Does God play dice?

Music concert leave the listeners’ spell-bound, often lifting them to emotive highpoints. Such humane perceptions do exist but can rarely be scientifically quantified. Does that mean `they’ don’t exist? While acknowledging that all that science cannot explain does however exist in reality, French Physicist Bernard d’Espagnat argues that mystery is not something that ought to be negated because it is one of the constitutive elements of `being’.

For better part of his distinguished academic career, d’Espagnat explored the big idea that science can only probe so far into what is real, and that there is a `veiled reality’ that will always elude us. Though somewhat contentious when it was first proposed, veiled reality has been vogue as a theory as it supports the argument that finding words is certainly not a sufficient condition for valid thinking because it is not absolutely sure that everything meaningful is analyzable. Ever since he entered the mainstream physics, d’Espagnat has encouraged physicists and philosophers to think afresh about questions long considered marginal, as significant experiments over the past decades had not restored conventional realism....more (please move to page 62 of the document)

India's Asbestos time-bomb

Unless one really thinks about it, asbestos does not appear to be a part of our everyday lives. But it exists in a range of items, from corrugated sheets to floor tiles, from brake linings to fire protection. Finely powdered asbestos has even sneaked into our lives as an adulterant in perfumed talc and as a whitener in ‘extra white basmati’ rice. Shockingly, it is neither suited to the skin nor a delicacy!

Instead “it is a time bomb that is slowly ticking away,” contends a just released study edited by David Allen and Laurie Kazan-Allen. Titled ‘India’s Asbestos Time Bomb’, the study takes a hard look at the integrated global system that mines, processes and exports this life-threatening product, and delves into the dark shadowy world of the asbestos industry that thrives on political patronage. The study is published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS)....more

The hollow hype

To call a country an `emerging giant economy’ where rural inequality has remained unchanged and urban inequality has worsened can only be a half-truth. To continue with his half-truth, Arvind Panagariya fails to find any link between economic reforms and farmer’s suicides in the country. Conversely, the author argues, open policies and rapid economic growth are the best antidotes for poverty reduction. The glossy picture of the Indian economy may have very little to do with Indian reality but the author seems to insist that is the only way.

Having spent a significant part of his professional career with the global financial institutions like the World Bank and the IMF, Panagariya’s growth diagnosis hinges on the much-hyped high-wage skill-intensive information technology sector. Expectedly, the economic picture blurs the stagnant agriculture sector and the restless unskilled labour into the background. Though the current economic thrust has been found wanting to fill the large development gap, Panagariya stays overtly optimistic that market reforms will reach the impoverished masses....more

Over-disciplined

Following in a long line of analysis, talk shows on television on several occasions over the past summer featured experts who made politically correct statements in favour of a series of upstream dams that would restrict the Yamuna River from any further flooding of New Delhi. As if on cue, over the same months residents of the capital city saw the Yamuna’s waters swell to levels not seen in decades, sending people and the government back to 1978, when the river had inundated large parts of the metropolitan area. But while the floodwaters did eventually subside, as they did in 1978, like a bad dream the suggestion of the possibility of damming the Yamuna’s flow continues to haunt engineers, planners and politicians. But such suggestions ride on constricted public memory, of a type that rarely recalls past misadventures. Nurtured by planning ideology that remains subservient to the political economy of development, engineers have made water management into an exclusive domain reserved solely for themselves. As a consequence, the governance of water systems has remained stagnant as a discipline....more

No less than a coup

The apparently indisputable virtue of choice is one of the founding principles of market economy - a belief that seems empowering to most consumers. In reality, the 'choice' is just a façade. With most of what we consume largely controlled and supplied by big business - in many cases supported by government subsidies - our choices reflect an apology of options that are socially engineered by the corporations to allure the unsuspecting consumers. And in many cases, most of what we consume is either not good for us or for the environment we live in.

What is not good for people is rewarding for the big businesses though! One estimate suggests that the biggest 500 transnational corporations (TNCs) control about 70 per cent of the world trade, 80 per cent of foreign investment and about 30 per cent of the world GDP. As if this is not enough, only ten companies control half of the seed market; five control 90 per cent of the international grain trade; 85 per cent sales of pesticides are controlled by six big companies; and one such Monsanto controls 91 per cent of the global market of genetically modified products....more

The capitalism conundrum

In 1934, renowned economist Simon Kuznets warned the US congress that “the welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from the measurement of national income”. Decades later, his words sound prophetic. While receiving the Nobel Prize in 1961 for his pioneering work on computing national incomes, or what has since then been termed GDP, Kuznets anxiously argued that distinctions must be made between quantity and quality of growth.

Contemporary research clearly demonstrates how right Kuznets was, as economic growth triggered by increased personal consumption does not necessarily translate into overall well-being. A recent quality-of-life study among young people in the UK has proved that 76% of people are regularly tired; 47% have difficulty sleeping and 42% suffer from depression. Such trends are no longer restricted to Western societies; each of around 80 million new citizens arriving on this planet every year are vulnerable to such lifestyles....more

The age of love

Hundreds of artisans from the nondescript town of Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh, worked tirelessly for two years to put millions of small circular mirrors together to create the interiors of Sheesh Mahal. Their goal was to replicate the splendour of the Mughal era in this 3ft-high, 80ft-wide and 150ft-long makeshift glass palace, where one of the finest dance sequences of Hindi cinema was filmed—Pyaar kiya to darna kya from Mughal-e-Azam (1960)— which is deconstructed in Shakil Warsi’s new, engrossing book Mughal-e-Azam: An Epic of Eternal Love.

Soon after the sets were ready came the bad news: It was impossible to shoot there because the mirrors inlaid on the walls and pillars would reflect too much light. With experts such as directors David Lean and Roberto Rossellini concurring, the producer almost considered having the film made by another director. But this did not deter K. Asif, the director....more

Beyond Freakonomics

Since assuming office, US President Barack Obama has attempted to assess why markets become overheated and then come crashing down. He read Cass Sunstein’s much acclaimed book Nudge to get a sense of how government regulation can wean people away from poor decision making. Using behavioural economics, Sunstein suggested “libertarian paternalism” as a weapon to help people nudge a herding tendency that often determines investor behaviour.

The critical question, however, is not whether people should be steered towards the right choice but to ascertain what indeed is right. Jonathan Aldred, a University of Cambridge economist, dismisses the idea of economic success as the indicator of right decision; he concurs that ethical economics is what determines smart decisions. In his revealing and entertaining book The Skeptical Economist, Aldred says that economics is not an agreed body of knowledge or an objective science. Instead, it is built on ethical foundations—how we ought to live, and what we should value....more

Fizz out of Coke

For once, Mark Thomas is serious. Traversing continents—from Istanbul to Mexico; from Bogota to Plachimada—the British comedian annoys all the right people and asks all the wrong questions in his new book Belching Out The Devil. Thomas was stunned when a woman from Coca-Cola’s human resources department asked, “Why are you picking on us?" The question implied that not only was the company innocent, but that questioning it was intimidatory. But Thomas went to meet her well-researched.

Thomas’ brand of issue-driven comedy has earned him the UN Global Human Rights Defender Award and the prestigious Emerald Eagle Award for Unbiased Reporting. Such awards could be incriminating, as Thomas learnt while seeking a meeting with Coca-Cola’s officials in Kala Dera, near Jaipur. The permission was refused because the company found him “biased" in his writings.

The murder of a trade unionist working for Coca-Cola’s bottler in Colombia in the early 1990s may have sparked a worldwide campaign against the beverage giant, but the company had conveniently distanced itself. On the murder trail, Thomas found seven union members had been killed in cold blood by Colombian paramilitary groups. It may have been legally questionable, but the company escaped by transferring the responsibility squarely on independent bottlers in Colombia.

The murders affected beverage sales by about $2.2 billion. However, aggressive marketing kept the company rolling. Thomas argues that the global brand thrives on the collective stupidity and failed memories of its consumers. A day before his death, Martin Luther King Jr spoke against Coca-Cola for its racial hiring policy, and called upon African-Americans, “We are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola…" Thomas says that by flouting existing regulations and laws, Coca Cola has made aggressive inroads into developing countries. The lifting of a ban on an artificial sweetener called cyclamate, which was banned in the US and Mexico, encouraged the company to spend one-fifth of its annual advertising budget in Mexico alone.

Thomas’ subjects include Raquel Chavez, the Mexican woman who took Coke to court for monopolistic trade that forced the company to shell out $13 million in fine. Thomas goes from being witness to child labor on the cane fields in El Salvador to dried village wells along dusty roads in Rajasthan.

Despite being scrutinized for drying aquifers in Plachimada, Kerala, and Kala Dera, Rajasthan, Coke legitimises its water-guzzling by investing in rainwater harvesting thereby making people believe that it is replenishing as much as it is extracting. In reality, the pace of extracting groundwater can never match that of replenishment simply because it doesn’t rain every day.

Thomas takes the fizz out of the world’s most recognized beverage company, Coca-Cola, with the thoroughness of an investigative journalist. Shocking facts about child rights abuse, labour intimidation and unscrupulous groundwater extraction unravel about a company that reportedly spends around $2 billion (around Rs.10,000 crore) on advertising.

First published in Mint, issue dated April 24, 2009.

The wrath of the Kosi

A Hindu legend has it that enamoured by her beauty, a demon proposed marriage to Kosi. The beautiful girl, in the guise of a river, said she would accept his proposal only if the demon could contain her within the Himalayas before the break of dawn. The demon worked furiously to stop the Kosi from flowing. Sensing the demon’s urgency, Kosi sought help from her father, Lord Shiva. Disguised as a rooster, Shiva crowed just before dawn, and the demon was fooled into believing that he had failed to fulfil Kosi’s condition.

The Kosi remained free then and seeks her freedom even today. Overflowing the barrier built around its course as it descends from the mountains, the river is responsible for the current floods in 11 districts of north Bihar. So far, more than a million people have become homeless....more

Tradition is relevant

Water holds mystical significance in Indian tradition. While a few drops of sacred water link the newborn with the cosmos, it remains a powerful symbol of purification and regeneration in death, too. The Earth and the human bodies are bathed in water, projecting life as an inevitable jalyatra -- a journey that seeks to confirm our origin and reincarnation in water. Water, however, has seemingly lost its magic. Familiarity is partly to blame. Because it is so universal we take it for granted; we have stopped thinking about it, let alone appreciating it. No wonder water carries different meanings for different people. For a saint it is a heavenly bliss; for a farmer it is a nature's boon; for an engineer it is worthy of a project; and, for a city dweller it is a fluid that must flow through the tap.

Nitya Jacob's Jalyatra through eight distinct zones of the country -- from Goa to Shillong and from Madurai to Shekhawati -- seeks to re-construct the fading images of a society, its people and its social institutions, that for long had treasured water in some of the most ingenious ways .... more

Fresh water scarcity demands fresh ideas

Imagine a canal 10 meters deep, 100 meters wide, and 7.1 million kilometers long - long enough to encircle the globe 180 times. That is the amount of water it takes each year to produce food for today's 6.5 billion people. The projected increase of between 2 and 3 billion people over the next four decades would mean increasing the length of this canal by another few million kilometers to everyone fed. Even if there were resources and technology to do this - and that is itself debatable - it's unlikely that there would be sufficient fresh water to fill this extended canal.

A growing world population has led to rising demand for fresh water to ensure a growing supply of food and to meet rising nutrition demands. Where will this water come from? A new publication co-sponsored by CGIAR sheds some light on the narrowing options. Sudhirendar Sharma reviews the report....more

The reality of Aid

The report hinges its core argument around the assumption that development aid is the panacea for lifting the world’s poor out of abject poverty. In fact, development aid has long been considered a conditional generosity that comes with the tag of continuance of the ‘colonial gaze’. The act of giving maintains the status quo by helping the poor only so much: it does not empower them to take control of their lives. The neo-liberal economic theories of the 1980s and 1990s have relied on a ‘free market’ to deliver human wellbeing. This has generally put economic interests above human welfare, further marginalising the poor. The failure of the structural adjustment programmes spearheaded by the World Bank and IMF clearly indicates that development (aid) is becoming another tool to perpetuate colonialism.

The Reality of Aid network unfolds the hidden reality of aid, which continues to create the illusion of equality in a world that is inherently unequal....more

Paddling hard against the flow

Can women managers transform the state of water governance? Can women's leadership positively impact equity in access to and supply of water? Can gender appreciation bring about sustainability in community-based water management systems? These oft-repeated questions have engaged social scientists for long.

Mere participation as labourers is not enough to mainstream women's concerns in water management. Instead, they must be engaged as partners, whose roles are located in larger social and political structures. Sudhirendar Sharma reviews Flowing Upstream, a collection of essays drawing attention to this distinction....more

Global solutions for global crises

The world will need an extra US$ 50 billion every year till 2015 to reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day. A Copenhagen Consensus report suggests local solutions will not work; the prescription now is for global action.

Set up by the government of Denmark, the Copenhagen Consensus has deliberated precisely such priorities through a process engaging some of the world's top economists. Presented by the sceptical environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg, the report lists where the world should be investing over the next few years to tide over compelling social and environmental concerns. Unlike previous similar attempts, notably the Washington Consensus, the Copenhagen Consensus was designed to accommodate at least two alternative perspectives on each of the leading submissions on the 10 most pressing global concerns, from climate change to communicable diseases; from financial instability to food insecurity; and from migration to trade barriers. The expert ranking panel put in extra time to come up with a list of priorities....more

Was the Bhakra dam worth it?

Three years of painstaking research has shattered many a myth around the most revered hydropower project in the country. A mere 20 per cent of all cultivable area in Punjab is under the dam's command area. Sudhirendar Sharma reviews the recently released Unravelling Bhakra : Assessing the Temple of Resurgent India.

Though Unravelling Bhakra brings on table several hidden dimensions of the project, it falls short of making a strong case against it. From displacement to rehabilitation and from land degradation to food insecurity, the study tosses up all the issues relevant for such an assessment. Yet, the 300-pages of data-filled text may not trigger a fresh discourse on the future of hydropower projects in the country. The book fails to challenge some of the emerging arguments on the subject....more