It really saddens me with the news like this from India. It is still amazing.. Such a great nation with such a great progress in recent decades and here we are.. as if living in stone age. Come on.. enough is enough.. we have to fix this infrastructure issue. In particular, power, water, sanitation and road. Roads have improved a lot.. but Power and Water is still big time issue. There is no excuse of some states doing better and some states worse.. The state from which I come from.. UP (Uttar Pradesh) is one of most populous state of India I think even after splitting it. Power situation is so bad.. for whatever reasons.. though mostly political, corruption and total mis-management.. Despite the fact that this state has lot more power generation capacity.. but this state's utilities (mostly Government Organization) simply doesn't have capability to buy power from these Power Producers as they simply can't recover money from customers. It is that simple to the core of it..
Despite significant progress in so many areas of IT/Shopping/Cars/Transportation/etc.. basic infrastructure is still missing.. Why can't government simply fix it.. One simple reason I can think off is these so called social programs.. I don't know if we still have those so called "Garebi Hatao" programs... they didn't remove any poverty.. they simply made politicians and bureaucrats stinking rich.. I think, now the campaign from middle class should be to educate and make these poor people aware of simple facts that there is no free money and these kind of programs are not going to benefit them. They will simply keep them poor.. Instead of this, government should channel all the money into infrastructure like power, water, roads.. and leave rest of the areas to private sector.. This will automatically fix problems and hopefully progress will percolate to these poor people.. Or even, let these infrastructure projects should be taken care by private sector.. simply put, public sector can only breed corruption..
Another very important change which India needs is in their bureaucratic system.. They simply need to abolish this Civil Services organization.. It was designed to serve Britishers to rule easily.. its purpose was served when we got independence.. It should have been abolished at that time.. but better late than never.. I know.. it is easier to write and scream about it.. but difficult to change.. However, I am sure with power of internet, it can be done.. I am hopeful that it will be done sooner or later.. without that, India will remain in shackles of these politicians and Civil Servants.. There has to be accountability at each level.. Why we need District Magistrate, who is coming from outside to manage district's (or County's) affairs.. Why can't we have District/County supervisors who are elected by the people.. once there are multiple democratically elected positions, it should hopefully make politics as career of choice for many more young people. Obviously, we need restrictions on number of terms any particular position can be held by any individual..
I think I digressed from my main topic of Infrastructure to political systems.. But in reality they are both very closely linked.. it will be difficult to have any real progress without fixing both of them..
Despite significant progress in so many areas of IT/Shopping/Cars/Transportation/etc.. basic infrastructure is still missing.. Why can't government simply fix it.. One simple reason I can think off is these so called social programs.. I don't know if we still have those so called "Garebi Hatao" programs... they didn't remove any poverty.. they simply made politicians and bureaucrats stinking rich.. I think, now the campaign from middle class should be to educate and make these poor people aware of simple facts that there is no free money and these kind of programs are not going to benefit them. They will simply keep them poor.. Instead of this, government should channel all the money into infrastructure like power, water, roads.. and leave rest of the areas to private sector.. This will automatically fix problems and hopefully progress will percolate to these poor people.. Or even, let these infrastructure projects should be taken care by private sector.. simply put, public sector can only breed corruption..
Another very important change which India needs is in their bureaucratic system.. They simply need to abolish this Civil Services organization.. It was designed to serve Britishers to rule easily.. its purpose was served when we got independence.. It should have been abolished at that time.. but better late than never.. I know.. it is easier to write and scream about it.. but difficult to change.. However, I am sure with power of internet, it can be done.. I am hopeful that it will be done sooner or later.. without that, India will remain in shackles of these politicians and Civil Servants.. There has to be accountability at each level.. Why we need District Magistrate, who is coming from outside to manage district's (or County's) affairs.. Why can't we have District/County supervisors who are elected by the people.. once there are multiple democratically elected positions, it should hopefully make politics as career of choice for many more young people. Obviously, we need restrictions on number of terms any particular position can be held by any individual..
I think I digressed from my main topic of Infrastructure to political systems.. But in reality they are both very closely linked.. it will be difficult to have any real progress without fixing both of them..
Power supply restored in 70 % parts of north India
New Delhi, July 31, 2012, (PTI) :
Electricity supply has been restored in close to three-fourth of the areas in the northern region, including the national capital, that were severely impacted by power outages since today afternoon.
Seventy per cent or 24,300 MW of power has been restored in the northern region, including Delhi, till 1930 hours, Power Grid said in a statement.
In Delhi, 100 per cent or 4,100 MW, has resumed.
State-run Power Grid, which manages grids across the country, said that "supply to (Delhi) Metro and Railway traction (was) restored at 1530 hours".
Power Grid said full electricity supply has been restored in the North East.
In the Eastern region, 50 per cent supply has been restored till 2030 hours.
Triggering a major power crisis, the three major grids -- Northern, Eastern and North Eastern -- failed at 1300 hours.
Even though the exact reason is yet to be ascertained, officials said that problems started in the Eastern Grid and there could also have been over drawals by some states.
Seventy per cent or 24,300 MW of power has been restored in the northern region, including Delhi, till 1930 hours, Power Grid said in a statement.In Delhi, 100 per cent or 4,100 MW, has resumed.
State-run Power Grid, which manages grids across the country, said that "supply to (Delhi) Metro and Railway traction (was) restored at 1530 hours".
Power Grid said full electricity supply has been restored in the North East.
In the Eastern region, 50 per cent supply has been restored till 2030 hours.
Triggering a major power crisis, the three major grids -- Northern, Eastern and North Eastern -- failed at 1300 hours.
Even though the exact reason is yet to be ascertained, officials said that problems started in the Eastern Grid and there could also have been over drawals by some states.
1 comment:
We don't want these type of news as headline in Wall Street Journal:
India Blackout Hits More Than 680 Million
NEW DELHI—Much of India's electricity supply network collapsed Tuesday in the country's second major outage in two days, affecting more than 680 million people—double the population of the U.S.—and causing business losses estimated to run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Thousands of offices and factories had to switch to generators or close shop, more than 200 trains were brought to a standstill while hospitals had to ask nurses to manually work critical equipment such as ventilators as 21 provinces experienced a near-total blackout that raised questions about the infrastructure in Asia's third-largest economy.
Metro rail services in the national capital of New Delhi and its suburbs were halted for several hours as well, a spokesman for the Delhi Metro Rail Corp. said. At Delhi's international airport, diesel generators kicked in automatically to ensure operations were not interrupted.
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