Inert Catalyst

Blue Marble Earth

2010-03-02T18:18:00.004Z

Nasa has released never seen before beautiful images of the earth. Large files are available in Nasa's flickr account.
Doesn't this make you wonder if we should try to colonize the Moon and Mars or save our planet from the greed of man?

Social Media, Diplomacy, Governments and Dissidents

2010-01-04T22:59:00.001Z

M.J.Akbar feels the ‘Power of Wealth’

2009-12-27T20:39:00.001Z

I got a little curious when I saw M.J.Akbar’s article in the Times of India withdrawn. A google search led me to the original article in his personal blog. Starting with his usual BJP bashing he goes on to compare the settlement between the Ambani brothers with the medieval English mode of settlement. He says “… unacceptable in more egalitarian times, but in our country the elder brother still has the edge. This is why Mukesh Ambani received nearly three-fourths of the Dhirubhai empire, and Anil accepted such an unequal settlement”. He continues, “Businessmen are often called barons or the new 'Moghuls', but this is not a license to behave like a Mughal, consolidating power by eliminating kin”. If you think he has too much love for Anil, his next paragraph sets it right.

He contrasts the Ambani family with another unnamed media Moghul family (Goenkas of Indian Express?) who he says possess the 'wealth of power’ (as opposed to the ‘power of wealth’ of the Ambanis) and have “turned a kingdom into an empire in exemplary harmony, offering a template”.

There is no prize for guessing why the Times of India withdrew this article.

Hyderabad – Is your BCP in place?

2009-12-26T21:10:00.001Z

The Pro-Telangana parties have announced an indefinite bandh from December 29th if the center fails to announce a specific timeframe for the formation of Telangana. Leaving politics aside, this is a serious issue for the companies that have operations in Hyderabad. Hyderabad has been tense for the last 3 days though the pro-Telangana groups had postponed the band due to Christmas.

There are no signs of normalcy returning soon. The Home Ministry too seems to have recognized this and has asked the CII to move its Partership Summit to Chennai, from Hyderabad where it was scheduled to be held from January 21st to 23rd. So it is clear that the government does not expect normalcy to return even by January 21st. This may become the biggest test for the Business Continuity Processes (BCP) of companies having operations in Hyderabad. Though companies have well defined BCPs, the last time when it was put to use was during the Mumbai floods of 2005 which was for a relatively shorter period of time. While it may be easier for the IT and services companies to use other centers, Hyderabad has a number of pharmaceutical companies which may be worst affected. This is yet another instance of mishandling of a political issue by the government resulting in losses for the private sector.

When Andhra and Rayalaseema regions were agitating against Telangana, Hyderabad was relatively quiet. But any agitation in Telangana is bound to affect Hyderabad as Hyderabad is in the heart of Telangana. Apparently the government has failed to take the concerns of the Hyderabad industry into consideration or the Hyderabad industry has failed to put pressure on the government to solve the issue without it getting affected.

Forced marriage of 15 year old Hindu girl legal under Muslim law!

2009-12-23T22:33:00.001Z

The Calcutta High Court has given bail to a Muslim man, who allegedly forcibly married a 15 year old Hindu girl. While allowing the bail the high court has accepted that the marriage is perfectly legal under the Muslim Personal Law. While the possibility of the girl herself eloping with the man cannot be discounted, we need to consider the fact that if the man was not a Muslim the marriage would have been annulled due to the simple fact that the girl is a minor. This issue raises some questions.

How can child marriages be allowed for a specific religion while it has been outlawed for others due to the fact that it is harmful to the physical and psychological wellbeing of a child/adolescent?
How can the marriage of a Hindu girl come under Muslim Personal Law even if the guy is Muslim?
If the girl had converted before marriage, how does the law allow the conversion of a minor while holding that they are not mature enough to even vote before they are 18?
If child marriages are legal under the Muslim Personal Law, can anybody convert to Islam, marry and then reconvert to their original religion? Is this not a loophole in the law that was meant to protect children from this social evil?

Though this issue raises these important questions it has largely been ignored by the media which runs it under a rather nondescript headline. Where are the human rights activists? Where are the child rights activists?

How to prevent your works from being plagiarised?

2009-12-21T20:18:00.001Z

Of late I am seeing many bloggers complaining about their articles and images being used without permission or proper citation even by the mainstream media. Shrinidhi Hande tells about his experience with HT Brunch here. Then I came across this article from spyrestudios, that explains how you can prevent your works from being plagiarised. Jon Phillips has given some good ideas and links to prevent copyright theft. A must read.

Do Smaller States Lead to Better Growth?

2009-12-14T17:21:00.001Z

After the announcement of the formation of Telangana this is the question that is asked by many in the blogosphere and the media. Recently I made a comment on Sush’s blog for the question and I saw the same discussion in Shantanu’s blog too. While Shantanu had raised the question whether smaller states will lead to better governance, Sush had also raised the question whether smaller states will lead to better infrastructure and so better progress as capital cities need better infrastructure. Many pointed to the success of small states like Uttarakhand, Haryana and Himachal and the poor state of Jharkhand and Chattisgarh. Here is my comment on this.

Smaller states may be efficient but we cannot say that it is always true. Division cannot be done on caste/ethnic/religious lines. All demands need to be considered but all demands need not be accepted. There should be a limit on the minimum size required for a region to be state. A state cannot be created out of a district. Creation of a state may not always mean better infrastructure. My brother-in-law recently went to Patna and he was shocked to find that there is no proper public transport even in the capital of Bihar. It may lead to more fiscal deficit, as governments are spendthrifts. It may also lead to the domination of one group which is majority in the state as smaller states tend to have lesser groups that normally balance against each other in larger states. This is a very important factor that we need to consider.

Another important factor I noticed was that the GDP Per Capita of a state directly correlates with the literacy ratio, except for north-eastern states+Bengal+Orissa. For Uttarakhand too the GDP per capita is slightly less than the national average though its literacy ratio is higher than the national average. This may be due to the fact that it is a relatively young state.

The low GDP of Bengal, Orissa and north-eastern states may be due to factors such as government inaction, government’s inability to attract industries, and other factors like geographical remoteness, long term militancy, lack of proper connection with the main land, etc.

On the other hand all the states with literacy ratio less than the national average invariably have a GDP Per Capita that is less than the national average.

Andhra Pradesh with its literacy rate of 63.7% has a Per Capita GDP of Rs 30,480. In Andhra Pradesh it is Telangana that has the lowest literacy rate. So if Telangana is to be a success the new government coming up there should focus on education.

The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting

2009-12-13T20:19:00.001Z

With wisdom and wit, Anupam Mishra talks about the amazing feats of engineering built centuries ago by the people of India's Golden Desert to harvest water. These structures are still used today -- and are often superior to modern water megaprojects.

Indian Coast Guard Rescued from Sri Lankan Fishermen

2009-12-12T15:44:00.001Z

For many years Indian fishermen of Tamil nadu are being attacked and killed by the Sri Lankan navy whenever they go near Katchatheevu, the island that was ceded to Sri Lanka by India in 1974 against the wishes of Tamil nadu. According to the 1974 agreement Indian fishermen have the right to take rest and dry their nets and pray at the church in Katchatheevu. However they were never allowed to do that for many years citing the militancy in Sri Lanka. But now Sri Lanka plainly says that Indian fishermen don’t have any rights in Katchatheevu. While this is an ongoing issue in TN with political parties trading accusations against each other, this week an incident has happened that has made the Indian Coast Guard a laughing stock, and raised questions about India’s coastal security.

On December 9th a group of 7 fishing boats from Sri Lanka intruded into Indian waters near Vishakapatnam. They were discovered by the coast guard and were ordered to proceed to the Vishakapatnam port with 2 coast guard sailors boarding each of the boats. However when reaching Vishakapatnam one boat was missing along with the sailors. Then it came to light that the sailors were kidnapped by the fishermen at knife point though the sailors were fully armed. Soon, the fishermen who kidnapped the sailors were demanding the release of their colleagues in return for the sailors. Meanwhile the issue was raised in the parliament by the DMK MP Mr.Siva who expressed concern over the situation which has evolved from the attack on Indian fishermen to attack on Indian Coast Guard itself. The MP was assured that the government has taken up the issue at the highest level with Sri Lanka. The effort was successful, with the Sri Lankan navy persuading the fishermen to free the sailors without any injury. It is to be noted that the Coast Guard had deployed two of its ships and a Dornier aircraft and the navy too had pressed its warships in search of the boat and the sailors. Though the navy claimed that the boat was apprehended 200 nautical miles off Chennai, it did not make it clear who apprehended it. The PTI reports that Sri Lankan officials handed over the sailors to the navy who in turn handed them over to the Coast Guard. Understandably, the Coast Guard had no comments.

Indian Coast Guard: Vayam rakshaamah (We Protect)

This episode has made the fishermen of Tamil nadu feel empathetic to the plight of the brave men of our Coast Guard. The fishermen who frequently complain that the Sri Lankan navy attacks them well inside Indian waters have always protested that the Coast Guard does nothing to protect them, but now they understand the helplessness of the Coast Guard. They should have understood this on 26th November last year itself.

Update: It is known that the sailors were released by the fishermen only after the Sri Lankan navy persuaded them and early press reports indicate this. On Saturday (Dec 12) the navy said that though the sailors have been released, the boat and the captors were yet to be caught because of ‘rough weather’. It also said that a search and rescue mission is on to ‘rescue’ the fishermen from the ‘storm’. How did the navy ‘rescue’ the sailors without getting near the boat? Now the navy is spinning a story that the boat ‘mysteriously’ caught fire and sank and the search operation had to be discontinued due to ‘bad weather’ . It is easily understood that the Sri Lankan fishermen released the sailors only on the condition that at least they would be free to go even if their colleagues are not released. Having released the sailors, the boat may now be in some Sri Lankan fishing harbor and the fishermen in their home, being feted for overpowering the mighty Indians.

Update 2: It turns out that the weather was indeed rough in the Bay of Bengal that particular day. But we still don’t know how the navy rescued the coast guard sailors without getting near the boat.

Indian Judiciary – Above the law?

2009-11-29T03:42:00.001Z

Throughout the 60 year history of post independent India people have looked upon at the judiciary with lot of respect and considered it as the guardian of the common man. There were times when the judiciary had taken on the powerful and corrupt politicians and protected the interests of the vulnerable. However, signs of a moral decline began to show soon in the judiciary in line with the decline of morals in the general society, and now it seems to have reached its zenith. There were a few judges who were found guilty of misconduct always in the past but they were ignored as an anomaly. We did not realize that it is the beginning of a cancer that had already affected all other sections of the civil society. The result is that today people’s faith in Indian democracy itself is shaken.

The recent happenings with regard to the appointment of Supreme Court Judges and the hesitation of the Chief Justice to divulge the asset of judges has brought to light what many had already suspected – the deep rooted corruption and the line of thinking among the judiciary that judges are somehow above the law. While transparency regarding the assets of judges has been an ongoing battle, the argument that it is not necessary to list the assets of judges when they are already submitted to the Chief Justice has lost its substance due to the Justice Dinakaran episode. Serious allegations have been leveled against Justice P.D.Dinakaran whose name was recommended as one of the five judges to be appointed to the Supreme Court. These include disproportionate assets, illegal constructions, criminal intimidation, encroachment of public property, misuse of official machinery and inappropriate judicial orders.

Building in Chennai and land in Thiruvallur district allegedly owned by Dinakaran

The Supreme Court has put on hold the decision to promote him and has not taken any final decision even months after the allegations came to light. This has raised many questions among the public – Why hasn’t the Supreme Court taken any decision on his promotion and why no action has been taken against him even when a District Collector has filed a report to the court that the judge has indeed encroached upon public property? In fact the morality of allowing him to continue as the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court is itself questionable. If this was any other public servant we could have expected a harsh criticism and loads of moral preaching from the courts.

Road named after Dinakaran near the land he is alleged to have encroached

In this respect the steps taken by several eminent jurists and advocates including Fali S. Nariman, Soli Sorabjee and Ashok Desai provide some comfort. Their call to boycott the collegium of judges who recommended Dinakaran if they don’t withdraw the recommendation proves that still there is some hope for justice. This should sound as a warning to the judges who think that they are immune to the law. The judiciary must understand that though there is some legal immunity provided to them it cannot bring back the respect and trust they once enjoyed unless they act impartially and transparently. Sure there are judges who stand for transparency and judicial accountability as demonstrated in the campaign to make the assets of judges public. But there seems to be a powerful section among the judiciary that is consistently undermining any success that is made towards judicial accountability. They must realize that as much as they try to conceal the facts and protect the guilty, there will be more public pressure and their immunity will be slowly nibbled away by an increasingly active civil society. The legal community and the citizens of this country must continue their efforts to resurrect this slowly leaning pillar of Indian democracy.

Who leads in CO2 Emissions?

2009-11-28T01:34:00.000Z

Pressure begins to mount on India to announce CO2 emission cuts as the Copenhagen Climate Conference is set to begin. Many in the developed world accuse India and China as being stumbling blocks in arriving at an agreement and the Chindia lobbyists in India portray it as another area where India should team up with China. However the available data show a completely different picture. While China is the top CO2 emitter in the world followed by the United States, India though is a major emitter emits only 1/4th of what China and the US emit. While China is a developing country and its emissions are due to the recent rapid development of its economy, the effects of climate change we see today are in major part due to the emissions of the developed world led by the United States. It is important to combat climate change since it poses more threat to the developing countries than the developed countries, and as a fast growing developing country India has major role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time we must remember that India has the world’s largest population of poor and 40% of Indians have no access to electricity. Our leaders need to keep this in mind before trying to be magnanimous with the developed world.

Are Muslims better off in India or Pakistan?

2009-11-23T01:23:00.000Z

Recently a Pakistani friend commented in this blog that Muslims in India are 'deprived of basic rights'. This statement is something that we hear often, many times connecting it to the Sachar Committee findings on the economic status of Muslims in India. This led me to do a small analysis.

According to the Sachar Commission report 22.7% of India's population is below the poverty line and the percentage of Muslims below the poverty line is 31%. The percentage of Hindus below the poverty line is around 21.5% taking average of 35%, 8.7% and 21% which are the poverty ratios of Hindu SC/STs, General and OBCs respectively. The population of India as of July 2009 was 1166 million approximately, the population of Hindus was 939 million (80.5%) and the population of Muslims was 156 million (13.4%) approximately. So, in absolute number terms 202 million (21.5% of 939 million) Hindus are below the poverty line and 48 million (31% of 156 million) Muslims are below the poverty line in India.

Now let us see the situation in Pakistan. According to the Pakistan Planning Commission, 40% of the population is under the poverty line. The population of Pakistan is approximately 176 million as of July 2009, out of which 95% are Muslims. In absolute number terms the population of Muslims in Pakistan is approximately 167 million out of which 67 million are below the poverty line.

So we have the numbers here.

Number of Muslims below poverty line in India	48 Million
Number of Muslims below poverty line in Pakistan	67 Million

Note:

This is not to say that we don't have to care about poverty in the Muslim community in India. We have to eradicate poverty from all communities. We have a long way to go.
I have used the poverty statistics given by the official agencies of the respective countries rather than the statistics presented by international agencies which may vary.
Numbers are rounded off to the nearest whole number.

References:

Between the Devil and the Deep Sea

2009-11-21T03:00:00.000Z

After insisting on peace talks and negotiation with the naxals for many years, the government has finally woken up to the fact that the naxals control wide areas of territory and no development is possible till they are disarmed. Today most people agree that Maoist terrorism is the greatest threat facing the country than the threat from China or Pakistan. People are naturally alarmed at the level of violence unleashed by the naxals in recent weeks. Beheadings, hijackings of trains, bombing of schools, bombing of railway tracks, etc are adding to the already insecure image of India. Even though people generally welcome action against the naxals, many strategic analysts feel that only through superior intelligence, surgical strikes and the co-operation of people whom the naxals claim to represent, we can eliminate the threat completely. The general indications are that all is not well with the government's approach. Questions were raised by some so called intellectuals about the interests of politicians in mining companies. They claimed that the people who fight against the police are actually not naxals but tribals who are worried about losing their traditional and legal rights to the mining companies. In response to this the Home Minister Mr.P.Chidambaram said that the government would immediately freeze all the Memorandum of Understandings (MOU) signed with the mining companies if the naxals give up violence. Though it is a bold statement, there is a hole in this. Since the government is ready to freeze the MOUs if the naxals disarm, does it mean the government accepts the claim of the naxals that they represent the poor people and the tribals who are affected by mining? It is true that the naxals get the support of the tribals, but their ultimate aim is not the benefit of the tribals or the poor but to capture power thorugh armed revolution. Instead of solving the genuine problems of the tribals, the government which is the rightful representative of the people is trying to use them as pawns in this game. I recently came across a disturbing video report by the Guardian newspaper of the UK (given below). It is about a mountain that is at the center of the tribal protests against mining. The whole mountain with its thick and lush green vegatation has been leased for mining by the government of Orissa. The tribals who live in the mountain for ages consider the mountain as their home, their God and the source of their livelihood. It is unbelievable that the environment ministry has given clearance to remove the pristine green cover and dig the mountain and that the Supreme Court has dismissed a petition challenging the mining. On one side these people face an unsympathetic government and on the other side they are being fooled by the naxals into armed insurgency. Considering the fact that this is a critical environmental issue that affects the livelihood of a community, adds more antagonism against the state and adds more support for antinational elements, it definitely requires impartial analysis and more public discussion.

'௨' - Symbols, beliefs and history

2009-11-20T14:39:00.000Z

'௨' is a symbol in Tamil called as Pillayaar Chuzhi. According to Hindu beliefs, work must start with a prayer to Lord Pillayaar (Ganesha) in order to succeed. So naturally this symbol is used in the first page of books. There is an interesting belief regarding Ganesha statues in the villages of Tamil nadu (I don't know whether the belief exists anywhere else). They believe that installing a stolen Ganesha statue is lucky. Though there is no proper explanation for this (as far as I know), I believe the root of this lies in history. In the year 642 AD, the Pallava king Narasimha Varman (also known as Mamallan, famous for building Mahabalipuram) attacked and destroyed the Chalukya capital Vatapi to avenge the defeat of his father Mahendravarman at the hands of Pulikesi II. As part of the loot of Vatapi, his General Paranjothi brought a statue of Ganesha from a temple in the Chalukyan capital. Narasimha Varman's rule became the golden period of Pallava history and his capital Kanchipuram flourished as an important economic, cultural and educational center, a fact recorded by the Chinese traveller Huan Tsang. Perhaps this is the reason for the belief that stolen Ganesha brings good luck.