Generalist Administration In India

The debate on Generalist versus Specialist in the administrative hierarchy of India has been on since the time of independence. We place the generalist IAS office above specialists in almost all departments and rare is the occasion when an outsider occupies a Secretary post in the Union and State governments and the promotion to the post of Joint Secretary is virtually assured to all in the IAS. This has lead to discontent among the specialists as, for example, the Indian Audit and Accounts Service is headed by the CAG who is an IAS officer, department made of IA&AS officers lead by an IAS officer. Complaints of civilian administrators not heeding the demands of the armed forces chief are common. The question has come up again in my mind due to an article in the Economic Times and the book 'The Honest Always Stand Alone' (by C.G.Somiah who joined IAS in the early 1950s and was the CAG from 1990 to 1996).

I have read about the disagreement artists, writers, social activists and intelligentsia have against banning of certain books and works of art. I have always thought artistic freedom should be absolutely uninhibited and only then will we have a free country. But while reading C.G.Somiah's book, I got a perspective of the other side that has to take the decision on whether to ban the book or not, when he narrated the banning of 'Satanic Verses' in India before it was even banned in Pakistan. To say that administrators are pandering to wishes of fundamentalists and pretentious religious sentiments would border on the blasphemous and be totally unfair to them. Artists, while trying to defend freedom of expression, do not realise that it is not their freedom that is being restricted by the government on behalf of narrow-minded sentiments nor are these sentiments attempting to attack this freedom. What happens is an attempt to defend a blind belief based on false and uninformed interpretation.

I would like to explain using an example. During the Anna Hazare strike in August 2011, there were several individuals who took part in processions and wore support badges for Anna Hazare. But very few of them had taken the effort to go through the Jan Lokpal Bill and the Bill introduced by the government in Parliament. These individuals were also mistaken in their understanding of the bill as they thought this would end everyday corruption that we as the common man experienced. They were also unaware of the severe deficiencies in the bill civil society had come up with. What this shows is that, individuals follow the herd, we accept popular opinion and this may or not be correct and this becomes the voice of the masses, which may or may not reasonable. (I do not attempt to tarnish the power and importance of mass opinion, but I am merely trying to show the dynamics of what happens and how)

Based on this understanding and acceptance, it becomes clear that the demands to ban books and other creative works do not stem always from a reasonable, informed and logical demand but a mass opinion. So the demand is not against artistic freedom but against hurt to their beliefs and we all know that in India and elsewhere in the world, religion is an emotional subject which can get out of control. In the interest of maintaining law and order and protecting society from such out of control interests, the government has had to act at times. Only administrators and government can take a whole view of the situation and come to a decision. Only a generalist can come to such a decision and that is why they are important to any administration as it deals with multitudes of divergent interests that can come into conflict with each other, which if not contained or settled at the earliest, can spread causing widespread chaos and uncertainty. The basic purpose of any administration is to maintain law and order in the country and it is merely fulfilling its duties while taking such decisions on sensitive issues.

Yet, I must add that such decisions must only be sparingly be used in situations like the one I mentioned. Frequently conceding to such demands would give the impression of a weak administration that has little authority over the country or state. It must be used only when situations can spread out of control over an area  beyond the capacity of our law enforcement agencies. Politically twisting such situations for petty gains are also common, as we saw when Salman Rushdie had to withdraw from Jaipur Literary Festival as a death threat was purported to have been issued against him by some religious factions. This was merely done to avoid a law and order issue, which although could be interpreted as a smart way to avert a crisis. It was the threat of violence that prohibited the screening of the movie 'Dam 999' in Tamil Nadu, whereas the Supreme Court in its judgement in the case related to prohibition of the screening of the movie 'Oru Gramathinte Katha' had said that possibility of law and order issues is not a valid reason for such bans. Such ad hoc measures would not do, the government must assert its authority over such issues and should be able to control law and order issues and not be held hostage by threats of violence, law and order and politics.

This is a justification as well as an explanation for the need for generalist administrators in our country. Administrators are in a position to take a neutral view of issues only because of their generalist specialisation and this is absolutely important in a country as diverse geographically, culturally and linguistically as ours. But there definitely is a need to overcome politics, vulnerabilities in enforcing the rule of law and authority over mob mentality and all the facts on the ground must be considered while taking a balanced decision which is what the IAS is meant to do and has been doing (albeit with a few exceptions and individual misfits) in its history.


http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/editorial/ias-officials-expertise-is-administration-not-finance-banking-technicalities/articleshow/15176674.cms - article in ET blasting IAS officers who are not specialists and the comments show a certain degree of animosity towards them from the public, albeit misinformed and unreasonable

Emotional Authority and Fraternity

The infant mortality rate is 47 in India, that is, 47 children out of 1000 die within 42 days of their birth. 212, the number of maternal deaths per lakh live births. 237 million or one fifth of the whole of India remain hungry, 29.8% or 36 crore Indians are classified officially as poor by the planning commission. 44%, proportion of children under five who are underweight in India and only 4 countries outside of Africa have figures worse than India. Global Hunger Index ranks India 67th out of 88 developing nations. I could go on and on with numbers and statistics, they never end as each day brings more than I can ever comprehend.

Under this flood of numbers, I am losing my sense of reality. Sufferings and situations become mere numbers, numbers to be analysed, quoted and used to make a point. The fact that these numbers correspond to individuals- each and every one of them with the same set of feelings and emotions as me, all of them with parents and perhaps brothers and sisters, all of them suffering in ways I can hardly imagine- is seldom registered. It simply cannot be comprehended since it is too huge and too frequent that my brain does not have the ability to see beyond the numbers.

This is what happens to everyone beyond a certain point, a numbness at first and perhaps indifference and then they merely stay as numbers. They become an end in itself, to change those numbers we can modify their measurements, throw in some money hoping that it will change and we merely chase results. Our intension change to merely changing the numbers without understanding what lies beneath- the pain and suffering is too deep to be ever realised.

When policies are made under such circumstances, by those with no understanding of the true meaning of those numbers, then their impact too will be limited. We can talk on and on about developing administrative mindset to be more people-friendly and people-oriented, we can build complex policies to wish away these numbers, there can be reforms in the structure of administration to take it to the grassroots and more responsive to the people's needs, but if they lack the commitment to eradicate the underlying cause of suffering- which can happen only if the policy makers have some humanity and kindness in them along with the ability to realise the extent of the pain and suffering- then these become merely an exercise in futility.


Max Weber's legal rational theory of Authority is the model of administration and government we follow- a set of rules that prescribe the relationship between those who rule, those who are ruled and the system that implements these rules. Initially it was merely about implementing rules and regulations and we have now reached development administration where it is about delivery of services and ensuring socio-economic development. In theory, these are given as objective goals to be achieved, but I find the lack of emotion quite disturbing.

The need to ensure political-social-economic development is not just to make it a fair deal so that everyone has a set of basic rights, access to health, safety, education and purchasing power. I believe what should drive us is an acceptance and understanding that when there is even one person left on this planet who is suffering, the entire human race cannot be free of that pain and suffering. It might be emotional, but then that is what we are, social and emotional beings which cannot be denied. If our siblings or parents are in pain, we too are affected and we try to relieve that pain. It must be the same with all human beings, see them as our own self and as part of our lives.

It is with such emotions that we need to work, one could say it lacks the objectivity needed to work without succumbing to weaknesses, for sympathy and fraternity is exactly what we need to better our world. I say it is better to understand the need, purpose and impact of our actions than to deal in cold, detached and indifferent observations, recommendations and proposals. Policies for development should be made and implemented with such feelings and understanding of its purpose, this will surely achieve results.

A humanistic attitude towards life, towards everything we do is all I am talking about. But then, it is too silly to expect it from everyone because if everyone thought like this, we would never have had to make rules and regulations in the first place. The answer to those who do not think of humanity as one family lies in those who believe in "Vasudhaiva Kudumbakam" and lives accordingly. The answer to all the problems of the world lie in us, in each of us becoming better individuals and enabling others to be the same too. It is naive and simple and so the practical way is to deal with the good, poor and nice people in the world in simple terms (or even naively) but use our brains and all its devious learnings while dealing with the devious.

Poor and Unfair Standards

S&P has issued warnings that it might downgrade India's rating to junk unless the government wakes up from slumber and implements much needed reforms. The recent confusion due to policy paralysis on what is considered essential and urgent reforms in fields like FDI in multi-brand retail, high budget deficits and current account deficit and poor investor sentiment is the reason being suggested for such a downgrade. In fact, it is being suggested that the 'I' in BRICS, an acronym for countries with high growth rate which are expected to be world economic leaders, should be replaced by Indonesia for it has shown robust growth.

S&P had rated Lehman Brothers AAA (the best possible rating) until the bank crashed which triggered the global financial crisis in 2008, merely an example of the ineptitude of the organisation or perhaps its wrong priorities. S&P is not an organisation that is meant to identify well-being or welfare of the people, it does not really care and hence a credit rating downgrade shouldn't raise as much issue as the fact that India's Human Development Index is lower than that of Iraq, Nicaragua and China. We have more starvation and poverty than sub-saharan Africa and the S&P ( Standard & Poor- what an ironic name and strange surname for one of the co-founders who started the rating systeM) rating is only about credit-worthiness, whether giving credit to a country or a company is safe and whether it will be able to repay these loans.

The claim that our growth rate is low and so Indonesia should be the 'I' BRICS is too hollow because Indonesia's growth is 4.8% and when we consider other BRICS, South Africa around 3% (with unemployment close to 25%), Brazil estimates 2.5% growth, the picture doesn't look that bad and the story is not so different for other nations too, but this downgrade threat applies only to India and China's growth story is also facing questions with corruption scandals coming to light and lower scope for export driven growth.

A government exists for the people, priority of the government should be the welfare of the people, not the profits of foreign enterprises. Its duty should be to protect the people from vicissitudes of international economics and step in where prices of essential goods are highly volatile. It must levy taxes and duties to encourage or discourage consumption of certain goods and invest it to adopt technologies and implement projects necessary for the people, but this money should not to be siphoned and distributed through poorly implemented dole-outs and favours for cronies, domestic or foreign. Diesel and Petroleum subsidies are necessitated by high taxes levied by centre, but these taxes are not used for the good of the people but are then given back to Oil Marketing Companies so that they are profitable.

This current downgrade warning could merely be an effort to push the government to introduce reforms that would benefit large corporations in the west that have no chance of increasing revenues in their home countries and force their terms of business on India. It also exposes the true face of nations that intend to be friends of India, they merely see India as a trading and investment partner where they can make money. The downgrade threat is obviously out of place, not just because in terms of priorities of the organisation which does the rating or its righteousness or its ineptitude, but it is an attempt to interfere in the internal economy of a nation through unfair pressure and threats.

Although coming with dubious intentions from an organisation that has committed grave errors, it does raise some pertinent points related to maladministration and policy paralysis within the government and these are issues that must be tackled urgently if the nation is not to slip into chaos and confusion. Urgent reforms are required, but they are in the areas of pension reform, allotment and clearance for projects that are environmentally sustainable, infrastructure bottle-necks, anti-corruption legislation, expanding education, delivery of services and clearing of several bills that are pending in parliament. For this, parliament needs to function, government must show some urgency in identifying and implementing reforms for the good of our people and show some spine by coming out from the comfortable shade of  "coalition-dharma" and identify and declare that certain elements in the alloy are blocking essential reasonable reforms and lay out what it intends to do for the country and how it would go about that task, rather than just projecting fantasies for the future and evoking glory of the past. Only then will we have stability and a government of the people, by the people for the people.

Myth of the Infallible Great

While reading history, one of my simmering questions was what exactly happened during some events in our history (especially our struggle for independence) and also I couldn't fully accept that events were always planned out and happened accordingly and discerned with absolute clarity, but this was the view one got from reading most textbooks I was familiar with in school. The uncertainty and suspense that was the order of the day is painted over with glorious achievements and simplification of events with mere irrefutable facts, dates, distances covered on foot and number of protestors arrested.

The torment and questions that individuals faced, the uncertainty that gripped the nation, games of intrigue that were played and influences that some characters had in the course of events due to obsessions and idiosyncrasies and personal motives are all hidden when we read history in the larger context of mere happenings. There are records of how many soldiers were killed and by how many in each war, but we should be more interested in knowing why, which is rarely answered in our books except in bullet points, with an easily explained set of reasons, as if the actions of men can be explained ever in such simple terms. One glance back at our day will prove that we have taken numerous decisions without reason, many of them against reason and logic and many of them defying our own understanding of self. It is this inconsistency that history covers up with an objective rendering of events.

When I read "The Great Indian Novel", although a work of fiction, I was introduced to such an aspect of story-telling. Rather than just the 'hows', it also dwelt on the 'whys' in a subtle and funny way. I accept that it is a work of fiction because not even the movers of events of the time knew fully why they did it and what its outcomes would be, but the fact that they didn't always (perhaps only very rarely) comprehend events completely itself is never realised by us while studying history. Individuals portrayed as larger than life figures with honorific titles mean that their human aspect is not an angle explored by many, which in itself is not an issue because we do not concern ourselves with the lives of individuals but with events.

But this simplification of actions and subsequent beatification of individuals due to the result of actions and events they were part of has lead to the infallibility of the individual. We see personality cults regularly and politicians exploit it to perpetuate their hold on the people, for some of them cannot accept these leaders as humans who will be affected by old age and disease and vicissitudes of fate and temptation like every human being. Perhaps we would like to believe there are certain individuals who know things for certain, we would like to believe that there is someone in charge who is absolutely sure of what he is doing and what its effects will be, whereas the truth is, no one in this world is sure of anything except the breath we are taking at this moment, right now.

Perhaps our history books should be rewritten to present our great leaders and thinkers and scientists as humans, it might shatter a few idols, but it would also allow us to understand them better and we could use that to be better individuals ourselves. Perhaps we need to see them as ourselves and our fellow beings, understand that they had flaws and faced doubts and uncertainties like us, but also realise they are remembered for contributing to humanity with a life circumscribed by human-hood. It is possible for us to be the next Steve Jobs or Vishwanathan Anand or Dennis Ritchie or Vivekananda, we just need to understand that our limitations in one aspect does not have to stand in the hundreds of ways in which we can achieve success and happiness and contribute to humanity.

Satyameva Jayate:Simple and Effective

We elect members to our parliament, state legislatures and local governing bodies regularly and they form the government, frame laws, rules, regulations and policy. The judiciary interprets and pronounces judgements based on these laws, but these organs of state have little power to decide what we think, what we aspire to become and what our attitudes are. It cannot decide for us what jobs we will take up or what sort of education we want, but can only provide us with options and ensure fairness and freedom to choose. We make our own decisions and in this aspect, the state has little role to play.

Our country has seen several instances of crimes against those belonging to lower castes, women, tribes and minorities. The government can only act by prescribing punishments for such acts and cannot be expected to mark its presence in every street corner or in every home and probe our activities. It is true that government can encourage and promote development of those belonging to lower castes, women etc but ultimately it is up us, the individuals, to treat our brethren with respect, dignity and honour. This is where Amir Khan's television endeavour "Satyameva Jayate" has its place, in influencing and educating the public, in generating awareness about the evils that plague us, in a simple yet effective language of a common man and one, thanks to his celebrity status, people will listen to more than they will heed the words of our politicians.

The solution to a skewed sex ratio is very simple, treat girls as equal to boys. The government cannot frame a law for this, go to every home and ensure this happens, our society must change because it feels the need to change and not because there are rules and regulations and incentives to promote the birth of girls. The role of government in these areas is limited, the role of public discussions, awareness, debates and opinions extremely important and such visible forms of discussion as envisaged by Amir Khan should get people thinking because it is in a form people can understand, relate to and most importantly gets their attention. It is much better than the cacophony and extremely annoying professional news presenters that rule prime time television, as "Satyameva Jayate" consists of sensible discussions without any animosity and hot-headedness, shows real problems of real people and not merely expert views of those residing in ivory towers, detached from reality. It deserves appreciation since it goes much beyond tokenism and PR exercises of celebrities and it is evident that there has been some genuine effort from the actor's part to bring an issue to the public.

For all the talk of his actions being amateurish, perhaps that is exactly what the country needs now. A known face coming out and asking questions of us, our lives and attitudes which will be understood by all, an attempt to find simple, elegant yet obvious solutions to the problem that face our country. In my opinion, Amir Khan has succeeded in that and I hope the initial enthusiasm the programme received continues and we too start thinking about the issues in our society to which we alone hold the answer.

Highly Inflammable Inflation

At times, it will be necessary for governments to take hugely unpopular decisions for the greater good and long term positive results. Only a decisive government can take such decisions and we need governments who can make such calls. The price of petrol was deregulated and Oil Marketing Companies (OMC) were given freedom to decide on prices on June 2010 and it has been the cause of public outrage ever since, but it was a step in the right direction. The last bout of revision meant prices went up by over Rs.7. This price hike is definitely justified in the light of fall in the value of rupee, high international prices the world over due to tension over Iranian issue and huge current account deficits. The need for sound financial management is beyond questioning, we have already experienced what such crunches can do since it was such a crisis in 1991 that pushed our nation's financial stability to the brink forcing us to adopt revolutionary economic reforms.

There are a few other reasons to justify higher price for petrol- world over, consumption is rising at such a rapid rate that we will see end of oil within the century, burning of fossil fuels also add to global warming and higher pollution levels and we also see lop-sided power and influence for a few countries that own oil wealth and for those that have influence over these oil producing countries. By keeping the price of oil high, it is assumed that consumption is discouraged but this is rarely true in the case of petroleum products since this is what moves the country, its people and its economy and so no matter how high the price, we will pay for it and there are no viable alternatives either.

In spite of the fact that price rises are justified for petrol (and also for other petroleum products, the prices for which are still under government control), the government must do its part to protect citizens from such hardships. The price of petrol that consumers pay consists of not just the cost of production and margins of OMCs as almost of 50% of it goes to the government (both central and state) in the form various taxes and duties. In the short-term, government can reduce taxes it levies on the consumer by not just forgoing additional revenue from the hiked prices, but a cut in the tax rates themselves. Revenue forgone by reducing and not levying taxes and duties on gold and diamond for the years 2010-2012 was more than 1 lakh crores and during 2012-2013, the government withdrew its own budget proposals to levy a nominal 2% tax on these items which shows that cutting taxes is not something the government is averse to. The majority of petroleum products is produced by the public sector and so there is little meaning to competition among these OMCs since the money is anyway going to the same destination and so costs on marketing and advertisements also make little sense which can be reduced or even done away with.

The revenue generated by government and OMCs from petroleum products must be used to invest in other sources of fuel and energy and to encourage the use of electric cars and also to encourage renewable sources of energy. Only then will our country have long term energy and financial stability. By taxing non-essential items like gold and jewellery, reducing taxes on this essential product and by investing the revenue generated to fund future stability and security, the government can protect the people, address financial issues and clearly show its commitment to good governance that keeps the interest of the people at heart. Only such an all round effort, can completely justify unpopular actions like increase in prices of essential items without inviting the people's angst against the government, will convince the people that short-term pains will evolve into long term gains and only then will the people reward the government with its support and confidence.

In the end, 'the means' becomes the 'end'

'End justifies the means' is a highly popular excuse to justify drastic and unfavourable action and in Hindu mythology, Lord Krishna resorted to it with guile and being the incarnation of god, it is a perfectly fine way of doing things. But what we see these days are that the 'ends' fade from the picture very soon and the means become an end in itself.

India initially established reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in government jobs for a period of 10 years so that they can come out of the backward status(the ends) and it has been extended and continues to this day. In fact, reservation is now provided for Other Backward Classes too or OBCs a highly flammable three letter word in India (I do not wish to go into the need or lack of need or misuse of this provision) and now it has become an end in itself as various communities want themselves to be included in the OBC category to avail the benefits of reservation. Achieving reservation has become an end in itself and thus achieving 'backward' status is the means towards the reservation!

Governments were established to serve the people, but now we have governments taking policies that are detrimental to the interests of the people (Think Greece and austerity), whether it be dictatorships propped up with the military and financial might of super-powers or legitimate democracies that trample upon human rights and basic living necessities of its citizens to provide 'economic growth' and generate statistics that will be given 'thumbs up' by rating agencies headed by individuals whose sole purpose in life is to crunch numbers for the benefit of industrialists and manufacturers without considering the impact of the letter grades they award. It does not matter whether governments displace hundreds of thousands of citizens from their homes or deprives millions of them off their livelihoods or poison the air we breathe and water we drink, but we must encourage FDI and mining no matter what the cost.

Money was the means to easy transaction of goods and now making money has become an end in itself (what else can explain the stock market and government efforts to pacify investors who are actually traders and vultures merely trying to cash in on a scoop). It does not matter if we divert farm land for shopping malls and multiplexes, it does not matter that half our country's population is poor (estimates vary, but even under the current poverty line of Rs.22.35 for rural and Rs.28.42 for urban areas, 36crore Indians are poor) we must encourage foreign investors and give them tax exemptions to kindly spend their money here. What our government does not understand is that Europe and USA have got stagnant domestic demand and the only market they have is India (China won't let them in and there are good enough Chinese manufacturers as they learned the tricks of the trade when all western manufacturing shifted to China) and we have the opportunity dictate terms or atleast negotiate as equals rather than waiting for the benevolence of the white-man.

The purpose is lost, the means become a self-serving machine, perpetuating its existence and holding the end as a distant mirage or at times erasing it completely from everyone's mind. Is there a purpose to life? I am glad I do not know of one even if it exists and that means I haven't figured out the means and so I am going to be just fine.

Simon says-I am perfect, the world isn't

'He is really intelligent. If he tried, he would have got it' or 'Well, I know how to do it, I know what to do, I would have done it if I wanted to, but I don't want to because it is too silly'- I have heard these comments so often that the next person who says it better have lightning quick reflexes to save their health, from me. I have heard it so often that when people say this, I don't hear these words any more, instead what I get is 'I am an under achiever, I was all potential and talent, but I wasted it and never really got anywhere with the opportunities I got and I am upset that others used the opportunity and are doing better than me'.

I too have used that lame excuse to convince myself I was doing fine, a long time ago in my school days when I refused to study Biology. But then I realised I was merely being pathetic and envious and dropped the defensive approach. Let them be and this has helped because I do not feel envy or the urge to defend my choices and make the comment that must not be made, what this means is that I know what I am doing and why I am doing it.

I hear a lot of people say 'If I get a chance, I will leave India and go to Singapore'. Let me see, middle class India which numbers more than a 150million atleast wants to go to law abiding Singapore that has currently 3.8 million citizens and 1.2 million expats. Perhaps everything that is wrong with India is in its geography and not in the consumerism, perpetual last minute rush, apathy, callousness, general contempt for rules that seems all pervading. To have the right to complain, we must have done something on our own to rise above the petty contempt with which we view ourselves and if we are to be respected, we must first change ourselves and then respect ourselves for that.

(Singapore is whole of 710sq.km and India is 3.2million sq.km and even if we give power to the states, I for one cannot figure what to do about districts like Kurnool and Anantapur with population of almost 4million and spread over an aread of 19000sq.km and )

We complain about potholes on the road and lack of pedestrian space, but how many of us actually walk on the right side of the road  or wait for the signal to cross the road or resist the urge to spit casually in the open? How many of us know to drive properly and take a right turn without violating atleast a dozen rules? A 10min drive will let us see hundreds of people chatting away on the mobile phones, on bikes, cars and pedestrians too texting and on a call or on their mp3 players oblivious to the traffic around them.

Whenever I say I am planning to join the civil service, the reply that everyone comes up with is 'Don't you know what happened to Raju Narayanaswamy?' Yes, but I also know about these

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?277990

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article3269591.ece
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20120504290808800.htm

and if good civil servants are something difficult to digest, then give me examples of their greed and corruption.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-05-28/india/29594799_1_steel-mill-lockers-raipur
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/enforcement-directorate-ias-couple-madhya-pradesh/1/158422.html

We stick to stereotypes, view what is ours and what we are and what made us with contempt and blame it on others and our environment whereas we are squeaky clean. How do we make things better? In this situation, the answer is very simple but we will never get round to doing it since it involves taking action and we are all only enthusiastic about lectures and inspirational words, but never in putting into action Mahatma Gandhi's words 'Be the change you want to see in the world'.

Powerful Matters

There has been immense debate raging over nuclear power plants in the world over the last few years with fears over their safety having intensified after the Fukushima-Da Ichi plant disaster in March of 2011 and large sections of activists, general population and nuclear sceptics protesting to close down existing plants and to shelve plans to construct more of them.

The usual arguments against nuclear power plants are-
1) Safety- The reactor that spewed radio activity in Japan was constructed in the 60s and most of us were not even born yet. The latest model reactors have modern safety features and in India, these are in comparatively seismically safe zones  and have adequate safety features to prevent a Fukushima type failure of back-up coolant pumping mechanism (a)
2)Spend fuel- Usually, spend fuel requires to be stored in isolated areas and the practice has been to store them underground in specially constructed bunkers or caves. India has adopted a closed nuclear fuel cycle which creates 50times more energy (b)  (c) than all other systems and reuses large amounts of the spend fuel.
3)Lack of precautionary drills and awareness among people in the surrounding area and threat to environment- this is the only reasonable argument that I have heard from among the heap of protests that is holding back nuclear energy in India.

It is not a matter of doubt that we face sever power crisis in our country and our growth (whether this growth benefits only the rich and powerful who then pacify the middle class and the intention of signing contracts with pernicious clauses is altogether another issue) is directly dependent on availability of power. Every sphere of human activity is now dependent on power and its shortage severely restricts our individual capabilities. Nuclear energy is considered the best option to meet this requirement but uninformed protestors and a lot of 'environmentalists' or 'green citizens' recommend renewable energy sources like wind, solar, tidal energy and biomass(will we be asked to switch to firewood soon since it is also biomass?). I would like to point out a few misconceptions with respect to these renewable energy sources.

Wind Energy- this is highly location specific and require large patches of land and in a country that has a population density of over 400 people a square kilometer, a model pioneered by scarcely populated Scandinavian countries is little more than a misfit. Even then, let us assume we find enough land, there is an issue called capacity factor (d). I regularly see articles that talk about the installed capacity of wind energy in India but how much of their capacity can be utilised? Capacity factor for wind mills is just 20-40% and that is when all conditions are favourable. From my personal experience of having done a project on renewable energy and spend considerable time studying actual systems, what we get is less than 10% in most areas (e). What this means is that if a wind farm has a capacity of 100MW, it can at best produce 10MW.


Solar- It is as obvious as daylight that sun does not shine for 24 hours a day and the best capacity factor for solar photovoltaic (SPV) cells is at 19% (f) . In short, both solar and wind mills cannot be relied for consistent power outputs (anyone who has studied renewable energy basics should know this) and we cannot wait for the wind to blow or sunny days to complete our tasks. There is also the misconception that placing huge solar panel arrays in the Thar desert will easily solve all our issues. Only those with no clear understanding of the workings of SPV technology will say so- dust, high temperature fluctuations and corrosion will reduce efficiency over time and destroy the SPV array before costs can be recovered (again from my personal experience, just normal dust from the landscape will cause huge fall in power output).

(There is a scope to question the capacity factor of nuclear plants and other sources of energy. The capacity factor for nuclear energy is infact 90% (g) and for thermal plants it is more than 60% (h) which is far better than that of renewable energy)
 
Tidal Energy- highly location specific and installed capacity is just around 500MW all around the world. This can be developed to meet power requirements of coastal areas.

In placing our nation's development in such a technology, we need to exercise extreme caution and this means we have to ensure adequate fuel supply for these plants, we need to ensure the safety of the people in the vicinity, take them into confidence and make them part of this endeavour since their livelihoods might be at risk from the normal operation of the plant (water being used up and hot water being released back) and are also at immediate risk from any accidents. The survival and livelihoods of the people must never face any threats and there should be detailed procedures, mock drills, awareness programs to prepare for worst case scenarios and minor accidents along with adequate steps to protect the environment.

Nuclear energy is one of the paths we must traverse to attain carbon free energy production and this is the only source of stable, uninterrupted, large scale power we have before us right now and the so called alternatives do not meet our needs- neither in terms of actual production or reliability. There are technical issues with all sources of power, but when a luminary like Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam whose credentials need no mention here supports nuclear power, we must not simply dismiss it lightly.

The future for solar and wind energy will mostly lie in localised production with houses having their own mini power plants with SPV cells or wind mills or both to meet part of their domestic demand thereby reducing the load on centralised production. Centralised power produced through nuclear plants and other existing plants shall become the source of power for heavy usage including industry, large and commercial buildings and railway transport. The politics and business of power plants have always been an issue in India with previous experiences with Enron having turned sour and developed powers trying to use 3rd world nations as the hunting ground for new markets. It should be the safety of the people and their welfare that must guide such a project and the solution to meeting our energy demand through clean, reliable fuels lie in ensuring these are implemented by keeping at heart the interests of the people and not be scuttled the misplaced fears of the a few or in the selfish interests of  monopolies while depriving the downtrodden in this nation.

Nehru's Socialism and New India

Every economics, modern history book and article I read on India has a reference to Nehruvian socialism and its evils and the 'Hindu rate of growth'. I do not agree that Nehruvian socialism and protectionism was bad and has only harmed India and I do not really understand the truth behind the phrase because for 18 centuries India was the leading economy of the world and it was largely made of Hindus (Period of Guptas was called the Golden age of India). I am not trying to glorify a religion or spew forth propaganda but merely pointing at how short our memory is and how misnomers are the norm. One could say that Mughal period was one of Indian renaissance, I would hardly call it that because all the structures mughals built were palaces and graves for themselves like absolute rulers still do and they encouraged arts and crafts for their own pleasure(a) and mughal empire was city-centric with very little connection to the people with the king being a distant reality as his connection with most of the people was merely collecting revenues.


I would like to point out the benefits of socialism that was established by Nehru by looking at the reasons for India's recent growth-
1) Large number of educated individuals- this was the result of the strong base for education that was set-up which resulted in increase in literacy and also created a large number of professionals
2) Indian enterprises- Although protectionism did fuel corruption, inefficiency and easy going attitude it did allow the nation to create some wealth in public sector and also a few in the private sector. Although the ones in private sector had a tough struggle, Infosys, Patni, TCS etc were founded in the pre- reform India.

 We are also a secular democracy which has reasonable stability when compared with almost all other nations that were freed from colonial rule and a perfunctory glance across the border would suffice to convince even the biggest cynics of India that we have been lucky and that is due to-
1) Secular Democracy- We are not a struggling democracy (atleast we established democracy and now are attempting to root out old malaises) or an autocratic nation. In spite of issues, we do have an elected government
2) Judiciary- Our judiciary has been the protector of our rights even when government has been trying its utmost to curtail them and has delivered landmark verdicts on tax laws to property disputes

We are not a banana republic or an autocracy or anti-secular nation simply because we chose to protect and cement the ideals on which our country was founded and close the nation so that these foundations will not be washed away by the tides created by cold war and other conflicts that was raging the world over, before they can solidify. If we had left our nation open for foreign investments immediately, we would have seen a continuation of economic exploitation and slavery that was the hallmark of colonial rule.

There has to be questions asked of modern rate of growth too as we find that 47% of households do not have toilets and 30% of the population that numbers 36crore people are defined as poor under a ridiculous poverty line. We have an enormous middle class that are patronised by the current spurt of growth who have a stake in maintaining the status quo(a number greater than the population of US), we have a large number of poor who are used for human labour- statements like labourers are not available in construction industry and their wages have gone up due to MGNREGA clearly show this exploitive attitude since MGNREGA doesn't even provide minimum wages in most places- and a small section of rich and powerful who decide what happens in this country.

Whether or not situation has improved is a pertinent question and so this must be answered before derogatory use of 'Nehruvian' socialism and 'Hindu rate of growth' since such remarks forget the fact that our current growth is making the rich richer and has made a middle class that buffer the rich from the poor and is making the poor poorer. This growth is benefiting some section of society and hence cannot be considered to be in the interest of the nation and rather than focussing on numbers alone, we must find a balance between greater aspirations of the rich and middle class and the survival needs of the poor. We might have something fruitful to learn from old ridiculed policies, not their entire implementations but some of its intentions and ideals.

Nehruvian socialism should have been seen as the means to get to a stable position, a time during which India consolidated its position on a strong foundation, strengthened our nation's unity and shored up our defences but it became the absolute end and saw it as our duty and purpose to establish a socialist paternal state driving even the thought of what should have been the real goals out of the picture.


(a) - Public Administration in India, S.R.Maheshwari, Ch.2, The Mughal Administration