While travelling on the crowded Powai belt of the JVLR [ map ], a colleague exclaimed that it is surprising that rising fuel costs and pollution have not yet created enough concern for serious research and product development in the area of Alternative Fuels. This lead me to wonder as to why, just like an increase in fuel production in the mid 1900's cause an increase in automobile traffic worldwide, is an increase in fuel prices not causing a wave of alternative technologies? The reason, I think is - what it has always been - political will! Oil was discovered way back in the 9th century, however it did not find much use till the industrial age began. But even after the onset of the industrial age in the 17th century, coal remained the primary source of energy till the 1950s. And then suddenly, the consumption of oil started rising thereafter - why? Coal was a viable source of energy till it was used as a fuel for factories and other static energy consuming centers. However, earl

The Mobile revolution in India is no more a dream but a reality - the benefits of which we are already reaping everyday. « Image Source : blog.ThematicMapping.org India emerged as the hottest mobile market in the world during 2006 [ 1 ], overtaking China to claim the top spot by adding more than 73 million new mobile customers in 2006 [ 2 ], a 97 percent increase, to reach 149.5 million in total. But what makes Indian Mobile market more attractive is that it has the world's lowest service charges and huge future potential for further growth. Apart from the growth factor - Telecommunications industry is significant from another perspective to India. This is one industry where India is leading the pack in technology adoption. While we might not lead the pack in premium services (VAS etc) but in terms of ubiquity of connectivity and introduction of innovative services using this ubiquity is something India is actually ahead of even some developed nations. I personally have an exa

I wrote this post about an year ago, and it has remained a 'draft' since. Got round to completing it today - however, it can also be read as a continuation of posts I made a few days ago . I once travelled about 35 odd kilometres within Mumbai at a time. Started from Powai for Nerul via Ghatkopar-Mankhurd-Vashi and back to Powai via Kharghar-Aeroli-Mulund and then went to Vile Parle and came back. Click to see on Google Maps It was a good bike ride - the roads have improved - yet back breaking. During the bike ride, travelling through Mumbai, I somehow remembered my visit to Switzerland and started comparing cities in India to cities in Switzerland. Below is what I could theorize .... As per the wikipedia , "cities formed as central places of trade for the benefit of the members living [in them]". The keywords here are - 'trade' and 'benefit'. I think cities even today can be classified into those which are built with the intent of enhancing &

A constant debate in India is between public and private sectors - which is better for growth, which is better for social equity and which can propel the nation to the next orbit? Clearly, given the last decade and half's run that the economy has had, private sector has won the debate as far as Industry is concerned. However the debate still continues for public utility services like education and healthcare. Especially with such a large part of the population still to become literate and quality of education being under doubt (even for the private sector in some cases), the pendulum is still oscillating between private and public for the educational sector. While there are several arguments in favour of privatization of education and private education vouchers , the one's against it are not completely unfounded. I quote: The assumption of competition in turn assumes three things: a) that “school choice” is real, b) that it is not possible to cheat the system, and c) that in

In this Series: Part I , Part II Today whether you visit Mumbai or Dehradun the same scene awaits you – traffic bursting from the seams, lack of amenities, overcrowded public transport (whether it is the Mumbai local, the tempo in Dehradun or shared-rickshaw in Vadodara). Why has this happened? Clearly, we have never looked at our cities in a scientific and organized fashion, our cities emerged just like other countries, as centres of trade. However, cities which should have evolved gradually underwent destruction and a military set-up was imposed on them. Today are imposing a commercial infrastructure over the same military set-up creating a further confused landscape on one hand and choking the amenities and resources on the other. What can we do to solve these problems? I have few thoughts in mind: Macro level We should de-congest existing cities by shifting out industries from them to newer, better planned cities (for example the way industries were moved from Mumbai to

While it is well known that the British came to India under the pretext of trade, beyond a brief period of 15 years (1757-1773), the British government assumed full control over the system. To maintain their rule, British needed to control the masses, zamindars and the local kings – and for this they needed the army to be strong. So on one hand they developed infrastructure like the railways (for speedy movement of troops), on the other hand they imposed a military set-up on the major cities in India. And thus emerged cities like Dehradun, Jabalpur, Bangalore, Poona etc - as military cantonments rather than centers of trade. These cities were also built as typical British towns – a town center, a clock tower and a Sadar bazaar being some commonalities you would find in all these towns. These towns grew further through the early years of independence thanks to the militarily charged atmosphere (due to the Cold War, Indo-Pak, Indo-China wars etc) thus maintaining the status of military a

I have been travelling in the past week – from Mumbai, to Baroda to Delhi, to Dehradoon and Mussourie and back. It has been a great experience, but even more it has been a thought provoking travel through the metros, small and smaller cities and via towns as well. It is wonderful to explore India because there is so much hidden beneath the quotidian activities in Indian cities - most Indian cities, however small or big have centuries old history behind them. They have grown, destroyed and rebuilt so many times and yet some element of past is still visible in them even today. While travelling to and through these cities some thoughts emerged in my mind about the way these cities have come into the current state – I am detailing them below. Long before the British or the Mughals marched into India, the region had developed mature political and administrative systems. More so, irrespective of whether there was one national ruler (ex. Ashoka or Akbar) or the rule was shared by regional sat

In response to my previous post my friend Payal (who had forwarded me the video) - sent me an email. Her email is almost a blog post in itself - so I thought it would be a good idea to post it here. Here you go ... [ previous post ... there is many a slip between the cup and the lip.] I understand all those pitfalls... all I am saying by that link is that the image of India is getting better in the outside world. I am happy about it ... but I wish there was more substance to it ... Its not just what meets the eyes (infra) that needs to be developed, there are softer concerns too like security and resilience of justice system not to mention corruption and the lack of trust in offices and general life. ऐसा नही है कि US में 2 hours 'stuck in traffic' नही होता, but India में it is more often than not... you know when NRIs come back to India, they always see the "progress" in India.. big malls erected, flyovers etc and think "Hey! India is really shining"

A friends of mine who is in the US, sent me this YouTube link: While this India rising story is fast becoming a cliche, the video nevertheless makes things look quite amazing. And so many Indians abroad seem to be getting more and more sold on the India story. I however believe there's more to it than meets the eye!! :-) The troubles of working (or operating business) in India are quite irking - for example I was stuck for 2 hours today in Ghatkopar - fortunately the habit of having a book in my bag helped me - but imagine the amount of morning productive time I wasted! The stock market which went up and was hailed to stay put even as the US melted under sub-prime, has finally crashed today [ last reported it fell 1300 odd points]. The real estate prices which have been rising in speculation are already falling in smaller cities and while they have stayed put in metros - the whole urban dream seems to be crumbling because of the inability of the governments to be able to suppleme

NYTimes reports about protests in Italy's Siena Progress cannot be measured only in terms of raising gross domestic product, said Luciano Fiordoni, an economist who spoke at a recent anti-airport rally in Siena. “You have to factor in quality of life,” he said. “We don’t object to growth, but our main intent is to remain human.” Exactly what I was trying to say when I blogged about the political party of the future . Its high time we too in India stopped measuring our progress by GDP and per capita figures (which are simply effects and not causes) and looked at how much the quality of human life has improved. What's good about a rising GDP if our roads are heading towards permanent traffic jams and our lives becoming more and more stressful?

"Benazir Bhutto Shot Dead" - as I looked at this headline on 27th December, I was shocked - though not as much as I was when I read "Rajiv Gandhi assassinated" way back in 1991 (I was just 10 years old then). The reduction is shock was not just because I had grown up and that Benazir was not a politician from my own country - but also because after Lal mazjid , terrorism has become more and more mainstream in Pakistan. However, there are some aspects of the assassination which are different from Rajiv Gandhi's assassination which make it much more worrisome than the former. 1. Ubiquity of Terror Agents - and failure of Administration The Pakistani Administration (namely the Army) claims that "[Benazir] herself contributed to the incident by standing [and] that none of the other occupants in the bullet/bomb proof car died." Which effectively means that the assassin was just waiting for Benazir to step out of her bullet proof vehicle. It seems quite unli

A comment on Atanu Dey's blog . “Educate the elite alone so that the unwashed masses will be more easily controlled.” British built a educated class (bureaucrats) to do slave work for them. That worked very well for them. All they needed were dumb slaves who know how to read, write and regurgitate. And they did a terrific job of marketing. The slaves feel good about themselves and brag about it too, like so: “I work for the Indian Civil Services”. Why do we keep blaming the British for the state of our education? The concept of keeping education limited to few coveted 'castes' was preached and practised by Indians long before the British set their foot on this soil. And indeed, the reason why we have not been able to uproot the "flawed macaulian educational system" is because we DO NOT WANT TO. So many among our population still believe in casteist ideas!!

I have been travelling by train a lot lately and as most people will agree that railways have improved quite a lot in the past few days. The cleanliness has improved, and trains run more timely than earlier. Railway stations are also improving - better facilities are in place (Kiosks, Cyber Cafes, vending machines etc.) and the staff is more 'friendly'. At the same time, the price of railway travel has gone up - even though nominally. In addition to increase in fares, new overheads are been added. For example, now if you book a ticket for a different destination than the location from where you are booking your ticket - you have to pay a surcharge. (Internet booking always had a surcharge). The question is - is the price rise justified in wake of the fact that Railways are the primary mode of transport for the weaker economic sections of the society as well? I think yes. Take the case of railways introducing better toilets - each toilet will cost Rs 60K ($1500) - this appo

When Manmohan Singh took over from Atalji as the Prime Minister of the country, there was widespread euphoria of speedier economic reforms and speedy economic growth. After all Singh was the very pioneer of the liberalization. However, the political naiveté and rubber stamp status of the PM has only been re-confirmed in the past few months. While the nuclear deal and the Left holding the Govt. ransom is the recent most manifestation of the PM’s weakness, this government has been an underperformer from the beginning of its tenure. Arjun Singh pursuing his own casteist agenda through reservations, the repeat of Mandal days at AIIMS (where the meritorious students had to face water cannons), the back track on privatisation of Navratna PSU’s, the slowing down of Golden Quadrangle Project, and inaction towards the teething lack of infrastructure – the UPA’s track record is filled with inaction and ineptitude. There are a few streaks of positive one of them being year's budget which laid

If you are a regular reader of newspaper editorials – you would have noticed columnists who write on matters of Indian politics, policy research, mythology, pop-culture etc. Of late, so many scholars of ‘Indian studies’ have come from foreign (mainly US) universities. Is this because there are no Indian institutes where ‘India’ is being researched? Not quite – we have the JNU, the BHU, the AMU, and numerous departments of social studies in all universities from Ashok University (Gwalior) to Delhi University. Then why this dearth of scholars in Indian matters, who practice their profession in India? Not being from the academic circles – I can only make an informed guess based upon limited knowledge that I have of the culture in academic institutes (which I studied in) and internet research (the links are strewn in the text below). Due to heavy politicization of student community following the Janta Party movement of the 1970s-80s[ 1 ][ 2 ], the academia in our universities too have got

Today's Hindustan Times Op-ed has an article by Sujata Anandan around Vidarbha farmer suicides etc. It throws light on how misuse of credit by people compounds the situation created by poor rains and lack of proper irrigation. I quote: My sister spotted a vegetable vendor at the local market who had been defaulting in payment for months. When she swooped on her, the lady brazenly told my sister she had taken the loan not to buy a stall, as stated in her application, but to marry off her daughter. " Mera kaam ho gaya. Muzhe ab zaroorat nahin . (My purpose has been served. I do not need you now)," she said. Most of the money borrowed by farmers goes not into seeds or crop but into paying off their debts to moneylenders, the dowries of daughters or gambling dues... Moneylenders were big business in Andhra Pradesh's villages, too, but then the state government came up with a scheme to settle with those bloodsuckers and banned their return to the villages. Suicide rates

I wonder if its politicians or psephologists whom we should blame for perpetrating more casteism in the society. I read the following in an article on inclusive development in Hindustan Times last month - About 88 per cent of India’s SC/STs belong to this group of poor and vulnerable. Similarly, about 85 per cent of all Muslims other than the SC/STs and 80 per cent of all OBCs except Muslims are poor and vulnerable, living below per capita consumption of Rs 20 per day. Only 1 per cent of SC/STs, 2.4 per cent of OBCs other than Muslims, 2.2 per cent of Muslims other than SC/STs belong to the high income rich group, of having a per capita consumption above Rs 93 per day. Further, 86 per cent of all illiterate and 79 per cent of all those who received education below primary level belong to this group. This shows congruence of all those people in India who are poor, deprived and discriminated. The last line is a clever piece of interpretation. Is it "people who are poor and deprived

IEB has put up two posts [ 1 ] [ 2 ] on increasing divide between the rural and the urban. My own interpretation of it is of the divide between informed and uninformed - either way, there is no denying to the fact that there exists a gap which is further widening with the influx of technology and development. Many a times we debate as to how to reduce the gap, the whole system of communism is based on reducing the inequalities in the society. However, time and again it has been proved that inequalities are bound to occur; a fallout of Darwinism - they can only be reduced but cannot be eliminated. In fact, as the failure of communist system has shown - any attempt to eliminate inequalities leads to lack of motivation in individuals to compete and succeed - thus leading to stagnation of the society at large. Yet, if socialism exists -what does it mean? I interpret socialism as a just system where every human being is guaranteed basic rights and comforts. A socialist society will have in

Update Here is a good article demystifying the Indian Presidential Election process and its significance with respect to the current election. Indian politics has been witnessing reversal of two opposite kinds. On one hand is Mayawati, coming from a caste-based politics background, who broke the divide between Dalits and Brahmins and thus grabbed the CM's seat in Uttar Pradesh (a state known for caste based politics) through a pan-caste vote. On the other hand is the Congress party, maligning the election for the most revered post in Indian Democracy by playing the caste card. Clearly, selecting an unknown candidate like Pratibha Patil was not for merit but to: cleave the NDA's fold by fielding a 'Marathi' candidate dent support for Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, due to the Rajasthan ki bahu connection Patil's choice is a political masterstroke, also because it brings back the tradition followed by the Congress party under Indira Gandhi, of appointing a phony at the pr

Update: As a fellow blogger Bhopal-e pointed out, I missed the Bhopal buses (literally too, I haven't yet travelled in them). The Star Buses had been introduced in Bhopal before they were introduced in Mumbai. Also, the multicolored (all Web 2.0 colors used!) buses of Bhopal look much better than the mono-colored BEST star buses in Mumbai. Original Post I am in Bhopal - my hometown .. a lot is changing here and this time around the major changes that struck me were: 1. Radio In the past 3 months, Bhopal grew from being a single Radio channel town (FM Vivid Bharti) to a 4 FM Channel town. BIG FM (92.7), My FM (94.3) and Radio Mirchi (98.3) are already here - thats just one channel less than Mumbai! 104 Fever - where are you??? ;-) 2. Roadside Beauty Before you start getting ideas - I am talking about the beautification of road dividers and footpaths. Run along the road from MP Nagar (Ambedkar/ Board Office चौराहा) to New Market / TT Nagar - the dividers and the footpaths have bee