An idea

For those who are not familiar with the object in the picture – it is a Dynamo fitted to a bicycle, generates electricity while cycling. It revolutionized the cycling experience in the last century. I do not see this in today’s cycles.

I was thinking about another idea –
Health conscious current generation regularly exercises in house and gyms. If this device is attached to the exercise cycles (the stationary ones) or treadmills, one can get one’s mobile handset (or even iPod) charged while exercising. I could visualize – instead of referring to “amount of calories burnt”, people will talk about “number of mobiles charged”.

Considering the grim future of our environment and fossil fuel reserves, this small idea can find more applications – a little imagination can help.

Indian democracy – little unique, little weird

A few days back, I was quite amazed by an opinion poll result published in the daily newspaper. It is not the verdict but the margin that stunned me. The question was –

“Is Indian democracy driven by politicians and not by its citizens?”

And the result was -

Yes – 93% No – 6% Can’t say – 1%

One has to admit that the result is completely one-sided. Even considering the fact that the number of participant was not indicated and these quick opinion polls are not absolutely reliable, the verdict is very clear.

I have read another article in the same newspaper on the behaviour of our ministers in the parliament. Since then, I have been thinking – what is wrong with our politicians. Based on my thought process and reasoning, I have almost zeroed on the factor “Power Distance”.

In simple terms, “Power Distance” is an index indicating the degree of acceptance of inequality of power between members in any society. It is measured by Hofstede’s Power Distance Index and a higher value indicates higher degree of inequality that is accepted by society. I would like to highlight one thing here – this in-euqality of power is accepted in the society, it is not forced upon.
In another words, this index indicates how distance increase between classes in the society with power and how well it is accepted in the society.

To understand it better, let us consider few countries’ Power Distance Indices (PDI) –

#____Rank____ Country_______________ PDI

---------------------------------------------------------

1____ 1_______ Malaysia______________ 104

2____ 7_______ China, Iraq, UAE ________80

3 ____18______ India__________________77

4 ____45______ Pakistan_______________55

5 ____52______ USA___________________40

6 ____56______ UK, Germany ___________35

7 ____66______ Austria________________11

----------------------------------------------------------

Malaysia and Austria indicates the two extremes. The other countries listed are for a comparison. One can easily see the difference between highly and lowly ranked countries.

In a high Power Distance culture the following may be observed:

. Those in authority openly demonstrate their rank; responsibility and accountability never get counted
. Corruption frequent; scandals are covered up
. Subordinates are not given important work and expect clear guidance from above. They are expected to take the blame for things going wrong. The relationship between boss and subordinate is rarely close/informal. Politics is prone to totalitarianism
. Class divisions within society are accepted
. Parents teach children obedience – no question or argument is encouraged
. Teacher-centered education
. Income distribution very uneven
. Religions with a hierarchy of priests

India’s high position in the table indicates that we are comfortable with unequal distribution of power. And almost all the characteristics listed above are true for Indian society. Because of this acceptance, the society is eternally divided into two groups – Ruler and being Ruled. Therefore the only relationships that the Indians have existed comfortably in are of either superior or subordinate. There cannot be a third way, a relationship of equality.

This mindset explains many of the past and present phenomenons –

In General –
> We are never comfortable with power in our own hand. We do not know, how to manage authority. With power, our behaviour changes and we become rude. We are never good and courteous to sections less powerful to us. When have you last thanked the waiter in the hotel for serving you food or holding the door open for you?

In the past –
> As a nation, we have been ruled by foreign rulers for centuries. We were comfortable in most part of this era and hardly tried to free ourselves. I have a strong feeling that British freed India because nothing much was left to be siphoned. Without the non-cooperation movement (what we believe fetched us freedom), it could have been delayed by another decade or so. If interested, please refer to the poverty and literacy level of our country at the time of independence. I am not sure whether GDP was calculated in those days.

> We were so happy with the foreign rulers that we participated in their administration system and tortured our own countrymen who wanted freedom. Without whole-hearted supports from the natives, it was impossible for any foreign ruler to rule such a vast and diversified country.

> After becoming independent, our leaders were quick enough to distant themselves from the common people. That is the reason; the Governor’s residence is still called “Raj Bhavan”. Can someone tell me who is “Raja” in Democracy? Why elected ministers are residing in palatial houses and surrounded by innumerable ‘orderlies’? Why “Government work is God’s work” and why not “Nation’s work”? God never review progress, I suppose.


In more recent times -
> Our politicians come into power with Public votes. They are humble and friendly till they come to power. Once there, they become inaccessible. With maximum probability, your local minister is seen in your locality only once – when he came asking for support.

> How many of our political leaders are not rich? Does it mean that only rich people join politics? With the stipulated remuneration, it is a mystery how they become rich so fast! I am more qualified and draw more salary compared to most of them but still languishing in middle class.

> No action is taken against the corrupted ones – time and again they are charged with foul play and every time they come out clean.

> Common people have very limited or no say in policy and decision-making. The most recent one is the “Nuclear deal” which has almost toppled the government. Till the last moment the whole thing was kept away from the nation.

In this context, I remember a villager I met during one of my childhood excursions. He was saluting (offering “Namashkar”, to be exact) a helicopter that was flying meters above his head. I curiously asked him whom he is saluting to. He said that was the chief minister of the state. To the villager, he was almost equal to god as he “spends” money for the development of his village’s development. The most recent addition to the village’s infrastructure was a tube-well. Electricity was yet to come.

It is couple of decades since then – situation has hardly changed. In our country, politicians are treaded like kings. None of them is bound by the law, responsibility, and deliverables – arguably the best profession. No complaint from the mass that elects them to serve the nation – the Power Distance is in its deadliest form.

With a hierarchical society, tailor-made for Monarchy and Autocracy in the guise of democracy, we claim to be the largest democracy of the world! But the basic question remains unanswered - is this called democracy? The next logical question – is it going to change? The answer is, as per my judgment, ‘NO’ – nothing happens automatically under this sky and we are like this – demanding anything is considered to be ‘bad’ in our society.


Inputs from –
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications, Thursday, Jul 10, 2008
http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/power-distance-index/
http://www.via-web.de/282.html

Dark side of Electricity

I belong to a generation, which has spent a good part of life in the dark decades of our country. Like mine, many other childhoods would be closely connected to Candles and Kerosene lamps. Today, if we think that the dark days are gone, please visit our villages. Six-hour power cut is nothing abnormal. Needless to say, it worsens as summer peaks.

At this juncture, one would tend to believe that we need more and more power generating stations to cater to the ever-increasing demand. But, before concluding, let us see how is our present capacity utilized.

Our country relies on Coal based thermal power. By design, these are of lower efficiency. Here the efficiency figures are much inferior – blame it on inferior quality coal supplies. It is difficult to believe, our power generation efficiency is as low as 25%. Moreover, the gap between the installed capacity and actual power generation is huge – poor maintenance and frequent breakdown of our aging plants are to be blamed for this. Studies indicate that only 45% of our installed capacity is put into use.

So, in simple terms, if we have installed capacity of 100 units, we generate only 45 units.

Now here is the second part of the story – the Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses – it is alarmingly high in our country. Figure published in 2005 indicates the T&D loss is 33%! One among the world toppers! To put it into perspective, T&D losses in developed countries like USA and Germany are 6% and 4% respectively. It is 7% in neighbouring China. Power theft and grid losses are generally blamed for this.

The bottom line is as follows - with 100 units generation capacity, 45 units are generated and only 30 units reach the consumers. Overall system efficiency is 30%.

The whole equation is to be viewed against a backdrop of economic growth. In our country, per capita electricity consumption is at 481 units, a paltry figure in comparison with USA (12,187) and even China (2,140). As a matter of fact, we are behind Pakistan (490). One can safely assume that the demand is going to surge in near future.

So what anyone should do first? My commonsense tells me, it is prudent to repair leak before start filling up a tank. I believe our Government is planning to set up National Electricity Fund by investing Rs.100,000 Crores in T&D sector.

I will remain interested to experience the changes like many of my compatriot.

Inputs from –
Power Plant Engineering – Raja, Srivastava, Dwivedi
The Hindu Business Line, Dec 03, 2005
Mjunction, Feb 05, 2008

Weather forecast

“Partly cloudy. Possibility of rain/thundershowers likely”

Looks familiar? Has to be. This is the weather forecast published in the newspaper I subscribe.

Considering the fact that we are going thru’ the rainy season, I find this “forecast” very interesting. The message (and most of the time, the sentence too) remains the same day after day. I have never seen such a reliable forecast.

PS: I believe that the Monsoon arrival prediction by our Meteorological department has a standard deviation of 7 days. That means, monsoon is almost certain to arrive within +/- 21 days of the prediction. Who needs anything better?
Identification of a cyclone from the satellite image is child’s play. Do we really need a separate department to do that?

Cycling for better future

I found the chart very interesting. I did not know that cycling consumes less energy compared to walking. Another interesting observation – Car traveling at 60 MPH consumes considerably more energy compared to 30 MPH

Problem of cycling in our cities could be high risk of meeting with accident. It is impossible even to imagine a separate cycle lane in Indian city centers. On the other hand, use of Cycle rickshaws in Munich and Dublin city centers has impressed me.

A little imagination and will (muscle too) power can impact our lives positively.

The face of Indian Currency

Yesterday I saw the currency note released by China on the eve of Olympic. Like many kids, I was interested in collecting currency of different denominations from different countries. With time and increased exposure, I realized how the pictures on currency depict the theme, belief, and culture of one nation. I was impressed by our National Emblem – King Ashoka’s four faced lion. I also used to like the pictures on the back – tiger, tractor, elephant …..

Now I see the face of Mahatma has taken over the most of the space – including the watermark. National emblem is reduced in size and parked in one corner. With all respect to the father of the nation, don’t we have any other national leader / freedom fighter who can represent our values?

This lack of inspiration will have a serious impact on our nation. The coming generations will have very limited exposure and curiosity about the national leaders and freedom fighters. The same is applicable to the foreigners. It will reinforce their common belief that our battle of independence was fought only by Mahatma and he is the only national figure we have had since then.

“Hamara Bajaj”

Trust me, this is not an article on ad campaign. This is the way I felt the change associated with de-regulation of country’s economy. I hope, like me, many would have experienced this in last few decades.

I have grown up in the regulated economy. I bet – not many of you would have seen a license for a transistor radio. I have seen my father paying the fees for having a radio. I was told that there were even surprise inspections to catch a defaulter.

To me, Bajaj Scooter is an epitome of that era. I have discussed this with many of my friends – it was a perfect example of what one should avoid while designing a two-wheeler. Just to brush up your memory – it was a carbon copy of an Italian design with poor seating and even worse handle bar position. One-sided engine and smaller wheel was a perfect recipe for disaster. Funny was the hand operated gear – how people managed that without wrist pain! Raw power was left unutilized. No one ever heard about efficiency figures those days. And the best part is – prospective buyers used to pay premium and wait for months together to get one of those!

My interaction with one of those machines was very brief – in my high school days, I was riding my friend’s Bajaj scooter. I toppled badly – the culprit was a pothole at the turn. I fell, damaging my elbow and knee. The scooter fell on its side, skidded and hit a tree. I still remember the face of my friend who was walking behind me. I promised not to touch the machine in future.

The same company, in recent times, has changed the country’s biking experience. This is what opening of economy does with the product and consumer. Do you remember the launch of its first bike? It has been a trendsetter since then.

Opening of economy brings competition in the market place forcing the manufacturers (or service providers) to improve their product performance. The net result is a better product at a very competitive price. The winner is the customer. Is it not the right thing to do?

Looking back, I feel sorry for those consumers who suffered their entire lifetime from poor product/service quality in those decades of regulation. I do not know what took us so long to open up the economy. My judgment tells me, our country is progressing at a faster pace since then.

Global Emission – a quick comparison

If CO2 emission is an outcome of Economic activities, Population and Size of any country, this table is a comparison of the performance of BRIC countries (emerging economy) with respect to the USA.

The depiction is self-explanatory -
1> Brazil has done exceptionally well. In fact it is in 16th position in the table of Absolute CO2 generation. Probably it is due to the effect of blending ethanol with auto fuel.
2> India scores better against China in all departments.
3> USA’s CO2 emission per Million GDP is lower than that of Russia, India and China – is it an indication of efficient usage of clear technologies?