Very innovative use of idle resources to combat Coronavirus Pandemic

I was pleasantly surprised and happy to read this news. in given scenario.. Indian Railways is massive transportation system in India, considering it transports more than 10 million+ passengers every day. There must be tens of thousands train coaches with sleeper beds and electricity with battery backup. Each can be converted into mobile hospital to isolate and if needed transport Corona patients from remote/rural places to hospitals with capacity to care for them. In worse, case, idle railway stations themselves can become medical facilities.
Bigger question is, where will be the medical equipment like ventilators etc will come from to equip these coaches. Nevertheless, these train coaches can be used to provide mobility and transfer of patients much more safely to better medical facilities.

On other note, it was so disheartening to read about millions of labor moving out of cities to their homes.Some better fortunate got hold of trucks etc to be go back.
 https://in.reuters.com/video/2020/03/28/migrant-workers-leave-cities-on-trucks-i?videoId=704304893&videoChannel=101

Many were not so lucky and are still stranded on roads without enough water and food. So far, we have only heard about one death of such labourer, who died walking back to his village (270 Km / 170 Miles) from Delhi.
This aspect wasn't well thought out before issuing 21 days lock down order. It had started happening before lock down order itself, and administration / government should have thought about logistics on this. In a way, we are making this problem even worse by sending and spreading this disease to vast rural areas of India, where once this is spread, it will be difficult to contain and provide help. We really can't blame anyone, as there wasn't any precedent for any such thing before. However, still, we should try to set up some kind of camp or shelter for these daily wage workers in cities where they were and provide them food and other basic necessities.

Here is the news copied, in case, Reuters link changes/stops working:

India to use some train coaches as coronavirus isolation wards

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - India said on Saturday it was planning to turn some railway coaches into isolation wards for patients with coronavirus, as authorities scramble to prepare the country’s health infrastructure for an expected surge in cases.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the country’s 1.3 billion people this week to stay indoors for three weeks in the world’s biggest lockdown, seeking to curb the spread of the illness. India’s network of trains, the country’s lifeblood, has been idled.

One train coach has been turned into a prototype quarantine facility, state-owned Indian Railways said in a statement on Saturday.

Once they get clearance, the plan is for each of India’s railway zones to convert 10 coaches into such wards every week, the company added. Indian Railways has 16 zones, according to its website.

“Railways will offer clean, sanitised & hygienic surroundings for the patients to comfortably recover,” tweeted railways minister Piyush Goyal. He did not specify how many people could be cared for in each coach.

India has reported 918 confirmed cases, including 19 deaths.

The lockdown measures are taking a huge toll on India’s poor, including millions of migrant labourers whose jobs in cities have vanished. Many are now walking back to their villages or crowded bus stations in the hopes of finding rare transport, raising fears they will unintentionally spread the virus across India.

On Saturday, a migrant worker, who set out from New Delhi on a 270 kilometres (168 miles) walk to his hometown in Madhya Pradesh, collapsed and died, a police official said. 

India’s home ministry said in a statement on Saturday it was advising states to provide food and shelter to migrants at relief camps alongside highways.

This is very slippery slope..

Honestly, I feel sorry and ashamed about this decision.. I am sure there will be thousands of good reason or so called humane reasons for this decision. But this is simple and pure theft. What is wrong is wrong.. no good humane reasons can justify it..

If I had any capacity to do so.. I would have retaliated by quick and fast penalty on all the companies who will be benefitting from this total cheating and theft of intellectual capital. If you care so much about life then you will bloody figure out ways to pay for it.. rather than simply stealing from someone else's hard work.

I would totally support US governments imposition of penalty on all the exports from such countries who don't respect the very basic foundational laws which create better life and hence better world for everyone..

India rejects Novartis patent

Drugmakers find upgrading medicines problematic in many emerging markets

By Linda A. Johnson

Associated Press

The India Supreme Court’s rejection of a patent for an improved version of a costly cancer drug by Novartis could have big implications for the world’s largest drugmakers. The ruling, which was handed down on Monday, signals the latest shift in the world of drug development in emerging markets such as India and Brazil, where drugmakers have been looking for growth. Western governments routinely grant patents for slightly improved versions of medicines whose patents are about to expire. That enables drugmakers to get many patients to upgrade to their new, generally more expensive versions rather than the cheaper, generic knockoffs even though some doctors and patients argue that the improvements don’t justify the high cost.

But India, Indonesia and some other developing countries have been bucking that trend. They’ve been shooting down Western patents and licensing local pharmaceutical companies to make cheap generic versions of medicines that most of their residents otherwise could not afford.

Major drugmakers such as Pfizer and Bayer on Monday declined to say what they might do regarding the ruling and other recent decisions by poor countries to let local drugmakers sell cheap generic versions for medicines that have monopolies under patents in Western countries. But some industry insiders — including a Novartis executive — predict that multinational drugmakers will decide against doing drug development in India.

“Novartis will not invest in drug research in India. Not only Novartis, I don’t think any global company is planning to research in India,” Ranjit Shahani, the vice chairman and managing director of Novartis India, said after the ruling.

Erik Gordon, a professor and analyst at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, agrees. He said the ruling means that there’s “no reason to do research and development in India” because of its “national policy of hostility toward medicine patents.”

One thing is clear, though: Emerging markets are not the gold mine that optimistic pharmaceutical executives have been making them out to be.

India’s move casts significant doubt on the companies’ predictions that within a few years, emerging markets will generate one-quarter or even onethird of their global revenue. They’ve been counting on governments and a rising middle class in emerging markets to spend more on their brand-name medicines rather than the locally made drugs that are more likely to be counterfeit.

“Less patent protection in huge, developing markets means less revenue, and growth stories that are going to look like fantasies,” Gordon said.

Recently, India has overturned patents for several cancer drugs, including Bayer’s Nexavar, AstraZeneca’s Iressa, Pfizer’s Sutent and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Sprycel, according to Mark Grayson, spokesman for the big drugmakers’ trade group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

“Certainly companies will take this into account in deciding ... whether India’s a good market,” he said.

This highlights problem with India.. Social Media is just scapegoat

I think this clearly shows that India need to work more on it's infrastructure and education and awareness.. It is easy to blame on something like Facebook, Twitter or Google.. These are superb tools and like everything can be used or mis-used. We know for sure that all these tools have been greatly used in Arab-spring. There most of the population really used it for their advantage.

Now here in India, we are seeing reverse. These graphics and messages floating are creating reverse impact.. they are meant to be creating hatred and anger among different sects of the population. However, these are just inert messages or images.. Interpretation of these messages and images is up to human brain. How they interpret depends upon the environment, education, social values and trust system among fellow human and rest of the system. If the trust level is so low, then any image or message can inflame any kind of riot.. it doesn't need these social media sites.. it is not that these kind of things didn't happened earlier.. people used paper or print media to do that in past.. did we stop using paper or print media?

This is totally ridiculous.. Government or rather than that, population of India needs to first introspect and find out root cause of these kind of things. Root cause is lack of education, lack of trust on government or police for that matter.. off course rampant corruption at all levels tops it up... Going after these social media sites is simple distraction from core fundamental issue..


Social sites squeezed in India

Leaders pressure Web companies to restrict hate speech

By Vikas Bajaj

New York Times

MUMBAI, India — The Indian government’s efforts to stem a weeklong panic among some ethnic minorities has again put it at odds with Internet companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter.

Officials in New Delhi, who have had disagreements with the companies over restrictions on free speech, say the sites are not responding quickly enough to their requests to delete and trace the origins of doctored photos and incendiary posts aimed at people from northeastern India. After receiving threats online and on their phones, tens of thousands of students and migrants from the northeast have left cities like Bangalore, Pune and Chennai in the last week.

The government has blocked 245 Web pages since Friday, but still many sites are said to contain fabricated images of violence against Muslims in the northeast and in neighboring Myanmar meant to incite Muslims in cities such as Bangalore and Mumbai to attack people from the northeast. India also restricted cellphone users to five text messages a day each for 15 days in an effort to limit the spread of rumors.

Officials from Google and industry associations said they were cooperating fully with the authorities. Some industry executives and analysts added that some requests had not been heeded because they were overly broad or violated internal policies and the rights of users.

The government, used to exerting significant control over media like newspapers, films and television, has in recent months been frustrated in its effort to extend similar and greater regulations to websites, most of which are based in the United States. Late last year, an Indian minister tried to get social media sites to prescreen content created by their users before it was posted. The companies refused and the attempt failed under withering public criticism.

While just 100 million of India’s 1.2 billion people use the Internet regularly, the numbers are growing fast among people younger than 25, who make up about half the country’s population.

Sunil Abraham, an analyst who has closely followed India’s battles with Internet companies, said last week’s effort to tackle hate speech was justified but poorly managed. He said the first directive from the government was impractically broad, asking all Internet “intermediaries” — a category that includes small cybercafes, Internet service providers and companies like Google and Facebook — to disable all content that was “inflammatory, hateful and inciting violence.”

Ministers have blamed groups in Pakistan, a neighbor with which India has tense relations, for creating and uploading many of the hateful pages and doctored images.

Infrastructure of India Inc.

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..

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.

Another US jobs safe heaven going down?

I thought that this was happening long time back. I don't think this is new. However, interesting thing is how they are blaming new Obama care for acceleration in this area.. Apparently, as per new law insurers have to limit administrative costs below certain percentage of overall healthcare costs. Which makes sense.. but there is administrative work.. somehow it has to be done.. there is no magic into it.. unless you think outsourcing it to cheaper places.

I was thinking that this are was pretty much safe for US due to data privacy laws, but I am sure these guys must have figured out way to keep patient data safe some how ;-) For that matter, that data isn't that safe even in US. Actually, it could be more safer as they implement these outsourcing processes..

As long as I keep on getting better and cheaper care I don't mind whom I am talking to or who is giving me that care. Let the Capitalism take care of it. It is another lesson for US, to pour in more money into science and maths education and making college education more cheaper and affordable. Somehow, the scare against science and maths needs to go away from kids.. Despite one of the best education system, kids are not able to take advantage of it and many kids still drop out after high school to pick up basic service jobs. Currently there are plenty of jobs and it seems that for a young person they can make good enough money for that person to survive. However, these type of basic admin and service jobs will continue to get reduced.. Young kids and generation has to move into better high intellectual jobs. They better understand now vs.. when it will be too late..

Whatever, they are talking about getting manufacturing jobs back in US is just minor aberration at the best.. First of all, they are very few.. second, they are coming back only when there is no unions or essentially salaries are really very low as compared to what used to be. Capitalism will find its way to save money and generate more efficiencies and productivities. It is up to you how you benefit out of this capitalist system..


Big shift in health care jobs overseas

Many companies outsourcing work to Philippines, India

By Don Lee

Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — After years of shipping data-processing, accounting and other back-office work abroad, some health care companies are starting to shift clinical services and decision-making on medical care overseas, primarily to India and the Philippines. Some of the jobs being sent abroad include so-called pre-service nursing, where nurses at insurance firms, for example, help assess patient needs and determine treatment methods.

Outsourcing such tasks goes beyond earlier steps by health care firms to farm out reading of X-rays and other diagnostic tests to health professionals overseas. Those previous efforts were often done out of necessity, to meet overnight demands, for instance.

But the latest outsourcing, which have contributed to the loss of hundreds of domestic health jobs, is done for financial reasons. And the outsourcing of nursing functions, in particular, may be the most novel — and possibly the most risky — of the jobs being shifted. At the forefront of the trend is WellPoint, one of the nation’s largest health insurers and owner of Anthem Blue Cross, California’s biggest for-profit medical insurer.

In 2010, WellPoint formed a separate business unit, Radiant Services, aimed at advancing outsourcing and other cost-saving strategies. WellPoint has eliminated hundreds of jobs in the U.S. over the past 18 months as it has moved jobs overseas, a company spokeswoman acknowledged.

The spokeswoman, Kristin Binns, said WellPoint’s shifting of clinical jobs overseas was a small part of the outsourcing and being done through Radiant because it has the technical expertise and can ensure compliancewith laws. Nursing organizations, however, were cautious. “It’s obviously a very disturbing trend,” said Chuck Idelson, a spokesman for the California Nurses Association. “There are serious questions if you’re talking about utilization reviews ... and making recommendations on procedures.” Nursing experts said there also may be licensing issues as states generally require certification for those practicing and dispensing health information. 

Current and former Radiant executives declined to comment or weren’t available. It’s not clear how many other U.S. health care firms have contracted with Radiant or other outsourcing specialists, but industry experts said companies were increasingly looking at more health care tasks that could be outsourced globally as they face greater cost pressures and sweeping changes in how they do business. Aetna has an arrangement with EXL Service, a U.S.-based company with operations in Manila, to provide “targeted caremanagement support,” spokeswoman Cynthia Michener said. Health Net, which is laying off dozens of information technology and accounting workers whose jobs are being sent to India, said its outsourcing has generally been confined to administrative and IT functions. UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, didn’t respond to inquiries. Outsourcing jobs out of the country has become a hot issue in the presidential campaign: President Obama is pounding Republican challenger Mitt Romney for his private equity firm’s involvement with companies that sent jobs abroad. Although such outsourcing has been going on for years, American manufacturers in recent years have brought some jobs back to the U.S. as labor costs have risen in China and elsewhere. 

Some experts argued that sending jobs abroad could help U.S. companies by enabling them to tap global talent and efficiencies, making them more profitable. When U.S. companies are stronger, the thinking goes, it creates more opportunities for American workers. Also, shifting operations to lower-wage countries can help consumers by holding down prices. 

Labor costs 

Outsourcing jobs to places such as the Philippines can save U.S. health care firms 30 percent in labor costs, according to experts. But the practice remains controversial, especially with the U.S. unemployment rate hovering above 8 percent. Patient advocates worry about crucial decisions involving a patient’s care being in the hands of foreign insurance adjusters. Analysts said there was another concern as well: patient privacy. Even something as straightforward as medical transcription can raise questions, said Uwe Reinhardt, a health care economist at Princeton University. Over the last year, Iowa Health System and hospitals in Utah and Washington state have joined other medical centers that have outsourced the transcribing of doctors’ notes and other records. 

“Suppose I’m an AIDS patient,” Reinhardt said. “That person in India would know — and ‘the information’ could be valuable to someone. ... For the U.S., there’s nothing more personal than health care.” Dr. Kaveh Safavi, head of the North American health practice for Accenture, a major consulting and outsourcing firm that has partnered with Well-Point’s Radiant, said nearly all countries have laws for protecting patient privacy. 

And to safeguard patients’ records, he said, health care companies store and maintain their records locally. 

As for outsourcing services that are more clinical in nature, he said, “People are looking at all the tasks that can safely and responsibly be moved. It’s still an emerging market. We’re still trying to understand the market’s tolerance for it.” 

In general, hospitals are moving more slowly than health insurers to send jobs overseas. But with financial pressures intensifying and the uptake of electronic record- keeping accelerating, analysts and industry people see more consolidation and outsourcing ahead. 

Virtual call center 

“Whenyouhavepeople’s medical, billing and other records kept electronically, then it opens it up to establishing a call center virtually anywhere,” said Steve Trossman, a Los Angeles spokesman for the Service Employees International Union, which represents hospital workers. “There is no longer a reason for it to be physically in the same place as the paper records.” 

Moreover, the health care reform law could prod insurers to move more jobs to cheaper-wage countries. The new law requires companies to spend 80 percent to 85 percent of premiums on medical care, limiting the amount available for administrative expenses. 

Few have been as aggressive as WellPoint, which made a profit of $2.65 billion last year on revenue of $60.7 billion. WellPoint’s total employment at the end of last year was 37,700, down from 40,500 two years earlier. 

In one of its recent efforts, WellPoint laid off pre-service nurses in Colorado and Nevada so the work could be done in Manila, according to a Labor Department filing by a WellPoint human resource manager in Denver. Well-Point spokeswoman Binns said none of the decisions that involve denial of procedures or treatment for patients are made overseas. 

Overall, Binns said, fewer than 2.5 percent of the 37,000 employees, or at most 925 workers, had lost jobs in the last 18 months as a result of work sent overseas. Only about 50 of those positions involved clinical management of care, she said. 

WellPoint’s “sourcing strategies have enabled us to make our services more effective, accessible and affordable to our customers, while allowing us to expand our programs and maintain our service levels,” she said. 

Shannon Cunningham of Columbus, Ohio, who processed medical claims for WellPoint, was laid off last month after a colleague went to the Philippines to train people to do her job. 

Cunningham, 43, said she received eight weeks of severance pay. She and others working in medical claims earned $30,000 to $40,000 a year with health benefits, she said. 

“I know other countries need work,” said Cunningham, a company employee for three years. But “I just felt like it wasn’t fair. We’re having a rough time too.” 




MICHAEL J. DOOLITTLE/BLOOMBERG NEWS 

Health insurer Aetna has a deal with EXL Service, a U.S.-based company with operations in Manila, to provide “targeted care-management support.” 

Assembly Elections in India - Great sign of maturing of democracy

All the results are amazing from any angle you look at them. Most important is the decline of Nehru/Gandhi dynasty effect. I only hope it is permanent and will wake up Congress party and will force them to look for better and dynamic leaders instead of just looking at the Nehru/Gandhi dynasty to lead them forever. It is time now to get rid of them. I guess, one more similar election results and they should be out forever. 

Second biggest surprise was the results this time were more or less independent of Religion/Cast System. Electorate focussed on broader issues of economic development rather than these petty issues like religion and cast.  Imagine BJP getting support of Christians in Goa and Mayawati NOT getting support of Dalits!! and many more cases like this.. I hope young Mr. Yadav will do some magic and try to fix UP. There are lot of hopes and hypes around him. I hope he will deliver them and bring UP from bottom best list of the states in the country.

I hope this progress continues and democracy keeps evolving. I hope this will result in the way big parties work and are controlled by few old dynastic leaders. I hope that there will be real democracy instilled in the parties as well. In my view, this is most important aspect of democracy. Once big and regional parties are forced to be democratic internally it will result in much better performance and pipeline of leaders. Hence resulting better choice of leaders in final assembly/parliament elections. 

Good to see great news like this!! I hope to hear more of them. 

This reminds me of India - Popularity of raw milk rises despite warnings

Come on guys.. India has such a thriving 1.2 Billion Plus populations.. I am sure that more than 70%  must be still drinking unpasteurized milk. Though they boil it themselves to pasteurize it but still majority population gets it unpasteurized condition and see.. we have such a great population growth.. ohhhh.. now I know reason for India's great population growth.. it is unpasteurized milk!!! and see.. people in Cites/Metros get pasteurized milk and population growth is so less ;-)

Generally, I am big proponent of choice.. all the citizens should have choice to choose their destiny. Food choice is among them.. It is up to citizens to choose what food they want to eat and how they eat.. as long as their medical insurance covers it.. I am if health insurance starts putting these clauses, people can make their own choice based on risks Vs rewards and matter will be resolved. You give freedom and at the same time take out some risk coverage based on those freedom.. You see.. nothing comes free.. not even freedom ;-)

But hey.. Government is also choice of people.. isn't it?? So if we want this to be major election issue.. let us make "Raw Party" and who so ever wants raw food as their legal choice, should vote for it..

Enough said.. here is the link and story from our mercury news on this..

http://www.mercurynews.com/health/ci_19890338

Popularity of raw milk rises despite warnings

Unp a s t e u r i z e d m i l k linked to East Coast illness outbreak

By Mary Clare Jalonick

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — An outbreak of bacterial infections on the East Coast illustrates the popularity of raw, unpasteurized milk despite strong warnings from public health officials about the potential danger. Even presidential candidate Ron Paul has joined the cause of consumers looking to buy unprocessed “real foods” straight from the farm, saying government shouldn’t deny them that choice. An outbreak of campylobacter illness is a reminder of the potential hazards, however. Raw milk from a dairy in Pennsylvania is now linked to 38 cases in four states, and the farm has temporarily suspended sales. Campylobacter can cause diarrhea, cramping, abdominal pain, and fever and can be life-threatening if it spreads to the bloodstream.
Consumers who want unpasteurized milk have to work to find it. It’s against federal law to transport it across state lines, and most states don’t allow it to be sold in stores off the farm. Twenty states prohibit raw milk sales altogether.

The government says the milk is unsafe because of the pathogens cows may encounter on the farm.

A wide variety of pathogens besides campylobacter, can be found in raw milk — including salmonella, listeria, E. coli and others — and those sickened could suffer from stroke, kidney failure, paralysis or death, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency points out that raw milk killed many people — especially young children — before the onset of pasteurization, which kills disease-causing germs by heating milk to high temperatures for a specific period of time.

The CDC says pasteurized milk is rich in proteins, carbohydrates and other nutrients, and that heat only slightly decreases thiamine, vitamin B12, and vitamin C.

While the government contends that milk is a minor source of those nutrients, raw milk advocates say that’s proof that pasteurization makes milk less wholesome and pure.

The government doesn’t keep records of raw milk consumption or sales, but it’s clear that the product is popularized by a larger food movement that encourages less processing and more “real food.” Raw milk goes a step further than organic milk free of added growth hormones. Organic milk, too, has enjoyed a sales boost in recent years.

Advocates say far more illnesses are caused each year by leafy greens, deli meats and other products produced in much larger quantities than raw milk.

“To outlaw or ban any natural food because it could possibly make you sick is an extreme position, because there is no safe food,” Hartke said.

Great to see news like these - India winning its battle with polio

Great job India!! especially Doctors working for public health..

Based on accounts by both my Sister and Brother-in-law who works for UP Government Public Health Org (don't remember the official name of the agency), their hard work and persistent efforts are finally paying off... I still remember that they used to go to remote villages to find and get kids vaccinated.. many times during weekend and once even on one of the major festival..

It will be shame that even in Twenty First Century we keep getting these kind of deseases.. despite all of our progress in other areas, if we can't secure future of our kids, it would be shame..

But here we are and hopefully we won't be hearing any more bad news on this issue... I am sure there may be many more small but critical issues like this (Malaria/Dengue etc..) which needs to be eradicated from the face of earth or at least India to begin with.. but for now we do need to celebrate this event and hope that it won't lapse..

Cheers!!!!

Here is full news clip from our local Mercury News:

India winning its battle with polio

Full year has passed since last new case, but the risk remains

By Mark Magnier

Los Angeles Times

NEW DELHI — India has gone a full year without recording a new case of polio, a significant benchmark for the South Asian nation and an encouraging development for health professionals fighting to eradicate the stubborn disease worldwide. But experts warned that premature declarations of victory could lead to complacency among Indian parents, who might stop immunizing their children. That would increase the risk of another outbreak, particularly in a nation where about 26 million babies are born each year. India will not be officially certified as polio-free until at least three years have passed without a new case. “It’s an incredible milestone for polio eradication,” said Rod Curtis, of UNICEF. “But complacency is perhaps the biggest threat to the program today. You could get down to the last three children in the world, but unless you (immunize) those kids, it could explode again.”

The last Indian victim, 2year-old Ruksana Khatun, fell ill near Kolkata in West Bengal on Jan. 13, 2011.

Though no new cases were reported since, health agencies still need to process both January data on nationwide paralysis cases and environmental sewage test results over the next few weeks to confirm it has been a poliofree year.

India also is located in a bad polio neighborhood. Two of three other countries in the world where the disease is endemic — Pakistan and Afghanistan — are neighbors (the third is Nigeria). China on its northern border was reinfected in 2011.

Brazilian economy overtakes UK's, says CEBR

Brazilian economy overtakes UK's, says CEBR. Russia & India forecasted to be 4th, 5th respectively by 2020.


Interesting forecast by CEBR.. Important thing is that overall World economy should be growing... Aditya better learn good Hindi and be ready to get Indian H1 ;-)


here is the table:

here is the link for details on article.. 


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16332115

Aid 2.0

Interesting article in Economist about new players for global aid for poor countries..  Especially about India. Felt good to know that India is active in global aid business to help poor countries remove poverty!!!  There are both sides of the this coin.. First is good news.. Great that India is becoming economically stronger to go out and help other countries..  Second is confusing.. What the hell!!! there are bloody 400 million below poverty line in your own country and you are still taking aid from world bank and many other aid agencies and you are going out and trying to fix problem of other countries..

This "Gareebi Hatao" (remove poverty) is going on in India for last 5-6 decades.. Despite that there is growing divide between rich and poor.. You can't fix problem in your own backyard and you are going out to fix it for others!!! amazing.. I guess, this will be another scam pretty soon.. this time in foreign policy side.. I am sure there has to be some economical ties between Gaddafi and our political leadership.. otherwise there was no reason for India to support dictator like Gaddafi for so long... When you have such a screwed up foreign policies and on top of that you are adding this 6-7 Billion USD aid every year.. We can imagine what will come out of it..

When will we achieve real democracy in India

Even though we say that India is biggest democracy of the world, we are far too behind in real democratic style of governance. In my view, real democracy is achieved when elected representatives fear the electorate rather than making electorate feel feared. Once this fear is instilled in elected representatives, rest all things will be taken care automatically..

I am sure many Representatives in US must be corrupt in some form or other. Still, there is fear of electorate.. Several reasons, elections every two year, term limit on highest post and most importantly there is real democracy in parties itself... Whether it is party president or whether it is nominee for presidential candidate or even for seats in congress/senate... there is true democratic way of election.. There are no bigshots at the top who dictate who will get ticket for which constituency or which governor/presidential nominee.

Whereas in India, it is all "High Command"s wish.. Instead of fearing electorate, representative fear "High Command".. and hence they fear party "High Command" or icons who some how create and spread fear or so called charisma on masses and hence on their own Party members and Representative.. .

Prime example is Nehru/Gandi family's grip on India's largest party. Only lineage is the criteria to become party head and hence control government either directly or through remote control and hence create all form of corruption and fear of themselves. If anything needs to happen, first they should kick out this family business out of party business. I can't believe there are no good leaders out of 1.2 billion and growing population.

Though nothing is perfect, but we can see outcome of loosened grip of this family on Congress and Nation for few years in 1990s after sudden death of Rajiv Gandhi.. By no means, I am supporting and praising terrorist attack.. Principally, I am against any kind of violence.. However, that event really led to Narsimha Rao's government which was free of influence for some time.. By no means, it was cleanest or non-corrupt government.. but still, changes started during those times are foundation for India's great progress till now.. We had hoped that we will get rid of family and won't need them forever.. there was great lineup of leaders like Scindhia/Pilot in Party who were ready to take over reigns of party.. however, during unfortunate events in next couple of years this entire line up of leaders died in "accidents" and we were left with Nehru/Gandhi family..

Digressed from real topic of this blog.. but still it is great example.. when there is slight improvement in democratic process..

So, in my view we should start real revolution to fix this mess we are in. Once these issues are taken care of, rest all the issues like corruption will be fixed automatically.. I really don't think that this "Lokpal" is going to fix things completely.. What if Lokpal itself is corrupt.. we might be in even worse situation.. I agree, Anna is nice person.. but then we don't know for sure about his followers.. In my view, it is all patch work.. We need to attack very foundation of this corruption.. and that foundation is "Power in hands of High Command" not in hands of public..

So our revolutions should be focussed on fixing these fundamental issues.. As these things will never happen on their own.. These very same people will not let it happen that easily.. if something like this happens, they will have literally abandon their posts as there will be surge of new and energetic leadership into the country and society as a whole..

First and most important step is to force these iconic figures out of the party. I won't mind a simple and plain revolution in India to kick Nehru/Gandhi family out of the country itself... Once they are out, then amend constitution to make terms of party presidents max to two years and they can't be re-elected for next five or 10 years. Same rule needs to be applied for Prime/Chief Minister post as well. I guess, our founding fathers did a great job in preparing constitution while copying it from UK's constitution.. but in the end, this same constitution is keeping aristocracy still very much alive in India... I think it is time to add or copy some of the constitution from US as well.. No system is perfect.. I won't say that US or UK or India's system is perfect.. However, we need to continuously  evolve it and see what could be best in which situation..

When our constitution was originally made, it had provision of continuously grow number of seats based on population growth.. I think sometime in 80s it was changed and number of parliamentary seats were frozen on account of space constraints in our Parliament. I think, cost of extending Parliament building would have been not even one hundredth of one of the scams we had faced here if more representatives would have been there.. Very clearly, more the number of representatives easier it would have been for new comer to win the elections and reach parliament.. Lesser the dependence on big parties or their high command.. Better and bigger audit of different government programs..

Again, coming back to core topic... We need real democracy in parties.. That can be only achieved if we amend constitution to force any regional/national party to have regular elections to elect their leaders and even elections for nominees for Parliamentary elections.. Once these elections starts, no single person can control these parties and hence the governments.. It may seem another headache or cost to have these extra and more frequent elections but this cost will be substantially lower than the cost of one single scam if it can prevent.. Power needs to be in hands of people.. not in few families or individuals..

No problem with Genetically modified…… Mosquitos :-)

Scientists in Brazil are releasing around 3000 genetically modified male mosquitos to combat deadly decease of Dengue in one town of Brazil. Apparently these genetically modified mosquitos will mate with female mosquitos and their offspring won't survive in wilderness (they may in air conditioned homes ;-)).. What a cruel, inmosquito (oops.. inhumane) and nasty way of combatting decease and killing these mosquitos.. and supposedly saving environment from those nasty chemicals like DDT etc

I am assuming no environmentalist will have any problem with these kind of genetic modifications.. as it is going to save humans from these dangerous inhumane decease.... I think India should also try this kind of solution if they are not trying already.. or may be not..

I guess this is best example of Darwin's theory of best will survive.. may be some other species far more advanced than we can perceive (or so called Gods of the day!!) played with species millions of years back and resulted in human evolution?? Just kidding..

Everyone.. Have a great weekend!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gjc19#synopsis

GM Insects:
For the first time ever, genetically modified insects have been released into the wild to target a human disease. In Brazil, scientists are releasing mosquitoes which have had their genes altered to prevent their offspring from developing and being able to bite people, and spread the disease & Dengue fever.

Neanderthal dates:
New dating techniques have been applied to Neanderthal bones from a cave in the Caucasus Mountains. The bones are 10,000 years older than was previously thought. If this is found to be the case in many more sites in Eurasia, the idea that our ancient cousins interacted and even interbred with our ancient ancestors would be very unlikely.

Io – Jupiter's turbulent moon:
Reanalysis of the data collected by NASA's Galileo orbits around Jupiter's moon Io have shown that the turbulent moon is likely to have an ocean of liquid magma under its surface. This could explain why it is the most volatile moon in our Solar System.

Meteor Impact in the end Triassic:
Scientists studying the layers of rock on the Somerset coast in the UK are looking at the evidence of a massive meteor impact which occurred 200 million years ago. Could this impact have changed the Earth's climate, making it possible for the rise of the dinosaurs?

Fight Against Corruption in India

I was thinking about corruption.. I believe that Corruption is one of the oldest practice of human civilization along with one of the oldest trade. Everyone will agree that corruption is there in some form or other in all the countries. Nature, form or severity may be different, but it is there is all parts of our beloved planet earth including all living things.. However, some countries it is still taboo and considered bad where as some countries, it is accepted norm. In case of India, I feel that only person who is not corrupt is the one who is not getting chance to be corrupt. Having said that, there are still some exceptions.. there are still some "Jantoos" in the zoo who are still honest!! no offense.. but the people who are not corrupt are in reality considered not to be street smart.. Sad.. but unfortunately true.. I know I will hear from lot of you about it.. 

So.. What drives corruption.. Why people resort to corruption.. Why some societies are more corrupt.. Why some are not so corrupt..  any guesses or answers or solutions.. I don't know.. I do feel that it is driven by income disparity.. coupled with social & atmospheric pressures.. divide between rich and poor..

In case of India, all these factors were further fueled by centuries of occupation by foreign forces who only wanted to extract money one way or another.. lastly, 2 centuries of British rule crippled this further by paying enormous salaries to Civil Servants (I guess, even for Britishers, ICS was one of the top salaried job) and paying almost nothing to rank and file workers in both administration and police jobs. On top of it they further fueled feudalism to continue suppressing common people..

none of the above is good enough excuse for corruption in modern times.. now a days there are enough opportunities for everyone who wants to work hard and make money honestly.. Still we are one of the most corrupt societies.. Why? We are Gandhi Nation!!! Which can be taken both ways depending on which Gandhi you pick.. If you say that we are Mahatma Gandhi nation then we should not have any corruption.. it should be Ram Rajya every where.. However, if you say that we are Nehru/Gandhi Nation (which we are currently) then corruption as an accepted norm is fine..

What is solution to this deep rooted mentality in India? When I was kid, I used to say that, when India got independence, we should have dismantled British Police force, as Britishers were able to rule India only due to them.. If I remember correctly, my views about them were to hang them all in public execution.. that was naive and foolish at the best.. it wouldn't have fixed any problem for that matter and most likely created more problems for new nation.. What else could be solution? Double or triple their salaries? I doubt if India could have been able to afford it or even that would have fixed it. Once you get into this habit of bribery, you can't stop it..

I feel that only solution is to have increase education level, increase information availability, open door discussions and true form of democracy and complete stoppage on unrestricted number of terms for government positions. We need to accept that fact that there are still 400 million people in India below poverty line. Most of the western societies can't survive at or above (slightly) this so called poverty line of India, forget about people living below poverty line.. Indian youth needs to look at this problem and fix it. Nobody else is going to help India.. India needs to help themselves.. As far as higher population is concerned.. I am not that big fan of that argument.. Japan had and still have population density more than India.. around 1950s both the countries were more or less in same situation.. does any one knows what is the only thing common between Toyota and Hindustan Motors (makers of famous Ambassador cars in India).. It was their foundation day.. both companies were founded same day.. In-fact Hindustan Motors had more starting capital than Toyota..

Imagine Indian economy's size if our productivity was same as Japan's... I am sure it would have been biggest economy of the planet..

Any how coming back to Anti-Corruption. Can any country flourish with such a high level of corruption.. China is one such example.. what I heard or read so far.. China is equally corrupt society.. However, there is no comparison between China and India's progress report. So why is elimination of corruption so important for India.. is it just my thoughts as I am from India and I have seen corruption very closely or something else..
I think it is long enough.. 

Is it too little and too late?

Glad to see some action by international community (aka US, France, Britain & Arab League) on Gaddafi Inc. Honestly, same action would have dramatic impact if our Dear Mrs. Clinton would have worked harder on getting coalition sooner. However, I am happy to see some action, for which I had lost all hopes after Japanese Earthquake/Sunami tragedy. I am happy to see some support, even though it is too little and too late and if it was taken earlier, it would have save lot of lives. but... never mind..

At the same time, I was ashamed to see India abstaining from voting for resolution on Libya. It just shows how much guts we have to face truth and do what is right and then we want permanent position on UN Security council. Shame on Indian government and diplomats. This totally exposes them. They need to accept the fact that world order is changing and there can't be neutral postion. You have to on the side of truth and people. You simply can't sit in a corner. If Gaddafi Inc. was that great friend then you are better off opposing resolution. But then you don't have guts to do that. As an Indian, my head goes down when these type of incidences happen.. We simply can't keep on supporting Dictatorships like Gaddafi Inc. and Myanmar Junta and such.. Come in open and support "Satyamev Jayate" which is more of symbolic icon of Indian government rather than anybody really following or understanding it. Hiding or running away from truth is only going to prolong these kind messes we are in. We need to understand that People are friends not rulers.. Rulers come and go but your image and reputation stays as a true friend with People. It doesn't make any difference, if you get couple of billion dollars worth oil services contracts or get lot of your gas/LNG (in case of Myanmar). You need to support truth and only truth.. truth is never easy to follow but rewards are equally greater if you follow path of truth and base your friendships and relationships on truth..

I hope people's revolution wil continue to spread and continue to become mature. Governments as a whole will become better and thus this whole world!!!

Poor Libya or I should say poor middle-east

After reading and seeing leadership style and more importantly lifestyle of middle-east leaders, I strongly believe that despite all petro dollars in middle east is in bad condition. I hope after these revolutions things will be better.. They won't go for toss.. The way I am reading about Iranian influence in these budding democracies.. you never know that we might think of these days as golden days of middle east.. Hope sense will prevail and people will use their judgement to build and elect better governance.

I hope leaders and people in India will take lesson from all this.. We are so fortunate to have great democratic system. Which system is perfect? neither does Indian democracy system.. But as long as it is there we have hope and hope to have better leaders.. Where these leaders come from? At some point they are part of common people.. so as long as there is better awareness and better educated and committed people who later on become better and honest leaders.. Instead of current rule of thumb that you need to be  first be "Goonda" or son of Gooda/Politician and then only you can go to politics.

India has very precious democracy and we should feel pride and lucky to have this kind of system. I strongly believe that even poor man sleeping in those Juggi/jhopdi (slums) will be overall more happy then average middle class in middle east who lives in constant fear of getting by these so called rulers in middle east..

Amen!!

Should India be next after Egypt?

It may seem awkward to many of my friends and readers.. We Indians take pride as Biggest Democracy of the world.. However, fact is, it is no less than Egypt or any other middle east countries.. We are still controlled by Nehru/Gandhi type of families.. more or less.. It is bloody shame that we don't have any "Aukat" of getting real good new and young leaders despite more than a billion population and counting..

Actually, Indian democracy is biggest sham.. it should be classified as world's number one wonder.. It is controlled by few families and very small group of people..

Okay.. enough of cribbing.. Here are some of my thoughts and solutions..

1) Make term limit for PM/CM/Governor etc. Max 10 years.. i.e. no more than total of two terms.
2) Start dissolving Lok Sabha (Parliament/congress) every two years and conduct elections every two years for entire Lok Sabha.
3) There should be true democracy in all national parties. To ensure that, conduct their national/state presidents election also with Parliament elections every two years
4) On top of that, National Parties Presidents should be elected only once for two years max. Once you become president, you can't even fight for election next time.
5) Along with national parliament elections, perform all other state, municipal and Panchayat.. all possible elections should be done.. Trust me money spent on these elections will be 10 times less than the reduction in corruption due to fear of elections.

I don't know what is happening now.. But 10-15 years back during election times we used to get all roads repaired and all sort of better governance. Why can't we have same thing every two years now.. and with spread of education I definitely believe that it could be even better country. We are making great progress, but 400 million population is still below poverty. That is 8 times total Egypt's population.. Trust me, if somehow this 400 million becomes aware of their power and comes to the road, India will be in bad shape. So unless, we do something soon about it to fix it, they are going to come on road..

Egypt revolution

Enough has already written about Egyptian revolution going on since last 10 days or so. I am in general supporter of these kind of revolutions and definitely anti-regime. Especially these dictatorship kind of. I strongly believe that this revolution will culminate in change of government/regime. There is no doubt about that. No body can suppress people power once people are aware of their power.

However, I am also concerned about after effects of revolution. When I was kid, somewhere I read quote from Napoleon "let fools fight for the best form of government, whatever works is the best form". I was under impression that Mubarak Government was working and was good for Egypt.. But I think I was wrong.

At the same time, I am not so sure about form of government after Mr. Mubarak's regime is gone. What if Islamic fundamentalist takes over and let us say they form Afghanistan Taliban style government based on pure Islamic or shariyat kind of government. I hope people of Egypt will use their judgement and hope will get better government. There were/are problems with Mubarak Regime. However, which government doesn't have.. Are their no human rights violation in US or in UK or in India? When I grew up in India, I used to read stories of Police atrocities all the time. People are still afraid of Police in India.. May be we can blame it on Gandhi Regime ;-) I guess, it is time to get rid of Gandhi Regime in India too.

Can manufacturing ever come back to US

I was reading one article written by Andy Grove in Bloomberg on manufacturing jobs in US as suggested by my good old friend Amit.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-01/how-to-make-an-american-job-before-it-s-too-late-andy-grove.html

It is very sincere effort and in all probability he is right about it. It was biggest mistake by US policy makers in 80s to let manufacturing slip out of US. That shouldn't have never been allowed in first place. Without good manufacturing base in high tech US is mostly dependent on rest of the world for most of the basic needs for goods. However, fact is that most of the manufacturing has already gone out and whatever is remaining, is going out continuously.. Unless federal or state governments subsidize local industry or penalize import, manufacturing in US is not going to come back..

Question is, whether it is worth bringing back. Honestly it is dirty work and no body wants to do it here. If we were really good and passionate about manufacturing we would have survived cheap workforce syndrome of Mexico, China, far east.. Honestly, I feel, once Henry Ford started assembly line system for manufacturing it made it pretty boring and this boredom was responsible for poor manufacturing performance out here in US.  Otherwise why didn't we improvise on our manufacturing, way Japanese did it and even with higher cost basis for labor we could have kept it here. Basically, I feel that assembly line kind of manufacturing is/was very much opposite to Free and Creative spirit of Americans. It was/is pretty mundane with same task keep on doing like robots. That is what Japanese did, automated it and worked hard on building Robots. We didn't...

Our Policy makers thought that we will have enough jobs designing and engineering robots (or machines for assembly lines). Which was true in beginning. But they forgot to see future.. Once you have basic manufacturing revolution, you start developing adjacent technologies and slowly creep into other design, engineering, testing and other fun stuff. Where as once you don't have it (like in US), you start loosing touch with this so called fun stuff which you had hoped that it will continue generating employment. Now, even companies who make these kind of machinery for manufacturing (I guess, AMAT kind of companies) also started moving work to these countries so they can be closer to their customers and market.

Other fundamental breakdown with this policy happened when US policy makers failed to reform education along with this shift in manufacturing. They thought that US will be doing high value R&D and other managerial kind of jobs and let these manufacturing and call center go out. When these mid category jobs were going and there was surge in high end jobs there were no local man power to support There were not enough students coming out of college to take up these high tech jobs and that forced US companies to go out and even off shore these jobs in India and many other developing economies. Slowly this set up took effect and these US companies got addicted to lower cost of doing R&D in offshore. So US ultimately started loosing these high tech jobs as well.

So what now? The only hope is with Bio Tech or similar areas.. Unless republican's don't mess it up.. I guess. There has to be some next Quantum leap which will spur growth and hopefully we will be ready for it and won't miss the boat. US policy makers need to make sure that there is enough emphasis on education in K-12 and subsequent University system so we can't miss this opportunity. Also, this time if we are able to get this kind of Quantum leap we should be able to keep complete eco-system of R&D, Design, Engineering, Manufacturing and QA in house. Even if it means that we provide some kind of subsidy to local entrepreneurs.

Otherwise, very soon my kids may be in line to get Indian/Chinese green Cards so that they can work there.