Cold wind from Washington

The Obama administration has to realize that there is a crucial difference between the Cold War-type relations that the US is accustomed to making, and dealing with India. Re-producing an article profiling the Indo US relations in the current context. http://www.livemint.com/2009/07/16213824/Cold-wind-from-Washington.html

After the last eight years of warmth and friendship, Indo-US relations are heading towards the thermidor, unless, of course, corrective action is taken soon. Given the current posture of the Barack Obama administration this appears unlikely, though it cannot be ruled out. As US secretary of state Hillary Clinton begins her India visit, she should bear this in mind in her engagement with Indian leaders.

The why of the sudden decline in warmth is a complicated story, one that is linked to domestic US politics (such as the efforts to wipe clean the legacy of George Bush Jr) and the world view of the Democratic Party. This need not detain us: What is important are the visible, if not glaring, signs of trouble. Here is a sampler:

The why of the sudden decline in warmth is a complicated story, one that is linked to domestic US politics (such as the efforts to wipe clean the legacy of George Bush Jr) and the world view of the Democratic Party. This need not detain us: What is important are the visible, if not glaring, signs of trouble. Here is a sampler:

l. US efforts to undo the gains made by India under the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement. A recent example is the G-8 resolution aimed at tightening the spread of nuclear enrichment and reprocessing technologies. This was moved at the behest of the US and was aimed at India. This has the potential to damage relations as nothing else can.
2.US pressure, in concert with that from the European Union, to make India adhere to binding greenhouse gas emission targets. While such pressure is being exerted on India, there is silence on providing India with climate change effect mitigation technologies and financial help.
3.Efforts at “rehyphenation” with Pakistan and goading India into meaningless talks with the latter. That is not all: Under Pakistani influence, the US nearly made Kashmir a part of special envoy Richard Holbrooke’s mandate. It was only Indian lobbying (of “Israeli proportions”, as one commentator put it) that made the US back off. It also is against India building a durable presence in Kabul though Indian efforts are aimed at helping Afghans rebuild their country.

The Obama administration has to realize that there is a crucial difference between the Cold War-type relations that the US is accustomed to making, and dealing with India: workable in good times and disposable in bad situations (two good examples being Pakistan and Indonesia). India is not in that class of nations, nor is it an age in which Washington can bend nations in that manner.

Here it is pertinent to add that India is not victim to blind anti-Americanism of the kind that afflicts Third World countries. If the relationship has to move ahead, it has to be on realistic lines. Friendship has little meaning when one partner is actively trying to subvert the interests of the other

Parched and Powerless: New Delhi’s sad story

The DJB and the BSES cut a very sorry figure in terms of provisioning and governance of two very valuable resources, Water and Electricity.

From the water perspective, Delhi faces 400 MGD shortage despite getting the maximum supply ever. Delhi receives 830 MGD (Million Gallons per Day) water, the highest ever and yet the DJB quotes the demand supply gap to be 40 MGD (Supply figures quoted at 830 MGD) Ironically enough, the 830 MGD supply equals 274 litres per capita per day, which is 50% higher than the recommendations of the central public health and environmental engineering organization recommendations of 172 litres per capita per day.

The problems arise due to losses from leakages; about 45% is lost in distribution and transmission. The DJB is seeking to replace a large part of the distribution lines to curtail such losses.
Inequitable distribution and lack in storage capacity are other issues plaguing the water availabilities. Underground reservoirs have been commissioned, which once functional will ease up the distribution.
Lack of proper water supply is resulting in rapid depletion of the groundwater resources.
DJB has also not been able to plan as per the rapid population expansion, which raises a question on its capabilities to deliver as per the plan.
In absence of rain water harvesting solutions, 40000 MGD of water during monsoons is wasted in Delhi! Out of 53 rain water reservoirs sanctioned to the capital in 2000, only 24 have been commissioned, 10 will be commissioned in 2010 12 next year and work is yet to begin on 7 more.

Elsewhere, in power, Delhi has added only 230 MW extra power capacity in 7 years where as the demand of power is up 1100 MW. Delhi only produces 17% of the power it consumes and the last significant addition to production capacity in Delhi was in 2002, with 4 projects in the pipeline with the earliest date of commissioning to be next year. This is in-spite of the fact that the annual increase in demand is about 10 – 15%. Result is a 1040 MW shortfall against a demand of 4171 MW. The load sheddings in June 2009 have been 28.5 million units, which are a 400% increment over the June 2008’s 6.7 million units.

A small price the city commuters are having to pay for the lack of power are traffic jams triggered by non functional traffic signals. There is no back up power from inverters aggravating the chaos that is Delhi.

Tongue in Cheek: Mayawati's Maya

State of affairs in the Uttar Pradesh .. following the statue scam.

Liberhan commission report and its impact on the BJP

It took the Liberhan commission 17 years, 100 witnesses, 399 sittings, 48 extensions and 9 crores to floor its report on the Babri Masjid demolition. It could not have come at a more worse time for BJP. Already under seizure and disarray for its electoral debacle, and under acute identity crisis seeking to re-define its fundamentals from a right wing hardcore Hindutva base to a more relevant pedestal, the findings could push them a little closer to tatters. As a part of its strategy, Congress would use this as its knock out punch for the down and beaten BJP. The list of accused include L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Sadhvi Rithambra, Ashok Singhal and more. Is this then the death of BJP?

I would view this knock out as a opportunity for BJP to clean up its tainted past, cut its umbilical cords with Hindutva and the Sangh, refresh its leadership completely, review its own partners and part ways with dubious ones and resurrect itself from its core. BJP has some good results to show in terms of its efforts for business and economic development (remember Vajpayee’s Golden Quadrilateal or Modi’s Gujarat) and it has to build these platforms to showcase its stand for progress, development and prosperity. This probably is the nadir in BJP’s political history. It runs the risk of disintegrating and collapsing totally or it can resurrect itself from the shadows of the past. I hope for the later. Politically, India needs BJP as an right wing moderate alternative against the Congress.

Ref:

http://newspaper-posts.blogspot.com/2009/06/is-it-time-for-bjp-and-left-to-rift.html

http://newspaper-posts.blogspot.com/2009/06/bjp-imploding-part-iii-lack-of.html

http://newspaper-posts.blogspot.com/2009/06/bjp-imploding-part-ii-lack-of-electoral.html

http://newspaper-posts.blogspot.com/2009/06/bjp-imploding-part-i-lack-of-coherent.html

Tongue in Cheek: The Chinese Green Dam Parody

Green Dam Software
The be-all and end-all of Chinese internet censorship effort, is the Green Dam software.Green Dam software is intended to stamp out Internet pornography, and computer companies had originally been told that from Wednesday they had to bundle "Green Dam" with all personal computers heading to stores for sale.

However, the seriousness of the effort was lost, when the Green Dam barred popular cartoon Garfield, Johny Depp and other innocent images. The reason was attributed to the deep orange colour of the images, which is screened by the software (Due to similarity with Nudes). Interestingly once the filter is turned off on the computer, graphic sexual images can also be downloaded.