UN-TOUTING THE RAILWAYS

Whenever one enters our National capital's railway station, one cannot escape the glimpses of touts selling tickets without any fear of a police standing all around the railway station. Recently, as we all know that our Indian Railways has adopted a good method to tackle this tout's menace by compulsory carrying of ID proofs. But, I was shocked how still these touts are thriving at New Delhi railway station ? This made me intrigued about how these touts manage to get tickets for you, with the same name of demanding customers. And I have got the answer.

It is very simple to understand. I hope many of you know that we have current reservation facility at most of our prominent stations where tickets are booked immediately in case of availability. These tickets are issued just an hour before the departure of the train. And this is a biggest loophole. As we all know that the charts are prepared around 3 hours before the departure of train. So once chart is prepared the position of the seats of the travelers stand by the same as it appears on the chart. In these two hours (3 - 1) between chart preparation and issuing of tickets at current reservation facility, there are many travelers who cancel their tickets in which some are those who have confirmed tickets too. These cancelled tickets along with the remaining confirm tickets yet to be booked if there, are put on sale by railways just 1 hour before the train departure. This is an opportunity for these touts to drive their business. There is unholy nexus of the ticket counter clerks and these touts which make such kind of corruption possible. The train ticket counter clerks pass information of the train tickets to these touts on demand basis and have a fixed amount of money they charge from touts and this amount is not small bucks but amount as good as around 50% of the ticket fare. Within these two hours this unholy work happens without any check. There are instances when the tickets are available for particular train on IRCTC site after chart preparation i.e. 3 hours before train departure but they are siphoned off before the 1 hour time limit of ticket issuing.

This kind of current reservation system is not only promoting corruption and making these touts to run their business but also injustice to the people travelling with RAC or waiting tickets. Railways should go away with this system of issuing just before an hour but instead just start it after chart preparation. The digital display at counters should show real time data of each train tickets which are cancelled on real time basis in those 3 hours, so that people can purchase tickets without these touts.

Other thing that railways can do is that send an SMS to the passengers travelling by RAC and waiting tickets in that 3 hours in case their ticket has been confirmed because of the cancellation of confirmed tickets by other passengers. My honest advice to Railways is to use IT effectively in the service of the nation and its citizens.

What an Ideal population policy should be ?? - 1

Disclaimer : This blog is not to offend any parent having single child but definitely want to provoke an idea logically - "Why two not one" is an ideal population policy for any country. It has two parts. your opinion is always welcome.

Recently I was reading a book “Imagining India” by Nanden Nilekani , where he talked very elaborately about china's population policy and he mentioned that currently in China, according to an estimate that most of Children in China have no cousins. Currently, in China most of the families have 4-2-1 structure  where a child(1) has parents (2) and two pairs of grandparents (4). Since child has no siblings and no uncle and Aunts, all the family members look upon that single child, care him/her, pamper him/her up to all extent, because he/she is the one on whom they are dependent in their old age.  Because of such family structure, it will become a big social and economic problem in China. If we look at country level, now China’s demographic dividend window has been closed and their population is aging at faster rate, and by 2040, they have largest no. of old age people in the world and it is very high (around 40%) percentage of their population. This will not only add burden to their economy but also will impact their military power. By 2040, India strategically will have enormous advantages in comparison to China. Economy wise, Companies will shift their base to the India because they need young labour and plus India itself is a big market for their goods. Militarily, Indian army will be the youngest and largest army in the world by 2040, which will add muscle to our strategic interests worldwide.  

Recently, China has tried to amend its population policy by allowing their citizens to have two babies in case their first child is girl. We must be aware of the fact that Chinese society is as patriarchal society as that of India. There are also equal no. of Female foeticides happen every year because of male child preference. But blame of female foeticides also goes to their one child policy, since because of government's strict policy, people prefer to keep one male child than a female one. China’s sex ratio is much worse that of India.  Though Government has changed their policy but now the young generation in china don’t want to have more than one child. Reason are many. As they haven’t seen their parents or society to have more than one child, it has been mentally stuck in the psyche of the young Chinese generation not to have more than one child and sometimes no child. Other reasons could be that with the economic boom, when both couple go out for a work, they hardly think of having child – Remember Vicky donor :) . Other reason is that the cost of living is rising in China , since the cost of energy and food is spiraling worldwide, but the labour class in china is still not adequately compensated because of government’s labour regulations which favours the factory owners who exploit these workers in order to keep their products cost competitive in the world. The China’s model of export led growth in actually now hampering their economy and has led to mass unrest at many places in china, though we don’t get to know these news because of State controlled media and highly censored media regime. So for a labour class it is hard to think of having more child. Thirdly, most of the Cities in China are located near South China sea and there is mass exodus of labour from interior of china to these SEZs and cities. The Hukou system in China discourages this labour class to keep their families along with them and the whole burden of caring their child comes on mother’s shoulder  who stay in villages. This also discourages the labour class to go for more child.

Because of all above factors, there are new kind of crimes is on rise in China, one most prominent is that of new borns' abduction. The Chinese law also has been lenient towards these abductors, if the child who has been abducted is being treated properly and if the abductors don’t create any obstacles during rescuing of the child. One child policy has led to put complete burden of family on a single child. There has been found that the child having no siblings have more likely to develop individualistic, selfish, arrogant and non-cooperative attitude. There is more probability of having mental and personality disorders in such children. And there is also more likely that these children become victim of drug abuse and other wrongful activities. All these boils down to the most important fact that in many cases, a single child won’t able to appreciate the family values, since he misses lot of companionships like his/her sibling during their childhood with whom he/she can share his/her emotions, will play together, fight together and have lot of beautiful memories of childhood. He/she misses the care of his/her Uncles and aunts and memories with their nearest cousins. The fault here lies not with the child but it lies in their parents who could not able to think of such consequences which may occur with their child. According to G. Stanley Hall, a psychologist, professor and the first president of the American Psychological Association - "Being an only child is disease in itself." One may not concur with him because his views are based on his research in Western society which is not true in current Indian context but his views will have validity in future as our society is also heading towards more and more westernization.

This part of a blog is to reflect upon the problems which are emerging or most likely to emerge in future. My comparison with China is to address those Indians who believe that one child policy is good is actually not. 

What should be an ideal population policy?? I will discuss it in next part.

MNC Syndrome

Today Development is synonymous to Urbanization  All the developed countries of the world are urbanized with very less rural sector and In India urbanization has gained the pace after 1991 reforms but still our rural dominates. Indian way of Urbanization has many problems associated with it which we call Urban Sprawl because this urbanization is going on in an unplanned manner. We find a rise in the formation of slums in our cities, a traffic mismanagement and snail speed of infrastructure development in urban areas in comparison to the increase in urban population. Malthusian thought related to population seems to be valid for Indian cities though the context here is not food but the infrastructure.  This is one side of the problem of Urbanization which is the topic of discussion for many debates. But we often forget the other one.

When I was in Bangalore, I had observed one peculiar kind of emerging feature which I would call a problem in the Indian context. I found that most of my neighbours were either bachelors or only couples. I have seen rare instances where the parents of a bachelor or couple stay with them. Whenever parents visit their homes, they are often treated as guests and even parents feel the same because for them Bangalore is totally a new experience where they know none but their children. Usually parents stay for few days and then go to their respective places because they get bored in a new city where they know none and its culture is not in sync with their culture which we call youth culture (pub culture) and since their children go for work, they keep on waiting for their child to come back from office while sitting idle. In Bangalore the holidays means “going home” for maximum number of professionals working in the big MNCs. And again when they visit their home, they are treated as guest by their family because parents think that their child has come after long time for few days, so not to engage him in any mundane family activities. So finally we have become guests in our own family. This kind of feature actually is taking a shape of big social problem. Parents are away from their children always have tension about their children and similarly the vice versa. Today parents also don’t want to interfere in their ambitious child’s life and feel that their son/ daughter is happy, so they are happy too. The rise of American kind of family structure where parents stay away from their children is rising in India and I would call it a big “MNC syndrome”.  I get to know from my friend that one of his friends, who stay in Delhi is staying away from their parents who also stay in Delhi. The reason is not that they have conflict but the working boy wants to stay independently in which their parents have no problem. Such kind of trend is going to rise, because Indians have peculiar habit of imitating others.

In Indian context, where family has been part of the societal structure is vanishing slowly. We should be aware that America is facing lot of social problems because of absence of strong family structure like we have in India. There have  been lot of divorces, which is severely impacting the psychology of the children of the divorcees, led to the rise in personality or mental disorders and rise in shootings by children who are mentally ill. Do we want to see the repeat of such happenings in India too? I would say no. But now India is also witnessing the huge rise in divorce cases, some call it a sign of women empowerment or rise of women’s voice which up to certain extent is true but not in all cases. Divorce in cases where there is use of physical or mental torture by man against woman is justified but now it seems that the American kind of trend is visible in divorce cases too which are gender neutral. This is only because of the weak family structure and this is more prominent in the places where more and more nuclear families are coming up. The severe impact of such kind of urbanization is on the next generation who don’t able to experience the love and care of their grandparents and also they don’t able to appreciate the family values because of their very less interaction with their cousins, aunts and Uncles.

Why this kind of family restructuring is happening? Who is responsible? The main reason behind such kind problem emerging is the ghettoization of MNCs at one or few places. The government always has tendency to promote investment of MNCs in the Hubs say IT hubs like Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.  Because of formation of hubs it is leading to not only spiraling up of the real estate prices but also lead to the creation of slums and other infrastructure problems. The companies’ establishment charges are going high because of the increasing rate of rents and cost of infrastructure. Because of migrating population, the rents of houses are also high in all these places. This kind of promotion of investment is leading to increase in economic disparities among states and also led the social problem which, I have discussed. This is truly a MNC syndrome which is impacting both – economic and social problem. I don’t want to deviate too much from my discussion and coming to the point how we can stop such kind emerging social problem, which is threatening the family culture of our country, where still people value relations more than money.

The solution is simple. Take an example of IT industry. Government should promote the investment of IT industry in tier 2 and tier 3 cities in every state where still very few companies exist. With the increasing demand of higher education, there are lot of engineering and MBA colleges have opened in every state but still companies who come there for placement and recruit them for Bangalore or Hyderabad locations. I would like to give the example of Gwalior , from where every year thousands of engineering and MBA students graduate every year but still Gwalior has very few IT companies around it. Gwalior has decent medical facilities, decent schooling and also rent and cost of living are comparatively very cheaper compared to Bangalore and Hyderabad. It will be very cost effective venture for any IT company to open its branch there. Government which has recently made 2% of profit as compulsory CSR under new companies’ bill, I would suggest there should be provision that companies who set up their venture in backward in terms of number of companies, their some part of investment will be considered as their CSR. This move will definitely make companies especially IT companies to think to invest in such areas since IT industry can be run independent of location, it only needs is an internet connection. Government should also expedite the laying of optical network or Wi-fi network all over the country in order to remove hurdle for IT companies, so that their they expand their reach.

The impact of such kind of investment manoeuvring by government will help in solving the emerging MNC syndrome. The children will stay near to their home or at their home. They don’t have to move for opportunity out of their state or their city or town. This will also help in strengthening the old age policy of the government, since children will take care of their parents at old age. Finally, a person has job, parents and family all at same place.  

People’s President Vs Political President

Our Preamble starts with these noble words, “We the people”. But in the past 60 years, we have forgotten this phrase in the nuisance of political juggle. Anna Hazare’s movement has tried to ascertain the phrase,” We the people of India” once again. We can make our rulers to think twice while imposing anything on us. It is not the same India which was passive recipient and mostly dormant in the Political decision making but this is an active India which is willing to express its will and can agitate and fight for its participation in any decision making by our representatives.

India is again going to participate in once-in-5 year ritual of presidential elections where again our political masters try to put someone his/her favorite on this post without any exemplary credentials. And the People have a notion that the President of this country is just a puppet of central government who can’t even breathe without the advice of our Prime minister. In perspective of a common man, yes he can’t do anything in policy making because of our constitutional limitations but this post is made by our constitution makers to provide stability at the centre in times of constitutional crisis. Our founding fathers had no confusion about the form of government which we Independent Indians are going to adopt. It was decided by majority in constituent assembly to adopt Parliamentary form of government because of our familiarity with such a system. That is the reason why they made the Presidential post as a ceremonial post in order to avoid two power centers at the Union level and this is the reason why they have made the provision of indirect elections for Presidential elections, so that the Parliament has control over this post and will not become dictatorial in future. Article 61 is one check on any dictatorial tendencies and all this arrangement was done in the time frame when we were an amateur democracy and we wanted stable centre for the development and to maintain the unity and integrity of the nation. The president is the national symbol just like the Monarchs of England.

The role of the President is to ensure the smooth division and separation of powers of legislature, executive and Judiciary because the appointments of Prime minister, Chief justice and all other important persons like CEC, UPSC chairman and other constitutional bodies is done under the President’s Seal. Suppose we have no President post then it will create whole lot of chaos and subjugate the independent functioning of judiciary and other constitutional posts. How?? If there is no president then CJI and Judges have to take oath either from an executive or legislature, it implies it undermines the position of CJI. In that case executive or legislature might give directions to judiciary which may not be in national interest. The independent working of CEC is ensured by constitution because he reports directly to the president but not to the legislature or executive. The pardoning power of president confirms his higher position than the Supreme Court under Article 72. Though now the clemency petition is under judicial review but it cannot circumvent the authority of President under constitution. It is only questioning the delay occurred by the President in taking decisions of these mercy petitions in order to uphold right against double jeopardy of the clement.

Dr. Rajendra Prasad had raised the issue whether President should always follow the advice of the council of minister headed by PM under article 74. Our constitutional debate shows that Dr. B R Ambedkar had positively remarked that the President cannot act contrary to the advice of the Cabinet as his position is similar to that of English Monarch. Constitutional makers deliberately did not mention any compulsion on adherence of advice given by the cabinet because our founding fathers wanted a harmonious relationship between President and the PM. Both should enjoy each other trust and confidence which will become the precedence for future governments. Nehru and Prasad both had shown maturity in establishing strong conventions for this relation apart from one – two controversies like Somnath temple visit. This relation got soured with the application of national emergency during Indira regime, in order to usurp all authority she had brought 42nd Constitutional amendment which made the advice compulsive over president. This led to start of Rubber stamp president which gave a dead blow to this post. The post whose image was fortified by Dr. Prasad and Dr. Radhakrishnan by their vision and maturity was then in shambles.

44th Constitutional amendment had tried to restore some dignity to the post by giving power of reconsideration to the President. This power of reconsideration now acts as a watchdog over any irrational decision making by the government. This creates a lot of awareness among the people through Media which highlights why our President has returned back the XYZ bill? It highlights the reservations of the President which are in national interest and will keep the executives on their toes. Dr. Kalam had returned back the office of profit bill for reconsideration which created a full debate and awareness among the people that how our representatives are trying to pass this bill to save their neck being axed due to holding offices of profit. Dr. Kalam had asked the Parliament to make comprehensive criteria for office of profit rather than using ad-hoc approach. Similarly in 1997, democratically elected government of Kalyan singh in UP was saved when Dr. K R Narayanan sent back the union government proposal of imposing president rule in UP under article 356. He not only saved the country from constitutional crisis by the misuse of Art. 356 but also strengthened the democratic spirit in the states which were earlier at the mercy of the central govt.

Dr. Giani Jail Singh had correctly raised the use of Article 78 which confirms power to the president to call the Prime minister to know about his cabinet working and the policy decision of the government and also President can ask prime minister to have discussion over the matter which president deems fit in national interest and was not already discussed in cabinet. This power can be used by President to caution the government over decision making and to check whether government is running in accordance with the constitution or not. Use of pocket veto by Dr. Giani Jail Singh over controversial Indian postal bill which had the provision of “empowering central and state government to interrupt, detain and dispose any postal article in the interest of public safety and security of India” is one of his great contribution. This bill was unconstitutional as it was against the right to privacy and right to freedom of expression and secondly this bill could be used by the party in power to target their opponents. The bill finally lapsed and it was not brought up again by any future governments.

In the era of coalition politics his role has become more crucial because whenever there is a hung parliament, he has the discretion to call any party to form the government and to ask them to prove their majority within limited time frame. He/she usually follows standard conventions made by his/her predecessors. Due to defection and other political tussles among the parties, President has to keep watch over the strength of the government whether they are enjoying the confidence of the house or not. He cannot adhere to the advice of the cabinet to delay the summoning of the house more than 6 months because this action of the government would be against the decorum of the constitution. The President has all the right to skip the portion of the presidential speech which is made by the cabinet, if he/she defers with the policy decision of the government.

All this shows that our president is not mere a ceremonial post but a post which provides stability during crisis times. President acts as a moral force behind the working of the government. He can provide vision to the government and also to the citizens. Vision India 2020 of Dr. Kalam is the best known example. Dr. Kalam’s charisma and his passion for science have brought lot of awareness and enthusiasm for science especially among the children who are India’s future.

The big question comes now,” why we can’t we raise our voice during the elections of President?. Why can’t we propose our candidates to whom we feel suitable for this honorable post? Why our media won’t have heated debate over the best candidates for Presidency? ”. We Indians have never ever felt the need for choosing or at least voiced our opinion to our representatives to choose a deserving Presidential candidate. Indian president elections are due this year and my whole point of writing this article is that we don't want a dummy president who can't even provide a vision to our country. Our country has no dearth of visionaries like Dr. Amartya Sen, James Micheal Lyngdoh, T N Seshan , Narayan murthy (he himself has wished to become a President in front Media )and so on.

When a new precedence is already set by involving the civil society in the formulation of Lokpal bill then why not one more can be set where not the political parties but a national opinion will decide who will become or contest for the presidential elections, so that we start realizing the importance of this post. For this media has to play a critical role and it is high time that we do something about it, otherwise don't blame our parties if they again put some rubber stamp president on this highest post.

Dharma Vs Religion

I have often experienced during my Train journeys that Indians have tendency to know person's religion or Dharma to have easy acquaintance with that person. They have prejudices against each religion. If they meet a person of same religion they share their views and they restrain if he/she is from different Dharma.

The problem is ,what we call Dharma in our daily life and what Dharma actually is ? We often mean Dharma same as religion but both are actually different. What is Dharma than and how it is different from a religion ??

Dharma is a philosophy of Moral duties and obligations and a religion is the way to perform those moral duties. Let me put some of the moral obligations which is expected out off any person including atheists also.

1) Always speak truth.
2) Never steal.
3) Love humanity.
4) Have compassion for poor and do charity.
5) Educate your child.
6) Be faithful to your relationships
7) Universal Harmony
8) Love nature and so on...

After reading these, you will find that all religions either it is Hinduism , Islam , Christanity etc. , they all preach same things but in different ways. These different ways of articulating same thoughts are religions. This is related to the human psychology. Human always love diversity and choices, they are against any uniformity in any thing. It is something like someone likes Vanilla flavor and other chocolate one ? Similarly some one likes Hindu way of life and other Islamic way. Hinduism is not Dharma but a polytheist variety of religion and monotheist varieties are like Islam and Christanity. Atheism is also a no-theist variety of religion.

Religion when started were simple in structure and beliefs, not complex what it is today. Religions, initially were in mutual harmony because simplicity of them had made easy for a person to understand the core but now they have become more and more contentious with the more and more proliferation of myths, rituals and traditions into the religion which has made religions so complex that a person remains confused for his whole life and could not able understand underlying core thereby could not able to seek universal harmony. Rituals and Traditions have actually undermined the core "Dharma" and have become the source of fight for dominance and power.

Lets imagine a sphere which has a core and a periphery. Here core is "Dharma" and periphery is "religion" . We have divided the periphery and fighting and adjusting in that periphery. We are actually trying to adjust ourselves in the periphery rather then penetrating into the core. If every religion starts from the surface and move along its diameter, they all will reach the commmon centre. It clearly proves that all religion have common Dharma. Dharma is universal and eternal.


So Dharma should be one "Sanatan or universal Dharma" but religion can be XYZ..

Democratic Monarchy : India

India declared it as a Republic on 26th January, 1950. Our bitter experience with the Foreign monarch led us to go for Constitutional Republic. But really are we constitutional Republic in true sense ? Have we really stopped patronizing the King ships in our country?

I was reading The Hindu newspaper and astonished with the news related to coronation of king in Republic India. I am referring to the newly declared Maharaja of Jaipur , Padamnabh Singh who is just 12 years old. I was shocked with the apathy of all Media towards our Republic institution publishing this Article on their front pages - "New Maharaja of Jaipur". I was really shocked when our elected representatives like Vasundhara Raje , Bina kak also attended that coronation.

Prior to Independence we had 572 small and big states in British India. After Independence, Our constitution had abolished the Kingship and all Titles - like Bahadur and Maharaja under Article 18 but still this custom is continuing. Initially these kings were given privy purses - payment made to the royal families of erstwhile princely states as part of their agreements to first integrate with India in 1947, and later to merge their states in 1949 whereby they lost all ruling rights. Constitutional Amendment of 1971, implemented after a two year legal battle, was passed, which ended this custom of privy purses, privileges and allowances from the Central Government. But our government failed to check the properties of these royals. Still these royal amass lot of wealth and property which is actually the symbol of patronizing royals by our democratic government. They have still occupied no. of forts which are now converted into 5 star heritage hotels and have become a continuous source of huge income for these royals.

Now lets discuss about our government itself. Most of the current national parties are giving platform to these royals to enter politics. In congress we have Jyotiraditya scindia , Digvijyay Singh , Virbhadra Singh, Karan singh, Amarinder Singh , Kunwar Singh and many local kings. On the other hand BJP is patronizing Vasundhara Raje and others. They were ruling us prior to Independence and continue to rule after that. Dynasty politics has now become the part and parcel of Indian polity borrowed from our royals. Dynasty rule which was supposed to be King's rule has become a democratic rule. This is a new version of Monarchy - a Democratic Monarchy.

These royals are responsible for the degeneration of Internal democracy of the national parties. A party-man who is a commoner, if he wants to join politics , he has to start at councilor or Sarpanch level but these royals enter politics directly at MP level or MLA level and are directly chosen as a minister in the cabinet because of their closeness with the party hi-commands. Because of them sometimes a genuine candidate will be overlooked by the party hi command in giving party tickets for elections. Now in India, Party-hi command has final say in every thing at local level, many time they go against the wishes of the local party workers and forcefully nominate some alien leader on them. Their protest is ignored and also sometimes hi-command threaten to expel them from the party.

We people elect these royal as our representative which is a irony. Four of our ex- CMs are royals. Many ministers belong to royal family. Last year, king of Jodhpur had lavishly organised the royal durbar for his son's wedding. Last year, one royal butchered one beggar by his car in Jaipur, no action was taken against him and media also didn't cover it properly.

I can't keep my eyes close and watch this pseudo-monarchy existing in India. SC should show some Judicial activism against such coronations and government should declare these Fort cum Heritage hotels and other wealth as national property.

My protest starts here !!!

India and its energy needs

We are a country of 1.2 billion people, more than half live below poverty line which implies their total energy consumption is far and far lesser than the upper middle class and rich class of people which is roughly 20-25% of the total population. Their is huge disparity between the rich and poor in energy consumption which is also one of the index of poverty measure according to me other than food, health and education. According to World bank 40% f Indian households are without electricity. Since we are developing, our energy needs are growing at faster rate. Poverty eradication also resulted in more consumption of power, since India's per capita income is doubled in just a 5 years interval which reflects the more energy consumption. Their is very good correlation between energy consumption and income level of an individual and the economy as a whole. Because of increasing industrialization, Urbanization and more consumerism lead to more energy needs. There is huge energy deficit growing of our country. We are highly relying on the imports which is giving extra stress to our Forex reserves.

Currently our country is mainly dependent on two kind of sources of electricity - Coal/Thermal power and Hydro power. Coal power accounts for 80 % of our energy requirements , hydro power around 16 % and nuclear source around 2 % and rest with other sources which is around 2%. Even after venturing out many projects by GoI and state govts. , India is still facing huge shortages of electricity.

Now India govt is planning to venture out Nuclear power plants for meeting the energy needs. Argument is that it is a clean source of energy, helps is environment conservation because hydro power projects cause heavy deforestation and huge soil erosion, it takes lesser time to complete the project implies time efficient and many others. But there are many issues pertaining to this Nuclear way of energy.

I was reading one of the article in Hindu which says that most of India lies in seismic zone 4 and 5 (max. level is 6) and many of our Nuclear plants are located in these zones. Take an example of Jaitapur, it is located very near to Bhuj where terrible earth quake occurred few years ago. Narora plant and Rawat bhatta plants are located very near to Delhi i.e zone 5. Now what happened in Japan in Fukushima should be an eyeopener for all the policy makers to think twice while taking any decision about the location the plant. Germans have already started protesting against increasing the time permits of running nuclear power plants and their is public opinion against the nuclear energy which led to fall of incumbent party in local elections because of their apathy to nuclear concerns. I guess we have to learn something from there.

Secondly , the variety of Nuclear reactor which is supplied by companies like Areva i.e EPR reactors have a big loophole in their design which is even claimed by their own govt. Means we are giving invitation to our own destruction. Indian authorities are giving contradictory statements on this issues. Instead of bickering over issue they should work for more safety of the reactor. Instead of getting a second hand technology, go for most advanced and safest technology.

Third issue is about the civil nuclear liability. India is buckling under the pressure of USA , Russia and EU countries. India's civil liability act itself put very less liability on the agencies who are supplying equipments and most of the liability is putting on the operator i.e NPCIL which is a PSE of GoI which means payment of liability through public exchequer. We should learn from Bhopal gas tragedy.

Most important issue is the environment. What will do with that nuclear waste which is produced out of nuclear plants. Usual practice is dumping this waste in the sea. Their is very slow progress in the R&D of nuclear waste management because this will make the cost effective nuclear power a costly affair. This dumping will lead to destruction of our coasts, wetlands which is very essential for our eco-system balance. This will impact the livelihood of millions of fishermen and also impact out marine food production. Apart from these the surrounding habitats will be exposed to nuclear radiation which can cause many hereditary diseases.

Indian govt should work on a comprehensive energy policy which not only addresses the energy production issue but also its optimum consumption and also wastage issues. India has a huge potential of energy from renewable sources - Solar energy ( because in India 8 months are around clear weather day), Tidal energy (huge coastline) , Wind energy, Bio-mass , Geothermal energy and others. Though I don't opt out the option of nuclear energy but it needs a meticulous approach to mitigate the safety concerns and environmental impact.

What we can do as a citizen is especially - rich and upper middle income groups - try to change attitude towards consumerism because I feel India is not in a position to adopt American way of consumerism. What I feel is - "India doesn't need SUVs , Harley davidson, Iphone , Ipads , Mcdonalds , Pepsi and coco cola because neither they are our requirements and nor they are our needs, they are just our wants". We really need modern and state-of-art technologies for agriculture to achieve food security, for Industries which generate huge employment, a well developed education structure and robust health system. According to Hans Rosling in one of his talk, it is possible for us to reduce our net energy demands even after poverty eradication and that should be ours approach.