Information replaces atom as the basis of life!

In his first book Delete - The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, Victor Mayer-Schonberger had shocked readers with the immortal power of the internet. 'Nothing ever gets deleted', he had rightfully argued. Taking the argument further he now elaborates the revolutionary power of 'big data', making information digitization the new basis of life. Since people willingly share information online, the likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter are inundated with enormous data to extract new insights or create new forms of value. 

Citing numerous instances where trends and predictions out of big data analysis has been put to economic use, datafication has helped in interpreting attitudes, sentiments and even human behavior like never before. Some 400 million tweets a day certainly help usher new insights on peoples’ moods, interests and preferences.

Processed data has started to look like a new resource and it can be processed again and again to meet diverse needs. It is said that every Facebook user is worth around $100, since users are the source of information in the first place. Only if the users realize the value of their 'likes' can they collectively bargain to get paid for their voluntary contribution? Not in too distant a future, such a scenario will emerge when big data will create an 'information economy' on its own. It even exists today, but has been capitalized by those who not only posses fastest computers but have servers with incredible storage capacity as well.

Like his previous book, Victor Mayer-Schonberger has come out with yet another ground-breaking book which portrays all aspects of what the emerging big data revolution may be all about. While seizing rewards of this incredible evolution, the potential risks associated with misappropriation of data must also be appreciated. For big data to ensure privacy, need for prior consent, opting out and anonymization have to be taken as policy prescription against its misuse.

Big Data is an exhaustive narrative on the virtues and risks associated with the emerging world of datafication. Full of anecdotal stories on latest developments, Big Data is a must read book....Link

Big Data
by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Cukier 
Hachette India, Delhi
Extent; 242, Price: Rs 499

Unquiet flows the Nile

Herodotus’ prophetic words will soon be proven wrong! The Greek philosopher had long described Egypt as the ‘gift of the Nile’. But with the course of the river being diverted to fill the 145 meter tall Renaissance dam being built in upstream Ethiopia, the gift will soon be snatched from a country that has yet to emerge from its unresolved uprising three years ago. Egypt for once will be losing what it has always dreamed of having control over – the Nile. 

Relations between the two countries have grown tense over the inevitable diversion of the river. While the Egyptian politicians have suggested sabotaging the dam, the Ethiopian government has vowed that nothing can stop the dam’s construction. The growing tensions are cause for global concern, beyond the six other riparian countries. Can the region which is simmering with political discontent afford a cross-border confrontation of unimaginable proportions? 

While some commentators express doubt if the region could afford a war, there are others who consider that the brewing distrust may trigger confrontation of some kind. For Egypt, allowing Ethiopia to construct this dam is somewhat like Israel allowing Iran to build a nuclear weapon. Egypt had sown the seeds decades ago, the bitter fruits of which it has been forced to harvest now!

It is a known fact that Egypt played a major role during 1960s in helping Eriteria break away from Ethiopia  Cairo was then the ground zero for the formation of the Eriterean Liberation Movement, the primary forces behind Eriteria’s long war of independence. During the 70s and the 80s, Egypt had actively supported several groups that worked to overthrow the government in Ethiopia. When Eriteria finally gained independence in 1993, it had Egypt to thank. This is one of the roots of contention between Egypt and Ethiopia.

Setting aside such troubled history and brushing past the current crises, Seifulaziz Milas argues that armed conflict over the Nile waters has always been extremely limited. Having worked with the African Union, Milas has examined the historical, political and economic aspects related to sharing of the Nile waters in the region in his recently published book ‘Sharing the Nile’ (Pluto).  Says he: ‘as in many marriages, the participants may no longer love each other, but have little choice to live together and keep the marriage working.’ 

Over the years, nations such as Kenya, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia have held the proverbial marriage together by abiding to pre-independence treaty – often to the detriment of their own people. Signed in 1929, the treaty between the UK and Egypt had prohibited riparian countries from building water infrastructure without Egypt’s consent. Since the upstream countries were never consulted, they were the first to reject the treaty upon gaining independence. 

After nearly a decade of fruitless attempts to negotiate with Egypt on equitable sharing of the Nile waters, the basin countries launched the Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA) in 2010 which makes it clear that no state will exercise hegemony over the Nile waters. 'Of all the riparian states’, argues Milas, ‘Egypt stands to gain most from the establishment of a basin-wide framework for water resources development’.    

An estimated 74 billion cubic meters of water stored in the cooler climate of the Blue Nile gorge, in the Renaissance Dam, will save a huge volume of evaporation loss from Lake Nasser in southern Egypt, located in one of the hottest and driest deserts of the world. Since the Aswan Dam is increasingly incapable of meeting Egypt’s power needs, partly due to reduced storage on account of evaporation  Ethiopia can fill the growing demand for hydropower in the region.

For the region in general, cooperative harnessing of the Nile waters is crucial for meeting the energy and livelihoods needs of a growing basin population - estimated to exceed 500 million by 2025, some 50 per cent higher than at present. But Egypt has thus far tried to scuttle new projects. It had successfully blocked an expected loan from the African Development Bank to Ethiopia for the Tana-Beles Project on the Beles River, a tributary of the Blue Nile, in 1988. 

Of the two channels that form the river, the Blue Nile is significant as it carries 86 per cent of the Nile’s eventual flow with the White Nile contributing the remainder. The Blue Nile, on which the 6,000 megawatt Renaissance Dam is being built, escapes Lake Tana in the Ethiopian highlands before joining the White Nile at Khartoum, in Sudan. The river nourishes 60 per cent of Egypt’s estimated 85 million people before draining into the Mediterranean Sea.

For Egypt, control over the Nile continues to be an emotive issue. ‘Who controls the Nile, controls Egypt’, so goes the old saying. Egypt is carefully weighing all options to avoid losing its control over the Nile. While it has discouraged global investors from financing the $5 billion project thus far, it holds the option of using its allies for bringing about instability in Ethiopia. Whether it triggers political reorientation in Ethiopia remains a billion dollar question?...Link 

Sharing the Nile
by Seifulaziz Milas
Pluto Press, London
Extent: 216 pages, Price $99

Where happiness is a national currency!

Land-locked mountain kingdom conjures up an irresistible image of a Shangri-la, with happiness being its gross domestic product. In every direction around the kingdom, unhappy situations prevail in its diverse manifestations - be it India or Nepal or Bangladesh or even Myanmar – and yet it has stood firm on its idea of Gross National Happiness. None of its neighbors, however, have made any effort to guarantee happiness for its people.

Buffeted between two economic giants, Bhutan has continued to measure the development of the country by how happy its people have been. Happiness clearly gives the kingdom its distinct identity. Also, it is the only country in the world where its King, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, during his thirty-four years of rule (1972-2006) made it a point to visit every single household in the country. Few modern rulers have had the pleasure of seeing the improvement in the lives of their people from such close quarters. No wonder, the monarchy is so loved by the common people in Bhutan.

Not much is known about Bhutan, though. Omair Ahmad helps draw an intimate portrait of the kingdom as it has shaped itself out from some of the most transformative events in the world history. Every bit of what he writes is readable, as much to a student of history as to an avid traveler. One learns that saints alone shaped Bhutan, its society, song and culture. And the country did not even have its own currency until 1974; taxes were collected in kind – either in goods or in labour. Much to anybody’s surprise, dried meat and ara, Bhutan’s traditional drink, were stored in the treasury. To avoid the tax thus collected from pilferage, ara was stored in the room just past the King’s chamber.

Written in non-fiction storytelling style, the narrative is not only interesting but informative too. Though the writer has strong empathy for the country yet he captures a bit of everything about the country, its history, its politics, its landscape, its people and its culture. Now that the kingdom has started taking rapid strides to move on the world stage, one wonders how its youth will negotiate the traditions with the modern....Link

The Kingdom at the Centre of the World

by Omair Ahmad                          

Aleph Books, New Delhi

Extent: 231, Price: Rs. 495