Monday, July 28, 2008

Strong Info structure needed to fight Terrorism

The terrorist attacks by planting bombs in busy streets, markets, places of pilgrimage and places of national importance have posed a serious threat to security of citizens in mega cities of India. The failure of government machinery to prevent, curb and track down the culprits have exposed lack of necessary mechanism and infrastructure for collecting and compiling information from all possible sources, effective monitoring , strict vigilance and quick action. In India, the problem is more severe due to high population, multitude of languages, more occasions and places of people coming together and cosmopolitan nature of crowd. It is high time that government develop elaborate info structure to combat with such unidentifiable disruptive forces.

About Terrorists
We should realize that terrorists are ordinary human beings. They have feelings. They have ideals, aspirations and lust for power, money and success. They are victims of false propaganda by vested interests. They are confident about their network, support and leadership. They know that they can freely move in the city, hire any vehicle and park their vehicle anywhere without any identity. People in general are too liberal to oblige request of parking vehicle or guarding luggage without ascertaining identity. They may use innocent people, children, or poor with false promises, money or liquor to carry out an act which my seem to be inconspicuous. May be that the terrorists themselves are doing such work under influence of liquor (which prevent natural feelings of compassion and kindness) or under threat to their family or blackmail. It is necessary to investigate all such possibilities, educate and warn the people to remain vigilant.

Immediate Steps
The earlier terrorist acts, their methods, their network, their financial sources and linkages should be studied. The social forces which support such activities publicly should be closely monitored. Internet, TV channels and print media should not be allowed to publish instigative, provocative and communal talks, messages or articles. Any political, social or religious organization which promotes, advocates or justifies violence should be banned by law. Every organization must follow democratic norms for expressing their views without resorting to violence or destruction of property. No body should be allowed to take law in their hands even for just cause. All such messages, feedbacks and opinions should be removed from the archives. At the same time there should be heavy punishment for terrorists, instigators, helpers and their supporters.The process and measures taken for tracking terrorists should not be given undue publicity before the entire network and base of such activities is destroyed. The identity of witnesses of informers should not be disclosed.

Personal Identity
It is necessary that each person must be identifiable and registered in some giant database where his history and whereabouts can be investigated. In USA, there is social security number for every citizen. India has record of citizens in the form census data but as far as I know there are no records for individuals. There should be access to various databases kept by public utility services like banks, hospitals, electricity, water supply, telephone, mobile networks, hotels, schools and colleges. Majority of such information is in hard copy format and in different languages. Networking of such information sources should be given high priority.

Materials and Vehicles
Whatever is true for people holds good for compilation of data regarding explosives, materials and equipments found in bombs, their manufacture, transport, storage, all type of vehicles including bicycles. All vehicles must be registered with transport authorities with data regarding vehicle number and owner address. It should be made compulsory for all auto rickshaws, taxies and buses in big cities to keep registers like in lodges where each commuter will have to put his name and signature personally. This will immensely help in identifying the persons.

Monitoring Traffic
Security and vigilance cameras with automatic snapshot mechanism at regular time intervals should be provided at all places of congregation like market places, bus stands, railway platforms, pilgrimage centers and tourist places, entrance gates of important offices, meeting halls and at traffic signals. There should be sufficient manpower to constantly view and compile snapshots in backup files. Strict watch should be kept and registers checked of liquor shops and lodges. House owners should be asked to fill information about their occupants and tenants in prescribed format.

Methods of Investigation
Innovative methods can be employed to find culprits. It is observed that many novel and effective ideas have been explained in number of fiction books and detective novels. For example in ‘Overload’ novel by Arthur Healy, there is information how electric power company tracks down terrorist through feedback forms sent along with electricity bills. Many more ideas can be found in other books, movies and on internet. There is a need of compilation of all these ideas to get proper clues and devise proper investigation plan. It is essential however, that a secure channel should be established by government to collect such data from public. Top secrecy should be maintained about the information so compiled and media channels should not be given access to it.

Appeal to Citizens
It is necessary to build mutual respect, harmony and brotherhood in society. All citizens should consider it as a national responsibility and obligation to help the government in this war against unknown and unidentifiable but organized crime against humanity.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Nuclear Energy - A must for Sustainable Development of India

Solar electricity is not available in sizable amounts and the costs of collecting solar power are exorbitantly high as compared to thermal power plants using coal and so called clean energy from hydroelectric projects. Damage due to hydroelectric power stations on Ganga river prompted Dr. Agrawal to do indefinite fast. His critic of dams elaborates the impact of such dams on the environment. Rising oil prices have icreased the cost of energy. Thermal power plants create air pollution and flyash problems and add to global warming.

At the same time, demand of energy is increasing. Development depends on energy. The present energy crises in India is much severe. Increasing demand, high cost of energy and inadequate energy production has crippled the growth of industries and overall development of India. High cost of pumping have affected agriculture. Frequent loadshading is depriving people of light and comfort. Gas and other fuel costs have become un affordable to common man.The only practical and viable option is nuclear energy. There are lot of misconceptions about the nuclear power in general public and people are afraid of devastating effects of Atomic bomb and Chernobyl like accidents due to improper safeguards. They do not know that modern science and technology has made the nuclear energy production very safe, cheap and fully controllable. Recent advances in fusion technology has opened new avenues for energy production without threat to environmental quality. France, once strong opponent of nuclear energy is now heavily dependent on muclear energy for its energy requirements. Hence, immediate establishment of nucleatr power plants and expansion of existing units is a pressing need to come out of this precarious condition. What we lack is the import of new technology, materials and huge initial capital investment for setting up such plants.It is necessary that scientists and engineers should create awareness and educate people of these realities.


India’s nuclear energy program began in the 1950s with a great deal of involvement of the United States through the Atoms for Peace program, including helping build and providing nuclear fuel for the nuclear reactor in Tarapur, as well as through scientific cooperation.
After 1974, when India tested its first nuclear device, the US formed the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), to oversee sales of nuclear material. In 1978 the US Congress passed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act but the US continued to provide some nuclear fuel to India under a 1963 treaty with India until 1980.The US had to stop supplying fuel under its own laws, and passed the responsibilities on to others. In 1992 the NSG limited sales of nuclear technology and materials to non-Nuclear Weapons States only if their nuclear reactors were under full scale safeguards implemented by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). France continued to provide nuclear fuel to India until it too adhered to this provision in 1996. China and Russia have supplied India with nuclear fuel after this period.
India plans on expanding the amount of electricity generated by nuclear energy to 20 GWe by 2020 (this is from nuclear plants already under construction). Except that we have a lack of Uranium. Most of our Uranium is low quality, except some newly discovered deposits that have as yet to be mined. Our plants are running at under 40% capacity when they could be running at above 90%. In another words we are paying more than twice the costs of electricity generated by nuclear energy because we are stopped from buying nuclear fuel because of NPT and NSG guidelines.
In August 2007, India and the United States reached a bilateral agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation. The deal would lift the U.S. moratorium on nuclear trade with India, provide U.S. assistance to India's civilian nuclear energy program, and expand U.S.-Indian cooperation in energy and satellite technology. India would be eligible to buy U.S. dual-use nuclear technology, including materials and equipment that could be used to enrich uranium or reprocess plutonium. It would also receive imported fuel for its nuclear reactors. U.S. companies will be allowed to build nuclear reactors in India and provide nuclear fuel for its civilian energy program.
India has always committed for non proliferation of nuclear weapons and there is no harm in allowing international regulations for monitoring production of nuclear power for civilian peaceful purposes.

U.S.-India Nuclear Cooperation Treaty will go a long way in ensuring sustainable development.India should not remain isolated in a world surrounded by nuclear-power nation states

The present opposition to U.S.-India Nuclear Cooperation seems mainly a political move. I was reminded of the Arthur Hailey's novel " Overload" which was written in 1979. It describes the energy crises in California, struggle of the electric power plant engineer to ensure power supply and opposition to power plants in USA by environmentalists misled by "Friends of Freedom" with political motive.
I do not belong to or favor any party but I am of the opinion that, the present government has taken a wise decision at this critical juncture risking its own survival in the interest of the nation.
It is my sincere appeal that all political parties should rise above political gains and support this move as it will enable India to become self sufficient in energy production, accelerate development, improve economy without hampering environmental quality.

It is the responsibility of the environmental engineers to encourage use of non conventional energy and as responsible citizens to help the governmemt in meeting the challenge of acute energy shortage.I appeal to all environmentalists to come forward and support Nuclear Cooperation for preserving our environment and promoting much needed development of energy sources in India and ensure that all environmental safety norms are followed while producing nuclear energy.

Dnyandeep foundation wishes to play an active role in dissiminating the knowledge about Nuclear power, safeguards and environmental management necessary and its impact on meeting energy needs of India.
Reference - www.envis.org