Steam Center Blog

Narmada River Near Jabalpur T oday morning the editorial section of Times of India, dated January 23, 2015, carried a frightening item entitled ‘Our Killer Air; that said “The National Capital happens to be the world’s pollution capital. Delhi’s level of particulate matter PM 2.5, considered the most dangerous type of toxic pollutant in air, clocks in at 153 micrograms which is far beyond safe levels and much higher than Beijing’s 56 mcg. Health and economic costs extracted by air pollution are mind boggling. It is estimated to cause 25% of stroke case, 48% of heart disease and 17% of chronic OPD cases in Delhi.” What might be the solutions to such a severe problem that compromises the very well beings of those who govern India and shake its very foundation? The medium term measures that come to mind are Seek guidance from Singapore and recent successful Beijing policies that severely limit private transportation/diesel while encouraging public one...

This author was delighted to find a bold advertisement in the morning newspaper that said “The ministry of New and renewable Energy has launched a national level Grid connected rooftop and small power plant program to promote Grid Connected Rooftop Solar PV systems from 1kWp to 500kWp in residential, commercial and institutional sectors ---- you can also release excess power to the grid and profit from the generation” The announcement also gave a URL    http://re-invest.in .   It goes without saying that there will be some teething problems as the policy is rolled out as happens with every new initiative especially of such a large scale but these should get ironed out in due course. This blogger is proud to having been the first to have campaigned for it by earlier articles on the issue ( see here and here ) and then persistently communicating the links to the concerned authorities. Much Kudos to the new Government of Shri Narendra Modi for hav...

H umans through history have been governed by different types of governments ranging from monarchies, dictatorships to communist one party rule and democracies. However, in all forms of governments, the rights of both citizens and those who govern have not been absolute. Thus no citizen has had absolute right anywhere to injure or kill other members of society and nearly all types of governments, except some short lived despotic ones, have not had the right to imprison or enslave citizens without a due process of law. There have been other limitations on governments too, for example a government of whatever form may not take away the children of citizens, the modesty of its women or their private property except within well defined exceptions. For example, if a parent is seen to be cruel in an extreme way, a child may be taken away; when a piece of land is required for an urgent public purpose such as defense of the country or building an essential road, land may be acquired. ...

A Toilet enclosure made inside a green hedge W hile it has been recognized that using the outdoors as a toilet is a very poor idea leading to pollution of the environment and water sources, there is a need to come up with low cost alternatives. Depending on the location, different solutions are required. There cannot be one size fit all solution. There are four areas of expenses The toilet seat and associated piping The septic tank The enclosure Water piping In earlier posts of this blog very low cost alternative to item 1 ( see ) and 2 have been discussed and as regards item four it is also possible to improvise with a bucket of water drawn from a hand pump nearby thrown in the toilet. The cost of the enclosure however remains. In rural areas where open land is available next to the dwelling it is possible to build an enclosure with a green hedge too as shown in the figure. It may be argued that this does not provide full privacy but it h...

C ountries like Dubai and Singapore have prospered hugely because they have been virtually free economic zones, with easy business laws and free movement of goods; it is not difficult for other countries that have offshore islands to duplicate the feat over defined limited regions. In this lies a great opportunity for India if it were to declare a part of the Andaman and Nicobar islands as a free economic zone while reserving a part of it for its security needs and tribal considerations while also some as a protected natural reserve. With an area more than ten times of Singapore there is enough to do all of this and more. In fact India can go further by permitting visa free entry for citizens of two small countries, Singapore and New Zealand to new Singapore as it does for Nepal in rest of India. Businessmen from such countries may then quickly help develop the infrastructure rapidly. In case India considers this concept; it should duplicate the laws and regulation of Singapo...

From: https://agenda.weforum.org/2015/01/the-key-factor-behind-the-rise-in-income-inequality/ from https://agenda.weforum.org/2015/01/the-key-factor-behind-the-rise-in-income-inequality/ A recent excellent article by Scott Bixby at the World Economic Forum has brought out some startling facts about the world economy, led by the US.   The data is illustrated in two graphs, repeated here for discussion. The graphs show that an era that may be termed the era of economic exploitation, an era in which the rich get richer while the poor get nowhere or poorer began in 1980. It is an era of rising inequalities. The trend appears to have begun with the richest 0.1 percent in 1980 and then spread on to the 1 percent by 1985. For some reason that is not fully clear or merely coincidental this era of inequality has begun around the time of creation of the World Economic Forum and its meets in Davos. Perhaps the forum provides for a sharing of techniques ...