'Forest of the Sun' dazzles in the dark on outskirts of Mumbai

Few years ago, I visited by chance, a village lying somewhere in the midst of ranges of western ghat mountains that line up along the west coast of India. In this mountainous region, huge water reservoirs have been built over the years to provide water to the big cities. Yet, if one climbs up on one of the surrounding hills, he is likely to encounter many villages that have perennial water shortage and women folk have to walk long distances just to fetch water for household needs. The village I visited was one such village with no assured water supply, which meant that whatever little agriculture land was in the vicinity could be cultivated only during monsoon months. This also ensured that villagers were all poor, with very little farm income. Poverty of the people from the village could be seen everywhere. It was a very depressing kind of site. Yet, I saw on top of few shanty houses in the village, tell-tale satellite dishes projecting upwards in the sky, which obviously meant that they had TV sets in their houses.

Being curious, I checked up with a villager, who said many of the houses have TV sets. I asked him about the electrical power. Where do they get it? and can they afford it? I was surprised to hear that no one has electrical connection in the village. They just can not afford it. They use solar power to switch on TV sets for one or 2 hours every evening. Then I saw few poles fitted with latest low consumption lights fitted on them with a solar panel at the top. He said in the nights, the village is well lit. All these solar panels have been given to the village by some charity organizations and it does not cost anything for the villagers to get lights for their houses and streets. During that visit, I had realised, what solar power really means for countless number of remote villages spread all over India.

At other end of the economic spectrum, we have large corporate houses, who would not think twice before spending millions to make their industrial or commercial complexes lighted up so that they glitter and shine in night just to show their brand image. Though I have nothing against commercial organizations spending their own or shareholder's money on lighting up their campuses as if every day is a Deepavali day, it is definitely not something that promotes green energy initiatives.

Tata Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It encompasses seven business sectors: communications and information technology, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products and chemicals. Tata Group has over 100 operating companies with each of them operating independently. The combined market capitalisation of all the 32 listed Tata companies was INR 6.8 Trillion ($ 109 billion) as of March 2014. Tata Capital is a finance company from this group that fulfills the financial needs of retail and institutional customers in India. It was established in 2007 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons and is registered with the Reserve Bank of India as a systemically important non-deposit taking non-banking financial company (NBFC). The company has offices in several Indian cities. It has its head office at a campus at Thane not far from the commercial capital of India, Mumbai. The company has given a very modern sounding name to its Thane campus and calls it as 'i-think Techno campus' for whatever reasons.

In January 2014, the company inaugurated a novel permanent demonstration set up to create an impact and increase awareness of the people with regard to the use of renewable energy. The demonstration set up is a cluster of six artificial trees made from metal pipe structures and fibre-reinforced plastic trunks and leaves. The system has been grouted into the flooring and is designed to withstand all weather conditions. Mounted on top of these artificial trees is a cluster of 14 solar panels that generate electrical power from sun light. The ‘trees’ self-illuminate and light up the garden from dusk to dawn, producing close to 750 watts of energy. The garden lights have been retrofitted with LED bulbs that consume less electricity as compared to conventional incandescent or CFL bulbs. Company says that the design iconography used in the ‘tree’ is executed in an aesthetically appealing manner. The whole setup is visually appealing and makes a strong statement about the environment and energy conservation.

The company has aptly named this demonstration set up as “Surya Aranya' or Forest of the Sun. It is a first-of-its-kind project in India. The aim is to spread a strong message with regard to energy conservation. Company feels that the demonstration set up could be replicated on a much larger scale. And hope that civic bodies pick up the concept. Projects like Surya Aranya could also be used in housing societies. While the initial cost is high, in the long run, the energy savings will justify the cost.

Coming to think of it, “ Surya Aranya” is an initiative well worth copying by corporates having large campuses, housing societies with internal roads that need lighting and Government establishments. Benefits are two fold. Firstly the campuses would looks aesthetically much more appealing and secondly it would cut down electricity bills.

29^th April 2014

The House of Laughs

During early years of Indian republic or in the Nehruvian era, socialism was the king. The soviet model of planned development through centralized planning process and control was considered the magic mantra of those days. Entire development of the newly independent nation was planned to be capsulized in what were called as five year plans. Everything was thought to be very simple. In first five year plan, India was supposed to become self sufficient in food production. In second five year plan it was the turn of the heavy industry and all such new industries were planned to be set up as public sector companies or those under Government control. Needless to say all these plan targets flopped. India never became self sufficient in food till decade of 1980's, when an American agriculturist Norman Borlaug came along to India and introduced his concepts or hybrid plant cultivations. The heavy industries set up under Government control, soon became white elephants and a great opportunity for bureaucrats, who understood nothing about industries and production.

The nerve center of all this planned development and the five year plans was a building on New Delhi's Parliament street or Sansad Marg, aptly named as House of plans or 'Yojana Bhavan.' It was in this building that the chief architect of India's five year plans, known as Deputy chairman of the planning commission, used to sit. He controlled a vast bureaucratic set up known as Planning commission, which oversaw the five year plans and had power to control everything about India's development. Every year state chief ministers made made a bee line to this building to get plans for their states approved and money released. Mainly politicians, who could not be accommodated in the cabinet were appointed to this post of Deputy chairman except for a unique exception of Dr. D.R. Gadgil, who was an eminent economist.

After disastrous failure of the soviet socialistic model in 1990's, there were not many takers for India's five year plans. In addition, Indian Government under prime ministership of Shri Narasimha Rao, threw away the licensing controls in the same decade and ushered in a new era of liberalization for the Indian economy. This further brought down the importance of Yojana bhavan. At present planning commission still prepares these five year plans, but it is difficult to say as to how much importance is really given to these plans by other Government departments now.

Planning commission of India came out with a super blooper in January 2012, when in a statement submitted to the Supreme Court of India, it claimed that any urban family spending over Rs. 32/- (US$0.581) per day per person can not be considered as poor. For rural folks, this limit is supposed to be Rs. 26/- (US$ 0.4727) only. Any family whose expenditure is below these figures, only can be considered as below poverty line. For a country where food inflation has been raging in double digits and where a mini cup of tea costs at least Rs. 5/- (US$ 0.091), this kind of bloomer from planning commission was something no one could accept. Overnight, Planning commission of India and its ivory tower officers became a subject of ridicule and fun. It took much firefighting effort on part of the Government machinery to control the damage.

However it seems that Planning commission is hell bent upon creating lives of Indians easier with bursts of antics to provide comic relief. Media reported recently that when the Government is preaching austerity measures, its own planning commission has spend Rs 35 Lacs (US$ 63000) on renovation of two Toilets in Yojana Bhavan. Naturally there was huge hue and cry from the media. To douse the fire , planning commission and its deputy chairman released further howlers. Deputy chairman says that

“ It was within the commission's budget and there was nothing wrong in renovation of the toilets.” and "There is nothing wrong. We have tried to clean up the facilities. If the buildings are being improved, I think this is good."

A statement issued by the commission says that "While the amount of Rs 30 lac being mentioned is correct, an impression is being created that this has been spent on two toilets. This is totally false because these toilets have multiple seats in addition to separate facility for the differently abled. Each of these blocks can be simultaneously used by approximately ten people," I find this statement outrageously funny. We must really thank the person who wrote this copy, for the great humour.

There were complaints in the media that the access to these toilets is now controlled with smart card access control system costing abot Rs. 5 Lacs. Commission defended this by saying “ Because there have been instances of pilferage in the newly-constructed toilets, an access-control system was initially tried but not found feasible in practice". Yet the fact remains that Rs. 5 Lac spent on this system has gone down the drain.

It is no wonder that J&K state chief minister Omar Abdullah has tweeted, "Must remember to ask to use the loo next time I visit the Planning Commission. Gotta see what all the fuss is about."

Many Indians have no doubt, started thinking that the time has now come to say good bye to planning commission along with its ivory tower officers, who do not seem to be doing any worth while work any way.

8^th June 2012

Strange Discovery

Planning commission is supposed to be an autonomous organization in the bureaucratic jungle of New Delhi, India's capital.  On paper, this organization is supposed to be an independent body free from Government interference. In practice, however we might consider it as part of the Government set up only. In the socialistic minded Governments of sixties and seventies, the much tom-tomed Five year plans were essentially prepared by this body. This body still prepares these five year plans, but it is difficult to say as to how much importance is really given to these plans by other Government departments now. This body is supposed to formulate a broad plan of various projects like dams, roads etc. and decide the locations and the reach of these projects. This body is also supposed to formulate for India, the plans for progress. 

This body has come out recently,  with a rather strange discovery. In a statement submitted to the Supreme Court of India, it has been claimed that any urban family spending over Rs. 32/- per day person can not be considered as poor. For rural folks, this limit is supposed to be Rs. 26/- only. Any family whose expenditure is below these figures, only can be considered as below poverty line.