Chennai Roads presents roads in Chennai, Bangalore

Here is another visual representation of the urban mess that India is...

What the inside of a gated community looks like

Here are some photos of a much-publicised gated community site on Mount - Poonamallee Road, near Ayyappanthangal.

We don't know whether the promised Spanish villas have come up yet...

Jeeva Nagar, Chennai: Using Youtube to expose

The media battle today is centred round eyeballs. Television, the Internet and print newspapers are all competing for reader and viewer attention, to the point of screaming their messages and using a variety of lures to attract an audience.

So how do you get your message across in all this din?

The residents of a residential layout in Chennai's suburbs next to Mangadu and Poonamallee, called Jeeva Nagar, have hit upon the idea of using Youtube to broadcast their own 41 second film on their problems.

Earlier, they used the Right to Information Act, 2005 to get important information from the Mangadu Town Panchayat about the state of their layout and plans for development.

See the short video. The scene is nothing exceptional for Indians, although land here now costs about five million rupees a ground! The Mangadu Town Panchayat apparently does not care, although it expects its pound of flesh whenever a building permission application is filed by a Jeeva Nagar property owner. What is interesting is that this has become a film, titles, credits and all.

Small stories about people and places

New media can tell many micro stories easily. Anyone with an interest in his surroundings and a small camera phone in hand knows that. Unlike the high power, bloated presence of television, the keen video blogger can achieve a lot more.

Here is the first of a series of videos that tell those small stories about life in India. These stories will be about small and big men. Many of these themes are too familiar to excite Indians. When put in context, they say a lot for a global audience.

This is the scene of Chennaiites returning home under trying circumstances. Pocket-picking gangs proliferate in these packed situations. Hopes are lost, as are fortunes. Governments don't care much.

These people must just pay their taxes and hope that somehow their lot will be transformed one fine day...

Tanker lorry in hit and run in Chennai: Look out for PY 01 Q 2377

A white tanker lorry involved in a car hit-and-run case escaped in traffic on Kamarajar Salai today, November 22, 2007 around 11.15 a.m.

If you want details, you can mail me.

The hit and run vehicle PY 01 Q 2377 did not cause injuries but damaged a car on the road and escaped. It is possibly involved in some criminal activity. Since the tanker did not heed the signal of road users to stop all along Kamarajar Salai from All India Radio to Napier Bridge, it is most probably involved in some illegal activity.

If you own this vehicle, you should report to Police, if not the insurance company for this tanker should respond. This tanker is not fit for insurance and it is driven by people who do not know driving and are probably not properly licensed.

Members of the public should report the sighting of this tanker to police, urging a proper investigation into its activities.

A call was made to Police on the emergency number 100 today at about 11.25 a.m. but there was no response and the control room did not respond to the call which apparently dropped.

Such vehicles must be refused insurance and pulled off the road, and their rash and negligent drivers arrested for prima facie illegality because they cause economic loss to the country in general and law-abiding individuals in particular.

These drivers make motor vehicle insurance meaningless, because they cause avoidable claims and affect those with unavoidable insurance claims. The operation of nationalised motor vehicle insurance through compalies such as the United India Insurance, National Insurance and others is bankrupted by such drivers, although these companies are partly to blame themselves for not insisting on proper enforcement by the Police and the installation of closed circuit television cameras along roads to fix responsibility.

It is also strange that the Chennai City Police control room did not respond to the call on an emergency number. Even if it was cut off due to call drop, the Police should have used the caller ID and returned the call immediately.

Mobile phones, accessories and competition in Chennai

The mobile phone industry is growing so fast in Chennai that consumers are getting ripped off in many ways. One of the areas in which they are being bled is high-priced accessories such as spare chargers and hands-free sets.

But I discovered at the Essar and Virgin co-branded The Mobile Store that you can get travel chargers for Rs.99 and hands free sets for Rs. 99 (single ear piece) and Rs.149 for the stereo sets from iBuddy. The audio quality is not bad, and the price is certainly a pittance compared to the avarice that guides the pricing of "originals" from the big names such as Nokia (they want Rs.800 to Rs.1300 for wired handsfree sets).

It is possible that there will be safety questions raised about these products (which would remind us about Hewlett Packard warning us not to refill our printer cartridges and instead fork out a lot more for their "originals").

What about explosions in off-brand mobile spares, some might counter. Frankly, I don't know. The Mobile Store avers that these are safe. Moreover, a hands-free cannot explode, and chargers seem a remote candidate for an explosion because they don't contain any recharging chemistry. But you decide.

Travelling Wise, in Chennai

Information, they say, is power. It is also money. If you have to travel in Chennai without catastrophic expenditure, you must have the best tips on low cost mobility.

One of those is the "Travel As You Please" passes offered by the Metropolitan Transport Corporation, commonly referred to as the MTC.

I have put together a presentation on Google's new online presentation utility, on this. Actually, this kind of travel information should be publicised by the MTC proactively. Because they will not do it (although the National Urban Transport Policy of the UPA Government expects them to do so), I have done my bit.

With some time and effort, it can be expanded and hopefully will help many passengers travel wise. At present, I am only discussing the passes. I will add other aspects in future...

Free transport to fight climate change



One of the fundamental ideals of any Green is the promotion of universal access to the basic necessities of life. Mobility is one of these, and so it is natural to advocate universal access to free or near-free public transport, paid for by taxes.

Although this would appear to be an extremist viewpoint, one that would win little support from the majority of people, there are indeed many who support it around the world. The latest vote in favour of free public transport comes from the people of Australia, who have participated in a poll on the issue, in the context of climate change.

Lowering greenhouse gases requires reduction in the use of personal vehicles. We need more trains, buses, trams and bicycles. The Greens Party Senator in Australia, Kerry Nettle reports that the majority of Australians are indeed in favour of free public transport funded by tax monies.

London is already using taxes to pay for augmented public transport (if not free) and the Mayor of New York has come to the same realisation. When will our politicians wake up to the reality that improving public transport will improve the climate, reduce road accidents that kill and maim helpless people and lead to a better quality of life for all?

We in India need a carbon tax on private vehicles TODAY!

MTC responds to RTI Act petition

The usually recalcitrant Metropolitan Transport Organisation of Chennai, the monopoly bus operator has responded to a petition under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) seeking information on its Travel As You Please passes.

Chennairoads believes that one of the simplest solutions to improved commuting and tourist movement in Chennai is to popularise travel cards. These cards should be sold the way SIM cards, recharges and and top ups are being done, for mobile telephones.

That might be a tall ask as of now, because of MTC's 'sarkari' bent of mind. The Corporation exists to provide employment to several thousand people, not for the mobility needs of a six million population, it would appear.

Anyway, here is the link to the information provided by MTC.

In Chennai, all cars are bumped

You see those nice car ads on television and ultimately decide to take the plunge. You drive off a spanking new, shiny, smooth piece of metal from the automobile dealership, the celebratory tape on the bonnet telling the world that you have decided to make the traffic jam worse by at least one car.

In Chennai, you then realise that your shiny contraption is destined to soon look battered and bruised. Your relatives don't see the point in avoiding driving into the mad whirl of T.Nagar. So you inch along, with autorickshaws that look like noisy garbage cans threatening to test your nerve. Large garbage trucks crowd you out, semi-literate drivers in three-wheeled carriages rush at you...you feel that you and your new car are in a nasty PC game that could be called "Monster Chennai Traffic" or something.

THUMP! Your rear bumber has finally been put to the test. Behind you is either a crazed motorcyclist who wants to drive through you, or an Indicab taxi, or sadly, a very literate stupid middle class moron driving, mostly, a battered piece of junk.

That's what happened to me in my new Alto today. There was this stupid out-of-towner in his white junk-like Maruti 800 (TN 38 F 4955) who just thumped his car into the back of my stationary Alto in front of Chennai's nuclear traffic generator, Saravana Stores, in Panagal Park.

"Sorry," said the culprit. He was so nervous that he quickly sped away.

Luckily, the Alto has been designed for backside hits from middle class morons driving mobile junk. So it showed only a couple of scratches, although the laws of Physics tell me that some of that energy from our moronic friend's Maruti 800 has indeed been transferred to the bolt holding the Alto bumper. It won't hold very well if it is repeatedly targeted by more morons.

But it is not just me in this sort of position.

The next time you are on the road, or better still in a parking lot, look at all the cars and you will find that they all have that bruised look, particularly in the bumpers and on the fenders.

Which is why I believe that many of us should be abandoning the car and taking to the bus and the train. Those who insist on driving should be made to pay extra, so that the money will go towards buying more Metropolitan Transport Corporation buses and suburban and MRTS trains and operating them at sane fares.

Until that happens, we will have only bruised cars, new and old. Don't be fooled by all those girls who feel a little naughty and want to rub some sun tan in an Indica...or by the leather jacketed girl who is overcome by the sexuality of the widebodied Logan. Neither the girls nor those roads exist in real life. On the road with your new car, it is morons that are behind you, ahead of you...all around you.

Why Dell deals are nothing extraordinary

Computer maker Dell's India executives are bullish about its fortunes, with the impending opening of a manufacturing facility in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.

The international outlook for the company now led by its founder Michael Dell is less rosy, and "Dell Continues to Sink" as this blog from the New York Times indicates.

As someone who bought an expensive Vista Home Premium-preloaded Dell desktop recently, I was surprised at the impersonal way in which the company deals with its customers. One must grant Dell a reasonably high level of efficiency in order taking and supply, but after that, the company does not seem to be really concerned about the customer. The salesman from Hewlett Packard called me three times and promised total on-site support, but I declined that order because I thought the Dell way was superior. Wrong.

Dell has overpriced but not cutting-edge hardware, such as graphics cards, on offer. But if you buy your own card, they will not instal it for you. What kind of service is that?

We don't expect any long-term handholding by Dell. But we do expect basic courtesy and customer support. Without that, Dell will sell fewer PCs, despite opening a new plant in Sriperumbudur.

Mission Impossible : Chennai minus fly swarms

What tropical country can afford to be without its swarms of insects, which make up the famed biodiversity of these Southern nations?

That question would be applicable to the great natural areas of these countries, such as the deciduous and wet evergreen forests but not the maddening urban agglomeations that are called metros in India.

Today's The Hindu has a story on yet another planned onslaught on a rising fly population in the metropolis, which has about 7 million people living in the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA).

The reason for the swarms of house flies invading Chennai neighbourhoods can be found in the proliferating mounds of garbage that are left scattered on the road side. Even in places where privatised garbage collection is found, this is the state of affairs. There is lot of organic matter to which the city population adds its unending supply of spit and phlegm at every turn.

To me, the answer to reducing the fly population lies not in bombarding the streets with poisons that will be absorbed by humans, but by putting organic waste neatly into closed containers, where the flies cannot get at them. But there is no history of the middle class in this metro taking responsibility for its waste. So the flies will have the last laugh.

Sivaji - Rajni the stylish David fells the ugly Goliath

Rajnikanth makes many points in black and white, although Sivaji is a riotously colourful film. It is difficult to imagine that a theme that is sheer constantly coiled tension between a do-gooder NRI and a hydra-headed, corrupt State can meaningfully convey anything in the midst of constant diversions and distractions, not the least of which is the silken Shriya Saran.

But Sivaji does present his case, and in black and white, without being diluted by any greys in the picture. The most interesting part of the exploration is of course the character of money in India. What is black is only an intermediate stage between two white phases, if it is used to do good. Then again, with no apologies to Fair and Lovely, black is real and recognisably genuine, while white may only be a cover for evil, whether it is Suman's dhoti-shirt in the film or the Tamilised attire of the power elite in everyday life. A black Mercedes may have a symbolism of its own when someone evil is at the wheel - which is not surprising, as it is often an iconic representation of third world decadence, despotism and corruption. Rajni is seen with a silver Mercedes for a while, although the system finally turns him over to a black SUV.




Sivaji is concerned about the evils afflicting the system in this much vaunted largest functioning democracy in the world where the middle class pays donations to put its children in schools and colleges run by crooks in white. Director Shankar is a master of this genre. He trained his ballistic directorial skills at the monstrosity that is government to blow holes into it with Indian and Anniyan. This time, he literally drives a massive knife into the soft underbelly of the sleazy system using Rajnikanth's own patented style. Though he told The Hindu that there is no blood or gore in the film, there is a strong message of positive violence in Sivaji.

It is tempting to look at Sivaji as the first of a series of Rajni films that are bound the way of MGR. In fact, Rajnikant does not lose the opportunity to declare that he "is MGR," although he explains that it stands for M.G.Ravichandran. Never mind, we all get the message.

The big question, of course, is how Shankar pulled off a film which inflates the protagonist, the superstar, to a stature that dwarfs the Establishment and pummels the political class, the police and the bureaucracy into a bruised, injured and cowering state. Alas, to retain that overpowering persona, even 'Sivaji' has to seemingly reincarnate himself in the course of the film, handing a victory to the Establishment however superficial it might be.

If there is a resonance in Rajni's Sivaji, it is on the ascendance of greed in contemporary India and the helplessness of individuals who pose a threat to the corrupt merely by being charitable. Money and muscle, in khaki and out of it, gratefully serve corrupt masters.

The rest of the film, beginning with the grand spectacles that characterise Kollywood as much as Bollywood, are no more than digitally enhanced musicals. A regal day-dreaming hero, a nubile and fluid Shriya, Rajni's style made intelligible to the digiterati by A.R.Rahman's techno-vision and giant masquerades by Thotta Tharani...are these the defining features of Sivaji? Or has MGR just started taking aim at the establishment, hoping to tame the Goliath someday?

Chennai sways to 'Sivaji'

One of the most hyped films of recent times is AVM's Sivaji, but apparently there is a lot to the film that is different from Kollywood's mega starrers that feature super heroes like Rajnikant.




For one, it is finely tuned to the visual aesthetics of the iPod generation and Shriya is a great light emitting diva (LED), providing tremendous electricity to illuminate Rajni in his new clothes. Hope to watch the film and give some more comments.

The Hindu has a couple of stories on Sivaji's release today and a gallery of images from the film.

Green perspectives in architecture

Today's Property Plus supplement in The Hindu, Chennai edition, has readable articles on ethical decisions in modern living.

"How frugal are appliances?" That question is posed by Biju Govind, who then follows it up by providing some answers in the form of Bureau of Energy Efficiency tests on electrical appliances.

There is also a delightful article on garden houses in Chennai by Madhavi Desai, exploring the intersection of the bungalow type of building with the European villa style, resulting in a grand structure that nestles in a huge tree-filled garden with tall ceilings and a vivid white exterior.

Is it all too vulgar and elitist? Perhaps, from a historical perspective. In the latter day, can it be varied to provide aesthetic alternatives that include subaltern feelings?



Meanwhile, here is an interesting story on use of solar energy in Seville, Spain narrated by the BBC, and linked to by many architecture websites.

Chennai's suburban splendour

The real estate market in Chennai has been cooling off a little, after soaring to dizzy heights over the last year.

Some of the evidence for the slowdown is in the higher volume of advertising for upmarket properties in The Hindu's Property Plus supplement. Some of the properties on offer have been advertised now for weeks together, indicating that there may be overpriced supply, if not oversupply.

One of the big ticket builders is ETA Star of Dubai, which has been advertising Jasmine Court at the Poonamallee end of the Mount - Poonamallee Road.

Here is a view of the project being advertised by the promoter:



One of the key things to bear in mind is the absence of sewerage and piped water supply in such suburban havens. There are almost no good schools or colleges in a radius of 5 km, although this property refers to the Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute (about 2 km away) as a facility available nearby.

When Paris Hilton is off the road

"I do not expect to be treated better than anyone else who violated probation. However, my hope is that I will not be treated worse," says Paris Hilton, as quoted by TIME magazine.

What a pity that some countries take their driving norms seriously and send people to jail for driving on a suspended licence during probation.

All that such people need to do is take a flight to India, where people are never ever penalised for the way they drive or cause accidents due to their rash and negligent behaviour. Why driving norms, in this land of holy cows, the holiest cow is the motor car! Next only in importance is the motorised two-wheeler. If you have one, you can violate all rules, starting with red lights.

What a shame that Paris has to wear an orange jumpsuit and spend time in jail, when her daddy has kept a fortune for her. India chalo bhai! Here is where you enjoy life, with S Class Mercedeses, Audis, BMWs, Honda SUVs, Toyota Camrys and many more machines all zipping through shanty towns, on dusty roads lined with open toilets.

And if you are Paris Hilton at the wheel, you can get prime time attention on all our fantastic news television channels that are desperate for celebrity sound bites. If you are caught DUI, you just fork out ten notes to the cop team and they will give you a salute. If you are too drunk to notice people and end up killing someone, just raise your compensation package a little. But never, ever, will you go to jail for such silly reasons.

"East is East and West is West. Never the twain shall meet"

An incompatible mix? Nokia PC Suite, 6101 and Dell's Dimension E520

I recently installed a Dell Dimension E520 desktop running some really muscular hardware - A dual core processor, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM, A 256 MB Nvidia DDR2 Graphics Card - all powering the new-fangled Microsoft bundled OS, Windows Vista Home Premium (aero interface).

As many of us Vista owners now know, MS has sold a product that is still work in progress. It does not add anything revolutionary to XP functionality but forces you to fork in a lot of money on additional hardware. What is worse, it has huge gaping holes where it should have had drivers for the most common devices that we use with PCs - mobile phones and MP3 players. (Microsoft acknowledges indirectly that there is a problem in this instructional article on its website). The poor compatibility of Vista with iTunes and iPods is universally known. Disappointingly, Vista does not even have drivers to recognise mass storage devices. I found that out when I tried to connect an APRO MP3 player to the new OS and was rejected. I then installed a driver from the manufacturer's website and it has worked so far.

My Nokia 6101 mobile phone experience is a new low point for Vista. I installed the latest version of Nokia's somewhat tacky PC software, PC Suite (v 6.83), which the phone makers says is compatible with Vista 32 and 64 bit editions. Not so.

The OS simply would not recognise the phone, although I had used the same phone successfully with Win XP, connecting with the same CA 42 cable (bought not from Nokia but from third party manufacturer on Chennai's famed Ritchie Street for a tenth of Nokia's rip-off price).

I then uninstalled this 'latest' compatible version of PC Suite and installed an earlier version that is pre-Vista. Voila! The phone was recognised by Vista, but it would not let me copy files from the camera's storage on to my PC. I had to open each file separately and make a copy. No Ctrl C and Ctrl V option available.

What a crummy piece of software to be touted as the world-leading OS! I think this would be a good subject for the next Get-a-Mac advertisement from Apple. And shame on a profit-hungry Nokia for producing such inferior connectivity software that obviously has not had much of an interaction with Microsoft to make it easier for the user.

Chennai's unapproved plans and multi-crore real estate speculators

These are times when land suddenly appears covered not with the arid dust of the coromandel coast, but the glitter of gold.

Almost every page of The Hindu's Property Plus has giant advertisements promising 'nirvana' to the wealthy, in the form of gated communities and villas that have tranquil pathways that disappear into misty woodland. This idyllic promise further throws in chirping birds that will wake you up, storks and swans magically appearing in azure waterbodies sending you into a dream-like state. (As many are aware, these are all stock photo images of European and other first world countrysides).

What happened to all the slums, the open sewers such as the Cooum, the Buckingham canal, the Adyar, the Mambalam canal, the human excreta on the road, the felled trees, the blistering heat of the concrete cosmos, the autorickshaws without silencers, the careening MTC buses and the insane call taxi drivers, you wonder. Is this a dream or is this a scene from the virtual world of Second Life?

Buyer, beware. This is a paradise on not even high quality paper, but on newsprint. These vistas are like scenes on Microsoft's Windows Vista aero dreamscapes, floating ethereally on your TFT screens, but never tangible.

There are big names in the real estate advertisements - Hiranandani Upscale on Old Mahabalipuram Road (what else can the projects be called but Greenwood and Bridgewood?), Palm, which offers Rs.71 lakh-plus villas in Medavakkam, Puravankara's Purva Swanlake on OMR, and Sai Surya in Pallikaranai, Chennai's chosen spot for chemical and garbage dumping and burning.

It would be wise to see if these big names have a copy of the CMDA-approved plan available at their office, before forking out your saved / borrowed money. There are reports that many builders have their applications waiting in the dark and inscrutable corridors of the "regularisation"-friendly Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority as "negotiations" go on. As we all have seen, the CMDA is an oxymoronic body that has repeatedly dealt devastating blows to Chennai's quality of life through corrupt dealings with property developers and big money interests, example the T.Nagar shopping area.

Why suffer in a property meltdown later? Property buyers are discovering in the US that they were sold houses by unscrupulous builders at inflated rates and they are now unable to repay their loans due to the economic slowdown. They are now suing the developers. But in India, it is the money bags that rule. So why burn your fingers?

Here is an extract from a Wall Street Journal story today on this issue --

As Market Cools, Home Buyers Seek a Way Out
By Michael Corkery and Ruth Simon

In the latest fallout from the housing market's decline, disputes are breaking out between builders and buyers who signed contracts for new homes and condos when the market was hot -- and now want to get out of them.

Even as many of the new buildings are completed, buyers are filing lawsuits claiming they were duped into purchases they couldn't afford, or victimized through fraudulent investment schemes. Some are scrutinizing their contracts looking for loopholes, or searching out tiny flaws in finished homes that might allow them to back out without losing their deposits.

-- So don't fall for claims. Do verify.

Why Dell is not perfect

Buying a full-featured personal computer from Dell, fully loaded with hardware to run the compulsorily bundled monstrous bloatware called Vista is no guarantee that Michael Dell's company really cares about your system.

I found that out when Dell refused to help with the installation of a graphics processor card on their brand new E520 PC that costs middle class Indians at least as much as two months' pay. Dell's problem is that the card is not sold by it, and so it will not help, not even on payment. Incidentally, Dell does not provide technical support directly in my city, Chennai, but through a competing PC vendor, Wipro. Interestingly, Dell is building a computer assembling plant at Sriperumbudur, a suburban town about 40 km Southwest of Chennai.

If you look at the flip side, the PC can have any number of external gadgets hooked up that have not been bought from Dell. If something goes wrong with the PC in that situation, Dell will probably have to look into it, because they have sold a "complete cover" warranty to me.

So why not help me get the new Nvidia GE Force 7300 GT card made by PNY in place, and earn the goodwill of a customer who has forked out a lot of money for a full warranty and next business day service?

Should we pay Dell to hear why they cannot help us with our computing needs?

Coke will caution consumers on caffeine in US, but not in foreign markets

We are very aware that US corporates can demonstrate a remarkable disregard for consumer protection outside their home market. Here is Coca Cola announcing that it will put caffeine information on labels of its products in the US, but not abroad.

That is unsurprising, because Coke cannot help itself to local water in the US and has to pay for it, but abroad, it just drills down, extracts water and makes commerce of it.

Here is the official word on it from Coke:

Coca-Cola to put caffeine labels on all US products

Atalanta, Feb 22 (AP) The Coca-Cola Co, the world's
largest beverage maker, said it will put caffeine content
information on the labels of all of its drink products
distributed in the United States that include the ingredient.


The Atlanta-based company yesterday said the plan was
voluntary and part of an industry initiative.


Coca-Cola said it already has included caffeine labelling
on its Full Throttle and Enviga products. It said it will roll
out the new labels on its other brands, starting with cans of
Coca-Cola Classic in May, and expanding to other brands and
packages during the remainder of the year.


The time at which the revised labels reach store shelves
will vary by brand and region as US bottlers use up existing
inventories of packaging, Coca-Cola's North America division
said in a statement.


A spokeswoman said the expanded caffeine labels will
not be placed on Coca-Cola products distributed outside the
United States.


The company said that in 2005 it introduced labelling
that provides consumers with nutrition information for a
standard eight-ounce (226-gram) serving as well as for the
total of a single-serve package.


Coca-Cola also said that it plans to market a new Diet
Coke drink containing vitamins later this year.


The zero-calorie drink, called Diet Coke Plus,
contains niacin, vitamins B6 and B12, magnesium, and zinc. It
is "an innovative product designed to meet the needs of
today's active consumers," said Coca-Cola spokesman Ben
Deutsch. (AP)

Exxon and its campaign of deceit

To those who watch BBC World regularly in India, the slick advertisements of the monstrously successful oil company Exxon Mobil come across as the reassuring statement of a socially conscious corporate.

Nothing could be farther from the truth, as those who have watched the oil lobby know. In fact, Exxon made a fantastic 40 billion dollars last year through ruinous burning of fossil fuels that have further warmed the world.

Here is a press release issued by those committed to exposing such fraud.

Exxon in Sheep's Clothing

Oil Giant Lies, Evades in Full-Page Ads Across the Country, Group Says

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Feb. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In full-page
ads today in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, ExxonMobil
rewrites history, omits any pledges of actual change and blurs Exxon's long
opposition to action on global warming, said the Foundation for Taxpayer
and Consumer Rights.
"The ad is an obvious attempt to quiet public anger and prevent
government action," said Judy Dugan, research director of the nonprofit,
nonpartisan FTCR. "Exxon is trying to pretend that it is a now a good
global citizen and deny its decades-long dispute of global warming."
FTCR's examination of the ad found:
-- Rewriting history: The ad brags that "for 15 years, our scientists
have been participating directly in the preparation of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports." (The IPCC is the
respected UN body that recently raised new alarms over the "very likely"
human causes of global warming in an extensive report.)
The reality is that ExxonMobil secretly sought -- and got -- help from
the Bush White House in a 2002 attempt to oust the head of the IPPC, Dr.
Robert Watson, and other key scientists on the panel. Exxon memos obtained
by the National Resources Defense Council showed that Exxon's aim was to
replace respected scientists with, as the NRDC put it, "contrarians known
for disagreeing with the prevailing consensus that man-made pollution is
causing global warming."
Read the Exxon memo at: http://www.nrdc.org/media/docs/020403.pdf
-- Verbal acrobatics: Exxon never uses the phrase "global warming,"
which sounds dangerous, substituting "climate change," which could be a
good thing. It uses statistics that minimize what warming is, including
"The earth's climate has warmed about 0.7% in the last century." That seems
slow, of course. There's no mention that the 10 hottest years on record
have occurred since 1990.
-- Omissions: The ad contains no pledge to develop, much less market,
renewable fuels. That's because Exxon doesn't, and won't.
At a March 14, 2006 Senate hearing, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York
pressed Tillerson on Exxon's puny spending, less that one one-hundredth of
one percent of its 2005 profits, on alternative energy research.
Tillerson's response:
MR. TILLERSON: "Well, Senator, I think your question is are we
investing heavily in alternatives and ... --
SEN. SCHUMER: You're not.
MR. TILLERSON: We're not. We are investing in technology, and we are
investing heavily in conventional oil and natural gas, which is the
business we are in. We are not in those other businesses.
(Read the transcript at
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/energy/rp/6137.pdf )
-- False choices: The ad concludes that the task of business and
government, working together, is "selecting policies that balance economic
growth and human development with the risks of climate change." In other
words, global warming can't be remedied without trashing economic
development.
That's the opposite of the truth, even from a hardheaded economic
perspective.
The global insurance giant Swiss Re warned in a 2005 report that
"Climate change will significantly affect the health of humans and
ecosystems and these impacts will have economic consequences."
"We found that impacts of climate change are likely to lead to
ramifications that overlap in several areas including our health, our
economy and the natural systems on which we depend," said Dr. Paul Epstein,
the study's lead author and associate director of the Center for Health and
the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School. "Analysis of the
potential ripple effects stemming from an unstable climate shows the need
for more sustainable practices to safeguard and insure a healthy future."
Read the story at
http://www.livescience.com/environment/051101_insurance_warming.html

Contact: Judy Dugan, +1-310-392-0522, ext. 305, or cell +1-213 280-0175



SOURCE The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights

After Ford, its Coke and Chrysler

We heard about the record breaking loss suffered by Ford Motor Company in 2006, which is not such a surprise given the state of the oil-addicted world unable to find a cheap fix.

Now it is the turn of another purveyor of well-packaged junk, Coca Cola. This symbol of poor health and water theft around the world has reported a drop in earnings and an erosion in its share price.

This is the report from Bloomberg: Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Coca-Cola Co., the world's largest soft-drink maker, said fourth-quarter profit fell less than analysts anticipated on increased demand for soda in China and Russia and healthier beverages such as bottled water in Mexico.

Net income declined 22 percent to $678 million, or 29 cents a share after its largest bottler wrote down the value of its North American unit, the Atlanta-based company said today in a statement. Excluding that, Coca-Cola earned 52 cents, topping analysts' estimates by 2 cents.

We must beware the designs of this water raider because it has said its rise in volumes is coming from markets outside the United States. In most of these markets, such as India, Coke simply sucks up groundwater in poorly supervised surroundings and pursues an aggressive advertising campaign using local film stars to sell its stuff.

Even more interesting is the report that Daimler Chrysler is looking for a buyer for its ailing acquisition, the Chrysler division. This American carmaker is to shed some 13,000 jobs, of which 11,000 are part-time workers. Shifts will be cut down in some plants and a profit now looks possible only in 2008. No one knows what the world will look like in that year, as the atmosphere is pumped with more greenhouse gases each minute, steaming up the climate.

If you are also addicted to oil, the end of the good life is nigh.

Lalu Prasad boosts railway fortunes, but in-laws try free tripping

Lalu Prasad has now secured the only endorsement that matters in New Delhi on his running of the gargantuan Indian railway network: Sonia Gandhi has said he is doing fine.

Here is the PTI report on it:

Sonia praises Lalu for "new style" to improve Railways

Rae Bareli (UP), Feb 14. (PTI): UPA chairperson and Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday joined the chorus of praise for Railway Minister Lalu Prasad saying he has introduced "new style" to improve the functioning of the Railways.

"Prasad has introduced a new style to improve the Railways functioning. For this everybody is praising him," she said after laying the foundation stone of a Rail Coach factory in her Lok Sabha constituency Rae Bareli in the presence of Prasad and his two deputies - Naranbhai Rathwa and R Velu.

Referring to the UPA Government, Gandhi said she was happy to say that ever since the party-led coalition came to power at the Centre, a new era of economic development has started, which would bring positive changes in the lifestyle of common people across the country.

As far as the Rail Coach Factory here is concerned, the Congress chief said that Railway Minister Prasad is a man of firm commitment and she was fully confident that this project would be fructified soon and provides jobs to youths.

"Lalu Prasad is firm on his words. Whatever he promises, he does it. That is why I hope that this factory will be ready soon and start working and will provide employment to youth here," she said.

Asserting that people gets name for his works, she said similarly, a Government is also remembered for his work.

"I am satisfied that our UPA Government at the Centre was proving to be a Government that works", she said.

But Lalu's in-laws are not really co-operating, it appears. They were caught without proper tickets but to their credit, they did not provide fodder for the media and quickly paid the fines, continuing their journey. The mainstream media is apparently too embarrassed that the in-laws of the illustrious Lalu were caught without proper ticket and so leading newspapers down south have only a single column item in their inside pages.

This is The Hindu's report of the incident from staffer K.Balchand.

Of course, one must conclude with the observation that Lalu Prasad is hopelessly ignorant of how his Railway system is faring in Chennai. To belabour the point to the insensitive Railway bureaucracy, the MRTS system is a ghost line even today because Lalu and his somnolent deputy Velu have no idea what is going on. Perhaps when Lalu has some time left after his MBA lectures, he can visit Chennai and take a ride on the MRTS.

In some stations, if he walks in after dark, he is likely to fall into the ditches and traps that have been left uncovered by the Southern Railway administration, currently headed by General Manager Thomas Varghese.

The China fallacy

As the only more populous country on the planet than their own, China holds great fascination for Indians. Not everyone may agree that China followed the best course of development since opening up its economy to foreign capital, but to many Indian political leaders and their supporters, that nation could do no wrong.

The ruinous effect of an intensive, polluting and industrial development philosophy on China's environment is well documented by international journals, including those with strong socialist leanings such as The Guardian of UK.

Now comes another critique of China's false development from another Leftist intellectual, Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen.

Professor Sen told a Chennai audience at the Voluntary Health Services on February 10, that life expectancy at birth had dramatically improved in the period before the country launched its economic liberalisation programme. After that, the rate of growth had actually reduced.

To quote Professor Sen, "I referred earlier to the extraordinary fact that China managed to achieve astonishing progress in general health and longevity before the economic reforms in 1979 -- a period in which economic growth was in fact rather moderate in comparison with what happened after the reforms. And yet afte the economic reforms, which ushered in a period of sustained growth and super rapid economic expansion in China, unprecedented in the whole world, the progress in life expectancy actually slowed down dramatically."

"To some extent this can be expected since by 1979 China already had quite a high life expectancy at birth, around 68 years, and certainly further expansion becomes more and more difficult as the absolute level of longevity becomes high. But the fact is that China's life expectancy is still relatively moderate in comparison with many other societies in which the progress of longevity expansion has continued to occur at a very high rate."

It is of course natural that Professor Sen spoke about the long catching up that India has to do, even to get to where China is, and not much importance need be attached to the average increase in longevity in India, which has been three times as fast as in China since 1979. He also referred to the earlier commitment that China had shown to public health (something which has been sorely missing in the Indian context despite the visionary policies recommended by Sir Joseph Bhore in 1946).

Significantly, Professor Sen refers to Kerala as forging ahead of China in the area of health, and achieving a four or five year advantage in life expentancy over China since 1979. It is higher than every province of China (with the obvious exception of urban conglomerates such as Beijing and Shanghai).

Let us remember that Kerala has been one of the exceptional states in the Indian Union with the natural blessing of a verdant, unpolluted, tropical climate. Much of the State except for the Palakkad Pass is skirted by the Western Ghats Mountains and is therefore favoured by nature with plentiful rainfall and vegetation. Is it possible that Kerala's protected natural environment, unsullied by intensive manufacturing-based development is partly responsible for its better health indicators? The literate, health-conscious and politically aware citizenry is of course responsible for the positive outcomes overall.

No MRTS on weekends

It would have been the kind of interesting "view from the sky" ride that one normally pays heavily for in a theme park. From Chintadripet, in the centre of Chennai, to Adyar (Thiruvanmiyur) in the Southeast on the elevated MRTS.

I wanted to ride the MRTS to listen to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on the subject of "Health and the Society." It would have been a dream to go on the elevated train to the Adyar point just opposite the venue, which was Voluntary Health Services.

Sadly, Dr. Sen's lecture was on a Saturday and for some strange reason, the Mass Rapid Transit System of Chennai does not operate between Thirumayilai (Mylapore) and Thiruvanmiyur during the weekends. What a shame.

Ultimately, I carpooled with a colleague, and a friend joined us. The only achievement we could speak of was the use of one car instead of three.

If the folks at the Indian Railways Fan Club do read this, can they campaign for the unsung MRTS, please?

I imagine that if the Railways were less greedy and more sensible, they would price their MRTS at two rupees flat for a ride, and run trains every five minutes, potentially packed to capacity.

Too bad the Railway Minister Lalu Prasad is getting so much attention for good performance without really doing anything about this train system and the "stiff upper lip" Southern Railway bureaucracy could not care less.

Sold on the Sun

As a seeker of the Sun, that unimaginably powerful nuclear reactor that sustains all life on earth, I believe that the answer to our energy demands comes from the sky.

I found this neat commercial on Youtube, which has a cinematic feel and conveys a vital message in under two minutes with a slick feel to it.

Indians can be among the biggest beneficiaries of solar photovoltaic and thermal power and it is encouraging that the first signs of recognition are there in the area of business. Moserbaer is developing its solar pv unit and if they will distribute their panels and devices adopting the same concept as the VCDs and DVDs, we can all buy panels without burning holes in our pocket.

Here goes the video:

Judgment Day for Wal Mart and some Indian echoes

Everyone knew that the darling of the consuming class in the US, Wal Mart would get its just come-uppance sooner than later for its anti-labour practices.

A US court has allowed female employees to sue it for discrimination. This class action suit, the US media says, is the biggest of its kind in that country's legal history.

Look at the irony of the situation. Wal Mart manages millions of items every hour sourced from around the world in its unquenchable thirst for profits, but it said it could not manage the claims of all its female employees!

The Los Angeles Times website reports that the court made this observation to Wal Mart's claim: "The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Wal-Mart's claim that a class of more than 1.5 million employees — all of Wal-Mart's women workers since 1998 — would be unmanageable."

At home (here in India) Sonia Gandhi has suddenly developed jitters about the Wal Mart - Bharti retailing venture and asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to go over its possible impact on small traders closely. Media reports say she is worried that it might displace small retailers with terrible social consequences. I beg to ask, how is it different from the Reliance retailing venture, which is similar in scope and scale?

Incidentally, Reliance retail with the brand Reliance Fresh is an environmental disaster for India. How, you ask. More on that soon...

Acid drinking teens

Attempted suicides using cleaning acid. There are many youths who try it but according to a calculation made by the Government Royapettah Hospital, only one in 200 succeeds.

The others slide down a tunnel of dark misery that few are even aware of. The GRH meeting of Jan 26 has been captured in video and hosted as a full-length streaming programme by kumudam.com

I think it should be shown in all schools, colleges and slums which represent places with high concentrations of vulnerable people. Possibly the government will do that.

Burning up the future: the climate crisis

This Friday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is all set to release a massive document detailing the climate crisis that we have unleashed on ourselves, and which is likely to ruin the future of generations to come.

It is of course a pity that India and China, two of the most populous and ambitious countries on the planet today are contributing actively to accelerate the pace at which such disaster will overtake the earth.

Both countries have huge populations that are now discovering prosperity levels that were unknown a century ago. Their newly affluent citizens are being actively wooed by the global automotive industry to sell cheap, low-performing, gas guzzling and unsafe cars and two-wheelers.

Strangely, the Communist parties in India have also got the wrong end of the stick and are calling for reduction in petroleum prices, as a panacea to the problems affecting mobility. This is a warped argument, although there seems to be a hidden agenda to support Indian capitalists who are riding the boom in the automotive sector. It is completely topsy-turvy because mass mobility can never be achieved through personal transportation, and the Communists are seen harping on individual mobility and freedom, which is a conservative, Right-wing approach to the issue, far removed from the traditional precincts of the Left.

The wheel seems to be turning full circle in the land of profligate consumption: America.

Look at what one of their conservative journals has said now, as the world prepares to hear the bad news from the UN.

(From a blog on The Huffington Post)

Even in the conservative American Spectator today, William Tucker made serious mention of some of the causes of this impending catastrophe (probably written before the UN news made the wire). Among a lot of analysis of the president's energy plan, Tucker acknowledged the following:

"In 1976 we burned 500 million tons of coal a year. Today we burn more than a billion. There are 90 more coal plants being built right now. The Department of Energy points out that -- because of various loopholes in the law -- 80 per cent of these plants still use the same old-fashioned dirty technology."
And...

"A carbon tax would truly drive Americans toward conserving gasoline. Everybody agrees it's wasteful to be splurging on SUVs and Hummers, but people will do it as long as gas is $2 a gallon. The real danger is that we're going to start running up against world supply limits, particularly if China and India go car-happy. As long as we've got the carbon excuse, why not start easing into a situation of scarcity with some kind of carbon levy?"

What is happening to the world? Right is Left and Left is Right!
More on this when the UN report is out.

Disappointing suburban CMDA layouts

Despite all the hype about life in the suburbs among sylvan surroundings, lakes, birds and bees, the reality can be very different.

This is what the owners and residents of Jeeva Nagar, a layout not far from the Sri Ramachandran Medical College and Research Institute in Kattupakkam - Mangadu have found.

They have been petitioning the Kancheepuram District Collector and the Mangadu Panchayat, about the abysmal state of civic facilities in their low-lying plots, which become inaccessible at the first hint of rain.

Here is their letter published in The Hindu
today.

Just to make it easier, the text is also reproduced here:

Civic works in Jeeva Nagar

The residents of Jeeva Nagar, a CMDA-approved layout in Kattupakkam just off the fast developing Mount-Poonamallee Road (PPD LO No. 134/2003 and Survey Nos. 558/2B2, 559/2, 561/2 and 562 of Mangadu Village) are awaiting civic works to be undertaken, to overcome problems of severe monsoon flooding, lack of basic roads and street lighting.

The Mangadu Panchayat, which has jurisdiction over the layout, has said that it is considering these development works, and tenders are being processed, which is a commendable step.

We would like to point out that optimal utilisation of the allocation can take place only if the road level in the layout is raised through addition of debris (which is readily available from nearby encroachment demolition work carried out by official agencies in December 2006). This would bring the Jeeva Nagar ground level on par with adjoining Badrimedu ward and AUDCO Nagar.

During 2005 and 2006, Jeeva Nagar remained inaccessible for nearly four months because of flooding, release of sewage from adjacent wards, lack of roads and total darkness at dusk. As a result, house-building activity came to a halt and the panchayat suffered revenue loss.

While thanking the Kancheepuram District Collector and the Mangadu Panchayat for their initiative, we appeal that they make the best use of funds by ensuring at least four feet road height, and provision for laying of drinking water pipelines along all interior streets.

S. Ramkumar,

President

Jeeva Nagar Owner's And Residents Welfare Association

Kattupakkam.

These residents also maintain a blog to highlight their issues and have put up a slideshow on the post-monsoon situation.

Royapettah Hospital: They attempted suicide with cleaning acid...

Republic Day 2007 was celebrated by a group of patients who survived a suicide attempt (they tried to kill themselves by drinking concentrated cleaning acid) at the Government Royapettah Hospital in Chennai.

There were patients from Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Madurai and other places. Some have recovered sufficiently after surgery by Dr. S.M.Chandramohan and his team, to be able to eat routinely. Normally, the upper gut is rendered useless after consuming acid and it is impossible for these patients to eat normally. Surgery has worked a miracle for them.

Some of them spoke out on their experiences and rued their moment of weakness when they tried to commit suicide with acid. Now, their families are left with the searing pain of caring for someone who has been severely crippled; in the worst cases, people who cannot eat and must be fed with some nutrients directly into the system.



Dr. Chandramohan paid glowing tribute to all medical teams who had assisted in making the hospital's work a big success. Certificates were distributed to the departments of anaesthesiology, oncology, pathology, medical gastroenterology, intensive care, orthopaedics, ENT, nursing, radiology and others.

The Health Secretary Mr. V.K.Subburaj was there, and so was the Director of Medical Education (in-charge). There was some talk of expanding GRH, and putting up new buildings. For the thousands of people who depend on this suburban hospital that is located in a congested part of the city, good facilities will not come a day too early.

But then, they live in a country that is increasingly veering away from the ideal of free, universal healthcare access with high quality standards...

Expect Ford to step on the gas in India

Ford, the iconic American car company that symbolised consumer utopia by mass manufacturing vehicles for the common man early in the 20th century has hit another massive speed breaker with a fourth quarter loss of 5.8 billion dollars and an annual loss of 12.7 billion dollars for 2006 (reports Reuters).

This is, according to the agency, the worst year in the 103-year history of the company. Last year, heavy job cuts sounded the alarm that Ford is running out of fuel (as the auto industry generally is bound to be in the developed world).

The question that should interest us Indians is the response from loss-ridden international automakers to the emerging scenario of global warming, costlier fuel and supply lines that are linked to the vagaries of geopolitics and the general unsustainability of motorisation in the developing world, of which China and India are the prime examples.

It is fairly certain that the losing carmakers will compete more aggressively in the developing markets; price cuts, cheaper (and unsafe) models, petrol/diesel guzzlers, higher emission engines and a tacit campaign against public transport are all being witnessed even today; we will see more of it.

The positive feature is that the frenzy of car sales has a GLOBAL climate impact, which is likely to send more Katrinas hammering the US coastline, as much as the typhoons in South East Asia and the seemingly unending monsoon downpour in Mumbai, all of these being very lethal weather phenomena.

If Indians are concerned about the future of the planet, and, that of their children, they should persuade the Manmohan-Chidambaram-Ahluwalia caucus against encouraging fuel-guzzlers from hitting Indian roads, whether they are from loss-ridden Ford, Chevrolet, Skoda, Hyundai, Suzuki, Toyota, Mercedes, Tata...

We need cheaper, modern buses that are rolled out on Indian roads by the tens of thousands each month. Why, if cars can be imported and sold (to supplement domestic manufacture), why not buses? And trains? and trams?

If the automakers are going to try to press the pedal further, we may have nowhere to run for cover.

Let us remember what Andre Gorz said long ago. It is simply impossible for everyone to want to buy a part of the beach, because that would give each person a few inches of beachfront; that cannot be used by the owner in any practical way. Ditto for the car. If all of us had a car each, none of us would be able to use them!

New autorickshaw rates in Chennai

Two items of great interest to the middle class that are in today's papers are a cut in roaming tariffs for mobile phones, and the impending introduction of newly regulated fares for autorickshaws in Chennai (from January 26).

There is of course a great deal of cynicism among the city residents that this is another attempt at window dressing by authorities who are not serious about regulating the autorickshaw sector.

The Hindu today carries a report giving all the numbers which will take down complaints against illegal demands made by autorickshaw drivers.

The mobile roaming tariffs are more likely to get implemented, although one is never sure how the cellcos are cheating customers on billing.

Who cheated whom? The Global Trust Bank scam

I have been a victim of the arbitrary and completely opaque takeover of the Global Trust Bank by the Oriental Bank of Commerce, under the directions of the Finance Ministry and the RBI.

As a long-standing depositor who lost Rs. 16,000 in two five-year term deposits, I believe both the RBI and Mr. P.Chidambaram, our extremely suave and highly educated but entirely unsuitable, arrogant and unethical Minister have a lot to answer for. What we need is an honest and communicative Minister in this job, not someone who thinks 99 per cent of Indians don't deserve an answer to questions about their money, which he appropriates to various accounts everyday. You don't need a Harvard education to do that. Many semi-literates are doing that everyday in different walks of life.

I would like to know, for instance, how it was decided that the contractual obligations of GTB with depositors will not be transferred to OBC, when it was assuming all its assets and liabilities. We have no idea what assets GTB possessed, particularly real estate. Mr. Chidambaram has not told us that. We are simply told that all rates and charges will apply on OBC terms from the date of takeover.

Meanwhile, I found this post raising some questions about the GTB-OBC forced marriage.

Advertising medical cures and public health

Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has said it for the third time in a year and half that he proposes to amend the Drugs and Magic Remedies Act, 1954 with the aim of banning advertisements about treatment processes.

It is a matter of wonder why he is unable to implement what he said in 2005, though a full year has passed. He said it again in 2006, and now he has said it again in 2007. What is so pressing about advertisements, that is not about a host of other ills that are sapping the health of the average Indian?

We are living with air pollution beyond imagination (India has 5 of the world's most polluted cities, the World Bank says, and New Delhi is still the most polluted in the WHOLE WORLD). Why is Dr. Ramadoss happy to live in Delhi with such polluted air, but feels so strongly about advertisements, which are of course completely unethical and I hold no brief for the greedy corporate dispensers of health.

Water is another sadly neglected area which is yet to catch the concerned gaze of our Union and State Governments and Dr. Ramadoss. Only people who can buy bottled water are safe in India. Why not do something about municipal water supplies, so that people can drink safe water. After all, that is a much more fundamental driver of public health than getting a few tertiary hospitals to stop advertising? You can actually stop sending people to hospitals looking for cures!

Are these things not important because our political worthies see no 'returns' from such national scale actions?

A break in the forests

What a feeling it is to be away from the swirling madness that is urban India! Away from the IT and technoparks, the discussions on gated communities, the land grab mafias and the worst specimens of Homo sapiens...

Just got back after a fantastic four days during pongal at Nagarahole National Park, which is not far from Mysore. It is closest to the small town of Hunsur.



I had the unique experience of observing the brilliant faunal diversity of the land in the company of Dr. K. Ullas Karanth, the renowned wildlife biologist of the Wildlife Conservation Society who specialises in scientific study of tigers, and the very talented film-maker Shekar Dattatri.

A piece on the whole question of studying tigers, the ecological concerns and the future of conservation is to appear in The Hindu soon... Also look out for pictures from the trip!

Meanwhile, I spotted this post on conservation from a fellow blogger.

"Muni" invites Chennai audience to be part of film

Here is a still from the audio release of "Muni" held against the backdrop of a giant statue created for the film in suburban Nandambakkam.




Many look forward to the venture because Rajkiran is in it. It is interesting that the statue, the kind of which is (or rather was) a common sight in the Tamil countryside as Ayyanar, features prominently in this film.

Saran and a host of others were there at the audio release, where the filmmakers also offered lunch to those who came.

Thirumazhisai in Chennai to have NRI city

I learn that tomorrow's The Hindu Property Plus will have a big advertisement for a gated community in Thirumazhisai, a suburb off Poonamallee and Sriperumbudur.

Apparently, this town which is famous for Thirumazhisai "Alwar" and many temples of antiquity, has been chosen because it is proximal to the emerging automotive and IT hardware belt.

The second advertisement is for Alliance Bougainvillea, about which I have posted several times.

New draft of Second Master Plan for Chennai

Srivathsan reports in The Hindu today that the Tamil Nadu Government has asked for a fresh draft of the Second Master Plan for Chennai, which has been stillborn and kept in governmental formaldehyde now many years.

It is of course significant that much of the planning input that went into the earlier Second Master Plan draft was based on the situation before the IT/ITES and retailing boom. These sectors are now expanding with unprecedented speed in Chennai, along with the automotive sector, with serious consequences for real estate prices, traffic, pollution, water availability and quality and overall quality of life (in short, going the Bangalore way).



It is also useful that Srivathsan reminds everyone about the expanding physical area and the population of Chennai -- 306 villages in 10 panchayats, 28 town panchayats, eight municipalities and a cantonment, stretching over 1,177 square kilometres. Phew! For those who are new to the city, Chennai has only rudimentary sewerage and piped water supply and most local governments listed above have next to no sewerage and grossly inadequate water sources. But many are now hosting Spanish villas and English gardens!

Srivathsan's report on the plan for a Chennai Metro rail is also informative.

If you want to see more of a planned gated community, watch this slideshow:

Chennai's autorickshaw fares hiked, but will it fly?

Today, The Hindu's news update service reported the following:

Autorickshaw fare hiked in Tamil Nadu
Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: The State Government has hiked the minimum autorickshaw fares from Rs. 7 to Rs. 14 for the first two kilometres. For every subsequent kilometre, the fare has been increased from Rs. 3.50 to Rs. 6 . The new rates will come into effect from January 26.

The government has fixed a waiting charge of 40 paise for every 5 minutes. For trips between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., the commuters will be charged 25 per cent more than the revised rates. Autorickshaw owners must replace mechanical meters with electronic ones within six months and upgrade existing electronic meters within 45 days.

The government will help owners get financial assistance worth Rs. 2,000 from banks for effecting the change.

To register complaints, contact 103, 044-26445511, 044-26444445,044-26445959 or sms 98418 08123.

The question to ask is, can the Government make it work this time?

Also, why isn't the same government intervening through the market: by operating more buses to meet the real demand and making suburban train services, MRTS and rail stations more attractive for new users?

Amid blogosphere noise, a tribute to Laurie Baker

It is sometimes difficult to find something that is not self-obsessed, inflated and ego-driven prattle in the blogosphere. Most bloggers are so full of themselves that unless you have a prurient interest in the person behind the online persona, you end up getting bored.

But here is a heartwarmingly personal post that surfaced in a google search on Laurie Baker that was refreshing for its sincere tone and its commitment to a truly extraordinary resident of India.

The few responses that it has prompted are equally sincere. Wish there were more of these...

Meanwhile, Gautam Bhatia's book on Baker is rated with five stars on Amazon.com. I found it in Landmark (Apex Plaza) in Chennai.

For more on Laurie Baker's legacy, visit this site.

Mixed motifs of Spain, England and Pallava country in Chennai

Apparently, there is something alluring about Spanish villas. We have seen Alliance Bougainvillea announcing its project near Poonamallee recently. XS Real Estate also has Villa Espana in Velachery "overlooking the Guindy National Park" (which is what should make the development really attractive).




English gardens are similarly attractive, it seems. Both Alliance and XS are talking about English gardens (though they are silent about the hot, humid and dirty exterior) on their properties in Chennai, in Bougainvillea - Poonamallee and Chesterfields - Ramapuram.

XS also talks of some Pallava motifs in its "apartment bungalows."

It beats me why property developers are completely obsessed with Spain for the Sun and England for gardens. The irony strikes me because we have always had sunny skies. Moreover, in England, the local population years for more Sun and actually describes bright days as an "Indian summer!"

To property developers we are hopelessly smitted by Western architectural and cultural influences (though they do have some things of value even to us in our climate, such as Bay windows).

I am hoping for the day that some builder announces projects that pay tribute to Nature, and makes the best use of sunlight, rainwater and air, in the manner that Laurie Baker advocated.

Saran asks, are you a 'Muni'?

It is a good time to be a Muni. That is what those who have names beginning with or containing Muni must be thinking. Whether it is Muni, Munusamy, Muniyandi, Nathamuni or Muniappan, you are invited by Saran to Nandambakkam's Burma Colony, where his mega production that is titled Muni will be releasing the audio on January 10.

The bonus is not just having a biriyani if you love meat, but a photo op with Rajkiran and others. Also get a cassette for takeaway.

The piece de-resistance will of course be the shooting of a song titled "Varanda Muni" between 3 and 5 p.m.



"Thousands of Munis are expected," says Saran in his invitation, in which he thanks the fans for supporting him from the time of Aaru. "It has given me a good exposure in the movie industry," he says, on the eve of the audio release by Gemini Productions Pvt Ltd starting at 2 p.m., preceded by the lunch. Incidentally, the meaty lunch is a dominant aspect of the film and all its publicity.

If you are finding it difficult to locate the 40 feet statue of Muneeswarar at Burma Colony, Defence Grounds, Nandambakkam near the Mount-Poonamallee Road where the action will take place, call film PRO Nikil.

What does CMDA-approved in Chennai mean?

Apparently, getting a CMDA-approved plot does not add up to much. That is the lesson that one learns from Jeeva Nagar, a suburban layout promoted by a company called BLB Estates of T.Nagar.

The residents of this layout near Kattupakkam and Poonamallee that was approved in 2003 are at their wits' end because the promoter, the CMDA, and the local government represented by Mangadu Town Panchayat are not ready to help. Most of the properties are underwater even two full months after the Northeast monsoon came to an end.

The property owners who have paid all dues to the CMDA for the layout permission have petitioned the Kancheepuram District Collectorate too, without any concrete response.

Of course, building activity is going on all around the layout and the Alliance Bougainvillea project is just 2 km away. A Maruti dealership is all set to open next door with room for scores of cars, while Manipal Automobiles, a Tata dealership is already open 1 km away. DLF is building an IT Park 4 km down the same road.

But watch the slideshow put up by the property owners of Jeeva Nagar:

Jeeva Nagar

More from Professor Stiglitz in Chennai

As part of his talk, Professor Stiglitz emphasised his suggestion that one alternative to patents could be the institution of a Medical Prize Fund (see his editorial in the British Medical Journal).

His belief is that such a prize will spur innovation in much needed areas such as malaria, which is a disease affecting developing countries and for which big pharma companies will not devote research budgets.

Other points:

The concept of limited liability is being used to avoid cleaning up the environmental mess after it is no longer profitable to pursue a particular industrial process -- a familiar example is mining.

With the strong evidence available on global warming, there should now be a move to tax emissions in the developed world. The Kyoto protocol, which the US has pulled out of and which does not impose any obligations on developing countries, has reached an impasse.

Importantly, there is no enforcement mechanism in the present situation for climate change agreements, unlike the Montreal protocols on CFCs where trade sanctions were included. The Montreal protocol is perceived to have worked.

India's response to globalization should be to address the growing inequalities. There must be ways to cushion the losers. "Use some of the gains to ensure that there are fewer losers."

Manage globalization on your own terms, reject dogmas. In the case of the roles of Market and Government, in some areas, the State has to take a larger role even as it retreats from others.

Capital market liberalisation is going to be risk without reward. The argument that you cannot get capital without liberalisation is false. China has got it. FDI provides capital which has long term stakes, unlike speculative flows that only seek immediate gains.

In the area of drugs, intellectual property may impose high costs without the benefits. The acceptance of IP must always be a trade-off between the inefficiencies of having patents with the gains that it would bring. But in the case of drugs, you could have high costs, without the benefit. The Uruguay Round of talks resulted in compulsory licensing provisions, but that is not being taken full advantage of.

That is because, if you do, the US will put pressure on you on other things. Thailand has faced the pressure on HIV/AIDS drugs. Brazil is also facing similar pressure. But India and Brazil are strong countries that can resist this.

Joseph Stiglitz's lecture in Chennai

Professor Joseph Stiglitz's lecture on "Making Globalization Work," delivered under the auspices of The Hindu, dwelt on the opportunity before India to structure its participation in the globalization process according to its terms, rather than on the terms of profiteering international capitalists.

The tone of the Nobel laureate's talk was a mix of informed persuasiveness and experienced caution.

Here are some highlights, which should be familiar to those who have read his recent book on which the lecture topic was framed:

Number of people in poverty in Africa has doubled in the last 25 years.

China and India have benefited out of globalization, but Africa has neither the education resources or market resources to take advantage of the opportunity.

There is a gross assymmetry between the way capital and labour have been liberalised. There is lot of interest in liberalising flow of capital, but not labour. Consider a scenario where capital was frozen, but labour could flow freely. That would mean we would be a lot more concerned about improving our environment and education systems to a degree that would help leverage such an opportunity.

The impact of patents under TRIPS is likely to be severe on prices of drugs in developing countries, as also in the more developed ones. HIV/AIDS is the most visible example, where advanced drug formulations are going to cost about 17,000 dollars against 10,000 dollars for branded first generation drugs and even 200 dollars for generics.

Generally, the TRIPs agreement is bad for science, US science and international science.

Capital market liberalisation is unlikely to create economic growth in developing countries. It will only lead to more instability.

Globalization is being used as a pretext in many countries to roll back social protections. We have not learnt how to temper globalization. To make it work, we must change the international rules that govern the process of globalization. Secondly, we must be able to manage the changes arising from globalization.

When the 2001 development round of trade talks was held, the US and Europe reneged on their promises. The US doubled its agro subsidies.

The problem with TRIPs is that it imposes a single intellectual property regime on all countries. All countries are asked to pay similar prices despite their different development status.

More points to follow....

Online sales and gullible Chennaiites

There is so much hype about the retail sector that the big stores are apparently finding it easy to take consumers for a ride in Chennai.

Many blogs and newspapers are gushing about the opening of big-ticket stores like Pantaloon Retail's Big Bazaar in Chennai. I decided to check out their website, and went on to their "futurebazaar" e-commerce site.

Here is one item that's on the site:

Kingston 512MB Pen Drive
MRP Rs. 1999 Offer Rs. 726

It must come as a rude shock to those who fall for the "lowest prices everyday" sales pitch, that a 1 GB Kingston Pen Drive with smart software from u3.com is available on Ritchie Street, Chintadripet (off Anna Salai) for about Rs.900!

So much for our retailing and e-commerce hype.

Chennai: potholed paradise

On New Year's eve, many of the Hyundai Accents received by Chennai Police gratis from the Korean carmaker were at their screaming best. They were zipping along in some places, their lights flashing and sirens wailing or standing with metallic efficiency at other locations (what they achieved is not clear, though).

In 2007, Chennai is no different from what it was a year ago, when there were no freebie Hyundais for "patrolling." After the Northeast Monsoon and with a faceless Mayor at Ripon Building (M. Subramaniam, heard of him?), the metro's roads are a long trail of potholes.

Apparently, the somnolent occupants of the Corporation headquarters have decided to allocate money for road repairs, but the Zonal Officers (Assistant Commissioners) are in no hurry to do basic repair work to fill up the potholes. So in most places, you simply bump along and pay the automobile mechanic more.

This sort of indifference contrasts with the hype generated by globizens about the way this hypermetro is making waves. There are colourful advertisements in newspapers claiming to offer "English" gardens with "Spanish" villas in their midst, tall glass and steel marvels housing BPOs who are linked to international capitals. You only have to spend a fiver on the Mass Rapid Transit System that travels the length of the Cooum and Buckhingham Canal, which are nothing but open sewers, to see what a travesty of truth Chennapatnam is!



The enormous amounts of waste generated by the villa types gets carted to shanties lining these canals, where some of it is segregated for onward sale for crude recycling. The rest is simply dumped on the riverside. The waste plastic and white board dumped summarily in this fashion provides some weak relief to the black sewage-marked banks of the watercourses, while the shanties appear in the background, rusty reminders that there is a city that is invisible to the chatterati and which the media has stopped talking about because it is no longer fashionable to do so.