Positioning India

The Broken Development

As so rightly said by Mahatma Gandhi, that we don't inherit the earth and it's resources from our ancestors, but we borrow them from our children. Which means that, we are on a lease period where we are bound to use our resources judiciously. The whole issue of climate change would not have emerged had there been any attention given to this ideology by any one of us before. While we always just “believe” that there is a lopsided development, where we see the urban rural divide in many aspects, we can actually see it existing even today in many parts of India. Infact to be more precise, in many parts of even the so called "progressive states" of the nation.

While I was on travel working to understand the impacts of climate change on water availability and quality in Pune last week, i could manage to discover a new concept of 'Broken Development'. Very unusual facts are revealed sometimes, when we visit some of the unexplored places of our state, which are unfortunately a part of the same piece of land, where we easily earn our living from.

In some interiors of Pune district, the IT hub of the state, where money and education are the inseparable better halves of each other, one may not believe that some few kilometers away from such a hub are areas, which are merely surviving and are highly vulnerable to collapse at any point of time. 

Especially at this juncture when climate change is the biggest challenge for countries to tackle, India is still struggling hard to set right some basic algorithms pertaining to development.

One of the villages which I visited, did not have drinking water facilities at all and the communities were compelled to survive on the waste water released by the Pune City, which is further released in to the nearby river.  The same water, after some basic treatment was consumed by one entire village.

The most disturbing fact is not that someone's waste water is someone's life, but it’s indeed disheartening to know, that the communities are well versed about this fact and resort to this option "by choice of having no choice", despite being aware of all the forthcoming ill-effects. What kind of development do we think we are aiming at, if deep somewhere we are so poor and helpless that we cannot even address some of the most visible issues ?? 

On one side, people have modern amenities like television and refrigerators, and on the other they are devoid of some basic necessities. Isn't this a broken development?? Or rather a virtual development? Or may be a selective development? Where only few sections of the societies are becoming the drivers as well as the beneficiaries of the development.

Thus, the new government should attempt to join these broken pieces to see the whole picture in first place and then try to take up the massive challenge of national development. The "perceived development" cannot be ambivalent with it's fruits absorbed by only one strata of the nation but should be widespread and based on the principles of equity and generality.

Cherry picking of the climate facts

Though  cherry picking could be sometimes at one’s advantage, it may not be always.  While climate  scientists all over the world are leaving no stone unturned  in disseminating climate science and stories of our future, there are some story tellers, in the disguise of scientific communities, who are just  cherry  picking  the  climate  facts. While there is this selective picking of the facts about the climate catastrophes, what we often tend to demote, are the implications, such actions may impart at varied levels. We, as ‘the learned educated class’ need to understand and assimilate one thing  that,  though  climate  change  is  a proven science, it is also an evolving  science.  It’s a definitive science, but we need to delve much deeper.

Recent  catastrophes, like Hurricane Sandy (New York, USA), Cyclone Phailin (Odisha, India) and cyclone Wipha (Japan) are invariably linked to climate change.  Yes, we are on a right path when we attempt to make such derived claims, but these derivatives are often misleading, if we are basing them on shaky grounds. State and central governments are letting the money flow like water to fund any and every research related to climate change today. Is anyone even thinking, what is this research all about? Who are the people carrying out this research?  What are they pumping in the scientific world? Is there mere cherry picking of results from  IPCC  (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and putting in some other basket of research or its actually evaluated? If that is the case, then, it’s a grave concern for all those who are involved in such  research and also for those who are accepting these results.

If  the  vegetation  is  well  trimmed and pruned, it’s a garden and can be cherished  by  all, but if it grows wild and uncontrolled, the same garden can  turn into a jungle, which can be no good and only create a scare. Same is  the  case  with  the  Climate  Science. We,  as 'climate scientists' or policy  makers',  need  to  very critically assess, what we think, what we write and what we claim about climate change. We must make ourselves capable enough  to  invest our insights to into the right kind of a research, which rightfully explores our capacities as scientists to peep  into the future and have some guesstimates about the impacts  changing climate can have. 

Some recent instances have proved that, preparedness and planning can reduce the force with which climate disasters can strike.  Mitigation  and preparedness actions undertaken by the Andhra government  towards  Phailin  is an excellent example of how early warnings and preparedness can help mitigate, though not entirely prevent, the impact of  natural disasters. Had  there  not been warning systems in place, the coastal   Andhra,   which   is  already sinking  under  the  pressures of bifurcation,  would  have been completely blown away under the winds of the cyclone.  An  established and grounded science can make wonders and has the power  to  safeguard communities and prevent them from collapse, but at the same   time,   cherry  picking  of  the  climate  facts  and  pasting them inappropriately, can also lead to damages, which could be as irreversible.

Thus  as policymakers and climate scientists, we need to cross validate and retrospect our own research to give back grounded results to the scientific community.  Our research should help elevate the quality of climate science and  tame  the  speculations  on the same. For all the climate skeptics out there,  I would like to repeat that, climate change is an evolving science and is relatively in its infancy,  but at the same time it is equally real and unequivocal. It leaves us  with  no choice but mitigate and adapt if at all we wish to prolong our survival on this planet..!!

Power of the "powerFOOLS"

1987 was the year of whole new beginning where a new era of  Sustainable Development was conceived. Yes it was the Brundtland commission’s report titled “ our common future” which was the first of its  kind to bring into existence the concept of sustainable development.  NO one then knew what precisely the SUSTAINABLE development contained..surprisingly no one does that even today. We have international summits, where the much hyped and self proclaimed think tanks of environment and sustainable development gather just to ponder upon issues which are draped in new avatars, but loaded with same old attitudes in mind, with no aggression to change.

A classic example of this is the world biggest ever blackout that happened last week in our country. Today when science & technology have touched the sky and reached the space,  did anyone ever imagined , one day human driven crisis can be so overpowering that it would leave half of the nation BLACK and DARK..!!! To add to this national shame, the very next day our power minister was promoted as union minister. A true “Powerfool”. On  one side we have human driven climate change, where like fools we have been trying to pretend the governance on nature. Today we are trying to prove our victory on humankind as a whole. Behind the pepperazzi of the word “Sustainable development”, incidences like these leave us with a question in mind, what does development mean to us? May be we are just moving ahead with a blindfold , with absolute lack of vision required to actually “DEVELOP “.

Then what is development? Is it the increased rate of resource crunch that cities are  facing and our governing bodies turning a blind eye to it?? Or is it the increasing vulnerabilities to global issue like climate change where plethora of research and issues are in hand but with a bleak solution to tackle it. Or is it exponentially increasing urban population with no power, no water and no appropriate infrastructure to sustain. Are we really SUSTAIN – able? Can we really? 

Groping into answers for these would require a transformation. The fact that our development is lopsided, we need to think from a point of view, where humans are at the centre of decision making and not just development. Well i wish it was as simple as the picture below... !!!

When you know where you are....TERI

As i write this, i also ponder upon a silly question, is this really a “BLOG”? Or maybe just i am too used to writing whatever comes to my MIND. The answer is maybe, i don’t know. May be i am trying to say something that has no meaning for anyone who is reading this, but  at this risk too...i wish to continue writing. 

In this “virtually developing” country, where development is no less than money making business, where policies are malformed and officials are lying on the bed of greed, makes me grope for an answer to a question that “ IS there anybody really working wise and hard , that will help the world navigate through this unruly activities? “ What happens to our environment in this due course of so called developmental journey. Is environment or Sustainability anywhere in picture?

I always thought, the answer is no. There is none. But as they say, “Hard work paves its way through, when talent stops working”. There are knowledge pools around us which are pre-assumed to be the best saviours of environment and “US” per say. But there are few organisations, which have evolved over a period of time with passion to succeed, let me correct my self, not just succeed but make it a habit to succeed...successfully...!!! And i am proud to be a part of one such organisation- TERI, The Energy and Resources Institute.  With Dr Pachauri’s Vision, the world is not only provided with quality research on myriad of issues and aspects but also, interventions that are really capable of a change. As very aptly said, “ We need to be the change which we want to see in this world” , TERI lives with it.

Not many organisations do what they preach and very few never preach but  just do,  which makes no sense either, as it never reach the masses. But TERI is one organisation which has hit the right chord and is able to manage both. Anybody who doubts this, for them i not just have the plethora of intellectual and pioneering work that TERI has been disseminating at various levels, but another marvel of its experiments would be Gual Pahari, Gurgaon, where TERI has not only translated the philosophies of Solar Passive Architecture on Ground but also stands tall as an epitome of Sustainability in itself. With innovative techniques and sustainable solutions executed, makes us believe that  if there is a strong will, change will follow.

Thats when i realised i better know where i am. Because knowing where you are makes you realise what you ought to be & generates a passion to perform better every day.

Reverse Interaction.

It’s always known more than said, that  Change is the only permanent thing in life. With the technological research cutting the market at a lightning speed, knowingly or unknowingly it’s laying impacts on various elements on its way. Technology is killing technology. The gravity of this statement was realized when I had recently been to the states. Simply I wanted to buy a new wrist watch. But to my surprise I was confronted with the fact that wrist watches have almost become obsolete in most parts of the states just because there is a digital watch in every one’s  Iphone. I was also surprised to know, that wrist watches were hence sold at much cheaper rates than what we buy in India. Its actually intangible yet measurable difference.

Moreover, companies like Nikon , Canon which are major  digital camera manufacturers, popularly known as Digi Cams, are becoming a past as the higher resolution cameras in the phone itself are encroaching the camera market gradually. Iphone’s market is In a tough competition by Samsung, to the extent that the US is planning to ban the same.

This reverse interaction today and the sharp technological demands are creating very short lived businesses with a constant threats of dissolution. The interaction between technologies is becoming reverse. Hence it becomes essential to identify prudent business solutions to combat the heat of ever changing  uncertain market.

The Trailblazers of Corruption

There are three types of approaches generally found around us...

1 . We have determination, hard work, Education and talent working together; we call it Success...

2. When Hardwork and Determination only working together with no money we call it Hard luck...........

3 when we have nothing and still have money, we have to call it Corruption................

 What a paradox. But yes, unfortunately true. This inconvenient truth is the most believed and followed truth of today’s times. From government to chai walaas, from politicians to a common man, corruption is spreading like a wild fire. I am certainly not trying to make statements to sell my BLOG and make it sound like a social activist’s voice. But the agony is this.

Just a small incidence to back what i just said. The impression of this incidence continues to remain on my mind as i write this BLOG. While i was on my way to catch a train for Mumbai, on Ahmadabad station, i stopped to pick up a bottle of water for myself to quench my thirst. The guy on the stall must be in his late 20’s or Mid 20’s may be...basically very young and smart! Before you start getting me wrong, let me proceed further.... 

I asked him a BISLERY. He fetched me with one costing rupees 12. But he charged me Rs 15. Now i was in no mood to fight with him for those three rupees. But the fact that he did so, i thought i should.  I asked him an explanation for those 3 rupees he charged me extra. He very confidently, making no bones over it replied...” Behenji yeh toh ice ke liye hai, thanda pani chahiye ha garmi mein” So i asked him to fetch me a warm bottle of water, He said” woh hum nahi rakhte” before i lock my horns with him further, he replied..” Jaane do na madam, yeh politicians log karodon ka ghotala karate hai, tab koi kuch nahi bolta...hum pooch ke lete hai toh hamein hi sunaate hai” 

I was speechless. I was so much filled with answers to backfire him, that i actually couldn’t speak anything. I just kept wondering,. What is being internalised in the minds of tomorrow. Aren’t we acting like morons by making these corruption lobbyists our Role Models. These politicians are true trailblazers of corruption. With all the scams and scandals of don’t know how many crores, and how many “ Zeros” in those crores, they are actually setting a trail behind their scams which will one day set on fire every one of us. With HUGE mammoth scams, small level corruptions or say may be illegitimacy, is appearing so miniscule that its no more remaining one. So with this kind of an attitude that is developing in today’s young minds i wonder where we will be standing 20- 30 years down the line. I wont be surprised if, a day will come, when corruption would be so much a part of our system, that the government would take its pleasure in legalising it...i can’t stop laughing at this. Certainly not because its funny, but i am mesmerised with the helplessness of our System to save itself from being a BIG FAILURE.

So whats the answer to this?? I am still thinking...post your comments if  you have come up with any...