Ashok Khemka Transferred to Museum Department by BJP Govt

Ashok Khemka, one of the celebrated IAS officer is again transferred from transport ministry to Archaeology and Museums Department, thanks to the Haryana BJP government. Mr Khemka has been transferred for the 45th time in his 23 years of career. Now this brings a question, how different is BJP government from Congress. Ache Din are back for few who do not wanted him in transport ministry.  

Mr. Khemka was trying to fix the problem of overloading of trucks in Haryana. Haryana like most of India has a great problem of truck overloading. Overloading of trucks leads to following problems:

 1. Accidents / Loss of Life : Overloading reduces the maneuverability and control of trucks  which causes hundreds of accidents where innocent people loses life.

2. Loss of Revenue:  Overloading also leads to loss of hundreds of crores of government revenue in the form of state taxes.

3. Damaging Roads: Overloading of trucks is also a big reason behind damaging roads, the road are designed for bearing certain pressure. Overloading leads to higher wear and tear of road causing monetary losses to the government.

4. Environment Pollution: When trucks carry more load than what it is designed to carry, it leads to environmental pollution. The inefficient burning of fuel in the engine leads to emission of harmful pollutants in the environment.

Now with him gone, what are the chances that the next officer taking strict action against truck overloading.  As per some news reports, " Mr Khemka had ordered district officials to penalize such vehicles which caused problem to some"

So the main question which comes to my mind:

Q Who is getting affected by the problem of Overloading? 

A.  "We the residents".

Q What are we going to do about transfer of Mr Khemka. 

A. Nothing, some may write blog, some may like it on FB , some may share but will do nothing. 

Q What should we do?

A.  We should demand reasons for transfer of Mr. Khemka to a department where people like him will be wasted. We should also demand that he should stay in transport ministry.

Q  Who  is to be blamed for such incidence ?

A. Not the politician but we the people who will not do anything sit idle.

Q. Who is to be blamed if a overloaded vehicle runs over someone ? And it can be anyone of us.

A. Please answer

Indian Diet and Cancer Risk

Every now and then we keep hearing that someone has been diagnosed with cancer. Cancer rate are growing rapidly in India. The change in life style and eating habits due to development and wealth are the leading causes of it.  While searching on Google I came across a good study done by Sinha R, Anderson DE, McDonald SS and Greenwald P on cancer risk and India Diet.

This summary table from the research tells us about what is good and what is bad for us in terms of cancer risk.

 

Salman Khan Hit and Run..

In 2002 a accident happens. In 2015 Salman Khan finally gives his statement that he is innocent. It took 13 years for our system to bring him to the court of law and still the proceeding are going on. This is not a civil case but a criminal one..

Some of questions that haunts me..

Isn't delay best way to hamper the law. Keep waiting and nothing will happen, you will loose faith in such a system. Why ?

The legal system is for the rich ? Would it take same amount of time if one of the celebrity gets hurt or killed in a drunk and drive case ? I am not sure. Some of the things in this country are not fair.

Does money works like lubricant in the system. Is it a true democracy where people do not enjoy equal legal rights in some sense. God save this country.


Modi ji speaks about problem faced by business man, one of the major issue is non payment by customers. The laws are there but enforcement is too slow. Section 138 does allow for criminal proceeding against the defaults but system can be made too slow by defaulters. Filling of the case takes a lot of time, after which defaulters will not come to hearing 2-3 times, then they will ask for extension of dates.. finally a long time is passed and during the process the businessman may not even survive as cash flow management becomes difficult and even good business plans falls flat. Judicial reforms are a big need of this country. I am waiting for the ache din ..




 

Why Crude Oil Prices are Falling ?

Crude Oil prices are falling at a very fast pace. The prices have eroded by 50% in past one year which is causing a lot of disruption in global economy. Some of the countries like India who are dependent on imported crude are benefitting out of it and producers like Iran and Russia are bleeding due to reduced prices.

There may be multiple reasons for the fall in crude oil prices. Some of the reasons which I feel may affect the pricing are below stated but the real reason may be very different.

 

Theory X

Reduced Oil Demand in Future:  The current price is the reflection of the future demand which has reduced due to poor health of global economy. The reduction in demand is may be result of cooling of Chinese economy, uncertain Europe and other countries. At the time when anticipated demand was reducing US opened flood gates of the Shale Oil. The prices started falling as soon as the US Shale Oil production started to increase and it started competing with crude oil from the crude oil supply from OPEC.

The theory fails to explain why the prices will fall as much as 50% as conditions are still better than what the world has already seen. Infact when US is growing at 3.5%, the size of US growth can provide fillip to the international demand and can absorb some of the supply. Why OPEC didn't reduce its production when the demand was seen to be lower like it usually do to support the price in the market ?

Theory Y

USA counter strategy for Iran and Russia: Both Iran and Russia who do not share very good relations with USA are largely dependent on the sale of crude oil to sustain its economy. The price reduction will hurt them the worst. It also suggests that wars between the country will increasingly be more economic than traditional. The theory has its merit and demerits, the shale oil production is largely held private in US and works based on economies. So it may not be the government who is driving the production.  OPEC could also have reduced the production but it never went for it.

Likely Reason

Technology: For years together the world has been dependent on crude oil and coal for its energy need. There may be some new technology which is about to enter the market which both USA and OPEC is aware. The technology can be Solar or other rewnable energy which can even change the pecking order of the economic strength of the countries. Once such a technology comes, the oil fields will be worthless and it makes sense both for USA and OPEC to pump out as much oil as possible without worrying about prices till such a thing happens.




 

World Cup 2015 Format

Although I do not follow much of Cricket nowadays but World Cup (WC) is special, once in a four year event does attract even people like me who seldom watch Cricket.

When I was looking at the format of WC 2015 it was quite baffling but at the same time it makes commercial sense for ICC.

In WC 2015, the teams are divided in a pool of 7 team each. Out of 7 teams four teams from each of the pools will qualify for the Quarter final (QF) stage. From the QF stage the format of the tournament will be knock out.

Now if we look at each of the pools, their are 3 team in each of the pool which hardly stand any chance to qualify for the next stage and it will be mostly 8 test playing nation who will qualify for the knock out stages. In some way the first 42 pool matches are not of much consequence unless there is a major upset like Ireland beating West Indies.

In the nutshell, the WC is nothing but 4 QF, 2 Semi Final (SF) and 1 final. The most promising or consistent team may not end up being a winner but someone who is lucky and wins the last 3 matches will win. The format does not make any sense as  42  pool matches out of total 49 WC matches are of not much significance.

If we look at the commercial side of it, it may be done just to have India in contention atleast till the QF stages, so in absence of series of major upset, all major test playing nation will remain in the tournament till QF and there will be hardly 3 matches ( 2 SF and 1 Final) after that stage. India providing bulk of the viewership will make sure that ICC in making a lot of money out of the event by playing atleat 8 matches in the tournament. !

So if you a hard core Indian Cricket Fan, sit back, relax, even if we loose a game or two in pool stages, its going to hardly matter, just pray that we win the last three matches.

Biographies: Sachin, Steve Jobs, Srila Prabhupad

A post after a long time. Happen to read 3 biographies in last one and a half months. These are the people who have inspired me the most and reading their biographies was a real treat. I tried to compare the personalities and life of the 3 great personalities. This is my interpretation and people may have different opinion on the same. Here 10 is the highest rating and 1 is the lowest.

	Sachin	Steve Jobs	Srila Prabhupad
Passion about subject	10	10	10
Command in the area	10	10	10
Struggle in the Initial Stages	6	5	10
Struggle in middle Years	7	8	8
Support from Family	10	7	1
Financial Condition at Initial Stage	6	6	2
Years of Struggle	3	4	15
Faith in God	7	8	10
Personal Characteristics
Humility	10	3	10
Hard Work	10	7	10
Planning Initial Stage	6	5	5
Planning Later Stages	7	6	9
Positive Attitude	10	8	10
Courage	10	10	10
Determination	10	10	10
Discipline	10	5	10