Powerless Maharashtra

Government of India has released the year end reviews for various ministries, as is the custom. The report of Power ministry makes an entertaining reading. It gives total capacity of electricity generation at present in the country. But it cleverly avoids mentioning the rising demand for power in country. In every respect!

Indian economy is growing at the rate of 8 percent each year and according to a study by The McKinsey & Company. According to the study, power demand may rise from the present 120 gigawatt (GW) to 315-335 GW by 2017. (1)

But going by the data provided by ministry, (2) during the period from Jan. 08 to Nov. 08, total availability of energy in the country was 625289 MU(kilowatt per hour), as against 601517 MU during the same period last year, representing a growth of about 4%. Note that the growth has taken place compared to last year and it is still way far from satisfying the need of 120 GW. During the period Jan.08 to Nov.08 total energy exchanges in the country were 16918.90 MU.

The condition in Maharashtra is still worse. The state is facing a power shortage of at least 5000 MW. Thanks to slow down and recession, the demand has come down significantly. Even though state energy ministers and chief ministers have repeatedly said that load shedding will be passe in few years. But the situation has worsened so much that the state has to declare power cuts for industries. Just before recession set its feet in India, industrial belts were in Maharashtra were reeling under the ‘staggering day’ formula where they were forced to keep their shops shut for two days. Since July and upto September, big cities in the state were having 8 hours of load shedding while the villages were having 12 hours of load shedding. The same darkness reigns even today also and likely to be in coming days also. That is the prospects for 2009 for Maharashtra.

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References

1. Report in Economic Times

2. PIB

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x ‘Setusamudram’ project which will ‘demolish’ the Ramsetu should be cancelled and Ramsetu should be declared as a National historic property.

x Makbul Fida Hussain should be arrested for painting nude and blasphemous paintings of Hindu deities.

x Anti-faith Bill and Temple Bill, proposed by Maharashtra government which can bring threat to the Hindu Dharma should be abolished.

x Those who denigrate Hindu deities through the medium of advertisements, dramas, pictures, publications, products etc, they should be acted against.

x The temples under Government custody should be handed over to the devotees and stop political interference in them.

x Terrorist Mohammed Afzal who was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court should be hanged immediately.

x To give the Kashmiri Hindus their due respect and rehabitalize them back to Kashmir.

x Pollution increasing project of ‘Dow Chemicals’ should be cancelled and Saint Tukaram Maharaj’s Tapobhumi ‘Bhamchandra Hill’ should be declared as a place of Hindu pilgrimage.

These were some of the resolutions passed on Thursday in a public rally in Pune. The meet organised by Hindu Dharmajagriti Samiti took place at Historic Shaniwar Wada. The recent incidences of Malegaon investigations, Mumbai attack seemed to have no impact on the congregation. Speaking on the occasion, Himani Savarkar, national president of Hindu Mahasabha in her speech, added that, ‘Anyone in this country just wakes up, speaks against The Hindus, does atrocities against them, and we Hindus , we take no action against them. This Government, which keeps on appeasing the muslim community, also does not raise any voice against the atrocities done against Hindus. But henceforth, Hindus will not remain quiet. For this reason, the Kshatratej in Hindus should wake up now.'

‘Jeevan Gaurav’, the lifetime achievement award was bestowed upon Shahir Yogesh for his services towards Hindutva. Bharatacharya S. G. Shevade presented the award. The award comprised of a shawl, sriphal, garland and a certificate

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The Neighbouring Shopowner Needs Protection

Even though unorganised retail is reeling under the pressure of organised retail sector, it needs a strong protection. A code of conduct is necessary for the organised sector so that unorganised retail sector does not get affected. This is the recommendation given by a committee which has submitted its report to the government over the issue.

The findings and recommendations of the report furnished by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and the follow-up action by the Government were tabled in the Rajya Sabha, the lower house of Parliament of India. The report was tabled by Shri Ashwani Kumar, Minister of State for Industry, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today

Main Findings

In its assesment of the impact on unorganized retailers, the report states that unorganized retailers in the vicinity of organized retailers experienced a decline in their volume of business and profit in the initial years after the entry of large organized retailers. But this adverse impact on sales and profit weakens over time. The report also claims that there was no evidence of a decline in overall employment in the unorganized sector as a result of the entry of organized retailers. It negates ‘some decline in employment’ in the North and West regions saying that it ‘also weakens over time.’

The committee seems not to have been amused by these facts, which it itself has given:

• The rate of closure of unorganized retail shops in gross terms is found to be 4.2 per cent per annum.
• The rate of closure on account of competition from organized retail is at 1.7 per cent per annum.
• Small retailers have been extending more credit to attract and retain customers.
• Only 12 per cent of unorganized retailers have access to institutional credit and 37 per cent felt the need for better access to commercial bank credit.
• The unorganized retail sector is expected to grow at about 10 per cent per annum with sales rising from US$ 309 billion in 2006-07 to US$ 496 billion in 2011-12. At the same time, organized retail which now constitutes a small four per cent of total retail sector is likely to grow at a much faster pace of 45-50 per cent per annum and quadruple its share in total retail trade to 16 per cent by 2011-12.
  

The full report is available here.

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Animals Don't Go Wild...

Pune has too times seen wild animals straying into the resident areas. The year 2008 itself witnessed three such incidents where a leopard, a python and a Spotted Dear were found into the urban areas. That itself created panic as well as curiosity as to how these animals came to stray into the human domains? But there are suspicious factors behind these types of the events. 

Shekhar Nanajkar, president of WILD, an organisation working in the field of conservation of forests and wildlife has come up with the statement to this effect. In his statement, he has said that whenever a wild animal is found in the city’s limits, it is always said that it has come through the forest. But it is always a different case. “Some people keep these animal in captivity, even though it is banned by law. When these animal are found out, there is a motive to turn their status into legal one,” he says.

Just yesterday, a spotted deer was found by two people in the Bavdhan area and was released in the wild. The deer had some minor injuries on its mouth and was given immediate treatment. After administering treatment, the deer was taken in a vehicle and released in the forest area in Khadakwasla. Eight months before that, a leopard was found in a housing colony in Nigdi. It seems that leopard has been spotted in Pune almost each year in the last 10 years. 

Nanajkar says, “Animals are wary of the humans and they will never enter the urban areas. Even in deep forests, they try to avoid the areas where they feel human presence. Even wild animals can get their food in the villages and they have no reason to enter the cities.”

He has even accused that some affluent people are involved in keeping wild animals unlawfully. Villages around Pune and Lonavala are known to be trading centres of wild animals. Forest department turns a Nelson’s eye towards these incidents on the pretext of sghortage of manpower.

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Maharashtra government has finally woken up. It has updated its website and has brought the new chief minister Ashok Chavan in his rightful place. Media reports had earliers pointed out how the official portal of government of Maharashtra was still showing Vilasrao Deshmukh as the chief minister of Maharahstra even five days after the swearing in of Chavan alongwith Chhagan Bhujbal as deputy Chief Minister.  

Websites of state government of Maharashtra are notorious for being obsolete and slow. And that is when they say that the state is ahead in Information and Technology initiatives. I had done a story regarding the manpower crunch in Maharashtra’s IT de-partment. At that time, it was seen 

then that being unable to offer competitive remuneration to IT professionals, it has devised a novel way to find the candidates, that is to hire them from other offices.

State department of Information and Technology had sent a letter to various de-partments to send applications for an appointment on deputation to work on state e-governance project, called as SETU. The applications have been invited from state government and semi-government employees and even from local bodies.   

Even as it is embarked on implementing the State Wide Area Network (SWAN) scheme, which officials have claimed to complete upto January 09, the government is still unable to get enough manpower. That is why it has now invited tenders for procuring the manpower. 

And we are still talking about e-governance!

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Meanwhile, Ashok Chavan has given his private email id (ashokchavanmind@rediffmail.com) for the public to contact him with their grievences. This is a first in India. But the question is, and it has been rightly raised by many in the media, why should a office bearer give his personal email id when he should be supposed to be available on his official id?(chiefminister@maharashtra.gov.in) We are still waiting to get that answer.

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An unimpressive conference

Today there was a press conference of Anand Sharma, the minister of State for External Affairs and Information & Broadcasting. He was here for the Vodafone international marathon, which had its share of controversies. As expected, Sharma was asked several questions on media coverage of Mumbai terror attacks. Starting with a quite lengthy sermon on the achievements of United Progressive Alliance government in New Delhi, he took on all the questions, But could not answer satisfactorily any of the questions. H made usual promises of setting up of a Standing Media Consultative Committee comprising representatives of the Editor's Guild, National Broadcasting Organization and the officials of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. It will be chaired by the Secretary, Information & Broadcasting. He also told of a move to conduct training programmes for print as well as electronic media persons on how to cover crisis events.

But the surprise item was next question. When somebody popped up the question of ‘hoax call’ to Pak president Asif Zardari,  Sharma said he did not know anything on that issue. But in a statement later issued by Press & Information Bureau, he was quoted as, “The issue of hoax call to the President of Pakistan (is as) a gimmick which can not divert attention from the seriousness of the dastardly terror attacks. Government of India has signaled that India has nothing to do with the 'hoax call' business."

The Minister said that the world has in one voice condemned the Mumbai terror attacks and this is bound to put pressure on Pakistan to act and added that India on its part will take all steps that are required to stamp out terrorism. He reiterated that the nation should also come together and speak in one voice against terrorism.

 

Commenting about the role of media in covering Mumbai terror attacks, the Minister said that some television channels had gone overboard in reporting and as a result the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting had to issue notices.

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Narayan Rane is a disappointed and enraged person today. He has missed out on a post which he was staring at for the last two and half years. After Ashok Chavan was given the chief ministership, Rane hit out at Congress leadership.

On Friday, Rane slammed the Congress party for delaying its decision in choosing Vilasrao Deshmukh's successor. Targetting congress president, Sonia Gandhi and ousted chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, he had put a question mark on Chavan’s stature saying that Chavan was not worthy of his competition. He also said that Chavan did not have the experience to be the chief minister of a state.

Congress leadership retaliated today by suspending Rane from the party’s membership. "It has been observed that after the announcement of the new leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Maharashtra, Narayan Rane is making public statements deliberately with a view to lowering the prestige of the Indian National Congress," said AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi.

"The party has taken a serious view of his utterances and considering this as a case of gross indiscipline, Narayan Rane has been suspended from the party with immediate effect," he added.

This however has not dettered Rane as he has dared Congress of exposing more and more scams. According to PTI, Rane claimed that he holds key to the survival of soon-to-be-formed Ashok Chavan led Congress-Nationalist Cognress Party Government in Maharashtra.
"If I wish, I can prevent the new government from taking charge or topple it when it is formed. The new government is not in a majority and I can prove it on the floor of the house, even if the opposition does not demand a trust vote," Rane was seen saying this on various TV channels.

Rane refused to divulge his future course of action when the winter session of the legislature would be convened in Nagpur this month. "I will be going to Nagpur," he said. He said he could provide a letter of 30 MLAs to the Governor saying that they were not supporting the new government.

Referring to his suspension from the Congress, Rane said he had been expecting the action.

"I consider this as a good omen. In 1997, Vilasrao Deshmukh was suspended from the party for six years and in 1999 he became the chief minister," Rane added.

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Ashok Chavan, new Maharashtra CM

He is from Nanded, as me

Finally the word is out. Maharashtra, the state which has withnessed much bloodshed in the past week has a new Chief Minister. Putting an end to the controversies and debates, senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee announced Ashok Chavan's nomination in New Delhi on Friday evening. Of course, he and other leaders deliberated on the matter with their boss, Sonia Gandhi.

Vilasrao Deshmukh  was eased out of office in the aftermath of the audacious Mumbai terror attacks last week. He behaviour after the attacks was severly criticized by media. Chavan was in charge of the Industry portfolio in the Deshmukh cabinet. He is the eldest son of late Shankarrao Chavan. The family is associated with Nanded from where I have come.

Shortly after the nomination of Chavan, Narayan Rane, revenue minister in the outgoing ministry and a strong contender of CM's chair, hit out at Gandhi, Deshmukh and Chavan questioning the process of election of the new leader.

Rane, who had come to the Congress a few years ago from the Shiv Sena, was pipped at the post by Chavan, a party loyalist and a Maratha, like Rane.

Chavan represents Mudkhed constituency in the Assembly. He was a Member of Parliament for two years from 1987-89 and was elected to the Assembly from 1999. Names of Union Ministers Sushil Kumar Shinde and Prithviraj Chavan had also done the rounds as chief ministerial contenders.

Chagan Bhujbal will be the new Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister in the new cabinet. This is his second stint in both the capacities.

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A Million Smile Man

He gave the world Mickey Mouse and has since been making world laugh through various cartoons and stories. Even 42 years after his death, Walt Disney continues to mesmerize the people world over. Even two world wars and threat of the terror has not diminished the power of Disney characters to entertain the audience. Today marks the 43rd death anniversary of Walt Disney.

As happens with most children, I came across Mickey Mouse early in childhood. I might be five or six years old. Mickey’s 50th anniversary was to be celebrated in that year. Thereafter, Donald Duck and Goofy also came in without any resistance. That delight lasted more than average as I found myself observing the cartoon characters for hours.

I was myself a cartoon lover and an aspiring cartoonist, though I did become one. Therefore I would try to imitate the drawings. I have not seen enough Disney movies in recent times nor do I watch cartoons anymore. But I still adore them. Still, I salute the man who created this wonderful fantasyland.

I think we need more these fantasies than all those extremely sophisticated sci-fi movies or disaster movies. I am sure those terrorist who fed on killing humans like rats have never seen Mickey, Donald or his three nephews. Had they seen it, world could have been much different.

(The Obituary Appeared in New York Times on 6 DEc. 1966)

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It can tear the enemy tanks, destruct these tanks and kill persons sitting in them. This indigenously developed weapon does away with expensive metals. Highly praised for its effectiveness, this weapon was designed and developed here. 

The Fin Stabilized Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot (FSAPDS) was developed in the Pune based Armanent Research and Development Establishment (ARDE). It was presented in the exhibition at ARDE, Pashan on Friday on the occasion of national Conference on Advances in Armanent Technology. FSAPDS is especially designed for firing from Arjun tank. What makes it special is it is made from Combustible Car-tridge Case, instead of the metal case in the old weapons. This anti-tank ammunition is of 120 mm diameter variety while its other variant 125 mm is designed to be used in T-72 tanks.

S. P. Durwas, technical officer and who was instrumental in designing FSAPDS told Pune Mirror, “We were using brass cartridge cases in earlier ammunitions. FSAPDS utilises combustible cartridge cases which burn out totally in the tank’s rifled gun. It is made from aqueous pulp of cotton waste, TNT (Trinitrotoluene). What is more, it has 10 years of shelf life. This makes it much more affordable for us.” It is es-timated that 125 mm FSAPDS ammunition could save the country foreign exchange of around Rs Two crores annually.

FSAPDS is used to attack heavy armoured vehicles. It can damage the  single heavy target i. e. 150 mm thick at 60 degrees upto 3500 meters.

Lightweight Launcher

An another feather in the cap of ARDE is 84 mm Lightweight Launcher. This gun is built on the hybrid composite technology for gun barrel. It is a lightweight, man portable anti-tank gun. This gun weighs only 8 kg. which is only half compared to an anti-tank infantry system.  

K. D. Deodhar, who headed the team of designers of this gun said, “This gun was successfully designed in record time of 30 months and the same technology has been handed over to ministry of defence for indigenous bulk production.” 

According to Deodhar, composite barrel technology 

has been established first time in the country through the 84 mm lightweight launcher. The technology has been validated by various users, troops at varied terrains. The technology has been transferred to Ordnance Factory Board for mass production.

Meanwhile, Shekhar Dutta, deputy national security advisor of India inaugu-rated the conference. He said, “Today the private sector has a good technological base that can link with the public sector. The focus of ARDE will move from na-tional laboratories to industry and the IITs and basic scientific research will then be undertaken by the universities and other national and regional institutions and laboratories.”

(Published in Pune Mirror on 22 Nov. 2008)

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It was a very minor story, the ones that we care not to go into detail. But days after we carried it, it made an impact and paved the way for migratory birds to flock together.

The banks of Mula-Mutha river are home to various species of birds. The site was marked for a bird sanctuary by Pune Municipal Commissioner. Srikant R. Shinde, personality development and motivational trainer and a nature lover as well, had noted how PMC was dumping the garbage and debris there. Pune Mirror had carried the report on November 9, 2008. Srikant also sent a mail to municipal commissioner referring to the report.

It did have the effect. Pune Municipal Corporation corrected its mistake. The garbage and debris dumped near Mula-Mutha river has now stopped by PMC on the personal instructions of municipal commissioner Pravinsingh Pardeshi. The breeding ground for migratory and native birds could be saved by an initiative of an alert citizen.Commissioner Pardeshi sent letters to the concerned officer warning of suspension and show cause notice. He also ordered to remove all accumulated garbage by 25 nov and plant all trees and put up boards for no dumping and post permanent nuisanve detection squad for removing garbage.

Many a brids among Great White pelican, painted stork, wooly necked stork, spot billed duck could be spotted there. As the smoke coming out of burning garbage has resided, the birds are flocking in large numbers. Even a big pipe has been laid near the entrance of sanctuary so that dumping vehicles can not come there.

Still there is scope for more. As Srikant put it, "I am pleased that PMC has acted fast and cleared the site. The gate should also be such that no buffalo enter the sanctuary as majority of the migratory birds lay their eggs on the ground. Buffalo destroy the eggs and birds cannot nest. Deep inside the sanctuary there is growth of sagwan saplings by the droppings of birds. But the people using this sanctuary as shortcut are so greedy that they cannot allow these saplings to be trees and taking them away. Some action is necessary also on these things."

(Pictures by Manoj Bidkar)

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