mad mad world

The PANACEA, Green Energy

2009-12-08T01:02:00.000-08:00

I have come to think about the climate change issue a lot in the recent past. This is not only because of the COP15 that is underway, but also because of the way I look at solutions to the worlds problems. (I know it hardly matters what I think).

Now, for comfortable human existence, a few resources that are necessary. To provide for these resources, there is an imminent need for more & more energy. By and large, energy pollutes. It is not just limited to the greenhouse gases, but in general, it is this energy requirement that has depleted the earth of its most abundant & precious capital resources - Fossil Fuels.

Fossil fuels are used not just in our vehicles but are also used to generate power (electricity) for the nations of the world. Fossil fuels are used in furnaces to convert ores into metals that we need. This has constantly depleted the resources that nature had bestowed upon the human kind. At the same time these are highly polluting in nature as we already know by now.

Let us imagine a case when the at least 30% of our energy requirements are met by the nonpolluting-natural-renewable resources. The environmental lobby needs more and more such renewable power plants to go on to replace the conventional fossil fuel based power plants that drive current economic growth. For any infrastructure, there are a few essential costs that need to be borne. They are

Cost of resource (raw material)
Cost of conversion into FG (mainly energy cost)
Cost of commissioning
Cost of operation (recurring & mainly energy cost)

The resource cost for the new plant will be lesser than that of the earlier plants in the same category. The reason being that by now, economies of scale has set in. Conversion cost will be lower than the earlier counterparts as, by now there is considerable expertise that has already been achieved in such conversions. Also, since a high portion of the energy cost is now borne by the renewable energy (which is cheaper), the conversion cost is likely to be lower than that of its earlier counterparts. Commissioning cost is likely to increase with time. Now the operations cost of this plant is going to be lower than that of the earlier plants as this plant has a lower captial investment requirement & the hence share of capital recovery through operations has come down. At the same time, the net environmental impact of this plant will be lower than its counterparts.

When this phenomenon repeats itself over a larger timeframe and for a larger set of project related renewable energy forms, something interesting can be envisaged. The last green energy plant that is set to replace the last of the conventional fossil fuel plants, will practically have no conversion & operational cost. This plant will cost the minimum. Also, by this time, we would have also achieved economies of scale & hence will also mean that the capital cost will also be minimal for this plant. Practically free is the word.

Now consider the case where 100% energy demand is met by the green energy sources. Other resources, which were until now considered scarce, will suddenly look abundant. How, one may ask? With abundant supply of energy & the cost of such energy practically zero, all sorts of recycling & recovery will become possible. Recycled or recovered material is today more expensive than their virgin counterparts. With free energy, these recovered material will perhaps cost lesser than its virgin counterparts making it more economical for usage. Gold can now be extracted out of plain desert sand. There will be no bound for human creativity. Wings of thought will flutter & there will be abundance as we never imagined. We might not even have to excavate mines for extracting uranium (which will no more be considered to be important for human kind).

What is important at this imaginary time is to ensure that we review all proposals that were hitherto rejected due to its energy intensity or feasibility. There sure is a way ahead for mankind. Its just that we need to be optimistic about it & stick to our optimism for long enough.

Global Warning

2009-10-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

With the dates for the copenhagen meet nearing, there is virtually too much space in the media that has been booked for what the top leaders of the world will be able to do to save the planet from the atrocities of the people who occupy it for amassing meager profits that are only monetary & short lived in nature.

As a consequence of this flurry of information related to global warming and its impacts on the poor nations, today most of those who read any news paper are aware to a very large extent what the deal is all about. There are a lot of us who believe that the economic solutions that have been thought about for controlling the emission of carbon into the atmosphere is right & nothing better could have been done. Well of course, there are other solutions to the problem. But let us look at the problems that are there with the current solution (the economic model for solving an environmental problem).

Well to begin with, we need to understand that there exists a natural carbon cycle in earth where, water bodies, land & the atmosphere interact to maintain a balance of carbon in the atmosphere. The problem today is that there is too much carbon in the atmosphere. Now, where did that carbon come from ??? The main source of such excess of carbon in the atmosphere has been through anthropogenic activities. These could include driving of cars, manufacture of paints, energy consumption etc. The list is perhaps endless. However, there is a common thread to all these, the usage of fossil fuels. We'll leave it at that for the arguments. We will refer to this later in the discussion.

Now there is fuel that is being consumed. I am very sure that a lion or an elephant has nothing to do with cars or electricity. Thus the fuel is consumed to fulfill the needs / greeds of us humans. If we look at the history of human population of the world, untill the late 1950s we were sparsely populating the world. The population was just over the 1bn mark. There has been a virtual explosion in the population post the 1950s. Today in 2009 we are a huge race with 6.5 - 7 bn of our kind who claim the entire earth to be our natural habitat. On our way to the high population, we have also seen a dramatic change in the way we live. For example, we used to be happy with chairs, today nothing short of a sofa set will do. We used to rely on our gardens for vegetables, today its pizzas & burgers that rule. A defenitive trend can be observed in these remarks of mine. We have gone on to increase the total energy that we demand to live our lives.

Now let us look at the above two paragraphs together. There has been an increase in the requirement of energy (energy intensity) for our lifestyles. There has also been an increase in the number of people who have been demanding this energy. Energy primarily has been derived out of fossil fuels. And it is this fossil fuels that have contributed to the carbon in the atmosphere.

Thus it is very simple mathematics (perhaps logic) that we'll be able to conclude that any economic solution to be complete, has to provide an incentive for the following.

To replace the energy generation from fossil fuels with cleaner fuels / renewable energy.
To reduce the intensity of energy that is required to make sure that we live a quality life.
To reduce the population of the world which will reduce the total demand of energy that is required to keep mankind going.

Look at it from another angle, we would realise that the first 2 are real difficult ones to achieve. But the 3rd one is relatively easier. Just that the right policies done exist. Also, a point that is worth of note is that reduction in population by half will directly give benefits that are way too much compared to such reduction in the other 2 categories.

However, today the economic solution has no mention of population reduction as a means to control carbon emissions. Having to include reduciton in population into the carbon reduction schemes will certainly provide the impetus required to reduce the population of the world (Do not forget that there are monetary benefits associated with carbon reduction) . This will also solve the much fought about problem of povery, illiteracy, hygiene etc.

While at it, we also need to address the sinks for carbon in atmosphere. TREES. These have to be protected. No further degradation of the forest cover. No further concretization. These are things we need to keep in mind for us to ensure that the worlds largest natural sink of carbon is intact. I am not done yet with this. We need to keep in mind that if the population of the world is under control, then there is perhaps no more the need for land for humans to inhabit. The current space where we inhabit is large enough to inhabit about half the population that survives today. So, looking at it optimistically, if population is controlled or reduced for that matter, we should also be able to adequately enaure that the sinks of the world are intact. Perhaps these sinks should only grow in size as the population decreases.

When it looks so simple, why dont our world leaders do something about the problem. Sometimes I wonder, if they really want to do anything good for the planet at all?

Sudhi

Economic Solution to Smoking.

2009-10-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of talk about the anti-smoking bill and all in India. The bill has been passed and today the status is that if anyone smokes in a declared public place, he is liable to be fined. This is supposed to be an dis-incentive for smokers.

If asked to analyze this rule, I would say that this rule has not been designed to prevent smokers from smoking. This rule has been laid down to enable better health of the society at large who would otherwise be impacted by smokers smoking in public. Has it enabled smokers to become non-smokers. NO. Has it prevented new set of people from latching on to the smoking habit. NO.

There has been a continuous rise in the net price of cigarettes in the market. Thanks to ever increasing taxes that are levied upon cigarettes. This has been done with the intent of adding a monetary entry barrier to new smokers. The expectation is that when a first time smoker goes to a shop and demands cigarettes, the price of cigarettes will drive him away from cigarettes. Is this barrier working? NO.

What needs to be done to ensure that there is a barrier for the first timer atleast, if not for the regular smoker. For this we need to understand smokers.

Smokers can be broadly categorised into 3 classes.

First timers
Regular smokers who don't smoke full packets
Regular smokers who consumes more than 1 packet a day.

If you look at the percentage allocation of people smoking into these categories it would be broadly 10:60:30. Now how can we make the taxes work as a disincentive? Here is a solution.

Don't allow sale of loose cigarettes in the market and the minimum pack size should be changed from 10 cigarettes per pack to 20 cigarettes per pack. Now how will this work as a disincentive? Let us take to the analysis of this scenario for each of the classes mentioned above one by one.

First Timers: These are smokers who want to try out cigarettes. They dont want to buy a whole pack of cigarettes. There are other social compulsion that a first timer faces. He / she will not be able to take cigarettes back home as ones parents or spouse is in most of the cases not for cigarettes. Let us assume for a moment that the person is not under any such compulsion from the society or the family. He will still be able to see that a pack of cigarettes is close to Rs. 100/- as against a single peice which would perhaps cost him Rs. 5/-. Spending Rs. 5/- to try something new, especially smoking which is percieved as cool is worth the money. But Rs. 100/- might be too much to ask for. There is a higher chance that a person might not buy cigarettes at such costs. Although there will still be a lot of people who would be able to buy a pack of cigarette at Rs. 100/- but this number is likely to be small in comparision with the number of first timers who would try to smoke at Rs. 5/-.

Regular smokers who don't smoke full packets: These are regular smokers who would like to smoke just about a couple of cigarettes a day. This smoker is also under a lot of pressure from the family & the society to quit smoking. That is exactly why he/she smokes one or two cigarettes a day. He / she smokes in hiding & fears being spotted while smoking. Also, the smoker's daily expenditure on cigarettes is not more than Rs. 10/-, in a very bad case Rs. 25/-. Now when the same smoker is asked to shell out Rs. 100/- at a go, I think, the smoker will surely think twice. There will be a few in this category who will switch from this category to smokers smoking more than a pack of cigarettes. But then, as in the above case, such will be few in numbers. So we should be able to easily get rid of many such cases which are in this category.

Regular smokers who consume more than one packet of cigarette a day: GOD SAVE THESE PEOPLE. Economics cannot solve this problem.

We have only seen the pros of this proposal. There might be a number of loopholes. The biggest of the lot would be enforce a rule that would ensure that no one sells loose cigarettes. There could be a lot of corruption that would spur from this. To control these would be a greater challenge perhaps. All in all, there are lot of factors that need to work in unison to ensure that the total external as well as internal costs associated with smoking are captured in the whole transaction. The biggest question that lies is weather our politicians really have the gut to do so?

Sudhi

Citizen Anti-Crime Task Force

2009-08-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

What is crime?
Any activity that has an undesired effect (desired as defined by the society not the individual) on the society at large is a crime. So when we stand on the street & take a leak on the walls of a building in the open, it is promoting a sense of indiscipline in the society, which is not a virtue desired by the social structure. Thus, even this seemingly innocent act also qualifies as a crime.

A crime can be an outcome of intentional actions or unintentional consequences of our actions. The intent hardly matters. All that matters is the outcome, the effect of the actions.

Who are criminals?
The people who commit a crime are criminals. Wow, we needed a blog to define that.

What is there psyche?
Commit crimes which have seen success. There is very little innovation in the type of crimes that are committed. The criminals change, but the intent of the crime & the modus-operandi continues to be the same for ages. These criminals, learn from other criminals & are motivated into crime by either their own previous success or other's success stories.

What can a victim do?
Victim can raise his voice against the crime or the criminals. This will atleast prevent the criminal from casually committing the same crime against someone else. Also the populace at large will notice the crime & will be aware of it when they are pressed against the wall.

Why don't victims act?
They are shy, to admit that someone actually goofed them. They are scared of getting further victimized by the system if they raise a voice. They are scared of the feeling out movies give about the judiciary system of the nation. They feel that if a crime is reported, their name will be in the public domain for further exploitation.

How can we promote them to act?
Form a team which acts on such criminals. The actions of criminals are repetitive in nature. They tend to act similarly every time. Success calls for more success. They do the same things the same way. So by recreating the crime scene & waiting for just long enough, there is a great chance that the crime will be repeated. Only this time, the criminals are the victims of a planned layout of the crime. Once caught, they must be taken to task.

But first things first. These crimes need to be reported in the first place. A site for such reporting will come in handy, where, the details of the victims are asked for only when the victim chooses to reveal it. Even if one chooses to reveal his/her identity, the same needs to be kept a secret. This will prompt the population, atleast the tech savvy, urban populace to go ahead & report crimes against them.

What are the perceived benefits?
The society is likely to get benefits out of this by mainly increasing the reporting of crimes & hence also an increased probability of action as there is a task force now working on nabbing these criminals by recreating the scene.

I am hopeful that crime will come down in the country, but for realisation, there needs to be action along with ideas.

Signing off
Sudhi

Pollution Control System

2008-12-27T02:10:00.001-08:00

When I walk down the streets to the markets, I see a lot of pollutants that litter the streets. There is oil, there is municipal solid waste, there are scraps of metal, there are packaging & packing material all over the streets & the footpaths. On my way back from the office, I see a lot of rivers, rivers not of water, but sewers.

I would be wrong in saying that a large part of this is hazardous in nature. But truly, even in minuscule quantities, these hurt the ecosystem a large. There is need to put an end to this. However, looking at the economic condition of the nation & the citizen, I don't think that prevention will work. Only controls can be thought of. These controls are expensive & needs to be implemented across whole geographic locales. This calls for huge financial, technological & manpower resources.

In contradiction, if we look at the the pollution control systems in India, they are mainly designed to cater to the pollution with respect to marine life, forests, municipalities & industries. The resources that are required to reduce the impact of a unwary pollutants at large can be got through the people who are polluting. These leave us with the industries. The system that I propose is simple. It entails, the regulatory authorities to levy penalties upon industries that are polluting. These penalties should not be financial in nature. They should penalize corporations with some developmental work with respect to the environmental protection. Apt examples of this would be like preparing an impervious bed under a stretch of a sewer river, setting up a oil recycle unit or setting up a system for collection of the waste oil generated.

While, the corps work on these initiatives, they are very likely to develop consciousness about pollution & its adverse impacts. These would certainly drive these corporations to perform better environmentally. If the same doesn't happen, they are still being penalized for their wrong doings, which will annul their effect on the environment. Anyway, by doing this, what we ultimately achieve is not a perfect system, a system that can only defer not deter any hazards involved.

I guess for a perfect system, I need to wait a bit.
Waiting....
Sudhi

Andaman

2008-12-09T23:26:00.000-08:00

I recently visited Andaman islands for my honeymoon. This post is dedicated to my experiences in Andaman.

There are only a few ways by which one can reach Andaman islands. By air or by sea. The sea route is governed by the government steamers & ships. These are not expensive, but certainly take a lot of time (around 2.5 days to reach Andaman). Irrespective of this fact, by virtue of these ships being government owned & operated, I did'nt expect the quality of service to be great. Hence, we decided to fly.

Flights to Andaman are available only from Chennai & Kolkatta. All flights from any other destinations also hop via these two sources. If you want to cut corners, reaching one of these sources by other modes of transport would be highly recommended. I took a train from Bangalore to Chennai & then a flight to Port Blair. The same route was repeated for the return journey as well.

Upon reaching Port Blair airport which is one of the most shabbily maintained airports I have ever visited (other being in Lucknow topping the shabbiness list), I was amazed by the greenery in Port Blair. The buildings in the city are not great, but certainly carry an aura of archaism along.

We had to reach Havelock islands that evening & finding a ship to the island was a god send for us. There are very few ships that ply between any two islands in Andaman & we were lucky to find one that day. The ship journey is again amazing. You can either take a seat inside the steamer or go to the top of the ship & bask in the glory of diffused sunlight. Its a good tanning excercise, if you are looking for one. As a suggestions, book your ferry tickets before hand as it relives you of a lot of tension.

Havelock island is like paradise on earth. Sedate, laid back, calm, rustic & pure are some words that immediately come to my mind. One could plan a month long visit to Havelock if one has the time. The place is not great for tourism, with just 2-3 visitable places in the island. But, if relax is the word, havelock sure is the place. At Havelock, you have absolutely nothing to do but be at peace with yourselves. The place is one romantic heaven, with beaches as seen never before. Mountains, forests everywhere, curvy roads through these mountains leading to clean & beautiful beaches. The water is so clear in these beaches that you can see the sea bed ten meters away from your feet. The sea is also rich is aquatic life. Beautiful colorful corals & other aquatic life is what you meet when you indulge yourselves in snorkelling or scuba diving. Simply wonderful. Nevertheless, if you wear spectacles, try your luck with snorkelling before scuba diving. All in all, the place deserves atleast 2 nights if you want adventure. Unlimited time at havelock if all you want to do is relax.

From havelock island, we headed to Port Blair. It was easy to find a place to stay. Was not really as expensive as havelock. But sure the quality of the stay did not let too much to be pleased with.

At Port Blair, don't take a tourist package. They are exorbitant, don't give you time at any spot. Over and above that, they crib. Added to that, given the fact that the place is small, all tourist spots are next to one another. So, why take a cab when all it has to do is wait. Take a rick. Will cost you less & is convenient too.

There are plenty of eat outs at port blair. Most of them are non-veg restaurants. Being veg, we were still able to find a few places that served good food in a hygienic environment.

Island tourism takes a lot of time. This is because there are limited ferries to these islands & you are dependent on these to take you around.

All in all, even if you spend a lot of time at a place, there is hardly anything to regret, except for the museums, which are appallingly bad. Do not visit them, unless you are really interested in them & have the patience to read a lot. There are no guides, only notice boards in front of pictures in these museums. You will surely find better museums in the mainland of India.

The tour was - in short - worth all the expenses incurred. Delighted. Actually, would not mind settling in Andaman when I retire.

More on more travel adventure soon.
Sudhindra

I Am Getting Married - And The World Is Shocked

2008-10-14T03:15:00.000-07:00

Well, here it comes. I am getting married. Finally !!!
I am surely surprised that god did in fact plan a wedding for me. I never expected that to be the case. My friends are also equally surprised.

One, they don't understand the taste of girls these days. What kind of a girl could fall for a moron like me? Don't they give a thought about whom they marry these days? Is marriage a mere custom now & not about compatibility etc.?

Some others strongly believe that I will not be able to change my lifestyle to suit a married lifestyle. Alas!!! at this point of time, I cannot say for sure what life has in store for me but I am sure that I shall leave no stones unturned to make our married life a fairy tale.

BTW ... for those of you who are reading this, consider this as a personal invite to my wedding in B'lore on 14/11/08.

Signing off.
Sudhi

The Biggest Problem

2008-10-13T22:16:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I wonder which is the biggest problem that faces the nation that houses about a sixth of the world's human beings. There are many that I can think of as problems. But today, I will try & figure out which one of them is the most critical to the nation (in my own way ... of course).

Poverty: People in India are poor. There is a huge income gap that exists in the country. While we boast about the richest people in the world being Indians, we shy away from dealing with the realities of poverty. Why is poverty a problem?

Due to poverty, people are not able to meet their basic needs like food, shelter & education. They struggle to gain access to clean drinking water & basic hygiene & health facilities. They die due to malnutrition & other illnesses. They are the most vulnerable to any natural disaster that strikes. They are unable to respond. The poor sometimes surely regret their birth itself.

Should a country as vast as India tolerate this social evil anylonger. Is there anything at all that we can do as citizens of this country. There are only unsustainable means of dealing with poverty. This includes diversion of the taxes to provide facilities to the poor. This works well in the short run like in case of a natural disaster etc., but in the long run, this is not a viable option. There is very little that can be done to save the populace from this evil other than to provide them with temporary or permanent employment. This is again not an easy task. This will generally require them to move from one place to another in quick sucession. This might provide them with the most important thing they need, MONEY, but will still deprive them of other facilities like education, healthcare etc.. So the problem still lingers around.

This is problem the country faces, but this in itself is not a problem. The soultions do not lie in distribution of money. They lie in other problems that we will discuss.

Illiteracy: The problem of illitracy in India is shameful. We claim to be a superpower of the future. An IT hub of the world. The backend office of the world. Still illitracy looms at large. This is a problem for the nation. Till the time litracty levels in the nation dont go up, there is little hope for the the future generations to see change. Why is literacy a boon & illiteracy a problem?

Most of the poor are illiterate. Now which comes first, illiteracy or poverty is a chicken & egg problem. The illiterate genrally dont know their rights. They are the one who are the easiest to dupe. Education empowers a person. It frees his brains, broadens ones thought & allows one to think for himselves & not be influenced by others thoughts. The illiterate are deprived (in most cases) of this pleasure.

Providing education to all is a solution, but having persued this goal for more than 60 years now, the results are simply not suggestive that we are doing enough. Or is is that there is some other evil that is holding such a grand plan down. Read on to know more.

Population: The population of the country has hit massive proportions. If we look at it closely, most of the problems that we face stem from this one major porblem. Had we been a nation of fewer people, it would have been far easier to manage. To manage the people, to deploy policies, to provide facilities etc. would have been far easier than it is today.

The problem of population is exemplified by the density issue. The population of the country is distributed across the country unevenly. There are areas in the country that are uninhabitable. There are other areas that are overcrowded. Is a there a solution. No ... at least not in my mind.

As a nation we don't believe in forced population control methods. One generation with forced population control methods & we are likely to be on track to reduction of population. But alas!! we chose not to do it. In my personal opinion, its not right to do it also. All in all, there is very little that can be done about the population, than to educate people about it & associated liabilities.

Crime: India is today witnessing a level of crime that has appalled the imagination of the nation. There are crimes against women, children & the aged people of the country. There is cybercrime, there is terrorism, there is burglary and what not. There is the underworld & there are the petty criminal. Crime is organized & diffused. Crime rules the charts on television shows. They take the highest airtime.

The police force of the country has been proved time & again to be inadequate or illequipped to handle the ever increasing burden of crime. Is increasing the number of executive staff a tangible solution?

I don't think so. Very little can be done by sending patrols all day in all areas. There is also the question of funding such operations. There is also a constraint on the manpower available. Technology could be an alternative, but we still are in the frame of surveillance. We need to change the frame. Criminal psyche needs to be understood. Punishments should be designed in such a way that criminals enter the mainstream post the punishments. Repeat crimes are something we do not desire under any circumstance.

Crime has been a big problem, but by resolving crime, there is very little impact on the other evils that mar the social structure today. There is much that can be done to curb crime in the country, but there is very little societal change we will see due to this. This is a standalone evil product of society's greed & needs to be tackled likewise. In ISOLATION.

Corruption: Go to any government office & you will find that the official demands for some favor for doing his regular work (to serve the people). Undoubtedly, we are one of the most corrupt nations on earth. Its not just rampant in the public sector or government offices, its also to be found in large industrial giants, the business barons & the powerhouses of the economy. It has become a way of life for everyone here. All strata of the society is touched by corruption. The poor hawkers have to pay the police man to stay on the street to sell vegetables. The rich corporations have to bribe the chief ministers to open a unit in their states. It has no boundaries, no definition & of course no sympathy.

If we look at all the evils we have touched upon earlier, there are grand plans that are made to combat them, but alas, to no effect. What is going wrong with these plans? Any one could stand and ask this question. It doesn't require an professor to ask this question. This is where corruption comes in. It plays a major role in the inefficiency that has crept up into these plans that we are so good at making. And guess what, corruption is an evil we have no plan against. It has never found its way to the five year plans that the planning commission prepares.

Corruption has ensured that it plays a role in reduction of the efficiency of plans that curb poverty, reduce illiteracy, puts a check on crime & works to control the population. There are huge funds that get allocated to curb these evils every year which end up enriching the pockets of corrupt officials. The money that is supposed to be spent for the nourishment of the poor starved children, today makes way for expensive imported toys for the kids of the corrupt.

They are the ones who have spoilt the investment climate in the country. They create hassle after hassle to the industries. Even if the industry has done everything right, it has to face the brunt of these officials. There are officials who expect that they will be treated like genuine custodians of the system when they come and ask for a bribe. These corrupt nationals are the ones that are spoiling the nation. These are the people who aren't giving India a chance at being a developed nation.

If the government focuses on corruption control for even 5 years, India will see a lot of change. Lot of positive change. People will have smiles back on their faces. India will flourish. But what is is it that is preventing the government from acting. It is the phrase "digging ones own grave". Why will anyone in the government kill his own free cash cow. There very little I can think of other than the feeling of patriotism & integrity of a leader. The courts have played a more active role in this aspect than the government. The role of the courts in building a society that is hospitable is tremendous. Yet again, this issue also needs to be taken seriously by the judiciary as the legislators continue to fight amongst themselves for mean short termed goals within the parliament.

Signing off
Hoping someone important reads.
Sudhi

Electoral Reforms

2008-10-08T01:41:00.000-07:00

THE ARGUMENT
In most organizations, it is a known factor that the men at the top of the hierarchy know the most. They are likely to get the bigger picture than rest of the organization. They know what choices to make & when to make them. To the extent that, at times, they are the ones who make choices for others.

It would be right for me to state that the people in the top management levels are the best equipped to deal with all stakeholders with equity & in a unbiased manner. They can take into account all stakeholder concerns while making a decision & also think about the repercussions of the decisions they make.

Extending the same logic to the nation. Let us take the example of the electoral system. We, in India have a democratic electoral system. Everybody is entitled to vote for this favorite (wannabe) leader. The system has certain fallacies inbuilt into it. They are in terms of the assumptions that we have made while building the system.

THE ASSUMPTION
We strongly believe that each citizen of the nation is equally intelligent. He can participate in the decision making for the country. He has his own thought process & cannot be lured into making choices that suit the leaders & not the nation. This, as we can come to think of, is not really true. Not everyone is equally intelligent. If that were the case, everyone would be the same. There would be no one poorer than the rest. The point is that, if everyone would have been equally intelligent, we would have been living in a much more sophisticated & civilized society than the one we live in today. Social & economic equity would rule. But alas!!! We don't see that. Hence proved, not everyone is equally intelligent.

We believe that, an individual will treat his personal interests as secondary to the interests of the nation or state. Ah!!! Are we in for a shock? Yes of course. With such assumptions, we will be shocked every time. As we have seen earlier, not everyone is equally intelligent, there would be very few individuals who would understand the nation. In fact there would be very few, who would understand his/her own needs leave alone the needs of the nation. Some would be even foolish enough even to discard the enlightenment that one gets through his more intelligent peers. Hence, not everyone thinks alike & not all are inspired to achieve the same goals.

THE CHANGE
Given all these assumptions that we have made, the system is as we see it. The kind of leaders that we get is an outcome of the system we breed. The greedy leaders today, have shown little or no interest in making changes to the electoral system in the country. This would result in genocide. They would be killing their own compatriots. The greedy, the unpatriotic, the unimaginative (so called) leaders.

At this point, it would be good to visit our corporate counterpart of the nation. The corporates are also constantly looking for leaders. For visionaries, who can take the organization to newer levels. Levels the organization knows not of. It is a point worth notice that not any organizational leader is born overnight. He cannot hide his fallacies for long. On the contrary, the political system breeds exactly the same attributes the corporates loathe.

What differentiates the corporate leaders from the nations leaders? What do corporations do that is different from our national systems? What can the electoral system learn from the corporations?

Almost all corporate leaders are inducted in the organization through a rigorous recruitment process. Only those who make the cut are allowed to be a part of the organization. These are the people who later take on the roles of corporate leaders. In contrast with the recruitment process, our national leaders are let recluse. There is no criteria that determines weather a person is suitable to be a leader or not. There is no eligibility criteria to get into politics. Essentially, criterion like educational background, known charges of corruption & crime, active participation in developmental activities etc. If there is a track record, the same would be a proof of future performance.

The leaders in corporations are groomed as per the ideals of the organization. The people who groom are the best in the organization. They are equipped with both internal & external perspective. Look at our political counterparts who are amidst criminals. How can one talk about grooming? But, alas! they end up leading the country.

Not everyone in the organization gets an opportunity to choose the leaders of the organization. They are chosen only by a few people who understand all the current stakeholders well. These decisions are well informed. The risk they take in their decision is minimized by the information they use. Our political counterparts are chosen by every citizen. This needs to be changed & the reins of choice should also be given only to those who understand the nation & its populace. There should be criterion based on which one can vote, other than of course being a citizen of the nation. The most basic could be eduction & economic background.

A person belonging to the higher strata of the society has an overall picture of the needs of those in the lower strata. They also are sensitive to the needs of the lower strata. This is witnessed by the profile of leaders of protesters. They generally belong to the higher society. Why are they fighting for the cause of the other half of the society? Because they care & understand the needs of this part of the society.

In a nut shell, voting rights should not be given to everyone in the society. A carefully selected group of individuals should make the choice for everyone. With responsibility to choose the right from the wrong for the collective society, these individuals are expected to do a better job at weeding out the unwanted elements from Indian political system.

OPTIMISM
There is drastic change that the leadership of the country needs to see. This is not possible without first ironing out the anomalies that exist in the electoral system. The above listed are a few reformist ideas that could possibly bring change in the country. There could be many more ideas that could make the difference as we enter a new era where we are called a developed country.

Signing off
Sudhi

Integrated Municipal Waste Management

2008-09-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

Wastes that get generated from a household has been classified as municipal waste. This could be in terms of solid waste or sewage. While the sewage that gets generated is treated through the sewage treatment plants in the municipal limits before they are drained into water bodies or reused in the city depending on the degree of purification achieved in the treatment plant.

The municipal solid waste continues to be the source of many impending problems for the future. They exert a tremendous amount of pressure on the landfills that are already overflowing. They are a source of many airborne diseases. The human populace that occupy such surrounding excert huge demand for medical attention. The class of the society that generally occupies such surroundings can't afford expensive healthcare facilities that are available to the generators of the waste. This exerts additional burden on the government aided healthcare system. Overall, as with any waste, even municipal solid waste genreates net negative economic value.

There goes the problem. Now what about the soulution. There are many things that may solve the problem of huge wastes that get generated. But one thing to note is that of all the solutions proposed so far, none of them independently will be able to put an end to the shortly forthcoming crisis. One such solution (or so, I think) is what this edition of the blog all about.

The municipal solid waste that gets generated, can again be broken down into two categories. The biodegradable & the non-biodegradable. The biodegradable waste can be easily composted & thus be utilized as manure/fertilizer. The agriculture sector is likely to get a boost by distribution of such manure at low cost. The manure generated would be natural & hence would prevent further pollution. The pollution cycle would start a downward spiral.

However, it is unlikely that the strong lobby of fertilizer & chemical companies would let the implementation of such a hideous scheme. The only way to achieve this would then be a quota based allocation system, with fertilizer distribution being broken into two parts (manure & chemical fertilizer) with manure slowly taking over from the chemical fertilizers. Also to provide a fillip to the scheme, the composting activity can be taken over by the fertilizer companies. This would allow them to make money while serving the interest of the environment.

In doing so, there would be better waste management systems in our town & cities. The residents of these places would be forced to segregate the waste that they generate. They would be made to pay for the waste getting generated. These actions would also help in reduction of the net waste (biodegradable) that an average household generates in a day.

Now coming to the non-biodegradable wastes that get generated. Any averagely intelligent observer would never miss the point that most of the non-biodegradable waste that gets generated in the packaging material. Majority of the rest - today - would comprise of the electronic waste.

There are ways by which the electronic waste can be recycled & reused. This has gone a long way from where we stood as a community a decade ago. The companies manufacturing electronic goods have shown responsibility & have introduced a plethora of buyback schemes to ensure that none of the waste gets disposed off in an environmentally unsafe manner. There is a long list of companies working in various parts of the world that recycle the electronic waste. R&D efforts have strengthened & have focused their attention towards increasing the lifespan of a product thereby delaying the disposal. All in all on the e-waste front, we are doing well.

Now, the biggest culprit for overflowing landfills ends up being the packaging material. Can packaging be done away with? The answer to this is a straight NO. Packaging is necessary to ensure that the product is safe. Without packaging, the products would end up in the landfills. So we are better off having packaging than not. But is the packaging adequate? In most of the cases that I have observed, companies have started using packaging as a marketing strategy & not as protective measure. This has ended up making the packaging bulkier, costlier & wasteful. By having a bulkier packaging, we don't just end up wasting a lot of packaging material, but also loose out on the opportunity to transport more in the same consignment. This increases the net pollution contribution per product unit. So the first thing we need to do is shift focus of packaging material being solely for marketing to one of a protective layer. This would reduce a lot of packaging waste that gets generated.

Now, once we have done this, there is a need for stringent legislation that enforces the packaging material to be recyclable material. This will ensure that the material that gets disposed off is pricked up by rag pickers and the same is recycled. This legislative reform will make a huge impact on the state of our landfills. With landfills reducing in size, the negative impact that these landfills carry will also come to a standstill. Lot of work needs to be done in this direction. But I am hopeful that the work will ultimately be done through economic pressure that the resources will exert upon both the lawmakers & the industries. The end consumer, though is strongwilled, will only help the change take place & will in all livelihood will not be able to bring about any radical change all by themselves.

Signing off
Sudhi

Appraisal Systems

2008-09-09T22:49:00.000-07:00

Just recently I had to conduct the appraisal feedback sessions of my team. Its a tough task. The biggest problem arises during the KPI setting process itself & not during the feedback sessions.

The KPIs that are set for an individual need to be the targets only for that particular individual. His and only his performance should get reflected as a part of this KPI. It is a tough ask, especially if one is not setting KPIs for an industry where the individual is more important than the collective team.

In cases where team work is important, KPIs setting should include at-least 50% scores for team work & all or none should be penalized for performance of the team. Any distinction that is being made in this assessment will lead to conflicts. These conflicts are not only restricted to the manager-subordinate, but also percolate to the subordinate-subordinate conflicts. This in effect has a bad or undesirable impact on the initial objective, that is team work.

It is a tough ask for a manager to balance the team & the individual. God only can save the team if the manager is not glib enough & doesn't possess the ability to think off the hat & save the devastating effect of such an appraisal. However, what is the right solution to this problem is something that is beyond my comprehension.

I think I need to wait a little longer for the solutions to take form.

Signing off for now.

Sudhi

Environmental Excellence Award

2008-09-07T21:48:00.000-07:00

Just recently, the company that I work for, received an environmental excellence award. It was supposed to be a great achievement. Commendable indeed.

Alas! Sometimes I wonder what contribution to the society are such organizations that only distribute awards do. This organization that distributed the awards, was one amongst those nameplate organizations that only distribute awards. They recognize great performers through awards. They do not help in improving the environmental performance of companies. They do not assist regulatory authorities with guideline preparations. They do not contribute positively to the health of the environment directly. What do they do after all ???

I understand that these awards sometimes form the motivational grounds for achievers to do more. But does it work always? The awards that we are talking about were distributed after simply going through the documents & a brief 15 min presentation that I made. Really appalling. How can a national level award be distributed without the authenticity of the applicant being verified? If this is the state of affairs, it will not be long before the sanctity of these awards themselves will be questioned. With fee for the application, fee for the presentation, fee for this & that & this & for god-only-knows-what, today these awards have become a means to mint money.

I propose to start an organization that will assist us (ordinary mortals) assess the sanctity of these free flowing awards. Maybe I'll mint some money myself.

Signing off on a sad note.
Sudhi

Problem Lines

2008-09-04T03:02:00.000-07:00

There are basically two types of pollutions that can be identified. They are Line & Point sources. A line source is one where the pollution is distributed while the point source is one that is stationary in nature.

In out quest to make policies that would abate pollution in a region, we need consider this concept. A line source of pollution is very hard to regulate & control. This kind of pollution source by the very nature of its usage will be dispersed & hence exerts spatial constraints on regulators. Generally line source pollutants are used in large numbers, this increases the load on the regulators. Also, managing such numbers is not an easy task. Examples of the same would be any electrical appliance or a motor vehicle etc.

In contrast, point sources, generate huge quantities of pollutants (individually). They are more or less stable spatially & are manageable with simpler measurement & monitoring techniques reinforced by a strong regulatory framework. examples of this category would be a power plant or a chemical industry.

This was about the problem. Now what about the solution. Policies that are made to combat pollution should be equipped with a two pronged fork.

While sufficient R&D effort needs to be put into improving the eco-efficiencies of the line sources, adequate focus on waste minimization should be emphasized upon the point sources. Today, in India, there exists no legal framework that mandates either. We in the regulatory system have been focusing largely on standards that need to be maintained by point sources or line sources. The focus in largely on the point sources. The policies in India have hardly been successful in establishing the need to improve the eco-efficiency of the line sources.

There are schemes like the star rating system for energy efficiency & PUC for the vehicular pollution controls which are operational. But the level of awareness in India with respect to such initiatives is poor. The chief drivers of product procurement still continues to be cost of the product. In a country like India (low education levels, low per capita income & high income disparity), it is difficult to change the way we buy. The solution lies in manufacturing things at the same cost while being environmentally superior while at use.

The ideal state for pollution will be when there is no pollution caused by line sources & all the pollution is shifted to point sources. Like usage of electric vehicles instead of fossil fuel based vehicles. This vehicle only needs to be efficient & will reflect economically to the user. Thus the user will ensure that the efficiency is high. Now, the question of pollution. When one uses electricity he is not polluting directly. But in the process of generating electricity, we pollute as in a thermal power plant. These sources of pollutants are much easier to control & combat as discussed above. Now these power plants could start operating on non-conventional power sources like bio-gas or renewable energy sources like wind, solar etc. thereby eliminating pollution all together. This scenario, of zero net pollution cannot be achieved without policies designed specifically to achieve them.

This example is only one of the such many more that could change that way we live in the future. The legacy we leave behind us will be what we will be remembered for by the generations to come. Hope we act now & change our lifestyles so that the future remembers us in positive light.

Signing off on a positive note.
Sudhi

Black Swan

2008-09-02T00:58:00.000-07:00

These days, I am reading a book called the Black Swan. This is about the impact of the most improbable things that can happen. The point the author tries to make in the book is very simple. When the event is of higher consequence than the phenomenon itself, then due respect needs to be given to the event.

Basically, all the swans that we have seen are white in color & hence we get a feeling that all swans are white. We assume that the "absence of evidence is the evidence of absence". The whole book tries to analyse why as human being (self-proclaimed intelligent species around the planet) ignores the black swan & make this assumption time and again. He then goes on to explain how we can take a turn towards the betterment by being more aware about the risks we carry in our day-to-day decisions.

He has shown with a variety of examples from a variety of fields that as humans we are not able to understand the implications of the black swan & are continuing to ignore the same despite repeated warnings by nature. We assume that we are the smartest of the lot & understand nature very well & hence attribute all events to a cause. The book makes it very clear that not all events can be attributed to some or the other cause & as humans we do this attribution just to feel safe. We tend to rule out the impact of luck.

The book is a very good one & deserves a reading from everyone. It looks like a book on advanced probability & statistics, but has been written in plain english without any reference to any statistical formula. Basically, anyone can read, understand & utilize this book as a reference for de-risking ones own life.

Signing Off
Sudhindra

Introductory Post

2008-09-01T20:55:00.000-07:00

This is my first blog on this blog. So I'll like to introduce my self.

I am Sudhindra. I have done the most crazy of stuffs one can imagine. Noooo .. not all that crazy . Anyway, I love economics & try to do a bit of psychology while working as an environmentalist.

That's about me. Now I am giving writing a chance, let me hope that I able to write an autobiography someday and am popular enough for the book to become a bestseller. I used to blog a couple of year ago, now I don't remember the password of the blog. That brings me back to square one. Never mind. The blog was anyway too random for my liking.

I hope that I can bring about a theme through this blog. I hope all the readers of this blog wish me luck. Thanks anyway.

Signing off for now.
Sudhindra