Every time there is a festival or an occasion and we have a barrage of emails/sms-es that we are 'spammed' with (by the way, should we still call it 'spam' - when we're bombarded with unwanted and unwarranted sms-es??). In fact, this year, instead of being a mute spectator and at the the 'receiving end'; I decided to initiate a message and 'spam' everyone else.
Here's what I sent out...
"Have we really built the country that people died for 61 years back? If NOT what are YOU doing about it? Let's not stop at 'Good' and go for .. 'Great'! Don't just read this SMS & stop...DO something!!.. & well, a Happy Independence Day, anyway! - Sandeep Ohri"
I was attending my kids' school function when this came to mind and it took me less than a minute to come up with this and send it out.
Within seconds I received a response (make that responses) I thought it may be a good idea to just document these - after all a blogpost will survive a lot more than the stored sms on my cell.
I have reproduced them here (in toto, typos and all) and since most of the co-spammers are my friends, their identities have been protected...
1. Dis is sumthng u hav written?
2. :) Bhes badla par des kab badlayenge. Happy Independence Day.
3.'Falak ki zid hai jaha bijliyan girane ke, hamein bhi zid hai waheen ashiyana baanane kee'. Fight against terrorism. HAPPY 61TH INDEPENDENCE DAY JAI HIND.
4. This day reminds of the liberty for all that still eludes. Let's keep doing our bit to assert our liberty. We shall overcome.
5. Freedom in the Mind. Faith in the words.. Pride in our Hearts and memories in our Souls..Let's salute the nation on 61st Independence Day! Vande Mataram.
6. Thank you and wish you happy indipendence day. Give me a call,will join you for a good cause. Regds.
7. No more words. :-):-) let our works speak. :-). You are absolutely right.
Go on .. feel free to add some more..I know you are dying to :)
And just for the record, its our 62nd I-Day, after completing 61 years of independence.. do the maths. Last night, Sagarika Ghosh on CNN-IBN very boldly stated it is our 61st I-Day.. while the scroll at the bottom of her screen said, 'Nation celebrates 62nd Independence Day".
I began to wonder whether I had committed a faux pas in my morning sms, so I sat back and did the calculations. 15-8-1947 was our 1st I-Day, then on 15-8-1948 we had our 2nd I-Day after completing the 1st year ..and so on... Therefore, on 15-8-2008 we are celebrating our 62nd I-Day after completing 61 years...right, or am I still missing something?
Well, 61st or 62nd, the fact remains, what have we really achieved? Have we really done justice to the efforts of those who actually DIED for this?? Think, just think... what were they thinking of when they actually took a bullet for the country's freedom? ..what was the thought in their minds and in their heads, when they gasped their final breath?
I was in dual minds when I heard the children at the school make the (mandatory?) laudatory speeches in English, Hindi, Marathi & Sanskrit, extolling our nation's achievements (incl our latest poster boy, Abhinav Bindra).
I realised, I had done the same when I was in school - and actually believed that our country had been progressing at a fast pace. But as the age of innocence gave way to age of disillusion and then the age of reasoning and now the age of understanding, I really wonder whether we should 'fix' this or not.
Should those children have been corrected and told that we are a nation suffering far more ills than our achievements? Should their 'bubble' be burst? Should we take away their zeal and their innocence? Should we tell them about the harsh realities that they are going to face as soon as they step out of their cocooned comfort zone? Should we tell them about the big-bad-world of politicians and underworld dons and how they muscle their way around?
Or should we let them hang onto their dreams of a resurgent India, the India that has produced the likes of ...Rabindranath Tagore, Sachin Tendulkar, Kalpana Chawla, Sunita Williams (?), Abhinav Bindra, Subhash Chandra Bose, Nehru, Sardar Patel (notice how the post-Independence ones are mostly non-political?)
Woke up at 6am and started typing... I am still in a dilemma .. and just can't stop thinking of it!
Electricity from Nuclear Power – A layman’s research!
Ok .. so the government won the Trust Vote (amidst accusations, mayhem and a general mockery of the Indian democratic system) - but what does that mean to you and me and the rest of the (unsuspecting) masses? According to me there are 3 main issues .. 1. Is the cost of electricity from a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) really cheaper? 2. Is Nuclear Power better and ‘cleaner’? 3. Does India have to depend on the US (only) for Uranium?
Hey, I said, “according to ME” .. ok? This is MY blog…and I have the right to rant here :)
Anyway, I found no ready answers in our print & television media, as these guys are more obsessed with sensationalizing the shameful proceedings that went on.
So, I decided to spend some time Googling (is this now a valid word??) on another wet 26/7 in Mumbai, and here’s what I found.
Ok, here’s a caveat - I’m NOT an expert and there may be mistakes, but I have tried to summarize what I have understood from my readings across the Internet.
Here goes…
Question: Is electricity from Nuclear Power, cheaper? My Answer: YES
From what I understand, when speaking of costs, there are two types: Internal and External. Internal costs are those which are incurred directly while generating energy, while External costs are those which are incurred in relation to health and the environment. External costs are quantifiable, but not built in directly into the cost of electricity.
In terms of Internal costs, Nuclear energy incurs about one-tenth of the costs of coal, so that makes it really cheap.
And here’s the clincher, if you add up the (quantifiable) External costs, the cost from Coal increases by another 100% and that from Gas, increases by another 30%, making these two even more costly – and all of this is without adding the costs of global warming (since this is not quantifiable yet).
At first glance, the costs of setting up (and fuelling) a NPP seem much higher. However, when costs are declared for Nuclear energy, these always HAVE to include the entire cycle of costs (spent fuel management, plant decommissioning and final waste disposal), whereas, the costs for other technologies need not account for these directly.
So though, at first glance, such figures may seem higher, when you actually take into account carbon-dioxide emissions, waste disposal, etc., Nuclear energy is actually cheaper.
I came across one official study done in Finland in August 2003 which compared all the costs (fixed, running and emission) of a Nuclear, Coal & Gas Plant. The final figures worked out to Nuclear 23.7 euro cents per MWh, Gas 39.2 cents and Gas 44.3 cents. The study also analyzed the effect of the doubling of basic Fuel prices.
If Fuel prices doubled, the cost of Nuclear energy would rise only 9%, but energy from Coal would rise 31% and that from Gas would rise 60% !!
This is because the cost of Fuel in a NPP is relatively smaller percentage than the cost of Fuel in a Coal or a Gas power plant.
Next Question: Is Nuclear Power better and ‘cleaner’? My Answer: YOU BET!
Coal-powered plants use 3,200 Million Tonnes of Coal each year to produce 38% of the world’s electricity. NPPs use only 61,000 Tonnes of Uranium for 16% of the world’s electricity.
Coal is generally used in the country where it is mined and sometimes has to be transported over a large distance to the Power plants, which further requires energy (in transportation) and causes greenhouse gas emissions (on the way).
In comparison, very little Uranium is required to do the same job. Consider the following facts:
A 1000 MWe NPP requiring 27 tonnes of fresh fuel per year is an average of about 74 kg per day.
A 1000 MWe Coal plant needs 8600 Tonnes of coal to be delivered every day.
Nuclear Plants have a Carbon Dioxide emission rate of 16 g/kWh, while Gas Plants emit 356g and Coal Plants emit a whopping 891g.
Every 22 Tonnes of Uranium used, we avoid an emission of 1,000,000 Tonnes of Carbon Dioxide, relative to Coal.
When the electricity comes from Coal, 1 kiloWatt hour (kWh) of it results in about 1 Kg of Carbon Dioxide being emitted.
Last Question: Does India have to depend on the US (only) for Uranium? My Answer: NO !
Uranium is a slightly radioactive metal that occurs throughout the earth's crust. It is about 500 times more abundant than gold and about as common as tin. Over half of the world's production of uranium from mines is from Canada (23%), Australia (21%) and Kazakhstan (16%). USA does only 4% of the production.
In 2008, the world would require 64,615 Tonnes of Uranium only for NPPs generating electricity. The largest requirement is of the US 29%, followed by France 16%, Japan 12%, Germany 5%, Russia 5%, South Korea 5%.
India’s requirement right now is a miniscule 2% at 978 Tonnes if its 17 reactors operate at full capacity. Presently, on account of the lack of supply, many of these are operating below capacity, some at around 50%.
The combined installed capacity in India stands at 3779 MWe which generates about 16 billion kWh of electricity - a mere 2.5% of our total electricity generated presently.
India also has huge reserves of Uranium - about 56,000 Tonnes of it! But this is of poor quality of ore which cannot really be used for the NPPs and hence we need to buy this from other countries (Australia, Canada & Kazaksthan). Now these other countries will not supply it to us, unless we are part of a global agreement that agrees to not use this purchased Uranium for military purposes.
So, if we sign the agreement with the US, we can get to buy the Uranium from other countries, to fuel our NPPs and use it for civilian (non-military) purposes.
Well, as I see it, it seems to be a win-win situation! See, India produces about 430 Tonnes of good quality, usable Uranium per year. Most of this goes to the NPPs and maybe some part, towards our own military purpose.
In future, the situation will change as we have another 25 Nuclear reactors (planned and/or under construction) taking our capacity from 3779 MWe to 20,115 MWe. This is almost 5 times our present requirement. Now WHERE are we going to get the Uranium to Fuel this if we don’t sign the agreement!
Obviously, when we started off planning for these reactors, the government KNEW that we cannot produce this Uranium within the country and we would HAVE to purchase this from outside… so why create a hungama NOW when the time to sign the Agreement has come?
If we didn’t want to give up our so-called ‘nuclear-independence,’ why did the Government plan to construct so many Nuclear Reactors in the first place?? It’s pretty obvious we didn’t have the Uranium then, and we don’t have the Uranium now!!
Now, here’s an interesting bit of news. NPPs can also use a mineral called Thorium – of which India has a whopping 319,000 Tonnes of, which is almost one-fifth of the world’s reserves. Here’s the good news. All of this is usable for NPPs, after some amount of processing, which we already DO even now.
So here’s my take .. let’s sign the Agreement, buy the Uranium from outside for electricity generation purposes and lets process our own Thorium for generating Uranium for our military purposes ..
Hey, doesn’t that sound too simple ?? So why the hell didn’t someone just tell it to us like this??
It was in October 2006, I used to run a small scale unit in Mumbai and I received my first escalated electricity bill from Reliance Energy. (For those who came in late... my bill went from Rs. 210 for 11 units to Rs. 10,800 for 14 units!!)
It was then that I woke up and smelt the coffee .. oops .. the mud, about how Reliance Energy had been hoodwinking its consumers.
Ever since then and with the help and guidance of Mr. Rakshpal Abrol (President of the Bombay Small Scale Industries Association) I was made aware of the depths of this bottomless chasm. He warned me of the gravity of the situation, but I was determined to "do something" - after all this was "wrong"!!
Since then, I jumped in and ...
... started "blogging" (this one here and mirrored on Blogger and then later also Bijleepower). ... formed (and still Moderate) the Bijlee Yahoo Group ... started an Online Petition for removal of monopoly in Mumbai"s electricity supply ... sent out many emails (more in frustration and desperation) to demystify the electricity issue ... participated in public meetings on creating awareness ... became the Moderator of the Electricity section at Karmayog.org ... was hit by threatening Legal Notices by REL ... initially refused to pay their illegal bills (later relented in the interest of feeding my staff) ... initiated a legal battle with REL in the Consumer Court (after they chopped off my electricity) ... made presentations at MERC"s public hearings ... was interviewed by TV & newspaperson the issue (some called me "Power Activist", Ha!) ... made presentations at the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity at New Delhi ... got REL penalised for not turning up at the Tribunal hearing ! ... was referred to in many of MERC"s Orders. See here (pgs 12/24/25) and here (pgs 39/40) ... and even helped file a case against REL in the Supreme Court
There was a time when people have come up to me and told me, "Don"t take "panga" with the Ambanis." Well, it was never personal and so I was never "afraid" ... he is a businessman in his own right and I have my rights as a Consumer.
This journey has by no means ended (hey, life is a journey .. to sound cliched) and things will go on. I have moved on from my small scale unit into a challenging corporate environment. People have become more aware of the electricity situation ... and of their rights ...
And now in July 2008, the Supreme Court has given its verdict on the interpretation of Tata Power"s Distribution License .. that Tata Power can also supply electricity to retail consumers in Mumbai.
Thus paving the way, once again, for competition in this sector and giving me a sense of accomplishment-of-sorts.
Sure, we have a long way to go, but I think we have set the ball rolling and now there are enough people who have been made aware of the situation.
Looking back, I have learnt a lot from this experience and the point of this entire blog is that if you feel deep down you are right about something, its worth pursuing (and pursue it like hell).
The results may seem elusive at first and even impossible - but if you are on the right track, the small spark that you carry can actually become a forest fire !
Do not underestimate your own capabilities. When this happened, I was a complete novice (I believe, "newbie" is the right word ... or is it "noob"?) in the ways of the Internet - but now I can get myself around.
Don"t give up ... Believe in yourself ... Take on the world ... and whether you get the results you desired or not .. YOU will be a different person !!
Cheers !!
End note: It"s Guru Purnima on July 18th .. I would like to pay my respects to my Guru, Mr. Rakshpal Abrol, who taught me the ropes in this entire struggle of mine. Sir, with folded hands I pay my humble respect to you. Thank you.
Don"t know how many of you saw the small news item .. but our good friends at REL have decided on another name change! So now the Mumbai Distribution License which didn"t get formally transfered to BSES Ltd .. and then which didn"t get formally transfered to REL .. will now (I guess) also NOT get formally transfered to Reliance Infrastructure... the juggernaut rolls on ..and no one has the gumption to stop it!
Given below are the various links to related news items.
Incidentally, they transfered their entire Infrastructure business to a 100% subsidiary sometime in Oct 2007 .. and now they have decided that the parent company itself should become infrastructure oriented??
If you recall, I had mentioned that one day REL may actually exit the Mumbai electricity distribution business .. well, their focus has definitely shifted ..
Who knows .. they may be monitoring this site more closely than we think ;)
Just wanted to contribute my tuppence worth to the ongoing issue of Sonia Gandhi accepting the "Order of Leopold" Belgium"s 2nd highest Civilian honour, in Nov 2006. The news items appear here... TOI, HT, CNN-IBN
It seems this Belgian Award has also been given to Marshall Tito, General Patton and President Eisenhower as well - and hence, its a big deal. Full list here at Wikipedia.
Now, the issue was brought to light on a Petition made by someone (from Kerala? - not that it makes a difference which State - but Kerala DOES have the highest literacy rate in the country!).
The controversy arises on account of the fact (?) that the acceptance of the award implies "allegiance" to that country (in this case: Belgium) - and if that is true, then its a problem - as Sonia Gandhi is a Parliamentarian and a "Citizen" by marriage - as per the Constitution of India.
Well, we all know that the Constitution is SUPREME. No Court can interfere with what is written in the Constitution - they can only attempt to interpret - not modify, alter or add to the meanings of the Articles within the Constitution.
So what DOES the Constitution say ..
Here is Article 18: "18. Abolition of titles - (1) No title, not being a military or academic distinction shall be conferred by the State. (2) No citizen of India shall accept any title from any foreign State. (3) No person who is not a citizen of India shall, while he holds any office of profit or trust under the State, accept without the consent of the President any title from any foreign State. (4) No person holding any office of profit or trust under the State shall, without the consent of the President, accept any present, emolument, or office of any kind from or under any foreign State."
Here is Article 102: "Disqualification for membership -(1) A person shall be disqualified for being chosen as, and for being, a member of either House of Parliament- (a) If he holds any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State other than an office declared by Parliament by law not to disqualify its holder; (b) If he is of unsound mind and stands so declared by a competent court; (c) If he is an undischarged insolvent; (d) If he is not a citizen of India, or has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a foreign State, or is under any acknowledgement of allegiance or adherence to a foreign State; (e) If he is so disqualified by or under any law made by the Parliament."
Also, check these articles by S Gurumurthy, here and here.
Ok, so now tell me .. should the EC have issued a Notice, or not??
In my opinion, if the award entailed some kind of "allegiance" to Belgium, then I guess it is justified.
And if so, why should Sonia Gandhi be "above" the Constitution?
The file is a 2.8 MB pdf file - so be careful before downloading it.
Those of you who are interested in keeping abreast of such issues, may send an email to bijlee-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and you will automatically get such updates.
The Secretary, Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission 13th Floor, Centre No 1, World Trade Center Cuffe Parade, Mumbai – 400 005 Fax No. : 2216 3976
Dear Sir,
Re: Suggestions / Comments on REL-D's Petition (Case 66 of 2007).
With reference to the above, we have attached our suggestions and comments.
On 13.1.2008, a Public Notice was issued by REL announcing the date of the Public Hearing as 9.2.2008. However, copies of the Petition were not made available to the public, till as late as 24.1.2008.
A news item appeared on 29.1.2008 (see Hindustan Times, Mumbai Ed.) which mentioned that MERC had stated that the all announced Public Hearings were going to be postponed. However, there was no Order available on MERC's website for us to check and verify.
There does seem to be an announcement of a new date for a hearing in the above case, on 14.2.2008. If so, we would like to be heard at the public hearing, even though it has been called for in an illegal manner and the entire conduct of it, goes against the basic tenets of public interest and good governance.
In our opinion, the law on announcement of Public hearings states that a clear three weeks notice must be given. However, no such time has been given – and the conduct of the MERC in this matter has been completely illegal. The MERC has shown scant regard for the existing laws and it has displayed an utter contempt of public/consumer interest.
Since REL has not given any email ID, we are unable to send them a copy. It is suggested that the Hon'ble MERC direct all electricity companies to accept queries by email and publish their email Ids in all public Notices. This practice of physical delivery which inconveniences rhe public MUST stop forthwith. In any case, as per past experience, REL has never provided any satisfactory response and their standard reply is “all the actions are based on directions of the MERC and all details have been submitted to MERC.”
With MERC not being able to rein in such electricity companies, there is no hope for justice to be done.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Sandeep N. Ohri Coordinator-Bijlee Bombay Small Scale Industries Association 2nd Floor, Madhu Compound, Sonawala Cross Road No. 2, Goregaon (E), Mumbai – 400065
Come Jan 26th (and also Aug 15th, for that matter) and we have schools holding Patriotic Song Contests.
I attended one such competition and was surprised that out of the 4 songs that were sung, only 2 could be classified as "Patriotic."
The others were just, pure "inspirational" and "motivating" - at best.
Guess who won ?
The teams that sang the really "Patriotic" ones - came 3rd and 4th !!
I guess its more the fault of the Teachers and Judges who didn't make it clear to the children as to which songs were really classifiable as Patriotic.
Which also got me thinking .. just how many Patriotic Songs do we really have? The only ones I know seem to be the ones I have seen in movies at some time or the other.
Coincidentally, the same day HT Cafe (Mumbai, Jan 26th) ran a cover story on Patriotic songs!!
Being the good samaritan that I am (Ha ! Modesty does seem to have taken a back-seat!) I thought of reproducig that list - and have added some others that I remembered.
Here goes ... 1. Aye mere pyare watan (Kabuliwalla)
2. Jahaan daal daal pe (Sikander-e-Azam)
3. Vande Mataram (Anand Math version)
4. Aye Watan, Aye Watan (Shaheed)
5. Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna (Shaheed)
6. Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyon (Haqueeqat)
7. Zindagi Maut Na Ban Jaye (Sarfarosh)
8. Bharat Humko Jaan Se Pyaara Hai (Roja)
9. Yeh jo des hai tera (Swades)
10. Rang de Basanti (Rang de Basanti)
11. Dil diya hai Jaan bhi denge (Karma)
Feel free to send in more suggestions .. so that come Aug 15th, schools can refer to this list !
Just read the article, “When MFs raise capital & a stink” (Economic Times, Mumbai, Pg 15) by Gaurav Pai & Muthukumar K.
Very interesting stuff ..
The mutual fund companies often invest in their own Group companies - but of course, SEBI has a limit, which they do not cross ;)
Did you know...
1. Reliance Mutual Fund has invested Rs. 1,726 crores of YOUR money, in its own R-ADAG group companies like Adlabs, Rel Comm and Rel Energy?
2. ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has invested Rs. 678 crores of your money in its own ICICI Bank?
3. SBI Mutual Fund has invested Rs. 459 crores of your money in its own SBI?
4. Birla Sun Life has invested Rs. 251 crores of your money in Hindalco, Grasim and Idea Cellular?
HDFC Mutual Fund seems to be the most prudent! It has invested only Rs. 74 crores of your money in HDFC and HDFC Bank. And the article state that Tata MF and Kotack AMC have a miniscule investment in thier own Group companies.
Kinda makes you think, right ?
Shouldn't there be some rule on "insider trading" ... because at the Top management level - these guys are the SAME !! Are you listening SEBI ??
Unless, you actually believe that the Head of Reliance Mutual Fund DOES NOT know what the rest of the Group companies are up to .. yeah, sure .. !
And we wonder why Reliance MF has become the No. 1 MF with the highest AUM (Assets Under Management) ...
Coincidentally, at the same time the R-ADAG group companies' market capitalisation has almost doubled in the last one year...
The consumer-unfriendly MERC has announced a whole series of Public Hearings - just so that you can be charged MORE for electricity, from April 1st.
Your April bills will come in the first week of May and by then it will be "too late" to file any appeal with MERC - 45 day period from date of Order will be over!
It is better to raise your voice NOW.
If you don't know what to do, don't worry - I have made a list of MERC's violations - and illegalities in the conduct of these hearings - and have posted these files at the BIJLEE Yahoo Group site in this message... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bijlee/message/1266
Just make the necessary changes (highlighted in BLUE) and courier it to the respective companies as well as to MERC (MERC address is in the document).
Though MERC does not permit email submissions, you can take a chance and also email it to mercindia@mercindia.org.in - and please mark me a copy at snohri2004@yahoo.co.in so that I will be able to take it up with MERC.
The message also has 2 sample pdf files, of my previous submissions, for your reference - so that you can see what a finished output will look like.
Please send these as soon as possible, as the following are the dates: Jan 21 - MahaTransco (Last date for filing suggestions was Jan 15) Feb 4 - MahaGenco (Last date... is Jan 29) Feb 6 - BEST (Last date ... is Feb 1) Feb 6 - TPC (Last date .. is Jan 30) Feb 9 - REL (Last date ... is Feb 04) Feb 18 - Pune - MahaVitaran (Last date .. is Feb 2) Feb 21 - CBD Belapur - MahaVitaran (Last date .. is Feb 2)
Take action NOW - or pay higher bills later ...
"For evil to flourish, good people have to do nothing .. and evil shall flourish" - Edmund Burke
