Before the whining drowns it out, listen to the new India

This is an article by Arun Shourie that I had read a couple of years back. I chanced to browse a site which contained a link to this article, and I felt like I should have it on my blog. This makes for very interesting reading if you take pride in India and has some lesser known facts about our economy.

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Twenty to twenty-five years ago, even 10 years ago, few of us had heard of Information Technology. Today, exports from this industry are worth $10 billion — that is, over Rs 45,000 crore a year. That figure is 20 per cent of our total exports.

In spite of the fact that each of the markets to which we supply IT software and solutions has been in the trough of recession for years, IT exports have grown by 26 per cent this year.

Infosys had not even been born 25 years ago. Wipro was a company selling vegetable oil. Indeed, other than the ‘‘Tata’’ in Tata Consultancy Services, there is scarcely a name in the IT industry that was known then.

And guess what the average age is in the industry? Just 26 and a half! These 26/ 27-year-olds have changed the world’s perception of India. It’s not just a country of snake-charmers, it’s a country against which protectionist walls have to be erected. Of course, we can also charm snakes.

And not just, to pluck a phrase of Malcolm Muggeridge, snakes in snakes’ clothing!

And these 26-year-olds are changing India’s perception also of itself: that India can; that, therefore, we should face the world with confidence.

That is the situation in activity after activity. We lament the fact that, while we are ahead in software, we have lost out to China in IT hardware. That is true — as of the moment. We shooed away firms like Motorola when they approached us in the early 1990s for facilities to set up manufacturing operations in India. China welcomed them, it wooed them, it created every conceivable facility for hardware firms from Japan, of course, but also from Taiwan, a country at which 400 of its missiles are aimed. It has thereby leapt ahead.

But the game is hardly over. That world-class hardware can be produced in India is evident. How many of us would have heard of Moser-Baer? Located in unprepossessing Noida, it is the world’s third largest optical media manufacturer, and the lowest-cost producer of CD-Recorders. Its exports are close to Rs 1,000 crore.

The firm sells data-storage products to seven of the world’s top 10 CD-R producers. And it produces them so efficiently that, to shield themselves, European competitors had to file an anti-dumping case to stop and penalise its exports to Europe. Moser-Baer fought on its own. And won.

A firm most of us have not heard of. A firm that is manufacturing products at the cutting edge of technology. A firm exporting Rs 1,000 crore of products that require the utmost precision and technological sophistication. A firm that European firms fear.

And equally important — the very international fora that our ideologues shout are instruments of exploitation hold against European firms, and in favour of this Indian firm.

There is more. Moser-Baer has acquired Capco Luxembourg, a firm that owns 49 per cent of a Netherlands-based CD-R distributor. And it has set up Glyphics Media Inc. in the United States—for markets in North and South America. And here we are being made to shiver at the thought that foreign firms are about to swallow us!

Heard of Tandon Electronics? Its exports of electronic hardware are close to Rs 4,000 crore!

At a moment’s notice, my friends Amit Mitra of FICCI and Tarun Das of CII send me particulars of firm after firm, in sector after sector, that has broken new ground. A sample:

* Fifteen of the world’s major automobile manufacturers are now obtaining components from Indian firms.

* Just last year, exports of auto-components were $375 million. This year they are close to $1.5 billion. Estimates indicate they will reach $15 billion within six to seven years.

* Hero Honda is now the largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world—with an output of 17 lakh motorcycles a year.

* One lakh Indica cars of the Tatas are to be marketed in Europe by Rover, one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious auto-manufacturers under its — that is, Rover’s — brand name.

* Bharat Forge has the world’s largest single-location forging facility — of 1.2 lakh tonnes per annum. Its client list includes Toyota, Honda, Volvo, Cummins, Daimler Chrysler. It has been chosen as a supplier of small forging parts for Toyota’s global transmission parts’ sourcing hub in Bangalore.

* Asian Paints has production facilities in 22 countries spread across five continents. It has recently acquired Berger International, which gives it access to 11 countries, and SCIB Chemical SAE in Egypt. Asian Paints is the market leader in 11 of the 22 countries in which it is present, including India.

* Hindustan Inks has the world’s largest single stream, fully integrated ink plant, of 1 lakh tonnes per annum capacity, at Vapi, Gujarat. It has a manufacturing plant and a 100 per cent subsidiary in the US. It has another 100 per cent subsidiary in Austria.

* For two years running, General Motors has awarded Sundaram Clayton its ‘Best Supplier Award’; the volumes it sources out of India are growing every year.

* Ford has presented the ‘Gold World Excellence Award’ to Cooper Tyres.

* Essel Propack is the world’s largest laminated tube manufacturer. It has a manufacturing presence in 11 countries including China, a global manufacturing share of 25 per cent, and caters to all of P&G’s laminated tube requirements in the US, and 40 per cent of Unilever’s.

* Aston Martin, one of the world’s most expensive car brands, has contracted prototyping its latest luxury sports car to an India-based designer. This would be the cheapest car to roll out of Aston Martin’s stable.

* Maruti has been the preferred supplier of small cars under the Suzuki brand for Europe. Suzuki has now decided to make India its manufacturing, export and research hub outside Japan.

* Hyundai Motors India is about to become the parent Hyundai Motors Corporation’s global small car hub. In 2003, HMC will source 25,000 Santros from HMI’s plant in India. By 2010 HMI is targeted to supply half a million cars to HMC.

It was only in 1999 that HMI got its first outsourcing contract and already, in 2003, 20 per cent of its sales will be what it supplies as an outsourcing hub. It is exporting cars to Indonesia, Algeria, Morocco, Columbia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

* Ford India got its first outsourcing contract in 2000. Within 3 years outsourcing accounts for 35 per cent of its sales. Ford India supplies to Mexico, Brazil and China. The parent Ford is sourcing close to $40 million worth of components from India, and plans to increase these in the coming years.

Ford India is already the sole manufacturing and supply base for Ikon cars and components. These are being exported to Mexico, China and Africa.

* Toyota Kirloskar Motors chose India over competitive destinations like Philippines and China for setting up a new project to source transmissions as this option proved more economical.

* Europe’s leading tractor maker, Renault, has chosen International Tractors (ITL) as its sole global sourcing hub for 40 to 85 horsepower tractors.

* Tyco Electronics India bagged its first outsourcing contract in 1998-99. So successful has it been that components and products others have contracted from it already account for 50 per cent of its total sales. It supplies to the parent, Tyco Europe.

* TISCO is today the lowest cost producer of hot-rolled steel in the world.

* TVS Motor Company has been awarded the coveted Deming Prize for Total Quality Management. Many of the largest of organisations, even American ones—like GE—have not managed that recognition yet!

India’s pharmaceutical industry has come to be feared as much as its infotech industry. It is already worth $ 6.5 billion and it has been growing at 8-10 per cent a year. It’s the fourth largest pharmaceutical industry in terms of volumes and 13th in value. Its exports have crossed $2 billion, and have increased by 30 per cent in the past five years. India is among the top five manufacturers of bulk drugs.

Even more telling is another figure. We are always being frightened, ‘‘Multinational drug companies are about to takeover.’’ In 1971 the share of these MNCs in the Indian market was 75 per cent. Today it’s 35 per cent!

There’s another feature we should bear in mind: India’s strengths are becoming evident across the technology spectrum:

* We are among the three countries in the world that have built supercomputers on their own, the US and Japan being the other two: two months ago, the fourth generation PARAM super-computer was inaugurated in Bangalore.

* We are among six countries in the world that launch satellites. We launch some of our own satellites of course; we have launched satellites for others too, among them such countries as Germany and Belgium. We have the largest set of remote sensing satellites. Our INSAT system is also among the world’s largest domestic satellite communication systems.

At the other end:

* India is one of the world’s largest diamond cutting and polishing centres. CLSA estimates nine of every 10 stones sold in the world pass through India.

* Trade of Indian medicinal plants has crossed Rs 4,000 crore.

Here is proof positive that liberalisation has indeed worked. ‘‘By opening the economy before giving it a chance to become competitive, we have thrown our industry to the wolves,’’ it used to be said. Quite the contrary. The success in exports, in fields such as IT in which competition is fierce, in which technological change is fast as lightning, success in auto-components, in pharmaceuticals shows that our industry has fought back, it has become competitive.

Remember all that shouting about Chinese batteries a year ago? ‘‘Markets are closing down, thousands are being thrown out of their meagre businesses, factory after factory has shut down.’’ That was the shouting just a few months ago.

Where are those batteries from China? Yes, trade with China has grown—by 104% in the past year. But according to figures of the Chinese Government, in the first five months of 2003, India has amassed a surplus in its trade with China, a surplus of close to half a billion dollars.

And China is just an instance. Exports as a whole, and in the face of an unrelenting recession in the West, have grown by 19 per cent in the year. In a word, what committees upon committees with their piles of recommendations would not have achieved, being actually exposed to actual competition has.

Our foreign exchange reserves are at an all-time high—$82 billion. We have announced that we will not be taking aid from a string of countries.

* We are giving aid to 10 or 11 countries.
* We are pre-paying our debt.
*We have just ‘‘loaned’’ $300 million to the IMF!

How distant the days when we used to wait anxiously for the announcement about what the Aid India Club meeting in Paris had decided to give us.

But there is the other side—equally telling. Why is it that so few among us know even the elementary facts about these successes? Why is it that so much of public, specifically political, discourse, when it is not whining is just wailing?

Happy Feet

Dont ask me what the movie is about.. I'm a little confused here.. Is it about someone being differently abled and proving oneself? Is it about the environment being destroyed by the humans and the consequences being faced by other creatures who cant voice their protest? Is it a validation of the theory of alien abductions? Or is it a love story? Mumble, Happy Feet, suffers a trauma as an egg when his Dad drops it sorta. Supposedly as a result of that, Mumble is unable to sing unlike other penguins but only tap dances all the time. His being differently abled makes him an outcast among his fellow penguins and except his Mom he has no support, except that his love interest, Gloria, has a soft corner for him too.



An eagle introduces the concept of Alien abduction which is nothing but humans catching him and tagging him.

From the POV of penguins and other creatures of Antarctica, humans are the aliens. They are the ones responsible for destroying the pristine environment of the Antarctic with their "research" activities and uninhibited trawling and all the garbage left behind. Fish populations are going down and the penguins are finding it hard to survive. So Mumble sets off to try to convince the aliens to stop fishing and lands up in a zoo where a kid watches him tap dance and he becomes a sensation. Next thing you know, Mumble is back to the Antarctic with a GPS device attached to his back! Sorry... but I think if an animal tap dances, he lands up on TV shows and ocean parks. When was the last time somebody let a performing animal free like that? If they wanted to track a penguin, they might have as well done that with any other one. Quite stupid to let a performer like that go $$$. Anyway, they follow Mumble to his home and see this huge population of penguins all convinced by Mumble to tap dance to seek the help of aliens and convince them to stop fishing in their waters. The aliens get the message loud and clear! What follows is a really brief international debate on deep sea fishing etc etc and the environmentalists win the battle at the (Dis)United Nations. (Sigh! I wish things were that easy for Greenpeace). So finally, everything falls into place. The penguins have the fish. Mumble is accepted back into the penguin society and gets his love Gloria. Actually, Gloria is nothing but the usual Hindi Movie heroine who doesn't much role in the movie but is there coz every movie has a heroine for the hero.

At the end of it, I got up a bit confused what the movie actually was about. Whatever, but being a kids movie, I reaaallly wouldn't expect songs and lyrics like "Lets talk about X baby, lets talk about you and me", "Move your body close to mine", "Love me all night long".. And.. you NEVER EVER EVER EVER say something like "Go forth and multiply" (F*** off in layman's terms) in a kids movie. Oh puhhhllleaasee... What the HELL were they thinking while writing the script?

How it got a PG rating from MPAA or past the Indian Censors baffles me quite a lot. Perhaps, Indian Censorboard things it is very gentlemanish to speak Fs in English, but don't even dream of translating that to any Cs in Hindi or any Indian languages for that matter.

Animation was really good though.

I liked the 5 Amigos characters the best who, despite being from another penguin family, take Mumble as their friend and stand with him through thick and thin. It is a fun-filled film but didn't find anything that great about it, say like Finding Nemo or Ice Age - doesn't even come as close as Siberia is to Sahara.

Back to Blogger and Blogging

I had been off the blogging scene for quite a long time now. As it is I wasn't much of a blogger anyways. Going through the blog of one of the bloggers here in Bangalore, I realised that how adding a few lines every now and then adds up to the blog - likes drops of water in a vessel.

Having decided to get back to some on and off blogging, I hated the fact that Blogger didn't have the next and previous buttons to seamlessly click through the blog. I had almost decided my mind to move to WordPress or Typepad or something or the other. Then Blogger came out of its beta mode with a whole lot of new features and I'm tempted to stay on.

Lets see how much I blog now on.

Maps of War

I came across this site called Maps of War while Military Stumbling using StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon is a cool extension for Firefox that you can install and is only a few KBs. You can chose your topics of interest and create a profile. StumbleUpon will create an icon on your menubar and each time you click on the icon, you are taken to a page of your interest that you specify. You can either leave the setting to All or choose the specific interest that you want to browse that time.



This is what I found. Happy Stumbling!

Reservation - 6

Here is a humourous article on reservation. If you read it carefully, you'll realize that reservation doesn't actually help the OBCs. It just makes them more dependent and handicapped.

Some Unreserved Thoughts on Reservation

I cant understand why there is a hue and cry over the latest reservation move. Our extremely aged and revered leader Arjunji has got such a bright idea. One must appreciate that it is very, very difficult to get bright ideas, in the advanced geriatric age group. Indeed, first of all, we should applaud him for his great SACRIFICE. Just like his leader, Soniaji, who has innumerable sacrifices to her credit, he has sacrificed the pleasures of old age and playing with great-grandchildren, in order to take up the profitless burden of ministership. And now he has hit upon this idea which will make him IMMORTAL! How can we grudge that; after all, if he misses this bus, I can't see many, many buses in the remaining life-span. Mr. VP Singh attained immortality by this route. He had an opportunity to become famous for other worthy deeds, but he wisely chose Mandalisation. How can we refuse Arjunji the same opportunity?

After all, what's wrong with reservation? If unreserved people feel squeezed out, and they start protesting (so uncivilized and undemocratic!), then, simply increase the total number of seats. Let there be 500 students in every classroom! Let India be a shining example to the world of mass higher education. If there is no physical space in the classroom, the reserved candidates of course must have the privilege of not attending classes. A certificate that a person was alive throughout the academic session should be enough to acquire the degree. Some stupid people suggest that the government should have taken positive steps for the upliftment of the downtrodden, rather than sedate and handicap them with quotas. The backward should have been given high class school education at govt cost. All deserving backward students should be given freeships, scholarships and very liberal financial aid, in order to promote progress, etc. What nonsense! If the backward people had progressed, who would have elected the current crop of our leaders? The backward are the backbone of Indian democracy. They have to be preserved and nurtured in their pristine state, in order to maintain the down-to-earth (or lower) quality of our leadership. Indeed, it is the pride of Indian Democracy! The quality of people who get elected to the legislatures and Parliament, and the colourful way in which they debate weighty issues, its fantastic! In short, backwardness is an institution which must be preserved and protected, and reservation is best obvious tool to achieve this goal.

Some other unintelligent, probably uneducated people, like Mr. Sam Pitroda suggested that the whole policy of reservation needs a rethink, and there are better things to be done than dishing out quotas. They say that our founding fathers including Shri Ambedkar had mooted reservations as a temporary, time-bound arrangement to square up things and now it has outlived its projected life span. What nonsense. I am sure that Babasaheb's spirit communicates daily with Arjunji and all other leaders in their dreams and hallucinations and has clearly told them that reservation was supposed to be a permanent feature, and the quota was supposed to be increased progressively by 5% every year after independence. As soon as the figure exceeds 100%, we must insist on reservations in neighbouring countries. Some neighbours of mine on the left side of our house suggested that if we want to indulge in trade with USA, we must force them to accept reservations, and apply them to visa permits also. Such are the noble thoughts. May the numbers and the varieties of the backward ever go on increasing, and may backwardness never face the hreat of extinction.

Some of my Doctor friends are wondering why Arjunji is after Medical and Engineering seats. Doctors earn nothing compared to the labour they put in.The real earning is with filmstars, cricketers, sportsmen, TV and fashionindustry. If Arjunji is really interested in the welfare of the reserved, he should not force them into becoming doctors. They'll probably curse him. He should impose hefty quotas in all films, TV serials, all sports. I am told that the Coach of the Indian cricket team is paid very, very well. It should forthwith be declared a reserved post. Quotas in such areas only will give the reserved access to the real treasures of India. At the moment, politics is the only real avenue for them.

One last thought. Why are we worrying soooo much? Solutions for all the problems of India are safely and lovingly locked away in the infinite, ocean-like benevolent mind of the most pity-full, most loving and ever self-sacrificing patron Goddess of the Indian Nation, the most holy and noble Soniaji! Why should we worry when she is around? It is only a matter of Mahurat. The astrologers are waiting for the right alignment of the planets. At the right time, Arjunji, Manmohanji and other such saints have to march to the Heavenly residence, prostrate themselves before the Almighty Goddess, and beseech her to utter the Golden Words. And when She Speaketh, Voila! Mama Mia! The problem will vanish into thin air! There will be dancing and rejoicing in the Central Hall, and everyone will live happily thereafter!

Disclaimer
The above is a figment of imagination. Any character resembling any person living, dying, or dead, must be a divine co-incidence, totally unintended, and un-engineered.

Source: Forwarded Email.

I am not against OBCs, I am against reservation.

Reservation - 5 .... Congress will pay

I am not against OBCs, I am against reservation.

Reservation (Not A) Joke - 4

The following is reportedly a copy of the post on IIT Kharagpur's bulletin board.

Message:
They made me feel low.

I belong to OBC class. I am from a place where discrimination based on caste was very common. I grew hearing I am inferior because I am from back ward class. I had regretted in my childhood why was I born in backward class.

When my friends used to tease me on my caste my ma (mother) used to tell me only way to make you friends mouth shut is to study well and top in the class. I took this idea seriously and channelized my frustration towards my studies. There was a big change in me I started working very hard and transformed me from a poor performer of the class to the district 2nd topper of X exam 1996 supaul. After that performance also some of my racist friends disparaged my success by saying, I must have some connection with the govt of Bihar. Since the then cm of Bihar belongs to my caste. I was very disappointed not by the disparagement by my friends but by thinking why I belonged to my class.

Then I started preparing very hard to prove that my performance of X was genuine. I worked real hard and got through IIT JEE 2000. I got a place in B-Tech chemical engg at IIT KGP. I was apprehensive about-facing the same experience here also. But I was surprised when no body asked me my caste there. I was surprised from the environment there. No body really cared which cast I belonged to. No body at iit ever care from which religion or which cast one belongs to. Feeling of equality was for the first time felt by me there. I feel no place on the earth will be as secular and as racism free as iit

Slowly my feeling of inferiority because of my class started fading away. I started believing in equality of human. I started loving people not based on their cast but based on their ideas. I forgot all the discrimination. I feel proud of living in such a great environment. This place not only made me grow technically but also socially. I am real secular I dont only say it but also feel it.

But when one start feeling good about something in life god takes it away. Before this announcement of reservations I had started believing that India is growing not only economically but also socially.

I was feeling freedom from boundaries of caste and creed. But suddenly our leaders asked me to feel that I am a backward. They made me remember my childhood days. Now it has become difficult for me to feel same as I felt before this announcement.

I am really worried for my alma mater. I feel our leaders are going to spoil the haven on earth for their own benefit. I would like to suggest one thing if all the leaders will be sent to iits then only they can know the real meaning of secularism what they keep on trumpeting around. I will not mind if some of the seats of iit will be given to our leaders to make them understand the real meaning of secularism.

But now I am sure once they make reservations mandatory for admissions in institutes it will replace the equality with the hatred and discrimination.

I urge our leaders dont do this to us. Our generation has changed. Please dont separate us on the basis of our birth. Over which no one has any control. We have started believing in equality, hard work and dedication for success. Please dont break our faith.

It will really spoil the unity of our nation. Please let the new generation of India live in a world where ideas matter not the birth class.

I am not against OBCs, I am against reservation.

Reservation Jokes - 3

Life After 10 years (Effects of Reservation)

Sun is rising as usual in the east .I am standing here outside the school,waiting for my 10 yr kid. He studies in class 2. Only this year he could get admission into the school. For the last 5 yrs admissions were closed for thegeneral category students.

School bell rings. I can see a lot of happy children coming out of the gate, Iwaited for half an hour and my kid came at last after other children. General students are not allowed to cross the gate unless other OBC/SC/ST students havecrossed the gates.

OBC/SC/ST fathers drive away their children in classy cars. But I have to walkback home with my kid a 5km stretch. I lost my car some years back whenGovt. came with a rule that general people have to deposit a tax equal to costof their cars. Failing which I had to sell the car.

As far as buses are concerned, the seats in buses are reserved for OBC/SC/ST. So no place there also. After walking some 5km in scorching heat I finallyreached home.

It was Wednesday … shit no electricity. Every Mon, wed, Thu, sat is power cutin the houses of General category population So that SC/ST/OBC can beuplifted by providing them with every opportunity and in that considerationelectricity is an important factor.

Its 10:00 pm in night no electricity at home. It’s very hot inside the fourwalls of home .So I dare to step out in park with my wife and kid.

I seated myself with my family on a secluded bench in garden. It was hardly 5min. a guard came to us strolling in the park. He asked me what caste you belong to. I said with some hesitation. G..General. He asked me to pay a fineof Rs.200 and get out of the park. My Fault… The bench I was sitting on was meant for again the SC/ST/OBC . For their upliftment peace of mind is onessential things. So Government came with this decision to reserve benches forthem. Kudos to them…

Its early in the morning …the newspaperwala just knocked the door. I took the newspaper and started reading. Its independence day . I never used to forget this days some 20 yrs back. My kid hardly knows what 15th august is, because I never told him any stories of greatness of our country or anythingrelated to country. I don"t feel like telling him the failures after freedom.

On front page of newspaper, in a corner their is a news about a OBC member getting 6 months imprisonment in "BAL SUDHAR GRAHA" from a juvenile courtfor murdering and raping a six year old girl. Yes the rules have been amended, since the last 5 years. The Culprit was a 25 year old OBC, so age relaxation was provided for trial of crime. So he was taken to juvenile court, since there is an age relaxation for OBC/SC/ST.

About 11 am some one gave me the BAD news about demise of one of my neighborand friend Mr. Mehta. I went to his house for condolence next day, his body was lying there still rotting in the heat. I asked his son about the Cremation .His son told me "Many reserved category have died yesterday so we are not getting entry to cremation ground”. This rule is the latest from Government where the seats in cremation ground will be reserved for SC/ST/OBC for their upliftment.

Finally next day Mehta-ji was cremated could see sun setting through the Flames burning a liberated Body, liberated from caste and creed. I was surprised sun still sets in the west?

it was about 9 pm , I was about to sleep in my bed my son came to me with innocence in his eyes , inquisitively he asked me the question what is reservation? I asked him where you listened that he suddenly burst in tears… I asked him tokeep quite. But I could listen through his sobs "mujhe bhi reservation chahiye(I too want reservation)".

How can I convince him it’s no other toy in the market I can get for him?

He kept crying that night, claiming many of "his classmates have gotreservation". To make him quiet I said ok; ill buy you reservation at your next B"day.

HOPE he understands the bloody concept soon. Bye Bye India !!

Source: Email forward.

I am not against OBCs, I am against reservation.

Reservation Jokes - 2

A man is caught in a traffic jam, when suddenly someone taps on the window of his car. He lowers the window and asked what he wants.

The man says, "Arjun Singh is kidnapped and the ransom is 50 million dollars. If the ransom is not paid, the kidnappers have threatened to douse him with Petrol and set him on fire.

We are taking up a collection, do you wish to contribute?" The man in the car asks, "On an average what are people donating?"

The other man replies, "About 5 to 10 liters….!!

I am not against OBCs, I am against reservation.

Reservation Jokes - 1

Here are some Arjun Singh jokes to make you smile.

Qs 1. What is an Arjun Singh sale?
Ans. 49.5% off.

Qs 2. Which is Arjun Singh's favorite city?
Ans. Kota.

Qs 3. Why doesn't Arjun Singh have too many friends?
Ans. Because he is 'reserved' by nature.

Qs 4. Why did Arjun Singh learn Arabic?
Ans. So that he could read 'backwards'.

Qs 5. Arjun Singh was made the Law Minister. He zapped everyone by creating another Supreme Court. He called it the Supreme Tribunal. What was his logic?
Ans. For every SC, there should be an ST.

Qs 6. If Arjun Singh were to make a career in films, which job would he opt for?
Ans. Choosing the cast(e).

Qs 7. If Arjun Singh owned a movie theater, what would the Balcony be called?
Ans. Backward class.

Qs 8. If Arjun Singh were a historian, how would he divide Time?
Ans. AD, BC, and OBC.

I am not against OBCs, I am against reservation.

A Bengali Poem

I got this poem in my mail from yahoogroups. I'm not sure who the author is of this really humerous poem, but I guess its the sender, Angeeka Biswas.

Bengali Poem

Through the jongole I am went
On shooting Tiger I am bent
Bustaard Tiger has eaten wife
No doubt I will avenge poor darling's life

Too much quiet, snakes and leeches
But I not fear these sons of beeches
Hearing loud noise I am jumping with start
But noise is coming from damn fool's heart

Taking care not to be fright
I am clutching rifle tight with eye to sight
Should Tiger come I will shoot and fall him down
Then like hero return to native town

Then through trees I am espying one cave
I am telling self - "Bholanath be brave"
I am now proceeding with too much care
From far I smell this Tiger's lair

My leg shaking, sweat coming, I start to pray
I think I will shoot Tiger some other day
Turning round I am going to flee
But Tiger giving bloody roar spotting this Bengalee

He bounding from cave like football player Pele
I run shouting "Kali Ma tumi kothay gele"
Through the jongole I am running
With Tiger on my tail closer looming

I am a telling that never in life
I will risk again for my damn fool wife

PS:- Every language is funny, every community is silly, everyone has an accent. You are no greater or intelligent by virtue of birth, and I am no lesser. In short, dont be a Idiotic Racist.

Ghosts of Chernobyl - I

The Ghosts of Chernobyl is a photo show I have put together from what I came across on the web, mostly from Greenpeace.


Nine-year-old Alexandra with her father Vitaly in Gomel, Belarus. Alexandra has a birth defect, called hydrocephalus. Vitaly has quit his job to care for his daughter. The family lives in the fall out zone of the Chernobyl disaster.


Sisters Irina and Elena live in an area of Belarus contaminated by the Chernobyl disaster. Both have had brain tumours removed and now have problems with their thyroid gland.


Galina has thyroid cancer. For surgeon Igor Komisarenko, most of his patients are thyroid cancer victims: "The closer to Chernobyl, the higher the chances of getting thyroid cancer."


Nastya, from Belarus was only three years old when she was diagnosed with cancer of the uterus and lungs. According to local doctors the region has seen a huge increase in childhood cancer cases since the Chernobyl disaster.


Natalia had a brain tumour at 8 and her little brother Kostya has Down’s syndrome. They live near Mayak, the site of a former nuclear plant in Russia and the most radioactively polluted place on Earth. Radioactive waste was poured straight in to the river. Their mother swam in the river and blames it for her children’s illnesses. "We didn’t know there was anything wrong until many people became ill. We called it river disease."


Ramzis has hydrocephalus. “I don’t like to go to school, because the boys call me bad names. The girls avoid me and don’t want to go out with me. I hope I will not have children who look like me.” Ramzis lives near Mayak, the site of a former Russian nuclear plant and the most radioactively polluted place on Earth.


Ardak lives in the highly contaminated Semipalatinsk nuclear test zone in Kazakhstan. He is 33 and suffering from a rare bone disease that makes his body shrink. His doctors don’t know what is wrong and think he may die. He has shrunk more than 30 centimetres.

In the cancer ward of a Kiev hospital in the Ukraine, 19-year-old Elena is being treated for her second case of thyroid cancer in just 3 years.

India's Nuclear Gamble

Yesterday, I accidentally came to know that today is the 20th infamous anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster (April 26, 1986). So I’m hastily posting an article that I’ve been writing, but not quite finished. I say hastily, because I wanted to collect more data and figures before I make this post. However, since today is the Chernobyl anniversary, I felt that it would be the most appropriate date for this post, looking at the mistakes that others made in the past and perhaps learning something from it.

The initial euphoria of the Indo-US nuclear deal has long since died down, and the way things stand, it’s going to be bumpy ride before the US Senate ratifies the treaty. In promoting nuclear energy, the USA is also advancing its benefit. In the near future, India’s plans are to import 8 nuclear reactors. This, I believe although not sure, are for Tarapur Atomic Power Project 3 and 4 (Maharashtra), Kaiga Atomic Power Project 3 and 4 (North Karnataka), Kudankulam Power Project 1 and 2 (Tamil Nadu), and Rawatbhata Atomic Power Project 3 and 4 (Rajasthan). US is certainly gleeful over the prospect of getting at least 2, if not more, contracts for itself, and this fact comes straight right from an article called “Our Opportunity With India” in The Washington Post by Condoleeza Rice, Secretary of State. According to her, just 2 contracts will generate employment for thousands of US workers. With a bit of diplomacy, I think it is an improbable certainty that US will get at least the bare minimum of what it wants. Another reason for US’ vested interest in promoting nuclear energy in India is our booming economy and industry, which is craving for energy and raising the demand significantly for oil in the international market pushing up prices significantly. India's goal is to have 20,000 MWe nuclear capacity installed by 2020. If we achieve our nuclear energy generation targets, that will put a lesser burden on the international crude prices and also for US.

It is well known that Indian economy is booming at a rate of 8% and the aims are at 10% of annual growth. It’s not going to be an easy task considering the fact that the country is facing a huge energy crisis. To sustain the momentum, India is looking forward to nuclear energy as a ‘cheap’ and ‘clean’ option (?). Also add to the fact that it will lessen our dependence on fossil fuel based power, which has its own disadvantages. Coal is highly polluting and the supply of oil is the monopoly of the OPEC cartel largely dominated by the middle east which itself is a hotbed of unrest and violence. The price of crude has been rising significantly over the past few years, and the dependence on oil is proving to be a major hindrance for India. During the Kuwait crisis, India almost ran out of oil stocks with reserves barely enough to sustain domestic needs for about 1 month if I remember that right. We can’t have such a situation happen again at this juncture of economic growth. Those in power also do not forget to miss out on emphasizing the point regarding the pollution caused by fossil fuel based power plants. The CO2 emissions of India from such power plants itself is accounted to be in the tune of 170 million tons which is the total CO2 output of a country like Netherlands. The point that is clearly missed that nuclear energy is far from being a clean fuel, perhaps we can call it a superficially clean fuel. Superficial because in a nuclear plant, we do not see the thick smoke emanating from sky-high chimneys associated with fossil fuel based power plants. The risk of radiation exposure exists in each and every stage of production of nuclear energy, right from the mining of ore to ore processing to generation of energy to waste disposal. Nuclear waste is highly radioactive and needs to be disposed away in sealed containers buried deep under the earth away from any sort of human or natural interference in order to prevent any radiation leakage. Although it may sound very simple, but practically speaking, it is never a fail-safe method. The risk of spillage of radiation into the environment is omnipresent. Burying it deep in the ground may sound like a good enough option but in a seismically active country like ours, even that doesn’t sound very reassuring to me. An earthquake can easily cause a rupture in the sealed containers and cause them to leak. Worse still, since the leakage will take place underground and without any tools to prevent it, we may not find out about it until the Geiger counter comes alive and the harm has already been done.

From a security point of view, I feel it’s just a big mistake. In an event of war, a conventional attack on any of the nuclear plants can have as devastating enough an affect as using a nuclear warhead. A terrorist strike may sound really far fetched and paranoid, but we thought an attack on the Parliament too as impossible until December 13, 2001, happened, that too when both houses were in session. In the recent past, there have been reports coming into limelight about terrorist sleeper cell agents being active in defense and other sensitive organizations and carrying out espionage activities. HAL had one such incident not so long ago. A terrorist strike need not be carried out with Kalashnikovs and Chinese made grenades. A sleeper cell agent working inside a nuclear plant is quite capable at that and a bigger threat than an attack right upfront. Such cells can strike anywhere but at a nuclear plant, it will be one of the most devastating.

A real and greater possibility than a terrorist strike is something going wrong in the plant, be it for human error or technical malfunction. Both US and Russia have had nuclear accidents. While the one at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, didn’t cause any major issues, Chernobyl, Belarus, wasn’t so lucky as we all know. According to recently released damning report by Greenpeace (click2download), it is estimated that more than 270,000 people will develop cancers and 93,000 people fatal cancer in the future. In the last 15 years, 60,000 people have died in Russia because of Chernobyl and estimates of the total death toll for the Ukraine and Belarus could reach another 140,000. This figure does not take into account the various other non-fatal diseases, genetic mutation defects, etc. The fallout of the radiation crossed boundaries and reached until eastern United States apart from contaminating large parts of mainland Europe and England. The effects of the disaster will be felt for hundreds of years to come. The worst radiated regions will be totally unfit for human inhabitance for 900 years.

The Chernobyl Unit 4 Reactor was of 3200 MWe capacity and much larger than the 240 MWe and upcoming 540MWe capacity reactors of India. The major cities of India are a stone's throw away in terms of nuclear radiation fallout. Narora plant (Uttar Pradesh) near New Delhi, Trombay (Maharashtra) near Mumbai, Kakrapar (Gujrat) which is again near to Mumbai besides Ahmedabad , Kaiga near Bangalore, Kudankulam and Kalpakkam (Tamil Nadu) near Chennai. In the unfortunate event of even a small disaster for whatever reason, it can possibly contaminate a large part of the country and all major cities with high levels of radiation. After all, there have been “200 near miss” accidents till date throughout the world that have largely gone unreported in the media or not given due coverage. The question is whether we can deal in any meaningful way the ensuing humanitarian and economic catastrophe. It is a question than can have only a negative answer.

It has been 2 decades since the Bhopal gas tragedy. More than 15,000 people were killed and 150,000 to 600,000 injured. The Government’s response to the tragedy has been so flawed and callous that even now the factory has not been “cleaned up” properly. Chemicals still leak into the ground from decaying containers polluting the soil and underground water reserves. The hapless victims of the tragedy still have to stage dharnas and satyagrahas at the heart of the capital to make their voices heard in the corridors of power. From an economic point of view, the economic burden of dealing with the number of probable radiation victims, providing them with medical care and rehabilitation will be a Herculean task and capable of crippling any economy beyond repair. All the growth and boom can be just wiped out by an unfortunate twist of fate, a single nuclear accident.

There is also a possibility that such an accident may never happen. Being a Sagittarian, I think its only natural to be an optimist about the whole radioactive topic. If India is lucky enough to pull it off without any mishaps, it’ll really thrust the nation into the league of developed countries. CO2 gas levels, as mentioned above, will fall significantly. However, the million-dollar question is, what if things go wrong somewhere someday? Is it really worth taking the risk? Do we really need to turn a blind eye at the potentially fatal risk that we are getting into for a few Rupees more? Our greed of growth might turn into a horrible dream that will last for hundreds of years. I would rather pick economic backwardness and/or slower growth rather than have a nuclear accident and consequent near-eternal economic backwardness coupled with a population plagued by cancer and genetic mutations for generations to come. By the time the radioactive dust of the fallout settles down on us, the glitter of India shining would have instantly rusted and decayed resembling the sarcophagus over Chernobyl Unit 4 Reactor and the ghost town that now surrounds it.

[PS: This article may contain few unintentional factual errors due to the paucity of time I faced at the time of this post. I shall make every attempt to cross check and make necessary edits as soon as I get the time. Inputs from Greenpeace,Wikipedia, and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd etc on the net.]

Chernobyl Certificate No 000358

This is Annya. She is more than just a number.

Being a victim of the Chernobyl disaster means more than just a number. Often, it's a lifetime of suffering due to a dirty and dangerous industry still being promoted with our tax money.

Annya was born in 1990 in a village highly contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown of April 26, 1986. A cancerous brain tumour at the age of 4 marked the end of Annya's childhood, and the beginning of a life of pain and illness. Annya, now 15 and bed-ridden, has spent her life in and out of hospital between tumours and life support. Every 15 minutes of every night, she must be turned in order to prevent further pain and bedsores.

Twenty years after the Chernobyl disaster, Annya and her parents battle everyday with the cruel and personal legacy of Chernobyl. Their home village in the south of Belarus, irradiated and uninhabitable, was razed and buried years ago. Gomel, the region where they live now, is economically and socially depressed and work is hard to find.

Annya's is just one story. In Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and beyond, there are 100,000's of people who lost a chance of a normal life to nuclear disaster on a quiet spring night in 1986. Thousands of stories. Thousands of certificates. Thousands of lives forever and irreparably scarred.
Nuclear technology is inherently dangerous. Today, thankfully, it is also unnecessary. Our energy needs can be met with safe and efficient renewable energy technologies so why are so many politicians peddling nuclear power at the very time we need it least when we have safe and sustainable sources available to power the world?

Why does the UN, through its International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), continue to promote the nuclear technology that creates the very materials used to make the nuclear weapons it is mandated to stop? Is it the role of a UN agency, funded by your taxes, to advance the profits of the nuclear industry? Do we not have the right to expect the IAEA to focus only on the values and principles of the UN - peace, security, and human rights - and not on private industry's profits?
In some ways, sadly, Annya is just a number. She is one of hundreds of thousands of victims living the devastating aftermath of Chernobyl. For Annya and for the thousands of children like her, WE need to speak out and say NO more nuclear, NO more Chernobyls. If WE don't, who will?

[This article copyright of Greenpeace and not my original creation. However, I couldn't agree any less with the message conveyed in the article. The article has been edited a bit here and there but overall content remains the same]

Something New

As a Greenpeace cyberactivist, I routinely follow up various national and international environmental stories as much leeway as time would allow when I'm not shuttling between office-home-college-home. Until now, my "cyberactivism" was limited to writing to various heads of state, elected representatives, members of parliament, etc., urging them to take action regarding various environmental issues. I am quite sure that they get thousands of such similar mails from other cyberactivists too, and they would definately not have the time to read them personally. I don't blame them. There are much important things a member of parliament a has to do than bother about an environment under threat, e.g. elections, swindle tax-payer's money, and well, you know the rest. Regardless whether they read it or not, I have got few replies. Taking it a step further, I just thought of writing about environmental issues on my blog. I dont have a large group of visitors on my blog, just a few of my friends and colleagues, but I hope that people who read it will be a bit more aware about whats going on and perhaps take a positive step.

Fraudy Gets Promoted

First thing I saw when I checked my mail today was the good news. Fraudy is going back to his natural habitat in Coimbatore. He's been appointed as TL there. For the uninitiated, Fraudy is Vijayendran K, CMT, presently QA here in Spheris, Bangalore. The first photo was taken on October 2, 2004, when he was, by an unlucky twist of fate, the QC of my team in night shift [From L to R: Fraudy, Baiju, Rohan, and myself]. The second photo was more recently taken on February 15, 2006, on ethnic day. It was ethnic day but Fraudy hid his arrow-tipped tail and 2 horns on the head cleverly and wasn't carrying his spear either [devil's attire]. By the way, CMT designation in his case stands for Corrupt Medical Transcriptionist and not related to anything prestigious like the one given by AAMT.

Officially, he is also the biggest monkey of Monkey Squad (MS) and is also called MS-III by Squad Members, the other Squad Monkeys being Rohan and myself. He quite blatantly denies the fact of being one of the Monkey Squad but just have a look at any of his recent trip photographs to BR Hills and Kodai and you will, by all odds, not miss him hanging from a tree branch or the hanging roots of a banyan tree, and I am not joking. I've heard that the difference in the genes between humans and chimps is just 3%, but there can be few aberrations to the general rule as is overtly evident in his case.



From genes, lets move on to transfer of genes. Have any of you ever given a passing thought as to why this young eligible monkey is still a bachelor and not married. Let me divulge the juicy secret. He's still waiting for the dowry rates to climb to dizzying heights, perhaps the way the BSE has seen a meteoric rise in the near past. I hope the greedy fellow gets married some day and doesn't keep waiting forever.

He was one among those many who encouraged me to take a shot at proofing, but before you brand him as a large-hearted human being, I should tell you that behind the encouragement lay the intricate devilish plot of the villainous mind of a hideous psychopath. His ulterior motive was to cut points in my QA files and botch the happiness of my life. He drew an inch closer to the realization of his morbid fantasy when I landed up in proofing eval finally on March 7, 2006, originally slated
for December 2005. However, he is appointed already TL, and I'm still practicing "Horror Docs" as of today.

It comes as no surprise that he's appointed as TL. Who else can better nurture future monkeys of Coimbatore to climb the ladder of success? He's humble and has no airs about himself, pretty much down to earth I must say. I am sure MTs under his team will have no issues with
him - unless they have some attitude problem themselves. I have always got the best piece of advice from him, but the thing that I'll miss the most will be Coimbatore chips that he used to
get on his return from his monthly visits.

Now, the world too looks up to India- The Times of India

I came across this article about India and felt like blogging it. Feels really nice to know that the world is looking up to India.

The world views India's role more positively than it does the role of the US, China or Russia, according to a BBC poll of close to 40,000 people across 33 countries. What's more, unlike these other countries, India is seen positively even by people living in its own neighbourhood. Overall, about 35% of all the respondents saw India's role in global affairs as positive against 25% who said it was negative, a sizeable 41% having no opinion. There were only six countries in which India was perceived by a majority as playing a negative role. The list of these six countries is a rather unexpected one — Brazil, Argentina, Finland, France, Turkey and the Philippines. The only country with a majority negative view on India is Philippines (57%), while in the other five, the number of those who saw India’s role as negative was more than those who felt it was playing a positive role. Pakistan was not among the countries in which the poll was conducted, but 71% of Iranian respondents, 59% of those in Afghanistan, 49% in Sri Lanka and 39% in China viewed India’s role positively, given the fact that only 47% of Indian respondents were of the same view. These are among the results of a poll of 39,435 people conducted for the BBC World Service by the international polling firm GlobeScan together with the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland. The poll was conducted in 33 countries across the globe and the respondents were asked to give their opinion — positive, negative or neutral about India, China, Japan, US, Europe, Britain, France, Russia and Iran respectively. India also has reason to be pleased, as nine countries in which Islam is the major religion, only in Turkey does it get the thumbs down. In all the others, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania, India was viewed more positively than negatively. Not surprisingly, the US comes out worst apart from Iran. Not only is opinion overwhelmingly against it in its own backyard — Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina — it is seen as a negative influence in all of Europe except in Poland. Africa is the only continent on which it is by and large viewed positively, while in Asia, the US gets a mixed response. Even South Koreans and Australians are not too pleased with the US role in world affairs. Europe and Japan received the most enthusiastic endorsements from the respondents. There was in fact, not a single country which viewed Europe’s role as negative, whereas Japan was viewed unfavourably only by its immediate neighbours and long-time rivals South Korea and China. Like the US, Russia was disliked in neighbouring countries like Poland and Finland, though not in China. In fact, like the US, Russia could garner support for its role mainly from the African continent. China was viewed positively by most of Asia - barring South Korea - Latin America and Africa, but negatively on the whole by Europe, apart from Spain, and North America. Iran was easily the country seen as the one with the most negative role, with respondents in only five countries saying it had a positive role to play.

Source- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1400412.cms

Partition of India

This is the link to a site which I came across while browsing for topics related to India's partition with regards to Burma and Sri Lanka. Although it does not deal the the said topic, its related to the Partition of 1947, written by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and also available for download in PDF format. It makes for interesting reading if you like history. I have included the various parts and chapters of the book. You'll get an idea what all the book deals with.

http://www.ambedkar.org/pakistan/

PAKISTAN OR THE PARTITION OF INDIA - By Dr. B.R. Ambedkar

PART 1 : MUSLIM CASE FOR PAKISTAN
Chapter I : What does the league demand ?
Chapter II : A nation calling for a home
Chapter III : Escape from degradation

PART II - HINDU CASE AGAINST PAKISTAN
Chapter IV : Break-up of Unity
Chapter V : Weakening of the Defences
Chapter VI : Pakistan and communal peace

Part III - WHAT IF NOT PAKISTAN ?
Chapter VII : Hindu alternative to Pakistan
Chapter VIII : Muslim alternative to Pakistan
Chapter IX : Lessons from abroad

PART IV : PAKISTAN AND THE MALAISE
Chapter X : Social stagnation
Chapter XI : Communal aggression
Chapter XII : National frustration

PART V :
Chapter XIII : Must there be Pakistan
Chapter XIV : The problems of Pakistan
Chapter XV : Who can decide ?