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Thursday, September 27, 2007

HERO WORSHIPPING OF THE WORLD CHAMPIANS

All Indians are all proud to welcome the winners of the first T20 World Cup Cricket Team which was given a rousing reception on its arrival at Mumbai Airport. The team was taken to Wankhede Stadium (about 25 km away, 5 hrs drive) a top-open bus, called Vijay Rath and millions of cricket fans lined up or rather crowded everywhere on the way to the stadium. The media played its part brilliantly, which resulted in the unprecedented crowd everywhere to cheer the winning team. There were a few observations which are worth mentioning here. Lessons learnt.

1. Media overplayed the world cup win and generated this over hype which resulted in the loss of millions of man hours of work and study.
2. The players came back after a hectic schedule of matches and a long flight. When they came out viewers found only blue capped cops and suited-booted BCCI officials. One could hardly see the real heroes. It is unfair to the TV viewers.
3. In the bus meant for them, we could again see the officials more clearly than the players. In every frame, one official with suit and stripped tie could be seen.
4. There was no need to make the tired players to go all the way to Wankhede stadium, near Marine Lines. They were looking very tired and after some time, they were mechanically responding to the crowd. Unfair to the crowd again. The individual players may have to go through the torture again in their respective states within a day or two. Local politicians will try to take maximum mileage from this. The pressure seems to be too high on the players.
5. Millions of man-hours were lost and motorists were made to suffer in traffic jams due to this avoidable misadventure of procession..
6. Finally, on the stage in the front row only the Captain was seated. All other occupants were from the BCCI or state government. The real heroes were sitting in the second row and could not be seen clearly. BCCI is not the government.
7. The victory lap around the ground turned out to be a total mess with public crowding the players and the players could not be seen. Only the national flags could be seen. The police were mere spectators, could not control the crowd.
8. One of the speakers was talking about Maharashtra more than the cricket or the players and that too in Marathi. It is the Indian team and not Mumbai Team.
9. The movie Chak De, particularly the title song has really created national awareness amongst the younger generation and that has helped in amassing such a massive crowd all along the route to the stadium. Thanks to Shah Rukh Khan (SRK).
10. Sorry SRK, nobody bothers about Hockey. Recently the Indian team won the Asia Cup. So what?
11. Final verdict is the procession and the show at the stadium was more like a political meeting / mela with the party flags everywhere rather than welcoming the players who has won the world cup.

In all, I feel happy that our players have done a good job and I sincerely hope that the team sustains its tempo and continues to play as one team for the country. Let us not hero-worship the team too much, which may result in over confidence and take success for granted everytime. After all, it is cricket.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Transportation Fuels and Global warming

Global warming due to emission of GHGs from transportation vehicles is an issue of great concern globally. To cut down on the emission of greenhouse gases, finding alternative to the traditional transportation fuels like diesel and petrol is a continuing process worldwide. The Government of India recommends a blend that has 5% ethanol in petrol for use in vehicles to reduce environmental pollution. The percentage of ethanol is likely to go up to 10% by 2008. Ethanol is used in alcoholic beverages and easy to manufacture from wide variety of raw materials such as sugarcane, corn, molasses, grains, fruits, etc etc. Ethanol is supposed to be cheaper and much environmentally cleaner fuel than petroleum products. Several countries, including US, Sweden, Brazil and Australia are already produce cars which run on petrol-ethanol blends. For example, 30% of vehicular fuel produced in Brazil is ethanol. Day will not be far off when vehicles will be designed to use 100% ethanol to cut down the environmental pollution. Comparatively, CNG is environmentally cleaner than diesel/petrol.

For example, it is reported that the air pollution level in Mumbai city is decreasing since almost all the taxis (over 55,000) have switched over to CNG since 2000 and more and more auto-rickshaws and BEST buses in Mumbai are now run on CNG. However, uncontrolled growth of vehicular population can deteriorate the air quality again. Indian railways, which is one of the biggest consumers of diesel has taken a lead in switching over to bio-diesel or its mix with diesel to reduce GHG emissions. Good move indeed.

Comparison of GHG emissions from some of the transportation fuels were made considering the total fuel cycle emissions for gasoline, compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from oil and gas and ethanol from corn (ANL/DOE, USA reports). The major conclusions are:

CNG produces the lowest level of carbon dioxide emissions across the total fuel cycle, followed closely by LPG and ethanol from corn. In addition, over the entire fuel cycle, there is marginal increase in weighted GHG emissions (emissions in moles of carbon dioxide per vehicle mile traveled x global warming potential per mole relative to carbon dioxide) if one switches from gasoline (10.71) to ethanol (13.88). It was also concluded that ethanol from corn produces the largest nitrous oxide emissions across the total fuel cycle.

Thus, it can be concluded that except that it is cheaper, from the consideration of global warming, contribution from ethanol is reported to be higher than gasoline. In fact, use of LPG (8.61) and CNG (9.03) contribute less as compared to ethanol (13.88) to the global warming. Then, why ethanol mix? Any answers?

Thursday, September 20, 2007

NUCLEAR WEAPONS AFTER MUSHARRAF

There is a lot of pressure, national and international, on Mr. Musharraf to quit as Army Chief in Pakistan. There is a belief that Pakistan’s prosperity lies safe in Musharraf’s hands with his moderate views. Doubts are also raised, rightly so, in the media regarding the fate of nuclear weapons if the Pakistan President is no more in the seat of power, without control over the all powerful military. It is now well known that the terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda and Taliban are very active in the country. What will happen to the nuclear stockpile? Even one instance of detonation of the so-called dirty bomb (which is not a nuclear weapon in the real sense) is enough to crate panic situation worldwide.

The countries which are close to Pakistan such as US, former ex-premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, or United Nations organization like International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should immediately take all the necessary steps to ensure adequate surveillance and safety and security measures for the nuclear weapon inventory in Pakistan even in case of change or uncertainty in the government leadership in Pakistan. The so-called extreme decisions by military or militants should not result in an avoidable global emergency situation.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Toxic Toys – Chinese Experience

There is global outcry over the toxic toys being imported from China millions of which were withdrawn from the market due to the excessive lead and cadmium content in the paints used in the manufacture. Lead is neurotoxic and cadmium is nephrotoxic and a known carcinogen. Situation is no way different in India. As on today, Indian markets, particularly road-side out-lets in cities and rural markets, are overflowing with the cheap so-called home-made bright coloured toys which are made without adhering to any safety standards. Yes, the toys are cheap and are affordable by the majority poor in the country. The manufacture, even of the branded ones, is suspected to be not regulated and there is no Act which stipulates the requirement of quality of the toys to comply with any Indian Standards. But there is MRTP (Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices) Rules, which stipulates providing all the information with respect to the company which has manufactured the toy, its cost, date of manufacture, etc. Unfortunately, these details are not reliable and one can buy such toys from the roadside at one-third or half the rate written on the package. Quality of the toys is bad. The state of consumer watch and awareness in India is pathetic. There is a ministry to deal with consumer affairs! What is the outcome? Nothing worthwhile really comes out of the forums attached to the ministry. Manufacturers get away with anything. They know the tricks!

Monday, September 10, 2007

Death due to medical negligence

Every other day, one reads in the news papers about death caused due to medical negligence. What next? – Postmortem, findings such as evidence of some rashes on the skin, and finally “opinion reserved”! Anywhere in the world this can happen. Some of the reasons quoted for such deaths are: wrong diagnosis (equipment related or human error), wrong medicine, use of medicines after their expiry date, high dosage of medicine administered, drugs are spurious, allergy to the medicine not tested, improper hospital care, etc. Often it was observed that the doctor is a quack, not qualified to practice medicine or surgery.

Now let us see the consequences: If there is no political godfather to the doctor, he will be arrested and put behind the bars. Some political party workers will force their way inside the hospital or clinic and damage everything in sight. Doctors are not spared. Their faces are blackened. Political interference in such cases is very evident for cheap publicity. Nobody bothers to see the fate of the aggrieved family. Their loss is loss for ever.

On investigation, it is often observed that the culprit is the doctor. He might have carried out a procedure, which was not required in the first place, for making easy money through commission / cuts. Medical ethics is totally lacking. The doctor is not having adequate knowledge about the pros and cons of the procedures he is undertaking. His knowledge base is the medical representatives (and the colorful brochures), who promise all-found holidays abroad for the doctors for prescribing their medicines, procedures are carried out in unhygienic conditions in the hospitals, prescribes banned medicines or medicines which are not tested on humans for sufficiently long time, etc. etc.

Can the system be improved? Yes. What is actually required is thorough investigation to identify the causes for the death, fixing the responsibility and finally dissemination of the information for the benefit of others, including the general public. Government should come out with necessary action plan to sort out this universal problem. There should be supporting legislation and strong independent regulation to curb this menace. The regulating authorities should be empowered to take quick action against the guilty.