Global Sustainability

Until some time back, things were all going fine, we had all our imperfections in the society however there was no crisis from nature. We had all the natural resources in plenty. But then we started using them recklessly, and it took a toll on nature.

Nature came back to us, not in a pleasant way. Climate started changing. Water crisis started. Rains have become very less. Groundwater is becoming polluted.

Today we need to slow down a bit on technology and start developing sustainable developmental habits. Government policies and laws are needed, however the awareness of every individual is of critical importance. 

As a common citizen, I feel the following are the salient features which should be taken care of with utmost urgency :-

1) Town/city/village planning - A systematic demographic analysis of the various cities/towns and villages have to be done. Development should not be localized to certain cities only, rather a distributed developmental model has to be laid town and cities/villages should be planned as per master plans taking into account all aspects of sustainability so that the ecology is not disturbed.

Strict laws have to be made so that builders are not able to do scrupulous building constructions and disturb the ecosystem of the area.

2) Waste disposal/recycling and management - First priority in terms of sustainability is that of  how we manage our waste in whatever form it is. The Government should provide incentives for developing profitable industries around recycling and managing all types of waste. Landfills are no longer a means of disposing off waste. We need to have comprehensive waste management so that 100% of the waste can be recycled. The impetus to this will come from policy, polity and legality, i.e., policies backed by strong legal backbone. The citizens role however would be to create awareness and voluntarily follow principles of waste management.

3) Water conservation - Preventing industrial and any other forms of waste to go into rivers and water bodies is very critical. Today we are facing acute water crisis in cities as well as villages. We need to rejuvenate rivers, as well as harvest rain and ground water and also prevent water wastage in our day to day usage. Again this whole effort has to be backed by law and policies.

4) Energy conservation and use of renewable sources of energy - We all know that all the oil is going to finish someday, but the irony is we have hardly invested in R&D in renewable energy sector. This again has to be backed by policies and laws. Academia has a major role to play in this regard.

5) Efficient public transport modes - The above point is best augmented through good public transport systems, the best among them is sub-urban railway system, which is extremely sustainable and energy efficient. The number of cars on the road would be drastically reduced and so is the pollution caused by smoke, and also reduced consumption of fuel. This would be one of the finest methods of bringing immediate sustainability in the ecosystem. 

6) Natural farming - Chemical-free farming is the modern as well as the ancient system of agriculture. Perma-culture and many such methods today are proving the fact that natural farming which is pesticide free is sustainable in the long term as well as gives better yields. Again this has to be backed by policies and laws.

7) Food supply chain - Today a country like India produces surplus food. But such is the irony that many people in this country remain hungry. Billions of tons of food is wasted every day/ every year. The food supply chain network is heavily influenced by political parties and muscle power. Hence tons of food is wasted but it never reaches the needy. India produces so much food that it can fulfill all its needs as well as export to countries like Africa. In fact we can just give away excess food without any price, to needy countries. 

Surprisingly if we ponder a bit deeper, all aspects of sustainability are linked with socio-economic development. This can be harnessed through financial incentives and creating an eco-system that encourages profit-making through better sustainability models. 

As Mahatma Gandhi said "The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed."  

It is human greed that is responsible for the destruction of nature, ecology and environment. We can only beat this with awareness and laws of the land. 

Let us all together join hands to create sustainable developmental models and protect this planet. It is high time that we act. The seriousness of this issue is beyond imagination.

The “Political Paradox”

Democracy:

 

India is a multi party country. There is no upper limit to the maximum number of political parties we can have. But today we see that mainly there are 2 or 3 major alliances that represent majority of the political will of the citizens both at the national and the state level. The major part of the development that has happened in this country has happened without the much needed political impetus in the Governance machinery. It is through the sustained efforts of individuals of this country that we have done some development in the technology, education and the economic sectors. But that development is sparsely distributed across different social sectors. Merely 3% of the population of India earn a livelihood of more than Rs. 6500 per month (World Bank data). The rest 97 % earn below that to different degrees. So if I look at it, I see no development at all. The entire government machinery both at the national and state levels is nearly ineffective.

 

Politics:

 

Politics was actually understood in the ancient days as the authority created for the welfare of the society. (My definition of society includes human beings + animals + plants + nature + environment.) Today politics implies the means to enjoy the power and privileges of Government and even misuse of the same for fulfilling ulterior individual motives. And we as the voters continuously cast our votes based on cast, religion, regional biases at the state and the national levels. The new concept of “rationalism” which implies nurturing “pseudo intellectualism” which limits itself within the books of Karl Marx, Maxim Gorky etc. etc. I have never seen such pseudo intellectuals taking to the streets when heinous atrocities are committed on women and children. I never see them working in the relief teams when there are natural calamities. The lesser intellectual mortals like the jawans of Indian Army or the volunteers who risk their lives in relief operations show-up unconditionally during those times.

 

Society:

 

Society = human beings + animals + birds + plants + nature + environment

 

Indian society though diverse is actually very simple in nature. Our ancient way of living was that of “One World Family”. People of all religions, sects and casts have continued to live in harmony throughout centuries. Today I work with engineers of diverse religious backgrounds in my team. I have friends who are from diverse religions, serving in the armed forces of India. So the reality is that “Religion is not the problem, politics on religion is the problem”. In ancient society caste system was a mere division of work in the society. It was not meant to belittle one caste over another. Over the periods some opportunists took advantage and divided people into castes for their own ulterior motives. Also caste system is prevalent in all religions. So “caste system is wrong, all human beings are equal” and we must strive for social equality. Another important aspect is gender equality. In ancient India women were considered at par with men. All the scriptures are evidence to that. Even women could perform all the rituals. Somewhere in the middle ages this was distorted and atrocities on women started. We must wake-up and stop this immediately. 

 

Economy:

 

Today India’s economy gets maximum boost only because of the service sector which was enabled because of affordable technology. But again I will reiterate here that only a small portion of the population gets benefited because of this. Farmers are committing suicide because of low crop yield, as a result of ignorance. Nobody taught them naturally sustainable agricultural methods. Nobody taught them how to manage their money when the yield is good. We are buying lot of foreign goods at higher rates e.g., soaps from some cosmetic companies. But we get much better natural soaps like sandal soap etc. which are locally manufactured and are chemical free, and lesser in price. I believe in order to make the local economy stronger we must strive to buy locally as much as possible, of course the local product should be good. So for “sustainable development” we must “think globally but buy locally”. India is a big enough market for Indians so big that the entire world looks at it to market their products, some like China would go one step further to dump their products.

 

The wise and the intelligent citizen:

 

1) Doesn’t align with any political party, but rather keeps a check on the political party by exercising voting rights as well as using the power of expression by being vocal about what is right and what is wrong for the country and the society, from time to time. Our loyalty is towards our country and society, not towards any political party. The political party on the other hand has to be loyal to the common citizen of the country. The remote control should remain with the citizen/common man not with the AAM ADMI party or Congress or BJP. The political party is the instrument of the common man not vice versa

 

2) Is vocal about social injustice, in whichever form, without any bias or prejudice

 

3) Is protective about the natural resources and environment. Honors environment

 

4) Connects with the underprivileged and works towards bringing more social and economic equality

 

5) Is scientifically tempered and looks at cause and effect from a broader perspective, with an unbiased insight

 

6) Is aware of the threat of foreign elements that try to disturb the peace of this country. Hence strives to maintain national integrity through vigilance and alertness

 

7) Believes in long term sustainable development over short term opportunistic gains

 

8) Believes in the concept of “One World Family”

 

9) Takes interest in world events and is concerned about the well being of the “society” across the globe, and works towards it, as much as possible

 

10) Honors life, festivals, celebrations, culture, traditions and customs of all sections of the society

 

This is what I could think of, you can add many more.....

 

What do you say..

Herceptin/Herclon,Canmab etc,etc. and Cancer

India is one of the developing countries, not a developed one. Yes, this country has lot of IT professionals, NRIs etc. etc. India has no doubt lot of rich people. And there is nothing wrong in being rich. But it hardly constitutes more that 3 % of the population. Whatever may be the baseline for poverty index, the fact remains is that most of us Indians, and probably people of many developing countries live our lives in mediocre conditions. We can still live a reasonable life unless otherwise hit by some adverse conditions. Cancer is one such adverse condition.

"The Emperor of all Maladies" (the treatise on cancer) by an Indian doctor gives a very detailed perspective on the disease. But I would just summarize it in few words. Cancer is not a new disease. It had been there just like common cold since ancient times. But unfortunately mankind has not been able to make any significant advances on its treatment. Till today there is no known cause for the disease, let alone any real medication. Yes, there are directed therapies available, but only few. But at the end its all God's grace alone, that can save one.

The pharmaceutical industry has not taken much pain in putting much money for research in the field of cancer, because they didn't see any merit and profit in working towards something which anyway doesn't have any hope. The ethical inclinations of pharmaceutical companies is a topic in itself and I will write some other time on that. But for the time being I am just going to highlight one aspect of the whole story.

One of the known causes of a type of breast cancer is caused by the over expression of the her-2-neu gene. And there is a directed therapy/molecule for that called trastuzumab. Until recently there was only one company in the world (Roche) that had created a medicine called Herceptin. This drug was discovered way back in 1992. Today after over 23 years, this is still the only drug for her-2-neu positive breast carcinoma. The medicine is available in India in the name of Herclon. The cost of this medicine is Rs. 75,000 per vial. So the total treatment cost can go upto Rs. 15 to 20 lakhs, i.e. 1.5 to 2 million Indian Rupees. The medical  insurance echo system in India is still primitive. Corporate insurance is there, in some companies it has the option of a higher top-up cover, however hardly anyone is ready for a disease like cancer. It just comes and hits you when you are least prepared for it. As a consequence, most of the patients are unable to afford the medication. So they go though repeated courses of generic chemotherapy, which is extremely painful, to deal with recurrences of malignant tumors.  I think it is bad business also. Today certainly after 23 years of discovery of herceptin, the cost of R&D and clinical trials must have been recovered long back. However still the medicine is so expensive. But if one sees from a business perspective (let alone the humanity aspect of it), if the price of the medicine is reduced, more and more patients will be able to afford this life saving drug, and the scale of the customer base would become much larger than what it is today. So the revenue that is generated out of herceptin today would increase if the price is reduced.

Biocon has launched recently the counterpart of Herclon in India named Canmab. They claim that it is the same molecule as herceptin, however they have also priced it at Rs. 57,000 per vial. So much for a cheaper solution !! Moreover there is not much clinical data available for Canmab.

So at the end  anybody would put his/her entire life's savings to fight cancer, because there is nothing more valuable than the life a beloved, come what may......I am just thinking about people whose monthly incomes are less than Rs. 5000. For them a decent square meal is their herceptin, their life saving drug...

When would these pharma companies wake-up and see their role in a much bigger context in terms of humanity. Business, ethics and humanity can all go together and flourish together.......just give it a try and see......

International Women's Day (8th March)

Wish you all a Happy Women's Day full of honour and respect for Women all over the world. In Indian tradition, we have always regarded any pristine and immaculate aspect of this creation as "Mother" for example, Mother India, Mother Earth, Mother Nature....
Today in our society, both rural and urban, we need to bring in this sense of respect for women. That can only happen through education. And education starts at home.
The most damaging substance to Women's safety, security and honour, is alcohol. 90% of the crimes against women have happened under the influence of alcohol. Also most of the domestic violence occurs under the influence of alcohol. Bangalore for example has one of the maximum number of liquor shops. Nowadays, there are big alcohol stores, like departmental stores, only for alcohol. Alcohol drains a family financially, morally and mentally. When I return from my office, I often pass through many liquor shops on my way, and sometimes in any of the traffic signals, when I am waiting for the signal in my two-wheeler, I observe the liquor shops. You know what I see, the majority of the customers are laborers or workers, who are returning after their daily work, and they pay 40-50 rupees for the alcohol, which they gulp in 2 seconds, and get going. It is estimated that poor people spend around 60% of their earnings on alcohol. So they will definitely remain poor. And their wives have to suffer the consequences in the form of domestic violence and poverty. For the rich, alcohol has the same consequences. Whether one consumes scotch or country liquor, the effect of alcohol on the nervous system is the same.
I believe, when we are walking on the streets, or traveling by bus etc., we (the Men) should have an awareness and responsibility that wherever we are we would not allow any kind of derogatory events to happen to any women within our vicinity. And if each and every one of us acts like this, there can be a big difference.
So three things, education, awareness and personal responsibility, and prohibition of alcohol can make a big difference. That's what I feel....
What do you say.....

On that aspect of life : called humanity

Yesterday I was going with my wife to some place on my two-wheeler. While I was about to reach my destination, I saw two people lying on the road, presumably just after an accident a few minutes back. I immediately parked my scooter and ran to the middle of the road. One was a young man and another was a boy in his teens. Both were breathing, had been injured on the head but were unconscious. People were all watching, but nobody was doing anything. I immediately urged people to give me a hand to lift them one-by-one and then moved them from the middle to the side of the road. Then I called the emergency number (108) and called for an ambulance. I got to know that someone had already called that number and they were sending the ambulance. I was not sure when the ambulance would arrive, so I was waving the passers by to help us carry the victims to the nearest hospital. There was a huge crowd of people but everybody was just watching but nobody did anything. None of the people whom I was waving to stopped their cars. They just moved away. Some did stop but refused to carry the victims. Time was running out, I did not know what to do. But luckily the ambulance came and we shifted both the victims into the ambulance. The ambulance guy told someone to go with them. I said I will go. So I just asked them to wait and went to tell my wife to take the two wheeler to home and I would go to the hospital. In the meantime the ambulance went without waiting for me. I was told that a family member of the victims arrived and he went along. They were from the nearby village. I called up the emergency number and found out the name of the hospital. I may visit the hospital.

Important things of note here : -
1) Nobody did anything, and people were just staring at the victims lying in the
    middle of the road, bleeding and shivering in pain

2) Nobody helped to give a ride to carry the injured to the nearby hospital

This can happen to anybody. What are we going to do then ? Are we losing the basic sensitivity and sensibility that makes us human beings ? Where are we racing to ? Who all come under the purview of our family for whom we might stop the car ?

These are questions to ponder upon because someday it might be our turn...

The state of medicine as a profession in India

I was born in a village dispensary. It was a small govt. hospital with a limited number of staff and one doctor. Today after several decades, I was so disheartened to find out that the condition of that hospital is worse than before. There is not even a permanent doctor there. The root of this lies in the fact that today very few medical students want to work in rural areas. The govt. had made it compulsory to serve atleast one year during the intern-ship at rural areas or villages, and there is a fine/penalty for that. However students are happily paying that fine money and evading that part of the intern-ship.

There are two professions that are considered as noble professions, one is teaching and the other is medicine. Today both education and healthcare have been highly commercialized in India. I remember one occasion when I went to show my ear in a charitable hospital (Mumbai). The doctor after examining me said that my ear needs to be cleaned. So he cleaned my ear and then told me that my ear-drum was damaged. I asked him, what should I do. He handed me his business card and asked me to come to his personal clinic. I went there and found that it was not just a clinic but was an apartment where he had kept few beds and he would also operate there. The doctor then examined me and then told me that he might need to operate my ear. I was not comfortable with the whole idea of getting my ear operated. Luckily at that time a friend of mine was doing his post-graduation in Grants medical college in Mumbai. I went to him and he took me to one of his friends who was doing his post-graduation in ENT. Once he examined me, he told me that there was a minor perforation in the ear-drum and it would heal-up on its own. Over a period of time, my ear did heal-up completely. The perforation in the ear-drum was as I suspect created by the other doctor while cleaning my ear purposefully.

Many such incidences are happening across the country and the world. Medicine as a profession is being misused by a few misled doctors. I still believe 90% doctors are good. Its only the few 10% who are causing trouble. The govt. of India also has not been able to create good opportunities for doctors in India. Why would a doctor want to work in a rural area where his earning and lifestyle would be very limited. That is one school of thought.

Once I used to stay in a slum rehabilitated area in Mumbai, part of the slum was still there. I once got a very bad fever. So went to the nearby clinic. This was a modest clinic and I found that many of the slum dwellers and poor people were my co-patients. The clinic was operated by a couple and both the husband and the wife were doctors. The fees was meagre twenty rupees and the medicines were also provided by the clinic within the twenty rupees. I was completely cured within a couple of days. So many people were continuously being benefited by that clinic. The couple was from a middle class background and could have earned a fortune if they would have been working for a private hospital in Mumbai, but they chose otherwise. That was service, service to mankind. As Swami Vivekananda said, "Service to fellow beings, is service to God."

Today India and the world need good doctors to reach out to the unprivileged, the poor and provide good treatment to them when they cannot afford any. There are billions of dollars of black money and scams that the politicians are pocketing. That money can be used to buy food, medicine, healthcare, education etc. Promoting generic medicines is so much needed. Today the whole nexus of medical insurance, private hospitals and pharmaceutical companies are in one way extracting money from those who can afford (which is only 3% of the population of India) and at the same time depriving those who cannot afford (which is 97 % population of India). The Modi Sarkar has to take steps towards these. And we as citizens need to do our part.

I am planning to visit medical colleges and talk to the students to motivate them to work in rural areas and serve the poor and also to complete the one year mandatory intern-ship in villages. Why don't you also join me ...

The paradox of the cabinet

Today is the oath taking ceremony of Narendra Modi and his council of ministers. The nation has unanimously selected a leader for the next 5 years. Modi's principle for selecting his council of ministers would be that of " less government, more governance ". The erstwhile PM's cabinet had 34 ministries. One would be astonished to know that the Union of India has umpteen number of ministries and departments, as many as if they would have been run properly, there would have been no problem left in the country. A look at he Govt. of India directory would prove so. Here is the link http://goidirectory.gov.in.

Traditionally council of ministers are chosen from elected candidates from different Lok Sabha / Rajya Sabha candidates. Most of them would be close aides of the leader of the ruling party. So prevalence of cronyism was not less likely. Traditionally in India, ministers were never found to have done much work, barring few. Under the ministers come the cabinet secretaries who are none but IAS officers. So their background is in administration. Hence the model of execution becomes that of more administration and less subject matter expertise. If we borrow some principles from the corporate world, then we can easily infer that there should be only required amount of administration and more subject matter expertise. Hence under each cabinet minister there should be a team of subject matter experts who would provide valuable insights on solving the problems at hand, and the solution should then be executed speedily by the cabinet minister and the IAS officer(s). The bureaucratic chain should be minimised and the govt. should fix a goal to itself to accomplish certain number of achievable objectives within the next five years. The Govt. should also publish a quarterly/bi-annual report of its activities/accomplishments and expenditures, so that the citizen of India can assess the progress made by the Govt., else 60 more years would pass and we would remain where we are. There should be a balanced scorecard for the govt.

As to what Modi would do, we would have to wait and watch...but we would be watching....!!

Constitution of India - Fundamental Duties

Article 51A of the constitution of India describes the fundamental duties of the citizens of India. The list is not long. There are only 11 fundamental duties listed and if each and every Indian abides by them, there would be enough development that can happen effortlessly.

PART IVA

FUNDAMENTAL DUTIES

51A. Fundamental duties.—It shall be the duty of every citizen of India—

(a) to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, the
     National Flag and the National Anthem;

(b) to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle
     for freedom;

(c) to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India;

(d) to defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so;

(e) to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the
     people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional
     diversities; to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women;

(f) to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture;

(g) to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes,
     rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures;

(h) to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and
      reform;

(i) to safeguard public property and to abjure violence;

(j) to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity
     so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and
     achievement;

(k) who is a parent or guardian to provide opportunities for education to his
     child or, as the case may be, ward between the age of six and fourteen years.

Test of humanity !!

I have been writing a lot in this blog, but today I failed in the acid test. Today I faced a situation and I couldn't respond to it the way I was supposed to. I failed.

I was walking by the road and I saw one man lean and thin sitting by the edge of the road and vomiting blood. I saw this person sitting by the roadside shops for the past 2-3 days. He seemed like a beggar, but he was never begging. But today I saw him being surrounded by some people, I thought he might have met with an accident and had been injured and these people were taking care of him. Never did it occur to me that I should go there and enquire about the situation and then take whatever necessary action I can think of. So I proceeded for lunch. But the thought was worrying me all the while. Why didn't I do something about it, what if the man is sick, what can I do? Food was not really going down my throat. I finished my lunch in a hurry and rushed back to the same place. I saw a few cops standing there along with a couple of people. One of them was a coconut vendor selling tender coconut in the same place. I know him since that is the same route to my home from office. I asked him what had happened. He said that the man started vomiting blood. So he called the police and they had arranged an ambulance to take him to the Govt. hospital. The coconut vendor also said that the sick man was there for the past 3 days and had not been eating anything other than coconut water which I presume he had been providing free of cost. Also it was the coconut vendor who had spoken to the police and arranged for the ambulance. What an example of humanity !! Here I have been writing blogs about it, and there this simple coconut vendor(Murali) was practising humanity. So much more ahead of me in terms of his wisdom and spontaneity of action. I feel ashamed of myself that I could not do anything for that man, I could not practise the very ideals of humanity when the time came for me to act. I was hesitant, may be afraid, as to how would I deal with the situation if I took ownership of the situation. There is regret and there is remorse in me. I am deeply hurt by my inability to act when the time came. There is only one way I can deal with it. Today I take this vow that never again in my life I would let this happen.

A wise man once said, " we should have purity in heart, clarity in mind and spontaneity in action. That is when life becomes full " !!

Role of intelligence agencies in the democracy of India - 2

Today's news is replete with description of different last moment acts that UPA (Congress) is engaged in, like mass scale transfers especially within the finance ministry. One of the key events is appointing the former Intelligence Bureau chief as CIC (chief Information commissioner). The CIC is mandated to resolve appeals and complaints filed by information seekers, under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, against government departments or public authorities. It is important to question this decision. If we look at the backdrop of events, since independence of India in 1947, Indian politics and governance was heavily influenced by the british intelligence, certainly not in a constructive manner. Later on when the course of events changed, and Indian politics took a leftist turn under congress of course, the CIA and its allies took a hostile stand on India. We all remember the entering of the US 7th fleet and the british eagle fleet in the Bay of Bengal to pressurize India to stop its actions against Pakistan. However with Soviet submarines acting as deterrents, came to the rescue of Indian Govt. and the matter was neutralized. Those were different days, days of the cold war. The past few decades have shown that today most of the political platform, especially in developed countries is not dominated by nationalistic ideologies. Rather politics in developed countries is today governed by "money" or greed. Intelligence agencies are powerful apparatus and can be misused or are being misused. If we observe the different challenges we are facing today in India, we can easily infer that many of these problems are created by intelligence agencies of countries which are anti-India. But they are feeding on the basic weaknesses of Indian governmental administrative mechanisms and weaknesses in the Indian politics. The Indian RAW, IB and military intelligence today need to be better synchronized in terms of command and control as well as collaborative protocols. The power and the onus lies with the prime minister of India. The past prime ministers had failed in doing so, intentionally or unintentionally. This is one side of the story.

On the other side of the story, are the Indian citizens. Today we as citizens of India need to take charge of the politics in this country. Whichever party rules, it should be just a mechanism to deliver the needs and wishes of the citizens, rather than dictating their wishes on the citizens. The major success behind the 2014 Lok Sabha elections lies behind increased voter awareness. There had been an average increase of 10% in terms of voter turnout. Which translates roughly to 12 crore people. The impact of this is very much evident. The 2014 elections have eliminated cast based and religion based politics. Today the agenda of development and good governance has won. There were thousands of volunteers from different organizations, who worked very hard, to create voter awareness. People think that social media had an important role to play. But I disagree. Why ? Because tech savvy cities like Bangalore or Mumbai had the least voter turnout ratios, but increased by 10%. I was astonished to see people's enthusiasm on 16th May, when the results were about to be declared. Everyone was very excited. People even took leave on that day. The streets of Bangalore were empty. But when it was their turn to cast their votes and contribute to democracy, they happily ignored it. Perhaps because they don't know that they are the lucky 3% of the Indian population that earn more than Rs. 6500 per month. 97% of the Indian population earn less than Rs. 6500 per month (approx.). So while I am writing my notes here on facebook notes, I also want to send out a message to all my friends on facebook, that we need to convert part of our privilege to help the rest of the 97% of the Indian population to achieve equity in terms of livelihood and means to have a respectable, safe and secure way to live in this country. It is our duty to serve our fellow citizens of India and the world.

मन समर्पित, तन समर्पित और यह जीवन समर्पित।
चाहता हूँ देश की धरती तुझे कुछ और भी दूं ।। 

A treatise on alcohol consumption in India

Alcohol consumption has a direct relationship with the crimes being committed in a country. Under the influence of alcohol, the nervous system becomes weak and the brain loses its capability to make logical decisions. Hence most of the crimes are committed under the influence of alcohol. This article attempts to bring out all the aspects of alcohol consumption.

Alcohol consumption trends
Here is the per capita alcohol consumption trend in India, here we have to understand that alcohol is consumed by a section of Indian population, generally by the poorer section or by the considerably wealthy section of the population on a regular basis. Also per capita consumption doesn't give the complete picture, it gives only a part of the picture.

 (source : WHO, FAO)

Now let us look at how is the alcohol market doing in India. We are taking a sample of one of the major alcohol producing companies in India and its growth.

(source : Credit Suisse, Equity Research, Sept, 2012)
Here a "case = 12 bottles = 9 litres". Hence we can see from the trend that alcohol consumption has increased by more that 3 times in the last 10 years.

Who are the consumers of alcohol
India is one of the fastest growing alcohol markets in the world and largest consumer of whiskey. According to a study by ASSOCHAM, a sizeable middle class population with rising spending power and a sound economy are some of significant reasons behind increase in alcohol consumption in India. This fact comes out as an ironical one. The poor in India consume cheap country liquor and other cheaper brands of alcohol out of frustration and despair and end up spending 60% of their income in alcohol (no wonder they remain poor). The growing middle class consume alcohol as a mark of prosperity and class and again end up spending a considerable part of their income on alcohol. This nouveau riche middle class considers alcohol as a symbol of success. For richer sections alcohol anyway symbolizes success but is being conveniently offset by their higher levels of income/wealth. The question to be posed here is - is this a progressive attitude ?

Younger generations are falling into the trap of alcohol because of higher disposable incomes, lack of parental supervision, changing societal norms and peer pressure. Almost 45 percent of 12th graders in metropolitan cities in India excessively consume alcohol and teenage drinking has increased by 100 percent during the last 10 years. India ranks as one of the largest alcoholic beverage markets across the globe. Kerala and Punjab are the leading liquor consuming states in India. Indian movies depict consuming alcohol as an act of heroism. This directly impacts the psyche. Most of the youngsters consume alcohol under the influence of these movies. Indian drinking habits and patterns are problematic. Atleast one third of the drinkers fall in the "hazardous drinkers" category.

More than one fifth of the alcohol produced in the world is consumed by Indians. The liquor industry is growing at a rate of 30% per year. The total value of alcoholic drinks consumed in India is projected to be Rs. 1.5 lakh crore in 2015.

Interestingly studies have revealed that majority of the alcohol consuming population of India are males. According to data from WHO (2010), 90% of the lifetime abstainers of alcohol are females. This is a positive side of the data. Majority of the Indian female population is not under the influence of alcohol. Consequently whatever stability that exists in the Indian households is because of females. But there is another side of the story. Domestic violence is prevalent and high in households where the male member consumes alcohol. The husband consumes alcohol and beats-up the wife. I think this story can be extrapolated into other countries as well.

India Government's stand on alcohol
In the Part-IV of the constitution of India, the directive principles of state policy, article 47, it is mentioned, "The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties and, in particular, the State shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption except for medicinal purposes of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health."

Here it is evident that the constitution prevented the formation of any national policy on alcohol. So there is no national policy on alcohol. Instead each and every state is supposed to implement its alcohol policy. Obviously this left a lot of scope for manipulation. The corruption at the national level is visible however the corruption at the state level is difficult to observe. Now state governments earn a considerable revenue from alcohols. Hence their stand on alcohol has always been weak. Important to note here, that the constitution needs an amendment on this point.

Alcohol and crime
Because of loss of self-control and intoxicating effects of alcohol, individuals get involved in crime and fights and cause injury to others and property. It has been well established that alcohol is closely linked to routine acts of violence. Alcohol users are frequently involved in fights, brawls, rape, spousal and child abuse, thefts etc. The risk of spousal abuse increases with an alcoholic husband even during pregnancy. In the last few years there has been an increase in the number of reported crimes against women and children in India. Studies show that 99 percent of crimes against women are committed under the influence of alcohol.

Alcohol and health
Alcohol consumption is estimated to cause 1.8 million deaths per year (3.2% of all deaths) and to be responsible for 4% of the disability-adjusted life years lost per year worldwide. The impact of alcohol on disease and mortality is more in countries like India where poverty is a predominant factor. Increased alcohol consumption is related to increased rick of mortality and morbidity due to physical illness. The major disease and injury conditions related to alcohol are as follows:-

• Malignant neoplasms - mouth and oropharynx cancers, Oesophageal cancer, liver cancer, breast cancer
• Neuropsychiatric diseases - unipolar depressive disorders, epilepsy, alcohol dependence and harmful use
• Diabetes mellitus
• Cardiovascular disorders - ischaemic heart disease, haemorrhagic stroke, ischaemic stroke
• Gastrointestinal diseases - cirrhosis of liver
• Unintentional injury - motor vehicle accidents, drownings, falls, poisoning
• Intentional injury - self-inflicted injuries, homicide
  

Alcohol users generally report a greater frequency of ill-health. Common problems reported by alcohol users include generalised weakness, impaired roles within the family, impaired social relationships, obesity, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, depression, anxiety and irritability, memory loss, caugh, difficulty in breathing, poor sexual performance, duodonal ulcer, increased psycho-social problems. Alcohol users are also more likely to use various forms of tobacco than non-users, thus increasing the risk of overall health damage. Interestingly studies have shown that alcohol use is more common amongst doctors in India, indicating that doctors need more motivation to practice good healthcare habits.

Alcohol use has been identified as a major factor for injury occurrence. Consumption of alcohol leads to a variety of physiological changes. Prominent among these are changes in respiration and circulation, difficulties in making judgement and decisions, poor vision, delayed reflexes, improper coordination, problems in risk perception and recognition (like difficulties in identifying dangers in roads), sense of pseudo confidence, loss of self-control and increased risk taking. The pseudoeuphoric effect of alcohol results in loss of inhibitions and enhances risk taking behaviours.

Social consequences of alcoholism
The psycho-social and economic consequences of alcoholism can be both acute and long-term. The death of an earning member of a family in an alcohol related accident can cause untold suffering to the innocent family members. An alcoholic husband can deprive his wife and children of much needed, immediate and long-term resources. An alcoholic father sets a wrong example to his children, and also deprives his children of emotional and social security. Social consequences of alcohol abuse have prompted societies and communities across the world to limit use of alcohol to various extents. The manifestation of social consequences of alcohol abuse happens at three levels : individual, family and society.

What should we do ?
Human beings do not live in isolation. They live in a social framework. Hence the problems of society can only be tackled only by joint action of groups of volunteers. Like any other problem, the problem of alcoholism has to be tackled in similar lines. Only a strong sustained campaign can check the spread of alcoholism.

Today when I walk through the streets of India, I see umpteen number of socio-economic and political problems manifesting them in each and every corner of this country. I can choose to ignore them and take my course, or I can decide to do something about it.

The case of "Nirbhaya" shook not only me but the entire nation. There have been umpteen number of cases of violence against women in this country. How can we just sit in our homes/offices and do nothing about these?

We need to "Wake-up" !!. Our life is limited on this planet, one day we are all going to die, but while we are here, why can't we work as volunteers for this planet, for animalkind, for mankind.....

(source(s) : excerpts from financial express, thehindubusinessline
www.nimhans.kar.nic.in/cam/CAM/Alcohol_report_NIMHANS.pdf
www.nimhans.kar.nic.in/cam/CAM/WHO.ER.ch14.5.Benegal.pdf
nimhans.kar.nic.in/deaddiction/CAM/Social_20Cost.pdf )

Role of intelligence agencies in the democracy of India - 1

If we look at the democratic history of India, we can easily understand that the last decade had been darkest patch in the history of Indian democracy. From basic common sense, it is very much evident that how external intelligence agencies were controlling the entire governance of India. This is easy to deduce since our recent Prime Minister has kept a vow of silence and the PMO is being controlled by a foreigner behind the curtains. The important aspect is, who is controlling the mother-son duo sitting being the curtain. We can analyse this as follows:-
Indian defence is at its weakest period at this moment, with both the Navy and the Airforce suffering multiple accidents and a very short span of time. India is rich in oil however India imports oil. The same is the case with coal and bauxite. India is the largest producer of vegetables in the world still vegetable prices are very high. In the last decade we have seen this upsurge in food prices in India despite the fact that India has surplus vegetables. About 40% of the food is lost even before it reaches the destination. Thanks to the nexus of politicians and the supply chain agents of food in India. The country's economy is being systematically weakened. All the scams that happened have only weakened the economy of this country. The education system in India has been systematically weakened. If you see the NCERT textbooks, it is very much evident that the main subject matter is missing from text books. And these books are supposed to be written by team of teachers in workshops. Instead single unknown authors are able to write better and useful books. The data given by planning commission is completely flawed and shows false image of development. We all know the changing of the line of poverty by the planning commission. The fact remains is that the planning commission is a puppet of the congress. They never provide transparent data. The history of Indian National Congress is a shameful one. The important thing to understand here is that the first leader of independent India was a puppet in the hands of British intelligence. The congress under the leadership of "the puppet" injected systematic bugs in the Indian democratic and administrative system which has now lasted for more than 65 years. These so called "bugs" are tearing down the system part-by-part. There was a systematic injection of communal sentiment during the independence and partition of India in 1947. That communal fire is being provided the required oxygen from time to time. Millions of innocent lives are being lost from time to time. 97% of the population is actually poor in India. It is only 3% of the India population that can be called middle class/rich/super rich. It is such a pity that this 97% population is suffering immense pain. The BT cotton which is a genetically modified variety of cotton has rendered lands infertile in Vidarbha. Hundreds of farmers committed suicide. The land has become so poisonous that even a Neem tree cannot grow in that area. And the congress government has given approval for experimenting with more GM crops in India. It is clear that these are anti-national forces working according to the plans of external intelligence agencies (whether it is CIA or MI-6 or ISI or Chinese intelligence agencies, it is for the reader to guess), but nobody wants India to prosper.
Who are the sufferers, the 97% non-facebook population of India. So much for security, so much for NSA, so much for humanity, so much for human greed !!

But there is one consciousness that rules the entire creation...and that is full of love...because love is the basic substratum of the entire creation...and that Infinity would protect the just, the poor and the innocent.

Criteria for voting

As it is quite evident from my previous post, governance in India is layered. There is national level governance, state level governance and there is governance at the local bodies which are further divided into three layers. Hence if we look at the democracy of India as a whole, there is ample scope for developmental democracy. However there is one thing that is essentially lacking here, i.e., democratic awareness and education. How should we vote for various elections? From very basic common-sense we can categorize the criteria as follows:-

• National level elections - we should vote for a stable government for a party that has the maximum plausible credibility for carrying out developmental work in the country, given the current situation, whatever that may be. Hence here the party and the leadership of the party are of primary importance. Also it is important to vote for a national level party for national elections.
• State level elections - For state level elections we should see the party as well as the candidates (including the leadership). It can be a national level party or state level party, but importance should be given to the track record of that party in the development of the state. Also the background of the candidates should be checked. Candidates with criminal backgrounds should be voted out.
• Local level governance (urban/rural local bodies) i.e., panchayats, municipalities etc. - in this case importance should only be given to the particular candidate representing the ward or the panchayat consituency. Here we should not give much importance to the party. Utmost importance should be given to the candidate and his/her background, education, abilities, vision, track record etc.

Note that at the very local levels the constitution of India provides significant power to the local people to make a decisive move. The only problem is that people are not aware of their rights.

An important blog post pertaining to similar concept is here :-
http://srisriravishankar.org/layers-of-democracy

Administrative Divisions of Government of India

This article is about the administrative divisions of India. We will go from very high level details to divisions at the local governance level.

UNION OF INDIA
Union of India is composed of 28 states and 7 union territories (pending Telangana).

Governance of Union of India- The executive power of the Union is vested in the President of India. The term of the office of the President is for 5 years. The Legislative power of the Union is vested in the council of ministers and the Prime Minister of India. The council of ministers (including the Prime Ministers) is elected once every 5 years through Parliamentary/Lok-Sabha elections, by citizens of India. The President of India is further elected by the elected members of both the houses of the Parliament (i.e., Lok-Sabha and Rajya Sabha).

ZONES
Section 15 of the States Reorganization Act 1956 provided that there shall be a Zonal Council for each of the five zones of the country. Today India is divided into six zones for administration. The purpose of dividing the country into zones was to create healthy inter-State and Centre-State environment with a view to solving inter-State problems and fostering balanced socio economic development of the respective zones.

The zones are as follows:-

1. Northern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, National Capital Territory of Delhi and Union Territory of Chandigarh  
2. Central Zonal Council, comprising the States of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh
3. Eastern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal
4. Western Zonal Council, comprising the States of Goa, Gujarat, Maharashtra and the Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli
5. Southern Zonal Council, comprising the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry
6. North Eastern Council set up under the North Eastern Council Act, 1972, consists of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Sikkim

(source : interstatecouncil.nic.in)

STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES
India is composed of 28 states and 7 union territories (pending Telangana).

Governance of States -  The legislative power of the states would lie with the council of ministers and the chief minister, who would be elected every 5 years through Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) elections.  The executive power of the state would be vested in the Governor.

UNION TERRIRORIES (UT)
India is composed of 7 union territories.

Governance of Union Territories - Union territories are directly ruled by union government/central government. Only in case of New Delhi and Puducherry, the constitution of India provides the provision of having a Legislature with elected members.

DIVISIONS
Some of the Indian states are further divided into divisions.The states which are divided into divisions are Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. Divisions are comprised of districts.

DISTRICTS
States and Union Territories (or Divisions) are further divided into districts. There are total 593 districts in India as of today.
(source : http://censusindia.gov.in )

SUB-DISTRICTS
Districts are further subdivided into sub-districts. Sub-districts are called by different names in different states.
So a Sub-district = revenue-division = sub-division = Tehsil = Taluka = Police Station = Circle = Development Block = Community Development Block (CD Block) = Mandal etc.
Notes : Sometimes tehsils might come under sub-divisions. Same is applicable for the other names.

BLOCKS
Sub-districts are further divided into block / sub-tehsil / hobli / Firka / Circle / Sajjas. Sub-tehsil is further divided into ILR circle / Patwar circle in some districts.

Governance of Districts, Sub-Districts and Blocks - At the district level the common man comes in direct contact with the administration. The administrative head of a district is called the Deputy Commissioner or District Collector. The Superintendent of Police and heads of other departments of the state are all located in the district headquarters. The Deputy Commissioner is many times assisted by the Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC).
The sub-divisions/revenue divisions are further headed by Sub-Divisional-Officer (SDO) or Sub-Divisional-Magistrate (SDM) / Revenue Divisional Officer / Sub-Collector / Deputy Collector / Assistant Collector / Assistant Commissioner. Under the SDO (and equivalents) there are Tahsildars/Revenue Officers. The Tahsildar belongs to the state civil service. The Tahsildar is further assisted by Naib / Deputy - Tahsildar / Patwaaris / Kanungos etc. There may be a few more hierarchies below this however it differs from state-to-state.

RURAL LOCAL BODIES
According to the 73rd amendment in the constitution of India, the system of three tier panchayati raj was introduced. The three tier system implies that there are Panchayats at village level (gram panchayat), intermediate level (panchayat samiti), district level (zilla parishad). Any state which has a population of not more than 20 lakhs, may choose not to constitute intermediate panchayats.
The 73rd amendment also introduces the concept of "Gram Sabha" as the most fundamental unit of governance at the rural local level. Gram sabha means a body consisting of persons registered in the electoral rolls relating to a village comprised within the area of Panchayat at the village level. A gram sabha may exercise such powers and perform such functions at the village level as the Legislature of a State may by Law, provide. This essentially implies that if the gram sabha functions properly, then the development of a village is inevitable.

Governance of Rural Local Bodies - The governance of the Panchayats is in the hands of elected candidates. All seats in a panchayat shall be filled by persons chosen by direct election from territorial constituencies in the Panchayat area. Panchayat elections happen every five years. Note that at the village level gram sabha still has an upper hand (only if people are aware of it) and gram sabha consists of citizens of India.

URBAN LOCAL BODIES
The 74th amendment of the constitution of India made the provision of local governance in urban areas. According to the 74th amendment (part IXA) of the constitution of India, a three tier system of local governance in urban areas has been enumerated. In every state, there would be a Nagar Panchayat (Notified area council/city council)(for an rural to urban transitional area), a Municipal Council (Nagar Palika/ Nagar Nigam) for a smaller urban area, Municipal Corporation (Mahanagar Palika/Nigam) for larger urban area.

Governance of Urban Local Bodies -  All governance of the Municipalities will be in the hands of elected representatives. All seats in a Municipality shall be filled by persons chosen by direct election from territorial constituencies in the Municipal area and for this purpose each Municipal area is be divided into territorial constituencies know as wards. Ward Committees would be constituted consisting of one or more wards, within the territorial area of a Municipality having a population of 3 lakhs or more. Municipal elections are held every five years. The elected candidates of each ward is called a counciller/corporator.

The schematic representation might look something like this.

How does India look like !!

Here is the Political Map of India with 28 states and 7 union territories.

(Image source : http://ecimaps.gisserver1.nic.in)
Does it ring a bell... How does it feel to be belonging to the whole country not just to our respective regions...Did we know all the states and their locations...

Lok Sabha Elections India 2014 - Part 4

The calculus of voting in India (2014)

According to data from the 2004 Lok Sabha Elections, the following was the voter turnout distribution according to income:-

The above data gives us an indication of the voter turnout pattern as per income groups. Unfortunately income distribution in India can no longer be categorised into the above three categories. Probably an accurate categorisation would be very poor, poor, lower middle class, middle class, upper middle class, rich, very rich. Nevertheless statistics reveal that majority of the voter come under the poor/very poor category. Studies so far suggest that voting patterns in India are in direct contradiction to socio-economic characteristics. Why do poor in India turn out in large number to vote ? I am attempting to answer this question with the help of the following points:-
(Some points are taken from published papers)

1. According to surveys, on election day the poor stand in the queue for long hours, even in adverse weather conditions, give up their daily wages to caste their vote. Some even wear new clothes. Across all gender and age groups people turn up to the polling booths to vote. On being asked why, their response was fairly uniform "It is our right". Many said that the election day is one day when they matter. Party workers and politicians come to them seeking votes. This is one day when their citizenship counts, is recognised and acknowledged.
2. Some of the poorer section vote thinking "if we don't vote who knows what might happen? We could lose our homes, ration cards, police would come around our homes and harass us. If we don't vote, we are dead for the state."
3. Basically the motivation for a larger section of the poor to vote is either out of coercion, fear, persuasion, temporary goodies (like Rs. 500 or a bottle of liquor), or illusionary social concepts. However ironically it has also been observed that many of the people from poorer sections are much well informed about their polling station details etc., than the middle class or upper class sections.
4. Poorer sections do perceive elections as a matter of right. Also it gives them a perceived sense of equality with all the sections of the society because voting is the most egalitarian act among all possible modes of political participation. Everyone has to queue up to caste their vote regardless of their class or social status. The rules of election are the same for everyone.
5. The middle class perceive voting as either a civic duty or a means to get access to state resources. Some even think of it as an opportunity to get their voter ids done to use them as address proofs/identity proofs. 
6. For the rich voting is optional. Because it is too insignificant in their socio-economic sphere of experience. They know that they would anyway have to pay bribes to officials to get their job done. So they do not take specific political sides. Rather they patronise all influential political parties equally

In essence, none of the socio-economic classes (rich, poor or middle class) perceive elections and voting as an apparatus for carrying out fundamental changes in social, economic and political spheres of the country for the collective good of the entire population of the country and the world. If properly used, voting is the strongest and the most effective instrument for not only political but also social and economic transformation in a country. Unfortunately today majority of the population(educated or uneducated) of India (and other parts of the world) are completely ignorant of this phenomena.

With this qualitative and quantitative understanding we can derive the plausible voter turnout trend for India (2014) as:-

Let us divide the Socio-Economic classes in India as follows:
VP - very poor ; probability of voting = p1 ; population = N1
P - poor ; probability of voting = p2 ; population = N2
LM - lower middle; probability of voting = p3 ; population = N3
M - middle ; probability of voting = p4 ; population = N4
UM - upper middle ; probability of voting = p5 ; population = N5
R - rich ; probability of voting = p6 ; population = N6
VR - Very rich ; probability of voting = p7 ; population = N7

Hence,
Voter turnout(VT) = p1N1 + p2N1 + p3N3 + p4N4 + p5N5 + p6N6 + p7N7
Here only the first three terms would dominate. The last 4 terms would not be significant.

VT = p1N1 + p2N2 + p3N3

Let us redefine B as
B - sum total of psychological and civil benefits as perceived by the voter of that income group, for each income group, B will have a different value.
B should range between (0 - 1).

C = Psychological cost of voting for that income group
(The tangible economic cost of voting is not taken into consideration because of the dominance of the concept of perceived benefits in comparison to actual tangible benefits, based on the discussions above)

Hence C1, C2, C3 etc. are negligible in lower income groups. But in higher income groups these may not be negligible.

p1 = B1 - C1
p2 = B2 - C2
p3 = B3 - C3

Hence,

VT = B1N1 + B2N2 + B3N3

Note : As of today's scenario in India, B4, B5, B6, B7 are much lesser because the perceived civil and psychological benefits of voting by upper classes is minimal

Hence voter turnout in India today is essentially governed by the above equation.

How do we change the equation ?
Let us call this -
THE LAW OF VOTING :
If properly used, voting is the strongest and the most effective instrument for not only political but also social and economic transformation in a country.

If people of all socio-economic classes (especially the upper classes) are made aware of the Law of Voting, then their perceived psychological and civil benefits of voting would increase much more than those of the lower socio-economic groups, because the higher socio-economic group is more educated, intellectually more mature and has access to more resources.
So the equation above would change to,

VT = B1N1 + B2N2 + B3N3 + B4N4 + B5N5 + B6N6 + B7N7
(B4 to B7) would then start contributing significantly

The advantage of the above would be that these perceived civil and psychological benefits would then actually become real and tangible benefits that each section of the society (lower to upper socio-economic groups) would start enjoying equally. Consequently N1 to N3 numbers would start reducing and N4 to N7 numbers would start increasing, bringing the society towards more harmonious indices of social and economic prosperity and well being.

Though right now N4 to N7 numbers are less, but their role and responsibility  in establishing a sound political governance is much higher, because majority of the population in these groups (N4 to N7) are intellectually better equipped to render sound rational judgement in terms of electing the suitable political party for running the governance machinery of this country. Also N4 to N7 can act as better watchmen to keep a watch on the moves of the government which would act as a deterrent for all political parties in terms of good governance.

Lok Sabha Elections India 2014 - Part 3

Let us look at the historical data related to Lok-Sabha elections till now. The table below shows the statistics of voter turnout.

(Data source : Election Commission of India)
If the above data is plotted we see the following graph:-

From the above trend we can conclude that the marginal increase in voter turnout is because of the increase in population. However this increase in voter turnout is not at all proportional to the growth in population.

Let us now look at another interesting phenomena. The following table indicates the income distribution trend in India in the last 35 years.

If we plot this data we get

Here the income denominator is denominated in USD per day. If we just manipulate this data with respect to the INR-USD conversion rate in 2010, we get the following :-

(Informally quoting here : all data source from Wordbank database)
Here the figures map to monthly income in INR of the Indian population.
We can clearly see that even today the percentage of Indian population who earn more that Rs.6753 is so negligible. And we also see that the vast majority of Indians live on a monthly income of less that Rs.1689 per month. Is this social justice ? Has India really progressed ? Are we getting fooled by the data published by the planning commission ? What are we doing as citizens of India to change the systems in the country ? Is this human development ?
These questions will haunt us for many decades now.

Let us now look at the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) data in India.
Note here that a CPI = 100 implies no corruption and a CPI = 0 implies maximum corruption.

(Data source - Transparency International) 
We can see a that the corruption level has nearly remained the same in the last 20 years. A marginal shift may be attributed to computerisation in many areas leading to a very marginal decrease in corruption. It nearly remains the same.
With all this data we are nearly ready to analyse election statistics and trends.
In the next post we do just that...

Lok Sabha Elections India 2014 - Part 2

On the economics of democracy
My limited know-how of Micro and Macro Economics leads me to believe that social structures cannot develop in isolation. Economics is a rational phenomena. If one studies the world events, one would come to the conclusion that economics is a great leveller. Illegal businesses collapse because of the same phenomena that formed the ideology of those businesses. Similarly irrational social structures also collapse on account of the same forces that led them to build those structures in the first place. The rational study of political and social systems can only be done in the backdrop of economic phenomena. With this premise let us have a look at the economic aspects of democracy.

The calculus of voting:-
A political treatise was written by Anthony Downs in 1957 titled "An Economic Theory of Democracy". In his treatise Downs presented a rational calculus of voting.
It predicts that a citizen would turn out to vote if:

                                          pB + D > C

B - benefits that the voter will personally receive only if the voter's candidate of   choice wins the election (instrumental value of voting)
D - captures the intrinsic satisfaction that the voter receives from the act of voting itself, regardless of who wins the elections (immanent value of voting)
C - represents all the costs, i.e., sum of all the personal costs of voting, both direct costs in terms of time and energy it takes to make the trip to the polls on the day of the election as well as the time and energy one invests beforehand in learning about the issues and the candidates, and the opportunity costs in terms of forgone wages etc.
p - the probability that one's vote will be decisive in the sense that it either makes of breaks a tie in one candidate's favour

The model predicts that if pB + D < C citizens will abstain from voting and if pB + D = C, they will be indifferent.

p turns out to be very very small because there are millions of voters. Hence Down concludes that a voter who is able to make rational choice would vote as long as D > C, which would happen in quite less number of cases.

Down's hypothesis was later developed by Riker and Ordeshook (1968,1973).
Riker and Ordeshook (1968) shifted the attention of modern political scientists from explaining why people don't vote to explaining why they do. Rational choice appears to predict unrealistically low levels of outcome.
They propose :-

                                   R = PB - C + D

R - the reward an individual voter receives from one's act of voting
B - the differential benefit, that an individual voter receives from the success of his more preferred candidate over his less preferred one
P - the probability that the citizen will, by voting, bring about the benefit, B,
C - the cost to the individual of the act of voting
D - psychological and civil benefit of voting

Here P can matter, because as the race gets closer to a tie, voters perceive that their vote has a much higher probability of affecting the outcome. As your candidate's vote share approaches 50% P increases.

The calculus of voting in India today (2014)
Let us now analyse/predict the voter turnout phenomena to our current Lok Sabha pre-election scenario. In order to do so we need to look at the historical trends of various factors. Lets do that first...

Lok Sabha Elections India 2014 - Part 1

 The dates of the Lok Sabha elections have been declared. Elections would be held from 7th April 2014 to 12th May 2013 and the results would be declared by 16th May 2014. According to the Election Commission of India, the current electoral strength of India is 81.45 cores.

There would be total 543 seats. Out of these the major contributors would be:-

• Andhra Pradesh - 42
• Bihar - 40
• Maharashtra - 48
• Tamilnadu - 39
• Uttar Pradesh - 80
• West Bengal - 42

 Hence we can clearly see that 6 states out of 28 states (Not including Telangana yet) and 7 union territories, are contributing a total of 291seats which is 53.6% of the total electoral seats. No doubt the move to break Andhra Pradesh clearly had ulterior motives.

NDA headed by BJP and UPA headed by Congress would be the two major coalitions that are expected in 2014. However we have to see what is the percentage of coalition in each of these groups. Meaning how much autonomy would the leader of each of these coalitions enjoy. That would eventually determine the quality of governance in the coming 5 years.

A brief look at the 2009 Lok Sabha election trends :-

• According to the 2009 election results, the voter turnout was 58.19
• 52% voters were male and 47% voters were female
• Total 8070 (93% male and 6.9% female)candidates contested for 543 seats. Which means approximately 15 candidates contested for 1 seat

The data mentioned above is from the website of the Election Commission of India. The ratios are going to remain nearly the same, however there is going to be an increase of about 12 crore voters who would attain the age of 18 for this Lok Sabha elections.

Based on the current scenario of Indian politics, society and economy, the following factors are of primary importance for deciding whom to vote:-

1. We need change definitely. The consistent scams and persistent corruption that has grown within the system needs to be uprooted. India is the largest producer of vegetables in the world and yet the prices of vegetables is so high. This is because of corruption (hoarding and black marketing) under the patronage of politicians and weak supply chain infrastructures. Each scam is of thousands of crores. Which means few people enjoy thousand of crores worth stolen wealth. And this wealth comes from the taxes we pay as Indian citizens. It is the hard earned money of each and every taxpayer 
2. We do not need a "khichdi" government. Which means a govt. formed by a political alliance of many small regional parties. This type of alliance would not enable the governmental machinery to take decisions freely for the country's development. So in this election we need to vote for the national parties rather than regional parties if we want good governance
3. New parties that have come into the forefront are now too new to take care of the governance in a mature manner. Moreover they have not yet placed themselves firmly on the ground. Hence they would fall prey to existing political parties who have exploited the system so far

Watch this space, more interesting data, statistics and analysis to come.....

Sanskrit

   India is a rich country, rich with knowledge. All the ancient knowledge is buried in our country and we are unable to harness it, why ? because we cannot decode it. 99% of the population of India do not know Sanskrit. The C.B.S.E has included Sanskrit in the curriculum but only from 5th Std. and the journey ends by 9th Std, so we eventually end up as a half-baked Sanskrit learners who are good for nothing as far as the language is concerned.

But times are changing. The way the fragrance of camphor cannot be hidden, similarly Sanskrit which is considered as a "Divine" language cannot be stopped from blossoming.

Sanskrit facts:-

• Taught in 450 universities and 60 countries across the world
• Sanskrit is considered to be most appropriate for computational linguistics because of its highly regular structure
• http://sanskrit.jnu.ac.in/index.jsp - computational linguistics R&amp;D special centre for Sanskrit studies JNU
• 97% of the world languages have been directly or indirectly influenced by Sanskrit
• Sanskrit has the power to express a sentence in minimum number of words than in any other language
• Sanskrit is the most suitable and precise language for programming (Forbes Magazine)
• Delhi university has a 4 year undergraduate program in Sanskrit
• Sudharma - the only newspaper in Sanskrit language
•  According to Friedrich Max Muller - " Sanskrit is to science of language what Mathematics is to Astronomy"
• Uttarakhand is the only state in India with Sanskrit as one of its official languages
• Today there are many universities in India offering online program in Sanskrit language

Important Sanskrit links:-

• http://www.sanskrit.nic.in/sans.htm
• http://sanskrit1.ccv.brown.edu/tomcat/sl/Index
• http://sudharma.epapertoday.com/
• http://www.ksu.ac.in/en/
• http://oyepages.com/blog/view/id/5184c19abc54b22f09000005
• http://oyepages.com/blog/view/id/5261510fbc54b2ca3a000002
• http://sanskritforums.tk/
• http://ignousanskrit.chinfo.org/i/
• http://spokensanskrit.de/
• http://www.learnsanskrit.org/
• http://sanskrit.inria.fr/portal.html
• http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mesaas/languages/sanskrit/resources.html
• http://www.speaksanskrit.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit

We must all take some time and effort to revive this beautiful divine language which is not only rich because of its linguistic structure but it is also rich in terms of its structural intelligence which is most suitable for developing advanced computational architectures and tools.