Any civilised society does whatever possible for any community which deserves it. As citizens of a free world with a 5000+ years of human histroy, we must have the courage to to stand for others. It's time to save the Tibetan struggle for autonomy so that they can save their culture and traditional of tolerance of love and humility. As individuals I invite your suggestion for possible ways.
Please follow the following link to post your suggestions:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/restorehope2tibetans/
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
IPL vs IPL
Subhash Chandra controlled Indian Cricket League (ICL) is being reported to be busy packing its fateful entry ‘for the game of cricket’.
The end of ICL is not a very bad development. But what is bad is the way it has been brought to end. The way BCCI has went above the board to stop it was entirely avoidable. Lalit Modi has done a good job as IPL commissioner but again not without a pinch of salt on the conceptual level. While Modi has shown a lot of enterprise, for which he must be given due credit, it should not be forgotten that this excessive commercialization will have its own side effects.
The men in blue become popular, rather icons, overnight in this country. The selection is subject to a lot of public scrutiny. Despite we came to hear about news of money exchanging hands for a place in the national teams a couple of years back. The way money has entered the game it is entirely possible that same things can happen and without much public scrutiny as these players do not have such identities. The ultimate result can be cricket again being another game where an Irfan Pathan, son of a poor father can't become a cricketer. The next challenge for Modi and BCCI would be to check any such development.
I am sure the existence of a private initiative like ICL would have been an effective check as players would at least have had an option. Here it is equally true that there would have been more probability of money making rounds in ICL than IPL. It was undoubtedly a business venture and not a 'For the welfare of cricket' initiative. But I do not think, it would have posed BCCI any threat. Even if it would have it would have been good for cricket and cricketers.
As of now we do not foresee any ICL kind of development. The real test of BCCI’s “good merits” and Modi’s managerial abilities would be now. With a powerful politician at the helm of affairs BCCI has everything to raise the bar. It would be interesting to see if Sharad Pawar does not try to keep his control intact after demitting office. Mr. Modi will continue to hit headlines but he must remember money is not everything.
BCCI and Modi better keep in mind, how popularity of cricket went for the toss when the news of match fixing were first broken.
The end of ICL is not a very bad development. But what is bad is the way it has been brought to end. The way BCCI has went above the board to stop it was entirely avoidable. Lalit Modi has done a good job as IPL commissioner but again not without a pinch of salt on the conceptual level. While Modi has shown a lot of enterprise, for which he must be given due credit, it should not be forgotten that this excessive commercialization will have its own side effects.
The men in blue become popular, rather icons, overnight in this country. The selection is subject to a lot of public scrutiny. Despite we came to hear about news of money exchanging hands for a place in the national teams a couple of years back. The way money has entered the game it is entirely possible that same things can happen and without much public scrutiny as these players do not have such identities. The ultimate result can be cricket again being another game where an Irfan Pathan, son of a poor father can't become a cricketer. The next challenge for Modi and BCCI would be to check any such development.
I am sure the existence of a private initiative like ICL would have been an effective check as players would at least have had an option. Here it is equally true that there would have been more probability of money making rounds in ICL than IPL. It was undoubtedly a business venture and not a 'For the welfare of cricket' initiative. But I do not think, it would have posed BCCI any threat. Even if it would have it would have been good for cricket and cricketers.
As of now we do not foresee any ICL kind of development. The real test of BCCI’s “good merits” and Modi’s managerial abilities would be now. With a powerful politician at the helm of affairs BCCI has everything to raise the bar. It would be interesting to see if Sharad Pawar does not try to keep his control intact after demitting office. Mr. Modi will continue to hit headlines but he must remember money is not everything.
BCCI and Modi better keep in mind, how popularity of cricket went for the toss when the news of match fixing were first broken.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
What the Youth Can Do (Part VII)
‘I remember my youth and the feeling that
will never come back any more-the
feeling that I could last for ever, outlast
the sea, the earth, and all men; the
deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to
perils, to love, to vain effort- to death; the
triumphant conviction of strength, the
heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow
in the heart that with every year grows
dim, grows cold, grows small, and
expires – and expires, too soon, too soon-
before life itself.
Joseph Conrad: Youth, 1902
Youth is generally speaking assigned to the age group 16 to 35 years. Now whoever comes within this age group is youth: the males and females, the students and the non-students, the educated and the uneducated, the city dwellers and the rustics and not only those here but hose who live abroad have to be taken into account while dealing with such a problem. Yes the focus has to be on the student as they constitute the bulk of the youth population.
In the context of India youth have always played a decisive role in almost every socio-politico-cultural development. This is a particular mission in which active youth power is required.
I am a youth but still I can say there is a problem with the youth of India, especially those in the metros like Delhi that they are too much self-centred, too much fascinated about everything western and cynical about most of what is Indian. So the solution mostly they look for has its root in the west. The problem is not west. Western model is not always wrong, but they definitely have a very different socio-cultural set up than ours. The solution has to be as per Indian requirements. For example, years ago the government was promoting eucalyptus plantation in India. There can be nothing wrong with a tree at the conceptual level but it was not something that India required. It had to be later withdrawn as it sucked huge amount of water and would fell even in weak storms. This was something an overpopulated country with so much pressure on land can’t afford.
What we need is to exploit culture and traditional beliefs, modern science, and current requirement. To quote Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, culture is tradition and tradition is memory. Only one deeply steeped in the past and robust imagination of the future can efficiently handle present.
The problem of making sustainable development a practice is far from being simple. It requires sustained effort for it asks shaking very fundamentals and ideals of today’s lifestyle.
T. S. Eliot wrote in ‘Murder in the Cathedral’, “Clear the air! clean the sky! wash the wind!
Is Delhi listening?
will never come back any more-the
feeling that I could last for ever, outlast
the sea, the earth, and all men; the
deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to
perils, to love, to vain effort- to death; the
triumphant conviction of strength, the
heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow
in the heart that with every year grows
dim, grows cold, grows small, and
expires – and expires, too soon, too soon-
before life itself.
Joseph Conrad: Youth, 1902
Youth is generally speaking assigned to the age group 16 to 35 years. Now whoever comes within this age group is youth: the males and females, the students and the non-students, the educated and the uneducated, the city dwellers and the rustics and not only those here but hose who live abroad have to be taken into account while dealing with such a problem. Yes the focus has to be on the student as they constitute the bulk of the youth population.
In the context of India youth have always played a decisive role in almost every socio-politico-cultural development. This is a particular mission in which active youth power is required.
I am a youth but still I can say there is a problem with the youth of India, especially those in the metros like Delhi that they are too much self-centred, too much fascinated about everything western and cynical about most of what is Indian. So the solution mostly they look for has its root in the west. The problem is not west. Western model is not always wrong, but they definitely have a very different socio-cultural set up than ours. The solution has to be as per Indian requirements. For example, years ago the government was promoting eucalyptus plantation in India. There can be nothing wrong with a tree at the conceptual level but it was not something that India required. It had to be later withdrawn as it sucked huge amount of water and would fell even in weak storms. This was something an overpopulated country with so much pressure on land can’t afford.
What we need is to exploit culture and traditional beliefs, modern science, and current requirement. To quote Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, culture is tradition and tradition is memory. Only one deeply steeped in the past and robust imagination of the future can efficiently handle present.
The problem of making sustainable development a practice is far from being simple. It requires sustained effort for it asks shaking very fundamentals and ideals of today’s lifestyle.
T. S. Eliot wrote in ‘Murder in the Cathedral’, “Clear the air! clean the sky! wash the wind!
Is Delhi listening?
The Change Makers (Part V)
The Human Touch contd...
Climate change is not something local or regional phenomenon. So the solution also has to be of the global nature. Given the enormity of the situation and the hold of the rich and the interest of the bourgeois it is necessary that it involve the youth and the old, the masses and the classes, the politicians and the voters, the rich and the poor. The responsibility has to be of everybody, the battle at every step. Everyone has to be the leader and the follower. No one state or institution can keep a watch on whether you are sincere or not.
Life has to be made simple and original in harmony with the laws of the nature. It has to be a moral responsibility, a duty, a mission, a passion. It has to be the fight between the right and the wrong, between the rights of the humanity and the elites. It has to be a fight for what Rothkopf says a uniform global culture. Sustainability not greed has to be the essential component of any economic order.
This war will have to be of every Delhi, every Durban, every London and every Washington. The world needs to listen to the cries of extinction and death, of rivers and mountains, trees and vegetations, birds and other animal species, soil and the air, life and death.
The world needs to understand climate change has caused migration, and cultural separation, population dislocation and the collapse of ancient cultures. We can’t allow this to happen this time.
The year 2009 would be critical for reaching international agreement on efforts to tackle climate change. We will have the opportunity to rewrite man’s destiny when signatories to the UN Climate Change Convention meet in Copenhagen.
The role of India would be equally significant. Though it’ not a developed economy it is the third biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world after China and the United States. India emits 638,000,000 tons of CO2 every year. The argument that we are a developing country and we a chance to pollute the atmosphere is hollow because it’s not that the poor of this country are polluting. It is being by the corporations and the Navratnas (the nine most profitable companies that the government owns) of the Government of India who has been raking billions of rupee as profit. National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) alone spews 186,000,000 tons which constitutes about 30% of the total gas release. 16 power plants, operated by NTPC, are in Centre for Global Development's (CGD) “Red Alert”. China has already surpassed the US as the world’s biggest emitter of CO2 from power generation. South Africa is among the world’s top-ten power sector emitter in absolute terms.
Given all these phenomenal contribution it is ridiculous if they continue to give such logic. The youth are playing and will have to play further significant role in making the government realise that the responsibility can’t be done away with.
Climate change is not something local or regional phenomenon. So the solution also has to be of the global nature. Given the enormity of the situation and the hold of the rich and the interest of the bourgeois it is necessary that it involve the youth and the old, the masses and the classes, the politicians and the voters, the rich and the poor. The responsibility has to be of everybody, the battle at every step. Everyone has to be the leader and the follower. No one state or institution can keep a watch on whether you are sincere or not.
Life has to be made simple and original in harmony with the laws of the nature. It has to be a moral responsibility, a duty, a mission, a passion. It has to be the fight between the right and the wrong, between the rights of the humanity and the elites. It has to be a fight for what Rothkopf says a uniform global culture. Sustainability not greed has to be the essential component of any economic order.
This war will have to be of every Delhi, every Durban, every London and every Washington. The world needs to listen to the cries of extinction and death, of rivers and mountains, trees and vegetations, birds and other animal species, soil and the air, life and death.
The world needs to understand climate change has caused migration, and cultural separation, population dislocation and the collapse of ancient cultures. We can’t allow this to happen this time.
The year 2009 would be critical for reaching international agreement on efforts to tackle climate change. We will have the opportunity to rewrite man’s destiny when signatories to the UN Climate Change Convention meet in Copenhagen.
The role of India would be equally significant. Though it’ not a developed economy it is the third biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world after China and the United States. India emits 638,000,000 tons of CO2 every year. The argument that we are a developing country and we a chance to pollute the atmosphere is hollow because it’s not that the poor of this country are polluting. It is being by the corporations and the Navratnas (the nine most profitable companies that the government owns) of the Government of India who has been raking billions of rupee as profit. National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) alone spews 186,000,000 tons which constitutes about 30% of the total gas release. 16 power plants, operated by NTPC, are in Centre for Global Development's (CGD) “Red Alert”. China has already surpassed the US as the world’s biggest emitter of CO2 from power generation. South Africa is among the world’s top-ten power sector emitter in absolute terms.
Given all these phenomenal contribution it is ridiculous if they continue to give such logic. The youth are playing and will have to play further significant role in making the government realise that the responsibility can’t be done away with.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
The Solution (Part IV)
The Human Touch contd...
The problem needs serious attention. And one ought to understand that at the centre of the thought for solutions has to be the belief that we cannot have unlimited desires on a limited planet. The earth, the land, the water and the resources are in limited supply. The need is to ensure their supply in a way that is sustainable. And like charity it should begin from self.
1. The first and the most important challenge is food. Studies have proved time and again the energy required to produce non-vegetarian food is much more than vegetarian food. This will also reduce stress upon our land resources. The surplus land can be used to increase the forest cover which act as lungs in our city life.
2. The second most important thing has to be green housing. A housing that reduces dependence upon electricity by optimally using sunlight, air and water.
3. ‘Life Infrastructure’ like drainage, water conservation facilities, parks and proper waste disposal and recycling facilities should be mandatory for those who can afford. The government should support these initiatives in irregular poor colonies.
4. A city like Delhi can draw a lot of its energy from renewable source like sunlight as it receives ample amount of it throughout the year. The use of solar water heater and solar cooker can save precious natural gas for our power houses. Energy can also be produced from waste and excreta. Proper recycling of the waste products will also solve the problem of hygiene. It would also employ a large number of people.
Beside these big things that have to be done at the policy level by the government, there are things each of us can do from today.
1. Early to bed and early to rise can save millions of unit of electricity.
2. Soak rice and lentils for some a few hours so that they can be cooked with less fuel.
3. Use sprouts and fruits in place of packaged junk food which consume huge amount of energy from processing to packaging to marketing.
4. Use soft copy to wish birthday to valentine. It can save millions of trees every year.
5. Take things out of refrigerator a few hours before use so that they warm to room temperature.
6. Switch off the iron before ironing the last cloth. The residual heat is enough to iron it.
7. Don’t smoke. This will give a few more days of life and a clean atmosphere to others.
9. Always carry a jute bag when going out to buy vegetable. Plastic is a great polluter and at the top of it takes thousands of painful years to degrade.
These are just some of the many possible ways that one can think about depending upon his or her circumstances.
Sustainable development is meaningless without sustainable consumption. The basic question is can our entire population consume at the level of the affluent nations without causing rapid depletion of our limited non-renewable resources? I wonder if such a happy state can ever be attained. The International Council for Science in its report to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002) underscored the need to encourage the development and sharing of new and existing patterns with due emphasis on local, culturally appropriate and low cost technologies.
To quote Stieglitz from his seminal work ‘Globalization and its Discontents’, we are a global community and like all communities have to follow certain rules so that we can live together. These rules must be seen to be- fair and just, must pay due attention to the poor as well as the powerful, must reflect a basic sense of decency and social justice.
To be contd...
The problem needs serious attention. And one ought to understand that at the centre of the thought for solutions has to be the belief that we cannot have unlimited desires on a limited planet. The earth, the land, the water and the resources are in limited supply. The need is to ensure their supply in a way that is sustainable. And like charity it should begin from self.
1. The first and the most important challenge is food. Studies have proved time and again the energy required to produce non-vegetarian food is much more than vegetarian food. This will also reduce stress upon our land resources. The surplus land can be used to increase the forest cover which act as lungs in our city life.
2. The second most important thing has to be green housing. A housing that reduces dependence upon electricity by optimally using sunlight, air and water.
3. ‘Life Infrastructure’ like drainage, water conservation facilities, parks and proper waste disposal and recycling facilities should be mandatory for those who can afford. The government should support these initiatives in irregular poor colonies.
4. A city like Delhi can draw a lot of its energy from renewable source like sunlight as it receives ample amount of it throughout the year. The use of solar water heater and solar cooker can save precious natural gas for our power houses. Energy can also be produced from waste and excreta. Proper recycling of the waste products will also solve the problem of hygiene. It would also employ a large number of people.
Beside these big things that have to be done at the policy level by the government, there are things each of us can do from today.
1. Early to bed and early to rise can save millions of unit of electricity.
2. Soak rice and lentils for some a few hours so that they can be cooked with less fuel.
3. Use sprouts and fruits in place of packaged junk food which consume huge amount of energy from processing to packaging to marketing.
4. Use soft copy to wish birthday to valentine. It can save millions of trees every year.
5. Take things out of refrigerator a few hours before use so that they warm to room temperature.
6. Switch off the iron before ironing the last cloth. The residual heat is enough to iron it.
7. Don’t smoke. This will give a few more days of life and a clean atmosphere to others.
9. Always carry a jute bag when going out to buy vegetable. Plastic is a great polluter and at the top of it takes thousands of painful years to degrade.
These are just some of the many possible ways that one can think about depending upon his or her circumstances.
Sustainable development is meaningless without sustainable consumption. The basic question is can our entire population consume at the level of the affluent nations without causing rapid depletion of our limited non-renewable resources? I wonder if such a happy state can ever be attained. The International Council for Science in its report to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002) underscored the need to encourage the development and sharing of new and existing patterns with due emphasis on local, culturally appropriate and low cost technologies.
To quote Stieglitz from his seminal work ‘Globalization and its Discontents’, we are a global community and like all communities have to follow certain rules so that we can live together. These rules must be seen to be- fair and just, must pay due attention to the poor as well as the powerful, must reflect a basic sense of decency and social justice.
To be contd...
Thursday, May 28, 2009
What Next (Part III)
The Human Touch Contd...
Do we take notice of the degradation of our environment or keep hoping that someone will find some solution? Can we rely on hope?
NO
Hope is never rational.
My Delhi is one of the world’s most polluted cities. My Delhi is also one of the greenest capitals of the world. How come both these designations are associated with one city!
The fact is Delhi is a city of more than 10 million people. Thousands of trains and trucks and millions of human beings come to Delhi every day. In New Delhi-1 and a few other areas where our political masters and the multimillionaires live there are parks, there are drainage facilities, playgrounds and lawns. There are other places like Tughlaquabad, Okhla, Badarpur and so many others where life is but survival. The struggle for food, for land, for air, for water, for sunlight…continues every day and night.
The question one may ask is why blame the rich and the powerful when every next person wants to be one. The issue is when you have a four member family owning eight cars, four TV sets, four laptops, four freezes, and an air conditioned duplex beside innumerable electrical gadgets, there is a problem. The issue is when you become a party to increasing carbon footprints; you become responsible for every single problem that results out of ecological imbalance.
Let me explain the how and what factor. India basically is an agricultural country. Around two-third of people in India are directly or indirectly depend for their livelihood on agriculture. Even if India can provide jobs to all of them in other sectors, which is anyway an impossible assumption as it would require market equivalent to three worlds, it’s not something sustainable. A country of 1.1 billion cannot afford to survive without food security of its own.
What has been happening in India is just its reverse. Agriculture has lost its charm. Well the reasons are overpopulation; lack of agricultural research, credit availability etc. But the most important reason is that we are unable to provide the necessary irrigation facilities. And behind this apart from policy and implementation matters are global warming and the resultant imbalance in the weather cycle. The recent flood in Bihar, Tsunami in December 2004, floods in Mumbai and Rajasthan, draught in parts of Andhra, Tamilandu, and Maharashtra and UP are all results of the growing imbalance in the weather cycle.
The resultant is massive migration of people towards cities, putting stress on the available resources making life miserable for the poor masse. Delhi is just one typical example of this. This is the situation that prevails in most of the developing world from, Mumbai to Durban, from Dhaka to Brasilia. The climate change affects mostly the poor as they are the least equipped to face any catastrophe.
To be continued...
Do we take notice of the degradation of our environment or keep hoping that someone will find some solution? Can we rely on hope?
NO
Hope is never rational.
My Delhi is one of the world’s most polluted cities. My Delhi is also one of the greenest capitals of the world. How come both these designations are associated with one city!
The fact is Delhi is a city of more than 10 million people. Thousands of trains and trucks and millions of human beings come to Delhi every day. In New Delhi-1 and a few other areas where our political masters and the multimillionaires live there are parks, there are drainage facilities, playgrounds and lawns. There are other places like Tughlaquabad, Okhla, Badarpur and so many others where life is but survival. The struggle for food, for land, for air, for water, for sunlight…continues every day and night.
The question one may ask is why blame the rich and the powerful when every next person wants to be one. The issue is when you have a four member family owning eight cars, four TV sets, four laptops, four freezes, and an air conditioned duplex beside innumerable electrical gadgets, there is a problem. The issue is when you become a party to increasing carbon footprints; you become responsible for every single problem that results out of ecological imbalance.
Let me explain the how and what factor. India basically is an agricultural country. Around two-third of people in India are directly or indirectly depend for their livelihood on agriculture. Even if India can provide jobs to all of them in other sectors, which is anyway an impossible assumption as it would require market equivalent to three worlds, it’s not something sustainable. A country of 1.1 billion cannot afford to survive without food security of its own.
What has been happening in India is just its reverse. Agriculture has lost its charm. Well the reasons are overpopulation; lack of agricultural research, credit availability etc. But the most important reason is that we are unable to provide the necessary irrigation facilities. And behind this apart from policy and implementation matters are global warming and the resultant imbalance in the weather cycle. The recent flood in Bihar, Tsunami in December 2004, floods in Mumbai and Rajasthan, draught in parts of Andhra, Tamilandu, and Maharashtra and UP are all results of the growing imbalance in the weather cycle.
The resultant is massive migration of people towards cities, putting stress on the available resources making life miserable for the poor masse. Delhi is just one typical example of this. This is the situation that prevails in most of the developing world from, Mumbai to Durban, from Dhaka to Brasilia. The climate change affects mostly the poor as they are the least equipped to face any catastrophe.
To be continued...
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Competing With The Best: Managing Strategically
“If you can run your business in India successfully, you will definitely be better prepared to face any other economy in the world. If nothing, at least you will be able to learn once you are outside”, says Dr. Rajnish Karki, the author of “COMPETING WITH THE BEST”. He further adds, “The sheer scale of Indian market offers both opportunities and challenges. While the complex nature of Indian market makes it a difficult nut to crack but those who persisted has succeeded.”
In an open interaction today in the pristine premises of the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi with Kiran Karnik, the former president of NASSCOM and currently Chairman, Satyam Computers, donning the role of anchor host, it was an evening worth it. Among industry bigwigs the session went beyond the immediate limits of the special session. Questions as wide as plummeting share market and corporate fraud and Tata’s acquisition were discussed. The market Czars discussed what constitutes the constraints now that India is no more a sellers market.
The book has the theme that global-focussed configuration was something unthinkable till 1990s. What followed has been an epoch making development for the Indian economy in general and Indian corporate world in particular. The credit for all this, said Dr Karnik in response to a question, definitely goes to the industry more than anything else.
Dr. Karki repeatedly talked about the unique Indianness about the way Indian companies work. He especially quoted the way Tatas carried out their execution. The IIM Alumni who has also taught strategic management there when asked for the reason behind the frustration of business school guys said that today’s youth lack the humility content. What a manager earlier expected after 20 years of service has begun to demand for more than that in just six months. Though the panel and the audience expressed confidence in the Indian entrepreneurs but confessed it could have been much better otherwise.
Detail abouth the author can be found at http://www.karkiassociates.com/
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