Monday 30 September 2013

AT LAST LALU PRASAD CONVICTED IN FODDER SCAM CASE

It was quite heartening to learn that Lalu Prasad along with 44 others has been convicted in the fodder scam case. The case has been hanging in the Indian courts for the last 17 years and the value of scam was of the order of 900 crores. It is one of those rare cases where a political leader of such pan India standing has been convicted and thanks to the supreme court order of 10th July 2013 he not only ceases to be a member of parliament from today onward, he stands disqualified for fighting next elections.
So far so good but courtesy the slow Indian judicial system, the man enjoyed all the perks of being an MP including Z+ security and a long stint as a cabinet minister of the union of India. The ramifications of having a man of doubtful integrity as a senior lawmaker of the country speaks very badly about the country. The national exchequer has spent hundreds of crores on him during this period.
The following questions need be answered by those managing the governance and rule in the country because of the inherent snail's pace of the judicial system.
  • How the nation proposes to get back 900 crores involved in the scam.
  • How the nation condones whatever was spent on him from the exchequer because law process could not be made faster.


INDIAN DREAMS Vs REALITY: RAHUL GANDHI'S BLAST ON ORDINANCE ON CONVICTED LEG...: Ever since Rahul Gandhi blasted the ordinance on convicted legislators mooted by the coalition government headed by the congress party, th...

Saturday 28 September 2013

Monday 23 September 2013

India To Build World’s Largest Solar Power Plant In Rajasthan
The Indian government will set up the world’s largest solar power plant in its northwestern state of Rajasthan, an official statement said on Friday, and the venture is expected to significantly reduce solar power taxes in the country.
The project, known as the "Ultra-Mega Green Solar Power Project," will have a total power generation capacity of 4,000 megawatts, which is more than double the total solar power generation capacity in India.
“This will be the largest solar-based power project in the world. Being the first project of this scale … this project is expected to set a trend for large-scale solar power development in the world," a government statement said.
The project will be spread across 23,000 acres of land belonging to the state-run Sambhar Salts Ltd, near the Sambhar Lake, which is about 47 miles away from Jaipur, Rajasthan’s capital city. The first phase of the project, which will be for 1,000 megawatt capacity, is expected to be completed in three years and will be run by a joint venture of five state-run utilities, including BHEL, Power Grid Corporation of India and Solar Energy Corporation of India.
"Based on the experience gained during implementation of the first phase of the project, the remaining capacity would be implemented through a variety of models," the statement said. 
The plant, when fully operational, will generate 6,000 million units of electricity a year, and it is expected to bring down the solar power tariffs in the country.
India, which is facing a severe power shortage, has been promoting solar and wind energy to meet its increasing energy needs. Solar power currently contributes less than 1 percent to India’s energy mix, which is heavily dependent on coal and hydro power plants. However, the government aims to increase the current capacity of 1,700 megawatts of solar power to 20,000 megawatts of solar energy by 2020, through its ambitious project, t

Sunday 22 September 2013

WHAT AILS INDIA? | INDIAN DREAMS Vs REALITY

WHAT AILS INDIA? | INDIAN DREAMS Vs REALITY
The whole world recognises the potential of India to become a global economic superpower in the next few decades 
  • in the light of availability of global opportunities arising out of the problems being faced by today's economic giants because of 
  1. Unsuitable demography
  2. Improper mix of human resource
  3. Extremely high wage structure not in sync with the commercial aspects of all industrial activity.
  4. Over spending on social security and welfare schemes
  5. Need to replace current nearly obsolescent technologies with newer revolutionary technologies in the fields of energy security, logistics and transport incurring huge replacement costs. 
  6. And above all, depletion of conventional natural resource reserves which have been the strength of twentieth century industrial revolution.
India is most favorably placed as far the demography, human resource and wage structure are concerned. The other irritants can be taken care of with a judicious proportioning of expenditure on welfare schemes and industrial productivity. But strangely enough no big results are either forth coming or appear to be forthcoming in future. Aptly one is forced into asking, ' What ails India' and it is not very hard to find out the answer to this. The following come to one's mind if you try to dwell on this subject.

Saturday 21 September 2013

The Naked Truth About Nuclear Accident Insurance
Going without insurance is described as "going naked" in insurance industry lingo. Going without insurance for the worst hazards in the nuclear power industry is business as usual.

One need not look back very far to see the problem. In March 2011, the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, triggered by an earthquake followed by a tsunami that overwhelmed all of Japan's safeguards, melted down three reactors, displaced 160,000 people and caused an estimated $250 billion in damages and other still-unfolding economic consequences.

Naked AmericaToday, in the United States, we have 104 operating nuclear plants producing electricity. The owners, operators, and government regulators who oversee them say an event like Fukushima will not happen here. And even if it did, they insist, there is enough liability insurance in place to cover the damages. The actual amount of that insurance coverage: just $12.6 billion.

You don't need an advanced degree in calculus or risk analysis to see that something doesn't add up, and to start feeling a bit...naked. But when it comes to nuclear insurance, naked is the fashion designed for the American public.

A catastrophic accident in the US could cost way more than $12.6 billion. A worst-case scenario study in 1997 by the Brookhaven National Laboratory estimated that a major accident could cost $566 billion in damages and cause 143,000 possible deaths. Another such study, by Sandia National Laboratories in 1982, calculated the possible costs at $314 billion. Adjusted for inflation, that would put both estimates close to the trillion dollar range today. So $12.6 billion wouldn't cover much.

After Fukushima, which was only the second worst such accident behind the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown in the former Soviet Union, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and its staff scrambled to reappraise the adequacy of their own safety regimens for nuclear power plants. And they re-examined the sufficiency of the limited insurance available to indemnify the American people against property damage, loss of life and other economic consequences of nuclear accidents. Then the NRC hastened to publish the "lessons learned" from the Japanese catastrophe to show they were on top of things. Though the previously existing US system had been described as virtually fail-safe, federal regulators found that improvements were possible after all and ordered that they be made.  

Friday 20 September 2013

Adelaide creates world’s first solar-powered public transport system
Many local communities are looking at ways that they can incorporate green technology into their city’s municipal infrastructure. One impressive success story is the Tindo electric bus in Adelaide. Although many cities have experimented with using hybrid or electric technology in their public transport systems, this vehicle is the world’s first 100% solar-powered electric bus; and not only is it powered by the sun, but this service is also offered free of charge.
tindobusNamed after an Aboriginal word for “sun”, the Tindo was designed to be part of the Adelaide Connector Bus service, a free service run by the City Council. What makes the bus unique from other solar-powered vehicles is that there aren’t any solar panels physically on the vehicle. Instead, the car received electric power from solar panels located on the city’s central bus station.
These provide enough energy to allow the bus to run freely from the city centre and the North Adelaide, and will also offer air conditioning and WiFi to its 40 passengers.
Solar power and wind energy now cheaper than coal power in US
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NRDC, via Clean Technica
Washington — It’s less costly to get electricity from wind turbines and solar panels than coal-fired power plants when climate change costs and other health impacts are factored in, according to a new study published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences.
In fact—using the official U.S. government estimates of health and environmental costs from burning fossil fuels—the study shows it’s cheaper to replace a typical existing coal-fired power plant with a wind turbine than to keep the old plant running. And new electricity generation from wind could be more economically efficient than natural gas.
The findings show the nation can cut carbon pollution from power plants in a cost-effective way, by replacing coal-fired generation with cleaner options like wind, solar, and natural gas.
“Burning coal is a very costly way to make electricity. There are more efficient and sustainable ways to get power,” said Dr. Laurie Johnson, chief economist in the Climate and Clean Air Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We can reduce health and climate change costs while reducing the dangerous carbon pollution driving global warming.”
Johnson co-authored the study, “The Social Cost of Carbon: Implications for Modernizing our Electricity System,” with Chris Hope of the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge; and Starla Yeh in NRDC’s Center for Market Innovation. Power plants are the nation’s single largest source of such pollution, accounting for 40 percent of our national carbon footprint.

Thursday 19 September 2013

INDIAN DREAMS Vs REALITY: NUCLEAR LIABILITY DILUTION : IS INDIA'S RULING POL...: .The recent news of India further diluting the as it is insufficient and meaningless liability clause has come as a shocker to all the well meaning citizenry of this country. The basic  idea of meeting the energy security of any country in the 21st century through nuclear route is an idea which is near obsolescence and totally out of sync with the latest concepts. The Indian government at the time of declaring nuclear power as the only viable option for country's energy security committed an act of great folly. The coming generations will not forgive these leaders on two counts, firstly giving in to nuclear power generation when nuclear fuels are a curse on humanity and secondly denying India the god sent opportunity to become global leader through total reliance and super thrust on renewable energy.

Wednesday 18 September 2013

INDIAN DREAMS Vs REALITY: FIVE DEFICITS : THE BANE OF INDIAN ECONOMY AND GRO...: The potential of Indian growth story and chance of India to become a global economic superpower has been a hot topic with the economists and analysts all over this globe. The forty year opportunity window is at India's doorsteps just waiting to be grabbed for fulfilling the dreams and aspirations of 1 billion plus Indians. This great opportunity window exists simply on the back of huge demographic advantage of cheap skilled manpower both in the technical and managerial cadres and the world economies looking for new economic order in the face of diminishing old order energy resources and global warming associated with them.
The demographic advantage of today will become a major disadvantage after a few decades when the bulk of the population becomes old. After all no sanity can deny the fact that ultimately for about 35-40 years of productive life, the same individual is going to be a burden on the national resources for next 25-30 years. The number of aged individuals and non productive years of these aged individuals will keep on increasing as a nation marches on road to prosperity. The problems of developed and industrialized economies mainly emanated from this crude reality of life. Whereas these countries fully utilized the opportunity window that came their way and grew old after becoming rich, it looks quite likely that India may grow old before becoming rich and prosperous unless and until some wisdom prevails on Indian polity and they start addressing the five deficits, the bane of Indian economy and growth story at the earliest in a sincere and earnest manner. If the polity keeps harping on their  vote bank politics with subsidies, doles and freebies  for another decade or so, India would have missed this golden opportunity and all because the nation could not produce leaders who could keep their baser instincts of lust for power and money away while serving/governing the nation.

Thursday 5 September 2013

INDIAN DREAMS Vs REALITY: WHO WILL STEM THIS ROT???
The Indian national elections to the 16th Lok Sabha are still about nine months away and all political parties are busy fooling the Indian voter and maligning each other in the murkiest of the manner. The well meaning honest Indian is witnessing  the high voltage drama going on everyday wherein the biggest howlers disguised as spokespersons are at their worst best and keep the nation amused by their daily quota of prowess of gift of the gab with half lies and no truth whatsoever. The hapless common man is all the more helpless as he fully knows that he has no choice of an honest government, and with the choices available his aspirations will just meet the fate 'out of the frying pan into the fire'All such people would like to vote for the best man but sadly enough either this best man is not a candidate or is not allowed to be a candidate by the system of goons and buffoons ruling/ruining India.
The country which boasts of a galaxy of economists and a committed  polity ( committed to what? Your guess is as good as mine ) is passing through one of the worst economic crisis and the leaders of the advanced western countries of our globe are thoroughly enjoying the hara kiri acts of the Indian government towards destroying the Indian dream and chance to become world leaders. Isn't it really ironic that instead of present advanced countries and economic superpowers working for maintaining their coveted supremacy and global leadership, it is the Indian polity that is helping them all out by not doing anything to meet the challenges before India, the potential superpower of the 21st century.