An amusing snippet - IPL 2016

Supreme Court upheld the HC decision to move IPL matches out of Maharashtra.

That is like throwing out the Baby and KEEPING the water !

One kilogram of sugar uses more than 2,000 litres of water. Only three tonnes of sugar, costing about Rs 1 lakh, could have supplied the equivalent water for IPL matches that were supposed to generate Rs 100 crore in revenue.

How much emotion, hype, drama and rationality there is in these policies and pronouncements, readers can judge for themselves

Courtesy : Prof Ashok Gulati

Crooked but smart politicians and gullible media and more gullible public and overweening courts. Where is the point of LAW for SC to even waste it's time on such cases.  

The Draught Conundrum –Maharashtra

Rainfall in 2015 – 1300mm against All India Avg 1100mm; large variation across regions from 3000mm in Konkan to 882 mm in Marathwada.  

Rajasthan avg rainfall is never more than 400mm.

So what is the problem in Maharastra? It has only 18 per cent of its cropped area under irrigation cover compared to an all-India average of 47 per cent and states like Punjab with 97 per cent.

Is Sugarcane the Culprit?

The 4% land of Maharashtra is under sugarcane but consumes 71.5% of Irrigated water.

Maharashtra has built the highest number of large dams – 1845 dams with height over 15 meters – in the country: having storage capacity of 60 million cubic meters. And invested ~Rs 1,18,000 Crores over the 10 year period of 11th & 12th Plans.

So, investment in irrigation largely is for Sugarcane!

Maharashtra allocates 70-75% of water to agriculture 10-15% for industry and 10% for domestic purposes.

Counter-argument : Sugarcane water economy is interesting.  

Crop                Water Need               Gestation        Harvest           Veg matter

Sugarcane           2150 mm                              365 days               80 tons /ha         15-20 tons

Paddy                   1400 mm                              130 days               9 tons /ha

The crop is 70% water .  Of the 700 litres of Water per ton of Sugarcane supplied to a Mill, 250 liters is used in Boilers for steam and power generation. 250 liters is used up in sugar process. And 200 liters after cooling and processing is recycled for agri use.

Factories in fact end up supplying water. Also bagasse is used for producing power. About 130 kWh can be produced from each ton of cane. Of this only 30-35 kWh is needed for the factory use, leaving 95 units / ton of cane processed for uploading to the grid.

The Clincher : During the 10 years of 10th and 11th Plans (FY03-12), at 2014-15 prices. public expenditure for irrigation in Maharashtra works out to Rs 1,18,235 crore.

During this period, the irrigation potential created (IPC) was 8.9 lakh ha and irrigation potential utilised (IPU) was just 5.9 lakh ha. This gives us the cost of IPU at Rs 20 lakh/ ha.

Compare this with Gujarat, which spent only Rs 46,888 crore (at 2014-15 prices) over the same period and created irrigation potential of 22.5 lakh ha and utilised 17.3 lakh ha, with an IPU cost of only Rs 2.71 lakh/ ha.

For MP, the similar cost works out to Rs 4.26 lakh/ ha over the same period.

So the real issue is not that Maharashtra spent less on irrigation. It’s why its costs are so high (Rs 20 lakh/ ha) compared to MP (Rs 4.26 lakh/ ha) and Gujarat (Rs 2.71 lakh/ ha). Is it really topography or the massive leakages in irrigation systems?

Surely, rakshak hi bhakshak ban gaye !

Amratya Sen belied about Democracy?

''No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy,'' This, he explained, is because democratic governments ''have to win elections and face public criticism, and have strong incentive to undertake measures to avert famines and other catastrophes.''

Have Maharashtra politicians belied this assertion?  

''Democracies are often run by ethnically based groups prepared to do terrible things to other ethnic groups,'' said Frances Stewart, a professor of development economics at Oxford University. ''Or they can be very corrupt, dominated by elites.''

She added: ''Capitalist, democratic states put the emphasis on the private sector, which doesn't always deliver on social goods. The free press is good on major disasters like classic famines, but it tolerates chronic hunger as much as anyone else.'' To be fully represented, she said, the poor need institutions like trade unions and political parties that speak for them.

Is there an agenda and way forward for parties like AAP, in Prof Stewart's assertions?

Satya Nadella - Work Life Balance

There is no such  thing as 'balance'. It is how I harmonize my work and my life.
He attributes to some colleague called Paul Burgum: "We spend far too much time at work for it not to be something more than work" "It must have a deeper meaning"

And in terms of tips : To be fully "present". Presence means to be strong enough to avoid the spillover of the last event you were in. The residual effect of spoils your 'presence" - to be fully with your daughter when you are with her.  

A much less elegant formulation is that there are but 24 hrs in a day of which 10-12 are spent at work including commutes. Sleep takes about 6 - 8 hrs leaving very little time for any other pursuit that can provide "happiness" or fulfilment. Therefore, if fulfilment is what is sought, it must be at work and about work.

Many years ago, a successful exec had described his success due to fully being there in whatever one is into. I suppose that is "presence"

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar

It is reported that Ambedkar gave 3 cautions immediately after the Constitution was adopted in January 1950

The experience of last 69 years of which I have been alive for 66, tells me the following.

The socialistic pattern of development set by Nehru was the need of the hour then. It helped people like me acquire high quality education and climb into upper middle classes, like hundreds of millions of my fellow countrymen.
The less than towering personality that was Indira, took many paranoiac and short-termic decisions which changed the course of our social dialogs and economic growth trajectory.

Less than desirable growth rates, the Hindu rate of growth of 3%, slowed down the uplift of many poor: a direct cause of rise of Violent Maoism (Naxalism). I have faced the heat personally.

There goes the first caution from Ambedkar of not using violent means.

The second caution Re-Hero worship : Kindly appreciate that hero worship is a given for most ordinary mortals like us, the mango people. Be it a film star, a sports star, a politician; for that matter, anyone who can do us a favor, or give us a leg-up.

The problem starts when people in power, the likes of Barua vis-a-vis Indira Gandhi or more recently, Venkaiah Naidu, vis-a-vis Narendra Modi, indulge in mindless or opportunistic hero worship. Agreed, dictatorships are then not far.
On the other hand any organization, in different phases, requires different kinds of leadership, from revolutionary, disruptive to merely status quoist. That holds for commercial and social organizations. Should it hold true for a country, I am not sure.

We have been thru or stumbled thru or even prospered thru many phases of hero worship.
At another level, I feel that hero worship is part of human nature. But it's deleterious effects Ambedkar alludes to can only be controlled by institutional mechanisms. Institutions, also grow mature and strengthen over time.
Is 69 years a long time in the life of a nation and have our institutions matured enough to exert countervailing and balancing forces.
I believe the answer has to be optimistic and hopeful.

Now, coming to the last issue of social democracy underpinning the political democracy, again the answer is positive, optimistic and very hopeful.
Rohit Vemulla, Kanhaiya Kumar studying at doctoral level in the premier universities of the country are a proof in point: Sangh fringe and Smriti Irani notwithstanding.