Ethics

Hi Friends

Hope the audience of this blog is doing fine, despite the overuse of the word "crisis". When we are in the thick of the things, we tend to forget that situations,buildings, economy , everything is created through word. As its said in the Bible ( Genesis 1:3 ) : Then God said, " Let there be light". And there was light.

But let me come to the concern , I am having these days and words from a film I watched yesterday "Flash of Genius" professor echos in my mind. The film is based on real life story.A fight over patent between an inventor and the Ford motor company, over windshield wipers. As the actor says, "its not even about patent or money, its about Ethics".

Madoff case in USA, LTTE's and Srilankan governments fight, a non relenting judge in India, who is unwilling to resign ( even after indictment), Illionis governor's righteousness over attempted selling of senate seat and now Allen Stanford's ponzi scheme.

Yes the world is lot more richer ( except for this so called crisis) , more prosperous ( lot less people die of diarrhoea, malaria and more from lifestyle diseases like diabetes ) but are we together as humanity as ethical as, say 50 years ago. Not so far back, there were accounting frauds and Enron scandal. The point is the frequency is increasing. There would be many who would start counting numbers ( The population is more, so it should be propotional ) to negate this point. But Ethics is not number dependent. This is what make us different from machine. It is ethics which differentiate between nuclear bomb and nuclear energy, renewable energy and carbon energy, electronic tapping and surveillance.

Businesses cant be run without ethics. People these days have become so cynical that they accept this "as a fact of life" and give up the fight. Its not that the guilt doesnt sit in the hearts and minds of the perperator. It corrodes her/his conscience, like Satyam's Raju. So finally what did he get. Guilt, jail and downfall.

My belief is that the human beings are losing there "beings" and developing into a machine. Have you noticed , how many forwarded mails are on simple pleasures of life,the beautiful moments, which people miss, yet what they do is click the "forward" button.

Lets take a break and take in some fresh scent of air outside and look at the flowers and children, maybe they would remind us of what we teach to our children.

musings from Santa Ana

love Pranay

Elections and Infrastructure

Hi Friends !

After a long time the issues at hand forced me to start writing and break my long silence. I have been mulling for a long time, looking for a perfect excuse to ink my thoughts.

After Barack Hussein Obama took over as the president of United States of America, he has announced a slew of measures to control the , decontrolled economy and rein in the wall street wild horses. Another perceived horse, turned out to be a fox with his ponzi scheme, Dear Madoff...No one could see his name, Mad-off.

Now lets talk about the largest democracy in the world. Yes, my country India. Elections are round the corner and swords are being drawn. One of the most passionate electoral battles are fought in this country, sometimes even letting out blood. Though election commission has done a yeoman service to the nation and the Supreme court along with the president always have showed that they form independent pillars of the nation, with a mind of its own, this time its a bit different.

Election commission itself is in controversy now with the infighting amongst the commissioners. But lets not talk about trivial issues. Power struggle is the nature of human mind. Lets talk about power and enrgy scenario in India. at least 80,000Mw -100,000MW gap in demand and supply of electricity. Not to speak of other forms of energy consumption. Despite the parliament's and profit driven media's ( specially visual) undue attention on the nuclear deal and nuclear energy, lets admit one thing. Nuclear energy cant fulfill energy needs of India. the writing is on the wall, but the policy makers and industry is transfixed on that. Theres not enough uranium in the country and even the long term supply contracts with Australia and Russia wont do good.

The need , the gap is immediate and nuclear power plants take at least 10-15 years to build. India has abundance of sunshine, even in the northern region of Jammu, Kashmir and Leh. The proven technologies in solar energy production allow India to use all of them in different parts of the country. Whether it is Concentrated Solar Power ( CSP ) in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh or Thin Film technologies in Northern and North Eastern parts. The technologies are there , ready to be utilised , the only thing required is the government's will ( more so the bureaucracy's will). The bureaucracy's hold over the every walk of life is self evident. They still live in old british mindset, which even the modern Britain has abandoned. But more of that later.

So if the will of the government is there it can build the nation singlehandely. Then intervention of the courts would not be required to do, what the executive wing and the parliament should be doing. Its also required in the case of security apparatus, we cant keep blaming Pakistan for our lack of intelligence, coordination and security failures.

The next door neighbour, Sri Lanka has shown us how the will power of the government is THE determining factor. I am against use of violence, but how do you react when a certain organisation in the name of an ethnic people, kill the people of all the sides. Come on, they are not social service organisation. They and there leaders are power hungry.

Coming back to Infrastructure. I believe whichever government comes to power in India, would be forced to take steps in further building of roads, power lines and clean water facilities. USA, even with such a vast infrastructure already built by far sighted presidents and legislative, is heavily investing in energy ( renewable) , roads and rails.

So our focus in other parts of the world also should be to make the people aware that bailouts will not work , investing seriously in basic needs of the people would. Poverty eradication cant be discussed and implemented in posh hotels of Geneva, it has to be tackled everyday in Somalia, India, China and even USA. As it is, Bangladesh has started tackling its own poverty long back with the great visionary, Muhammad Yunus bearing the torch.

India should look in its own backyard to take a leaf out of Bangladesh and even the mighty USA , may save some money, while eradicating its huge per capita debt. A debt which every American owes to different parts of the world.

Musings from California.... comments welcome

Love Pranay