India Insight

Thirsty Bangalore: all tanked up and nowhere to go

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If you live in one of India’s big cities, you share the road with water tankers. They thunder down the streets, delivering water to houses and apartment complexes, often spilling through some invisible leak. Tucked away on side streets, locals throng them with buckets. Tankers are part of an economic ecosystem that are inseparable from a country whose cities teem with millions of people, but whose public utility companies often don’t have enough water to go around.

Bangalore, India’s “BPO” and information technology capital, is full of them because of the city’s population growth in the past 25 years 1.5 million people in 1971, 9.5 million in 2011, according to census data.

The ‘Pensioner’s Paradise’ cannot satisfy the demand for water. Nor can it always handle routine problems and maintenance. A recent decision by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) to do some major work on the pumps at the Cauvery river, which delivers much of the water supply from nearly 100 kilometres away, shut down service to large parts of the city for two days.

Enter the water tankers, privately owned. The tanks should be coated in EPI (Ethoxylated polyethyiemine) to prevent hazardous chemical reactions between the tank’s metal and the salts that are dissolved in the water it carries. The supplier also must purify the water so that it is safe for washing clothes, bathing, cooking and drinking. Often, it is not.

Tanker drivers told me that the coating was painted on the tank’s exterior, refreshed to make the trucks look nice. This duty they obeyed as if it were regulated, even if the truck was old and coughed up clouds of soot.

By law, they cannot drill wells in residential neighbourhoods to extract and transport water to other places. They are supposed to apply for separate water supply pipes. Trouble is, following the rules would shut down a large part of the city’s private water supply, as claimed by a number of private operators who say that in order to comply fully with the norms, the infrastructure wasn’t available and would result in shutting their operations that were fuelled by residential bore well units.

Instead, they get fresh water throughout the city, feeding illegally at houses that double as filling stations.

Cleaning up TV’s dirty pictures

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I was watching a documentary on Greta Garbo on television. The film was in English with English subtitles for people more comfortable following written English than quick spoken English. Every time the word “sex” or something related to it would come up, the subtitles avoided it. “Heterosexual” became “hetero.” “Her sexuality” became “her femininity.” Dedicated channel surfing revealed similar evasions. In a conversation about breast cancer on an English channel, the station inserted an asterisk to partially mask the word “breast” in the subtitles, even though you could hear it onscreen.

TV stations and networks in India, similar to broadcast TV channels in the United States, remove objectionable content (sex scenes, nudity, some foul language and violence) from movies and other programming (see this recent Reuters story about how it works). This is thanks to the Indian Broadcasting Federation’s Broadcasting Content Complaint Council. The idea is to make sure that public airwaves remain friendly enough for the ears of children and sensitive adults, though it can result in unintentional bloopers like the breast cancer example.

Apply that to film, and it can be an editing massacre. Look for odd leaps forward in the film’s plot and you can see where the chopping happened. It wasn’t always this way. Channels such as Star Movies and HBO made minimal cuts or none at all until the BCCC was established in 2011. Hindi films fare little better. The lovemaking scene between Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta in “Salaam Namaste” was removed from the televised version of the movie. “The Dirty Picture,” the film about softcore actress Silk Smitha that starred Vidya Balan, came in for 59 cuts, but still couldn’t make the cut for television.

Just in case you missed the message about naughty content, messages flash on English channels every once in a while, asking viewers to report objectionable content to the complaint council. After a while, the question presents itself: is this nanny state protection or is it the more ominous “censorship”? Either way, it doesn’t seem to bother anyone.

Maybe people use the TV to “turn off,” while they use the Internet to “turn on”. How else to explain the protesters who showed up (albeit in small numbers) on the streets of India’s cities when the government shut down file-sharing services that some people use to watch pirated movies and listen to pirated music? The government also put a cap on what it defined as objectionable content that people post on Facebook and other social media sites. That’s a good way to raise some grassroots complaints, but it’s surprising that cutting TV time entertainment hasn’t sparked the same ire.

Maybe TV is like all the other curtailments to freedom of expression that Indians have dealt with. Who spoke up when the importation of Salman Rushdie’s bestselling novel “The Satanic Verses” was banned? Or when Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute library was ransacked by extremists protesting James Laine’s book “Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India.” Or when groups operating under their moral codes impose them on university syllabi or school textbooks?

Have people tacitly waived their right toward censorship by not exercising it? Many of us allow our freedom of speech to be curtailed when it comes to books and TV, but when asked to pay to watch movies and music, we lace up our combat boots … at least for now. The longer-term trend in India seems to be for its young people to plot paths to career success rather than thinking about preserving freedom or fighting for anything other than a religious dispute. Maybe there’s no gauntlet to pick up. Sooner or later, we may find ourselves treating Web surfing the same way we treat watching television — passive and without complaint.

Genetically modified India

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The debate over regulating genetically modified crops in India is back after two years of silence that followed the moratorium on the Bt brinjal, a genetically modified eggplant. This is thanks to the government’s wavering policy on agricultural biotechnology. If you study its policy since the eggplant flare-up, you could be forgiven for thinking that it was designed to do two things that don’t quite fit together.

Here is what happened:

The government released its report on the hills of the Western Ghats nearly nine months after the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) submitted it, and then only under a court order. The report, among other things, warned that genetically modified organisms were a threat to biodiversity in India. The government attached a disclaimer to the report, saying that it has not formally accepted the conclusions.

Meanwhile, minutes of meetings of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) — the central government’s regulatory body for GM crops — reveal that the committee is trying to convince state governments to allow field trials of genetically modified crops.

This is happening as India’s National Biodiversity Authority considers whether it will sue Monsanto and some of the agricultural universities involved in promoting Bt brinjal in India, according to information given by the authority in response to a Right To Information filing.

The authority has said that the agricultural universities and Monsanto are guilty of bio-piracy. That means exploiting the knowledge of India’s indigenous peoples for commercial gain without permission, compensation or recognition.

Here is how we got to where we are:

COMMENT

Dear Gokul,

I really appreciate your article. You have raised the right questions in your blog. Firstly the WGEEP report which is spot on with its recommendations on keeping the Western Ghats GM FREE. This is most important as what we stand to loose is great considering the richness of biodiversity in the area. A precautionary approach to GM will be the sensible step from an economic, social and environmental point of view.

The proposed Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill is a blatant attempt to circumvent the opposition to Bt Brinjal. The BRAI Bill is fundamentally flawed and has faced massive opposition inside and outside the Parliament.

If the BRAI Bill is passed the 71 crops that are at different stages of GM research in the country will get approved with ease. This puts our agro diversity and farming at great risk.

The government needs to stop restricting itself to GM and open its eyes to ecological farming which is the sustainable way forward for agriculture.

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Defying Hitler and jostling for Goering’s autograph

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  • The Dutch broke his stick hoping to find a hidden magnet
  • The Japanese suspected his stick was coated with glue
  • Cricket legend Don Bradman gushed — “He scores goals like runs in cricket”
  • Adolf Hitler was so impressed with him that he offered him German citizenship and a post in the army

If an athlete’s greatness is measured by the number of apocryphal stories about him or her, hockey wizard Dhyan Chand is in a league of his own.

Before every Olympic Games, India indulges in nostalgia about its hockey heyday and revisits the folklore around arguably the greatest hockey player ever.

One such story is about the controversy Dhyan Chand and the entire Indian contingent created by refusing to salute Adolf Hitler at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

In their book “Olympics: The India Story” (Harper Sports), authors Boria Majumdar and Nalin Mehta shed some light on the episode.

“The Indians were the only contingent, apart from the Americans, to not perform the raised-arm salute as a mark of respect for the German chancellor,” they wrote in what is considered the first comprehensive book on India’s Olympic history.

“… it was a political act, breathtaking in its audacity, in direct opposition to most other contingents at the Games, including the British,” they wrote in the revised edition of the book which was released recently.

Who is the greatest Indian? (After Gandhi, of course)

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What is the correct parameter to gauge greatness? This interesting question becomes more so when you apply it to a person rather than a thing. It becomes especially interesting when a poll asks the people to decide who is the “greatest Indian after Mahatma Gandhi”.

The poll, sponsored by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Mobile and conducted by CNN-IBN and the History channel, both owned by Network 18 group, is open to Indian citizens and has a simple voting process. Call the number assigned to your choice to register your vote. You can also vote online.

Among the 50 choices are:

Bhimrao Ambedkar, the champion of the rights of India’s disenfranchised, particularly its “lower” and “backward” castes, as well as Dalits, or what the rest of the world knows as “untouchables.” He is also the man behind India’s constitution.

Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, whose descendants control India’s ruling party and are often considered the first family of the country.

APJ Abdul Kalam, India’s former president and a well known scientist. Kalam is also credited for India’s nuclear programme.

Mother Teresa, the Albanian nun, founder of the Missionaries of Charity and winner of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize.

COMMENT

Before start to poll and vote, it should have been cleared that who have decided Mr. Gandhi is the greatest indian. The majority of people don’t think so.

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Congress strikes two birds with one stone

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Why so much euphoria over the presidential polls? Shouldn’t the government concentrate on the economy; it’s a ceremonial post after all, we thought.

However, the way the election process panned out might be the boost the Congress party needed ahead of the 2014 general elections, not only politically, but even for the economy.

With Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee all set to be India’s 13th president, the party has every reason to cheer, at least for now. The Congress will have the benefit of having one of its most loyal ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, and he can come in handy in 2014.

From the economy’s perspective, the Congress has sent a clear signal that it has had enough of Mamata Banerjee, its key ally. She has left no stone unturned when it comes to blocking New Delhi’s initiatives to push through reforms, something desperately needed to get the economy back on track.

The Economic Times headline sums it well – Dada to walk the lawns, Didi can take a walk. It was high time the Congress put its foot down and sent a clear message to her. The strategy seems to have worked.

Banerjee gave the Congress sleepless nights when she said her choice was former president APJ Abdul Kalam, and that she had support from Samajwadi Party head Mulayam Singh Yadav, who has promised outside support to the government when needed.

Even her proposal that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could be considered for the president’s post was a signal that she had lost confidence in the leader, something that upset the Congress further.

COMMENT

Gandhi family is our country biggest cancer.

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India’s North Korea envoy: experience preferred, but not essential

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Asking someone to represent India in North Korea is a little like belling the cat. Everybody knows they need to pick someone, but no Foreign Service officer wants to go to “godforsaken” Pyongyang.

Finding someone to take the job must have been hard, but was it so hard that they finally had to settle for a stenographer? India’s ministry of external affairs might be wondering the same thing. It is reviewing the appointment of Ajay K. Sharma after some officials raised questions about his qualifications to represent India in the isolated country.

Media reports say Sharma, a principal staff officer in the stenographer cadre, joined the ministry 31 years ago as a personal assistant, and had some limited experience in Suva as a counsellor handling pay and allowances.

Officers of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), selected through rigorous civil services examinations, usually represent India in consulates and embassies worldwide. India and North Korea established diplomatic relations in 1973 and maintain embassies in each other’s capital cities.

But Pyongyang is not viewed as a plum posting and officers have no illusions about the joys of diplomatic life there. According to most reports, it’s somewhat of a spartan existence. In fact, Sharma’s appointment has been questioned not by IFS officers, but by the secretarial cadre that ranks below IFS officers.

They say if “a judge’s steno cannot become a judge, nor a doctor’s compounder become a doctor,” then an ambassador’s steno cannot be designated as an ambassador.

The problem is North Korea is not a nation that India can afford to ignore, given its history as a nuclear renegade and as a key geopolitical location. If Pyongyang’s failed launch of a long-range rocket in April is any indication, North Korea hasn’t given up on its nuclear ambitions.

Earning $1,613 per month and poor? Only if you are Parsi

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How poor do you have to be in India to get the government to say you’re poor? The Indian government used to say that 28.6 rupees (51 cents) a day or less for urban Indians — about 858 rupees or $15.30 a month was about right. Activists for the poor said that it was unrealistic to think that people who were making more than that amount a day were well off.

As a government-appointed commission works on defining a new poverty line, it might want to consult India’s Parsis, descendants of Zoroastrians who migrated to India from Persia (present-day Iran) several centuries ago.

On Monday, the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), an administrative body for the Parsi community in India, said it will define Parsis as poor if their monthly income is less than 90,000 rupees ($1,613). This translates to an annual income of 1.08 million rupees, way above India’s 2011 annual per capita income of about 85,000 rupees. You’re a poor Parsi if you’re ‘slightly’ richer than the average Indian, in other words.

The punchayet‘s reason for the “poor” label, revealed during a court case in Mumbai, is to ensure that Parsis are eligible for apartments in subsidised city housing.

The Parsis, a close-knit and wealthy community struggling with a dwindling population, have always been known for their enterprising spirit. Some of India’s most successful businesses, including the omnipresent Tata Group, are part of the Parsi tradition.

Perhaps it’s time for the Indian government, reeling as it is under an economic growth slump and an inability to set healthy growth policies, to turn to the Parsis for inspiration.

Maybe the punchayet has a few more flats lying vacant that they could fill up with some deserving cases. There’s nothing like a bit of subsidised housing to help people get to the point where they’re raising the nation’s per capita income.

Is Raj Rajaratnam the new Nigerian email?

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Just before I clicked on the ‘delete’ button at the top of my spam folder in Gmail, I spotted the name. Asha Rajaratnam, it said, and the mail was titled ‘Namaste’ (a traditional Indian greeting).

“My name is Asha Rajaratnam, I am the wife of Raj Rajaratnam founder of the Galleon Group, New York. I do have a proposal for you, which would be of financial benefits to you and myself,” it said.

The mail came from arajaratnam@galleon.com and if it hadn’t been for the red warning strip from Gmail and the fact that I know the former Galleon Group hedge fund manager is serving an 11-year prison sentence for insider trading, it would have come across as a genuine mail.

“My husband has been jailed in the U.S. for 11 years, I need your assistance to help me move some funds from Holland to India or anywhere where it would at least be of some help to our family,” it said.

Looks like the 419 scamsters have moved beyond Nigeria and found the Galleon Group owner and his family as a new front.

Given that Rajaratnam’s case and the trial of former Goldman Sachs board member Rajat Gupta is being closely followed in India and the United States, and their names are familiar to those who have access to the internet and news media, this might actually be a more effective version of the old phishing trick. Beware!

COMMENT

And how does this qualify as news? This reporter needs to be sent back to journalism school, assuming she attended one in the first place.

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Given sub-Saharan levels of hunger, India web freedom protests seem trivial

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This past weekend, hacking group and self proclaimed internet activists Anonymous held protests in 16 Indian cities, including New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore to raise their voices for online freedom. And by all accounts, it turned out to be a flop.

If one looks at social networks, a lot of interest was generated on this issue as people signed up and ranted on the likes of Facebook and Twitter about how the Indian government was being tyrannical and unfair about blocking some content sharing and “anti-establishment” sites following a March 29 court order.

But that interest did not translate into a good turnout. In New Delhi, there were more journalists than protesters. And those who were there — mostly college students — were pretty incoherent, vague and unsure about what their demands were and what they wanted. Friends in other cities also tweeted about how the protests there were badly organised and had comically low turnouts. One friend tweeted about how organisers in Bangalore were charging 200 rupees for Guy Fawkes masks, which have become synonymous with protests in urban centres across the world.

While there has been a trend by authorities to try and limit the freedom of expression online, India is not China or Syria. And given how independent our judiciary is, most attempts at crackdowns on virtual rights won’t really succeed.

One has nothing against freedom of expression or the need to protest for virtual rights. But there is a need to put the protests in the context of India. Then maybe those who were disappointed by the turnout and complained of apathy will understand that a protest against internet censorship is a non-issue here.

Let us take the example of probably the biggest peaceful protests held in the country since Independence. Millions of people in every city, town and village of the country were swayed by the anti-graft rallies held by Gandhian crusader Anna Hazare in 2011, something which even forced the government to its knees. The reason it became a mass movement was because corruption is an issue most people across the demographic divide could identify with. And that becomes the defining factor in any movement or protest. Everything else — organisation, public relations, press coverage — is secondary.

One passes through Jantar Mantar road, the designated spot for protests in New Delhi, almost everyday. And any rally that has been held there, be it on caste reservation, corruption or farmer suicides, has attracted a bigger crowd than the one for virtual freedom.

COMMENT

awesome

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