thing that gives benefits to them, what to talk about other issues ?

But I am not blaming those in the government departments alone. It happens everywhere in India when we Indians carry out our work collectively.

It is the habit of Indians to routinely oppose a good idea mooted by some one else. In the first place a good majority of Indians do not have any good idea how to go about in a particular case. But if some one of the intellectual thinking type proposes a well thought idea, all the others become all of a sudden too wise to find many alternatives and modifications to the original idea that it becomes impossible for any one to proceed further to act on it.

Naturally, it is good reason to think that some of them who twist the case are having some vested agendas.

But it is not always very true. The fellows who keep doing everything in their arsenal to twist a proposal are not with any hidden agendas. They do it for the sake of doing it. That is in their blood. That is the Indian nature !

During my professional career, I have got the opportunity to study this behaviour of my colleagues.

Quite interestingly, these same fellows might give a very positive opinion about a thing which they happen to oppose or twist collectively.

I had successfully employed a tricky technique for achieving a collective positive momentum for successful implementation of certain ideas.

That is the technique of getting the swines in the cargo ship ! If you pull the animal from the front it would try to go backward. So what did they do ? Pull it from the back keeping it facing the ship's ladder. Then the animal tries to move forward and climbs the ladder to reach the ship's deck !

So in India, if you have to get any good idea to get implemented, it would be necessary to employ many such tricks.

Imagine the difficulty of any government in India to get some ideas implemented !

The opposition is bound to oppose it. If they do not, some one else would do it. If they do not oppose it entirely, they would oppose it partly. Or suggest some new idea. Or suggest some thing else.

Remember, the original proposal have been worked out by experts who have studied all aspects before putting forward the most suitable proposal !

But no, that way things cannot be done in India. Every Indian has the right to pull or push the way he or she likes.

It is not important if that kills the original idea collectively thought as the best for all.

I keep wondering why such a thing happens in India. Why do we keep doing things which prevent us from implementing ideas that is good for the society and the country.

There are several ways for implementing a project or a plan. But if we keep on pondering over each and every issue endlessly we can never go forward.

We have to decide fast and move forward. Decisions could be wrong. But taking decisions and moving forward would be better than not taking any decisions.

We have to abandon our habits of beating around the bush always.

Whether it is for deciding for the FDI (foreign direct investment) for retailing or deciding who would lead the Kochi Metro Rail or how to allot the telecom spectra or things like that big and small, we have to abandon our attitudes that are similar to the frogs in the well.

We, Indians, have to master the ability to support others who are trying to do some thing for us.

We have to learn how to trust others.

Even when it might not be the one we personally like, we should learn to trust our elected leaders.

Give them a chance to act. If they fail, it is better to take actions of correction later than to keep arguing and counter arguing on an issue endlessly.

Remember, the world is moving forward quite fast.

We are already late to catch up with them.

Let not our Indian attitudes and behaviours make us lag behind them for generations !

If this is a collective genetic disorder, we may have to think individually to do some thing to remove this negative quality of ours.

Do you see the point I am making ?

View the linked list of all Blogs of the Author Here ! ]

Some Wishful Thoughts On Public Road Transport System of India !

India's has nearly 4.5 million kilometers of road of which nearly half is paved. With 0.66 km of road for every square kilometer of area on the average, the road density is comparable or a bit higher than that of USA and pretty more than China, Brazil, etc.

But when compared to the road density with respect to population, India's performance is pretty poor. It has just about 4 km of road for 1000 people and if the paved roads are only taken it reduces to still lower at 0.07 km of road per thousand people which is one of the lowest in the world. The developed nations on the other hand have a paved road density to the tune of 15-20 km per thousand people.

[For more insight you may read the wikipedia article on Indian Road Network ]

Some of the areas where India performed lower than other nations in the world are literacy, health, road transport. Had the country concentrated in building and maintaining roads right from the time it became a republic, it could have achieved much progress in per capita GDP than what is achieved now at about $ 3,500. In comparison, USA's per capita GDP stands higher than $47,000.

The statistics clearly indicates that India has a huge potential with regard to road transportation and per capita GDP.

From the view point of educated Indian citizens, both the road networks and the public road transport systems in India are both not some to be proud of.

Some states and regions have better public road transport systems as compared to the others. Both the central government and the state governments are equally responsible for the good and bad show in road networks and public road transport systems in this country.

Most regrettably, the state governments have done pretty little in the past years to develop interstate public road transport systems.

While many states have good internal bus services within the states the inter state administrative coordination is extremely poor in this context. Many cities located geographically closer and separated by a state border do not have good public road transport facilities connecting them.

For example consider the Nagpur which is in central India in the state of Maharashtra and the cities like Durg, Bhilai and Raipur which are in Chhattisgarh. All these cities lie on the Grand Trunk Road connecting Mumbai and Kolkatta which is now National Highway No.6. Most regrettably the state governments in the past decades did not encourage public transport systems to connect these cities causing the border area neglected in development and transforming in to a Naxallite infected region. The interstate bureaucratic and political rivalry or non cooperation is such that these states do not even allow railway systems also to connect these cross border cities ! The citizens conveniences are totally neglected here and it continues for the past many decades.

Me and many of my colleagues used to travel the 265 km stretch of National Highway connecting Durg and Nagpur by car due to the pathetically low availability of public transport even after having a good road and railway system in existence from the British Raj. We used to curse the hopeless political and bureaucratic administrators responsible for this poor state of affairs. Even after three decades, things have not improved much in this sector !

I remember an incident in this connection which happened nearly two decades ago. I was travelling from Delhi to Raipur by Indian Airlines, the public monopoly on air travel at that time. There were some foreigners too in the flight which included a high power Malaysian delegation on a quick visit to Bhilai Steel Plant to finalize a big steel purchase deal. Due to some reason the flight got terminated at Nagpur some time in the evening at around 6.00 p.m. The Indian Airlines was notorious for such things.

Remember at that time there was no train or bus for us to travel from Nagpur to Durg which is about 50 km ahead of Raipur airport. The earliest train service was in the morning next day.

Some how the airline management by about 9.0 PM arranged a private bus for us to travel to Raipur side. The big deal was to get the Road Permit for the bus to cross the border between Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh (present Chhattisgarh was part of Madhya Pradesh state at that time). Finally by high levels talks between the airline management and the state authorities they got the permit and the Raipur bound air passengers were packed in the bus which was now 'deemed' as a 'terra-plane' !

We were all tired and soon were sleeping in the most uncomfortable way on the seats of the bus that was so arranged for our night travel. Some time midnight, I woke up to see that the bus was not moving, but stopped somewhere. Soon my co-passenger, a business man from Raipur also got up. It took us a few minutes to realize that the driver and his assistant were not on the bus. So we two got down and walked a bit in the night towards a place where there was some light. We traced our driver there. It was a police check post on the border and the police officer there, apparently drunk, was questioning the poor driver menacingly about his illegal activity of trying to cross the border on his bus with no regular permit for travel. The poor chap was trying to explain the permit that he had with him issued by a high authority such as the Nagpur collector and the officer was in no mood to listen !

Slowly all the passengers including the foreigners alighted and came to the check post station. We took up the issue with the officer. Perhaps seeing all the 'high profile' air travellers there the fellow finally agreed to allow us to travel on the condition that the driver would report to him ( perhaps to settle his cut of bribe money !) while he returns.

I remember the Malaysian delegation asking us about the type of authority that we have in India. Their simple doubt was if a lower official is not going to give regard to the order of a higher authority like in this case, how can they ensure a smooth movement of their consignment of steel from Bhilai ? We did not have an answer.

Perhaps the Malaysians had decided not to purchase steel from India. I do not know.

There are umpteen examples of this kind one can see in India. The borders of the states are manned by such unpolished policemen and state tax men that it is not advisable for any one to travel in the Indian roads, especially involving interstate border crossings.

Because the authorities do not encourage interstate bus travel, the only kind of travel that exist between these sections are trucks and few private car travellers taking the risk of travel. The state borders due to this neglect by the concerned state governments are therefore areas of the underworld or antisocial bastions.

In this context, I remember a private bus operator talking to me regarding the hurdles they have to face in getting interstate bus travel operator permits. On the other hand many state governments have shirked their responsibilities of running public sector state road transport corporations by closing those down because of their inability in managing those corporations properly under public rules and regulations.

Interstate bus travel is pretty good in the northern states bordering the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi. Hence, in this part of the country, the border areas are quite developed. It is pretty easy for a common man to travel from Delhi to neighboring cities like Chandigarh, Jaipur, Agra, etc by good buses.

Those decision makers in other states are like the ones trying to kill the goose which laid golden eggs!

If India got better road networks and road transport facilities which takes care of both intra and inter state road travel both by public and private travel systems, its economy would boost like any thing and the present naxal menace that afflicts some states would vanish.

Instead of becoming desolate regions the state borders will flourish with economic activities.

The affluent Indians with their most modern cars would dare to venture out with their machines exploring their country instead of those simply idling in their urban homes as show pieces !

Road side motels and resorts would flourish providing employment opportunities and comforts to millions of Indians rather than closing down like those ambitiously started by business groups like the Reliance in the recent past.

Living in India would be pleasure and not a pain as it is now.

Indians would be proud of their homeland and would not curse their political leaders and faceless bureaucrats like they do now.

For all that to happen what they need is good leaders with what is called 'vision' at the key positions. Because it is the decisions that matters. Implementation is not at all difficult. But in this country decision to move a mountain takes more time than to actually doing the work of moving the mountain.

Decision making in India are marred by various kinds of 'influences'. Good decisions are difficult to get through as some one will oppose it or does not allow it to happen. It is as if Satan influencing their minds ! 

It appears that they have to wait for some more generations. Wait till such times that their governments both at the states and the centre are occupied by fresh and saner minds who have ideas and wisdom to tap the potentials of this country for the overall benefit of its citizens !

In any case people like me have to only wish for the good things to happen in this country which in the common analysis are not that difficult to achieve !

Just like this Public Road Transport system of India !

[Read more on this issue in this blog : Infrastructure in India : Talking Much and Doing Nothing ! ]

[View the linked list of all Blogs of the Author Here ]