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“We do not inherit The Earth from our Ancestors; we borrow it from our Children”

We humans have used up all the natural resources-water, soil, clean air etc allocated for the whole of 2017 in just 7 months. The Earth Overshoot Day was on 2 August 2017 and we will have to survive on credit of the nature for rest of the year.

The Global Footprint Network (GFN), an organisation partnered with the World Wide Fund for Nature, produced the results. Earth Overshoot Day was first calculated in 1986 and fell in the month of November. Since then, the day is receding fast. It was 8^TH of august in 2016, advanced by a week this year. 

Of the total ecological footprint, carbon emission forms a whopping 62%. This includes the burning of fossil fuels, but also processes such as deforestation—which reduces nature’s ability to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Overfishing, wastage of food, overharvesting forest resources are all factors that are contributing to the rapid exhaustion of the world’s natural resources, resulting in depletion, poverty, and a large number of species facing extinction.

Unsurprisingly, industrialized nations are the biggest offenders in terms of using up natural resources. Australia tops the list: if the world’s population lived like Australia’s, we would need 5.2 planets to meet our resource needs. The United States comes in second, with the American population demanding the equivalent of five planets to satisfy its energy requirements.

If the current consumption pattern is followed the human race would need 1.7 planets to meet its resource demand.

Food makes up 26% of our footprint. If we cut food waste in half, and swap protein-intensive foods for more fruit and vegetables, it could be reduced to 16%.

For instance red meat such as beef and lamb is responsible for 10 to 40 times as many greenhouse gas emissions as common vegetables and grains.

Livestock are typically fed corn, soybean meal and other grains which have to first be grown using large amounts of fertilizer, fuel, pesticides, water and land. 

China’s government is committed to reducing meat consumption by 50% by 2030. This would reduce the Ecological Footprint by more than 126 million global hectares and move the date of Overshoot Day back 1.5 days

The 2030 agenda of Sustainable development goals needs to be achieved so that the overshoot day does not recede further. 

Outcome of the study made by Global Footprint Network indicates the following.

• Reducing the carbon component of humanity’s Ecological Footprint by 50% would move Earth Overshoot Day by 89 days, or about three months.
• If we cut food waste in half worldwide, we would move Overshoot Day by 11 days.
• Empowering women and girls results in greater gender equality and stabilizes population. If every other family in the world had one less child, we would move Overshoot Day 30 days by 2050.
• If we reduce driving by 50% around the world and opt for walking, biking or taking public transit instead, Earth Overshoot Day would move back 10 days.

“So put down that chicken wing and pick up some spinach".

                                                                 -Daneelo Nugara

The Spark Called Language.

As the unrest entered day 14 in one of India’s popular hill station-Darjeeling, time and again it has been proved that forced language imposition can lead to violence, political turmoil and the demand for separate statehood. No matter we celebrate 70^th year of independence or 150^th, there will always be a spark called language which can cause lot distress, agitations which can spread like wildfire across states.

Speaking about the current turmoil in the state of West Bengal, the unrest unfolded when the ruling government mandated that Bengali be taught as a compulsory subject from class 1 to 10, which did not go well in an area native to the Gorkha ethnic group. Darjeeling is administered by Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, a semi-autonomous body where Gorkha ethnic group have expressed desire for a separate state- Gorkhaland, a desire which has been on for a century.

When India got its independence, there were close to 568 princely states which were given freedom to either join India or Pakistan or remain independent. However, the Iron man of India Sardar vallabhai patel had made up his mind to get all the provinces join the Indian union. However after independence the states were reorganised on the basis of language.

The first linguistic state was Andhra Pradesh for Telugu speaking people after a 56days of agitation and the death of Potti Sriramulu-the man behind the movement. The recent linguistic reorganisation of state was Telangana when K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) tried to do a Potti Sriramulu fearing which the union government agree to his demands of separate statehood. Language has been used as a weapon which can bring even the most powerful union government to its knee.

The present Central Government of India, is trying by all means to make Hindi a link language or the only national language of the country. The recent incident was in Bengaluru when pro-kannada activists staged a protest against Hindi imposition in the METRO stations. Language has become a very sensitive issue, a part of life, an identity , a self-respect which none of us would like to lose. Even when there is native language of the state being used in sign boards along with Hindi and English, people always demand that native language of the state has to find its place at the top followed by other languages.

The makers of the constitution had a heated debate regarding the adoption of an official language for the Republic of India. They had agreed upon Hindi as the official language for a period of fifteen years (1950-1965) with English as the link language and after which Hindi would become the sole official language. As the day neared, 26^th Jan 1965, full-scale riot broke out in madras which continued for the next two months. It was only after the assurance of the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur shastri that English would continue to be used as the official language as long as non-Hindi speaking states wanted.

The ruling government when the riots happened in Tamil Nadu was the Congress party after which it never came to power. Another classic example of how the issue of language can keep a 132year old political party out of power.

If the demands of various ethnic groups, for Kukiland in Manipur to Kongu Nadu in Tamil Nadu and for kamatapur in North Bengal to Tulu Nadu in Karnataka are fulfilled, India may have 50 states in future.

An ever increasing divide between the rich and the poor!

“A world where 1% of humanity controls as much wealth as the bottom 99% will never be stable.‟

                                                                     -Barack Obama

In a gloomy world economy, rise of protectionist, nationalist leader with no political experience and a communist china willing to step into the mighty shoes of USA to run the world, here we have eight (8) men who own the same wealth as the poorest half of the world. As growth benefits the richest, the rest of society – especially the poorest – suffers.
Oxfam’s 2016 and 2017 reports put out the facts of growing inequalities. Just 8 billionaires own the same wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion people. These reports have triggered the alarm yet again regarding the growing wealth and income inequalities. 
What are the latest figures?

• In 2015, the richest 1% owned more wealth than the rest of the planet.

• Now we have eight men who own the same wealth as the poorest half of the world. i.e. $426 bn.

• What is India’s GDP? It is $2 trillion for a population of 130 crore. Here we have 500 people who will hand over close to $2 trillion to their heirs in the next 15-20 years. 

• It is said that, the richest man in Vietnam earns more in a day than the poorest person earns in a decade.

However the world should be proud of lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in the recent decades, but one in nine still go to bed hungry.

UN General Assembly -Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development : adopted by 194 countries has No Poverty and Zero hunger as one of the 17 goals to be achieved by 2030 seems to be very ambitious. It is said that the period after 1990’s, had the global growth been pro-poor more than 700 million people would have escaped poverty.

The countries with higher income inequality tend to have larger gaps between women and men in terms of health, education, representation in institutions like parliaments and in market participation. It also has to be noted that 53 of the world’s richest 62 people are men.

How much does the poorest half of the world contribute to global emission footprint? It is 10% of total global emissions and the richest 1% globally adds as much as 175 times the poorest 10%. The world has failed to address the problems of the poor and unequal. Instead of creating an economy that works for the prosperity of all, the future generations, an economy for the 1% has been created. The owners are seeing their capital grow day by day whereas the workers are earning less when compared to gains from the profit.

As more and more taxes are not paid/avoided, the burden falls on the government to run the economy which leads increase in indirect taxes. The indirect tax is paid even by the poorest of the poor. The problem of tax avoidance is global which denies the poor countries the resources to tackle the poverty.

In India 57 billionaires own the same amount of wealth as the bottom 70%. With concentration of wealth in the hands of a few there is also concentration of power and influence and also influence on the policies of the government, institutions that govern the countries activity.

If the growing inequality is left unchecked our societies will be pulled apart, there will be increase in crime and insecurity. Fighting poverty will be a distant dream unless inequality is not fought. The poor die poor and the rich grow richer.    

 

“It’s time to build a human economy that benefits everyone, not just the privileged few”

Swadeshi Google: Can it be a reality ?

Can we imagine a day or rather few hours without Google, Facebook, Whatsapp etc.Quite difficult isn’t it?

Let me begin by narrating an incident that occurred during mid-1999. Pakistani troops and Kashmiri militants had infiltrated and had occupied positions on the Indian side of LOC. It was a high-altitude mountainous warfare. Though Indians were able to give a body blow to the enemies and send them packing, one incident that made Indian go indigenous and not depend on anyone was when US denied giving GPS data for the region. The space based navigation system was maintained by US government. A day arrived, when our very own and proud the Indian Space Research Organisation came up with IRNSS with operational name NAVIC.

What is IRNSS? Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System is an independent regional navigation satellite system being developed by India. A constellation of 7 satellites. It is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1500 km from its boundary, which is its primary service area.

Very soon we will have a full developed Swadeshi GPS and then no more US owned navigation system. As time flies Google apps on our android and Iphone’s will get replaced by a Swadeshi touch! It seems exaggerated, but it is not impossible.

In the backdrop of slowing world economy, India has stood its ground with good growth prior to demonetization. The new regime in US is heading towards a protectionist policy and china’s artificial fiscal stimulus to spur growth-the bubble might burst anytime. It is time, the Indian political class without any political gain and all stakeholders including media give a push for a complete policy reform and promote entrepreneurship.

Though the present government has given that initial push, the aim should be to develop Global Startup.

Global Startup? Just like Google and other tech giants have footprints across many countries, India needs to develop its own. Our countries demographics are in our favour, we need to make the most of it. A platform of opportunities has to be developed so that the big brains working in the West will come back develop and here. 

What does China have?

• BAIDU is the search engine. (Google search).
• Renren is the social networking site (Facebook).
• Sina weibo is the micro blogging site (Twitter).

What else do the Chinese have? The GREAT FIREWALL-internet censorship in china to block all the misdeeds that have been to done and prevent people from revolting. 

So where do we lack?

• Only 5% of India’s population is educated up to graduate or above.
• Though nearly 10 million Indians enter labour market each year, a majority of them are not job-ready.
• Job seekers are qualified but are not a skilled workforce.
• So for an entrepreneur to start a firm, hiring right talent is a serious challenge.
• Brain drain due to lack of opportunities.
• Political class has its say in every possible field.
• Bureaucracy-red tapism.
• Poor labour laws. A major reform needed.

Why do we need a Swadeshi Google?

For instance, all our confidential messages are exchanged via Gmail (even that of our governments). Everything is run on foreign platform. This is a huge threat to our National security.

Wondering how? The famous PRISM project of USA, collects data from major US internet companies such as Google, Facebook, YouTube, Skype etc. stating the reason as “for its security from terror”. All data is being intercepted by the Intelligence of USA. The data of each one of us is being compromised to safeguard itself from external threats. 

What can be done?

•  Encourage the culture of entrepreneurship and limit or rather stop brain drain.
• Introduce a system of education in the graduate level that meets industrial requirements
•  Reform labour laws.
• Minimise or eliminate political interference.
• In Silicon Valley (US), starting a new firm and failing big time is normal, as laws protect and encourage them to come up with new ideas.
• However “The Insolvency and bankruptcy code,2016” passed by our govt is a welcome move which gives the confidence for young entrepreneurs to start a business without the fear of failing. (more reforms welcomed) 
• Provide excellent cyber security.

Read more regarding the Great firewall here The GREAT FIREWALL (click on the hyperlink)          

Read more regarding the Prism project here PRISM (click on the hyperlink)

Also check 

Blog #1 STATE OF EDUCATION IN INDIA

Blog #2 INDIA'S GROWING POPULATION: What do the numbers say?

INDIA'S GROWING POPULATION: What do the numbers say?

“We control the growth of every other species, not our own”.

                                                                                                                  -Anonymous

What is the population of India? A whopping 1.3 billion and counting. i.e. more than total population of USA, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, and Bangladesh combined together. Though we haven’t produced the Usain Bolt’s, the Rafael Nadal’s we are doing fairly well in all International platforms. We may have many burning issues with the world’s most populous nation but we will definitely replace them from the top position in the coming decades.

India’s area is roughly around 3.2 million km sq. and accounts for 2.4% of total surface area of the world. India contributes 17.5% to the world population of 7.2 billion.  India added over 181 million in the last decade. By 2022, it is expected that India is likely to surpass china and world population crossing 9 billion by 2050. Though major contribution to the world population will be from the cradle of human kind (AFRICA), India will stand anywhere between 1.6-1.8 billion.

Isn’t it scary to imagine 160cr to 180cr people a diverse background and people from all over the world come here and live together? Yes.

We have been living together since ages without any discrimination-“Vasudhaiva kutumbakam”. 

But will the situation remain the same? Hopefully it does.

As Mahatma Gandhi said “India lives in its villages”, even after 70 years of independence 68% of India lives in its villages and are agrarian society. Of the remaining 30%, around 10-15% is in the organised sector.

What are the future projections?

·         India will add about 110 million workforce by 2020. 

·         290 million will urbanize by 2030 and by 2050 the numbers will rise to 640mn.

         

             In 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, Japan at 47 years, and 37 for China.

India will be the CHINA of 1980’s to 2000’s, with a huge number of people in the Working Age Population (WIP) i.e around 70%. With the population pyramid in India’s favour, the term Demographic Dividend will end up being a disaster if steps aren’t taken to create more jobs: mainly for the unskilled section of the society. I say it as unskilled section because the state of education is not producing skilled workforce. Automation has already started showing its effect in the Western world, days are not far when India will come across the situation of losing jobs.

Problems associated with high population?

·         High unemployment rate, pressure on the economy, unequal distribution of income.

·        Over exploitation of land, water, forest resources. This puts pressure on the future generations.

·     Quality of food, its production and distribution are not keeping pace with the increasing population. Lack of concentration on health and education sector.

·       “Poor will die poor”. Poor infrastructure results in rapid increase of slums and spread of diseases.

What can be done?

·           Huge spending on Infrastructure for education.

·       Huge spending on Health sector. This results in reduced mortality rate and gives confidence in the  family that child will survive and will earn his bread and subsequently reduce the family size.

·         Educating people regarding early marriages and its impact on the health of young mothers.

·         To create awareness to the mass regarding higher standard of living.

·         To inculcate the skill of entrepreneurship. 

·         The CSR of big corporates need to reach the remote areas and spread awareness. 

Right from Punjab up to the deltas of Brahmaputra- the Indo-Gangetic plain, the people of this region are dependent on agriculture and also the state of education is not well off. The southern part of India is better off in terms of education and per capita income. In the coming decades, India has to make a switch over to Industrial economy to make full utilization of favourable demographics else it will be a demographic disaster.           

Also check: Blog #1 STATE OF EDUCATION IN INDIA

STATE OF EDUCATION IN INDIA

“EDUCATION IS THE MANIFESTATION OF PERFECTION ALREADY IN MAN”

                                                                                            -Swami Vivekananda

"At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to new life and freedom". This is an excerpt from the speech of our first PM Pandit Nehru who spoke on 15 August 1947. India was looted for 200 years by the colonial powers, the citizens hardly knew to read and write thanks to the Britishers. The literacy rate at the time of independence was a meagre 12% of the total population, with women literacy at 8%. Today we stand at 74% and 65% women literates. Though the literacy rate is below the world average of 84%, we have grown quite well to make it a sixfold rise.

Every year roughly around 1 crore students of different educational background graduate, though the quantity is quite high the quality is not acceptable. The standard of teaching has to be looked into right from primary education. Recent teacher eligibility tests have revealed that a large proportion of teacher aspirants do not qualify despite having requisite academic and professional degrees. This highlights the poor quality of the aspirants who seek to enter the teachings profession.

India is a poor country with 65% of its population involved agriculture and 35% are in the non-agriculture sector. Of the 35%, only 15% are in the formal sector, remaining 85% are in the informal sector. Education is not accessible to everyone out there.

State of School education:

The national primary level dropout is 4.34% and at secondary level 17.86%.
States in south and west of India do much better in terms of low primary dropout rates as compared to the east, north and the north east, which are the worst off dropout rates. Karnataka has a dropout rate of 2.3 per cent, which is below the national average, Rajasthan’s, at 8.39 per cent, is double the national rate, and Manipur’s is four times, at 18 per cent. The state with highest literacy rate is Kerala (93.91) and Bihar (63.82) has the lowest literacy rate.

Reasons for dropouts?

• Poverty, availability and accessibility are the big reasons why children dropout of school.
• Migration of families, child marriage, lack of school infrastructure like drinking water and toilets.
• For males, engagement in economic activities has been the most common reason. When boy reaches 10-12 years is seen as source of income.
• For females, engagement in domestic activities, financial constraints etc are the reasons to quote. When girls grow in age parents tend to not send their child to school fearing safety when they have to travel for far distances (for higher classes).

The other reason is, when the monsoon takes a hit and there is significant drop in agricultural activities people migrate to urban areas in search of employment and migration is not of single member of the family but as a whole. When they go back or migrate to a different place, schooling of children takes a hit.

These are the many few reasons why majority of Indians are in the informal sector and gives us insight how education can improve the situation.

Regional variations are far too big and are meaningless to create a national picture.
For Nellore district the dropout rate for ST = 77.04%
general dropout rate for this district = 29.4 %
For Telangana, primary level dropout for girls in Hyderabad district = 7.95%, state average = 22.32%.

What the GOVERNMENT has done ?

• Corruption in the appointment of government school teachers too has deprived children of quality formative mentorship and pushed some to ill-equipped private schools.
• Teachers are sent on election duties and other non-educational govt work and students are at the receiving end.
• Around 8.5 lakh trained primary and upper pre-primary teachers are in shortage across the country with UP having the largest deficit with 2.14 lakh teachers.

But never the less, a sixfold increase in literacy rate since independence has to be contributed to GOI. India spends 5% of its GDP or 14% of its budget on education.           Landmark legislation was enacted promising universal inclusion in primary education, paving the way for more learning opportunities at secondary and higher levels. This legislation, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, effectively made education a fundamental right of every child in the age group of 6 to 14.

A massive investment push into education infrastructure has seen about 3.5 lakh new schools opened in the past decade under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan so that 99 per cent of India’s rural population has a primary school within a one kilometre radius.

Since Education is on the concurrent list, both state and central govt need to work in tandem to improve the situation.

How can we reduce the dropout rate and increase the literacy rate?

• Making education accessible to everyone. Though Govt run schools do not charge any fee, it’s the private institutions which have turned education into a business collecting exorbitant fee.
• Encouraging girls education, protecting them from harassment of any kind.
• Innovative way of teaching rather than obsolete methods.
• Improving the teacher quality.
• Involve NGO'S and other non-profit organization to educate people living in remote areas about the importance of education and also involve in pre-school activities.