Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Monday, November 28, 2016
My views on Demonetisation and Black Money
Democracy & Dictatorship EP 10: Demonetisation and black money
http://www.wionews.com/videos/democracy-dictatorship-ep-10-demonetisation-and-black-money-1368 via @wionews
http://www.wionews.com/videos/democracy-dictatorship-ep-10-demonetisation-and-black-money-1368 via @wionews
Friday, November 25, 2016
Sunday, October 2, 2016
India's feeble claims to Digital Sovereignty
First Published on April 9, 2009 in Business Standard
http://www.business-standard.com/article/technology/india-s-feeble-claims-to-digital-sovereignty-109040200100_1.html
http://www.rediff.com/money/2009/apr/02indias-feeble-claims-to-digital-sovereignty.htm
As India moves to occupy the space of an IT superpower, the claim to digital sovereignty appears hollow given that it has a feeble presence at the high-stake tables of IT standards. IT standards have become one of the preferred tools of technology giants from developed economies to extract undue economic benefit from emerging economies.
Given that India does not appear to have the political resolve to enhance its presence at the global forums on international IT standards, we seem to be abdicating our responsibility to secure our IT industry as well as IT usage.
The issue becomes even more severe when we observe that globally, nations and firms, are trying to convert technologies on which they have an intellectual property rights (IPR) into standards, thus forcing their monopoly on economies and extracting an unfair and undue economic benefit from manipulation of the global IPR and standards regimes.
The declared aim of standardisation is to enhance productivity and facilitate international trade. The WTO Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) agreement allows for simplification of trade and removes obstacle to trade; reduces need for changing design and manufacture to meet national requirements, reducing complexity and cost; and provides greater choice and understanding for customers.
Compare this to the case where the combination of IPR and standards can give undue economic benefit to large foreign players in developing countries such as India, without the monopoly players adding commensurate value to the economy.
A very good example of the devastating effect of the current IPR regime is the case of the DVD manufacturers in China who have to pay royalty charges on each DVD player manufactured that is to the tune of 33 per cent of the retail price of the DVD player, for a video format standard that is used ($20 royalty on a player of $60). China was helpless in preventing such an unfair cess being put on its domestic industry, demonstrating its lack of digital sovereignty at that point in time.
It is impossible for the majority of the citizens to buy a $400 (around Rs 20,000) PC when the per capita annual income of the citizens is around $500 (around Rs 25,000).
Therefore, if the 7.5 million PCs sold in India last year could avoid paying for the operating system, it could result in huge savings. This is possible as free software exists but the operating environment is heavily loaded against use of such software, which demonstrates India’s lack of digital sovereignty.
Similarly, other consumer goods with embedded software like DVD players, mobile phones etc., can also be made to cost less with the appropriate policy measures that India can take, only if India has digital sovereignty.
It has been observed that organisations file blanket patents on an emerging technology that is out of reach of developing countries. Such multiple patents are put in a manner that prevents late joiners from being able to find any niche of making any new contribution to the area without violating the patents already filed in.
None of the standards bodies such as ISO, IEC, IEEE are mandated to check if the standard adopted is truly royalty free. Thus, the global technology framework is being misused to indulge in anti-trust (monopolistic) practices.
This is where we start losing our digital sovereignty. It is imperative for India to ensure that it is a serious player in formulating digital standards in order to ensure security of its IT industry and to maintain its digital sovereignty.
Friday, September 2, 2016
The Future of Indian Railways 2050
Future of Indian Railways 2050
Indian Railways will have to transform so significantly by
2050 that not only will it be recognizable from its current operations but also
most of its current assets will get replaced completely.
We need to understand the drivers that will make this
transformation an imperative.
As per the UNDP Regional Human Development Report,
India’s working population (people in the age group of 15 to 64 years) will be
over a billion by 2050, which will be the largest workforce in the world. This
workforce will be highly mobile. In addition, it is expected that over 70% of
the population will be urban by 2050 and would have a higher mobility
requirement. Given the load carrying capacity of various transportation options
and their impact on the environment, railways would have to shoulder the bulk
of this massive transportation requirements.
The second key trend driving railways is technological
transformations. Mass transportation will be completely transformed in the next
30 years with technologies such as high speed rails (bullet trains), hyperloops
(currently being tested in California and Russia among other places), Internet
of Things, solar energy, large scale electrification of the economy and moving
away from dependence on oil based technologies etc, driving this
transformation.
In addition, railways will face competition from other modes
of transportation such as road transportation, riverine transportation, coastal
shipping and air transportation. Each of these transport systems will become
much more efficient, faster and autonomic, implying that they will be managed
by computers and would not require dedicated operators such as drivers, pilots
etc. Hence these transportation systems will also become cheaper and in
addition, will be significantly less polluting than what they are now.
What that would imply
for Indian railways is that it would have to start adopting newer systems of
mass transportation, that would transport people and goods much more
efficiently and at speeds that are an order of magnitude higher. Such systems
would require complete overhaul of the railways as we see them today, with even
the tracks requiring to be changed and perhaps even getting replaced by other
locomotion enablers, as in the case of Hyperloops, which would require tubes
rather than rails for locomotion. Clearly, railways too will become autonomous,
requiring no train drivers, station masters,
manned crossings etc. Such a transformation would require a completely
new signaling system and railways infrastructure, including automated gates at
road crossings, systems that talk to the surroundings such as to incoming
trains, vehicles at crossings and perhaps even airplanes, so that not only do
the trains travel faster and safer, but are also able to coordinate with modes
of transportation that passengers would need to use or that cargo would need to
use. For example, if bulk of the passengers are going from one city to another,
primarily to take a long distance flight, then the train would need to be in
touch with the airplane company, to ensure that delays, If any, get factored
into the dynamic rescheduling.
Indian railways in 2050, would also be a different
ecosystems from the current one that is dominated by a single behemoth. Indian
railways in 2050, would be corporate dominated ecosystem, with perhaps the
current Railways Board transforming into a corporation. It would have all kinds
of business models with private players managing their own coaches in a larger
train, to running entire trains and owning the linear assets (such as railways
tracks or the tubes for hyperloop), to owning railway stations. It would not be
unthinkable to have airline companies expanding into railways to provide
seamless travel experience to passengers
and cargo.
In addition, Indian Railways in 2050, will not be limited to
the borders of India. It would connect with the economies in the east, it would
connect with the economies in Central Asia and would perhaps stretch all the
way to Europe, in partnership with railways in other countries.
Indian Railways will also start generating significant
revenues from non-ticketing sources such as onboard retailing through digital
retail, monetization of non-tangible assets, and leveraging technology. It will
have a very diversified portfolio of cargo and will not be limited to bulk
cargo such as coal (which anyways will have a very limited role by 2050).
Indian railways in 2050 will clearly be unrecognizably
different from today’s railways, to be able to shoulder the responsibilities
and challenges of the people workforce and cargo of 2050.
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Namami Gange: A Possible Water Panacea for the Northern Region States
Mission rationale and background
The Ganga river basin, for long, has been important for
the country, owing to its cultural significance and the economic implications
of its coverage as it supports about 43 per cent of the Indian
population.[1]
However, the river basin today stands heavily polluted due
to the discharge of untreated industrial and domestic waste. The
underutilisation of urban wastewater and the lack of efficient sewerage
networks have only contributed to the problem. For instance, the CPCB estimates
that the 144 drains along the main
stem of the river discharge more than 6000
million litres per day (MLD) of sewage/sullage with industrial effluents. As per estimates of the MoWR, a sewage treatment capacity
of about 7300 MLD is required whereas the
currently, it is a mere 3300 MLD (2100
MLD created and 1200 MLD under creation).[2]
The image to the left shows Sisamau Nala, Kanpur’s largest and
most-polluted open drain, discharging waste into the Ganga. The image to the
right is of a polluted stretch of the Ganga, between Allahabad and Varanasi. Photo
sources: www.downtoearth.org.in and www.livemint.com
Even within the existing 2100 MLD of sewage
treatment capacity which is only 28%
of the requirement, several plants are not utilized fully, are outdated and
need to be renovated, modernized and
maintained properly. In the major
cities of the north India along the river basin, situation is no different as
far as sanitation woes are concerned. For
instance in Delhi, the sewerage network has lacked maintenance leading to
overflow of raw sewage in open drains, due to blockage, settlements and inadequate
pumping capacities. The sewage treatment capacities in key north Indian cities along
the basin is thus far from being efficient both in terms of capacity and
maintenance. Moreover, considering the rapid urbanization in these cities in
the coming years, the capacity addition plans in progress also might not be
sufficient. The following table highlights the sewage treatment capacities in
the major cities along the Ganga basin in North India.
|
City |
Sewage
Generation (MLD) |
Sewage
Treatment Capacity (MLD) |
Sewage
Treatment Capacity (% of total sewage generated) |
|
Haridwar |
39.6 |
18 |
45% |
|
New Delhi |
3800 |
2330 |
61% |
|
Kanpur |
339 |
171.1 |
50% |
|
Allahabad |
208 |
89 |
43% |
|
Varanasi |
187.1 |
141 |
75% |
Sewage generation and
treatment capacities of major cities along the Ganga basin (2013); source: http://cpcb.nic.in/
Thus, the Namami Gange programme, for the
revitalisation of the largest river basin of India, holds vital implications
for the northern region. It addresses the urgent need for an Integrated Water
Resource Management (IWRM) approach at river-basin level, to promote
coordinated management of water resources and equitable access without
compromising the sustainability of ecosystems. With sub-areas including sustainable municipal
sewage management, managing of sewage from rural areas, industrial discharge
and others, the flagship initiative of the Indian government has the potential
of going a long way in addressing the water crises in the region.
Mission features and current status
With
an outlay of INR 20,000 crores for a period of 5 years (2014-15 to 2019-20)[3],
Namami Gange envisions to accomplish the mandate of the National Mission for
Clean Ganga (NMCG). Implementation
has been divided into entry-level activities (for immediate impact) and medium
term activities, to be implemented in the direction of achieving the long-term
objectives (refer to the Figure 1 for an overview
of the programme).
The funding
mechanism has been reinvented, owing to the observation that investments made under past programmes (Ganga Action Plan I &
II, NGRBA, Yamuna Action Plan) were far from optimal. The Union Cabinet approved the Hybrid Annuity based Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for the
mission with an aim to reform India’s wastewater sector and infuse efficiency,
viability and sustainability. Under the model, the government will provide 40
per cent of the project cost during the construction period and the release of
funds is linked to the progress of construction. The rest of the investments
will have to be raised from private sources in the form of equities and loans.
The overall equity burden on private bidders would thus be less and so would
the loan requirement in comparison to the other modes of PPP, making banks potentially
more comfortable. The loans would be paid back by the government in instalments
during the contract period, based on the performance of the private player and
the asset. The model envisages the infrastructure and O&M
investments, to be shared between the Centre and the States on a 70:30 basis
respectively. The state governments have been further instructed to strategise
resource recovery through their Urban Local Bodies (ULB’s).[4]
Keeping in view the need for scalability, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) is to be established to plan, structure and procure, along with monitoring implementation of the PPP projects. The SPV would enter into MoA’s with participating State Governments and respective ULBs for taking up individual projects. Additionally, MoU’s with various ministries, such as the already-underway MoU with Ministry of Railways for purchase of treated water from STPs to facilitate faster market development for treated wastewater, are to be undertaken.[5]
Challenges and need for innovation
The mission along with sanitising the river basin, calls
for efficient waste management infrastructure such as bio-digestor toilets,
bathing facilities, along with sewerage treatment plants and networks. The
mission has crucial economic, social and environmental implications. Thus, its
mandates include livelihood generation models, health programmes and community
engagement programmes for populations living along the banks.
While
momentous, the initiative has its share of challenges to meet. The scale of the
waste water being discharged into the basin every day requires a joint approach
of river conservation and urban waste management, and likewise, substantial
investments and collaborative efforts of the state governments. However, while
open to private individual and organisational funding, data from the corporate affairs ministry shows private
funding received for Namami Gange in 2014-15 to be the least among the
government’s flagship programmes.[6]
The selection of the appropriate private partners for the implementation and
operation & maintenance of the projects will be a key success factor for
the initiative.
The
end-to-end implementation of the initiative’s projects needs to be swift and
efficient considering the time frame and the progress achieved till date. The
following key interventions if brought in during the implementation phase of
the projects could lead to improved efficiency and effective implementation:
§ Thorough technical assessments need to be done
to identify specific technological interventions required while earmarking the
capital costs for each plant
§ Additionally, efficient project management
calls for cost and time benchmarks, and a rigorous monitoring framework
§ Assessment of real-time operational parameters
of the treatment plant and quality parameters of the treated water through
usage of data analytics are imperative for the mission’s success
§ The sewage treatment plants (STP’s) must
combine aspects of IT, data analytics, smart energy management, smart water
treatment, grey water treatment to collect, treat and suitably redeploy treated
water
§ Possibility of integrating STPs with
simulation software to predict effluent quality in real time and manage quality
risks throughout its lifecycle
§ New STPS should be equipped to handle both
storm water along with normal sewage
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)