Living under a shadow

If I have to comment about the India-ASEAN summit that took place on 20-21^st December 2012, in New Delhi, I can easily say without any doubt, that it is a summit clearly under a shadow. No ASEAN leader mentioned it in his speech, but it is obvious that everyone was acutely aware of the elephant in the room. In speeches, the Philippines and Vietnam referred to tensions in their region. Philippines Vice President Jejomar Binay said “At this time of rising concerns about maritime issues, the need to maintain a high level of maritime security and freedom of navigation offers us... an opportunity for enhanced cooperation.” Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was perhaps more explicit when he told the summit that closer maritime cooperation with India was needed because 70 percent of the world’s traffic in petroleum products passes through the Indian Ocean from the Middle East to East Asia. He said further: “While the center of the global economy is shifting eastward, the Indian and Pacific Oceans have been and will become even more important in providing the vital sea routes for trade and commerce.”

India is hosting this ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit in New Delhi to mark the 20th anniversary of the ASEAN-India dialogue partnership and the 10th anniversary of ASEAN-India Summit-level meetings. The theme of the summit is 'ASEAN-India Partnership for Peace and Shared Prosperity'. And it aims at strengthening ties across diverse areas like trade, energy, security and cultural connectivity. The prime ministers of Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam, the presidents of Myanmar and Indonesian, and the vice president of the Philippines are attending the summit along with representatives of Thailand, Laos, and Brunei.

Someone may ask; why this sudden anxiety about the maritime security? The answer is not too difficult to find. The South China Sea has become Asia’s biggest potential military flashpoint. The core of the problem is the possibility of huge oil reserves in the region, which are being explored in their territorial waters by Vietnam and the Philippines at present. China claims a huge looping area out of the South China Sea as its own. This claim conflicts directly against sovereignty claims by Vietnam and the Philippines as well as Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. In November 2012, China announced a plan to board and search ships that illegally enter what it considers its territory in the South China Sea. A dangerous proposition that could lead to naval clashes.

China also managed to breach the unity of ASEAN over this issue by using Cambodia, which was promised a largesse including a $100 million loan to set up Cambodia's largest cement plant. As a result, the ASEAN summit ended in acrimony in November 2012 over China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea, with its leaders failing to agree on a concluding joint statement.

India is obviously relishing this moment, as countries of South East Asia are looking to India now for maritime security. India has no territorial claim in the region, yet it has interests. It is exploring for oil and gas with Vietnam in an area contested by China. Also there is also a plan to ship liquefied natural gas from Russia through the Malacca Straits in future. It is interesting to note that few weeks ago, India’s navy chief made a statement that he was ready to deploy vessels to the South China Sea to protect exploration interests there, if needed.

In the vision statement agreed at this New Delhi summit, India and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have set their sights on a new “strategic partnership” that would bring closer political, security and economic cooperation, with special importance for the need for freedom of navigation, a contentious issue because of competing claims with Beijing over parts of the South China Sea.

It is obvious that ASEAN considers the presence of naval ships of few major powers in south China sea as a guarantee for their safety. They have already convinced US, which has started stationing a larger force of marines in south east Asia. Presence of India in Southeast Asia would provide them greater additional safety against being dominated by China.

India has great plans for improving connectivity with south east Asia. It is pushing for quick implementation of the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway and its extension to Laos and Cambodia. It is also planning to launch a second route that would run from India through Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia to Vietnam. These plans may take time to fructify. Since annual trade between ASEAN and India has nearly doubled in four years and India’s growing economic clout makes it appealing as a balance to other Asian powers. The emphasis on maritime security gains importance.

As China scare looms large over south east Asia, India may find that it's twenty year old, Look east policy, is finally beginning to gain traction. The New Delhi summit underscores India’s growing role in one of the world’s fastest-growing regions, South East Asia.

22 December 2012

P.M.'s fall from grace

Don't get ideas! Neither I am talking politics nor any political bigwig from India is on my radar. I am writing about Australian Prime Minister Ms Julia Gillard, who is on an official visit to India to discuss issues of mutual interest including issue of supply of Uranium ore to India.

It is customary that whenever any foreign dignitary is on an official visit to New Delhi, the dignitary usually pays a visit to Gandhi Memorial or 'Samadhi' at Raj Ghat on the bank of the Jamuna river and lays a wreath at the Gandhi memorial. Following the customary protocol, Ms. Gillard visited Gandhi memorial to pay her respects to the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

It was just after when Ms. Gillard had laid the floral wreath on the Gandhi Samadhi and had turned back, that the disaster struck. On all sides of this Gandhi memorial, there are patches of beautiful lush green grass. As she was walking towards reporters for a press conference, her high heel got stuck in soft grass and she landed flat on her face in front of all reporters and TV cameras. Luckily she was not hurt or bleeding and she quickly got up and quickly and admirably laughed it off. She later quipped to the reporters;

"For men who get to wear flat shoes all day every day, if you wear a heel it can get embedded in soft grass and when you pull your foot out the shoes doesn't come."

Australian media, who have showed the TV clip of her fall on TV, report that such falls are nothing new for Ms. Gillard. The Sydney Morning Herald says under a caption "Gillard flat out on Indian tour," that Gillard has a history of losing her shoes, most notably as she was being whisked away from protesters at a function in Canberra in January 2012. Her footwear later turned up on eBay. More recently, she had slipped out of one of her shoes as she was taking the stage at an event in Sydney. Ttabloid Daily Telegraph, has put the news of tumble on its front page under the headline "PM's fall from grace," with a comment that grass and high heels do not mix.

Leaving the fall apart, Australia and India got down to serious business next day and agreed to start negotiations about a civil nuclear co-operation agreement. Bilateral trade between Australia and India is worth $20bn and is growing at the rate of 20% every year.

Australian Prime minister is a slim person and that is why perhaps she carried off the whole embarrassing incident so lightly and admirably. She quickly recovered and went along with the next programme in her schedule: watching underprivileged Indian girls play cricket at a camp in New Delhi . Can you imagine, what would happen if any of our Indian bigwigs ( in stature and in size) are to face similar situation, in another country? May be broken bones and hospital stays perhaps.

19 October 2012

A Cure worse than the disease

Every day I return home for lunch around 1 PM, when I always see a junk collector's handcart parked on the street corner, along with the owner standing nearby. Surprisingly, I have never seen usual junk like empty bottles, tin cans, paper boxes and broken bathroom fittings on his cart. On the contrary, his cart is always parked with old Personal Computers, old CRT monitors, broken printers and all that kind of discarded electronic or e-junk. I have been always wondering, where from he manages get every day so many computers and printers? Finally, I decided to ask him directly and satisfy my curiosity. Few days back, I stopped my car near his cart and inquired with him, about the junk he had collected on his cart that day. The answers , which he gave me were quite revealing. All the electronic junk like computers, printers and old telephones, which he had on his cart, was collected by him on the same day. I naturally asked him about what exactly he does with the junk. He told me that there is a shop in the city, which buys only electronic junk on weight basis from junk collectors like him, so he goes to the shop at the end of the day and sells the collected junk to the shop. 

 

I am acquainted with a scrap dealer, whom I used to sell my factory scrap earlier. By chance, I met him couple of days ago. I casually asked him about the electronic junk. According to him, the computer junk collected from the hard cart junk collectors is actually sold to big scrap dealers in Delhi, who buy this e-junk on per ton basis from shops spread all over the country. By now I was very curious about this electronic junk trade. I decided to do some research on the net. What I found was interesting but not very palatable.

Let us trace out the entire journey of the e-junk from the household to final destination. In the first place, what my street corner cart owner had told me was half truth. The scrap dealer, who purchases e-junk from him does not buy broken plastic parts or moulded plastic cabinets. So my street corner cart owner, simply burns off the plastic parts at the end of the day. Many of these plastic parts are quoted with metal films and most of theme are sprayed with chemicals containing Cadmium, lead, Mercury compounds and Bromides to make them anti-inflammable. The fumes created by open burning of such parts, are highly dangerous to the people in the vicinity and are also carcinogenic with continuous exposure. Our hand cart owner does not even know that he is playing with his own life by burning the plastic parts in open. 

 

The bulk purchased electronic junk is usually sent to Delhi by trucks or railway wagons. Here, this junk is first sorted out. The computers which are salvageable or are in working order are separated and sent to some cities in India's Rajasthan state like Bharatpur, Dholapur, Bikaner, where these are repaired or cannibalized. Such cannibalized computers then are sold to traders from smaller towns or schools for as low a price as 30 to 40% of the price of a similar new computer. Whatever remains after this cannibalization and is beyond use, is again simply sent back to Delhi scrap traders. I have been always under impression so far that these non salvageable computers along with broken junk are used as a landfill and are simply dumped into pits, dug into earth and covered up finally with loose soil. The realities however quite differ from this and what happens later with the junk is extremely polluting and unhygienic. 

 

The trade in old Personal Computers and other e-junk, taking place in India's capital Delhi, has now reached such gigantic proportions that Delhi along with being called India's capital, may be also called as Capital of scrapped computers and e junk. As per present figures, every year, Delhi recycles more than 20000 tons of e-junk and it is likely that this figure could be much higher in coming few years. Besides re-cycling the e-junk collected from throughout the country, such electronic junk is now reaching Delhi from almost all advanced nations of the world, who do not want to do anything with the junk but simply discard it. A Ton of e-scrap is sold in Delhi market for about 20000 Rupees (US$ 365.00) From this e-junk it is possible to recycle or salvage around 10 Grams of Gold and 30 to 40 Kg of Copper and other metals worth 40000 Rupees.(US$ 730.00)

From above mentioned figures, it may appear that this is a very lucrative business. But this recycling is being done in Delhi in such hazardous and deadlier way that anyone would come to the conclusion that this cure for disposal of e junk is worse that the problem of creation of the junk itself.

This recycling work goes on in small villages surrounding Delhi. You can watch 10 to 12 year old kids shaking trays filled with electronic printed circuit boards in acid filled drums that come to almost their height. They were rubber hand gloves but are not provided with any mask or googles. Small droplets of acid can drop on these children any time. Similarly the entire air surrounding these sheds is saturated with acid fumes. All the kids working here suffer from cough and breathing problems. Under such conditions, when the work is over, these kids find solace in drinking hard illicit liquor. 

 

The residue that collects in the acid drums is collected each day. This residue contains all the metallic salts. The metals like copper are later recovered from the residue. Other e-junk containing glass an plastic are similarly recycled in other small sheds with furnaces. The working conditions here also are equally horrible. Within Delhi metropolitan area the rules are very strict about child labour and working conditions. Hence this entire recycling work is done in sheds set up in small villages on periphery of Delhi. Since the profitability of this business is more than 100%, it continues to grow and flourish without bothering about the environment and health of child labour utilized.

With the popularity and the fact that manufacturers continuously keep bringing newer and newer models out, the mobile phones are latest additions to e-junk. Because of this, old scrapped mobile phones are being brought to Delhi for recycling. No one seems to be bothered that by bringing in this poisonous junk from everywhere in world to Delhi and recycling it, we are causing a great harm to the environment and immeasurable damage to the health and well being of these poor children, who are forced to work in these recycling sheds.

21 September 2012

Baby boom in Delhi, yet no one is complaining!

India's burgeoning population has crossed a figure of 1.22 Billion now. As many as 51 babies are born every minute in India. Many of India's ails are directly linked to this huge population. Controlling the population growth has been a major issue for successive Governments in India. In this kind of situation, just the idea of a baby boom would bring shudders to many no doubt.

Yet another kind of baby boom is taking place in India's capital, New Delhi, but no one seems to be complaining at all. It is actually a foreign baby boom. I have a feeling that the readers must be rather confused by now. But it is not complicated at all. Every month, childless couples from many Muslim countries of Asia and Africa are increasingly making a visit to New Delhi to undergo a medical procedure commonly known as in vitro fertilization.

A New Delhi based medical tourism outfit 'CureMax' carries out in vitro fertilization procedure as well as other infertility-related procedures, for as many as 50 patients, a number that goes up to 70 in the winter months when the weather is really good in Delhi. What is amazing is that most of CureMax patients are from Afghanistan alone. Normally, infertility problems are supposed to be a bane of the western societies with their changing lifestyles, where many couples put off childbirth in their late 30's. However CureMax patient profile now suggests that conservative societies of the developing world, are fast catching up with the west. Another medical tourism company 'Care Medical' admits that they get 10 to 15 foreign patients from Islamic countries every month. Other fertility experts can count their patients from places like Iran, Iraq, Uzbekistan and Tanzania in the hundreds. In fact in New Delhi's Afghan refugee colony, it is a thriving business.

Another medical tourism firm, Aaarex Medical Services, accepts that the number of patients for in vitro fertilization has been growing at the rate of 15 to 20 % steadily. Out of this growing number, a larger number of Muslim people come from Muslims from Arabic countries and Muslims from countries like Nigeria and Tanzania than ever seen previously. There was a general belief that medical tourists come to India mostly from western countries, where treatments are much more expensive and require longer period of waiting because of the limited number of facilities. The citizens of the Muslim countries of Asia and Africa seem to have joined the westerners now.

For a western patient, main attraction of India is the cheaper cost of the medical treatment here. However, for patients from Asia and Africa, there are other reasons too. In India, good reputed clinics usually charge just a fraction of the high cost of IVF in the west with a high standard of care. For example Care Max (mentioned above) charges just US$ 3000 for a typical IVF procedure compared to US$ 8000 charged in US or Europe. But for a patient from Asia and Africa there are other reasons too.

One of the reasons is the easy availability of the clinics. In India, having a baby of your own has a great cultural importance. Considering the overall population of India it is no wonder that private fertility clinics have mushroomed everywhere in recent years. In all upmarket areas, an IVF clinic can be found easily on any street. The Indian Council of Medical Research has recently drafted regulations and has began to crack down to weed out fly-by-night outfits that also have surfaced.

Another important reason for this preference is the proximity and historical ties, countries like Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries of Central Asia have with India. Standards of dress and behaviour are similar. Another factor that favours India is the soft power of Bollywood movies. These movies are extremely popular in Asia and many countries of Africa. Because of the movies patients from these countries are already familiar with Indian culture and way of living. They are also familiar with Hindi to some extent. Other medical tourism places find it impossible to match India's advantages.

Fertility treatments are time consuming and not all patients can afford to stay in hotels. Medical outfits in Delhi are arranging cheap service apartments for patients in Muslim areas of Delhi, where the patients have access to halal foods and a familiar kind of neighbourhoods. The patients can stay in the apartments and cook their own food. The total cost of treatment comes down substantially for the patients by this. Similarly there are many Iranian and African communities with close ties with India.

The result is that everyone is happy. The hapless couples bring a new joy in their lives at a cost they can afford. The Delhi fertility clinics keep their cash registers ringing and many in the neighbourhood like the landlords are benefited from the incoming Dollars. This is one baby boom about which no one including the Government is complaining.

( This post is based on a report published in Huffington post)

15^th September 2012

Real Politic, Sri Lanka and Commonwealth games.

For two consecutive days in October 2010, News from India grabbed the front page space in Singapore newspaper, Strait Times. This by itself was rather unusual, since any news about India is usually found somewhere in the deep interior of this news paper, India being very low on newsworthiness of Singapore readers. On top of that, the news items included big photographs showing uncleaned toilets and betel juice stained bath rooms from Athlete’s village in New Delhi. Even to an uninformed Indian like me, presently staying in Singapore, the message was clear and loud. New Delhi games were doomed.

Bad news kept on coming, as number of days to opening ceremony reduced to a number that could be counted by fingers of just one hand. First , a pedestrian bridge collapsed at the games venue. Then false roofing in some corner of some stadium gave way, when an electrician tried to walk on it. Finally a snake was caught in the games village. Some one from media decided that it was a King cobra. Many athletes started giving second thought about their trip to New Delhi. Some actually canceled the trip. Even Indian media were super active in self bashing. It appeared that something was seriously wrong with the preparation for the games.

A Very Different University

In the year 2007, The Noble award for Peace was awarded to United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. On behalf of this committee, the award was accepted by former US Vice president, Mr. Al Gore and an eminent Indian Scientist, Mr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, who is a well known persona working in the areas of Global Warming, Environment, Pollution and Energy Conservation.

It was no surprise that when Mr. Pachauri announced the creation of a new university,offering courses and research facilities in the field of sustainable development some ten years back, attention of scientists from the world over was drawn to it. This new university named as TERI is taking shape today. Many industry executives and education experts praise this university for the way it has started training people and carrying out research in finding solutions to problems such as environmental degradation, pollution and poverty elimination.