The IT Advantage – will it stay
It was the year 1974. I was in Mussoorie in the IAS training Academy as a freshly recruited probationer. Our daily routine, syllabus and schedule of examinations made it clear that it would be a tough training with lot of new subjects to study. Among them were some interesting courses such as one on computers. That was perhaps the era of data-entry through punch cards and I remember that the sarkari company for data entry and computerization in Govt namely CMC which was located in Pune did use punch-cards till as late as 1988. Those were times when computers would do minimal initial work, the users had to write the program, for data inputting and another program to direct the computer for processing.
However, with the advent of 8086 chips sometimes around the year 1985, followed by 80286, 80386, 80586 etc. the computing and processing speed of computers went on increasing. This made it possible to divide the work of programming into 2 parts one containing many standard instructions (operating system) and other part requiring a small amount of programing to be done by the user. As the chip capacity improved, the operating system could be made bigger and need of user to have any programing skills continuously decreased. A common man could use computers more easily which also means that the volume of work handled on computers also increased many folds.
This increase in volume was quickly captured by Indians who started venturing in IT industries. They had the advantage of a large number of computer courses made available by different institutions and colleges. In terms of capturing the business outsourced by USA-Europe based computer companies, India had the advantage of huge ttained population – an advantage which was not with any other Asian country (either, as the country was small, or their developments in computer training was lesser). The computer business depended on proficiency in programing as well as in English and India had enough manpower trained in both to capture that business. The twenty years from !985 to 2005 saw a phenomenal rise in our IT industries, and as a consequence, in our growth rate and GDP too. It allowed us to absorb the shock when there was JAGATIK MANDI.
There was a consequence in yet another diirection. Our policy makers now firmly believed that English was the key. One after another every policy on education fell into this trap. English was made compulsory from Std 1 even though the State language itself never enjoyed this exaulted status. I remember one advertiseement promoted by the HR ministry where the illiterate parents of Roshani visit her school and the teacher happilly tells them IN ENLISH that Roshani is making good progress. Even the Knowledge Commission of India, in total disregard to the views and pleadings of Shri Kakodkar- our best Nuclear Scientist, recommended that English must be made compulsory in all schools from Std 1. they were all ignorant and oblivious to a new technological transition that was and is still happening in the world of computors.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
The success sory of Apple Inc
From their site
Here are five lessons from Apple that we can all embrace to drive success in our companies, careers, and communities:
1. Shatter Conventional Wisdom. While some ‘fraidy-cat executives cower at thought of straying outside the lines, the folks at Apple live to disrupt. They don’t waste their valuable brainstorm sessions on driving. 21% incremental margin or extracting costs by using cheap materials. Instead, they direct their energy toward changing the world.
2. No Limits. In our fear-based society, we often gravitate to all the reasons something can’t be done. So often, we let imaginary barriers restrict us for reaching our true potential. Not Apple. They refuse to be derailed and let those seemingly insurmountable challenges drive their cause instead of squash their dreams.
3. Innovation Wins. The culture at Apple celebrates the risk takers. The dreamers. The creators. They realize that creativity and innovation are the lifeblood of the organization, and have built a culture and philosophy that rewards it.
4. Design Matters. The folks at Apple know that design is as important as function. Their products are beautiful works of art rather than utilitarian machinery. They focus not just on what their gear does, but how it makes their customers feel. All five senses are delighted by design, and customers are willing to pay handsomely as a result.
5. Passion First. Apple doesn’t chase money, they pursue purpose. They build products and services that they love and want to use themselves. They connect deeply to the impact they will make on customers, and follow their hearts instead of earnings-per-share. As a result, the money follows. Big time.
Apple may have more cash than our government right now, but their real value goes much deeper than their balance sheet. More than their billions, they’ve managed to build a culture of innovation that will continue to drive success and change the world. Maybe the US Government can learn a thing or two here. Maybe we all can.
Here are five lessons from Apple that we can all embrace to drive success in our companies, careers, and communities:
1. Shatter Conventional Wisdom. While some ‘fraidy-cat executives cower at thought of straying outside the lines, the folks at Apple live to disrupt. They don’t waste their valuable brainstorm sessions on driving. 21% incremental margin or extracting costs by using cheap materials. Instead, they direct their energy toward changing the world.
2. No Limits. In our fear-based society, we often gravitate to all the reasons something can’t be done. So often, we let imaginary barriers restrict us for reaching our true potential. Not Apple. They refuse to be derailed and let those seemingly insurmountable challenges drive their cause instead of squash their dreams.
3. Innovation Wins. The culture at Apple celebrates the risk takers. The dreamers. The creators. They realize that creativity and innovation are the lifeblood of the organization, and have built a culture and philosophy that rewards it.
4. Design Matters. The folks at Apple know that design is as important as function. Their products are beautiful works of art rather than utilitarian machinery. They focus not just on what their gear does, but how it makes their customers feel. All five senses are delighted by design, and customers are willing to pay handsomely as a result.
5. Passion First. Apple doesn’t chase money, they pursue purpose. They build products and services that they love and want to use themselves. They connect deeply to the impact they will make on customers, and follow their hearts instead of earnings-per-share. As a result, the money follows. Big time.
Apple may have more cash than our government right now, but their real value goes much deeper than their balance sheet. More than their billions, they’ve managed to build a culture of innovation that will continue to drive success and change the world. Maybe the US Government can learn a thing or two here. Maybe we all can.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Matang Samaj of Maharashtra some thoughts
In view of the appointment given by Hon’ble President, the group headed by Shri Dilip Rao Agale, representing the Matang Samaj of Maharashtra, the following issues/proposals are submitted for kind consideration.
Introduction:
The Matang Samaj of Maharashtra has its presence in almost every village but, it has not been able to derive reasonable benefits of the overall development and progress happening in the country due to a variety of reasons. Education has not reached them. It is estimated that:
(a) 20% children do not get enrolled in schools ;
(b) Another 60% children drop out before Std.V;
(c) About 15% children drop out before reaching Std.X;
(d) Only less than 5% children reach upto graduation.
Broadly the Maang, Matang, Dombari, Maang-Garudi and such other communities do not possess Ration Cards and thus their absence from Schools is not easily noticed. Hence, the general education programmes do not create any sizeable impact on their conditions.
We therefore, propose some mini and mega schemes as below:
I. For Sports education and encouragement;
II. For Vocational and Skill education;
III. Program for Women;
IV. For Folk and Theatre education and
V. General education.
I. Sports Education and Encouragement:
The children from these communities are found to possess good skills for athletics, gymnastics and are good at running. Similar skill exists among the children of Paradhi, and a few Tribal communities.
(a) Vastad Lahuji Salve Sports Scholarship: A Pilot Project for first year in 10 districts and a regular project for next five years in all districts is proposed at Annexure-I.
Under Pilot project, Scholarships will be given to 40 children (20 girls and 20 boys) per year/district at a cost of Rs.5.00 lakhs per district. The children will be selected solely on the criterion of their potential to excel in Athletics, gymnastics and Malkhamb, irrespective of the educational standards and will be attached to renowned Talim or Vyayamshala. A stipend at the rate of Rs.2,000/- per month will be utilized for payment to the Talim and towards nutritional diet and contingent expenses of the child.
- 2 -
(b) Opportunity to run in the Mumbai Marathon
In view of their skill in running, they may be sponsored. from out of 10 selected districts of Maharashtra (2 girls and 2 boys per district) to participate in the ensuing Mumbai Marathon event. The Secretary, Department of Tribal and the Secretary, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment can be asked to frame suitable sponsorship schemes.
II. Vocational and Skill Education:
The above communities have production-skills which are basically related to rural life-style and which were acquired as a community skill. Some of these traditional skills have become redundant in view of industrial production. Hence, newer skills have to be introduced. Generally, the Department of Vocational Education under the Ministry of HRD and a number of agencies working under the other ministries have programs to impart skills. Department of HRD, Department of Labour, Department of Industries and Commerce and Department of Women and Child Development, all have some programs for vocational training.
Such skill education has to result in gainful entrepreneurship-- mostly in the tiny and cottage sector. However, the entrepreneurship necessarily requires --
(i) Technical skill;
(ii) Managerial skill,
(iii) Marketing skill,
(iv) Finance-management skill (dealing with Banks, loan proposals etc.).
The present vocational Training courses do not include the non- technical but, essential training components. Hon’ble President’s office may initiate a series of brain-storming sessions to tackle this issue with specific reference to the Matang Samaj of Maharashtra.
III. Programme for Women:
One issue related to the above is discussed here. It is pertinent that the traditional Devadasi system prevails largely in the Maang and Matang community in Maharashtra, for reasons of poverty. In a specific instance, nearly 150 Devadasis of Kolhapur and Sangli districtgs were given the benefit of a “Devadasi Economic Rehabilitation Programme” taken up by WMDC (Western Maharashtra Development Corporation), Pune, from 1985 to 1989, under the leadership of the then Chairman Shri Ulhas Pawar. The training-cum production center of WMDC is located at Gadhinglaj (dist. Kolhapur). The programme has been left without any attention. as WMDC proposes to hand it over to MAVIM (Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal). However, specific yearly funds need to be allocated to MAVIM for the next five years for reviving the above program. It is also important to monitor the implementation through a committee which may have members such as Shri Ulhas Pawar, Shri Dilip Rao Agale, Shri Baba Adhav (A social activist from Pune) and Shri Vittal Banne (Another social activist and Ex-MLA from Gadhinglaj), Many beneficiaries of the above mentioned program are still continuing their vocational activities at a much reduced scale in the vicinity of this training centre. At least 50% of them belong to Maang-Matang community.
IV .Folk and Theatre Education:
The Maang-Matang community is also known for their skills in Folk Theatre including music, dance, drama and instruments playing. Smt. Vithabai Narayangaokar, a talented Lavni dancer from this community also had an occasion to receive felicitation at the hands of the then Hon’ble President of India Shri R. Venkataraman. The Govt. of Maharashtra can establish an Academy of Folk Theatre in her name or may partly fund some group or trust who is dedicated to such cause.
So also the Vithabai Narayangaokar Folk Dance Awards which were given by Govt. of Maharashtra only for one year, may be institutionalized as a yearly event so as to encourage the skills from this community.
As an alternative, Artists from this community may be allowed special grant-in-aid for preparing for the participation in some of the Folk dance events organized these days on private TV channels.
V. General Education:
Considering that the benefits of general education has not reached the Maang-Matang community in a respectable proportion, there appears to be need for special monitoring of the General Education Schemes and their impact on this community. The same is more true for the girl children Special scholarships can be institutionalized for ptomoting schooling. At the same time, more facilities for distant learning and flexi-learning are needed.
ANNEXURE-I
VASTAD LAHUJI SALVE KREEDA SHISHYA-VRITTHI (SCHOLARSHIP)
Scheme Details: of One unit consisting of One district for one year at a cost of Rs.5.00 lakhs are described here --
(a) The Collector will select five Talims or Vyayamshalas of his district for this purpose and for a preliminary meeting with them to ascertain the monitoring details and criteria for success.
(b) The District Sports Officer will select suitable girls and boys from the communities of Maang-Matang, Garudi, Dombari, Paradhi, Darveshi, and Nandibailwale (the nomadic Tribes) to be affiliated to these Talims.
© A batch of 2 girls and 2 boys will be attached with the Talim for a rigorous training of 5 months in sports such as Malkhamb, Gymnastics and Athletics. They will be met with the following expenses.
1. Nutritional food per child/month = Rs.800/-
2. Contingent expenses per child/month = Rs.300/-
3. Fees and service charges for Talim
@ Rs.900/- per child/month = Rs.900/-
--------------------------------------------------------------
4. Total per child/month = Rs.2,000/-
5. Total for a batch of 4 children
and 5 months Rs.2000X4X5 = Rs.40,000/-
6. Therefore, for 2 batches of 5 months duration in a year,
the expenses will be = Rs.80,000/-
7. Expenses for 5 such Talims per district = Rs.4,00,000/-
8. Funds to be kept with the Collector for
organizing any events to promote the above
activities, including competitions, and expenses
of judges of the competition, survey reports
promotional awards, public awareness, etc. = Rs.1,00,000/-
Thus fund requirement for 1 district = Rs 5,00,000/-
For the first year, this activity can be taken up on a pilot basis in 10 districts at a cost of Rs.50 lakhs.
For all the 36 districts of Maharashtra per year = Rs.1,80,00,000/-
for five years. = Rs. 9,00,00,000/-
Introduction:
The Matang Samaj of Maharashtra has its presence in almost every village but, it has not been able to derive reasonable benefits of the overall development and progress happening in the country due to a variety of reasons. Education has not reached them. It is estimated that:
(a) 20% children do not get enrolled in schools ;
(b) Another 60% children drop out before Std.V;
(c) About 15% children drop out before reaching Std.X;
(d) Only less than 5% children reach upto graduation.
Broadly the Maang, Matang, Dombari, Maang-Garudi and such other communities do not possess Ration Cards and thus their absence from Schools is not easily noticed. Hence, the general education programmes do not create any sizeable impact on their conditions.
We therefore, propose some mini and mega schemes as below:
I. For Sports education and encouragement;
II. For Vocational and Skill education;
III. Program for Women;
IV. For Folk and Theatre education and
V. General education.
I. Sports Education and Encouragement:
The children from these communities are found to possess good skills for athletics, gymnastics and are good at running. Similar skill exists among the children of Paradhi, and a few Tribal communities.
(a) Vastad Lahuji Salve Sports Scholarship: A Pilot Project for first year in 10 districts and a regular project for next five years in all districts is proposed at Annexure-I.
Under Pilot project, Scholarships will be given to 40 children (20 girls and 20 boys) per year/district at a cost of Rs.5.00 lakhs per district. The children will be selected solely on the criterion of their potential to excel in Athletics, gymnastics and Malkhamb, irrespective of the educational standards and will be attached to renowned Talim or Vyayamshala. A stipend at the rate of Rs.2,000/- per month will be utilized for payment to the Talim and towards nutritional diet and contingent expenses of the child.
- 2 -
(b) Opportunity to run in the Mumbai Marathon
In view of their skill in running, they may be sponsored. from out of 10 selected districts of Maharashtra (2 girls and 2 boys per district) to participate in the ensuing Mumbai Marathon event. The Secretary, Department of Tribal and the Secretary, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment can be asked to frame suitable sponsorship schemes.
II. Vocational and Skill Education:
The above communities have production-skills which are basically related to rural life-style and which were acquired as a community skill. Some of these traditional skills have become redundant in view of industrial production. Hence, newer skills have to be introduced. Generally, the Department of Vocational Education under the Ministry of HRD and a number of agencies working under the other ministries have programs to impart skills. Department of HRD, Department of Labour, Department of Industries and Commerce and Department of Women and Child Development, all have some programs for vocational training.
Such skill education has to result in gainful entrepreneurship-- mostly in the tiny and cottage sector. However, the entrepreneurship necessarily requires --
(i) Technical skill;
(ii) Managerial skill,
(iii) Marketing skill,
(iv) Finance-management skill (dealing with Banks, loan proposals etc.).
The present vocational Training courses do not include the non- technical but, essential training components. Hon’ble President’s office may initiate a series of brain-storming sessions to tackle this issue with specific reference to the Matang Samaj of Maharashtra.
III. Programme for Women:
One issue related to the above is discussed here. It is pertinent that the traditional Devadasi system prevails largely in the Maang and Matang community in Maharashtra, for reasons of poverty. In a specific instance, nearly 150 Devadasis of Kolhapur and Sangli districtgs were given the benefit of a “Devadasi Economic Rehabilitation Programme” taken up by WMDC (Western Maharashtra Development Corporation), Pune, from 1985 to 1989, under the leadership of the then Chairman Shri Ulhas Pawar. The training-cum production center of WMDC is located at Gadhinglaj (dist. Kolhapur). The programme has been left without any attention. as WMDC proposes to hand it over to MAVIM (Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal). However, specific yearly funds need to be allocated to MAVIM for the next five years for reviving the above program. It is also important to monitor the implementation through a committee which may have members such as Shri Ulhas Pawar, Shri Dilip Rao Agale, Shri Baba Adhav (A social activist from Pune) and Shri Vittal Banne (Another social activist and Ex-MLA from Gadhinglaj), Many beneficiaries of the above mentioned program are still continuing their vocational activities at a much reduced scale in the vicinity of this training centre. At least 50% of them belong to Maang-Matang community.
IV .Folk and Theatre Education:
The Maang-Matang community is also known for their skills in Folk Theatre including music, dance, drama and instruments playing. Smt. Vithabai Narayangaokar, a talented Lavni dancer from this community also had an occasion to receive felicitation at the hands of the then Hon’ble President of India Shri R. Venkataraman. The Govt. of Maharashtra can establish an Academy of Folk Theatre in her name or may partly fund some group or trust who is dedicated to such cause.
So also the Vithabai Narayangaokar Folk Dance Awards which were given by Govt. of Maharashtra only for one year, may be institutionalized as a yearly event so as to encourage the skills from this community.
As an alternative, Artists from this community may be allowed special grant-in-aid for preparing for the participation in some of the Folk dance events organized these days on private TV channels.
V. General Education:
Considering that the benefits of general education has not reached the Maang-Matang community in a respectable proportion, there appears to be need for special monitoring of the General Education Schemes and their impact on this community. The same is more true for the girl children Special scholarships can be institutionalized for ptomoting schooling. At the same time, more facilities for distant learning and flexi-learning are needed.
ANNEXURE-I
VASTAD LAHUJI SALVE KREEDA SHISHYA-VRITTHI (SCHOLARSHIP)
Scheme Details: of One unit consisting of One district for one year at a cost of Rs.5.00 lakhs are described here --
(a) The Collector will select five Talims or Vyayamshalas of his district for this purpose and for a preliminary meeting with them to ascertain the monitoring details and criteria for success.
(b) The District Sports Officer will select suitable girls and boys from the communities of Maang-Matang, Garudi, Dombari, Paradhi, Darveshi, and Nandibailwale (the nomadic Tribes) to be affiliated to these Talims.
© A batch of 2 girls and 2 boys will be attached with the Talim for a rigorous training of 5 months in sports such as Malkhamb, Gymnastics and Athletics. They will be met with the following expenses.
1. Nutritional food per child/month = Rs.800/-
2. Contingent expenses per child/month = Rs.300/-
3. Fees and service charges for Talim
@ Rs.900/- per child/month = Rs.900/-
--------------------------------------------------------------
4. Total per child/month = Rs.2,000/-
5. Total for a batch of 4 children
and 5 months Rs.2000X4X5 = Rs.40,000/-
6. Therefore, for 2 batches of 5 months duration in a year,
the expenses will be = Rs.80,000/-
7. Expenses for 5 such Talims per district = Rs.4,00,000/-
8. Funds to be kept with the Collector for
organizing any events to promote the above
activities, including competitions, and expenses
of judges of the competition, survey reports
promotional awards, public awareness, etc. = Rs.1,00,000/-
Thus fund requirement for 1 district = Rs 5,00,000/-
For the first year, this activity can be taken up on a pilot basis in 10 districts at a cost of Rs.50 lakhs.
For all the 36 districts of Maharashtra per year = Rs.1,80,00,000/-
for five years. = Rs. 9,00,00,000/-
Status and Significance of Indian Languages in the world for East-West Understanding
Status and Significance of Indian Languages in the world for East-West Understanding
Friends,
Although I may not be able to attend this very important seminar, I would like to put forth and highlight a few issues through this paper.
For East-West Understanding, and more particularly for the understanding of the East, it is important to appreciate the need for Conservation, Documentation and Research into the Vast Cultural Heritage that the East offers. So, one of the focus areas will be to enlist and overcome the bottlenecks in this task and I shall be dealing mainly with the documentation aspect as the other two can be taken as a subset of documentation. While doing so I shall touch upon the contemporary and older Indian Languages, their diversities and their unifying aspects.
Sanskrit is one of the oldest living Languages and all the south-east Asian Languages have emanated from this language. They all have the same Varnamala called the Brahmi group of alphabets. It is estimated that out of the 6800 languages and dialects spoken on this planet, nearly 1652 different languages and many more dialects are spoken in India and they all share this Varnamala as a common heritage. Many of them do not have an independent script but share this same Varnamala. As many as 4 Indian languages ( Bengali, Tamil, Marathi and Telgu) rank among the 50 largest spoken languages all over the world, while Hindi stands at rank 3 after Chinese and English.
The tradition of Sanskrit is said to be the Shruti tradition – that is the language and the knowledge is learnt from spoken words from the mouth of the Guru. Even the Indian classical music is learnt through the Shruti tradition. Scripting is a skill that captures only a small part of this shrut message. Still, first I will consider the issue of scripts.
Presently Indian languages are written in 8 contemporary scripts Malyali, Tamil, Kannad (Telgu), Gujrati, Gurumukhi, Oriya, Bengali (asamiya), and Devnagri. The art of writing was already advanced at the time of Mahabharata. The written texts in Indian subcontinent and South-East Asian countries are by far the world’s largest treasure of written texts. Hence it is important to discuss the problems in documentation of this treasure.
First let us understand what the dimensions in documentation are. In the days of shrut knowledge when the art and science of scripts had not yet developed, paintings, and sculpture, was the method for documentation. Spoken words though preserved in human memory could not be called documentation in the modern sense of the term. Our forefathers developed the skill of writing and many texts came in written form. A very large number of handwritten texts are still available to us in the form of manuscripts. Thereafter came the era of printing. Scholars and dedicated people started putting these texts in printed forms and it was acknowledged as a far better form of Documentation because it allowed multiple copies to be made in a concise and uniform manner.
Today we are in the age of computers -- more technically I should say that we are in the age of Digitization. It allows much better transmission of information, much better study, analysis and comparison and a far better storage. The potential of replication is virtually limitless. Hence all efforts must be made for digitized Documentation. It has four convenient formats -- as pictures, as a written text, as an audio and as a video clip. Each method has its own advantage.
Digitization in picture format is important for our manuscripts. This method involves taking photograph and then storing them as digitized photo. The storage can simultaneously be on the web also. This photographic digitization is important as it gives lot of clues about the authors, the historical and geographical variations in calligraphy practices, and methods used for creating manuscripts. Hence, creation of a National Archive of Manuscripts is our first task. The National Mission for Manuscripts, Delhi has undertaken to do this, but their speed and success will depend upon how the custodians of the manuscripts come forward, and how well the NMM is able to monitor the progress of those technology vendors to whom the task of photographic digitization is being outsourced.
At this stage I would also like to suggest that NMM or at least all of us should acknowledge the efforts of those hundreds of families who preserved and protected these manuscripts through hundreds of years, thus making available the treasure for our generation. There should be felicitations and awards. Secondly, what kind of royalty will be available to those who will share the manuscripts? Most importantly, what is the mechanism of the NMM to ensure that the knowledge of these manuscripts is made available to all, yet the IPR rights remain with those families and with the Indian nation. I am told that the system followed in Sweden regarding their community IPR offers the best protection to their interests. We need to study that system.
I would make a second suggestion by way of brief reminder. Many of us know that we had the system of Yajman or Panda at many pilgrim places. For generations these Yajman families have preserved information about the visitors and their Vamshavali. This is another huge documentation that can throw light on our linguistic heritage.
The second method is digitization in the form of text which becomes available to search engines and is the key for propagation of knowledge. Here we are faced with a major crisis. There are no proper standards developed for docu-digiting our texts. Huge font banks with have been developed by different companies who vow not to let any others be compatible with them. The Govt. owned companies play the same game. They all sell their software at huge prices when the trend all over the world is to provide free software to common users at least to a limited extent. Most of these software are not as per Unicode standards which mean that they can be uploaded on web only with hundreds of inherent problems.
It is a sad commentary that at the GoI level, no ministry, no department and no officer has the mandate to think and plan for all Indian languages as one unified issue. There is DIT (Dept of Information Technology) who disown responsibility about ANY language. The Dept of Rajbhasha has a mandate only for Hindi and the mandates for other languages rest with the respective state govt. where that language is the official language. No state Govt has any say in how the GoI omits to plan for all languages as a one unit. Incidentally, there is absolutely no department and no plans for ensuring computer- software for Sanskrit. Many alphabets used in Sanskrit, especially Vedic texts are not available in computer software. What is available is not easy to handle or compatible with the work done by some other agency in other corner of the country.
Still, one can partly thank developers of Unicode who, on their own, decided to create a standard for contemporary Indian languages (minus Sanskrit). They adopted as base some standard that was partially developed and available with BIS (bureau of Indian Standards). While so doing they also struck a blow. This may have been inadvertent, but was neither understood nor objected to by Indian experts who were attending those meetings of Unicode Consortium on behalf of GoI. The result was that the current Unicode Standard views all the 8 Indian scripts as alien to each other and there is no inter-convertibility among them. Thus a digitization of Sanskrit text of Ramayana in Devnagari cannot be instantaneously converted into Sanskrit text of Ramayana in Bengali or Gujrati. Hence the search engine told through Gujrati to find something on Ramayana will not find or show anything available on the web in other script.
In this regard, 3 aspects must be understood. The facility of instant inter-convertibility was envisaged in the BIS standard and was available in early software developed by CDAC which is a govt. company. But it was not pursued with Unicode-consortium. In future it will prove a great bottleneck to our efforts of looking at the languages in a unified manner and derive benefits there from (including cultural integration). Around the same time, the same separation was proposed for the CJK scripts (Chinese, Japanese and Korean) but the three countries dumped all their political differences and insisted on a single standard for all three scripts. Third aspect is of political will which should be prompted through seminars like this – even today if the political will at the top is exercised we can still approach Unicode Consortium to restore the advantage of instant inter-convertibility and Unified nature of Indian Languages.
I will briefly touch upon the audio-digitization. The facility of such a digitization and storage is available and being used in a big way to create audio-clip banks. But the research aspect has remained completely unattended. Two areas immediately come to mind. How to codify various intonations that are inseparable parts of any Mantra-chanting in our Shrut-tradition? Secondly, it is said that the next-gen computers will not use key-boards but direct speech to carry out instructions to the computers. It is also said that Sanskrit is a very suitable language for the same as it has codified even its Varnamala and many more Dhwani-symbols. A highly dedicated research team must start acting on this issue from the earliest day.
Lastly I urge upon those present here to appreciate the need of creating a National Repository for the literature, folk-literature, dramatics, music, sculptures and motifs available in India and eastern countries through the hundreds of languages and dialects. Their documentation should be as much a concern of western scholars as it should be of Indians and Asians.
Thanks to the organisers.
-- Leena Mehendale
Friends,
Although I may not be able to attend this very important seminar, I would like to put forth and highlight a few issues through this paper.
For East-West Understanding, and more particularly for the understanding of the East, it is important to appreciate the need for Conservation, Documentation and Research into the Vast Cultural Heritage that the East offers. So, one of the focus areas will be to enlist and overcome the bottlenecks in this task and I shall be dealing mainly with the documentation aspect as the other two can be taken as a subset of documentation. While doing so I shall touch upon the contemporary and older Indian Languages, their diversities and their unifying aspects.
Sanskrit is one of the oldest living Languages and all the south-east Asian Languages have emanated from this language. They all have the same Varnamala called the Brahmi group of alphabets. It is estimated that out of the 6800 languages and dialects spoken on this planet, nearly 1652 different languages and many more dialects are spoken in India and they all share this Varnamala as a common heritage. Many of them do not have an independent script but share this same Varnamala. As many as 4 Indian languages ( Bengali, Tamil, Marathi and Telgu) rank among the 50 largest spoken languages all over the world, while Hindi stands at rank 3 after Chinese and English.
The tradition of Sanskrit is said to be the Shruti tradition – that is the language and the knowledge is learnt from spoken words from the mouth of the Guru. Even the Indian classical music is learnt through the Shruti tradition. Scripting is a skill that captures only a small part of this shrut message. Still, first I will consider the issue of scripts.
Presently Indian languages are written in 8 contemporary scripts Malyali, Tamil, Kannad (Telgu), Gujrati, Gurumukhi, Oriya, Bengali (asamiya), and Devnagri. The art of writing was already advanced at the time of Mahabharata. The written texts in Indian subcontinent and South-East Asian countries are by far the world’s largest treasure of written texts. Hence it is important to discuss the problems in documentation of this treasure.
First let us understand what the dimensions in documentation are. In the days of shrut knowledge when the art and science of scripts had not yet developed, paintings, and sculpture, was the method for documentation. Spoken words though preserved in human memory could not be called documentation in the modern sense of the term. Our forefathers developed the skill of writing and many texts came in written form. A very large number of handwritten texts are still available to us in the form of manuscripts. Thereafter came the era of printing. Scholars and dedicated people started putting these texts in printed forms and it was acknowledged as a far better form of Documentation because it allowed multiple copies to be made in a concise and uniform manner.
Today we are in the age of computers -- more technically I should say that we are in the age of Digitization. It allows much better transmission of information, much better study, analysis and comparison and a far better storage. The potential of replication is virtually limitless. Hence all efforts must be made for digitized Documentation. It has four convenient formats -- as pictures, as a written text, as an audio and as a video clip. Each method has its own advantage.
Digitization in picture format is important for our manuscripts. This method involves taking photograph and then storing them as digitized photo. The storage can simultaneously be on the web also. This photographic digitization is important as it gives lot of clues about the authors, the historical and geographical variations in calligraphy practices, and methods used for creating manuscripts. Hence, creation of a National Archive of Manuscripts is our first task. The National Mission for Manuscripts, Delhi has undertaken to do this, but their speed and success will depend upon how the custodians of the manuscripts come forward, and how well the NMM is able to monitor the progress of those technology vendors to whom the task of photographic digitization is being outsourced.
At this stage I would also like to suggest that NMM or at least all of us should acknowledge the efforts of those hundreds of families who preserved and protected these manuscripts through hundreds of years, thus making available the treasure for our generation. There should be felicitations and awards. Secondly, what kind of royalty will be available to those who will share the manuscripts? Most importantly, what is the mechanism of the NMM to ensure that the knowledge of these manuscripts is made available to all, yet the IPR rights remain with those families and with the Indian nation. I am told that the system followed in Sweden regarding their community IPR offers the best protection to their interests. We need to study that system.
I would make a second suggestion by way of brief reminder. Many of us know that we had the system of Yajman or Panda at many pilgrim places. For generations these Yajman families have preserved information about the visitors and their Vamshavali. This is another huge documentation that can throw light on our linguistic heritage.
The second method is digitization in the form of text which becomes available to search engines and is the key for propagation of knowledge. Here we are faced with a major crisis. There are no proper standards developed for docu-digiting our texts. Huge font banks with have been developed by different companies who vow not to let any others be compatible with them. The Govt. owned companies play the same game. They all sell their software at huge prices when the trend all over the world is to provide free software to common users at least to a limited extent. Most of these software are not as per Unicode standards which mean that they can be uploaded on web only with hundreds of inherent problems.
It is a sad commentary that at the GoI level, no ministry, no department and no officer has the mandate to think and plan for all Indian languages as one unified issue. There is DIT (Dept of Information Technology) who disown responsibility about ANY language. The Dept of Rajbhasha has a mandate only for Hindi and the mandates for other languages rest with the respective state govt. where that language is the official language. No state Govt has any say in how the GoI omits to plan for all languages as a one unit. Incidentally, there is absolutely no department and no plans for ensuring computer- software for Sanskrit. Many alphabets used in Sanskrit, especially Vedic texts are not available in computer software. What is available is not easy to handle or compatible with the work done by some other agency in other corner of the country.
Still, one can partly thank developers of Unicode who, on their own, decided to create a standard for contemporary Indian languages (minus Sanskrit). They adopted as base some standard that was partially developed and available with BIS (bureau of Indian Standards). While so doing they also struck a blow. This may have been inadvertent, but was neither understood nor objected to by Indian experts who were attending those meetings of Unicode Consortium on behalf of GoI. The result was that the current Unicode Standard views all the 8 Indian scripts as alien to each other and there is no inter-convertibility among them. Thus a digitization of Sanskrit text of Ramayana in Devnagari cannot be instantaneously converted into Sanskrit text of Ramayana in Bengali or Gujrati. Hence the search engine told through Gujrati to find something on Ramayana will not find or show anything available on the web in other script.
In this regard, 3 aspects must be understood. The facility of instant inter-convertibility was envisaged in the BIS standard and was available in early software developed by CDAC which is a govt. company. But it was not pursued with Unicode-consortium. In future it will prove a great bottleneck to our efforts of looking at the languages in a unified manner and derive benefits there from (including cultural integration). Around the same time, the same separation was proposed for the CJK scripts (Chinese, Japanese and Korean) but the three countries dumped all their political differences and insisted on a single standard for all three scripts. Third aspect is of political will which should be prompted through seminars like this – even today if the political will at the top is exercised we can still approach Unicode Consortium to restore the advantage of instant inter-convertibility and Unified nature of Indian Languages.
I will briefly touch upon the audio-digitization. The facility of such a digitization and storage is available and being used in a big way to create audio-clip banks. But the research aspect has remained completely unattended. Two areas immediately come to mind. How to codify various intonations that are inseparable parts of any Mantra-chanting in our Shrut-tradition? Secondly, it is said that the next-gen computers will not use key-boards but direct speech to carry out instructions to the computers. It is also said that Sanskrit is a very suitable language for the same as it has codified even its Varnamala and many more Dhwani-symbols. A highly dedicated research team must start acting on this issue from the earliest day.
Lastly I urge upon those present here to appreciate the need of creating a National Repository for the literature, folk-literature, dramatics, music, sculptures and motifs available in India and eastern countries through the hundreds of languages and dialects. Their documentation should be as much a concern of western scholars as it should be of Indians and Asians.
Thanks to the organisers.
-- Leena Mehendale
Friday, July 15, 2011
For Honest Bureaucrats --the task ahead
For Honest Bureaucrats,
Today all aspects of social fabric including governance is hit by corruption, no one appears to know how to curb the omnipresent menace. If at all, a ray of hope comes from the direction in which as per people's perception, there sits an honest officer working in his small or big post. And if this honest officer is at a higher level then the ray seems a little brighter.
Is that ray of hope sufficient only to keep the perception of light alive or does it have the strength to destroy the darkness and disappointment completely? That is the main question.
Today, if a common person is asked to choose between an honest officer, who does not deliver and a corrupt officer who may deliver at cost -- but may also ruin the case if the cost is not paid – whom should the common person choose? – For common man, both the choices mean suffering only. On the other hand, if an Officer wants to claim that she/he is honest, then there could be embarrassment because today the honesty of a bureaucrat has become synonymous with inaction – whatever be the cause.
To a simple question – what is the cure for corruption?" there is a simple answer -- “honesty”. But as soon as this question touches then governmental frame work, neither the question nor its answer remain simple. They both acquire a much bigger dimension – but not in the same manner. The corruption within Government cannot be tackled by honesty alone. That corruption has a solid support of authority and arrogance which is not always available to the honest officer. It is in this presujption of support, where most of the senior, honest bureaucrats make mistake, and suffer for it.
The honest bureaucrats must understand that authority of their position is not as much a strong – enough foundation, as it is for the corrupt. Hence the honest bureaucrats will have to look beyond their own honesty and the authority given by position. They will have to nurture five more aspect within administration. Fortunately, their authority can be a useful tool for such nurturing.
These aspects are team-spirit, motivation, monitoring, training and coordination. Call it the Panchsheela of governance if you like. They are totally lacking in today's system of governance. Hence the system does not yield good results of the work done by honest officers.
Take for example, the issue of team work. It is said that in Govt. the right hand does not know what left had does. Hence no possibility of coordination or of team work. The recent terrorist attack on Mumbai and the healthy casualties suffered is an example of lack of team work.
Once I was heading an Industrial Development Corporation and we undertook a program of economic rehabilitation of devdasi women through vocational and entrepreneurial training. We were quizzed and hindered by both the departments. The department of industries kept advising that devadasis should be left for dept of women to tackle. The dept. of women kept resenting the idea that officer of another Deptt. was suggesting anything for devdasis which was 'their' domain!. They had a programme of encouraging the devdasis to get married – whereupon the dept. would give a grant of Rs. ten thousand for buying Mangalsutra.
That, according to the dept of Women was sufficient and they did not need advice or interference from anyone in Dept. of Industries to talk of economic rehabilitation, or entrepreneural development or capacity building for devadasis. For the same reason, they would also not grant any budget to our corporation to carry out those programms.
Such examples are available in all activities of Govt. more recently when there was terrorist attack on Mumbai on 26/11, there was a similar lack of co-ordination between the administration, the police, the military, the media, the hospitals etc. Which resulted in delay in ending the crisis and also the loss of precious lives of our committed police and army officials, apart from the loss of lives of many citizen.
There is a complete lack of team spirit as well as lack of recognition that some training is needed to build up team spirit. The proof of its lack is that only rarely a senior officer is ready to take up responsibility. They undoubtedly catagorize themselves as responsible but this responsibility begins only with the files coming to their desk and ends with they writing their comments and sending the file out. The responsibility remains as long as they are in the office room – once outside, it seems to end. In any case, their responsibility does nto include completion of task. Hence, if the staff under them is lacking any training – identifying such lack is also not felt as responsibility by Senior Officers. I have heard many Senior bureaucrats to say that if staff is lacking any training it is the headache of the staff and we are not there "to train the staff."n
All the middle and lower level staff in Govt. Lacks both training and motivation. The monitoring of on-going Govt. Schemes, and to rectify the errors during implementation is the prime job of the middle level offficers. In old days, when there were no computers, monitoring was rather difficult. Even then, during the post-independence era during the decades of sixties and seventies, many committed enthusiastic officers, very painstakingly designed good monitoring systems. As the number of files as well as schemes increased, those systems have become bulky, voluminious and difficult to handle manually. The computer can take care of these very effectively provided it is told in its own language, what we want to monitor. Those officers who have, with little efforts, learnt the spread-sheet type soft wares such as excel or lotus, know well that monitoring through such softwares is very easy. They effectively use such techniques for their personal data management such as monitoring of salary, loan – repayment, banck-balance. Yet, rarely I have seen them initiating their middle level officers to interheliase such techniques and prepare good data-base or monitoring system for the schemes of their Department. They neither create awareness of such possibility nor demand it, nor feel responsible.
There is yet another example of lack of coordination. Once while working in petroleum Ministry, one of my mandates was to create mass awareness for petroleum conservation. I was told not to include the topics of water conservation or electricity conservation or environmental conservation and to concentrate only on petrol conservation. Don't we spend diesel while pumping out underground water? Won't we save it if we conserved water? -- Such questions are not to be raised fo fear fo merging the turf – boundaries which are considered more sacrosanct when compared to promotion of coordination or team work. Another Officer said – we can't direct a program towards children or teenagers because they do not consume any petrol diesel or LPG.
The examples galore.
For years, I have seen all these attitudes of the honest and dishonest officers – I have been a part of the same system – a part of their fraternity. From my side I have tried some small and big experiments to introduce these five aspects. What kept up my enthusiasm throughout was one constant question – "A system which has given me my job, my professional career, some perks, some success and respect and some chance to work for the people – how much do I owe to the system towards its improvement? The same question applies to all the honest officers. They owe it not only to the system but also to the country to work for these Panchsheela. Without those, the corruption can neither be fought, nor controlled.
xxxxxx
Today all aspects of social fabric including governance is hit by corruption, no one appears to know how to curb the omnipresent menace. If at all, a ray of hope comes from the direction in which as per people's perception, there sits an honest officer working in his small or big post. And if this honest officer is at a higher level then the ray seems a little brighter.
Is that ray of hope sufficient only to keep the perception of light alive or does it have the strength to destroy the darkness and disappointment completely? That is the main question.
Today, if a common person is asked to choose between an honest officer, who does not deliver and a corrupt officer who may deliver at cost -- but may also ruin the case if the cost is not paid – whom should the common person choose? – For common man, both the choices mean suffering only. On the other hand, if an Officer wants to claim that she/he is honest, then there could be embarrassment because today the honesty of a bureaucrat has become synonymous with inaction – whatever be the cause.
To a simple question – what is the cure for corruption?" there is a simple answer -- “honesty”. But as soon as this question touches then governmental frame work, neither the question nor its answer remain simple. They both acquire a much bigger dimension – but not in the same manner. The corruption within Government cannot be tackled by honesty alone. That corruption has a solid support of authority and arrogance which is not always available to the honest officer. It is in this presujption of support, where most of the senior, honest bureaucrats make mistake, and suffer for it.
The honest bureaucrats must understand that authority of their position is not as much a strong – enough foundation, as it is for the corrupt. Hence the honest bureaucrats will have to look beyond their own honesty and the authority given by position. They will have to nurture five more aspect within administration. Fortunately, their authority can be a useful tool for such nurturing.
These aspects are team-spirit, motivation, monitoring, training and coordination. Call it the Panchsheela of governance if you like. They are totally lacking in today's system of governance. Hence the system does not yield good results of the work done by honest officers.
Take for example, the issue of team work. It is said that in Govt. the right hand does not know what left had does. Hence no possibility of coordination or of team work. The recent terrorist attack on Mumbai and the healthy casualties suffered is an example of lack of team work.
Once I was heading an Industrial Development Corporation and we undertook a program of economic rehabilitation of devdasi women through vocational and entrepreneurial training. We were quizzed and hindered by both the departments. The department of industries kept advising that devadasis should be left for dept of women to tackle. The dept. of women kept resenting the idea that officer of another Deptt. was suggesting anything for devdasis which was 'their' domain!. They had a programme of encouraging the devdasis to get married – whereupon the dept. would give a grant of Rs. ten thousand for buying Mangalsutra.
That, according to the dept of Women was sufficient and they did not need advice or interference from anyone in Dept. of Industries to talk of economic rehabilitation, or entrepreneural development or capacity building for devadasis. For the same reason, they would also not grant any budget to our corporation to carry out those programms.
Such examples are available in all activities of Govt. more recently when there was terrorist attack on Mumbai on 26/11, there was a similar lack of co-ordination between the administration, the police, the military, the media, the hospitals etc. Which resulted in delay in ending the crisis and also the loss of precious lives of our committed police and army officials, apart from the loss of lives of many citizen.
There is a complete lack of team spirit as well as lack of recognition that some training is needed to build up team spirit. The proof of its lack is that only rarely a senior officer is ready to take up responsibility. They undoubtedly catagorize themselves as responsible but this responsibility begins only with the files coming to their desk and ends with they writing their comments and sending the file out. The responsibility remains as long as they are in the office room – once outside, it seems to end. In any case, their responsibility does nto include completion of task. Hence, if the staff under them is lacking any training – identifying such lack is also not felt as responsibility by Senior Officers. I have heard many Senior bureaucrats to say that if staff is lacking any training it is the headache of the staff and we are not there "to train the staff."n
All the middle and lower level staff in Govt. Lacks both training and motivation. The monitoring of on-going Govt. Schemes, and to rectify the errors during implementation is the prime job of the middle level offficers. In old days, when there were no computers, monitoring was rather difficult. Even then, during the post-independence era during the decades of sixties and seventies, many committed enthusiastic officers, very painstakingly designed good monitoring systems. As the number of files as well as schemes increased, those systems have become bulky, voluminious and difficult to handle manually. The computer can take care of these very effectively provided it is told in its own language, what we want to monitor. Those officers who have, with little efforts, learnt the spread-sheet type soft wares such as excel or lotus, know well that monitoring through such softwares is very easy. They effectively use such techniques for their personal data management such as monitoring of salary, loan – repayment, banck-balance. Yet, rarely I have seen them initiating their middle level officers to interheliase such techniques and prepare good data-base or monitoring system for the schemes of their Department. They neither create awareness of such possibility nor demand it, nor feel responsible.
There is yet another example of lack of coordination. Once while working in petroleum Ministry, one of my mandates was to create mass awareness for petroleum conservation. I was told not to include the topics of water conservation or electricity conservation or environmental conservation and to concentrate only on petrol conservation. Don't we spend diesel while pumping out underground water? Won't we save it if we conserved water? -- Such questions are not to be raised fo fear fo merging the turf – boundaries which are considered more sacrosanct when compared to promotion of coordination or team work. Another Officer said – we can't direct a program towards children or teenagers because they do not consume any petrol diesel or LPG.
The examples galore.
For years, I have seen all these attitudes of the honest and dishonest officers – I have been a part of the same system – a part of their fraternity. From my side I have tried some small and big experiments to introduce these five aspects. What kept up my enthusiasm throughout was one constant question – "A system which has given me my job, my professional career, some perks, some success and respect and some chance to work for the people – how much do I owe to the system towards its improvement? The same question applies to all the honest officers. They owe it not only to the system but also to the country to work for these Panchsheela. Without those, the corruption can neither be fought, nor controlled.
xxxxxx
Monday, April 25, 2011
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Fuel Does Grow on Trees
Fuel Does Grow on Trees
Leena Mehendale and Ranjan Goswami
The burning of fossil fuels at the current rate is likely to create an environmental crisis. In India, bio-diesel, an alternative and renewable source of energy, is gaining momentum. Bio-diesel burns cleaner and is available from natural, renewable sources such as tree-borne oilseed and animal fats. Like petroleum diesel, bio-diesel operates in compression and ignition engines.
Blends of up to 20% bio-diesel (mixed with petroleum diesel) can be used in nearly all diesel and most storage and distribution equipment. These low-level blends (20% and less) generally do not require any engine modifications. Bio-diesel can provide the same payload capacity as diesel.
India consumes about nine million tones of petrol and 42 million tonnes of diesel, the crude import bill in the region of Rs. 1,10,000 crore. A blend of ethanol in petrol and bio-diesel in diesel will, therefore, make a big difference both in our import bill as well as in the environment impact. Bio-diesel has 10% built-in oxygen and properties that would help it burn efficiently, which would, in turn, lead to less use of fossil fuel. As a tree-based source, it would mitigate the greenhouse effects.
Jatropha curcas has been identified for India as the most suitable tree-borne oilseed for production of bio-diesel, in view of the non-edible oil available from it and its presence throughout the country. The capacity of jatropha curcas to rehabilitate degraded lands by improving the land’s water retention capacity renders it suitable for up gradation of land resources. This oil needs to be converted
to bio-diesel through a simple chemical process called trans-esterification. While large plants would be useful for centralized production, smaller plants can also be started at the village level.
Jatropha plantation on wasteland can rebuild our afforestation programme. One plant of Jatropha can offset 0.15 tonne of carbon dioxide per year. Assuming the presence of 200 plants in a hectare, a lakh hectares of wasteland planted with jatropha can fetch 27 million carbon credit points for the country.
The current annual petro-diesel consumption in the country is 40 million tones. For blending 5% bio-diesel in petro-diesel, India needs around two million tones of bio-diesel annually. By January 2006, India’s demand for petro-diesel will touch 52 million tones. For 5% blend bio-diesel, we will need 26 lakh tones of bio-diesel. The land area required for Jatropha plantation would be 2.5 million hectares. If we can further increase the use of bio-diesel to 20%, the figures projected for January 2011 are 67 million tones of petro-diesel, 134 lakh tones of bio-diesel and 13 million hectares of land.
We need to push bio-diesel in the market. The use of bio-diesel is hampered by ad hoc production and high cost that lowers demand. If we ensure steady flow of demand, it would build up sustained production and supply and bring down the cost. Farmers are not encouraged to grow Jatropha when the demand for bio-diesel is low. The vicious cycle of high price leading to low demand and non-establishment of a supply chain, which in turn results in high prices, can be broken by an assurance of steady purchase by the government, especially oil companies.
Initial incentives have been given to promote green fuels through various methods. It is proposed that a limited subsidy be given on a reducing scale for a limited period. This would help in establishing supply chains quickly.
The proposed model of subsidy envisages the purchase of bio-diesel at a landed price of Rs. 40 per litre for the first six months, then Rs. 35 for next six months and Rs. 30 for another six. There after, it may be purchased at a minimum support price of Rs. 25 per litre.
The Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) has already established a national biofuel center, with a strong website means to work as an information bank. PCRA has developed institutional linkages for research and development in the field of biofuels with Indian Oil Corporation, Delhi College of Engineering and other R&D Institutes.
What is required now is to propagate bio-diesel as a viable crop to farmers and as a viable fuel to auto users.
The Times of India (New Delhi), 01 Jul. 2005
Leena Mehendale and Ranjan Goswami
The burning of fossil fuels at the current rate is likely to create an environmental crisis. In India, bio-diesel, an alternative and renewable source of energy, is gaining momentum. Bio-diesel burns cleaner and is available from natural, renewable sources such as tree-borne oilseed and animal fats. Like petroleum diesel, bio-diesel operates in compression and ignition engines.
Blends of up to 20% bio-diesel (mixed with petroleum diesel) can be used in nearly all diesel and most storage and distribution equipment. These low-level blends (20% and less) generally do not require any engine modifications. Bio-diesel can provide the same payload capacity as diesel.
India consumes about nine million tones of petrol and 42 million tonnes of diesel, the crude import bill in the region of Rs. 1,10,000 crore. A blend of ethanol in petrol and bio-diesel in diesel will, therefore, make a big difference both in our import bill as well as in the environment impact. Bio-diesel has 10% built-in oxygen and properties that would help it burn efficiently, which would, in turn, lead to less use of fossil fuel. As a tree-based source, it would mitigate the greenhouse effects.
Jatropha curcas has been identified for India as the most suitable tree-borne oilseed for production of bio-diesel, in view of the non-edible oil available from it and its presence throughout the country. The capacity of jatropha curcas to rehabilitate degraded lands by improving the land’s water retention capacity renders it suitable for up gradation of land resources. This oil needs to be converted
to bio-diesel through a simple chemical process called trans-esterification. While large plants would be useful for centralized production, smaller plants can also be started at the village level.
Jatropha plantation on wasteland can rebuild our afforestation programme. One plant of Jatropha can offset 0.15 tonne of carbon dioxide per year. Assuming the presence of 200 plants in a hectare, a lakh hectares of wasteland planted with jatropha can fetch 27 million carbon credit points for the country.
The current annual petro-diesel consumption in the country is 40 million tones. For blending 5% bio-diesel in petro-diesel, India needs around two million tones of bio-diesel annually. By January 2006, India’s demand for petro-diesel will touch 52 million tones. For 5% blend bio-diesel, we will need 26 lakh tones of bio-diesel. The land area required for Jatropha plantation would be 2.5 million hectares. If we can further increase the use of bio-diesel to 20%, the figures projected for January 2011 are 67 million tones of petro-diesel, 134 lakh tones of bio-diesel and 13 million hectares of land.
We need to push bio-diesel in the market. The use of bio-diesel is hampered by ad hoc production and high cost that lowers demand. If we ensure steady flow of demand, it would build up sustained production and supply and bring down the cost. Farmers are not encouraged to grow Jatropha when the demand for bio-diesel is low. The vicious cycle of high price leading to low demand and non-establishment of a supply chain, which in turn results in high prices, can be broken by an assurance of steady purchase by the government, especially oil companies.
Initial incentives have been given to promote green fuels through various methods. It is proposed that a limited subsidy be given on a reducing scale for a limited period. This would help in establishing supply chains quickly.
The proposed model of subsidy envisages the purchase of bio-diesel at a landed price of Rs. 40 per litre for the first six months, then Rs. 35 for next six months and Rs. 30 for another six. There after, it may be purchased at a minimum support price of Rs. 25 per litre.
The Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) has already established a national biofuel center, with a strong website means to work as an information bank. PCRA has developed institutional linkages for research and development in the field of biofuels with Indian Oil Corporation, Delhi College of Engineering and other R&D Institutes.
What is required now is to propagate bio-diesel as a viable crop to farmers and as a viable fuel to auto users.
The Times of India (New Delhi), 01 Jul. 2005
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
