Kosi Deluge-Find Answer

Posted on September 8, 2008 by indra

I am happy to know that there is one more engineer (as Fatmi himself claimed on a TV channel) from Bihar in ministry that too in Man Mohan Singh’s cabinet. We all know the more known engineer-chief minister. I don’t know if there are others in responsible position claiming themselves proudly as engineers. I mention this because of the blaming game going on the reason of the recent breach causing Kosi deluge. I wish these engineers helped Bihar in finding the right and robust solution for the sorrow created by Kosi in future. Those in power can take help from all the available talent on the subject in India. If India is lacking the expertise, let us hire the consultants. Can the two gentlemen or ministers help rather than simply politicking as usual on this critical issue too?

Media in last fortnight has come out with a lot of information about Kosi deluge. Many reputed persons including NK Singh have written about it. Most of them relate to fixing the failure. Even the governments at the center and the state appear to be playing the blame game rather than doing the best that is possible to reduce the miseries of affected millions. One thing is but sure that even the disaster management of the country is of extremely poor standard and inefficient.

The stories of miseries of the massive population affected by the Bihar Deluge are continuously shocking the country. Many of the news are just disturbing. I knew Kosi from my geography book in childhood itself as ‘the sorrow of Bihar’. The present deluge is just unprecedented. The breach made Kosi to follow a route that it never followed for hundred odd years. Death tolls for human beings as well as cattle’s are not known and perhaps may not be known at all. The calamity affected around 40 lakh people across 16 districts and must have destroyed more than 3 lakh houses. It might be the biggest evacuation of the world for a safe location.

But beside the relief work, work must start on long-term solution.

According to one expert on flood, building a barrage and an embankment to tame the turbulent Kosi was an unimaginative response to the flood problem by the Bihar Government. “The best possible solution to the problem would be to “let such a river spread as much as possible. That is the way fertile deposits are left behind and there is moisture left on the ground as well. It is the people who need to learn to live with the traditional flooding.”

But I don’t think the advice provides the right solution. As reported, the breach in the eastern embankments of the Kosi has completely uprooted one of the largest irrigation systems in Bihar – the Kosi Irrigation Project and the extensive damage caused by the flood would result in severe droughts across nine districts of the region, if the canal system of the irrigation project were not restored. So it appears to be prudent that the Centre and the state should work to restore the irrigation project that may cost around Rs 5,000 to 6,000 crore.

Here are some suggestions on action plans that can be weighed and acted on:

· Construct the high dam (239 metre or so) at Barakshetra about 50 km within Nepal to be backed by a barrage downstream that the Central Water Commission suggested in a report to Nehru in 1956 or come out with a better engineering solution. It is surprising that with all the sufferings and losses of all these 50+ years, the project or a better alternative didn’t become the priority of the state or the central government. Today when India is having resources, it must tame the river of sorrow with an engineering solution inspire of its cost.

· Rework on the embankment with hard unimpregnable surfacing with the latest technologies and materials.

· Ensure desilting through mechanical means using latest technology and monitoring methods such as satellite imaging.

· Watchful monitoring of breaches with onset of monsoon in the catchments area when water level reaches a level prefixed level using the reliable technology.

· Use latest technologies to repair the breach promptly, and learn from other countries that have faced similar problems and developed it.

· Use FMEA and other tools to design and construct barrages, create canals for not allowing the floodwater to take new unknown route rather to take the guided route.

· Interlink Kosi at the upper end with other rives that can drain the water when the level rises.

· Create more and shortest routes for Kosi to get into Ganga.

· Prepare the whole of flood prone region to face disaster as it has been done for Tsunami on coastal side. Prepare seltzers and high points along the side of highways and expressways. Create effective disaster management organization. Fix up responsibility. Train officers and people.

I only wish the politicians don’t interfere in finding a technical solution to an engineering challenge.

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An Appeal to NRIs

Posted on September 6, 2008 by indra

I have an appeal for all those who had some education in India and are now settled or working in developed foreign countries.

·Buy one Indian small car- Hyundai i10, Maruti Suzuki’s A Star, Alto, or Tata’s Nano over and above the one or more vehicles you already own. Many opine the Americans must start liking smaller cars. At least place an enquiry with your autodealer and find out if they know about these cars and are interested in importing one for you, if the Indian companies are not having its own outlets.

·Do you visit India? Do you remember the school and institutions you attended? Do your remember the teachers you respected and loved? When you come next time, make it a point to write a letter to the principal or the teachers narrating your interest in your school, and show an interest to meet them and talk to them and students. Remember this small gesture of yours will make a lot of difference. It will be the happiest moment for your teachers. Your school will take pride. The students will love to listen you and take some tips. Try to donate some books of your choice or a PC if you can to your school.

·Do you come from a village? I know it may be inconvenient for you to live a night there after so many years in US. But please take the trouble and visit your village or any village with your close relatives and talk with the older and younger generation. Visit the village school even if you have not got through it. That is the real India that is undergoing change or needs change. The villagers will love to have you as a guest and will feel proud. May be you yourself can learn something or tell them some new things.

·Are you a religious person? Do you like to move around and visit some of the religiously important places of India? There are many in India. It gives you an idea how the common people of India had been traveling to these places from ages because of their faith. Unfortunately, because of secular bogey, the places have not developed to present standard of living. Business houses have not taken interest in building hotels and other facilities for the tourists. Why not enquire about the places you shall like to visit based on your interest, and the details of facilities? A lot of materials are available through Internet.

The appeal is not restricted to NRIs. I keep on making the similar requests to all who have come up from the rural India and smaller towns and reached a respectable position in any field of activity, but forgotten the root. We have a duty to the janambhumi (motherland)- janani janmabhumisch swargadapi gariyashi (mother and motherland is higher than heaven).

My appeal may appear to be a strange one. But I honestly feel that it will serve the countrymen without any loss to the persons addressed. Do you agree with me?

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Technology Takes over Teaching

Posted on September 5, 2008 by indra

“Guruur-Brahmaa Gurur-Vishnuh, Gurur-Devo Mahesgwarah, Gurureva Param Brahma”
There can’t be a better thing to say about the teacher on this Teachers’ Day. Teacher is Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh and Lord Parameshwara.

But teaching as profession is undergoing transformation. On one hand many reports cast doubt about the dedication of teachers to the noble profession because of their bunking schools in rural India, on the other hand digital technology such as Internet may even takeover the task of teaching ensuring thereby an equity in teaching quality.

It is not only IITs that are preparing all the lectures serially in videos that can be downloaded through Internet as and when required or heard as many times as one wants. Many more initiatives are underway to replace or at least ease the task of teachers. Almost all good private schools are using technology to make teaching easy and learning more effective.

983 Kendriya Vidyalaya schools are also trying to use IT to improve our teaching methods. Most KVS schools are connected to the worldwide web. Re-training teachers is now simple affair.

Digital Study Hall (DSH), an initiative developed by Randy Wang and Urvashi Sahni has brought a revolution in the impoverished villages surrounding Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. It’s working is simple: volunteers record the classes of teachers at top public schools in Lucknow, the recording is then copied onto a DVD, which is then sent, often through the postal system, to outlying schools in rural areas. In these schools, the DSH Foundation, along with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), has installed DVD players and televisions. Besides the students, the biggest beneficiaries of the project were actually rural teachers, who adapted teaching methods shown on the video.

MNCs such as Cisco, Intel and Microsoft as well as local biggies of IT sector such as Wipro, Infosys and many other companies are working with the government or NGOs on the education projects.

Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have become pioneers in pushing technology in a big way. MP is on the verge of equipping all 5,000-plus secondary and senior secondary schools with computer labs in a public-private partnership. Interestingly, the private player will be allowed to recoup his costs by using the labs after school hours to run a business, which could be a cybercafé or a computer-training course. It is these innovative models that can take India ahead.

Andhra Pradesh (AP) has initiated Computer-Aided Learning (CAL) that is driving students and teachers with better results. It has reduced student dropout rates and lowered faculty absenteeism. AP has trained approximately 7,000 teachers in CAL since the state tied-up with Microsoft to set up a training institute. But it is to cover approximately 74,000 schools as part of the state system in Andhra Pradesh. A long way to go!

Hughes Communication India Limited (HCIL) in association with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working on the most ambitious project to provide a comprehensive two-way audiovisual teaching mechanism under the EduSat banner. The project is imparting elementary and higher education programmes through a network of seven central studios and 800 classrooms at this moment and is benefiting over 10,000 students across the states of Chennai, Kerala, Punjab, J&K and Jharkhand.

However, India is to go miles to cover millions of students in schools and colleges in the country. The difficult task will be to cover rural schools with hardly any infrastructure or even honest teachers. I wish the governments-centre and state, the private companies and NGOs could pull all its synergies to cover all schools of the country.

On this Teachers Day, the nation must take a pledge to make education brighten the life of each and every children of the country. I can’t but mention about one unique initiative. It’s Times Group’s ‘Teach India’.

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Nano@Singur Episode: Is it end of Ego War?

Posted on September 3, 2008 by indra

West Bengal’s typical style and intensity of agitation may take away the golden opportunity for Kolkata, more correctly Singer to become the largest auto-making hub of Eastern Indiawith Tata Motors’ official declaration of its ‘working on a plan to shift the small-car plant and people to an “alternate” site, stopping one step short of executing Ratan Tata’s pullout threat’.

I fail to understand why Mamata didn’t talk to Tata Motors directly, when Ravi Kant wrote a letter appealing her. But then again why Ratan Tata couldn’t have met Mamata? Why didn’t Tata Motors with all expertise in management and negotiation ask Mamata and Buddha Babu to let it talk directly to those who owned that 400 acres of land? Perhaps unless one of the parties would have played a role of villain, Tatas would have own over the farmers or those involved in that 400 acres land. What were they afraid of? Even if they had failed, it would have made them understand the problems clearly and created a better image.

I also fail to understand why Tatas didn’t give a time limit to the agitators and the government to get the issues sorted out after which it would be free to decide the step in the interest of the company. After all it can’t wait for infinite time to get Mamata ego-based agitation to end.

But why can’t Buddha Babu in interest of the state walk up to Mamata and discuss the consequences when Tata Motors have officially decided to find alternative location? It would have made Mamata eat her pie. Let her understand that the people of West Bengal will not excuse her for the loss of Singur even in election.

It is true that Singur could have become another Gurgaon that is what it is today because of Maruti Udyog.

I wish all newspapers national as well as local of all languages published the total statement of Tata Motors to reach the people of West Bengal. The statement explains the background for the decision for going to alternate plan. But it would have given a chance to the agitator by giving a timeframe of 24 or 48 hours to lift the agitation.

Thanks to Tatas, the politicians and their followers in West Bengal may get a lesson of life. Let them understand that they can’t keep on deciding the destiny of every action of the Indians.

According to the last report, an urgent meeting may materialize today in which Mamata, Buddha, and either Ratan Tata or the senior executive from Tata Motors may find a solution for Nano@Singur in presence of the West Bengal Governor. If it happens that may be the last chance for Mamata to show her maturity and if I call it her magnanimity or statesmanship to evolve her as responsible political leader. However, unless the West Bengal shuns its typical style of agitation that too fast, Tatas may be risking making Singur the mother plant for manufacturing Nano.

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Ma (Mata) Pities People

Posted on September 2, 2008 by indra

Work on the Nano project in Singur may again start, though it has not started as on today. Mamata’s agitation has certainly delayed the Nano arrival in the market. Mamata, as reported has softened her stand. “We want immediate solution to the crisis. We are not against the Tatas.” Mamata urged the state Government not to resort to petty politics by influencing the closure of the factory. “The Government should immediately take steps to begin work at the factory.”

Perhaps the people around Mamata and the pressure from all sides against her fight for her cause in a wrong way made her a little soft. However, Mamata still does agree to withdraw her agitation or her camps around Singur’s Nano plant. She insists that the government must follow her solution.

“The government must return 400 acres of land within the factory compound to the farmers. The government can shift the ancillaries to the large patch; about 500 acres available opposite the Tata Motors factory site on the other side of the Durgapur Expressway and link it to the main plant via an underpass.” Let Mamata understand that Tata Motors may require a lot more of land if the Nano clicks well as expected in market.

Mamata must appreciate what Nano project has brought to Singur and for the people of nearby area, and what potential it holds. Can Mamata imagine the future of this plant if the people, the government and the union leadership cooperate with Tata Motors? Can Mamata think of the prosperity of the area when the plant grows to a capacity level of 1 million cars a year? Can she estimate the employment possibility of a global standard auto plant with many ancillaries having mother plants in West Bengal? Let Mamata and the people around Singur and Kolkata start thinking big. No doubt the credit for this must go to Buddha Babu, as Ratan Tata came to West Bengal only after seeing her honest interest. I wish the trade union wing of left parties could appreciate the significance of Nano Project and don’t create the union offices all around to keep on irritating the management with some or the other issues.

Let Mamata be practical and understand the ground reality that a plant of this magnitude brings.

Lives around Singur are already changing fast. The siege has dampened the dreams. For instance, let us hear Mukund Das, a staunch Trinamul supporter, who owns Moumita Electronics, in Singur Bazar, which sells radio sets to cellphone top-up cards: “On an average, I have been selling cash cards worth Rs 6,000 a day for over a year. The growth in business has been phenomenal. Sales have slumped since the siege of the Tata factory. Business is not even Rs 1,000 a day.” According to Das, everything changed in Singur since the arrival of the Tata plant.

Besides a good number of local employees of Nano plant, the Trinamool-dominated contractor syndicates supplying materials to the factory showed its displeasure with the continuing blockade and threatened to start work from Thursday if the Trinamool Congress chief refused to see reason. Someone told me that these contactors bear the expenses of Mamata’s agitations that were about Rs 2.5 lakh daily.

It all made Mamata to yield and soften. Mamata must stop this style of agitation. She can very well do that before the work on a project starts. She must not blackmail when the entrepreneurs has already put in a major part of Rs 1500 crore and it is fighting to launch the product in 2-3 months with all machine tools and equipment at site.

However, I am still of an opinion that industrial plant designers are to ponder over some innovations that can take the advantages of multilevel operations to cut down the land requirement, more so if the land is fertile for agriculture. Preferably, the government must select and create infrastructure in zones that are barren for use of industries. India certainly has a lot of it.
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Latest
Tata Motors pulls out of Singur

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IITians Go Rural

Posted on September 2, 2008 by indra

On occasion of Pan-IIT meet in Chennai, many have talked and written about IITs and IITians that is really informative. IIT-Madras has, for example, recruited over 200 faculty of whom at least a third did their bachelor’s in one of the IITs and had gone abroad to do PhDs. It is estimated that there is a pool of 60,000 PhDs from India in the US.

Surprisingly, IITians are still busy in ‘exploring areas where they can contribute to the larger cause.’ As reported, very soon a new website http://www.alumnet.iitkgpernet.in will electronically link all alumni and provide an effective platform for sharing ideas and contributing together.

Suggestions regarding the expectations from IITians are many. While one calls upon all IIT alumni to work towards evolving a good and low-cost education system, the other pleads to join the village adoption initiative. Nandan Nilekani, as author of his well documented book ‘Imagining India’ wishes IITians help in revamping the education system radically.

An Indian Institute of Technology survey says every IIT-ian has created 100 jobs and that every rupee spent on an IIT-ian has ‘created an economic impact of Rs 50 at the global level, half of which is India’s share’. Many celebrity alumni have given their own opinions on the glorious roles of IITians: ‘IIT-ians have created a global brand‘ ‘IIT-ians have brought glory to the country‘

Interestingly Pan-IIT this time has opted to focus on the India that lives in villages, according to a news report covered in prestigious ‘Business Week‘ too.

The IITs’ old boys will engage in the development of India’s 6 lakh-plus villages where over 70% of the population lives. For all you know, our IIT men may be able to address village-level problems before the truant politician does. And in the bargain, some of them may hopefully take to politics!

I wish both IITs and IITians can look into the ways and means to transform the rural India as priority because of its being away from the media galore. The coverage of rural India in the print and digital is extremely inadequate. While IITs must create technologies such as an extra low cost water filters, room coolers and refrigerators that can help the rural India to improve the quality of life, IITans must help in building and upgrading the existing rural schools with setting up a creativity centre, a library in each school or by getting the school teachers trained in computer and English language. It can start with a simple step of visiting a village school by every IITians and talking with the students there. If IITians focus on the single issue of universalizing the education, a good education, the rest may come automatically. I am sure if each IITian has created 100 jobs, each IITian can also help get a rural school upgraded to the desired standard. I wish the government agrees to name the school after the IITian, if it helps.

While I was going through the Business Week, I found another article in Business World ‘The Real Nation Builders’ that says, ‘As IITians bring global glory, bright engineers from lesser-known institutes build the country.’ The glory is not restricted to IITs and IITians.

Many things are happening in IITs that the IITians of yester years find interesting.

PS: ‘PAN IIT-2008’ – PM’s inaugural address “In the last six decades the IIT system has produced over 170,000 graduates. It is generally estimated that about a third or more of these alumni have found opportunities in other countries where they are universally acknowledged to be leaders in their fields of endeavour.”

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Nano@Singur: Update

Posted on September 1, 2008 by indra

It is ninth day of Mamta’s agitation. Barkha Dutt’s ‘We, the People’ on NDTV 24×7 this Sunday could make some of the best people on the subject discuss the Nano and Singur. The crowd included Meghnad Desai, Tarun Das, Harish Salve, Sunita Narayan, Anuradha Talwar, and many invitees some representing next generation from Kolkata too. One thing was almost agreed that Mamata must go for dialogue, and Nano project must come up fast.
In response to West Bengal Governor Gandhi’s bid to end the stalemate, to call off the agitation and hold talk with the state government for ending the agitation, Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee sent a group to talk to governor and on their report has agreed for talk with the government, but will not withdraw agitation.

According to West Bengal Industry Minister Nirupam Sen said quoting a ruling from the Supreme Court, “Legally, it is not possible to return the land acquired under Land Acquisition Act.”

And Pranab Mukherji, the senior most minister of Man Mohan Singh government from West Bengal said, “Who will invest in which state is a matter between the state government and the investor? It is not possible for the Centre to take any initiative on this issue.’ ”We are opposed to the shift of investment made in Singur and industry to other states,” said PR Dasmunshi reiterating that the Centre would not take any responsibility in bailing out West Bengal on the issue. All these smell as political statements. How can a responsible government at the center be not responsible to take initiative to help solve a problem of national importance?

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee reiterated again, “When (Mamata) Banerjee has failed to understand that ancillary industries and the mother plant must be together or else Nano cannot roll out from Singur, it’s no point in showing any logic to her.” “Banerjee says the government has illegally acquired land at Singur. But it is she who has put up a dais on the National Highway-2 (NH2), which is illegal, and clogged the entire road.” Why can’t he walk up to Mamta’s camp office in Singur and tell her to withdraw agitation so that work at the Nano’s plant can start immediately? Why are their egos allowed to worry the whole nation?

Work at the factory got stopped since Friday. The employees are not turning up due to threats by the agitators and the blockade. Tatas will not like to start work with agitation on. Let both Mamata and Buddha spare Nano plant from the West Bengal style of labour agitations. Neither Sunita Narayan nor Anuradha Talwar has any experience of the way the union creates disruptions in companies in West Bengal. If Bengal is not ready to change their ways, Ratan Tata must mend his wrong decision to get the mother manufacturing plant of Nano set up in Bengal.

Kolkata’ s Intellectuals that are basically left-leaning have reacted. For instance, Sunil Ganguly, the litterateur says, “I’ve been waking up to this nightmare far too long. Enough is enough. It makes me angry, too.” Author Amit Chaudhuri, the author of Afternoon Raag, and working at University of East Anglia in the UK remarked, “It ought to end next week. Or it will be a pretty bad prognosis for the state’s industrialization. It seems to me that she (Mamta) doesn’t have any clear, workable plan or solution – either short or long term.” Filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta considers the movement as “anti-people.” “I do know it for a fact that the land-losers for whom Mamata is fighting want her to sit across the table and seek a good rehabilitation package for them. Why doesn’t she talk?” Stage personality Chandan Sen, a former Mamata follower sounded worried “What’s going on in Singur? We certainly don’t support it. Doesn’t Mamata realize that the state needs the Tatas and all the investment?” Actor and retired professor N Viswanathan said, “We certainly don’t want the Tatas to go -this state needs a high dose of industrialization. But there is little hope because Mamata isn’t the type to talk. She would rather pace up and down a dharna mancha.” Elocutionist Bratati Bandyopadhyay remarked on Friday, ” An entire generation will suffer if the Tatas go, blackening the image of the state.”

Now people are reacting in usual Bengal’s way that I know. More than 16,000 people have signed up in less than a day for a campaign in the state’s tech hub against Mamata Banerjee’s siege in Singur. “Mamta Didi plz don’t stop Bengal’s development,” read one of the messages on the 100ftX5ft sheet where passersby in Salt Lake’s Sector V were struggling to find space to put in their names this evening. And the messages read as: “We want industrialization and the state’s development.” “One must understand that no industry will come to Bengal in future if the Tatas are driven out.” “We felt it was our duty to take part in the campaign.” “Let us all support Project Nano.” Teachers, housewives and students traveled to Sector V from as far away as Howrah to pen their signatures and comments in support of industrialization.

However, I wish the younger generation of Kolkata and surrounding area including students and housewives in large number on own would have gone to Mamta at Singur on Sunday and appeal to her to withdraw the agitation against Nano’s project immediately. She is putting the whole nation to disgrace.

I appeal Mamata not to let Naxalistes enter the scene and dominate.
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Nano: Plan B off Singur

Posted on August 30, 2008 by indra

In last fifty plus years West Bengal has not changed, not even a little. At least whatever has happened between yesterday and today proves that. In morning, a group of agitators, some call them naxlites, stopped and threatened the workers and officers going inside the factory of Tata Motors that is coming up in Singur fast to manufacture the most innovative car ‘Nano’. In evening, workers coming out traveling in 4-5 buses were stopped and intimidated. They had to stay inside. Tata decided to suspend the work and to evacuate its manpower from the plant keeping their safety and security in view. Engineers, executives and technocrats including about 500 construction workers didn’t come to work next day. As such the number of workers attending the plant had dropped drastically. Attendance has been gradually decreasing ever since the agitation started. Ultimately, Tata Motors has stopped work in Singur, and are waiting for the settlement between the leadership of agitators and the government.

CII condemned, ‘The Nano project had caught the attention of the world and showcased India’s potential as a small car-manufacturing hub’. Top industry leaders: Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Mittal, Jamshyd Godrej, Gautam Thapar, Venu Srinivasan apart from K V Kamath, President of CII warned that the country would suffer a big setback if Tata Motors was forced to withdraw the small car project from West Bengal.

Buddha is mum waiting in vain to get the problem solved. He has already been reprimanded for his remarks about the right of strike. It has been left for the CPM secretary to appeal Mamta to break the stalemate. The state government is renewing its appeal for a peaceful settlement of the Singur imbroglio. The Centre with help of Amar Singh could have helped, but its ministers are having different opinions with Kamalnath infavour to help resolve the issue and Sibal as well PR DasMunsi against it. And economist turned politician Man Mohan Singh will hardly take any initiative after the recent humiliation by left leadership. For the politicians, unfortunately, Nano project hardly matters.

Mamta reaffirmed her faith in peaceful agitation with no violence, but at the same time she showed her disinclination to take responsibility of individuals who might have threatened. And this is what the leaders fail to appreciate before starting an agitation. In a country with millions without work and many millions not interested in working, the starting an agitation is easy, as it becomes a tamasa. But controlling the violence and intimidation is difficult. Mamta can’t shirk away her responsibility for the individual’s lapses. Why can’t she organize agitation in Kolkata instead of blocking the expressway? Perhaps as usually it happens, she has stopped hearing the call of time or she has gone mad because of her allusive mass support. One can’t hope of any change in her. Perhaps, even Mayawati is better than her.

Plan B: Media has started guessing about Plan B for Nano if Singur plant doesn’t start production because of the obstruction caused by the agitation of Mamata and her men and if Leftist government under Buddha can’t find a solution fast.
As reported, Tata Motors have started working on a Plan B for the Nano and is gearing up to roll out a couple of thousand units a month from its Pantnagar plant in Uttarakhand. As reported, the paint shop for ACE can meet the requirement for Nano. Sheet metal panels can come from the other plants of Tata Motors and vendors. I don’t know if Tata Motors has farmed out the main components of power train or is trying to produce in-house. For the volume of Nano, it is normally planned in-house. However, it all depends on the number of dedicated and flexible machine tools and equipment planned in manufacturing process. For the body shop, main jigs are dedicated. Tata Motors will have to build a second one or shift one at Singur. Any shifting of equipment and machinery from Singur will be resisted and make the problem more difficult. Trim and final assembly can easily start at Uttarakhand plant on the same conveyor line. As it appears from the visuals of the plant, a lot of work is still to be done. Most of the vendors might have been planning to supply initially from the existing plants. If Tata Motors decides and manages the shift well, the loss at present will mainly be that of the cost of buildings and land.

As it appears West Bengal is not changing its work culture because of the same old mindsets of the union leaders, be they from any party. It will be much better if Tata Motors decides to shift. The plant at Singur can remain as one of the plants for high volume Nano, but not the mother plant.

Even if somehow the Nano plant comes up in Singur, the so-called union leaders of different hues will keep on creating problems that will not allow the plant to operate at global productivity level. I can’t but get reminded of the days of Hindustan Motors and its labour problems, where I got assaulted as I followed what was right for the workmen and the company. The union representatives will not allow getting a new machine improving production and quality started. It will demand incentive norms without following any industrial engineering norms. It will not allow multi-skilling. If one union will agree, the other will oppose. Perhaps I must write the reminiscences of those days.

I am sure Tata Motors must have a strategy to overcome this shameful situation created by politicians’ ego and well supported by so-called activists. However, Nano must come and come fast.
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R&D: India as global hub

Posted on August 29, 2008 by indra

Many opine that India is racing ahead to become a global hub for advanced R&D in several industries. According to Wadhwa’s article, ‘How the disciple became the guru‘ in Harvard International Review, ‘the Indian private sector has found a way to overcome deficiencies in its education system through innovative programs of workforce training and development. These have transformed workers with a weak educational foundation into R&D specialists.’

Based on Wadhwa’s data, China’s performance in creating the manpower for R&D is far superior. China is rapidly graduating more Masters and PhDs in engineering. In 2005, it graduated 63,514 Masters and 9427 PhDs in engineering, exceeding corresponding US numbers: 53,549 and 7,720, respectively.

India’s graduation numbers is comapratively unimpressive: 18,439 Masters and fewer than 1,000 PhDs in engineering. In fact, India wasn’t graduating enough PhDs to meet the growing staff requirements of its universities.

If workforce training can take the output of an education system as weak as India’s and turn its graduates into world-class engineers and scientists, imagine what could be done with a worker base that has received the best education comparable to USA too.

Many things are happening in education sector, particularly in education for engineering and technologies.

The number of IITs is getting doubled with Patna and Punjab already started this year.

IITs are trying to add more and more Ph.Ds. In 2007-08, the IIT-Powai (Mumbai) is expecting at least 210 doctoral students to graduate as against 152 doctoral students received PhDs a year ago. Interestingly, of the 1,351 PhD fellows on the rolls at IIT-B, 209 are working professionals.

Even IIT-Delhi saw 140 PhD degrees this year. The current enrolment for IIT-D for undergraduate programmes is 2,407 while for post-graduate programmes, it is 1514, 216 for MBA and 1171 for PhD programmes.

Other IITs and institutes of excellence must be putting in similar increasing number of PhDs.

Quantitatively, the number of engineering colleges has reached the desired level, but the quality of education and thus the employability of the graduatuing students must improve. Efforts are on for the same.

Pete Engardio in his article ‘India: R&D Stronghold‘ in ‘Business Week’ confirms that India’s offshore R&D centers are booming, despite spiraling wages.

According to a study by Zinnov, a consulting firm that helps multinationals craft global product-development strategies, India’s R&D scene is not only still gaining momentum, it’s also becoming more strategically important. This is happening even though the average cost per employee rose 16.2% annually in the past three years.

Offshore R&D has mushroomed into a $9.35 billion annual industry, Zinnov reports, and is growing at a 23% annual clip. By 2012, the firm predicts, this business will reach $21.4 billion. The findings are based on interviews with senior managers of 120 India-based R&D centers of foreign companies.

The key drivers are multinationals. Roughly two-thirds of the work is done at R&D centers owned by tech giants such as Cisco, Motorola, General Electric, and Hewlett-Packard, as well as a growing number of small- and midsize U.S. companies. The number of such foreign-owned centers has surged from 180 in 2000 to 594 this year.

What’s more, the India R&D bases of multinationals increasingly are becoming the leading sites for developing particular products sold globally, whether they be new chips, software packages, or telecom devices. That means they often are responsible for all of the engineering, strategic direction, and even the profits and losses of a product line. Currently, 10% of offshore centers have “full ownership” of product lines, Zinnov estimates. By 2012, that will reach 30%.

Since 2000, U.S. patents awarded to inventors filing from India rose more than fivefold, to around 550 a year.

India’s R&D workforce is steadily gaining the experience to produce innovation.

As I understand from the Google alert on R&D in India, every day, some thing new is happening. Microsoft inaugurated its new India Development Centre (MSIDC) in Hyderabad that is its largest outside of USA. US slow down is becoming boon for India.

And it is happening in many areas. According to VG Ramakrishnan, director, automotive & transportation practice, Frost & Sullivan, “the Indian automotive engineering services outsourcing industry is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 32% (CAGR) by 2012-13. The industry has generated revenues to the tune of $500-600 million last year and there is $2.2 billion potential outsourcing opportunity in the next two years,”

And look at the potentials. The top 15 OEMs and system providers taken together spent close to $60 billion on engineering, and research and development (R&D) last year. Globally, the spent on research and development (R&D) in the automotive sector spent is about $130-140 billion.

Are the engineers-in-making listening? They needn’t go for MBA, if they have engineering aptitude. A bright future awaits them.

India might not be at the top of medals list at Olympics, but why can’t it at the top in R&D and innovations?

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Sun and Rivers Powering India

Posted on August 29, 2008 by indra

India must cross through the Indo-US Nuclear Deal through NSG and US Senate fast. But nuclear power plants will take time to come up. India will have to live with coal-based power plants. It must make it as much cleaner as possible with technology upgradation. With all seriousness, India must also explore every possible avenue to get over its power shortages. Alternatively, it must stop dreaming to become globally important economy.

India has two other resources in plenty that can meet its power requirement easily, if executed intelligently. Both have one unique advantage that it doesn’t create waste in process of electricity generation. First is naturally sunlight. The second to me is smaller (3-10 MW) hydel power plant that will not require dislocation of people living in hinterland, and so will n’t have the usual objections from local people.

“Scientists long ago calculated that an hour’s worth of the sunlight bathing the planet held far more energy than humans worldwide could use in a year.” Though ‘the first practical devices for converting light to electricity were designed more than half a century ago’, the challenge for the scientists and technocrats remains alive. The technology requires some real revolutionary breakthrough to make it substitute for fossil fuel generated electricity. Can India prove its low-cost innovation skills by using its solar and river potentials to the best?

Anand Mahindra, CEO, Mahindra &Mahindra in the leader article ‘Harvest The Sun‘ in Times of India on 23 Aug 2008 raises certain queries and expects India to think big in fixing the target for solar power generation.

The National Action Plan on Energy recently released by the prime minister sets a goal to increase production of photovoltaics to 1,000 MW per year. The solar mission targets 10,000 MW installed capacity by 2020. Why can’t India think bigger?
According to expert’s estimate, dedicating just 0.3 per cent of India’s land area for solar power through Solar Thermal Electricity Generation (STEG) could meet our entire electricity needs. A one-megawatt solar plant running continuously at full capacity can power 778 households each year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

According to Mr. Mahindra, STEG technology consists of curved mirrors that concentrate sunlight onto a receiver tube to heat a working fluid flowing through it. The remaining part of the plant is very similar to a conventional power plant.

Solar energy payback is merely five months compared to a useful life of more than 25 years. Most importantly, STEG technology is the only solar technology that provides “firm” power and allows plants to dispatch power when demanded.
But STEG costs between Rs 7.50 and Rs 17 per kWh compared to Rs 1.40 for certain coal-based plants. In India, many consumers have to use captive power plants to back for outages. The installed capacity of captive power plants in India is more than 20,000 MW, approximately 40 per cent of which are based on diesel generator (DG) sets. The real cost of generation of diesel power comes to around Rs 17/kWh adding the subsidy component. So while STEG may cost more compared to conventionally generated power, these costs are competitive with peak load power costs generated by DG sets.

However, with ongoing researches, the US Department of Energy estimates the cost of STEG power generation to come down to Rs 1.50-2.50/kWh in the next 15 years, which would be comparable to conventional power. Research priority in India must include solar power technologies. Mr. Mahindra suggests India to put all plans on the fast track, and become STEG technology leaders and suppliers to the world.

India is gifted with plenty of water resources from Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh that can generate electricity. Other states have also many rivers. The estimated potential of small hydropower- micro-mini and small hydro schemes up to three-mw capacity, in India is about 15000 MW or more. Unfortunately, India is moving very slow on small hydel power projects. One of my friends was behind one such project near Manali that is now in operation. As I foresee one can create many small power generation facilities on a single water stream. Some are already being set up. Dharmshala Hydro Power Ltd is setting up two mini hydel power plants in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. In the first project, a 7.7-mw and another 5-mw.

Prof V.K. Damodaran, an energy consultant on UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation) Mission suggests India to take small hydropower sector seriously and to emulate China’s policies of small hydropower units. China, according to him, adds up to 6,000 MW of small hydropower capacity every year and the total installed capacity from this source should be about 50,000 MW. From 2010, the country hopes to add 10,000 MW of small hydropower capacity every year. It has estimated its potential at 1,50,000 MW of which it believes it can realise at least 1-lakh MW.

Why should India talk of only big huge projects, when a number of successful small hydropower units are operative even in a backward state of Bihar on Sone Eastern Main Canal? Why is India hesitating in taking this course? As my friend told me, ‘the private sector and small entrepreneurs can help building the small hydropower plants. However, the bureaucratic delay and corruption takes away all the charm.’

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