Institutions and Systems

India has the youngest population in the whole world. And this would be the case even in the next decade and two is the consensus among experts. It leads many to be gung ho, saying that India and Indians will be the world’s leading economy, making India a super power through the simple reason of its population.

Yes, I admit that it reason to be joyous over. But we need to look at the other side of the coin as well. The reason(s) is that it is simple; India does not have adequate systems to tackle the next 2-3 decades.

Support Systems for Old:

The population that is young now is going to age, meaning they can no longer be able to earn a living. Sure their kids and other millions of kids will have grown by then and will start earning. But, my point is that given the increases in the life expectancy, there will be a huge number of old people. We do not have any systems to support this old population. Yeah, that is 20 years in the future; let’s think about that later is the answer you would get. The problem being that systems cannot be setup in a jiffy, they take time. And in a country like India, it’s my belief that this will take at least 10-15 years if not more.

Systems for old age care have to improve by leaps and bounds in India. Currently, putting your parents in a old age home in India is equivalent to abandoning a child in say a coal mine in winter. This mentality has to be changed. Professional old age homes have to set up, to take care of the large number of people.

Look at Japan, there have a huge old population and they have yet to come to grips with that completely. They have started employing robots to help the elderly and the immobile. We need, to start working with makers of these robots. These have to tested in Indian conditions, the cultural barriers have to be broken. This will take time.

What is going to happen, when India will be youngest nation in the world has also to be addressed. Who will generate the income to sustain the population and the country has to be looked into. These are issues of economics and would require forward planning for the next 40-50 years. This is an exercise that the government has to carry out, so that we are not caught off-guard one day like a deer in a car’s headlights.

Educational Systems:

So much is being talked about the educational system in India that whatever I add will be like a drop in the ocean.  The talk has rightly shifted from academics to inclusion of sports and making education available to everyone.

I would like to add only one point. In academics, teach the children knowledge. In sports, teach them about playing as a team, coordinating with others, ethics or fairness in how one plays the game. Let not this wave of inclusion of games in education just be about how many marks are allocated based on their performance in sports.

And the other thing about the 25% quota is a good move. It will make the students interact with each other and know the different sides of life and not be hidden away from the realities of life.

Research Institutes:

Indians are quire smart in sciences and mathematics is what you keep hearing. You also hear that the number of research papers published from India, the number of patents filled for is nothing compared to that from the US or China. Admittedly, there are quite a few Indian authors behind those papers and patents from US.

Then why is there a dearth of papers from Indians in India? The answer is that institutions that have world class facilities are very few in India. The amount of money spent as part of GDP is so low that the really good ones leave for greener pastures and others simply don’t get into research.

SO, what happens is most of people who are interested in doing research look at the paucity of available opportunities and look at other employment opportunities. The pay that is paid to most of researchers in the available institutions is quite low and not many qualified people want these jobs.

Look at the collaborations map of scientific papers published across the world. The brighter and more connections mean more collaboration. India is sadly in not a bright spot. It is less bright than parts of South America.

The map was put together by Olivier H. Beauchesne of Science-Metrix.

http://olihb.com/2011/01/23/map-of-scientific-collaboration-between-researchers/

What does this all mean? This means that we need to set time to plan and build institutions in terms of education, research, and support systems for old age and many other more. These have to start one at a time. Building an institution is going to take a long time and cannot be achieved in a few short years. It makes take for all that I know 15-20 years.

Improving India’s Energy Situation

Transmission lines:

This has been something that I have thought about a lot of times, but never gave words to. And recently, given the power situation, my mind keeps coming back to this. Namely, why don’t the large number of Indian power companies that generate and more importantly transmit the power to the millions of customer use HVDC and UHVDC transmission lines.

Currently, 132/220/400kV AC transmission lines are used for the transmission of current across large distances. This should change as AC transmission at high voltage is not efficient. So, why is AC transmission being used? The problem was that the technology needed to handle high DC current did not exist or was too prohibitive for deployment across the country like India. Also, AC current has the advantages when transmitting over short distances. Also, all home appliances operate on AC current, meaning that the current reaching the plug point has to be in AC form.

That hurdle has been crossed and in India itself, many HVDC lines have come up.  The notable among them are:

•   In 1990, the 1000 mw Rihand - Dadri line was commissioned in UP.
•  The 2000 mw Talcher - Kolar link, the biggest so far and spans four states: Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka which was commissioned on feb 14th, 2003.
•  A contract to build the highest ever and the world's first, multi-terminal UHVDC transmission line operating at 800 kilovolts (kV) having a converter capacity of 8,000 megawatts (MW) between Agra and Hydroelectric project in North-East has been awarded to ABB in Dec, 2011

This now has to be expanded to all the long distance transmission lines. Yes, the cost of the such an exercise is huge, but think long term. The cumulative saving over say a 15-20 years would be huge and this is only a one time investment.

Another advantage would be that DC lines cannot be illegally tapped. The reason again, being that the technology to tap into a DC line is huge. So, no illegal tapping of the lines.

In fact, the current can be transmitted in DC till the Sub-Division transformers. This would mean a huge reduction in the transmission losses and no illegal tapping of current. Both, of these would mean that the deficit in current faced across the country can be reduced.

Smart Grid:

The idea of a smart grid is very old. It has been implemented in countries like US for electricity and plans are on foot to actually integrate all public utility systems. (More about this in the next blog, if I write one.)

 The thing about Indian electricity system is that even though there is a National Power corporation, we don’t have a national grid. Each state has its own grid. Sure, the grids are connected but they are not integrated. Just look at the example given above. Power for Agra is going to be transmitted all the way from the NE states. Just imagine the amount of wastage (even in UHVDC transmission).

The point I mean to make here is that a national grid has to be setup, administered by the central federal government. All the power generated would be pooled into the grid. The power would be distributed from the grid. This would make the system more efficient. Besides, electricity can be efficiently transmitted between places where there is surplus generation to places having deficiency in power supply.

Plus, it would be easy to divert electricity away from lines where there is a disruption in the grid and route it through some other way to the place where the current is needed.

China has built the world’s largest battery, we could look into purchasing the technology and making use of it to store surplus current, if and when we produce it. The Boom box, which can store energy can be also made used in large numbers to store energy when there is difference in real time between production and demand of current.

Smart Box

Thomas L. Friedman made a beautiful suggestion in his books “The World is Flat” and “The World is Hot, Flat and Crowded”, in both he talks about how electricity can be saved by people.

For example, he cites Germany, where Solar power is generated as a community exercise. The power so generated is used by the communities. If there is any excess power, it is sold to the power grid for a profit.

Also, he called for setting up of what he called “Smart Boxes” in each house. The smart box switches off appliances when not in use. The “Smart Box” will also store energy during off-peak hours (when electricity rates are lower; some countries have a slab system where off-peak consumption and peak-consumption are billed at different rates.). Also, since the smart boxes have to be connected to the grid, the electricity board can effectively enforce “power holidays” and load shedding times. The smart boxes would have to built in such a way that it cannot be hacked by unauthorized people.

As stated above, the idea of billing current at different rates for off-peak and peak periods of demands must be looked in for implementing in India.

Alternate Energy:

India should also start looking at expanding the production of electricity from solar (The process of creating the solar cells causes quite a bit of pollution.) and wind energy. It should also look at generating current from Wave energy. Given the huge expanse of the Indian coastline, the amount of energy produced would be huge.

Energy can also be produced from algae, though the technology has not reached the level where large scale production is economic. 

Other sources are using waste (except nuclear waste) to produce electricity. In fact, this source has got a been given fresh life since high intensity lasers and plasma technology have come in. 

Smart Buildings:

Another suggestion is the use of solar cell, embedded glass panes as has been done in a few buildings in India.

The concept of smart buildings has to be explored. The windows can be controlled to allow as much light and heat as required. Thus reducing the current used for lighting and cooling (or heating) the building.

All, the suggestion above involve investments in both technology and in setting up of infrastructure.  This would obviously cost a lot of money. There are hidden benefits here. Such a scale of investment would encourage entrepreneurs in India to start companies that look into the technology aspects. It would get students interested in science (Not just scoring but the know-how).

The argument against this plan would be that given the corruption and the income disparity, this is going to only help the rich and powerful. The only answer, I can give is that there are systems in place and new systems are being put in place to tackle corruption.  The investment in energy is going to benefit all classes of people.

I say let’s take a leap and see where it lands instead of dragging our feet slowly. 

Of course, all these will be helpful only and humans should start reducing their energy consumption. 

Ron Paul - The Unsung Hero

What can I say about Ron Paul that has not been said before? Well, for those of you who are still reading my blog, here’s a low down on the man.

Ron Paul is a Republican Congressman from Texas, USA. He is has been a Congressman for 12 terms. He is an air force veteran, where he is served as medic. He is an obstetrician-gynecologist who has delivered more than 4000 babies. He is currently running for the President of the United States, a third time.

The thing that makes Mr. Paul stand out is that he is not a politician but rather a Statesman. He is not so much concerned about becoming the president but about putting his ideas in the middle of the discourse.  And, what those ideas are!!! I will deal with those ideas in a few minutes. But, let me address the slanders that have been raised against him first.

The slander that is raised most often is that Mr. Paul is a racist, due to some articles that were published in a newsletter that he ran in the mid 80’s. The fact, as has been proven so many times is that Mr. Paul did not write those articles. In fact, Mr. Paul name though on the letterhead of the newsletter, did very little control over what was published as he was busy with his practice at that time. Yet, he has repeatedly accepted the responsibility though at no fault.

In fact, nothing is further from the fact than the statement that Mr. Paul is a racist. Mr. Paul is the only one who has talked about how the War on Drugs has largely failed and negatively affected the blacks, Hispanics more than any other communities.

Let’s look at some of Mr. Paul’s ideas now.

The first one is that USA must stop being the policeman of the world, close down the bases it has around the world, and stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. That US should stop waging wars in other countries. He’s gone on record saying that these wars are actually making US more unsafe and losing friends. That US should rather try and develop friendly relationships with all countries including Iran. He has said that if he becomes the president that he would immediately recall all troops from all combat zones.

Now, one would think that such views would be unpopular with the US armed forces. But, it is a fact that Mr. Paul gets about 50% of all donations made by active personnel in the US armed forces. All the other presidential hopeful combined together (including Obama) makes up the rest 50%. In fact, on the 20^th Feb, a group of veterans took out a march in Washington D.C in support of Mr. Paul shouting “President Paul” all through the march.

Mr. Paul is again the only politician running for the presidential elections who has denounced both SOPA and PIPA publically. He has repeatedly denounced the Patriot Act and called for it to be annulled both publically and in the US Congress.

Ron Paul is a steadfast believer in the Gold Standard. The idea is that currently all the central banks of each country have the power to print as much money as they would like, without having any backing. This causes inflation. The US followed the Gold Standard till the 70’s and then abandoned it. If US would go back to the Gold Standard it would mean that central banks cannot print money as they want and would have to show backing for all currency, which would mean that fiscal responsibility would increase and things like the 2008 global economy crash will not happen as the players cannot create money out thin air through financial hocus pocus.

The most important thing that draws people to Mr. Paul is his consistency. He has not ever once flip flopped any position of his. This can be shown by the fact that he is the congressman who voted against creating a Martin Luther King Jr day, even though Martin Luther King is a hero of Mr. Ron Paul. The reason he voted against is that he believes it is not the role of the government to create holidays.

He is a strict Constitutionalist, which means that in so many cases even when all other Congressmen and women voted one way he has voted the other way just because the motion was against the constitution.

He is the one of the very few congressmen or women who have consistently returned to the Treasury department, the funds that were left over from the budget allocated to their office. In fact, Ron Paul has on an average returned almost 100,000 USD every year over the past 10 years to the Treasury.

He is also against taxes. He does not believe that the government should take people’s money. SO, much so that he has not signed to get pensions from the Congress after he retires (The pension amount is considerable, in millions.). He also voted against awarding Rosa Parks a congressional medal (Rosa Parks is another hero of Mr. Paul), because the money for the medal is form the taxes. Instead, he moved a motion to give her a medal by pooling personal contributions from the members of the Congress. The motion was defeated.

Mr. Paul also believes in the freedom of speech and has spoken out in favor of Julian Assange, saying that he should not be prosecuted but rather thanked for bring into public light the dealings that happen in the dark.

But the thing that hurts me the most is that mainstream media has largely ignored him, called him cranky, laughed at him, and discredits him. Well, I am going to place some links below. Watch them and come to your own conclusions.

US Troops Support Ron Paul March: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yewKCcFSvQ&feature=player_embedded#!

Ron Paul on Wikileaks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM20w0jHH8A&feature=BFp&list=FLtkYK1qWJ4rqKzq4J5KRm_A

Ron Predicting the 2008 crash in 2003: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KONpt9a6HrI&feature=BFp&list=FLtkYK1qWJ4rqKzq4J5KRm_A

Ron Paul- What If Speech:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s_IUwwGq-A&feature=BFp&list=FLtkYK1qWJ4rqKzq4J5KRm_A

Hilary Clinton on Ron Paul:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK1qGDQZpBI

People running on the street cheering Ron Paul:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151193984565215

Btw,  a fact that I would like to point out is that Ron Paul at 76 years of age is the most popular among the youngsters in US. And, they are among his most enthusiastic supporters.

How I wish that we had more people like Ron Paul and not in the US but in every country of the world. Becuase, then we can truly start building the foundation of an peaceful world.