The Water India drinks

Amongst the infrastructure problems that plague India, even the basic ones like providing consumable water is where India falls way short. This report in the Times of India claims that the water provided to Mumbai (Bombay) the so called commercial capital and biggest city in India contains traces human faeces. Wonder if the Ambanis, the Tatas and the thousands of other multi billionaires including the government officials who live in Mumbai also consume this shit water?

POISONED WATERS

Faecal Bacteria Found In Test Samples

Simit Bhagat | TNN

Quality Worst In Byculla: 42% Samples From Ward Found Unfit For Consumption, 10% Found Contaminated With E. Coli
To state that the quality of water in Mumbai is going down the drain is not to state it correctly. To be accurate, Mumbai is increasingly drinking water fit only for the drain.
According to statistics released by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), 30% of drinking water samples collected all over the city in 2010 were found unfit for consumption. The contamination was owing to the presence of E. coli and other coliform bacteria found in faeces. They cause diarrhoea, besides a host of water-borne diseases.
“It’s not just the presence of E. coli in the samples that we find worrying. We found a host of other bacteria,” said a senior official from the BMC’s G North ward laboratory. “The main source of contamination is leakage in pipelines corroded over time.”
E. coli, short for Escherichia coli (named after the German-Austrian paediatrician Theodor Escherich) originates from faeces. Most strains of the bacteria are harmless, but some can cause food poisoning. The harmless strains are, in fact, beneficial for the gut, where they are naturally present. Such strains produce vitamin K2 and prevent the establishment of pathogenic bacteria in the intestine.
Another coliform found in the samples was Citrobacter freundii, which originates in soil, sewage, food and the intestinal tracts of animals and humans. The bacterium is responsible for causing infections of the respiratory and urinary tracts, and blood.
The worst affected ward is E (Byculla); 42% of water samples collected from here was found unfit for consumption, with 10% found contaminated with E. coli. BMC officials said areas most at risk from contaminated drinking water are the ones which have slums along water pipelines. Such pipelines often have leakages induced by slum dwellers, making it easy for soil-borne coliforms to enter the supply. Other areas at risk are ones with old buildings, which invariably have corroded water pipes. In all, 28,610 water samples were tested, of which 8,551 were found contaminated, 811 testing positive for E. coli. ‘Civic body is shying from responsibility’
Mumbai: Going by the quality of water that comes through the supply lines, the residents of Mumbai are saying that the city is certainly a long way off from reaching world-class status.
“By saying that contamination takes place only in private water tanks, the BMC is shying from responsibility,” said Rajkumar Sharma, coordinator of the NGO Agni. “The majority of water pipelines pass close to storm water drains, which are choked with garbage. This leaves immense scope for bacteria to enter the leaky pipes.”
“The statistics are alarming. If 30% of water samples tested by the BMC were found unfit for drinking, it is a serious issue,” said Vijay Singh, founder of the NGO Hum Log. “It puts a question mark on the safety of the water supplied to Mumbaikars.”
The problem of water contamination is not limited to the big wards like Fort, Chira Bazaar, Grant Road, Byculla, Parel, Kurla and Dadar. All wards across the city are affected to some extent. “Sometimes the water is so dirty that you can neither drink it, nor use it for any other purpose. The water literally stinks. The only difference between sewer water and municipal water is that the latter is not black,” said Milinda Shetty, an activist from Charkop, Kandivali, where supply of contaminated water is routine.
“It seems that hardly any way exists for the BMC to prevent water contamination,” said Dr Vijay Sangole, joint secretary, Pestom Sagar Citizens’ Forum. “Mumbaikars will just have to learn to live with this reality.”
COURTING ANGER Feb 2 Hearing a PIL filed in April 2010, the high court said: “In no civil society can one be allowed to suffer disease due to impure water and air. It is the duty of the BMC to maintain hygiene in the city. Healthy life is a fundamental right.” Feb 17 On the same PIL, the court lashed out at the BMC, saying: “People’s tolerance should not be tested. Why should they be provided with dirty water and be allowed to reside in unhygienic environments?”

The joke of mobile number portability in India

The Mobile Number portability scheme in India

This is a senseless exercise carried out by the Telephone regulatory Authority of India which allows subscribers to change their mobile companies while retaining the same number. While the Indian telecom market has been envied as being one of the largest in the world due to the huge population, the average income from subscribers is relatively less. Telecom infrastructure is the biggest cost for a telecom firm while actually providing the service is free. With multiple players in the telecom business the rates have plummeted however entering the telecom business and getting licenses for starting the business as well as introducing new technologies is difficult. The lobbying and cartel forming has led to the largest 2G spectrum telecom scam in India.

To distract the dim witted and myopic Indian people, the Indian telecom authority came up with the number portability scheme. Incidentally this scheme is ridiculous as only those subscribers receiving bad service would be inclined to shift to a different operator. However with service across all operators ranging from bad to horrible, and those already receiving horrible service would not wait for this scheme to shift to a bad operator.

All the same this scheme has been implemented and incidentally the telecom operators offering the worst service have advertised the most to gain subscribers who would be fooled by the ads and jingles these firms clog the media and bombard the audiences with. Idea and Docomo are the two operators which have the worst service and advertise the most.

Those gullible subscribers who wanted to change using portability scheme, have a complicated procedure to go through. Clearing their dues with the existing operator, getting a No Objection Certificate from the operator then getting a mobile code which can be given to the new operator and then the final shift. Most of these functions are carried out by different offices of the telecom firms and subscribers have to line up in serpentine queues to get any of this done. Why would someone possibly go through this excruciating process just to keep their phone number?
And then for those that did, the process is not co ordinated, leading to delays and more frustration as shows below in the article by the Times of India

PHONEY CONNECTION

‘Tech goof-ups’ plague number portability

Chittaranjan Tembhekar TNN

Mumbai: Santa Cruz (E) resident Baboo Sri Sunder was elated when he heard that you can retain your cell number after changing the telecom operator, but his enthusiasm did not last for long.
More than three weeks after he applied for a change, Sunder failed to get the new connection as the old operator did not release him ‘technically’ even though he had cleared his bills.
Achintya Mukherjee of the Bombay Telephone Users’ Association (BTUA) said hundreds of Mumbaikars who had applied for the switchover under the number portability scheme faced a ‘‘technical goof-up’’ which failed to accept the unique porting code (UPC) of the old company with the new company. Some people felt it was a ploy by donor companies to create hurdles for consumers to switch over within the stipulated five working days.
“Once taken from the donor company, the UPC code lasts for a few days. If it is not accepted in the system of the new operator, consumers have to get it again and reapply, putting them to hardship and leading to frustration,” said Mukherjee.
BTUA has taken up the issue with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
Sunder, personal assistant to Abraham Mathai, chairman, State Minorities Commission, said he applied for a UPC code to Loop Mobile, but instead of releasing him for the new operator to commence the service, he got calls requesting him to retain the connection, with promises of improved services and sops.
Sunder applied for an Idea
connection but the operator was unable to accept him due to a ‘technical’ problem. “My code expired thrice and each time I had to apply again. What nonsense is this,” he asked.
Loop and Idea officials refused to comment.
Anil Prakash, president, Telecom Users’ Group of India, confirmed that there were thousands of complaints from across the country. “We have requested TRAI to ascertain if they are man-made or genuine. TRAI has decided to set up call centres for consumers to register such complaints.”

Mahindra vehicles fail US mileage Test

Thankfully the US is strict about complying with claims that most of the auto majors advertise. Its great an Indian auto company got pulled up in the US for making claims which its vehicle could not deliver on. In India these vehicles promise the sky and get away with cheating the consumers, Once a vehicle is bought, its the owners liability and the cartel of auto companies, dealers and all the middle men refuse to do anything for a consumer who has been cheated.

High time the feeble and senile Indian Government which sleeps and agrees with everything the big corporations say, got some teeth and started standing up for the consumers.

M&M’s US foray hits roadblock

Light Pick-Up Truck TR40 Fails To Comply With Promised Mileage Figure

Nandini Sen Gupta TNN

Chennai: Mahindra & Mahindra’s much-awaited debut in the US with its light pick-up truck, TR40, has faced a marketing setback with the vehicle fetching American fuel economy rating of 19 miles per gallon (mpg) in the city and 21 on highways. That’s considerably lower than the 30 mpg that the company had reportedly promised its retailers and more or less on a par with established models in the market like the Toyota Tacoma and Ford F 150.
The fuel economy setback comes nearly a year after M&M’s US dealer Global Vehicles took the Indian company to court over what it claimed were delays in the launch of the vehicle.
M&M officials said the fuel economy stats look worse due to a new method of calculating the mileage used by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). “EPA has certified the Mahindra vehicle as on date for highway fuel economy at 21 mpg, due to the changes in the calculation procedures adopted by EPA for fuel economy label declaration from Model Year-2008 and more recently with 5-cycle method from model year 2011 onwards,” said an M&M spokesperson. However, the overall range fares much better. “For the CAFE (corporate average fuel economy), the city fuel economy certified by EPA is 23.6 mpg, whereas highway fuel economy certified is 30.5 mpg,” he added.
US media has started speculating on just how much the mileage figure is likely to hurt the Indian brand. Local publications have even quoted Global Vehicles saying that they are waiting for more products from the Mahindra range before they make up their mind about mileage, crucial for the positioning of the brand. M&M is supposed to roll out a two-door, two-wheel drive version as well which will offer much better fuel efficiency. Given that its CAFE ratings are much better, the roll-out of more products could improve the Mahindra brand’s mileage reputation.
The M&M range will be kitted out with its global engine platform mHawk which boasts common rail fuel injection system from Bosch. There have been speculation that M&M’s products would be positioned as a small, high-mileage diesel range to take on more established Toyota and Ford rivals.
On the legal front, Global Vehicles has dropped its US suit in favour of a British arbitration panel which will decide whether it will be M&M’s US distributor.

Dhirubhai Ambani, the transfer of wealth and Yemen

The Ambani brothers might well be the richest in India today. However the source of their immense wealth is questionable. The creator of this wealth is the late patriarch of the Ambani family - Dhirubhai Ambani, a native of Gujarat, the state on the west coast of India.

Born on 28th Dec 1932, the 3rd son of a school teacher living a very basic life, Dhirubhai moved to Aden in Yemen at the age of 16. Starting as a handyman in the markets of Aden, Dhirubhai soon was popular amongst the Indian worker community in Aden.

While in Aden, Dhirubhai's business senses spotted opportunity in the Yemeni currency. Yemen though under a monarchy was being administered by the British and was a prosperous region. The Yemeni Riyal was an extremely strong currency and was made of a high quantity of silver. Yemen was perhaps the most prosperous of countries in the Arabian gulf as all the other countries used the Indian rupee as currency since they were not as advanced to have their own and most of these countries were ruled or administered by the British, so it made sense to follow the same currency used in British India by the British, - The Indian Rupee

Aden was a popular trading hub, similar to Dubai of today but more so as it was the location of Shell, the oil giant which dispatched the oil to different parts of the world from Aden.

In 1947, India gained independence from the British, this was around the same time that Dhirubhai had spent a considerable time in Yemen. The transfer of power from the British to the Indians happened overnight and the chaos and confusion that followed led to hyper inflation and huge rises in prices of metals in India, one of them being Silver.

Spotting this opportunity, Dhirubhai started collecting Yemeni Rials, bringing them to India on his vacations , melting them and there after selling off the silver component of these coins. This activity must have been carried out on a very large scale, as the Yemeni central bank officials soon realized that there were hardly any coins left in circulation in the country. Imagining the scale of this operation, it could be estimated that the silver brought in this way ran into a few tonnes.

The money realized from this sale of silver was the seed capital for the start of Reliance Industries which initially was a cloth trading firm and then steadily grew to become the giant which it currently is.

Today the 2 sons of Mr Dhirubhai ambani, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani are amongst the richest in India and the world. However Reliance might be a rich company however it is known to be one of the most unethical of companies in India which evades taxes and is extremely non transparent. Some of the notable wrong doings Reliance has been accused of are massive bribing of government officials, forming cartels and environmental destruction.

While Dhirubhai melted Yemeni silver to fuel the growth of Indias largest company, Yemen on the other hand started a slow decline into poverty and destruction. Today , both Mukesh and Anil Ambani the 2 sons of Dhirubhai are worth an estimated 45 billion dollars and rising. while the Gross domestic Product of the whole of Yemen is estimated to be worth 26 billion dollars and falling. Which means the 2 Ambanis are worth more than the country of Yemen, the country which gave Dhirubhai his first break.

In a brash display of personal wealth, the Ambanis have begun constructing huge mansions in Mumbai, Antilia the 27 floor personal house of Mukesh Ambani has 600 full time staff catering to Mr Ambani, his wife, 3 children and mother. The cost of the mansion is estimated to be around US 1 billion. Not to be left out, Mr Anil Ambani has started construction of his mansion which will cost around 1 Billion to be built in the suburb of Bandra in Mumbai. Yemen on the other hand is today, one of the poorest and least developed countries in the Arab World, with massive unemployment, dwindling natural resources and increasing populations. Yemen's economy is the weakest compared to most countries in the Middle-East, mainly because of its almost exhausted oil reserves and massive corruption leading to extreme poverty in a country whose silver has heralded prosperity for one of its immigrants family across the Arabian gulf in India.

Watch out for Banks pushing ATM cum Debit Cards and charging annual fees

Bank fined for charging man for service he didn’t ask for

Rebecca Samervel TNN

Mumbai: The Mumbai Suburban District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum on Tuesday held IDBI Bank Ltd. guilty of deficiency in service for issuing an ‘ATM-cum-debit card’ instead of an exclusive ATM card to its customer and charging him for it.
The forum directed the bank to pay Rs 25,000 to the complainant, Juhu resident Krishna Pandey, as compensation and cost of proceedings.
“Before selling a product to a prospective customer, the bank should have secured his willingness,” observed the forum, adding that instead of taking the customer’s consent, the bank “foisted the facility upon the complainant”.
In 2001, Krishna and his wife Suman opened a joint account with the bank’s Khar branch following which IDBI issued two exclusive ATM cards to the couple—one in Krishna’s name and another in Suman’s. The cards were valid till December 2006.
The card issued to Suman had to be replaced as it malfunctioned. Suman’s new card, too, had to be replaced due to malfunctioning. However, this time the bank issued an ‘ATMcum-debit card’ instead of the exclusive ATM card and startedlevying a yearly feeof Rs110.
Krishna approached the bank and told the officials that hehad never askedfor an ‘ATMcum-debit card’. He requested the bank to issue him an exclusiveATMcard,buthis plea was turned down. The bank said it stopped issuing exclusive ATM cards in 2003. On October 23, 2007, Krishna filed a complaint in the consumer forum.

The Monte Hill of Margao

The Monte Hill - is a small hill located in the town of Margao in Goa, a former Portuguese colony, now a part of India. The hill offers picturesque views of the city and has a chapel on the top of the hill. The Chapel is of Our Lady of Piety and is a popular amongst the Catholic section of the population of Margao, especially during the feasts of Our Lady and also during the holy week leading to Easter where in a procession is held from the Chapel to the Holy Spirit Church lying at the Bottom of the Monte Hill.

While the Hill has always had very few residents and is a secluded spot, a major portion of the Hill was taken over to build the T.B. Hospital and the Hospicio Hospital. At the bottom of the Hill, opposite the Hospicio Hospital is the Margao Cemetery. These were built during the Portuguese era when TB was an incurable disease. Patients suffering from TB were confined to the TB hospital and kept in seclusion till death. Once a patient died, the mass was held at the Monte Hill Chapel and the body was then taken to the Cemetery lying below for burial. Being a place with such a history, the Monte had remained a secluded spot. Once India took over, a military supply camp, a Government guest house, A judges residential colony, an Electricity supply station and a giant water tank have all been built on the hill, the last expanse of space in the ever increasing city. Its spectacular views of the city and in some areas,of the sea has not escaped the eyes of the builder mafia, one of whom has even built his own mansion on the controversial hill slope after cutting the hill, with the authorities as usual playing a blind eye to this.

The Monte hill had a natural green cover, mostly comprising of Gulmohar, Banyan, Cashew, Mango, and Coconut trees, besides innumerable bushes growing all over. The monsoon was a spectacle as the hill used to be fully green and very soothing to the eyes, A lot of the the green cover has been destroyed to make way for human settlement and other provisions. This has also led to a few landslides and crashing of old trees. A proper conservation and replanting process must be implemented as landslides threaten the existence of the hill.

The Monte hill is also a spot where a good mix of the crowd come to for different purposes, During the early morning it is frequented by young and middle aged people on their morning walks or jogs, later in the day its mostly the youth who come to the hill to hang out or in some cases, to seek solace from their distress as the hill offers a quiet from the city sounds. There has been a considerable increase in the number of young couples, often school and college going kids who come to the hill to spend time with each other on their bikes or in their cars, this has often been a controversial topic especially for the residents who feel that these couples often proceed to advanced levels of amorous display thinking that the hill is a secluded spot away from prying eyes. During the evenings the hill is filled with people - mostly the elderly who come to enjoy the sunset. There has also been problems with thrash as most visitors to the hill throw away their thrash ( esp plastic, wrappers and paper) around the place making it very messy.

The Monte has also had cases of being frequented by Drug users, and during this period, police raids were very common, besides this there have also been the odd case of suicide, as this is a lonely spot and often bodies have been found after the smell of decay reached the residents.
Over all the few residents of the Monte enjoy a peaceful life and are content with their hill.It has also become a popular hang out for a lot of youth. The residents and visitors should take good care of the hill and play a more concrete role in the conservation and preserving of this beautiful little as its future is linked with theirs.

The Big Problem with Goa

One of the Biggest problems which Goa faces is - lack of enterprise and means of gainful employment for Goans. This I believe is a vicious circle and stems from the way of life most Goans live . Most Goans like me often have a sizeable section of the family living / working abroad and we usually meet these folks on an annual basis for christmas or holidays, their ideas and expressions often build in our mind an ideal place where they are based and often this place gets projected in our minds as a place which offers way too many benefits than staying in Goa would ever have, so as soon as an opportunity comes most goans pack up to gain the coveted NRI status or even citizenship.

Things might or might not be all that good initially, but since a considerable amount of money is spent in shifting , Goans prefer to stay and earn back that money, While the person is engaged in making this just enough money before he or she can quit and go back , time passes and slowly the roots grow deeper into the foreign suroundings and they become a part of the foreign landscape.

Though the craving for Goa exists - kindly called as Saudade - this often gets limited to an annual trip to Goa or fortnigtly visits to a nearby Goan restaurant for a session of Goan song and food, a proof of this is the number of goan restaurants doing well overseas in areas across the world which have good goan settlements.

Every trip to Goa becomes a reality check on the fact that the Goa of yesteryears has been left far behind and the new Goa which greets the NRI Goan at Dabolim is an evergrowing concrete jungle designed by ignorant builders who feel its their mission to fill up every low lying paddyfield or mangrove and cut down every green hill in sight to construct ugly matchbox like structures. Commerce has also brought with it unheralded prosperity to some which can be seen by the unbelievable value of land deals being done on a regular basis.Selling off their land has made many a Goan very rich in monetary terms but very very poor in heritage value.

After a few weeks of taking in all the sights and sores, most NRI goans feel that they have had enough and its time to go back to their overseas places of work or residence, the new goa would not be a very habitable place for them. So the Goan goes back and continues with his foreign routine till its time for another trip to the homeland.

However here is the crunch - once the goan has spent a considerable time abroad, has married ,had kids , retired with a fat packet of cash and would like to take it easy and return back to settle in Goa, he has already lived out the prime and enterprising part of his life so he comes back - as the senhor - the old man and his wife as most kids born and brought up abroad would not like to come here as they have blended well in western society and would prefer to only visit Goa for holidays.

When the oldies come back they go on a perpetual holiday or sometimes start some minisicule venture to remain busy, this is in reality a way to pass time . This goes on for sometime untill one of the couple fall sick or age takes its toll and they have to be bedridden and prepare for the final journey, They often have to fend for themselves or have to rely on some relative who is close at hand to support them or in a worse scenario they have to live their remainder lives in an Old age home, Most of their children would be busy living their own lives and would not like the idea of spending the prime of their youth caring for their old parents with often cumbersome tasks like bathing their old and frail bodies or changing their bed pans. This also explains house after house in many a place across Goa ageing away with no one living in them.

These houses often become targets for the land grabbing builder / lawyer/ cheatful relative or sweet talking swindler who often take over such places by providing lip service to the lonely owners of the house.

If we look at the scene today, it has not changed a bit as we are still living this vicious circle, the prime youth or entrepreneurs who can build meaningful enterprises which provide gainful employment to the masses are absent. Among entrepreneurs in Goa we still speak about the miners who make their money raping the land and paying some paltry tax to the govt . The hotels again are training grounds for the wannabe shippies or prospective overseas hotels employees , and then there are the small time firms who pay their employees pocket money which is just enough to make the trip to bombay and from there overseas. The new boom in services like the BPO's, aviation, retail, media etc and the mega bucks these sectors offer has acted like a magnet to most young Goans who are brought up in a westernised way and speak good English,

Thus in reality Goa does not have any gainful entrepreneurship or investment which can lead in creating a stable and developmental society. More and more Goans are entering the migration circle like never before and this i fear is a big macro level disaster already happening without anyone knowing it and may soon wipe away any trace of the Goan Identity. Compare this to say some of the races in India or of the world who make their money overseas, tending petrol pumps or doing the most menial of jobs and then go on to build huge business empires right there in their home state or country, The Sensible and Smart Goan of today has to start thinking on these lines, or else being a Goan will just be an entry on a piece of paper which will weather with time and tomorrow the land shall not know it anymore.