BJP Wins Big In Karnataka

For a party that had just two members in 1985, the BJP has emerged just three short of forming a government in Karnataka. The BJP won four seats in 1989, 40 in 1994, 44 in 1999, 79 in 2004 and 110 in the latest election.

The JD (S) that betrayed the BJP was swept away on its path to oblivion with just 28 seats. The JD (S) is lead by a bunch of thugs and disreputable people which includes Deva Gowda, who managed to become India’s PM for a few years and his two sons, Revanna who is a goonda and Kumaraswamy, who is OK, but looks the other way regarding his father’s and brother’s activities and tactics. The Indian National Congress (INC) fared better than the previous election winning 80 seats as opposed to 65 previously. The Communist Party did not win a single seat! Karnatakan’s are smart!

What we see here is a consolidation towards the two National parties, with support for the regional party JD (S) shrinking. The BJP needs three independents to obtain the 113 members to form the government. There are six independent candidates up for grabs; the King makers in this election. If the INC and JD (S) join hands again and get five independents to support them, we could see a throw back to the original coalition that took place after the last election. It would be a sad state of affairs if that were to happen. The JD (S) lacks character and is willing to prostitute itself. The independents could be bought. The question then is whether the INC will pimp itself to power just to thwart BJP’s aspiration.

Someone mentioned that yesterday Dev Gowda admitted defeat and is willing to sit in the opposition and today he is sending feelers to the INC to join hands to form a government. That is Dev Gowda for you. If he didn’t flip flop or morph in pursuit of power, it would be out of character for him.

The phenomenal rise of the BJP can be attributed to their focus on progress, anti-terrorism, tailoring their messages to the issues facing each constituency and their phenomenal volunteer organization. The recent bomb blasts in Jaipur, Hubli and the arrest of a terrorist suspect in Belgaum, helped them. And they gained mileage by blaming the UPA for the 7+% inflation rate the country is experiencing.

The INC on the other hand, stuck to its age old tactics of divisive politics under the garb of secularism by pandering to the Muslims and minorities, promising color TVs to the people with Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards, plying people with liquor prior to the elections and claiming to be the benefactor of the poor. Karnataka is a prosperous State, with natural resources (iron ore, manganese), rich soil, thriving horticulture (cashew, coconuts, tea, coffee, aracanut, too much sugarcane), and industry. Except for a small region in the Northeast, you don’t see abject poverty in Karnataka. And if you do, chances are they are migrants from another state. Jobs is foremost in people's minds, especially with the youth. A newspaper columnist in the Hindu, which typically leans towards the Congress wrote, "a dysfunctional, unexciting, unexacting, non-congenial working environment" was one of the factors that led to INC’s inability to perform and gain majority. Karnataka used to be a stronghold for the INC. The older generation voted, and continues to vote for the INC. The younger generation is not enamoured by the Nehru/Indira Gandhi legacy. Rahul Gandhi is seen more as a celebrity mascot in the South, than a serious political figure. The aura is gone the lustre has faded. While there always will be people who expect and want handouts, what people really want is performance not promises.

Cow Power - Milk, Methane, Manure, Medicines & More

Gobar (Cow dung) Gas is not new to India. It was pioneered here in the 70's and adopted by individual families that owned cows mostly in Rural India. My Aunty who lived in the heart of Mangaluru had one since she had a pair of cows in her cowshed. The cows provided her enough milk for the household and her gobar gas plant produced enough gas to do all her cooking. Subsequently it no longer became economical to rear cows in the heart of the town. The gas plant now unused is still there.

All of a sudden the West has discovered "Gobar Gas" - see related Links below (1, 2), and it is taking off in a big way. A friend of mine would say that anything successful on a small scale becomes an attractive business proposition if it scales. Large utility companies like PG&E (3) in the US are entering this field and are planning to produce up to 3 billion ft3 of methane per year, enough to produce electricity for about 50,000 homes in central and northern California. Getting rid of cow dung used to be a problem for the dairy industry in the US, now they are realizing there is money to be made from the sludge – wealth from waste!

The Indian Diary Industry claims that India overtook the US in 1998 to become the world's #1 Milk producer (4 & 5). Since then the top two producers of milk has been either India or the US, with China being #3. Cow dung is not wasted in India. It is used as a fertilizer and as a cooking fuel. Other uses are for flooring and wall "plastering" of rural huts, and I've seen it being used as as a disinfectant for cleaning floors many years ago in my grandmother's house. Now it sells for upwards of Rs. 300 per tonne. Unlike the US there are competing uses for cow dung in India.

Besides milk and methane, another aspect overlooked and ignored by India, in its race to modernize is the fact that cows are the world's most efficient "mulching" machines! You feed them vegetable and organic waste and in about 24 hrs, you have fully processed rich fertilizer. It was Swami Chinmayanada who noted that there is an excellent way to deal with old cows and oxen and that is to let them graze in corrals, where they would trample/feed on organic waste and produce valuable manure.

Believe it or not people drink diluted cow urine for its medicinal effect. Cow urine and cow dung are used in some Ayurvedic preparations. Note this must come from cows of Indian breed only.

Cow urine mixed with other natural ingredients makes for an effective pesticide. (6)

And finally, for beef lovers, it turns out the best beef comes from retired bulls at least sixteen years of age! (7)

And so here we have in the land of the "sacred cow" a gem of an idea, which was known to the illiterate and enlightened villager. Educated agriculturists ignorant of "nature's ways" have paid no heed to this "natural gift". And to quote my friend again...it is all a matter of scaling this "natural gift" to make it a viable business venture that would serve a larger section of India's population.

Related Links:
1. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/05/bovine_biogas_plant/
2. http://postcarboncities.net/node/444
3. http://www.eere.energy.gov/state_energy_program/project_brief_detail.cfm/pb_id=1167
4. http://www.indiadairy.com/ind_world_number_one_milk_producer.html
5. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2007-07/31/content_6005196.htm
6. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2003/11/21/stories/2003112102650100.htm
7. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1691115,00.html

India's Misguided Moon Mission

India has an excellent Space program. The recent Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C9) that fired 10 satellites into orbit successfully, is a testimony to that. The launch included six CubeSats (www.cubesat.org) from the University of Toronto. So are some of the other achievements such as missiles that carry warheads and interceptor missiles. Programs that support defense, provide weather information, mapping data, telecommunications etc. are critical and their importance to ground operations can be articulated.

  

However, with regards to the Moon Mission – Chandrayaan-1, it is not clear what benefit Indian citizens will derive from sending payloads to the moon, which includes a lunar orbiter. If this is a commercial venture with the costs recovered from sending six of the eleven payloads, paid for by “foreign” customers, (not if they are CubeSats) then one could justify this venture based on a return on investment (ROI) basis.Else, it would only serve to provide the ISRO scientists a self-serving interesting project, which boosts their ego and portrays the space prowess of India. Which wouldn’t be a bad thing at all, if we didn’t have other uses for this investment that serve the 200 plus million people who live under abject poverty, or provided some benefit for the other 800 million citizens of India, besides bragging rights, that India has joined the elite lunar club. Besides, the Moon Mission, India has a manned space mission planned which would make India the fourth nation to do so, along with Russia, USA and China. Again this begs the question, what is the ROI?

On the other hand, there are indeed challenging projects that would benefit the entire country. One such project is distance learning. Education in rural India has a lot to be desired and using satellite technology to enhance the education system would pay rich long-term dividends. The challenge is to support India’s multi-lingual environment. If you look at India’s currency, there are fifteen languages represented* plus English. If we were to take just fifteen languages (minus Nepali), we would probably need upwards of 150 channels to serve pre-school thru standard ten. Add to this other regional languages such as Bojpuri, Sindhi, Marwari, Tulu etc. and the number of languages would exceed twenty. There are significant lapses in the quality of education particularly in rural India. Another factor India is confronted with is the medium of instruction. Neglecting English puts the student at a disadvantage.

Neglecting the regional language has a detrimental effect in preserving ourcultural diversity. The answer is a multi-lingual medium of instructionswhere the liberal arts subjects are taught in the regional language, and thescience subjects in English. In addition there is need for adult education and dissemination of information pertinent to agriculture, which is localized for a particular demographic and environmental conditions.

Assuming satellite based solution is the answer, this would present outscientists at ISRO a truly challenging project with a very definite andmeasurable ROI, that would do India a great service and something to beextremely proud of.

* The languages in order of their appearance are: Assamese, Bengali,Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya,Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telegu and Urdu.