The topic read - Talibanisation of Roing!

Hadn't checked other Arunachal Pradesh related blogs for a while, but woke up this morning to find the news on one of the most harrowing act, in a place thats closest to my heart - Roing.

The post read...

A 2:18 minute video taken through a mobile handset has shocked the tribal community living here in Roing. The video reveals two minor tribal boys studying in Govt Middle School of Roing blindfolded and tied in their hands and being forcefully made to confess for stealing. After having shot the video and making them confess the crime, these boys were reportedly handed over to police. It is alleged that they were caught while stealing domesticated pigs and a written complaint was lodged in the Roing police station. The boys are in their VIIIth and VIIth grade respectively.

Read more? Find the post here... Talibanisation of Roing(Roingnews)

I wondered, how inhuman can we turn into just to salvage the vagabond tribalistic pride we effuse inherently and nonchalantly. There are ways to solve things but certainly this wasn't the one - blindfolding, torturing with all the dastard premises of their know-hows of taking things to their, whatever intentional design they forsake.

Roing, has changed not on the developmental sides that it's people would have loved it, but on a sheer agonizing and frustrating detrimental peripheries one can imagine of.

Roing and its people have learnt and still prefers the uncanny way of solving disputes when it comes to communal ground. The unique feature is..."It's never personal, if you land on trouble with someone from another tribe - It's always communal". If one were to describe it more elaborately, it would be " Idu and Adi(padam) are two different sets, and clash between any single entity of these two sets is entitled to be chastised as a sufficient condition to flare up a communal clash".

I've been witness to such innumerous communal clashes whenever I'ad been to Roing. None of my vacations has escaped being marked by these communal tensions. I'ad a different notion about the communal clashes where the primal criterion always had been the 'religions'. But, the whole things takes a different shape when it's about an Idu-Adi communal clash in Roing.

I wonder, when would we learn to coexist!

The pigs did! Where are we?

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Letter from AIMSU & ICLS on Dibang project

July 13, 2009

Mr. Jairam Ramesh,
Honorable Minister of State (Independent Charge), Environment & Forests,
New Delhi.

Sub: Illegal public hearing called for 3000 MW Dibang Multipurpose
project on August 6th; reject pre-construction clearance to project

Dear Mr. Ramesh,

Greetings from the Dibang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh! We write to you
on behalf of the Idu Cultural and Literary Society (ICLS) and the All
Idu Mishmi Students Union (AIMSU). ICLS is the apex body of the Idu
Mishmi community, while AIMSU is the students union. We would like to
bring to your notice a serious subversion of environmental norms by
NHPC and the Arunachal Pradesh state government while announcing the
public hearing for the 3000 MW Dibang Multipurpose project on August
6th.

As mentioned on the MoEF website, NHPC has applied for Scoping under
the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2006 for the
Dibang project on May 28th, 2009. As per the EIA notification 2006 it
is clear that if the site is felt inappropriate on environmental and
social grounds, the MoEF based on recommendations of the EAC can
reject a project at this stage itself. The EAC may choose to conduct a
site visit in order to give its recommendations and could also choose
to give detailed Terms of Reference (ToR) for conduct of EIA studies
for the project and a clearance for pre-construction activities. It
is only after the MoEF conveys its decision to the project authority
after the Scoping stage that further steps such as ‘Public
Consultation’ may require to be taken up. That too only if
pre-construction clearance has been granted and necessary studies have
been conducted as per the ToR provided to the project authority as per
EIA 2006.

As per the MoEF website: “This proposal was considered by the EAC at
its meeting held on 16th June 2009. Additional information sought by
the committee.” Therefore it is clear that the EAC and MoEF are yet
to arrive at a final decision on whether to grant or reject
pre-construction clearance to the project. This is further confirmed
from the agenda for the upcoming July 24th EAC meeting uploaded on the
MoEF website which has the Dibang project listed as “Reconsideration
for ToR.” However, an advertisement has appeared on June 24th 2009 in
the Echo of Arunachal Pradesh, announcing a public hearing to be held
in the Dibang Valley district, on July 29th, 2009. This has been
subsequently been pushed ahead by ten days for August 6th. Therefore
a request for conduct of this public hearing would have gone from NHPC
to the Arunachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board (APSPCB)
certainly before June 23rd, without any decision from the MoEF about
whether it plans to grant or reject pre-construction clearance! Even
if the MOEF was to grant pre-construction clearance at a later date,
studies will have to be undertaken as per the ToR granted by EAC. Such
completed studies will have to be available at least one month before
the public hearing to members of the public. However, both NHPC and
the APSPCB appear to have treated the Dibang project as a fait
accompli and announced the public hearing even before waiting to hear
from the MoEF about its final decision on the Dibang project at the
Scoping Stage! This is a serious subversion of environmental norms and
should not be allowed by your ministry. The public hearing scheduled
for August 6th should be cancelled with immediate effect.

Larger concerns

We believe that the public hearing process has become a mere cosmetic
step while granting rubber stamp environmental clearances and
appreciate the concerns you have raised in this respect recently. In
January 2008, NHPC and the Arunachal Pradesh state government misled
the PMO and got the Prime Minister to lay the foundation stone of the
Dibang project even before the public hearing processes and green
clearances were obtained. We are encouraged by the fact that you have
raised this issue (laying of foundation stones by project authorities
before green clearances) in a recent press conference held in New
Delhi.

One of the biggest threats to proper environmental decision-making on
Arunachal dams in recent times has been what you identified as a ‘MoU
virus’ in May 2008, in your earlier capacity as Minister of State for
Power. There has been a rapid signing of MoUs by Arunachal Pradesh,
both with the private sector and the public sector, even as it plans
to build 135 large hydel project. Each of these agreements is
accompanied by huge monetary advances to the government even before
the DPR is prepared, public consultations held and green clearances
obtained. For example, NHPC paid the Arunachal Pradesh government Rs.
225 crores while signing MoUs for three projects, including Rs. 150
crores for the Dibang project. How can we expect the EIA reports
commissioned by project authorities to give a honest picture when they
have already made huge investments upfront at the time of signing
MoUs? They are going to justify the project as ‘benign’ under any
circumstances. Similarly, the state government has already received
huge money upfront. This fact is going to clearly influence the
content of the forest clearance application it submits to the central
government or the manner in which it conducts public hearings under
the environmental clearance process.

The same saga continues at the stage of environmental appraisal. In
spite of Arunachal Pradesh being an ecologically and culturally
sensitive region (traversed by two global biodiversity hotspots:
Himalaya and Indo-Burma), as well as being seismically active, the
current EAC has granted clearances (pre-construction or environmental
clearance as the case may be) to every single project which come
before the committee! This is incredible! Although there are several
ministries looking at social justice issues (e.g. Ministry of Tribal
Affairs), the environmental clearance process handled by the MoEF is
the only space where detailed social impact assessment of large
development projects is supposed to be done (including public
consultations). Therefore, it assumes great significance for tribal
communities such as the Idu Mishmis. We are more than a little
surprised to see that even though these projects have mega impacts on
landscapes which are home to minority indigenous communities like
ours, there are no independent experts from the social sciences on the
EAC. While we respect the expertise of the current EAC members in
their respective disciplines, we would like to point out that the
current EAC is incompetent in assessing complex socio-cultural issues,
such as the impact of mega dams on the rights and livelihood of
indigenous communities like ours, as is evident from their
decision-making over the last two years in states such as Arunachal
Pradesh and Sikkim. We would urge you to ensure that both independent
social scientists as well representation from ministries such as
Tribal Affairs is necessary on the EAC. Since the Northeast is a
unique region and identified as a major area for new large hydro
projects, we would also like persons who understand the environmental
and social realities of the region to be part of such an expert
appraisal committee.

A public hearing was held for the Dibang project earlier in Roing,
Lower Dibang Valley district, in January 2008 (as per the earlier EIA
regime). During this hearing we had clearly pointed our opposition to
the destructive Dibang project and raised concerns about the shoddy
EIA reports prepared to justify the project. There is no point
holding public consultations when everything in the environmental
decision-making process until now seems to treat the Dibang project as
a fait accompli. Therefore, the people of the Dibang Valley have
boycotted/ blocked all subsequent attempts to hold a public hearing in
the Dibang Valley district. Except for a small political elite who
stand to gain personally from the mega investments in the Dibang dam,
the majority of people in the Dibang Valley have opposed this project
which stands to threaten our social and ecological security.

Scrap Dibang project at Scoping State itself

We urge the MoEF to take a precautionary principle approach and scrap
the Dibang dam at the Scoping Stage itself. We have already written
to you with a demand to declare the Dibang Valley an ecologically
sensitive area under the EPA, in which only ecologically and
socio-culturally sensitive development should be allowed, not large
dams. We want the Dibang river to flow free. By all counts the Dibang
Valley qualifies to be declared ecologically sensitive (details in our
application sent earlier). For example, renowned wildlife expert from
the Northeast, Dr. Anwaruddin Choudhury says: "Dibang and Lohit
valleys contain some of the last large contiguous tracts of tropical,
subtropical and temperate forests in the country. These forests have
potentially large populations of many rare species such as Hoolock
gibbon, Slow loris, Capped langur, Stump-tailed and Pig-tailed
macaques, Asiatic black bear, Malayan bear, Gaur, Takin, Leaf deer,
lesser cats, Clouded leopard and perhaps a good Tiger population. Also
many endemic and threatened birds. Many proposed dams in the area
means that no river basin has been spared to retain its pristine
glory. The downstream impact in the Brahmaputra plains could seriously
jeopardise common people's livelihood."

The population of the Idu Mishmi community is only 12,000. The kind
of development being proposed through multiple mega-hydel projects
involving the influx of a large number of outside labour (outnumbering
the locals) is contradictory to the constitutional and legal
safeguards provided to the small populations of culturally sensitive
indigenous communities of Arunachal Pradesh. The current safeguards
disallow land transfer to outsiders and regulate entry of persons in
our traditional homelands. But the current dams juggernaut will simply
dismantle this protection given to us.

We are putting down some of the issues which clearly indicate that a
precautionary principle approach is adopted and the Dibang project
scrapped at this stage itself:

Huge loss of forests and biodiversity: Over 5000 hectares of pristine
forests to be lost directly in the project. You are aware that the
Northeast is traversed by two of three global biodiversity hotspots
which cover India – Himalaya and Indo-Burma. Contrary to claims of the
company that no sanctuary is affected, there will be a major impact on
the Mehao sanctuary. The road to the dam site from Roing passes
through the Mehao sanctuary at certain places. Curently there is very
low traffic density on this road. The coming in of such a large
project will dramatically increase the flow of traffic of vehicles and
machinery for a long period of time (it is a long gestation project)
through the sanctuary. Such a massive dam involves the extraction of
approximately 32 lakh truckloads (193 lakh cubic metres) of boulders
and 16 lakh truckloads (96.5 lakh cubic metres) of sand from the river
bed (Dibang and some its tributaries). The river beds from where this
will be done are part of an Important Bird Area (IBA) – Dibang Reserve
Forest and adjacent areas - identified by the Bombay Natural History
Society (BNHS) as per international criteria. This IBA has also been
found to qualify to be a potential Ramsar site – a wetland of
international importance – by the BNHS in a recent publication on
potential Ramsar sites in the country.

Major demographic changes and socio-cultural impacts:

As indicated earlier the Idu Mishmi community is only 12,000 in
number. The old EIA report of the Dibang project states that 5800
people (labour and technical staff) will come in for the project
related activities. This seems to be a gross underestimate. The 2000
MW Lower Subansiri project being developed by the same company, NHPC,
is relatively smaller in all respects compared to 3000 Dibang MW –
height of dam, power generation, construction period etc. The EIA
report done for this project states that the total workforce (labour
and technical staff) during peak construction activity of 4-5 years
will be 15, 500 people. In a smaller project, the estimate was
15,500. How is it only 5,800 in Dibang? If one compares with Lower
Subansiri, the workforce in Dibang will be at the very least 25,000
(more than twice the population of the Idu Mishmis) staying for long
periods of time since this is a long gestation project. In addition,
the government is proposing a total of 17 large hydel projects in our
valley! Cumulatively, this will involve at least 150,000 outside
labour for long periods of time. The pressure on the rich forests of
the region due to such a large work force has to be accounted for too.
Despite fancy claims in project documents how fuel will be supplied to
the workforce, this is almost never complied with. A glaring example
is the 2000 MW Lower Subansiri project by NHPC. The pressure on the
surrounding forests (part of the Subansiri Important Bird Area) due to
illegal fuelwood collection by labour for the dam has also been
recorded in the monitoring reports of the MoEF’s regional office in
Shillong. Local green groups from North Lakhimpur have also reported
poaching by the labour force. In addition to the forests officially
diverted for the project, such pressures on surrounding areas will
also conflict with our traditional rights to these forests.

Project affected areas and persons is considerably higher than projected:

One of the major arguments made in favour of large hydroelectric
projects in Arunachal Pradesh is that there is relatively ‘small
displacement’ by submergence as compared to other parts of the
country. But a careful perusal of the ground situation indicates that
displacement is grossly underestimated both individually and
cumulatively. Shifting agriculture (jhum) is a dominant traditional
land use in the hills of Arunachal Pradesh and plays a critical role
in the livelihoods of people, maintaining agricultural biodiversity
and providing food security. Increasing pressures on land have
resulted in the shortening of jhum cycles (the length of the fallow
period between two cropping phases), thus impacting the ecological
viability of this farming system. The submergence of land by hydel
projects will further shorten the jhum cycle and enhance the pressure
on the surrounding areas, thus affecting the environment and the
livelihoods of jhum dependent communities over a much larger
landscape. In addition to the submergence, land use restrictions will
also apply in the Catchment Area of the reservoir as per mandatory
norms to reduce the siltation and increase the life of the reservoir.
The figures for the Dibang dam indicate that 4009 hectares will be
under submergence by the project. But the direct catchment area is
59,811.88 hectares (out of which 10, 281.64 hectares is degraded
forest/abandoned jhum and 3851.64 hectares is agriculture/current
jhum/habitation). The Catchment Area Treatment (CAT) will involve
land use restrictions in the direct draining catchment to reduce
siltation. What will be the population of people affected by this
restriction of land use in the direct draining catchment of 59, 811.88
ha? This is considerably larger than just the population affected by
loss of land in submergence zone.

Further, compensatory mechanisms required as per forest laws to
offset the loss of forests due to the project also lead to supposed
‘protection’ of other areas by change of tenure and access regimes to
land and resources. For example, conversion of Unclassified State
Forests (USFs) in AP, with currently greater access and control of
local communities, into Protected Forests, with greater state control.
Firstly, no compensatory afforestation can compensate the loss of
such a large area of biodiverse forest in the Dibang Valley.
Secondly, the compensatory afforestation will require twice the area
of forest land used directly in project (i.e. over 10,000 hectares) to
be converted from USFs to PFs, thus involving further acquisition of
rights from people.

Further, the whole issue of downstream impacts has been completely
ignored! Recent times have also seen grave concern being expressed
about the poorly studied downstream livelihood and ecological impacts
of large dams in both Arunachal Pradesh and neighbouring Assam. The
concerns include loss of fisheries, changes in beel (wetland) ecology
in the flood plains, agricultural losses, increased flood
vulnerability due to massive boulder extraction from river beds and
sudden water releases from reservoirs in the monsoons. But this issue
has been completely ignored by the MoEF and its EAC, although this has
been brought to the notice of the EAC repeatedly in the last two
years. All ToRs prescribed for Arunachal dams have been asked to
restrict their studies to only 10 km. downstream of the projects.
In the case of the Dibang project the extraction of 32 lakh truck load
of boulders (the first line of defence against floods) and 16 lakh
truck loads of sand will put the downstream areas at grave risk. It
will be judicious not to make such massive interventions in the
Eastern Himalayan rivers such as the Dibang.

As seen above, the impact on local communities and the environment is
well beyond what is being projected in the current decision-making
process.

Keeping the above issues in mind, we strongly urge you to scrap the
3000 MW Dibang Multipurpose project at the Scoping Stage itself.
Adoption of a precautionary principle approach is urgently required at
this point of time. We do not want the country’s tallest dam (288 m
high, approximately a 100 storey high building!) to come up in its
seismically most active region in our Dibang Valley. We cannot
compromise our social and ecological security under any circumstances.
While the MoEF considers this appeal to reject the pre-construction
clearance to the Dibang project, we hope you will call for an
immediate cancellation of the illegal public hearing announced for
August 6th.

Thanking you,
Sincerely,
Dr. Mite Lingi, General Secretary, Idu Cultural and Literary Society
Tone Mickrow, General Secretary, All Idu Mishmi Students Union
Raju Mimi, Information and Publicity Secretary, All Idu Mishmi Students Unio

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Precious Little Moments!

Life is a box of chocolates, you never know which one you might get ( unless the box is all yours of course! ), each of the chocolates tasting different than the other. And so does it goes true for events and moments that we live by.

Life has an uncanny way of disguising to something new or rather modified in every another day that we step by. It's the sheer ungratitudiness of being mere human beings that we seldom give a thought on the various aspects of ' how it did?'. A person lives some of his life's best moment today and is still unsure about how it might ' tomorrow '. However, the answer isn't about finding a statistically proved model of working out the probability of ideally finding a yet another 'good day', but it should be about how 'yesterdays' are the moments that gives meaning to our life and to what we are today. It's weird how the invisible traits of life, which otherwise are just the figments of how much we can cache the memories - of ours and others, has the power of depositioning how we might view others and how others might view us.

However, the point of this posting wasn't about, stretching the limitless counter arguments that my mind might give in for even having thought on - how vague arguments on something that are vaguely visible should take the upper shelves of my supposedly nimble time these days.

So, lets move in to the precious little vagaries of Life which adds nothing much but the more of you with fews that you can recollect and rejoice ( at the end ) having done that. I will do mine for certain.

This should be nothing more than a routine exercise to gather more of such for many people across that you call - 'the loved ones'.

Let's unravel it...

I keep telling myself... if there is something that is most precious to me, then it would be my Dad and each of the moments that I'ad spent with him. But, on a serious note, when I actually try to recollect those moments - it takes me a lot to recall those. Some of the the moments that first strikes and comes to my mind are ( trying to note down the first three ):-

Moment1- The first and the Last 'Slap'.

It goes back to my primary school days ( I was in 4th standard, 1995 ), I'ad a petty little fight with my Dad over some superstitiously generated urgency of having Rs.100 in my pocket. I wanted to go to a restaurant along with my friends ( what? ). Sounds like, an annoying little kid I must have been. Rs.100 bucks in 1995 meant a lot...and it even did more to a 4th standard student. And quite obviously my Dad did say 'NO' and wanted to re-negotiate on the terms of my demands with mega depreciation furthering to Rs.10.

Rs.10, how does that sound? I wished it had been my birthday that day...but alas, it wasn't. You can guess what a spoilt, short-tempered brat would respond back by. Yes, I did that... started kicking around the furnitures, clothes rack and whatever my legs could reach within the 'acquired-circumference-of-zero-tolerance'. I guess it should have been sufficient enough to cool down my anger and justify the 'howling acts' and shedding of some 'forced tears' to ascertain my position over my justified claims.

Well...I went overboard...I over did...

by heading for my Dad's room and trying to make a hole using a knife ( DAO )through his suitcase so that I could get my hand on the cash( if there were any ). Pretty good, sturdy traditional VIP suitcase it was ( I could make only few scratches which might possbilby be deciphered as some ancient fossilised writings, if aliens discover it, eons later)!


My futile efforts just earned me a one good tight slap.
And I get nostalgic remembering that...the only Slap ever and so far!

moment2 .. ( shall continue later ) :)

P.S:- I would suggest, even you try out the same...and gauge for yourself as to where you fall!

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An Idea, that couldn't take off!

If you can self-employ yourself ( what an oxymoron phrase ) and help others in doing so, you make a great deal out of the MBA degree that you earn by accumulating all the marketing jargons in 2 years course of mba certification. What? You don't believe it... ok... naysayers have their own thoughts. :)
Just trying to buy lame excuses so that I keep myself from never to stop dreaming about becoming an entrepreneur someday. The word sounds good - 'entrepreneur' , a good occupation for people who wouldn't like to take orders from people around and where you get your own options to choose; where you get your orders from!
This post is about an entrepreneur kinda stuff that I had in my mind, that never took off. It was 2008 ( somewhere February ), I was working in a small software firm, 'Vinove ( Delhi )', when I got this idea of coming up with my own social networking site. An independent domain name, with GBs of hosting space, an innovative name, a mass-media promotion for the same. Well, I'ad literally thought down about all the features this 'supposedly unique website' would come up with. Now, with thousands of social networking sites, along with the likes of Facebook, Myspace, Orkut etc, it would be the stupidest to think for a social networking site that would cater to, whatever these sites have to offer. Well, I wasn't thinking of that. So, this had to be something unique. It needed to have its own niche segment that it could target to.
"WWW.Lifewithoutthem.COM" - that was the name I'ad thought. ( haha... I was a jerk of having not been able to think of something better than that ). So, it's pretty implied what this site would have catered to. OK...You're still waiting for me to explain that! Then you fall in my league as well. Actually I did try a lot of names... rememberingyou, rememberingthem, lovedones, blah blah... but all were unavailable. :(

This website was about - giving virtual space to all of the people who are dead. You would need to register, then provide the photographs of the loved ones you would like to feature in this site. This was supposed to work out as some sort of 'Obituary space' for the netizens. I knew pooling around all the Dead people profiles from around the world would be a mammoth task, so just wanted to stick around with only Indians on my mind.
So once you're done with registration, the admin ( me ) would check out the validity(of course, I wouldn't be able to do that, unless I've access to the database of all the dead people or any of my cousin works in some central govt dept office with access to all of these). Then, put your request Live by next day. You can pen down testimonials, moments shared with him/her, some memorable photographs ( create an album for the deceased infact ), then invite your friends, who you think might know him/her to have a look and give their own shares. And...Voila... you've given him/her, a space that would live by ages ( unless the validity of the site expires and I am unable to pay for its renewal, ofcourse ), a space that would keep growing, a space that your kins, his/her kins, relatives would cherish.
So, a complete online journal for a beloved ones gets created....and you never miss to put a smile on your face, going though those beautiful moments you'ad to share.
Well.. thats it. I couldn't come up with it, despite even having thought to quit my job for this project. I'ad to grab my call for MBA. Now, there's never enough time to think of that sorts...and it was few months back ( somewhere April 2009 ), when I told the same to my friend, he introduced me to a website with similar features, name Respectance ( click for the page ). After going through this...I don't know if I really should feel glad - that my thought never did took off".

Anyway, I hope people who wants to come up with such a kind of website, can better it, with more specific targets in mind.

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Bing - check the next big thing!

A copy or an original, Bing - certainly has made an impact on me. It's a new search engine still in Beta stage launched on 3rd june by Microsoft to challenge the hegemony of Google in the search engine world. Simple and more or lesser, features like google ... 'bing' has gained a tremendous response all over the world, and not to wonder the massive campaigns that were live, all this while from microsofts end. And I hope this blog post will do a little bit into that.

So, try out the latest search engine "THE BING" .

Oh, honestly... I came to know about it today through a group mail from on of my mates. And yet another fascinating website he refered was the "SPEZIFY". A search engine but one of its kind.

Result upon keywords - 'rome mele' . :)

So bing and the spezify ... check it for urself!! :)

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A Driving license for an MBA!

The idea of fat pay-checks once you roll out of a good B-school, despite the sheer personal acknowledgement that you could have done much better with a job rather than spending 2 years on mugging and roting up something vestigial - is a firmly entrenched belief for many MBA grads. 

I'm currently undergoing my summer internship with a company xyz and the task in hand - "200 institutes to be surveyed in 20 days"... I wonder...if we need a driving license and equally maneuvering expertise of MotoGp bikers or I would need an MBA degree for that ? Cost cutting - the need of hour - They say !!! 

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Pune Summers and the Pains!

Writing back after a long hiatus and I believe in this course - might have lost a many of the few visitors to my blog. A very bad example of how to maintain a blog and along with that to keep dreaming of bringing in new readers. 

This summer has been a nightmare - one for the climatic definition of what summers stands for and the other in lieu with the summers essential for aspiring managers. WoW...did I say 'aspiring managers?'. Well...I did, quite an obnoxious paraphrase for MBA grads who's been badly hit by the so called global economic recession, and quite a pain in ass when you've to work for the companies xyz as summer intern as necessitated by the mba curriculum - to give an insight into how the corporate life would be, once you start working. 

This has been a long sluggish summers for me - for many reasons that I've been sun-baked now and OH MY UV rays allergy ( which I'ad been diagnosed once during my engineering days ) and the investments on assets of natural liquidity - the petrol and the constant paranoia of getting hit by thousands of bikes and cars I come along while riding my *newly-purchased-old-kinetic*, which is so shameless of guzzling petrol with the loudest of roars ( Ya, I've to mend my silencer...I know that!! ) in the vicinity. And of course not to forget the 10mins of kicks drills to start my kinetic each time I give it a rest for 1 hour ( And Ya...my battery wouldn't work ) - and paradoxically - all for the summers that requires me to run around the whole PUNE. 

So, much for summers...and the mortgaged self esteem wouldn't take respite to give back the appreciations...with so called Indianised version of "slowdown economy" - all one gets back for the efforts and the pains are "depreciation" . 

Just....praying for 15 June...when I would be free from the agonies of my First Summer!

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Things that consoles me...

Had my 3 hours International Marketing lecture this evening...and probably the last lecture of the subject for this semester, though I bunked many of the same ( atleast among the highest few ). But, I had to strictly align my tendencies to bunk classes with the principle I am very passionate about, which is - " All gone well at the end is counted under GONE WELL".

Being the last class our lecturer took a time off to provide his feedback for all the presentations we had given...and the usual advices on how being consistent and being innovative weighs much more than the mere marks a class topper scores over another. WoW.. that was a yet another consolation to my ever falling grades though I manage to pass all the papers ( 14+ khichdi subjects in one single sem ) on a single cue that I keep giving myself every morning - Ya, am a good dreamer which probably could be, because I am a good sleeper too. That's an uncanny habit which probably by now has become a part of my gene and my kids in future too would inherit the same - and am quite confident about that. Have tried real hard to get rid of this...but why would one get rid of something every human beings treasure and care about the most, thats an impromptu question that strikes my mind. And ya, am a very mindful guy as well...apart from a good dreamer... so I dream, for which I sleep - even if it meant compensating the balance sleep hours in the class.

OK. That was deviating ! :)

Lets deviate again...

Have you ever wondered where the best brains of the world go for their higher degrees, atleast in the management perspective? It's the likes of Harvard, Oxford, London school of economics, Standfords, and the best in India to IIMs.

Now, did you ever wonder where the BESTEST of these mangerial brains opt to work for ( which sector, in precise )?

Investment Banking sectors ( likes of Mckinsey...and erstwhile Lehman bros & DSP Meryll Lynch ).

Now, did you ever wonder the failure in proper management of which sector has led to one of the biggest financial crunch that world has ever witnessed?

No... prizes for guessing.

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No Dam Zone in Dibang Valley

Press release note (14th March 2009)

Campaign on demanding `No Dam Zone in Dibang Valley'
Today on the day of March 14, 2009 which is observed all over the world as International Day of Action against Dams and for Rivers. water and Life', we the All Idu Mishmi Students Union and Idu Mishmi Cultural and Literary Society demand Dibang Valley to be declared as an Ecologically Sensitive Zone according to the provisions under Section 3 of the Environment Protection Act, 1986 similar to that of the Aravalli hills where mining is banned.

Similarly, mega projects such as dam building should be banned in Dibang Valley and the region declared as 'No Dam Zone. A letter to this effect has been sent to the Prime Minister with copies to the officials of the Ministry of Environment & Forests and to the state Government of Arunachal Pradesh. A copy of the same is attached here with the release note.

The International Day of Action against Dams and for Rivers, Water, and Life was inspired and mandated by the participants of the 1997 First International Meeting of People Affected by Dams in Curitiba, Brazil. Every year on March 14, people around the world celebrate victories such as dam removal and river restoration, teach others about issues threatening rivers and communities, and demand improvements in policies and practices of decision-makers.


Dr Mite Linggi
Secretary
Idu Mishmi Cultural and Literary Society


Tone Mickrow
Secretary
All Idu Mishmi Student Union

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Pareto principle at work in Arunachal ?

Ever wondered why 20% of the time expended produces 80% of the results,

• Or, 80% of your phone calls go to 20% of the names in your phone list,
• Or, 20% of the paper has 80% of the news,
• Or, 80% of the news is in the first 20% of the article,
• Or, 20% of the people causes 80% of the problems,
• Or, 80% of the problems in the world are because of Religion and its 20% of any Religion that are followed for the good.
  

          80-20 % observation is a very interesting way to look at the things happenings around the world, whose extension over the business world has been used to achieve the so called benefits of socio-economic upliftments, for the 80% of the people who happens to serve 20% of the people. The impinging reverberation of this stark inequality calls forth for a new class of world over.

This disproportion theory of 20-80% is popularly known as the Pareto principle which was first propounded by Vilfredo Pareto(1848-1923). He observed that 20% of the people of Italy who formed the upper strata of the societal hierarchy nearly owned about 80% of the wealth. The concept of such disproportion in the society was thus put forward by Pareto. The exact value of 20 and 80% are not necessarily true or significant every time. But, the thread of truth attached with such disporportion distribution of wealth is something that can't be overlooked.

And the same stands true for what we can observe in Arunachal Pradesh. Only the politicians, their relatives, bureaucrats, engineers and few elite contractual players etc reaps the benefits of the funds that were supposedly meant for the overall development. So, its the wealthy 20% arunachali population that owns the 80% of the wealth. Now, if we further ponder upon how the fund-flow system in Arunachal assumes figure... then one might have to oblige with the fact that... there is more than 80% probability that these 20% of the people representing the wealthy arunachalis is somehow spun around in the same network that remains exclusively theirs.


Now, what does other 80% of the Arunachali people do... people who represents the middle and lower section of the SEC ( socio economic classificatory groups )?
A good question... and the answer is - 80% of the whole arunachal population competes amongst eachother for the scarce and limited 20% of the fund. This 80% of the population represents the people who are frustrated for this un-equitable distribution of wealth which by no exception is a handiwork of an economic system that works only for the sustainment of its existence rather than existing for people who needs the most.


This vicious cycle of 80-20% in wealth distribution is multiplicative in nature, which makes it imperative for the people in the border of this distinctive groups of 80-20 to find a way into the upper 20. And for this to happen they have no other option but to get into the nexus of this cyclic proportionate distribution of wealth.


Going by definition of any economic community run by a government that is being elected by the overall population the following points would have been achievable:
- the 20% of the people who work for the 80% of the people would have been responsible for distribution of 80% of the wealth to atleast 80% of the people.
- The reversed implication of Pareto principle would have been observed.

But, the subtle truth of asking for an Utopian kind of society in present context is too much to ask for. Again, a reedemable and a healthy proportion much in favor of society at large isn't an impossible feat to achieve. An conscientious effort to bring in this slow but imminently desired change in the 80-20% has to be brought forth.

Days of reckoning the same wouldn't be far if we believe that onus lies on each one of us.

A society of new economic order can wait!

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OPEN LETTER TO PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA

To
Dr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India
South Block
New Delhi

Honourable Prime Minister Sir:
For the past one year, we, the Idu Mishmis of Dibang Valley, have been subjected to a very cruel circus of development. Development that we understand very little, projects of national interest that do not evoke any interest within us, dreams that we know will remain unfulfilled.

The 3,000 MW Dibang Multipurpose Project along with more than a dozen other hydro projects are being imposed on us in the name of national interest and energy security. We have protested since we failed to be convinced that they will benefit us, we have submitted memoranda with the hope that we will be heard, and we argued against our destruction, the bleak future of our future generation, because we thought that we were the citizens of the world’s biggest democracy.

But, the events of the past one year, a sham process of forcible public participation to legitimize a project, a shoddy and incomplete environment impact assessment by a reputed public sector organization and repeated violations in organizing public hearings – all point to the fact that nobody is interested to listen to us – the governments, the bureaucrats or even our elected public representatives. Even you chose to inaugurate the Dibang Valley project early this year, some hundreds of kms away in Itanagar, without any consultation with our community.

We fail to understand how projects could be envisaged to be of national interest when their likely impacts are going to unleash destruction and devastation – destruction of our pristine forests, rich biodiversity, our land and livelihood, our sacred Taloh (as Dibang river is referred to by the Idu Mishmis) and its riverine ecology. Where an influx of 6,000 outsiders for a single project in a valley of fast diminishing 12,000 indigenous people is seen as a cultural integration and assimilation, submergence of our ancestral land and the only habitations in an otherwise hostile terrain is supposed to pave the way for a 43 km long reservoir, which will result in a ‘navigable waterway connecting the villages’, and destruction of land and livelihood is countered with generation of wage employment, all other arguments favouring the projects come to us as a cruel joke.

If these are mere apprehensions, let us also be clear that our apprehensions are still to be cleared beyond doubt. Instead, this genre of development, with the spectre of crores of rupees coming in to a mostly non monetised economy, dreams of an incomprehensible but quality life is dividing our small community and sowing seeds of divide and discord.

A future social conflict within our Idu Mishmi community could be self defeating and the Government of India will have to squarely take the blame.

Honourable Prime Minister Sir, a Public Hearing in New Anaya, Upper Dibang Valley has been again notified for March 27th, 2009, perhaps for the seventh or eighth time. This never ending circus has to end some where.

We don’t want any project in Dibang Valley, and
No further Public Hearings

This is the Will of the Idu Mishmis, the indigenous people of Dibang Valley. Your Government, being an important member of the United Nations, cannot violate the Convention on the Rights of the Indigenous People which your Government has ratified in September 2007.

We sincerely hope that our voice will reach you and your Government.

For Peace, Tranquility and Hope in Dibang Valley


Sincerely,
Idu Mishmi Cultural and Literary Society
All Idu Mishmi Students Union
Dam Affected Citizens Committee

[as posted in Veracity - a local daily of roing ]

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The L.K.Advani google ads attack!

I certainly do despise Indian politicians... there are innumerable reasons which this post itself wouldn't suffice. And that's a whole lot of reason that I wouldn't like my blog to advertise something I hate by myself. It was recently that I added few " Google image ads " to my blog. I thought google - like they boast of algorithm that detects the contents of the blog and feed ads accordingly to the code that you install through Adsense would make my job pretty easy. Ya, I would have definitely liked some ads of automotive or other products etc ( though i never wrote anything on the same in this blog ) but certainly not the Advani ads or as a matter of fact of any other politicians.

But, even the three google image ads posted wouldn't shy of showing-off the great L.K Advani's race to PM'ship. They wouldn't spare even one...for a different ads.

A snapshot ( which I took incase that image ads of advani disappears ) of the Advani ads... and you can find that to the right side of the blog as well.
[ Is it still there ? ... a question that I would ask unless I decide to completely remove those image ads. ] :)



Quite annoying ... atleast when you are trying to monetize through a blog that so far hasn't earned anything.

Then I did a google search on ' LK Advani google ads ' ... and there were scores of other websites talking about how the BJP has eventually laid webs of Ads all over the Internet ... as if we netizens know nothing about how India fared under BJP and too a little extent, it doesn't make much difference than the present regime as well.

I finally clicked the ads after a long thought ( it took me 3 days infact ) to figure out what's really behind that Ad.

Well... my personal assessment on that would be - Just the regular Politician's website trumpeting all over :

• What we would do if you elect us, blah blah ( rather than what we achieved which other would have never )
• Where Congress has failed ... ( quite preposterous looking other way round as well...where BJP have failed when they were in power )
• Promises of empowering the youths of India, to build a stronger, more prosperous and more secure India. ( I wonder... what were they upto when they had the power ! )
• Failures and Betrayals of UPA govt... increasing poverty and the usual etcs.. ( ya, India was really SHINING... the cliched n most dumbest assuring slogan they could think of to reassure the poorest of poor in India )

I felt I should leave the other such points for you to figure out... and think accordingly which PM would be the best for India. It's not over yet...going through the LKadvani site... I got a glimpse of this pic. And, I quite liked it... so here it is.
Maybe you ( Arunachalees ) can guess it out as to.. WHY !



Well... I wouldn't mind if you click on the google ads on the side bar as well ( if advani is still in there ).

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Recession or the slowdown ?

Just a snippet from the Aarohan Case Study meet ( or rather contest ) organized by students of Supply Chain Management of SIIB. 

When your attendance count is among the least in the class and the institute makes it rather mandatory to keep a minimum of 90%, failing which you wouldn't be allowed to sit for the placements...then you have no option but to oblige even if it meant keeping your ass glued to a remotely located seat of the auditorium for straight 7 hours.  Well, today was one such day... various experts and gurus from supply chain industry were among the dignified judges for the ocassion and I had to hear all they had to pour out... but am glad that I did that! 

The theme of the event was ...the Supply Chain in recessionary period ... which everyone by the end had to agree that it was slightly termed wrong. Should have been - supply chain in slowdown period, not recession. 

Everyday, newspapers flaunts about the troubling time all the B-schools are facing due to the recession in the bearish market which months ago was bullish. But, in an Indian context...is it really recession for us. It is certainly a recession for the western markets in U.S because of the mortgage crisis, failure of the investment banks and finally leading to liquidity crisis... but does it work and mean the same for India. 

Indian economy, which was liberalised in 90s was the biggest thing that had happened to India to see it going up the ladder of economic power block of the world. And till, to the day it stands true. Government of India with its economic regulatory bodies has been the prime reason why India isn't facing, what we would have called the real recession. 

Whenever there is recession worldwide we see Indian government intervention through RBI cutting/increasing the repo/reverse repo rates. Which makes a perfect sense of the globalized economy we are tangled with. Recession somewhere is bound to have some sort of impact on the economy elsewhere. 

The recent collapse of two U.S Investment companies ( Meryll lynch & Lehman bros ) filling for bankruptcy finally triggering the panicky of Recession worldwide remains the ubiquitous and most popular explanation of the topsy turvy economic condition. But, when we bring it down to Indian context this would have never happened. Indian economy though liberalised remains a protected economy and thats for every good reason. The GOI with its apex regulatory bodies intervenes everytime it senses companies in troubled water. Hence, when we talk about Indian market, we would hardly find any companies filing for bankruptcy. And this remains the most attractive part of the protected Indian economy. 

If this isn't Recession with so many companies around employing job-cutting tactics then what is it?

And along with that we have various organizations predicting a GDP of 5-6% for subsequent years until and unless we get a government ruling at the centre which is open to foreign investments.

There is a healthy difference between the Recession and the Slowdown - which is what Indian economy is facing as of now. Recession can be termed as a period of negative growth for more than two quarters in a row and on the other hand slowdown is when the economy is growing at a slower rate, and is very Industry specific. Recession is a vicious cycle that sees a fall in profits of the overall market and tremendous decline in the economic growth rate, leading to cost-cutting methods companies start employing. Which ultimately results into large figure of unemployment and reduced spending power of the consumers. But, on the other hand what India is witnessing is just a slower growth rate of economy. 

You might one to go through this article as well Capitalmoney

In any marketing lectures of B-schools, quite often we get to hear about 'Blue Ocean Strategy' which exists vis-a-vis to 'Red Ocean Strategy'. These strategies were coined by two harvard grads Kim and Mauborgne and which they later went on to publish under the header Blue Ocean Strategy. 

For those who aren't familiar with these terms,

Blue Ocean strategy refers to a kind of business strategy that promotes creation of new market space known as "blue ocean" rather than contesting in an existing competition intensive market. These blue oceans are created when a company achieves value innovation beside adding value for both the company and the buyer. The trademark of such strategy is that it kills the competition to get a market of its own. 

One of the speaker of the Aarohan SCM summit pointed out very succinctly that it's only during good economic condition Industry people talk about Blue oceans and the red oceans. Quite obvious, merrier times would represent more blue oceans, and any company employing blue ocean strategy trying to find a new blue ocean for itself. The blue oceans gets more blue-ed. 

But what about when the economy is in a slowdown phase? Does it simply means diminishing needs of the consumers? Where does these marketing jargons go then? 

This scenario would tantamount to 'Red Oceans', where the market space gets crowded and the prospects for profit and growth are highly reduced because of the decrease in purchasing power. But, would that implicate that needs of the consumers have decreased? Certainly not... Then how do we justify the cost-cutting measures companies suddenly start using whenever market is bearish. Wouldn't creating or finding a blue ocean amidst the red oceans in these hard times describe the excellent value addition any company can add to itself and for the that matter the consumers too. 

What better marketing strategy and branding would that be, but quite far away from what we can expect from Indian market, which remains one of the most risk aversive market. Maybe for all good reasons ( whatever it is ). 

To end it in an optimistic way, all gone well...  we are in slowdown, not recession for certain! :)

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Blogspot vs Wordpress dilemma

I am ( or was )quite frequent with my blogspot blog www.arunachalblog.blogspot.com ... but haven't quite updated this wordpress blog " http://romele.wordpress.com/ ". I was quite apprehensive about the visibility of my blog for arunachal and the blog keywords...and felt it quite often that maybe google which owns the blogspot might give preferential ranking to the blog in the blogspot domain rather than the wordpress blog. I felt it too hard to compromise the search visibility that I could get through the blogspot blog than the features that you get in the wordpress blog.

It's quite understood that the wordpress blog comes along with more customizable features than the blogspot blog but one needs to have comparatively better know-how of the htmls. And the themes of wordpress are also much professional in look and it comes along with lots of add-ons and plug-ins when you compare it to blogspot's themes which looks more like you've been fed with some limitations. Of course, a free of cost blog has to come along with some impaired features, features that you can't simply go about changing at your will.

But, now that my blogspot blog is 2 years old and there is no way I can import it from blogspot to wordpress without sacrificing my search visibility...I guess I will have to work on the same for maybe a year or two until I get a self-hosted domain of my own.

Well...if you're new to blogging and want to own one... my suggestion would be start it from wordpress. It's very easy to use blogspot blogs and so is the case with wordpress. But, down the years...your blogging perspective atleast with the technicality purview would certainly improve if you start it with wordpress at the first hand. The same might take a little bit more in blogger, as things are right fed to you but with no option to decide unless you're quite good with the coding.

You might want to go through these posts as well:

Moving from blogger to wordpress without losing traffic page rank

Wordpress vs Blogspot ( theWirds.com )

Hope you all take a good decision! :)

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