Image Credit: deen I took about 2½ hours to reach office today. Apparantly some truck has oveturned near Chembur and hence all traffic from the Sion-Trombay highway has been diverted towards the Suman-nagar flyover (where Eastern Express enters the Island city). This has resulted in a huge traffic jam at Sion. The small incident explains how fragile the infrastructure demand-supply equilibrium is in Mumbai. The roads are just about sufficient to support traffic. So, if it rains or a truck/bus stranded on the road side - it creates queues of traffic kilometers long. Image Credit: Marc van der Chijs This is because of multiple reasons - first of course being that road-space is narrow. The others are like: There are no alternate routes to reach the Island city apart from the arterial roads. The JNPT road remains unutilized even at the time of the traffic jams and natural calamities like water logging. The Highway Maintenance services such as towing trucks to clear stranded vehicles are n

The aftermath of the election is that Congress is back in power and national governance will be back in inaction as it has been. [With exception of the NREGA the previous UPA govt has started no new schemes and even existing visionary projects like the Golden Quadrilateral have slowed down].  The lesson for the BJP has come not from where it has lost but from where it has won - Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand; and from its ally in Bihar. And the lesson is governance works, ideology doesn't, religion alienates electorate and hate politics takes you two steps backward. When the BJP came to power in MP in 2005 under Uma Bharti, the state of affairs was dismal - there was more emphasis on where the next Sadhu congregation is going to be than which districts need roads. It was by a stroke of luck that Uma exited and entered Shivraj Chauhan who started concentrating on development from Day 0. In Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje however repeated the same mistakes as Uma Bharti, but a

Is this the resurgence of the (Nehru-Gandhi) dynasty? With Rahul Gandhi being credited for engineering the Congress's performance in UP, do we see the Gandhi family rising again. Senior Journlist Inder Malhotra felt otherwise on CNN-IBN. And his quite astute analysis of the rise dynasty politics makes one believe that he is correct.  Mr. Malhotra (who is also a biographer of Indira Gandhi) noted that Nehru was known as a vocal opponent of nepotism, and Indira Gandhi did not even contest a seat in the 1962 elections [ 1 ]. And while Sardar Patel's son contested [which then was not seen as nepotism anyway], Indira did not until the death of Panditji. It was actually Indira who brought in the dynasty politics by projecting Sanjay (and later Rajiv) as her heir. What was worse is that in order to ensure the family upperhand in politics, she destroyed careers of any cadre-risers in the party, in effect also weakening the party organization and hence leaving critical issues on the ta

I have been gleaning/ watching a lot of election analysis since yesterday - and have some interesting bits to report. To start with the blogging world, GreatBong is bang on target when he says:  ...but the Mandir issue is just too 90s, like the Spice Girls, to have any further resonance A lot of people I know ... dislike the Congress for their pandering and for their neglect of the urban middle class. They are aware of the Congress’s dismal record on urban violence. They are attracted to the BJP’s more solid commitment to policies (as opposed to handouts) of relevance to urban India, at least in comparison to the Congress. The only thing that prevents them from putting their stamp on the lotus has been the radical hard Right section of the party. Vajpayee, with his demeanor as a statesman and a moderate, was a master at bringing this section over to the BJP. L K Advani in contrast totally dropped the ball and pushed these “undecided but Right leaning” right into the Congress lap.  Tru

I saw two movies today- Pride and Glory Road - coincidentally both of them focus on how the sportsmen overcame racial challenges.  While Pride focuses on a black swimming team from Philadelphia rising above competition and winning under guidance of a black coach; Glory Road is about a underdog basketball team from Texas (comprising of both blacks and whites) beating the champions Kentucky in national championship in spite of all hardships. While the coach in Glory Road ,  Don Haskins is not black himself - the story revolves round the racial undercurrents that he has to struggle against to retain the proportion of blacks in his team (7:5) and the repeated sabotage attempts that the team members have to face. Pride is more about how coach Jim Ellis must fight not only racism, but also protect his swimmers - most of them from poor background - from social evils which surround them. Both movies go a long way to tell the tale of how America as a nation has had to fight a long battle wi

" The time for lighting candles at Wagah border has long since passed " - quips Veer Sanghvi in his latest article in the Hindustan Times. He argues that we now need to shun our 'friendly neighbour policy' towards Pakistan and embrace the military attitude of "hit back every time we are attacked".  Veer is correct from the Indian perspective - with the Taliban hovering on the borders of Islamabad - the Military and government have lost control of the country and we are soon going to deal with a loose group of multipolar infidels in our neighbourhood who neither understand nor heed 'international policy and neighbourly ties'.  However, looking beyond the limited view of India - Pakistan is a democratic experiment which the world cannot afford to fail.  In the multicultural word today, International politics is more like politics in a democracy - while the rich and powerful rule the roost, minorities and weaker sections also have their say. A majority

This is the last post in this 3-post series ; read the previous one . Sidenote: I argued in the previous post how urban slums arose as a result of "cultural pollution" by the imperial powers who attempted reengineering the socio-demographics of Indian cities and villages. I must clarify that I do not blame the continuance of these slums on imperialism - I am merely trying to identify the root causes in an attempt to better understand these phenomena and hence lead a way towards solving them.  Presented next is another example of how cultural pollution has created a problem for the modern world. Most political systems in the world which developed without any interference from outside developed through a natural cycle of tribal / feudal set ups to monarchial / semi-monarchial setups to parliamentary or councilor (community based) democratic systems. This is true of ancient democracies as well as modern. After the end of imperialism / colonialism, most of the world underwent dem

... continued from here . Taking India as the case in point - how did slums in Indian cities come about?  When the British marched into India they were unaware to the way villages functioned in India. This was because by the 18th century Industrialization had kicked in Britain and the city was the center of development - unlike India where villages played a big role in polity and economy - especially due to a strong self regulation and governance system.  In Britian due to the fast industrializing society, the city was where the seat of the kingdom lay and which controlled governing structures. In contrast, cities in India were mere 'centres of trade' meant to facilitate trade between the several villages which surrounded it. In absence of this understanding – the British  assumed  (mistakenly) that India lacked cities and so it lacked development. So what did they do – they killed the village’s internal economy by forcing cash crops like Indigo and Cotton which were completel

There is an episode in Star Treck [The Next Generation, Season 3, Episode Number 52 ] where a team of Federation sociologists are accidentally exposed to a primitive race (Mintakans). When an injured and unconscious Mintakan is taken aboard the Enterprise (star ship) for medical attention and is healed by the advanced medical methods on the starship. While coming to consciouness he catches a glimpse of Captain Picard, and so on his return to his people (as he narrates his story) Mintakans begin to perceive Captain Picard as a God. The episode makes a fascinating commentary on primitive sociology and acquired monotheism. But the more interesting part is Captain Picard's take on "Cultural Pollution". According to star trek’s lingo – cultural pollution refers to the effect a more developed society can have on a lesser developed one by not allowing the natural course of cultural evolution and exposing the lesser developed species to ‘development’ and ‘innovation’ out of their

Corporate India and Changing Face of Terrorism KPMG in India conducted a survey with over 60 companies in India, with the objective of assessing their level of preparedness in the wake of this emerging threat of terrorism. These organizations were from various sectors and the majority of them had an annual turnover of over USD 150 million. You can check out many other Thought Leadership publications by KPMG-India on our website http://in.kpmg.com/archives/archives.asp In case you need any other inputs or have feedback, feel free to leave a comment on my blog and I will get back to you. Download Report (946 KB) Privacy & Disclaimer © 2009 KPMG, an Indian Partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International, a Swiss cooperative. All rights reserved.

Link to Part I of this series    The character of an undivided India was a weak one - the leadership composed of Gandhi-Nehru-Jinnah took a decision to divide the country on religious lines [ 1 ][ 2 ][ 3 ]: On 3 June 1947, he (Lord Moutbatten) presented his plan [to partition India into India and Pakistan] to Nehru and Jinnah. They both accepted it. Gandhi, was fearful about partition but even more fearful of civil war. The AICC adopted the resolution in June, 1947. Nehru served on the Partition Council that finalized the separation of government institutions and provincial resources between the two new dominions. However, the leadership of Independent India composed of Nehru - Menon - Patel had a different character. When faced by a situation similar to partition because of reluctance of princely states to integrate their domains into independent India - the trio adopted a cunning, pragmatic yet bold and steadfast stance.  In July 1946, Nehru pointedly observed that no princely state

The world has just witnessed a celebration of sorts on Obama's swearing in as the 44th President of America. What needs to be seen is how fast Obama delivers on the promise that - " the chalenges will be met ". Whether the United States of America meets the current challenges is to be seen, but this nation has always shown a character of unity and resoluteness. One realizes this on comparing how this nation faced situations against similar situations faced by other nations. The point in case I take here is the situation of imminent partition .  In 1860s, the United States found itself divided into two halves on the issue of salvery. Just as president Abraham Lincoln was being sworn in as the 16th president - seven Deep South cotton states South Carolina, Mississippi,Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas announced secession from the US to form the  Confederate States of America . America had two choices to make at this point of time - allow America to be divided

An event happened with me a couple of days back which left me wondering about the levels to which value of human life has fallen in India.  I, Somnath and Anoop were returning from a walk at about 8.30 PM last Saturday. Two people passed us riding on a bike - but when we were right in front of Hiranandani Hosptial , the person riding pillion suddenly started falling down.  The other guy stopped the bike, some other passersby helped the pillion get down only to realise that he was undergoing an Epileptic Seizure . All passerby stopped and as usual started giving their suggestions - usko chamde ki chappal sunghao ... Pyaaz le ke aao (Give him a leather footwear to smell, find a onion). But no one was volunteering to even pick the poor guy lying on the road. We feeling a little responsible, decided that the best course was to seek professional help and since we were right in front of HN hospital - we went in and informed the staff on duty about the incident. We were expecting a stretcher

I have been restraining myself from making any blog post on the Mumbai Terror drama since the past 24 hours - but its gone on for too long now for me to keep it low ... First things first - I think its essential that our ministers take moral responsibility of what has happened. The two Home Ministers in specific - Shivraj Patil (India) and RR Patil (Maharashtra) should show some sense of morality by resigning. Why - you would ask .. well the lesser said about their performance and attitudes in such situations - the better. Next - all our intelligence and security agencies (including Defense forces, Coast Guard, and IB/RAW) must take it up on them to identify where their systems failed when these kids with guns were running their mock-sessions to take Mumbai under siege. Then - we must take some stern action against the organizations who have been involved. Laskhar, we know now operates out of Muzaffarabad in PoK - what is stopping us from taking a US-like approach and bombing their hid

Lot of analysis and discussions are going on across the internet and media about the current meltdown, the way out of it. Lots of conspiracy theories have popped up and quite a lot of economists have discussed opposing theories. Check out the two videos below for example: I personally believe there is too much simplification of the issue in most media discussions. What is happening is not a result of simple economic theories, nor the result of pure political manipulation at the international level.  There is too much of a mix of US domestic policies vs. US and Europe's international economic policies and India-China's sudden rise and emergence as global "cheap" goods and services destinations (and resulting loss of low value jobs in the developed economies).  Add the large scale immigration of Africans to Europe, Mexicans to US (Indian immigration to US is mostly skilled jobs and far too less in no to become a factor though), and thus the loss of low value jobs for na

The news of an Indian origin financial advisor committing suicide after killing his entire family hit the headlines within hours of the event. I wonder if it had been an Indian farmer instead of a financial advisor, whether the news would have taken the same position on the newspapers. However, the stark similarity in context of the suicide with that of the Indian farmers prodded me to think which one of them was worse - the Financial Advisor's or the Farmer's. The farmer in India lives on the bottom edge of the economic ladder, is uneducated and enjoys little socio-economic security. However, the financial advisor was an affluent citizen (having made a fortune of $1.2mn once), had a social security number and was well educated. His committing suicide indicates a complete failure of the much touted "social security" which the west claims to be its achievement. However, look at it from another perspective. The financial advisor works on estimates and projections of se

I wrote about an idea of a high-speed railway service for India which I christened द्रुतगामिनी Railroad . Indian Railways is now planning a small pilot in a similar direction - a bullet train connecting Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Pune [ HT reports ]. Inspired by China’s plans to develop the world’s fastest bullet train, the Indian Railways has taken the first step to construct high-speed corridors on the Pune. Mumbai-Ahmedabad route for bullet trains running at speeds between 300 km and 350 km per hour .. it could mean the 93-km Mumbal-Pune stretch could be done in 20 minutes. The fastest train on this route, Deccan Queen. presently takes 3 hours 15 minutes.  Similarly, 444 km between Miunbai and Ahmedabad could be travelled in 120 minutes. The fastest train on this route, Shatabdi Express, currently takes 6 hours 45 minutes. Even if it wasn't this blog post which sparked the fire, it makes me happy that the idea is going to be a reality. However, the only grouse is that the Indian rail

In my previous posts [ 1 ][ 2 ], I highlighted how intertwined energy business and politics (namely on oil) have become and how they are blocking the ushering of clean fuel technologies in the developed world. Shubham commented in response to Part II - ... the developing countries have the wherewithal to come up with alternate methods of energy. If something good and sustainable has to be found, it has to come from the developed world.... Since most of the cutting edge research in the world happens in the US, no progress has been made on finding alternate sources of energy in the recent past. The point he is making is exactly what I am refuting, that it is not merely about research any more ; the technology that is needed is already there (at least basic if not advanced) , the problems are more political in nature. Therefore, if say the Indian govt creates a legal and political ecosystem favourable for use of renewable energy, all the research which has been done (in India or abroad

Those of you who have grown up in the Hindi speaking states would have read Munshi Premchand ’s iconic story Panch Parmeshwar . Briefly it goes like this: Algu Chaudhary and Jumman Sheikh are two close friends in the village. One day a dispute between Jumman and his neighbours comes to be arbitrated by the village Panchayat , (village council cum judicial body) of which Algu Chaudhary is nominated as the Sarpanch (head). While everyone expects Algu to rule in favour of Jumman, with responsibility of being righteous upon him, Algu finds himself in tricky situation to see that Jumman actually is on the wrong side. Finally, Algu rules against Jumman leading to a major drift in their friendship. A few months later, Algu is similarly involved in a dispute. Realising that Jumman would be eager to take revenge, Algu’s adversary requests appointment of Jumman as the Sarpanch . However, as soon as Jumman assumes the post, he realizes the immense responsibility that the position comes with and

Continued from Part I The strategy of increasing domestic oil consumption worked well as the indigenous oil reserves were going well and sufficient reserves were secured in the middle east. But OPEC stepped in and soon after being formed, it caused havoc in 1970s with the oil embargo . Soon, a reverse trend was to set in - just as war had lead to increase in oil production, now oil was to lead to war. By the mid 1980s it was well clear that the encouragement of oil consumption had backfired on western governments and something had to be done to control the menace of increasing oil prices. Iraq presented a classic opportunity to the US in the early 90's by invading Kuwait and opening doors for a direct and legitimate intervention of the western politicians and regimes into the middle east. The war for oil has continued with stops and spurts thereafter well leading upto into the recent Iraq conflict. With more than a decade of war and 5 decades of politics behind it, governments in t