My space on the web

Internet: A distant dream for India's aam admi

2013-02-08T01:13:00.002+05:30

Shreenesh Raman

The government along with its policy makers and tech savvy people of the young India are still in the 'Dark Age' when it comes to adoption of internet and e-services.

With a country of over billion people, more than 15 percent of our GDP is coming from the service industry (IT/ITeS). The large multinational corporations set shops in India in late 20^th century after the government assured massive freebies in the name of tax sops and IT parks developments.

Those multinational corporations’ including Amazon, Google, Intel, Texas Instruments, IBM, Microsoft are able to host their cloud from the same country where its ‘aam-admi’ is devoid of a basic internet connection with a minimum assured speed of 512kbps.

When certain Western and Southeastern countries in the world are reaching great heights through internet revolution, here in India we still dream for a 2 Mbps connection with least 70 percent uptime. The cartelisation of internet bandwidth market has led to high bandwidth rates, thanks to the efforts taken by TATA, Airtel and RCom for denying the power of Internet. Even the union telecom ministry is not able to face the situation on the ‘alleged’ cartelisation.

BSNL a ‘failed’ Corporation

The fate of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is still hanging in the air. The company once proud of their cross-country presence is in shambles due to day today interference of DoT. After the 2G spectrum allocation scam, the administration of BSNL went on a roller coaster ride.

“BSNL is one of the white elephant maintained by the Union government,” said a BSNL staff on condition of anonymity. The massive workforce of more than one lakh is no more use, hurting the efficiency of the company. The core network and equipments are IP based network, however, the company still depends on the skill of its line man who has no up-to-date knowledge on the modern equipment.

I hope, massive reduction in ailing workforce and increase of administrative freedom to a certain limit will turn the white elephant an African elephant in a decade's time.

BBNL: An initiative with hope

The announcement of Bharat Broadband Network Limited with much fanfare by the union telecom ministry is another project built on the dreams based on PSUs like BSNL, Power Grid and RailTel. The OFC network of BSNL spanning every nook and corner of the country is an advantage for BBNL. However, the bureaucratic red tapeand restrictions surrounding the tenders for purchase of OFC’s, GPON equipment and ONTs are posing great risk on the efficient roll-out of the network.

The three private telecom companies that command over 90 percent of the internet gateways were not included in the project. The government simply ignored these companies onto the board of BBNL. After selling stake of VSNL, the government lost its control over the international bandwidth market. Without international bandwidth, developing a countrywide optic fiber network is rather a huge risk taken by the government.

Even though the government promises to roll out more e-governance initiative, commercial roll out of broadband service across the nation alone will bring in the much needed internet penetration in terms of numbers. Connecting every village level offices will not benefit the masses.

In my honest opinion, the government must set tough regulation to control the gateway operators with strict tariffs.

Lastly, the last mile connectivity is a major roadblock faced by the telecom companies. To solve the issue, the government must come forward to open up the unlit fiber capacity of PSU ISPs. Only then, the internet penetration will be a success story like mobile phone revolution for a country of Billions.

Karnataka rice floods delta districts

2012-12-31T15:45:00.000+05:30

By Shreenesh Raman

Harvest a distant dream in Cauvery delta

As Cauvery is drying up due to the adamancy of Karnataka to release water, huge loads of rice from the State have started flooding the delta markets.

Owing to the lack of paddy procurement from delta districts due to the failure of kuruvai and the apprehensions over samba, rice mill owners in the area have started procuring paddy from Karnataka to keep their mills going and pay wages to workers.

For Ramachandran, a departmental store owner on the outskirts of Tiruchy, the sale of Karnataka ‘Ponni’ has soared in the recent past.

He says, “The rice from Karnataka especially from Mysore is sold at the same rate as that of the local variety. However, the local variety stock has drastically reduced due to low cultivation.”
Shopkeepers in the city echo Ramanchandran’s views about the increased sale of Karnataka variety.

Speaking to Express, Puliyur R Nagarajan, vice-president of Tiruchi District Rice Hullers’ Association, says, “After betraying Tamil Nadu in the Cauvery row, Karnataka traders are reaping profits at the cost of delta farmers’ livelihood.”

Karnataka farmers went ahead with the summer crop while Kuruvai ‘died’ due to lack of water. Now, the traders in Karnataka were giving their harvest at a lower price than TNCSC procured variety, he added.
“The Bangalore wholesale market has amicably priced their variety lower than TNCSC aiming to woo rice mill owners from Tamil Nadu,” says Selvam a rice mill owner near Musiri.

Last year, rice mills across the state were able to avoid paddy from other states as the TNCSC had ample procurements.
Unfortunately, this year rice mills in the state face financial crunch due to the failure of Kuruvai. Paddy from Karnataka offered a better deal than importing rice from far away states like West Bengal, Odisha and Bihar, he added citing the transportation cost involved in the process.

“Around 440 mills in the state are either shutdown or operating with meagre paddy supply. The pricing of paddy in Tamil Nadu has taken a U-turn this year. Raw variety rice from Tamil Nadu is doing a brisk business due to the export market dependent on Kerala,” said Selvam adding, “However, the fine variety paddy has lost its market to Karnataka and other paddy growing states”.

Besides private rice mills from delta districts, owners from Ramnad, Kumari, Nellai and Sivaganga were in a distress situation. The mill owners have appealed to the state government to find an alternative to resolve the deadlock in the local rice market.

National Law School to open doors next year

2012-12-31T15:37:00.001+05:30

By Shreenesh Raman

NLS under construction near Tiruchy

Works for the National Law School, one of the Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s major initiative for the district, is progressing rapidly and it is expected to open its doors by the academic year 2013-14.

Speaking to Express, PWD officials who are engaged in the construction and supervising of the project said, the law school is coming up on a 25-acre plot at Navalur Kuttapattu in the outskirts of the City and would house 20 buildings with all the basic amenities. Presently, around eight buildings are under construction at the site with the State government funding Rs 100 crore.

With a total built-up area of around five lakh suare feet, separate blocks were under construction for under-graduates, post-graduates, besides an examination hall, administration building and a huge library. Separate hostels for men and women with a total capacity of 300 students are also under construction.

The PWD officials supervising the project assured that the buildings under construction would be completed before the 2013-14 academic year. The law school will possibly begin its admission and students would be attending the classes in the new buildings, said a revenue department official.

Situated near the Tiruchy-Dindigul National Highway, the school is expected to become a prominent landmark for law students across the State.

A pet project of the Chief Minister, it is being set up in the lines of the National Law School, Bangalore, which is one among the 17 autonomous law schools in India, the officials said.

Solar future not a far away dream

2012-12-02T12:53:00.001+05:30

Shreenesh Raman
Thanjavur:

After the massive sales of Inverters, Solar panels aregetting ready to make inroads in the state which is reeling under massive power crisis with shortfall upto 4000MW. The adoption of solar power is slowly picking up with the early adopters being commercial establishments.

This report analyses the impact created by solar power after the state government announced its solar policy with a fanfare recently aiming to generate around 3000MW by 2015.

In Thanjaur district, the primary people most affected by the power cuts are farmers who are unable to operate their pumps as water is not available in the rivers.

Arokia Stalin a solar power and inverter vendor in Thanjavur says, "The newly annouced solar policy has created a buzz among people in the district and hope to see more sales in future." Earlier solar panel sales would be rare. But now the enquiries has gone up from commercial sector. The domestic sector will witness a sea of change in sales only when the governmet comes with an attractive subsidy.

Technical aspects
Explaining the technicalities he said, there are two types of systems that can be deployed
namely ongrid and offgrid system.

Off grid system
People who already own an inverter can retain the same and can invest only on solar panels according to their needs. But for domestic needs, a one kWh panel would be sufficient to power fan, tube lights and other light equipment's.

The existing inverter at a customer premise needs a hybrid switch that converts and controls power from the panel to the battery. The power generated by the panels will be stored in the battery which act as a backup during power cuts.

On grid system
On the other hand commercial establishments like offices, education institutioms go for 'on grid' power system.

This system is expensive compared to the residential system. This system lacks a battery as in case of the off grid system. Power generated by the solar panel is directly fed to equipment's there by eliminating the need for a TNEB power supply. But, the panel number goes up in this case with a minimum capacity of 10kWh panels, says stalin.

Finance
Unlike other backup power systems, solar does not come cheap. However it is considered as an one time investment, says Ravikumar a renewable energy engineer here.

The Minsitry of New and Renewable Energy resource (MNRE) through its national solar mission has already began its subsidy program. However, the mechanism is not efficient as the process to get a subsidy is indeed a tedious process.

Bankers like IOB, NABARD are ready to support the new renewable energy initiative. Recently speaking a conference for solar power, IOB chief regional Manager S Raghu Vatsachari said, we can proceed if the government is able to deliver a viable subsidy system,
else banks will be exposed to bad credit.

Reiterating similar views, NABARD bank official said, the banks would support solar projects in both rural and urban areas for both domestic and commercial sector.
PSU banks are ready to offer loans at 5 percent interest from Rs 30,000 to 10 lakh for domestic purpose and Rs 1 to 10 lakh for commercial purpose.

However, the banks are afraid to venture due to the low recovery amount if a customer fails to repay his interest. According to Stalin, banks have no use by recovering the battery which has a life of 10 years and inverters which are prone to repairs.

Panel sourcing
In India, traders as well as panel manufacturers source the raw solar cells from two countries namely China and Germany. Thus the customer is in a position to choose which panel need to be installed. The main cost in installing the solar power backup goes to the panels.

The panel made of raw materials sourced from Germany are more efficient compared to their Chinese counterparts. In India major panel fabricating hubs are in Bengaluru and Noida.

Cost Warranty and After sale service
An average household installation would cost between Rs 1.3 to 1.7 lakh including the five year service assurance.

Revealing on the warranty of panels he said, the Chinese made has 15 years of life and 10 years of guarantee. However, German made attracts 25 years of life and 20 years of guarantee.

The installation of a 1 kW panel panel costs Rs 1.5 lakh with subsidy and Rs 2.3 lakh without subsidy. The vendor will take care of the installation and service. Beyond the service customers can go for Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC).

DMK biggies fight to take credit

2012-10-21T13:32:00.002+05:30

By
Shreenesh Raman

SSP rings caution call for Baalu

Union Minister S S Palanimanickam on Saturday launched a scathing attack on senior party leader and Parliament floor leader T R Baalu, known to be very close to party chief M Karunanidhi and treasurer MK Stalin. Taking exception to Baalu’s ‘unanimous announcement’ of railway projects for Thanjavur, which is Palanimanickam’s constituency, the minister told mediapersons that he would lead an agitation against Baalu’s distillery at Vadasery located in fertile agricultural land and would not hesitate to drag him to Court on the issue. The distillery was opposed by farmers who got justice after approaching the Madras High Court, Palanimanickam said.

In a major embarrassment to Karunanidhi, who has recently accused Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa of stalling the Sethusamudram Canal Project, Palanimanickam said despite the media hype, it ran into legal hurdles due to Baalu’s inefficiency.

Amid reports that Baalu had the party leadership’s approval to contest in Thanjavur constituency in the forthcoming Parliament elections, the minister, who is also the district secretary said, “Baalu is visiting Thanjavur and Tiruvarur more frequently without caring to do anything in his own constituency, Sriperumbudur.” The open tirade against Baalu at a press meet by Palanimanickam, comes a day after Baalu’s announcement of various railway projects for the delta district as the Chairman of the Standing Committee for Railways.

Recalling the meeting held with railway officials on the Pattukottai-Thanjavur railway line, he said the people demanded the Railways to reconsider the proposal and resurvey the line. However, TR Baalu announced the project from Mannargudi recently.

“I congratulate Baalu for taking credit for the project. I appreciate his public stunts with an eye on the Parliament elections,” he said.

“I paved way for three major road projects namely Thanjavur-Perambalur, Thanjavur- Vikravandi and Thanjavur-Pudukottai,” he claimed. Despite holding the Surface Transport portfolio in the Union Cabinet, he did not make efforts to upgrade the Thanjavur-Nagapattinam section of the National Highway, he charged.

He said the diversion of Kamban Express had drawn massive criticism from the people of Thanjavur. People feared that the Mannargudi-Chennai Express would soon follow the same route.

Palanimanicakm said he appealed to Railway Minister C P Joshi to run a new express night train between Thanjavur and Chennai. He said railways would add two coaches to the Rameswaram Express and one with the Tiruchendur Express. as an interim arrangement.

Source: The New Indian Express. Thanjavur

Powerful state, powerless people

2012-10-16T02:33:00.000+05:30

Shreenesh Raman

Chennai:

I am writing this blog post from Chennai far away from my work place (Thanjavur), under a decent lighting with my AC running at 21 degrees. However, my friends and folks out there are suffering from nearly 16 hours of power cuts in a 24-hour period.

Chennai'ites rejoice at the cost of TN people

According to the TNEB State Load Despatch Centre report, the total generation capacity of the state is around 10,364.5 MW from both central and state government projects. We are able to generate only 7391 MW, which roughly translates around 179.889 Million Units.

This short fall of around 3000MW is due to various technical and political games played by various stakeholders in both the state and centre. According to the state owned transmission company TANTRANCSO, the state is supposed to get 2481 MW from the central pool. Due to poor power transmission infrastructure, we are receiving 2100 MW. Moreover, the state requested 1000MW on short-term basis which the centre promised but unable to provide.

Presently, Tamilnadu has numerous power projects under development. On the other hand, highly controversial Kudankulam Nuclear Power plant is also under development, from which the state would receive around 500 MW (Unit-1).

The main reason behind the massive power shortage comes out after various media houses debated hours together. It was in the year 1989(My YoB) the last known power project by TNEB was completed (Mettur TPS). After which no major power project has been setup nor planned leading to a massive oversight of the industrial growth. Also, the regime change and fight for vote began with the era of coalition politics, electricity and bus fares turned to be the real scape goats.

Fortunately, both state firms are now under serious debt as planned by our voted representatives. Coming back to power situation, most private power projects announced in late 2007 turned to be a pure media publicity stunts. However, in realty the state has not even added 1MW of additional power.

Beleaguered white elephant

Ode to the West WIND!

The state pioneered in the eary 21^st century by allowing private energy producers to setup close to 7000MW of wind power in some windy parts across Tamilnadu. The affair has turned to be a costly one, as changing wind patterns and out of gear climate has forced the state stall further wind power development.

The evacuation of power generated from the turbines is a major bottleneck. With most turbines present in a small area, lying between Valliyur in Tirunelveli district and Nagercoil in Kanyakumari district, the TNEB and

the PGCIL has failed to ensure and upgrade the transmission facility.

Instead, the government can encourage wind power facility with turbine capacity of 1-1.25 MW in the open sea near Kanyakumari as the tip of the main land will facilitate wind from all three directions. Both South West and North East monsoon winds will benefit the people of the state.

Time to love Sunflower

Rain Rain go AWAY!!

After the much hyped and much failed attempt of owning a massive white elephant, the government has once again geared up for solar power revolution. “The term revolution itself brings hype, but realty is still in dark ages.” With the technology still, highly cost intensive, the state government has began evaluating plans to subsidies and provide funding for grid independent and grid connected network.

The government with all its political will (if it has any left out) must pass a law in the assembly demanding all new housing units under construction across the state to have provisions for solar panels. The government through such long-term solution will be able to reduce the stress on the state and central grid. Central government led Power Grid Corporation has constantly raised several complaints of poor maintenance of grid systems by state discoms will end if decongestion occurs.

Now some Do’s and Don’ts

Do’s:

Please rationalize power shut down across the state (including chennai)

Promote grid independent power systems for domestic and commercial power.

Subsidise and announce rebate on Green technology.

Don’ts:

Please act steadfastly when it comes to power crisis.

The government must go behind every EPC contractor for delay in commissioning.

The govt must publish white paper on the work progress in power sector

Lastly, avoid dazzling lights along the length of the road during political meetings.

CONSERVE ENERGY!! GO GREEN!! GO GRID INDEPENDENT!!

Samba Sowing begins in Cauvery Delta

2012-09-23T15:35:00.000+05:30

Samba cultivation begins amid reducing water inflow at Mettur

Shreenesh Raman

Thanjavur:

Its time to feed the nation

Farmers in the Thanjavur delta district have set their feet once again on the wet fields this year hoping to reap success of the upcoming Samba cultivation.

After the much celebrated release of water from the Grand Anicut on Saturday, farmers near Thanjavur town has began preparatory works for sowing paddy under direct sowing method. The Grand Anicut canal receiving around 2000 cusec will irrigate around 24,000 acre along its course through various irrigation sub channels and smaller canals.

As on Saturday water level in Mettur Stanley Reservoir stood at 83.23 feet with inflow of 8305 cusec and 15,000 cusec is being released for Samba cultivation. Meanwhile, in Grand Anicut, around 5000 cusec each is being released onto Vennar and Cauvery rivers and around 2017 cusec is released into Grand Anicut Canal and around 1002 cusec into Kollidam.

Speaking to Rajaram of Cauvery delta farmers association, he said, “The water release from Mettur has raised hope among the delta farmers in the region.” The sudden decline in flow of water from KRS and Kabini in Karnataka on Friday has increased concern among farmers in Cauvery delta region.

“The question of national integrity is raised when Karnataka has failed to comply with Supreme Court verdict and Cauvery River Authority,” said Rajaram. We have decided to please the rain god at all major place of worship irrespective of religion from October first week.

Ever since the protest in Karnataka began, people have lamented lack of integrity among Cauvery delta farmers. The Cauvery delta farmers association has decided to hold an all farmers association meeting to pass a resolution to extend unconditional support to the Tamilnadu Chief Minister.

Agriculture department officials has assured to support the farmers in the region to attain better harvest by implementing SRI and community nursery schemes across the delta districts. Around 1.5 lakh hectares across Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam will be under cultivation for samba crop season, said Mohammed Yahiya Joint Director Agriculture, Thanjavur District.

Source: The New Indian Express

NHAI delays Thanjai-Nagai Four laning

2012-08-17T16:49:00.000+05:30

Shreenesh Raman

Thanjavur Tiruchy Toll Plaza near Thuvakudi Img Source: Wikimedia

The National Highways Authority of India, apex body regulating national highways in the country is yet to award the contract for expanding the last leg of National Highway 67 from Thanjavur to Nagapattinam.

The NH 67 links Gundulpet in Karnataka and Nagapattinam via Ooty, Coimbatore, Karur, Kulithalai, Tiruchy, Thanjavur and Tiruvarur. Under the National Highway Development Plan Phase III (NHDP 3) highway widening from Karur to Tiruchy (79.7KM length) was bagged by Reliance Energy consortium for Rs 516 crore in March 2007. Meanwhile, the Tiruchy Thanjavur section (56KM length) was awarded to Madhucon Projects for Rs 280 Crore, both sections are under progress.

After the opening of MARG Karaikal port, road traffic in the region has quadrupled. The treacherous and tedious two lane road has reached its limits. Bus and lorry traffic has exceeded limits, Needamangalam a major railway junction witness’s traffic snarls when gates are closed for crossing. Earlier, Nagapattinam MP AKS Vijayan said, he is planning to file a Public Interest Litigation in the High court demanding construction of flyover.

Fisheries minister KA Jayapal during a recent meeting said, the state government is waiting for the centre’s approval to strengthen the Nagapattinam Thanjavur stretch. However, the growing lorry and TNSTC bus drivers feel, “traffic in the stretch has exceeded due to the movement of paddy, fertiliser, coal and heavy equipment's via road four laning will be the best possible solution.”

Inquiring upon the project, land acquisition posed a major roadblock in implementing the project. However, the NHAI failed to gear up and the project is in hibernation pending since 2007. The revenue officials and NHAI are blaming each other for stalling the upgradation of the arterial road for the past five years.

When Express tried to contact NHAI officials in Chennai, most officials are non cooperative and stayed away from divulging any information. However, the revenue department officials in Thanjavur and Tiruvarur district said land acquisition is nearing completion. Sources said, the NHAI shall award the contract and in due course of time, the land acquisition process will be completed.

The congestion rate is around 110 percent in the railway line between Karaikal and Tiruchy. Operating goods from the port and accommodating passenger train services is a tough task. As a relief, line doubling work between Tiruchy and Thanjavur will provide some relief, said railway sources.

Source: The New Indian Express, Tiruchy

Thanjavur's Divine link to God Particle

2012-07-06T11:56:00.000+05:30

Shreenesh Raman

Lord Nataraja Statue in CERN Lab Complex, Geneva

The ancient Chola town of Thanjavur has made its artistic and aesthetic contribution to the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), which discovered the Higgins Boson particle, as the Lord Nataraja’s idol in the cosmic dance pose placed at the lab is made by sculptors from Swamimalai, near Kumbakonam here.

The 12-feet bronze idol was ordered by the Indian Government through the National Indian Arts and Crafts Corporation and gifted to the CERN research lab in Geneva. It was made of locally-sourced bronze weighing around two tonnes.A team of 80 sculptors took nearly 17 months to complete the magnificent bronze idol.

Speaking to ‘Express’, Suresh Kumar of Rajan Industries, whose sculptors created the statue, said that the 40 lakh worth bronze idol was sold to the government owned arts and crafts corporation in 2005.Later, officials from the culture ministry transported the idol to Chennai in a special truck and air-lifted it to Geneva.

According to Saivaite philosophy, Lord Nataraja symbolises cosmic dance, which is related to the subject observed and analyzed by the scientists in CERN.

The idol with Lord Shiva in Rudra Thandavam (cosmic dance) posture was placed in CERN lab. It may symbolise a link between Saivaite philosphy and modern science. The Lord Shiva posing in Cosmic dance posture was conceptualised during 9th century Cholan Rule.

Source: The New Indian Express, Thanjavur

Water Politics!!!

2012-05-20T19:06:00.003+05:30

Shreenesh Raman

Cauvery River near Tiruchy

Summer time water politics between Tamilnadu and Karnataka has taken centre stage once again. Farmers in the Cauvery delta region depend on Mettur water for irrigation. Meanwhile, the harsh summer prevailing in the region has created uncertainty among farmers in Thanjavur about the Kuruvai crops.

Karnataka irrigation department officials in Bangalore they said said the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) dam has around 88.90 feet (Friday) of the 124.80 feet maximum capacity. Districts bordering the water catchments areas, in Mysore and Chamrajnagar are facing acute water shortage. Karnataka irrigation department official said on condition of anonymity said, “When the dam crosses 95 feet, Tamilnadu can expect water.”

Mettur Stanley reservoir has around 79.38 feet of water with an inflow of 3320 cusec. The officials in public works department said usually water is released when it reaches 95 feet. With daily outflow of 1TMC average, farmers in the delta can complete Kuruvai in 40 days. However, both PWD officials and farmers are doubtful on South West monsoon and Mettur water release by June 12.

Delta farmers in Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Karaikal in Pondicherry state are not in a mood to venture into the fields and start preparation for Kuruvai crops. Meanwhile, Chief Minister demanding Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) meeting has brought hope among farmers.

Speaking to Sathyanarayana of Consortium of Cauvery delta farmers association in Tiruvarur, he said the DMK failed to pressure its partner in the centre to gazette the tribunal order. He also supported the Chief Minister for demanding a CWDT meet. As the state is facing severe power crisis, pump-set owned farmers too are unwilling to cultivate.

Cauvery Delta
Source: Google Images

Politically, the Karnataka government is taking advantage understanding the DMK-AIADMK rift. Farmers in delta region has demand all parties to be united when fighting in Cauvery issue. Speaking to farmers in Thanjavur, they said “it is not wise to destroy the ground water level by using pump sets during monsoon time.”

However, the agriculture department officials are ready to distribute seeds and fertiliser once water from Karnataka reaches Mettur. In delta region, around 1.05 lakh hectare is set to be cultivated in Kuruvai season.

The agriculture department has around 3135 tonne of urea, 3634 tonne of DAP, 3785 tonne of Potash and 3921 tonne of complex fertilisers. Also, around 486 tonne of seed are in stock and ready for distribution, said officials. Varieties of ADT 36,43 and 45 are in adequate numbers to meet the demand, assured agriculture officials.

Higher Education a developing saga

2012-03-28T23:36:00.000+05:30

Dr Vaidya Subramanian, Dean Planning and Development SASTRA University , Thanjavur speaks on the higher education sector's development and needs.

Q1: Almost every western economy is under brink of collapse, so what is your take on higher education foreign investment in India?

Indian higher education has always been a market where demand outstrips supply. That is why even spurious institutions make merry. However, the approach of foreign institutions will be cautious. The financial crisis has forced the US Department of Education to slash funds at all levels — K to 12, community colleges and universities. The situation will worsen in the next few years as such defunding will cut off federal stimulus funds that had prevented layoffs and classroom cuts. It is in this context that the Foreign Universities Bill has to be seen. The foreign universities are eyeing the voluminous under-graduate degree market as they will not take the risk of losing the students who visit the US for post-graduate education. They will only be interested in offering predominantly UG courses and may not engage in cutting edge research or quality PG programmes which they shall do only in their home ground. Therefore, the assumption that the entry of foreign universities in India will stop Indian students from going abroad is totally baseless. Many students will go abroad for post-graduate education as it is a passport for a professional career outside India. The current academic-financial crisis is forcing them to look at Indian higher education as a business opportunity to pull them out from the crisis at home. Under these hidden realities, the government's move to allow foreign universities in India in the name of quality is unfortunate for a country that exported quality education through Takshila and Nalanda. In the interest of the country, the government should think of a calibrated entry of foreign universities beginning with only doctoral and PG programmes for the first 10-years with their own existing faculty. The resulting output will address the faculty shortage in the country.

Q2: There is a constant complaint over funding constraints of in Research and Development in advanced science studies. Being a research based university, what is the future course of SASTRA?

SASTRA, ever since it became a University, shifted gears from being a teaching institution and accelerating to become a comprehensive research University. There are over 40 ongoing research projects funded by various agencies like DST,DRDO, DRDL, AYUSH, ICMY, DBT besides corporate. The University’s research corpus also provides seed money for research projects and encourages faculty to publish in reputed journals that are indexed in SCI or SCOPUS and having high impact factors. It attracts young minds to work as full-time Ph.D. scholars and currently over 50 full-time doctoral students are pursuing Ph.D. and are provided a monthly stipend of Rs. 12,000 to 16,000. The University also encourages students to undergo research internships in Harvard, MIT, Georgia Tech, Cambridge, etc. and provide round trip airfare and monthly stipend of USD 200 for such students. SASTRA also holds the record for sending the maximum number of students under the Indian Academy of Sciences Fellowship programme for the last 5 sessions.

Q3: According to a recent study, ICT investment is set to increase in future. What will be the role of universities in India in creating local talent pool without foreign dependence?

Nation-wide collaborative projects like the National Programme on Technology Enabled Learning (NPTEL) & National Mission on Education Using ICT (NMEICT) and other private initiatives have added a new dimension in the use of ICT in education. A country that boasts of its intellectual assets can deliver more such solutions and need not depend of foreign providers. It only needs a proper direction and sufficient allocation of funds to provide an ICT platform that can provide a non-linear growth.

Q4: It has become a yearly event to witness students of IIT, NIT achieving higher salary packages compared to other higher education students. What is your take on these premiere education institutions poaching high value employment opportunities?

I do not agree with this generalisation. Top recruiters like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, e-Bay and core companies like Renault, Ford, Hyundai, Alsthom, Siemens, etc. visit non-IITs/NITs. Assuming your generalisation is true, how is that we have non-IIT/NIT graduates in such companies. Actually, the companies have to change their mindset and think out of the IIT/NIT orbit. There are a handful of private universities which can compete with IITs/NITs and recruiters have to realise this in a bigger scale.

Q5: Compared to China, Indian technical institutions are producing very few research scholars every year. What is your suggestion to increase the numbers?

China's spending on research and development has steadily increased to 1.5% of its GDP and is higher than that of most other developing countries. Since 2000, the number of papers by scholars based in China published in Science Citation Index (SCI)-listed journals has quadrupled. China has outperformed every other nation, with a 64-fold increase in peer-reviewed scientific papers since 1981, with the focus on chemistry and materials science. The Chinese government has urged scientists to publish in reputable English-language journals, offering promotions and other rewards as incentive. China's enormous investment, at a rate above the rate of inflation, at all levels of the system — schools to postgraduate research, has been the spine of such a resurgent research boom.

The Indian academic research story needs to be rewritten. There are inherent systemic problems that plague the research environment. Less than 1% of the total students enrolled in higher education are pursuing Ph.D. and this is not in pace with the overall growth of students in higher education. The overall quality of doctoral studies in many institutes is questionable. With large faculty vacancies and a poorly qualified faculty, the quality of research in higher education institutes, including the IITs, which have a 20% vacancy, is diluted.

A survey conducted by the UGC shows that a quarter of the faculty in Indian higher education institutions spends less than five hours per week on research. The quantum of extramural support given by Indian agencies to higher education institutes is insignificant compared to the funding received by other leading institutes abroad. The research budget of Harvard University for the year 2008 was Rs.250 billion. During this period, the total extramural grant disbursed for R&D projects to Indian academia was Rs.12 billion and by the UGC alone was Rs.1.3 billion. Look at the contrast! There is need for an enabling environment for the corporate sector to work with universities on research/commercialisation.

In line with corporate tax holidays like SEZs, where the government is prepared to lose billions to attract investment, it should be prepared to provide tax holidays for a minimum period of 10 years to eligible research faculty in all universities & colleges. Though the opportunity revenue loss will be in millions, the resultant knowledge gain and it's consequential benefits will be enormous. This shall attract good researchers to the university ecosystem and result in quality teaching as it’s a natural by-product of research. Also, funding for research must be performance based on not based on legacy status of Universities. The Government must not discriminate between private and public universities while disbursing research grants. Corporates must also come out from the IIT hangover and provide research funding to other competent private universities.

Q6: What is your perspective on the negative growth of IT sector in the west and its impact on the Indian technology education sector?

Though there is an impact, the revised lowered estimate in the Global IT spend still offers opportunities for doing business in different geographies like Latin America, far-East, etc. Also, new business verticals, enterprise solutions, consulting and maintenance still offer new vistas for business growth. After 9/11, there was a hue and cry that IT education is doomed and many did enrol in IT courses. The effect of this was telling when the IT business started booming there was a huge gap between demand and supply as a result of which all types of engineers were recruited. I hope the same does not happen now due to the US and Eurozone crisis and Indian IT companies are managing them diligently.

Q7: Will there be any shift in enrollment of students when foreign education institutions setup shops in India, and What is your take on the issue?

Despite the availability of quality subsidised engineering and management education in India (on average, an engineering or management student in a reputed institution pays $120 a month as fees compared to $1,500-5,000 in an equivalent institution the U.S., Canada, Australia, Singapore and Britain), about five lakh students go abroad every year.

One of the main reasons is the high quality of the post-graduate and doctoral degree programmes offered in institutions abroad, delivered through innovative methodologies and abundant flexibility. In addition, the students crave for foreign exposure which can be a springboard for a global career. Even if foreign universities open up campuses in India, a vast majority of students will still prefer to leave India, and the impact of this on foreign reserves will continue to be felt.

Shreenesh Raman

Thanjavur.

Panchaloha idols the living God

2012-03-25T23:18:00.000+05:30

Shreenesh Raman

Thanjavur:

Wax Mould of Lord Vinayaka
Pic Courtesty: Google Images

Earth, Fire, Space, Water, Air are basic elements of Panchaloha idols sharing commonalities with any living being on earth. The small temple town of Swamimalai famous for Lord Muruga’s temple is home to India’s famous master craftsmen working on Pachaloha idols.

Panchaloha idols made of Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron and lead were distributed to various temples in the erstwhile Chera, Chola and Pandya kingdoms. However after metals became a trading commodity Gold and silver lost its place to alternatives like Tin and Zinc. Based on the Hindu text of Shilpa Sastra (Treatises of Art), each and every idol is crafted with due dedication and ample time.

In Swamimalai, many master craftsmen belonging to Cholan sculptor’s race are present even today practicing the niche and time consuming art as a profession, says Mohanraj Sthapathy. Early kingdoms were rich in culture and heritage, especially the Cholan kings started making things with grandeur.

According to Mohanraj Sthapathy a master craftsman from Swamimalai, the centre is famous for the art of temple architecture and statue making since Maurya period. Raja Raja Chola’s grandmother Chembiyanmadevi, spearheaded the panchaloha statue making in a massive manner after the Pallava kings. According to historical reference, she asked master craftsmen to make statues light weight in order to make them as ‘Urchava Murti’.

Belonging to a 16^th generation sculptors from the Nayak periods, the craftsmen in Swamimalai possess great skills on temple building and statue making. According to legend, it is said that craftsmen in Swamimalai belong to the 32^nd generation of Cholan sculptors. The availability of a specific alluvial soil makes Swamimalai a suitable spot for panchaloha idol making. Sculptors were not able to find alluvial soil neither in Kumbakonam nor in Thiruvaiyaru.

Panchaloha idols are made of lost wax process also known as Maduchchhista vidhānam in Sanskrit and Cire Perdue in French. Wax required for making the model or pattern of the icon is prepared by mixing Paraffin wax, resin from the tree Damara Orientalis, and ground nut oil to make hard wax. However a softer version used in making detailed parts are made by mixing pure bee’s wax making it lighter and soft.

Later the wax model is covered with the alluvial soil extracted from Cauvery River from the banks as a first layer. A coating of River clay is given to maintain the temperature of the model mold with a funnel like opening on top of the clay mold. Later, artisans heat the wax and clay mold upto 800 degree Celsius in an open ground oven. The heat melts the wax inside and collected in a vessel containing water for reuse, says Mohanraj Sthapathy.

Later the red hot mold is buried in the ground and placed rigidly, the mixture of five metals are then poured into the clay mold. Artisans take enough care to fill the molten metal does not cover more than half in order to make way for air and bubble particles to escape from inside. Later the mold is left to cool for couple of days depending on the size. Sculptors later excavate the idols and break the clay mold starting from the head of the statue as described in the Shilpa Sastra, he said.

Ancient Traits

Even today many sculptors are living in temple centres like Mahabalipuram, Kanchipuram, Madurai, and Gengee due to their historical importance. Almost all the migrated sculptors’ family history traces back to Swamimalai, he said and added that family tree chart is still preserved of all sculptors from Nayak period.

The sculpting techniques used in Swamimalai is very unique and ancient, reference of lost wax mold process dates back to Aryan civilization in Indus Valley, says Naranaswamy, a master sculptor in Thanjavur royal palace and a researcher of sculptors in Tamil University.

The habit of making bronze staute flourished during Maurya period in Northern part of India, giving a comparison between North Indian and south Indian sculptors, said Narayanswamy . Idols made in South India especially in Swamimalai brings out the euphoric and lively feel, on the other hand idols of north Indian origin presents a human figure with closed eyes, citing the Buddha statues of Asoka period.

Medicinal Values

Not just the amalgamation of precious metals, the statues are also famous for their cosmic effect exposed. It is still an unrecognized theory that only Panchaloha idols have the effect to store and emit positive cosmos after the chants of Mantras’. When performed abhishekam on the panchaloha idols, the milk or water used in Abhishekam contains particles of lead and copper creating medical resistance in human body, pointed out Narayanswamy.

Divine work

It is believed that every idol is a living god, according to Shilpa Sastra every craftsmen starts his work in a pious manner after performing rituals to the god. Since the idols will be donning a divine status in temples, sculptors take utmost care and derive the best out of their creativity.

A sad situation is prevailing these days, with people coming to idols sculptors after fixing the date of Kumbabhishekam. Sculptors consider every idol as baby taken out of mother’s womb. Time constraints will lead to seriously loss of concentration and efficiency, pointed out Mohanraj. The temple construction work is not an easy job and people approaching sculptors must give ample time to concentrate on the idol creating a history in the form of idol is not an easy task said Narayanaswamy.

Desi-alternative to capitalism and socialism

2012-02-25T21:08:00.000+05:30

Shreenesh Raman

A desi economist: Img REDIFF.COM

Capitalist and Socialist ideas and theories are warring cousins fighting for control over money and power, said S Gurumurthy during a power talk session at SASTRA University Thanjavur on Saturday.

Four centuries ago the socialist ideas were built upon the Anabaptist movement led by John of Leiden of Munster, West Germany. Later the modern world saw the collapse of USSR and other socialist state, leading to adoption of Capitalism known as the only alternative.

Considering the flaws which come to limelight during the USSR collapse and economic crisis, he said we need to think of continuing with the savings based economy. Elaboraing further, he said Indian women played a pivotal role in transition to modern market. On the flip side they decline adopt changes and backed savings economy, said S Gurumurthy.

Desi-Capitalism

Recalling the ancient Indian sage Charuvaka’s liberal society theory, he said market condition in the US is similar to the theory of Charuvaka who lived 5000 years ago. He conceptualized the modern economics theories of debt and refinance. There is no need to return debt money to lenders and the society is free and liberal. However, India being a mature civilization ignored the theory and went ahead.

The Capitalists consider market as God and the communist consider party as God, strikingly both methods care the least about the human values and cultural link with the society and the state, he said.

There is always a theory of contradiction, to put in simple terms, Marx theory is based on thesis and antithesis leading to synthesis. However, the In Adam Smith’s Capitalism the market entered every kitchen and bedrooms of a home and ruined the family value system.

Conservatism and Savings economy

However, in India we still believe in the culture based and not market based, though various government pundits’ advice people to adopt market driven economy which ultimately proved to be a disastrous trap during the 2008 financial meltdown.

He recalled the moments of Manmohan Singh’s term as the finance minister when he requested the help from world renowned economist Jagdish Bhagwati on methods to switch from savings economy to credit economy. The average savings to GDP ratio was around 26 percent, meanwhile the country slowly progressed in its liberalization path, Indian women playing a pivotal role in the economy decided to stick with the savings economy and the savings ratio raised above 35 percent.

Market affecting Family

The US economy during the meltdown recorded a massive divorce rate leading to 51 percent of children with single parents. The family value in the society was lost entirely in the western economy, he said. Alan Greenspan, Economist was behind the 2008 melt down as he headed a group of economist with deregulation and no savings theory. Abundant availability of credit and over consumption reached saturation leading to collapse of family structure followed by banks and on later stage the entire economy of the US.

Due to the collapse of the US, the damage got exported to other western economies, luckily in India and other East Asian economies survived the serious economic jolt. Further citing a Goldman Sachs 2010 report on India, Gurumurthy said India won’t need a single dollar as we can generate more than $ 800 Billion every year through savings. We can invest more than $ 1 Trillion in infrastructure and other utilities without the so-called FDI investment, he said.

“Markets must not be allowed to reach our bedroom and kitchen,” he said. World markets were exploited as every family in US was investing in the market making it a large scale gambling. However in India according to a planning commission report, we depend on the 47000 markets (Sandhai) present in rural hearts of the country. More than 90 percent of commodity and financial transactions take place in these rural markets and will continue to do so despite the Retail FDI threat.

Ultimatum

The economist said, India is a unique market and needs lot of understanding before starting to experiment. Neither the Communist nor the Capitalist can gain control of the market and the society, he said. Advising the young students to read more literature instead of the so-called modern economics, he said every culture is a treasure trove and we must spend time to discover it.

Source: Express News Service

Concentrate on Inflation woes: Rangarajan

2012-01-11T21:41:00.001+05:30

Shreenesh Raman

Thanjavur:

Rights methods need to be adopted to control inflation, Rangarajan

The post liberalisation period of Indian economy has seen a robust growth prospects in selective sectors. Later the adrenaline of high growth rate has pushed the inflation beyond its threshold, said C Rangarajan, Economic advisor to the PM, during a memorial lecture in a private university near here on Monday.

Following the soviet model of economics, our country was facing a serious balance of payments. The 1991 liberalisation policy of the central government has thrown open many opportunities in various sector for both government and private sector industries.

GDP Growth Rate

The GDP growth rate grew at an average of 6.8 percent between 1992-93 and 2010-11 when compared to the pre-reformed value of 5.6 percent during 1981-82 and 1990-91. The Economic advisory council projected a forecast of 8.2 percent for the year 2011-12. However, the Industrial production witnessed a slump in 2010-11 with a negative growth of -5.5 percent. Due to the decreased industrial output, the economy lost a chunk of its mileage to achieve the 8.2 percent target. Further projections were altered to 7-7.25 percent, said Rangarajan.

Answer the hypothetical question on the 9 percent growth rate, the senior economist said, it is possible to reach the target once we recover from the current output loss. The savings and investment rate to the GDP has crossed the 35 percentage mark, he said. Growth path would become conducive for the economy to regains its investment credentials.

Current Account Deficit in India

The CAD percentage to GDP determines the balance of payments by the government. Keeping the CAD rate under 2.5 percent will ensure the much required long term economic stability and further insulating the domestic market from global financial turmoil, said Rangarajan.

The artificial demand stimulation in the wake of financial crisis impacted the fiscal deficit of the exchequer. As a spiralling effect, Deficit jumped from 6 percent in 2008-09 to 6.4 percent in 2009-10, leaving the domestic market and government in deep peril. Process are undertaken to cool-down the crisis laden fiscal deficit, and it is expected to reach 4.6 percent this year, projected Rangarajan.

Sectoral Constraints

Power:

When the issue of Farming and Power is taken in to the growth index of India, it poses a major challenge for economist and the government, said the PM advisor. Majority of power projects were commissioned by the government from late 60s till early 90s. The liberalisation has brought private players into the power sector. However, the government still has a major inventory when it comes to Generation, Transmission, and Distribution. Though the electricity production deficit doesn't affect the economy directly, there is greater indirect impact on other sectors ranging from farming to industrial output.

In order to achieve the 9 percent growth rate, constraints in fuel allocation, land acquisition and environmental clearance need to be tackled. Though we set a decent capacity addition target of 78577 MW in the 11^th five year plan, we were able to reach only 39000 MW.

Agriculture:

On the other hand, agriculture is facing severe crisis from rapid industrialisation, cost overruns and unfavourable investment climate. The high inflation rate has created a cascading prise rise factor in the market, says Rangarajan. We witnessed a worst agriculture production decline with a sharp fall of 16.59 million tonnes in 2009-10.

In February 2010, the country saw a 21 percent food inflation rate, while the WPI inflation rates peaked to 10.9 percent in April 2010. The aftermath of the strong rise in inflation figures were not able to cool down even after November 2010. As a result other commodities started to rise, adding fuel to the rising prices, fossil fuel prices were also escalating in the market. The era of Onion politics was hitting the day light when the vegetable prices touched 67 percent in January 2011. The second quarter of the 2010-11 fiscal years saw inflation in manufacturing sector reacing 7.4 percent March 2011.

The economy is set to stabilise by the end of 2012 and the economy would revert back to normalcy assured C Rangarajan addressing the gathering in SASTRA University delivering the 7^th Narayanan memorial lecture on Monday.

Source: Express Thanjavur

Identify the right jobs in rural areas: C Rangarajan

2012-01-11T21:35:00.001+05:30

Thanjavur:

Being a western insulated economy, the country has managed to get back to normalcy. It is highly important for us to identify the right jobs in rural areas said, C Rangarajan, economic advisor to PM while inaugurating the centre for rural studies in SASTRA.

After the 11th five year plan, its time for the country to decide its growth path said, M Narendra, CMD IOB. Economical growth must be inclusive of all classes in the society and not just the industrial sector, he added. Further it is much more important to include every stakeholder in the growth path and ensure that the growth reaches every common man in the country.

After having a tough time in the past, we must work towards the Active development in rural areas, said the banker. Only then we can be in the comfort level in growth story of our economy.

The country need to reinvent the thoughts of Gandhi and Kamaraj in order to serve better and stand up to the prosperous for all moto "sarvae jana sukhino bhavantu" in the Indian blood.

Not all the 6.3 lakh villages are covered by banking services, despite having enormous growth, farming and non farming banking has reached the rural masses. In recent times, TN has wittnessed increase in number of women taking part in rural governance. Being a savings economy, women in India has become efficient managers and in decision making process, said Narendra.

Speaking on the contrast development of our economy, Rangarajan said, 90 percent of GDP was coming from agriculture in 1950s. However, this number has come down to mere 18 percent. Still 80 percent of people are dependent on agriculture.

Advising the growth path, the centre for rural development must focus on sustainable agriculture development. More research and study must be commenced on increasing the productivity.

Depleting Water resources is a looming concern in the agri sector said the economist. The centre can study on efficient usage of water through inventing new methods of irrigation. "Due to the water problems we are forced to adapt new methods of farming," said Rangarajan.

Besides alternative development in rural areas, the centre can advice rural organisations to engage the farmers and farm labours during lean season. Farming in today's condition is not an economically viable profession. So it is important that we must generate new ideas to develop the agri sector.

Small scale industries and business are important in rural areas. Providing employment to rural people will develop the living standard. Thus there is a greater need to utilise the local resource to become self sustenance in future.

"On all the above there is a greater need to ensure that growth process is a broad based one," said Rangarajan.

Source: Express Thanjavur

Highways or a death trap??

2012-01-11T21:30:00.000+05:30

Shreenesh Raman

Thanjavur:

Mangled government bus near Tiruvarur

Over speeding and drunken driving has created much dent in the accident records in Thanjavur district. A Recent study by WHO has indicated India is losing nearly 1.5 lakh people in accidents every year and it is rising year after year.

In Thanjavur district 2263 accidents have taken place last year including 400 fatal incidents, says a report from Tamilnadu Police. Despite having the 108 ambulance and other medical service, the district witnessed some major accidents too last year. “Rash and reckless driving, Drunken driving are the major cause for road accidents happening now-a-days,” says Ravi Shankar, District Manager, 108 ambulance service.

The National Highway 67 running between Thanjavur and Tiruvarur has become a death trap in recent past. Due to the increasing heavy vehicle traffic from Nagapattinam and a narrow two lane road, posing a risk for road users and people living along the NH.

According to the National Highways Website, the four lanning of Coimbatore Nagapattinam highway from Thanjavur to Nagapattinam is still under process. Meanwhile, the railway is already facing a severe traffic situation in Tiruchy Thanjavur section. “We are operating with 140 percent line traffic between Tiruchy and Thanjavur, and 100 percent between Thanjavur and Tiruvarur” said, Vaidyalingam, DRM Tiruchy Division.

The recent bus fare hike and continuous rally of petrol prices has pushed the layman to depend on train. But the railway officials are not in a position to operate more trains, with line doubling project under their cards, it is high time that NHAI officials take a look into the troubled stretch.

“Driving a bus in the accident prone stretches during nights in Tiruvarur road is becoming highly risky,” says a TNSTC driver from Tiruchy division. Slow moving lorries and rashly driven private buses make the stretch more vulnerable for accidents. Most part of the road is exposed on either side to Arasalaru River. A Steep turn could easily overturn the vehicle into the river points a highway patrol police man.

“People living in villages along the national highway are in constant fear,” says Aarumugham of Koradachery.

Source: Express Thanjavur

Rising inputs burdens farming community

2011-12-22T21:17:00.000+05:30

Shreenesh Raman

The global food demand and consumption has lead to rapid industrialization in the field of agriculture. In India, every global agri major has done a great damage to the farming community directly or indirectly alleges P Shanmugam, State secretary, TNFA.

Speaking on the sidelines of the farmers meet in Orathanad, he said unlike early 70s and 80s, farmers these days are more burdened due to the frequent fluctuation and scarcity of fertiliser and other raw materials. Though the farmer has increased in output, still problems prevail in the form of delayed payment, rising fertiliser price, increasing labour cost, he pointed out.

Corporate's mint money at the cost of Farmer's life

Condemning the central government for reducing the funding for agriculture, he said the government is deviating from its path in favour of corporates who are ready to poach our livelihood. Very recently the government ordered decontrolling fertiliser price resulting in 300 percent price hike in DAP and other potash fertiliser across the country.

Leaving the farmers in peril will not be good both for people and for the country, he warned as the centre is ready to table Food security bill, which promises 3Kg of pulses every month for the “common man”. It will lead to further increase in malnutrition in majority of the country. And he lauded the efforts of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for writing a strong worded letter on the ill effects of the proposed bill.

Labour shortage has become imminent during sowing and harvest season after the introduction of MNREGA scheme, says Shanmugam. Farmers are now finding hard to resource labour during the crucial stages of agriculture, as people are willing to work in MNREGA at the cost of grain production. In order to retain labourers, farmers have raised the wages up to 40 percent approximately to nearly Rs 300 to 450 per acre.

Already, small scale farmers are cash strapped and debt ridden; there is a mounting pressure to increase the outputs. It will by and large affect a huge chunk of farmers across the state if the government is not putting an end to the labour and fertiliser prices, said Shanmugam.

Source: Express Thanjavur

Reducing Mettur levels alarms farmers in Delta region

2011-12-16T11:02:00.000+05:30

Shreenesh Raman

Thanjavur:

Mettur Dam

The Cauvery delta district farmers are showing signs of dilemma after the December monsoon rains failed to turn up and the reducing water level in Mettur dam. Already 10.5 lakh hectare of land is under Samba and Thalladi cultivation.

Generally, Tamilnadu receives most of its rain during the north east monsoon. This year the rains started in the second week of October, heavy rains poured in the months of October and November. Unfortunately, the monsoon rains started to slow down by December leading to a large scale fear among the farmers in the delta region.

Over 13 lakh hectares of land is under cultivation for the Thalladi and Samba crop season in Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, Tiruchy, Pudukottai, cuddalore districts. In delta region alone 8 lakh hectares of Samba and 2.5 lakh hectares of Thalladi is under cultivation. December month no rain, water is drawn from mettur, farmers totally dependent.

However the water level on Tuesday evening was 105.56 feet, with more than 12000 cusec water discharged for irrigation. From Kallanai 4000 cusec is released in Cauvery, 5501 Cusec on Vennar and 2513 cusec into Kallanai Canal.

Due to the uneven monsoon, the state is dependent on rainfall in the Mettur dam water catchment areas. Else situation may force us to sit for talks with Karnataka for more release of water. Cauvery water can be used for Samba crops till January last week. However, questions have started to arise on the reserved water levels in Mettur dam.

In grave situation, if Karnataka didn’t accept the water release farmers are forced to depend on the Monsoon rains; else crop failure is evident during the final stages of the crop season before harvest. The state government will need to Karnataka to release the 4 TMC water if the rainfall fails.

Karnataka having more than 80 percent of water in Krishna Raja Sagar dam, the state government must act steadfastly to initiate talks with Karnataka. If mettur is opened for this season, then for Kuruvai, we are forced to depend on Karnataka’s water release.

Every year Tamilnadu gets its share of water when the dams in Karnataka start to overflow. If Karnataka delays the water release, farmers in the region are forced to drop the Kuruvai cultivation.

Water can pass into the irrigation canals only if more than 6000 cusec is released. Water release is calculated based on three decade old depth levels. However, due to over quarrying of sand from the river of upto 5 feet, river water is unable to reach the mouth of irrigation canals.

Moreover, 70 percent of embankment is weak due to the illegal brick kilns along the river bed. The PWD is not willing to take any risk in release the actual capacity of water due to the weak embankments. With river water not reaching the farmer, they are forced to operate their pumpset resulting in imminent power failure, says Swamimalai Vimalanathan, President Cauvery Delta Farmers Association.

Water is needed till June 15 after which the harvest season will start resulting low water usage. With current water levels we can assure that there is sufficient water for Samba and Thalladi, says Ashokan, PWD engineer.

The monsoon failure and uneven water release to the fields has led to excessive weed growth and increasing rat menace. Farmers are worried the sharp dip in harvest, the excessive weed growth and rat menace has created havoc in farmlands especially in Tharagampadi. Some farmers in the region has reported 70 percent loss of harvest. Moreover, the existing supply can be utilised till the Samba and Thalladi. For further water supply we need to depend on Karnataka claims, Farmers Federation General Secretary Aarupathy Kalyanam.

Karnataka Water

According to the Cauvery water Tribunal, Water released from June to December is 193.59TMC, but only 183.15 TMC was released. Even the water released till date is from the excessive spill over due to monsoon rains.

Source: The New Indian Express Thanjavur

Monsoon effects: Farmers fear Dip in harvest

2011-12-07T05:13:00.000+05:30

Shreenesh Raman

Paddy fields near Orathanadu

The recent monsoon was a lifeline for farmers in the delta region expecting a decent harvest. However in some parts of the Thanjavur District, farmers are by and large affected by the monsoon downpour resulting a massive flooding in their fields.

Though the state government is yet to announce the damage claims for this season, approximately 9 percent of farmers are affected in Thanjavur and are still clueless about the damage claims, says Swami Natarajan. Assuming the previous year values, the government gave Rs 3000 per acre since the impact was pretty hefty he added.

Farmers in Samayankudikadu near Orathanadu are some who are still in dark about this year’s damage claims. Crop insurance plays a major role as various farmers associations insist members to pay their premiums on time resulting timely delivery of claims in monsoon seasons. Meanwhile, a source in the knowhow has confirmed that the state has deposited this year’s crop insurance premium to the centre.

According to some farmers, though the crop didn’t perish fully, there is a partial damage which will reflect in harvest, says Vimalanathan of Cauvery delta farmers association. According to him, most of the southern taluks in the district are more affected by and large.

The state has failed to declare Thanjavur as a monsoon impacted district, instead priority was given to Erode and Namakkal districts, he claimed. The association demands the government to send the flood impact evaluation committee from Chennai must visit the entire delta region.

Citing last year’s rainfall during the same time, a central government team visited Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam and accessed the damages. However, this time the union government despite receiving request for funds on grounds of natural disaster is still keeping the issue pending, pointed Vimalanathan.

But based on assessment by various association and agriculture organisations, it is learnt that more than 50 percent of crop will take time to recover from the rain water. Though in most fields crops look brisk farmers fear that there will be an acute dip in harvest.

Source: Express Thanjavur

Chronicle of India's Internet

2011-06-28T22:42:00.002+05:30

By Shreenesh Raman

India touted to be a global destination for back office processing is now suffering with major bottlenecks in Information & Communication Infrastructure. Post-Liberalisation the government started various agencies to track developments and invest in the field of Information and communication.

The Union Government initiated the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in early 80s. It led to restructuring Department of Telecom (DoT), bifurcating telecom operations and bureaucracy. MTNL was formed in late 80s to cater to the niche crowd in Delhi and Mumbai. Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), a Govt. owned ISP was formed to offer 64Kbps (and above) leased line internet for corporate customers. The bandwidth hungry applications soon demanded more bandwidth. VSNL became a Class-A ISP and lead monopoly till early 90s.

The Government in 1995 relaxed its telecom norms and allowed private operators to handle domestic traffic with leasing bandwidth from VSNL. In 1994, the National Telecom Policy— 1994 didn’t focus much on Internet. Cable TV operators leased bandwidth from ISP and distributed internet via co-axial cables.

In 1998, the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) was formed to cartelise the sector. VSNL and private majors like Bharti laid cables across the globe to contribute the global bandwidth demands. Allowing private operators to offer internet via DSL didn’t make significance in the internet penetration due to high cost of installation and user fee.

In 1999, a VSNL home internet connection costs nearly Rs.900 for three months including a 4MB mailbox. The DoT along with BSNL and MTNL laid fibre over the length and breadth of

the country, while cross country cable is handled by VSNL. India was hit by the (.) COM revolution, companies offering mobile services started to offer internet as a Value Added Services (VAS).

The low cost of mobile phones and lowest tariff made an easy climb by the

Government to give a boost for the booming IT sector gave importance to E-Governance to agencies as they started to digitalise their operations. Convergence in the telecom sector was succeeding in snail’s pace, the government corporatized DoT and formed Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) a government undertaking unit.

Closing in the Digital Divide ‘N’ Journey to villages...

IT and ITES companies concentrated in the tier-1 slowly moved to tier-2 cities with improvement in infrastructure. Mobility and Internet is still Latin & Greek in distant villages in the remote pockets of India. So, how what is the best way to bridge the digital divide?

Providing Internet services in remote places with subsidised tariff package is not the best solution. There must be a consensus by all telecom operators to provide compulsory service in rural areas by sharing infrastructure. The government must grant funds from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) to deploy fibre to remote regions of the country. Legal framework should be redesigned to fit these changes, moreover infrastructure sharing must be mooted to cut spending and deliver services with utmost QoS.

Fibre Vs Air Medium...?

According to a NASSCOM survey taken in early 2002, 68 town and cities constitute 92% internet users in India. So to expand beyond the towns and cities into villages, the government decided to utilise the USO funds. The government’s projection of growth anomaly in mobile was proven wrong when the penetration levels reached 73% in mid 2007 far ahead of its target time. So, the government doesn’t want to repeat its mistakes by miscalculating the growth and adoption rate.

DoT is given the duty to execute orders from Ministry of Information and Technology (MIT). Under DoT’s command National and State Fibre Authority will be commissioned to lay optic fibre and monitor traffic. National Optic Fibre Authority (NOFA) will be the nodal authority once the fibre lines are commissioned. State Optic Fibre Authority (SOFA) will be a joint-venture between state and central government, under which telecom operators sign MoU to lease bandwidth to offer services in villages. Telecom providers won’t have any burden to lay and maintain.

Laying optic fibre in hill terrains is a tough task, as there is a higher risk of landslide, earthquake, etc. It is wise to adopt Wireless RAN platform to deliver last mile connectivity in remote reaches in Himalayas. The wireless network is the best alternative, since satellite based system might escalate cost of implementation and maintenance. Going wireless might be a waste of money and precious spectrum in the vast plains of the country.

Is Air medium the best available option to connect remote places?

The recent 3G spectrum auction created buzz across the world telecom fraternity. In Indian telecom sector, spectrum is generally held by Ministry of Defence (MoD) for its bandwidth hungry transmission applications for national safety. So, the DoT’s hands are tied in the name of ‘National Security’ and thus telecom operators are facing bottlenecks in rolling out services. India’s mobile networks mostly run on GSM platform, thus using more spectrum bandwidth than CDMA.


Lighting the future

Airwaves were auctioned for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) in 2009-10. The government allocated only three 20MHz block across India with one block reserved for state owned carriers BSNL and MTNL. It’s a wise idea to go wireless across India, since some companies already provide mobile services thereby no need to invest in tower infrastructure (Base Transmission Tower). Next, comes choice of technology standard as companies are in a big dilema and need to choose uniform technology across India to provide better roaming service. But companies must rethink their strategy when it comes to wartime and other emergency. MoD has the right to take over infrastructure excluding emergency services transmissions. Sticking with wire line for basic communications is a suitable alternative instead of investing crores of rupees in

Is bandwidth scarce hit India?

My answer is a big ‘NO’. Bandwidth is generally classified into two type’s namely internal and external bandwidth. India ISP’s are none other than the total telecom service providers who own cables laid within country and cross country.

Submarine Cable

ISP’s form alliance with industry peers to share the cost of laying undersea submarine cable. Nowadays, optic fibre cable bandwidth is zooming to unimaginable heights. Global telecom leaders like SingTel, Airtel, Verizon, British Telecom, France Telecom S.A, NTT Comm., Etisalat, Vodafone and AT&T have cables running around India’s coastline. Submarine cable landing points were established in cities like Chennai, Mumbai, Cochin to provide seamless connectivity to corporate and commercial customers.

A Huawei DWDM Switch

The bandwidth hungry applications cosume only one fifth of India's bandwidth. Of a total of 34Tbps (based on unofficial calculations) only 1.5Tbps is lit. A large chunk of local bandwidth connecting towns and cities are not utilised to its desired capacity. Other than telecom operators, govt PSU's like Railtel, Gailtel, Power Grid, NTPC, REC were given Class-A ISP licence. The PSU's laid fibre along oil and gas pipelines, railway lines and power lines. They enter into agreement with ISPs and corporates to offer Leased Line, National Long Distance Line and VPN over MPLS. For example, RailTel an Indian Railway undertaking has 36,000 KM of OFC under its kitty and planning to lay 50,000 KM. It also has STM-1 (155Mbps) and STM-16 (2.5Gbps) connectivity across all major towns and cities. It also manages DWDM network of over 10,000 KM to provide speeds from 100Mbps to a staggering 400Gbps (bandwidth capacity).

Analysing the timeline internet traffic passing through India, network equipment maker CISCO has estimated that the average traffic to reach 3Tbps. Eventually, the ISP’s and government are least ready to give a thought on the rising demand for bandwidth both internal and external demands to cover the digital divide.

So one must think about future of the internet in India...

Government free laptop scheme a boon or bane..??

2011-06-24T21:14:00.003+05:30

By Shreenesh Raman

After gaining a thumping majority in Tamil Nadu assembly elections 2011, the government led by J.Jayalalithaa has announced her plans to fulfill certain schemes in phase manner. As given in the poll manifesto, she is now spearheading the free laptop scheme for students of government and government aided schools and colleges.

The scheme is welcome measure for students in government institutions. But, one need to think about the procurement and implementation part of the entire scheme. The Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT), a Government of Tamil Nadu undertaking is given the task to invite manufacturers for tender, selection of lowest bidder, issue work order for manufacturing and then distribute the laptops across the state. It is estimated that ELCOT might place order for 9, 12,000 laptops, and each piece costs around `15,000 bringing to total estimate to a staggering `13,680 Crore.

The Government has laid stringent guidelines for Original Equipment Maker (OEM), it has requested ELCOT to invite bids from well known brands like Dell, Acer, HP, Lenovo, etc. Earlier the government took similar care in implementing state level wide area network, TV distribution and other e-governance projects.

The sample system displayed by some manufacturers had the following configuration:

Display: 14inch

Processor: Intel P6200 2.1 GHz or AMD Equivalent

RAM: 2GB DDR3 @ 1066MHz

Hard Disk: 320GB 5400/7200RPM

Graphics: Intel HD 3000 Graphics

OS: Linux or Windows 7 Starter Pack (Dual Boot system)

Office Tools: Open Office or MS office 2007 Student edition (not yet confirmed)

Considering the above specification as an example the cost of manufacturing might come to ` 13,000.

Can the government afford to proprietary software’s for these laptops or simply jump into the world of open source.

Adopting Open Source..?

Questions like adopting open source and stability issues need to be addressed before giving away laptops to students.

Kerala Government's project for implementing open source is the best example through its IT policy in 2007. It partnered with Red Hat to train its technical staff and other employees from various departments across the state. It ultimately ended as a win-win situation, where Red Hat showcased the Kerala model to promote open source software development. It’s a big lesson for Tamil Nadu to learn from Kerala, thereby the TN government will utilize the free laptop scheme as a good chance to adopt open source and provide student a basic training through C-DAC.

Operating System..??

In India, the C-DAC has developed an open source Linux known as BOSS Linux with the help of International Free and Open Source Software Foundation (iFOSSf) . This distro can be installed as a basic operating system.

Localisation of study material:

Linux in Tamil Img Courtesy: Flickr

Public Schools and Boarding schools are popular in cities and major towns, but in a country like India the ground realities are poles apart. More than 30 languages in 28 State and UT’s are a bottleneck for any IT services companies.

Proprietary operating system like Microsoft tools offers language support for Hindi in India. So, to get rid of the language barrier, Linux is best available option which supports 18 Indian languages and more. The key to localisation can be achieved easily. Moreover, programming tools for software coding are available in open source distribution. The updated GNOME 3.0 is more stable and also offers a Windows ‘like’ environment for Linux users.

Infrastructure & Suggestions:

The TN govt. free laptop scheme is an upgraded version of United Nations one laptop per child (OPLC). It can be implemented in a best way by developing a wireless mesh network around schools and colleges across the state and connecting the same via OFC to a central data centre. All teaching lessons and education related software’s can be distributed, if required students can attend e-learning classes when a particular subject teacher is on leave.

Infrastructure for setting up training and service support won’t be a problem since, Tamil Nadu Government Wide Area Network (TNSWAN). The ELCOT is running a command and control centre in Chennai and C-DAC has its support centre in Taramani, Chennai which can be used as a central hub to build a warehouse.

The Tamil Nadu Government has set stage for bright future for the student community in the state. So, let’s wait and watch whether the scheme is Boon or Bane!

EVOLUTION OF DRESS CODE

2011-03-04T22:16:00.001+05:30

By Shreenesh Raman & Team.

In a democratic country, dressing according to one’s free will should not be a crime. But college students in Chennai are forced to follow the code of formal attire. Flouting this code could even cost them their career.

Clothes were made to protect the human body from the harshness of nature. But today, clothes indicate a person’s social and economic status. The evolution of dress codes is a complex phenomenon. The 7th century B.C, Greek lawgiver Zaleucus was the first to frame a code. Romans followed them and drafted the ‘nota censoria’.

The divisions of caste, creed and religion started as early as the Aryan civilization and resulted in complex and diverse cultural practices in India. The difference was easy to notice as clothing such as dhoti, kurta and sari where for the ruling elite were made of silk and decorated with ornamental jewels. The working class, on the other hand, wore only cotton clothes.

By the 16th century, class consciousness in dressing became more evident and evolved into a sense of identity. Europe too witnessed the demarcation of dressing styles between men and women; the elites always enjoyed the privilege of dress code and its adherence was thrust on the working class. As George Orwell said - “All animals are equal, but some animals more equal than others”

The 18th and 19th century saw the shift from traditional Indian dressing to the British style. It had social and economic implications as well. With these changes, modesty in dress became an important aspect of Indian life. Over the last few years, there has been a steady increase in consciously dressing as dictated by ones religion. The never-ending argument in every traditional household is the traditional dress code that has to be adhered for a social gathering.

This pattern can be strongly noticed in places of worship. Among Muslims it is offending to pray without covering one’s head, while it is not mandatory in other religions.
Even colour in clothing plays an important role in society. People living in western countries wear black to funerals while people from India, particularly from the north, wear white. In certain places black is considered inauspicious. Black is not restricted to funerals alone, parties see a majority of people wearing black and is considered fashionable. Black is one colour that dominates the party floor.

Dress codes play an important role in professional circles too. It defines the profession and the status that comes with it. Dress codes go a long way in presenting a respectable image of the professional.

However a dress code for the sake of control can definitely stifle creativity in people. The corporate world was not the alone to adopt the dress code. The armed forces of any country and professionals from the medical field have followed dress code based on colour. It also crept into the games arena where, every player of a team dresses uniformly, thereby signifying the team’s unity. Uniforms in educational institutions, lead to a sense of belongingness and equality.

Dress codes also reveal identities. Politicians in India wear white kurta pyjama indicating political power. For years the unofficial dress code for journalists in India is the kurta.
Regulating dressing patterns restricts an individual’s right to freedom, but it standardizes and maintains unity and identity. At the end of the day, whether one likes it or not, the dress code is here to stay.

FIGHTING 'FIRE' WITH POLICY AND PLANNING

2011-03-04T22:08:00.001+05:30

By Shreenesh Raman

Fires of fire engines are not unusual in a city, but this is also a sign that serious, yet basic requirements on fire safety are ignored. The 21st century city has come a long way from with sustainable development; the city's expansion was directly proportional to the population growth.

A. Srivatsan, Town Planner

After a major fire in the LIC building in Anna Salai in the 1970's, the Tamil Nadu government passed the Tamil Nadu Multistoried Buildings act. According to the Director of Tamil Nadu fire rescue and safety services the department started in 1908 under Madras Presidency frequently acquired equipment and man power to fight fire efficiently. He also revealed the fact of shrinking area of water bodies, affecting the water reserve.

Fire is usually put off using fire hydrants erected in every street corner. This has gradually come down, putting fire engines under pressure to carry more water. Since we adopted the British legal system with minor changes, the government seldom passed or updated laws.

The CMDA was formed in 1972 as a monitoring authority, perhaps the number of buildings shot up leading to increase in illegal structures. However the director further added that "over 10000 buildings are marked as illegal structures including some famous food chains and retail outlets".

In Indian legal system passing a new law costs crores of taxpayers money, the enforcement of such laws is not effective said a source in CMDA. City based town planner srivatsan said; legally every building comes under scrutiny by various public departments. He added that every state has its own laws derived from the national building code and Town and Country Planning Act.

The exchequer seldom invested in the fire and safety equipment. As a department initiative fire men in batches of 30 are sent for training to European countries and they are considered as pioneers in the field of fire fighting and rescue operations. Inter-Departmental relations are hampering the process of suggesting amendments in existing legal framework. Citing the school fire in kumbakonam in 2004 killing 94 kids, which lacked basic fire safety and parameter land around the built up area. Later investigation revealed that the school flouted basic safety norms by giving kickbacks to some public departments.

Analyzing the various sources of problems faced by fire safety department, traffic in the city of this magnitude hammers the smooth rescue operations. When caught up with the assistant commissioner of police, traffic M. Ravi said traffic police plays their level best when it comes to fire and rescue. We make sure to keep traffic under control in the accident area or divert the traffic. Traffic cop has also requested the Chennai Corporation to shift 700 obstructions in the road side to allow free flow of traffic.

Natraj also added that his department has no powers as such to recommend the CMDA in amending master plan, which involves all other local bodies. This made them 'toothless snakes'.

Even after 6 decades of independence the focus on development spread every corner of the country, but this development will not sustain long due to inadequate supporting infrastructure. Town planners are now suggesting developing the city vertically reducing the extensive use of land. Major drawback is when utilities are not developed without keeping in mind with the future demands.

Fire fighting can't be fought only with man power, it requires intelligence and efficiency. Awareness among city dwellers must be spread and school children must learn the basic fire fighting with frequent demonstrations. Stricter laws and enforcement with heavy punishments and huge fine can create a fear in those violating contractors. Local bodies like corporation and CMDA must have corruption free and transparent organisational setup.

Fifty-Five and still on track...

2011-03-04T22:04:00.001+05:30

By Shreenesh Raman

History in making, History Revisited

Chennai: In Perambur adjacent to the Arakonam – Chennai railway line is the shell unit of Integral Coach Factory (ICF). Seventy five work shops are housed in this huge factory campus. It housed a metal foundry till the early 90’s. Later, the unit came under the Chennai Corporation jurisdiction forcing the administration to shut the foundry, citing pollution with harmful effluents as reason.

The welding shop in Integral Coach Factory (ICF) has the most advanced facilities for coach making in the country. It comprises of the laser beam welding, arc welding and the traditional gas welding machinery for various types of metal sheets.

The factory inaugurated by the erstwhile Prime Minister of India Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru on October 2, 1955, was conceived in collaboration with a company called Swiss-car Maker & Co. Planned for a capacity of 350 coaches, an indigenisation process was adopted by the ICF in order to bring down the manufacturing cost through technology transfer from various foreign vendors.

There was a time in the golden era of provincial railways, when third class coaches lighted with dim yellow bulbs and hard- to- sit wooden furniture were used by the Indians. The British travelled in first and second class coaches with plush interiors. Each coupe had a personal attender and an attached lavatory.

Workforce was a major hurdle for a manufacturing plant of this scale. It lacked the skilled labour. The ICF Administration, under guidance from Railway Board, setup a technical training institute. Aiming to give hands-on experience to the local youth, it inducted them into manufacturing sector.

The unfinished coaches were then transported to another unit called Furnishing Division to complete work on flooring, plumbing, furniture, wiring, lights, fans and air conditioners. Traction motors were mounted to save energy. They were then handed over to the Indian Railways, to comply with the factory’s motto, “FOR BETTER TRAVEL”.

The late 70’s saw the introduction of trains like Rajdhani which are still considered as the fast trains in the Indian Railway network. It also inspired Bollywood director Ravi Chopra to make a film called ‘The Burning train’. The train in the film used the same colour code as Rajdhani coaches.

After a successful run for a decade, the manufacturer decided to snap foreign ties completely and began manufacturing coaches with ‘Made in India’ tag. According to A. Deveraj a retired works manager of the unit, ICF was the pioneer in adoption of new technology in coach manufacturing till the Chinese war in 1962. Those were the hard times, as the factory was stretched beyond its limits both in terms of manufacturing and manpower. Despite this, it continued to role out rail based medical vans and kitchen cars for the defence forces.

As a multi faceted and culture rich country, India maintained an iconic image. Indian Railways with the help of various tourism departments rolled out numerous luxury trains. In 1982, the ‘Palace on Wheels’, a luxury train became the first of its kind in India, catering only to foreign tourists. It covered the regions of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. This was followed by The Deccan Odyssey for the Konkan tourism belt in 2004. In addition to this, the recently rolled out Golden Chariot for the Karnataka Tourism Corporation, ICF showcased the luxury and extravagance of essence in the art and architecture of India. The Maharajas Express which is still under construction and is yet to be rolled out in the fall of 2010.

They got well trained carpenters who took efforts to handcraft wooden carvings and furniture for the compartments. All the luxury trains are now refurbished with more advanced passenger comforts. It includes entertainment systems like satellite television, LCD Televisions, Wi-Fi connectivity and personal media center. The long legacy of manufacturing luxury trains which started in 1981 continues till day.

“Large enterprises face serious labour problems, and ICF is not an exception” said D. Gopal, a factory worker in paint shop. Labour problems cropped up during various phases. In spite of strict safety rules, labour unrest was caused due to in-plant accidents. Yet Integral Coach Factory maintains high environmental standards and is the first rail manufacturing unit in India to gain the ISO 14001 certification. India’s lone passenger rail coach maker reached a milestone of manufacturing 1000th coach in 1968. It also indigenously manufactured coaches for the Kolkata Metro in 1981.

The farsighted government in 1950’s setup the factory at Chennai keeping in mind the accessibility to seaport for exports. Later, the vision was achieved in 1967, when it became a major hub for coach manufacturing in the Indian sub-continent. Export orders from African and Asian countries poured in, bringing money to the exchequer. The first export order for bogies was from Thailand, followed by the export to Burma. It is very fascinating to know that ICF exported bogies to Taiwan in 1971, when India was ahead of Taiwan’s economy.

The war-ravaged Sri Lankan Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) with Indian Railways in 2009, under which Indian Railways would give technical expertise in track laying and signalling. ICF has bagged orders to manufacture 90 Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) coaches. The shell is made ofcorrosion resistant steel to tackle the sea-facing railway lines, reducing maintenance costs. Unlike Inter-city coaches in India, Sri Lankan Railways operate short distanced trips and want to equip their coaches with Laverty in order to provide passengers with comfort.

From the days of importing major equipment in manufacturing rail coaches, we have come here to the present day of exporting coaches and technology. Times have passed; still, the ‘icon’ of Perambur remains unchanged. The factory has not gone into expansion mode after the Furnishing division expansion in 1962.

The Perambur unit celebrates its 100th year in 2055, hopefully churning out hi-speed coaches made of lightweight composite metals, carbon fibre, that has tolerance to fire and capable of running faster and smoother with the ‘Made in India’ tag. So far it's been a smooth run of 55 years.

Chain Reaction

2010-12-02T20:39:00.000+05:30

Every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction- Newton

Severe financial constraints forced the Irish government to accept the European Union –International Monetary Fund bailout package. Brian Cowen’s government agreed to all clauses before signing the Memorandum of Understanding in Dublin on November 11, 2010.

Sovereign debt crisis is spreading like a virus among Eurozone economies. After the crisis in Greece, Ireland received poor rating from international rating agencies like Moody’s and S&P. Instead of investing in UK, Germany, and France foreign investors had diverted their funds to Ireland due to the flexible financial policies (lower corporate taxes) adopted by Cowen’s Government.

Widespread criticism in both public and political spheres has become a headache for Brian Cowen who negotiated the € 86 billion bailout package for his country. Major Nationalist opposition party of Ireland, Sinn Fein on December 1, decided to take legal action against the government, which did not put the bailout for vote in Irish Parliament.

The determined Sinn Fein part was highly critical on Brian’s government, "We have sought legal advice but we need to see the memorandum of understanding before we can take a definite legal view," said a spokesperson for Sinn Fein party. According to some politicians, Ireland must use its own cash reserve and money from pension funds to reduce the foreign borrowings such as the current EU-IMF bailout.

Premiums from Debt

Debt bonds are just peer-to-peer lending: someone has to pay for it, and in this case it is the Eurozone members. Post bailout all the member countries are required to pay high interest rates on Irish debt bonds. Instead of strengthening the regions economy; thus weakening the money flow putting pressure on European Union and European Central Bank.

Ignoring the legal tussle in Ireland for the moment, the BusinessWeek’s report on November 21 has stated the ECB is speculating to buy Irish 10-year debt bonds. On the other hand, EU for the first time has decided to come up with debt bond issues ranging from € 5 billion to €8 billion and an average 7.5 years maturity, which will go on sale by January 2011 in the international market.

Europe’s bond market witnessed a slump when the largest bond market in Eurozone, Italian bonds yield dipped by 17 points to 4.53%. Adding burden there was a yield drop in Irish 10-year bonds, standing now at 9.13% after a 31 basis point drop. It created a unforeseen chain of effects across the Eurozone. The effect of the Irish bailout is slowly unravelling one country after country. As said in my earlier post ‘riding a sinking ship is not a good idea in a large ocean,’ Irish government managed the 2008 liquidity crisis infusing € 50 Billion into the Banking system which is already a enlarged bubble that can deflate anytime collapsing the financial market. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet on November 31 said “investors are underestimating policy makers’ determination to shore up the region’s stability after the bonds of high-deficit euro-area nations slumped.”

Political Harmonisation

One must not forget the political harmonisation that has emerged in the backdrop of issues surrounding the bailouts in Eurozone. High profile members like France, German and Belgium are playing a pivotal role in determining fiscal policies across EU member states, this will reduce the government’s clout. Effectively centralising the economic policy will be a great leap forward for EU member countries.

Brussels, headquarters of the European Union will soon become a major powerhouse, controlling the entire region. Such moves may perhaps foster a strong Euro in the world market, at the cost of the liberty of member countries.

RT's Keiser Report on Ireland's forced bailout

Links:
Business Week
Bloomberg
Russia Today