5. INDIA - YEAR 2012
If you need proof of this please come to Trivandrum. The waste disposal system has gone out of whack and people are burning waste everywhere. (Even in the best of times people burn waste).
Reasons:
Our cities are basically broken models. Our engineers need to take a blank sheet of paper and think through the waste disposal system once again. This includes the disposal of human waste. And there is no point in taking a flight to USA to find out how to do it. The western countries have determined that it is their God given right to use humongous amounts of energy to maintain their quality of life. Remember how USA and China were hiding behind the Indian Saree in Durban.
The other issues that need to be addressed:
1. Waste disposal cannot be left to the poor and disadvantaged alone, as is the case in India, while the rich zoom around in their expensive cars.
2. Every human settlement needs a waste disposal plan (a lot of waste generated in an industrial society is toxic in nature).
3. Every city probably needs to get rid of their diesel cars.
4. It is good to keep in mind that two wheelers and cars which are polluting (even if there are only 10 of them in the city), are capable of doing considerable damage in a day's zooming around. It is in the Interest of the rich in the city to subsidise the poor to obtain new vehicles.
5. It will also be good if we replace existing two wheelers with electric models.
And not forgetting what I have been saying repeatedly: reconfigure Cities, Towns and Villages in 1Km x 0.5 Km format, allowing motorised vehicles only on the peripheral roads. This will protect the quality of the air, and provide ample space for dealing with garbage.
Selvaraj
5.1 Difference between North India and South
India?
5.2 'Intellectuals' jump into UP
battlefield
5.3 Despite abortion laws, 66% of
Indians use unsafe route
5.4 India has the most toxic air: Study
5.5 Barefoot Tech
5.6 India chokes on environmental slight
5.7 Is government serious about saving the Ganga?
5.8 Managing waste - an act of citizenship
5.9 Low intellectual level
5.10 Born too soon
5.11 Scientific solutions
5.12 Indian iron and steel sector consumption 50% higher than global best practices
5.13 Family planning? India leads growth rate in World Population
---------------------------5.7 Is government serious about saving the Ganga?
5.8 Managing waste - an act of citizenship
5.9 Low intellectual level
5.10 Born too soon
5.11 Scientific solutions
5.12 Indian iron and steel sector consumption 50% higher than global best practices
5.13 Family planning? India leads growth rate in World Population
5.14 India is famous for guar gum products and food
additives
5.15 Perils of State-aided FDI
5.16 An unscientific approach to S&T
5.17 Younger girls forced into prostitution in economic
crisis
5.1 Difference between North India and South India? (2/1/2012)
Difference between North India and South India?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
5.2 'Intellectuals' jump into UP battlefield (15/1/2012)
KANPUR: Armed with MTech, CA, medical and law degrees, this small team of professionals aims at rooting out corruption through the power of the ballot. They have turned down lucrative job offers and floated the Janraajya Party (JANPA) - to free UP of corrupt politicians, criminal elements and poor governance.
5.3 Despite abortion laws, 66% of Indians use unsafe route (19/1/2012)
NEW DELHI: Unsafe abortions have become rampant in India. The country recorded 6.5 million abortions in 2008 of which 66% or two-thirds were deemed unsafe.
The authors note also that in 2008, the abortion rate was lower in sub-regions, where large proportions of the female population lived under liberal laws, than in sub-regions, where restrictive abortion laws prevailed.
For example, the abortion rate is 29 per 1,000 women of childbearing age in Africa and 32 per 1,000 in Latin America - regions in which abortion is illegal under most circumstances in the majority of countries. The rate is 12 per 1,000 in Western Europe and 19 in north America, where abortion is usually permitted.
... Dr Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, said, "These latest figures are deeply disturbing. The progress made in the 1990s is now in reverse. Promoting and implementing policies to reduce the number of abortions is now an urgent priority for all countries and for global health agencies, such as the WHO. Condemning, stigmatizing and criminalizing abortion are failed strategies. It's time for a public health approach that emphasizes reducing harm -and that means more liberal abortion laws."
The authors note also that in 2008, the abortion rate was lower in sub-regions, where large proportions of the female population lived under liberal laws, than in sub-regions, where restrictive abortion laws prevailed.
For example, the abortion rate is 29 per 1,000 women of childbearing age in Africa and 32 per 1,000 in Latin America - regions in which abortion is illegal under most circumstances in the majority of countries. The rate is 12 per 1,000 in Western Europe and 19 in north America, where abortion is usually permitted.
5.4 India has the most toxic air: Study (28/1/2012)
INDIA HAS THE MOST TOXIC AIR: STUDY
In a study by Yale and Columbia Universities, India holds the very last rank among 132 nations in terms of air quality with regard to its effect on human health.
..............................
If you need proof of this please come to Trivandrum. The waste disposal system has gone out of whack and people are burning waste everywhere. (Even in the best of times people burn waste).
Reasons:
Our cities are basically broken models. Our engineers need to take a blank sheet of paper and think through the waste disposal system once again. This includes the disposal of human waste. And there is no point in taking a flight to USA to find out how to do it. The western countries have determined that it is their God given right to use humongous amounts of energy to maintain their quality of life. Remember how USA and China were hiding behind the Indian Saree in Durban.
The other issues that need to be addressed:
1. Waste disposal cannot be left to the poor and disadvantaged alone, as is the case in India, while the rich zoom around in their expensive cars.
2. Every human settlement needs a waste disposal plan (a lot of waste generated in an industrial society is toxic in nature).
3. Every city probably needs to get rid of their diesel cars.
4. It is good to keep in mind that two wheelers and cars which are polluting (even if there are only 10 of them in the city), are capable of doing considerable damage in a day's zooming around. It is in the Interest of the rich in the city to subsidise the poor to obtain new vehicles.
5. It will also be good if we replace existing two wheelers with electric models.
And not forgetting what I have been saying repeatedly: reconfigure Cities, Towns and Villages in 1Km x 0.5 Km format, allowing motorised vehicles only on the peripheral roads. This will protect the quality of the air, and provide ample space for dealing with garbage.
Selvaraj
5.5 Barefoot Tech (28/1/2012)
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/zh-tw/bunker_roy.html
5.6 India chokes on environmental slight (8/2/2012)
In contrast to Thailand, it's either a sobering reality or some assessment parameter flaw that saw India fare so badly in the two elements most essentials for human life - air and water. The 2012 EPI card banished India to being worst in the world with respect to air quality and its effect on human health. India scored a ridiculous 3.73 out of a possible 100 points - the lowest among all nations surveyed.
...................
My green efforts:
1. Just bought a parabolic solar cooker. http://www.
Scope for improvement: It should be possible to produce a low cost cooker having deployable (umbrella like design), costing less than Rs 1000. Such a design will make it easy to fold and keep the contraption in a corner when not in use (In Kerala it will be possible to use such cookers comfortably for three or four months only, owing to limitations introduced by considerable cloud cover).
With suitable engineering it should be possible to produce electricity using this device.
2. Just installed a 0.75 Cu M capacity bio gas generator. http://www.
Very wide scope:
*Methane gas can be compressed and sold as a substitute for CNG. http://www.
*Toilet waste can also be processed by these bio gas generators: http://www.
These are the intermediate level technologies that Schumacher of 'small is beautiful' fame talked of http://en.wikipedia.org/
1. We must stop being corporate slaves. Let us slave for corporations for 50% of our time, and use the remaining time for agriculture and social activities.
2. We must stop being slaves to the automobile. Redesign our cities, towns and villages in 1 Km x 0.5 Km format, with automobiles restricted to encircling roads.
... One of my dreams is that there should be a lake (with clean water) within this 1 Km x 0.5 Km where people can bathe and swim. Will this not reduce the overall consumption of water and help to recharge the water table - and keep people healthy?
Selvaraj
5.7 Is government serious about saving the Ganga (25/3/2012)
New Delhi, (IANS) The Ganga, deified by Hindus and intrinsic to its literature and lore while providing water to over 40 percent of India’s population in 11 states, has become a victim of poor management, bad policy and lack of will by the government to save the river in the last 25 years, say experts.
5.8 Managing waste - an act of citizenship (12/4/2012)
5.9 Low intellectual level (19/4/2012)
Justice Katju said 90 per cent of the educated Indians had a low intellectual level. Even highly educated viewers were glued to film stars, fashion shows, astrology and cricket while India had problems like poverty, hunger, health and education. “Now we have Babas all over television channels spreading superstition.” Justice Katju also criticised the media for focussing on “naked women, Lady Gaga and Rakhi Sawant.” He believed the media had lost “sense of proportion or priority” in its content.
5.10 Born too soon (3/5/2012)
5.11 Scientific solutions (2/6/2012)
“Our problems are overwhelming and need scientific solutions,” he said.
“We have to use our abundant intellectual resources to find new pathways of development that use our scarce natural resources judiciously.”
The prime minister said, “We did not use science and technology in our development processes as much as we should have. We did not build local capacities that could meaningfully address problems of development in a decentralised manner using this knowledge.”
http://www.thehindu.com/news/
5.12 Indian iron and steel sector consumption 50% higher than global best practices (4/6/2012)
India's leading iron and steel companies, scored averages at best in Centre for Science and environment green rating test. The Indian iron and steel sector's energy consumption of 6.6 GCal per tonne, is 50 per cent higher than the global best practice.
Its water consumption (excluding power generation, townships and other downstream operations) is thrice as high. Most steel plants were found to be non-compliant with pollution norms.
"We are seeing the number rise in these 10 red light districts while the age of the girls is falling," said Gupta, adding the average age of female prostitutes in India was between nine and 13.
http://in.reuters.com/article/
New Delhi, (IANS) The Ganga, deified by Hindus and intrinsic to its literature and lore while providing water to over 40 percent of India’s population in 11 states, has become a victim of poor management, bad policy and lack of will by the government to save the river in the last 25 years, say experts.
............................
Browsing the net, I found this article:
Industrial facilities dumped more than 5.7 million pounds of toxic chemicals into New York’s waterways in 2010, making the Hudson, Genesee, and Seneca Rivers among the 40 worst in the nation, according to a new report released by Environment New York.
Apparently a paper factory discharged 1.4 million pounds of toxic waste in the Hudson river.
When we try to solve such problems, pious wishes themselves may not be sufficient. Quite obviously there must be a lot of political pressure from Industries in India too, in cleaning up our rivers. Towns may not have the budget to set up sewage treatment plants.
Before we can engage in such tasks therefore we need to plan:
1. What is the source, quantum and nature of the pollutants being discharged?
2. How much will individual entities have to invest to solve the problem? What will be the capital and running charges?
3. How difficult will it be to obtain land to set up cleaning facilities?
4. Will the exercise necessitate closing down of industries?
5. Will the economy bear the closing down of these industries?
6. How much of the problem can be solved by educating the public?
7. Is there a technology gap, do we need to develop suitable technologies?
8. Certain factories may be very polluting - e.g. Paper and Sugar? - well a cess help to generate the needed resources?
... etc.
We need to put the problem clearly on the table. If at the end of the exercise we come to the conclusion that nothing can be done, we will at least have the satisfaction of having studied the problem thoroughly :-)
Selvaraj
5.8 Managing waste - an act of citizenship (12/4/2012)
Our city (Trivandrum) continues to reel from the crisis created by the good people of Villappilsala - a village 14 Km from the city, where the centralized waste disposal plant is located - who have refused to accept any more garbage from the city.
Caught in a trap, people dump waste (the mystery wrapped in plastic bags) in the nearest isolated spot, where the city corporation workers dutifully set it alight. One such location happens to be within 20 feet from our house. Initially I used to dump water on the fire, but this created the problem of rotting garbage, flies and increase in the population of rats, so now I take the burning taking place (close to a corporation school) philosophically. We have smoky air nearby 24X7.
Thinking that our family should not be a part of the problem, we have tried to work out a scheme where zero waste leaves our house. The roof of our house, about 200 sq ft of which has a shed type roof over it is the scene of action:
1. Food waste goes into a 0.75 m cube anaerobic, biogas plant. We invested Rs 17,000 on this. This also provides methane gas for cooking on one stove, for one to 1.5 hours a day. Hope this turns out to be a good investment; the earlier aerobic type of biogas plants used to have a few problems. The output of the biogas plant is a slurry which is (1) put in a container to dry out a bit, then (2) put in pots partly filled with soil, to act as a filter to further drain out the water. (3) The dried out cake is mixed with soil to compost a bit and then used in our rooftop vegetable garden.
2. Part of the kitchen waste which is not suitable for the biogas plant is put in a closed container and allowed to rot and compost. I have found it necessary to have a proper lid since this process produces worms. Subsequently this mix is buried under soil and allowed to compost further, before use in our vegetable garden.
3. Plastic is collected separately. Plastic contaminated by food waste is washed in a bucket and allowed to dry. Even very greasy plastic can be dealt with by cleaning it with soil (no detergent is required). The soiled water is used for gardening.
4. Cardboard packaging material used for packaging food items is opened out and washed and dried.
5. Shred paper waste is collected separately.
.............
Today when I went for a walk I had a conversation with an enterprising person running a waste disposal business out of a cramped house. It is good to keep in mind that such businesses do not receive any corporation or government support. When the time comes to tear down the old house, he will have to shift somewhere else; earlier this person was running his business close to our house in a 50 sq ft nook - which he had to vacate when a tailor took over.
This is the info I obtained from him:
1. Practically all types of waste have market value, and can be sold. The difficulty arises, in storing low value waste in his limited space.
2. He does not deal in thin plastic, however, if one tonne of this could be collected it would fetch Rs 16000 / tonne. (Why then are we polluting our environment with plastic?)
3. Used torch batteries (which cause lead pollution), would fetch Rs 6000 / tonne
4. Glass would fetch Rs 1500/ tonne.
THE FUTURE OF WASTE DISPOSAL:
Word wide, it is quite clear that much of the waste ends up in landfills, a surprising large amount seems also to be burnt!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
In Orissa the Niyamgiri hills is turning out to be a battle ground between tribals who consider the hills sacred and the Vedanta mining company which wants to mine the hills for its rich deposits of bauxite. This bauxite seems to have the property of soaking up water, which feeds water to the streams and makes the place fertile. Considering this reality it is disturbing that a lot of packaging of meals by the railway catering services is done using aluminium foils, which is carelessly thrown out of running trains. A huge amount of aluminium foils is used to package medicines - is this recovered?
With the increasing cost of gasoline it will also become expensive in the future to lug waste long distances for burial in landfills. We must change our strategy and try to recycle most of the waste we generate. While this subject needs much thought and our government needs to produce a white paper on the subject, here is a simple plan where citizens can pitch in to help in recycling non food waste:
1. Within every four sq km of the city have a waste handling yard, with compacting machines and separate bins to collect different materials.
2. Non food waste should be stored in houses and carried to this central area once a month (plastic and cardboard to be cleaned so that no food waste adheres to it).
3. Villages to have similar more compact systems.
4. Individuals will have to go to this yard with their sorted out waste, compact the same, and personally dump the waste in the correct bins.
5. (In India a lot of poor people are engaged in the waste collection trade. If proper waste collection yards are made in Cities, where waste of all types are accepted, then perhaps the hawkers who come on their bicycles will readily accept waste of all kinds).
Selvaraj
5.9 Low intellectual level (19/4/2012)
Justice Katju said 90 per cent of the educated Indians had a low intellectual level. Even highly educated viewers were glued to film stars, fashion shows, astrology and cricket while India had problems like poverty, hunger, health and education. “Now we have Babas all over television channels spreading superstition.” Justice Katju also criticised the media for focussing on “naked women, Lady Gaga and Rakhi Sawant.” He believed the media had lost “sense of proportion or priority” in its content.
5.10 Born too soon (3/5/2012)
The first-ever country-by-country estimate of premature births
finds that 15 million babies a year are born preterm — more than one in 10 live
births.
About 1 million of those
babies die shortly after birth, and countless others suffer a significant,
life-long physical, neurological or educational disability, says a report, Born
Too Soon: The Global Action Report on Preterm Birth, released today.
5.11 Scientific solutions (2/6/2012)
“Our problems are overwhelming and need scientific solutions,” he said.
“We have to use our abundant intellectual resources to find new pathways of development that use our scarce natural resources judiciously.”
The prime minister said, “We did not use science and technology in our development processes as much as we should have. We did not build local capacities that could meaningfully address problems of development in a decentralised manner using this knowledge.”
http://www.thehindu.com/news/
5.12 Indian iron and steel sector consumption 50% higher than global best practices (4/6/2012)
India's leading iron and steel companies, scored averages at best in Centre for Science and environment green rating test. The Indian iron and steel sector's energy consumption of 6.6 GCal per tonne, is 50 per cent higher than the global best practice.
Its water consumption (excluding power generation, townships and other downstream operations) is thrice as high. Most steel plants were found to be non-compliant with pollution norms.
5.13 Family planning? India leads growth rate in World Population (14/7/2012)
India was the first country in the world to launch a national programme for family planning in 1952. However, during the last 11 years, India's population has witnessed the maximum growth when compared to the highly populated nations of the world.
According to a Zee Research Group analysis, in the last eleven years India's population has grown by a maximum growth rate of almost 19%, followed by Brazil (15.38), Indonesia (14.86), US (10.94) and China (5.35).
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/
India was the first country in the world to launch a national programme for family planning in 1952. However, during the last 11 years, India's population has witnessed the maximum growth when compared to the highly populated nations of the world.
According to a Zee Research Group analysis, in the last eleven years India's population has grown by a maximum growth rate of almost 19%, followed by Brazil (15.38), Indonesia (14.86), US (10.94) and China (5.35).
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/
5.14 India is famous for gaur gum products and food additives (24/7/2012)
India is famous for guar gum products and food additives. It is sold
as a white to yellowish odorless powder, which is available in different
viscosities depending on the desired one. One advantageous property of
guar gum is that it thickens without the application of heat. Guar Gum
has the following properties, which make it useful in variety of
applications.
Easy solubility in cold and hot water
Film forming property
Resistance to oils, greases and solvents
Better thickening agent
Water binding capacity
High viscosity
Functioning at low temperatures
Industrial application of guar gum includes the textile industry where guar gum's excellent thickening properties are used for textile sizing, finishing and printing. In the paper industry Guar is used as an additive where It gives denser surface to the paper used in printing. And in the explosive industry guar is mixed in Ammonium Nitrate, Nitroglycerine and Oil explosives, where it helps maintain the explosive properties of the product even in wet conditions.
In the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry, Guar Gum is used as an effective binder, stabilizer, dis-integrator and thickener. In bakeries, diaries and in production of meat and, dressings and sauces, Guar is an important natural food supplement with high nutritional value, for weight gain and cholesterol reduction. In cosmetics, especially shampoos and toothpastes, guar gum is used primarily as a thickening and suspending agent. In beverages, it is used as stabilizer for preparing chocolate drinks and juices. Guar is also widely used in tobacco, leather, insecticides and pesticides, crayons, adhesives etc. Guar gum comes in different forms - from seeds to powder. Main types of Guar Gum include Guar Seed, Un-dehusked Split, Refined Split, Pulverized Guar Gum Powder, Guar Protein and Guar Meal.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
On the cost side, Halliburton paid higher prices for a material that’s used in the fracking process. Guar gum, a substance better known for its ability to thicken ice cream, has become more expensive this year as supplies tightened around the world. Halliburton responded by stocking up on guar gum, only later realizing it had made a bad bet. The shortage turned out to be only temporary, and prices dropped.
Now, Lesar said, Halliburton is stuck with a surplus of guar gum that it bought at peak prices.
“Simply put, we made the wrong decision,” he said. “The result is we bought too much guar too early and paid too much for it. We should not have purchased the extra inventory.”
Lesar said the company will work off the extra guar supplies by the end of the year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Easy solubility in cold and hot water
Film forming property
Resistance to oils, greases and solvents
Better thickening agent
Water binding capacity
High viscosity
Functioning at low temperatures
Industrial application of guar gum includes the textile industry where guar gum's excellent thickening properties are used for textile sizing, finishing and printing. In the paper industry Guar is used as an additive where It gives denser surface to the paper used in printing. And in the explosive industry guar is mixed in Ammonium Nitrate, Nitroglycerine and Oil explosives, where it helps maintain the explosive properties of the product even in wet conditions.
In the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry, Guar Gum is used as an effective binder, stabilizer, dis-integrator and thickener. In bakeries, diaries and in production of meat and, dressings and sauces, Guar is an important natural food supplement with high nutritional value, for weight gain and cholesterol reduction. In cosmetics, especially shampoos and toothpastes, guar gum is used primarily as a thickening and suspending agent. In beverages, it is used as stabilizer for preparing chocolate drinks and juices. Guar is also widely used in tobacco, leather, insecticides and pesticides, crayons, adhesives etc. Guar gum comes in different forms - from seeds to powder. Main types of Guar Gum include Guar Seed, Un-dehusked Split, Refined Split, Pulverized Guar Gum Powder, Guar Protein and Guar Meal.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
On the cost side, Halliburton paid higher prices for a material that’s used in the fracking process. Guar gum, a substance better known for its ability to thicken ice cream, has become more expensive this year as supplies tightened around the world. Halliburton responded by stocking up on guar gum, only later realizing it had made a bad bet. The shortage turned out to be only temporary, and prices dropped.
Now, Lesar said, Halliburton is stuck with a surplus of guar gum that it bought at peak prices.
“Simply put, we made the wrong decision,” he said. “The result is we bought too much guar too early and paid too much for it. We should not have purchased the extra inventory.”
Lesar said the company will work off the extra guar supplies by the end of the year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
5.15 Perils of State-aided FDI (17/10/2012)
Make no mistake about it. Our country is about to be economically
invaded in the name of foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi brand
retail, and the consequences are going to be profound. Only this time
the guardians of the gate are the ones throwing it open, much to the
glee of the few who will benefit from it and to the dismay of the
millions whose future is being taken away from them. All of this goes
under the name of liberalisation and reform — the euphemism for giving
away our markets, perhaps the nation’s most sustainable long term asset.
How much foreign direct investment has been coming in? It was only $47 bn or 7.7 per cent of total investments in the country in 2011-‘12 (refer graphic see the graphic below). Compare this to non-resident Indian (NRI) remittance inflows of $66 bn (Source: Reserve Bank of India) in the same period, which comes in on its own with no strings attached. If the government wants to, it can significantly boost the inflow of NRI funds, with a little bit of stimulus and a well thought-out programme. While there are good answers like this to get funds into the country, it is inexplicable why the government has chosen to follow anti-people measures, like FDI in the retail sector..
http://newindianexpress.com/
-----------
I too am confused by this stated need for FDI. In Insurance for instance we have a large number of established government companies and surely a large number of private companies who have the muscles to enter the field on their own. Is it just mental laziness that we don't want to put in the effort to do things on our own? With many western models of development turning out to be faulty, would it not be better if we thought things out for ourselves at a more basic level?
Selvaraj
How much foreign direct investment has been coming in? It was only $47 bn or 7.7 per cent of total investments in the country in 2011-‘12 (refer graphic see the graphic below). Compare this to non-resident Indian (NRI) remittance inflows of $66 bn (Source: Reserve Bank of India) in the same period, which comes in on its own with no strings attached. If the government wants to, it can significantly boost the inflow of NRI funds, with a little bit of stimulus and a well thought-out programme. While there are good answers like this to get funds into the country, it is inexplicable why the government has chosen to follow anti-people measures, like FDI in the retail sector..
http://newindianexpress.com/
-----------
I too am confused by this stated need for FDI. In Insurance for instance we have a large number of established government companies and surely a large number of private companies who have the muscles to enter the field on their own. Is it just mental laziness that we don't want to put in the effort to do things on our own? With many western models of development turning out to be faulty, would it not be better if we thought things out for ourselves at a more basic level?
Selvaraj
5.16 An unscientific approach to S&T (21/11/2012)
Every
time the Union Cabinet is reshuffled, the outlook of the Science and
Technology portfolio gets diminished in public perception. In a reversal
of the trend assiduously established by the political leadership of an
earlier era, the S&T sector is losing its sheen, that too under a
government led by a Cambridge-educated economist.
The
media have been taking their cue from the government in assessing the
ranking of the S&T Minister in the political pecking order. The
comments on the latest Cabinet reshuffle give the impression that the
S&T Ministry is almost a punishment posting: it was said that S.
Jaipal Reddy was “shunted to a politically insignificant ministry” and
that his being sent to “a relatively obscure ministry is a seen as a
demotion”. There was speculation about his resignation in protest. At
his very first meeting with the media, his unhappiness instead of his
vision for the S&T sector turned out to be the main topic. The media
saw him “unable to hide his displeasure over his being shunted out from
Petroleum”. This popular way of seeing things has an impact on the
functioning of a Minister in the political-bureaucratic jungle that is
New Delhi.
.. What
an S&T Minister does today will have implications for India’s
economic and industrial growth as well as social development and, of
course, for its very survival. It is for Mr. Reddy to disprove the
political analysts who see him resenting the loss of the Petroleum
portfolio and showing less enthusiasm for the new responsibility.
5.17 Younger girls forced into prostitution in economic crisis (8/12/2012)
"We are seeing the number rise in these 10 red light districts while the age of the girls is falling," said Gupta, adding the average age of female prostitutes in India was between nine and 13.
http://in.reuters.com/article/
No comments:
Post a Comment