A candid admission ?

Today’s papers carry following news :

Groundwater level declined across the country over the last decade, says Govt

Extract :

Water being a State subject, initiatives on water management including conservation and artificial recharge to ground water in the country is primarily the responsibility of the States, the Minister said.

===========================================

I sent following email to Cabinet Ministers, 3 years ago , fully realizing that making water , a CENTRAL subject would need a Constitutional amendment -  something not possible then

Even today, such a move is bound to face a lot of opposition – even from BJP ruled States

But , if a consensus-building is not started now, it may be too late , to avoid :

Water Wars ?  …………………………..[  08  April  2016   ]

Extract :

Several World Bodies have forecast that by 2050 , millions will die in India due to water shortage

WHAT  IS  THE  PERMANENT  SOLUTION  ?

#  At the level of Central Government

*   Make " Water Conservation / Usage " , a  CENTRAL SUBJECT  in our

     Constitution . Remove it from the list of STATE SUBJECTS

*   Declare all existing sources of water ( Rivers and Lakes ) , as National

    Resources belonging to entire Nation and not to the particular State

     where these are  located

*   Make it Center's responsibility to decide which State shall use how

     much of each of these resource ( allocation / rationing )

*   Center will also be responsible for developing of future resources by

     digging lakes & ponds / building dams / interlinking rivers & lakes etc

     Use MNREGA funds for creating such assets

*   Center will not need permission of any State to implement such projects

*   Center will implement " River Interlinking " Project by 2025 , and for this,

     it will not require permission of any State

     As repeatedly lobbied by me , please find a way to divert BLACK MONEY

     to this Infrastructure SPV ( Tax haven or local - which is 100 times ! )

*   Mercilessly , shut down all factories dumping polluting effluents in rivers

==========================================

====

12  July  2019

Rsvp :  hcp@Recruitguru.com


========================================

Within one month of emailing the above to Jal Shakti Minister, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawatji, he made the following appeal :


"  All States need to cooperate to interlink rivers across the country "

https://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai-news/all-states-need-to-cooperate-to-interlink-rivers-across-the-country-jal-shakti-min/story-yPt2yg8PH7bEaUouSMYfbM.html


Dear Shri Shekhawatji,


I appreciate that the Constitution cannot be amended easily - but then, simple " persuasion " wont take you very far , either !


May be , you need to hold out to the States, some carrot ( incentive ) for quickly agreeing with your proposal 

Latest word on LIBRA : though not the last word

To day’s papers carry following news :

Facebook won't launch Calibra or cryptocurrency Libra in India   

Highlights :

#  A Facebook spokesperson said that " There are no plans to offer Calibra in India,"

   "As you may know, there are local restrictions within India that made a launch of Calibra

     not possible at this time." reported Bloomberg.

#  Indian government has made sure that Libra does not see the light of day in India, and

    now the social giant has confirmed that it has no plans of launching its crypto project in

    India.

Bloomberg reports :

“ Calibra will respect the legislation “, Alexander Voica, a Facebook representative in London said by telephone.  

“ But , we are looking to work with regulators to see  if the legislation can be updated “

India is Facebook’s largest market where the networking giant is already preparing for a countrywide roll-out of its WhatsApp payment service , which has been in a year long pilot restricted to one million users.

Facebook has had discussions with various governments on both the Libra cryptocurrency and the Calibra digital wallet.

“The Libra Association is speaking to potential partners from around the world,” said Voica without specifying whether it was speaking to the Indian government or with partners in the country. “

The blockchain project has multiple uses in smart contracts, supply chain management and so on - it’s not just for cryptocurrencies .”

==========================================

Madam  Sitharamanji,

Could WhatsApp payment service “ morph “ into Calibra, once it is granted permission for all India roll out ?

======================================================

11    July   2019

Rsvp :  hcp@RecruitGuru.com

      

The Biggest , FREE , Desalination Plant : Sun + Sea

Economic Times carries following news :

Water crisis  ?  India won’t be at sea    

  

Highlights :

#    Niti Aayog eyes ways to make sea water usable

#    India’s massive coastline of 7,800 km offers huge opportunity

#   Large number of desalination plants may come up on sea or on the  coast

#   Ocean energy or solar energy will be used to run these plants

#   By 2020, as many as 21 major Indian Cities will run out of water

#  India ranks second from bottom in Global Water Quality Index

#  600 Million people face high to extreme water stress

#  84 % rural homes do not have access to piped water 

 

#  NITI Aayog plan : Floating  desalination plants in marine waters

#   Supplying desalinated water to population centres via a network of pipelines

#  NITI Aayog’s plan is also energy efficient as it seeks to use Solar Energy or Ocean Energy for the project

  
=========================================================

CONCERNS  &  QUESTIONS  :

#  Harnessing Sun energy for desalination is an idea borrowed from Mother Nature . 24x365 , our Sun is doing just

    that – evaporating salty sea water to form clouds full of clean / drinkable water . These clouds rain over the

    remotest corners of our land,

-       without needing any infrastructure of expensive pipe-lines , pouring BILLIONS of tons of drinkable water

–      and do it for FREE

   Our tragedy is that we have failed miserably as far as storing / harvesting those heavenly deluge of AMRUT !

    

#   I believe, almost 90 % of the rain water flows back into the sea . Of the balance 10 % that stays on land , 90

     % flows underground ! 

So, you can calculate how much rain water, we finally manage to store in ponds / lakes

     ( which we succeed in polluting ! )

#  Can human-manufactured plants floating on sea , ever equal the Scale / Capacity / Energy-efficiency of this

    Natural Cycle ? ( even if we chose to ignore the no of years it will take to build such plants ? )

    I found some answer here :

===================================================================

https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-a-water-desalination-plant-cost  

Ronan McGovern, PhD in desalination from MIT

Updated May 20, 2015  

There are two ways to think about the cost of desalination: the cost of a desalination plant, and the cost of water.

A typical large scale desalination plant produces 100,000 cubic meters of water per day. Assuming a per capita consumption of 300 liters per day, this equates to 300,000 people.

The installed cost of desalination plants is approximately $1m for every 1,000 cubic meters per day of installed capacity.

Therefore, a large scale desalination plant serving 300,000 people typically costs in the region of $100 million. The costs of infrastructure to distribute water must be added to this.

The cost of desalinated water, the majority of which is accounted for by plant capital costs and energy costs, is typically in the range of $0.5 to $3 per cubic meter of water (0.05-0.3 dollar cents per liter of water). The lower end of the scale corresponds to regions where electricity costs are low (e.g. Middle East) and the higher end to regions where electricity costs are high (e.g. Australia, where electricity is sometimes mandated to be from renewable energy).

=======================================================================

For a Perspective :

Chennai has a population of 4.9 million people ( 49 lakh )

By above estimate, Chennai would 16 / 17  desalination plants ( each capable of serving 3 lakh people )

That would cost : $ 1,700 Million ( approx. Rs 12,000 Crores ! )

I am sure that NITI Aayog report when it  gets published, will provide accurate figures of INVESTMENT ( funds ) required for 21 cities

Again, you will notice that using VERY EXPENSIVE electricity ( for desalination ) to produce drinking water is simply out of the question , if a one litre of desalinated water were to cost Rs 25 – 30 !

===========================================================

#  For a vast country like India, sea coast based desalination plants , do not seem to address the needs of rural

    people , living in desolate / semi arid areas . They need a technology which will produce ( extract ) water from

    atmosphere , using only Solar Energy ! – and no ( or very little ) need for pipelines . Above all such solar

    powered installations should be MAINTENANCE FREE

#   I urge Shri Gajanan Shekhawatji ( Minister for Jal Shakti ) , to seriously consider :

     Water above our heads

===============================================================

10  July  2019

Rsvp :  hcp@RecruitGuru,com

Who is afraid of the Big Bad Wolf ( aka LIBRA ) ?

Apparently , a lot of bankers , financial institutions , legislative assemblies / parliaments / congress / senate / Reserve Banks of various countries , etc etc

And here I was , wondering :

“  How come no one in India has, so  far uttered a single cautionary word against LIBRA ?

 

  Why this conspiracy of a deafening silence ? “

May be they may not have read :

LIBRA : Am I the only one worried ?  …………………………..[  05  July  2019  ]

LIBRA : The coming battle of Currencies ?   …………………[  29  June  2019  ]

 

Forget my own ( novice like ) views in the above-mentioned emails

 

I urge our Policy Makers to read following articles by knowledgeable persons :

     

Facebook's cryptocurrency plan draws ECB's ire on regulation

Facebook’s plan for a digital currency called Libra has policy makers scrambling.

Highlights :

Financial regulators must act fast to prepare for the push by US tech giants such as Facebook into the financial system, according to European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure 

“It’s out of the question to allow them to develop in a regulatory void for their financial service activities, because it’s just too dangerous,” Coeure said on Sunday in Aix-en-Provence in southern France.

“We have to move more quickly than we've been able to do up until now.” 

Facebook’s plan for a digital currency called Libra has policy makers scrambling. The UK’s three main financial regulators are working together on how best to respond

 

The plan has also drawn fire in Washington, with more than 30 groups influential with Democrats demanding a halt to the project to deal with the “profound questions” it raises.

David Marcus, the executive leading Facebook’s Libra and blockchain efforts, will testify before Congress this month on the initiative. 

=========================================================

Then, our Policy Makers may want to read :

Facebook Libra Backlash on Many Fronts

Highlights :

#    The obvious problem with Facebook is most global users don’t trust it with their private

      data, so how could they trust it with their financial data in the future ?

#  French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Libra shouldn’t be allowed to become a

    sovereign currency, while a

    German member of the European Parliament said Facebook could become a “shadow

    bank”, according to LinkedIn

#  By trying to bank the unbanked and vulnerable in developing countries, Facebook’s Libra

     could be a kind of shadow banking  

#  By using a stablecoin to incentivize Advertising consumption, Facebook’s Libra could

    endanger how the future of the internet is monetized.

#  By increasing convenience for token investments and token economy utilization,

    Facebook’s Libra could replace reliance on fiat currencies, which could have

    dangerous impacts on the global economy, i.e. in some countries that are inflation prone

    Libra could disrupt fiat systems, leading to negative economic impacts

#  If widespread adoption occurs, Facebook’s Libra’s cryptocurrency could be part of a

    master-plan by some for a global digital currency

#  Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency will face privacy and money laundering

    concerns that will be imperfectly regulated and nearly impossible to moderate properly.

#  The Libra Association could become too powerful in influencing how consumers do

    payments by forming a monopolistic shadow council on how digital currency adoption

    and payment standards globally evolve in the token economy.

=======================================

Also do read :

Facebook’s New Competition: The U.S. Dollar

The company’s new cryptocurrency is designed to blow up the global financial system

Highlights :

#  Previous reporting has suggested that the Indian WhatsApp users, who will be able to use

   the cryptocurrency for no- or low-fee money transfers, and Facebook has apparently, and

   uncharacteristically, been wooing regulators  and  central bankers around the world to

   smooth the coin’s landing

   [  Madam Sitharamanji ,  please  watch  out  what  seems to be happening – secretly ? ]

#  How, precisely, users will exchange Libra for physical currency remains to be seen,

    though the most likely option is that Facebook partners with a cryptocurrency exchange,

   and the Information reports that there are plans for “physical terminals similar to ATMs.”

#   Facebook is already working on creating its own private supreme court, after all; why

     wouldn’t it want its own private, independent central bank as well ?

#  Facebook wants to enter, and own, the cross-border payments market.

    If it is indeed launching in India, it’s not as part of a test run but because nearly $80  

    billion in remittances were sent to India in 2018 ;

    With more than 200 million Indian WhatsApp users already, the company is well-

    positioned to make its apps , and its currency, the method of choice for international

    money transfers to India — and, eventually, the world

    {  Game Plan revealed  !  Indian Policy Makers,  please note !  }  

   

#   Facebook reportedly won’t charge transaction fees for peer-to-peer payments. That’s a

     very bad way to make money, but, as Facebook knows well, it’s a very good way to

     entice new users into your network, and, in turn, to convince stores, restaurants, and

     other businesses to set up to accept Globaclcoin in payment

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Madam Sitharamanji :

If pitched NOW ( in the manner of “ take it or leave it “, I am sure, Facebook will agree to sign and implement :

Digital Dividend from Demographic Data [ 4 D ] 

 

It is simply a question of :

 

#   turning an opponent’s own strength to conquer him  

#   converting an apparent threat , into an invisible opportunity  

#   hitting on the  head while iron is hot   

======================================================  

#  This is the medium-term plan for Libra:

     To compete not just with money-transfer businesses but with credit-card companies

     using cross-border payments as the beachhead for all payments everywhere

     You receive a no-fee Libra payment from an expat family member, and then use that

     Libra to pay back a friend, who in turn uses the Libra to pay for a Chicken Maharaja Mac

     at the local McDonald’s

     .

     

#  Like any megaplatform, Facebook wants to be infrastructure: a service so important to

    daily life that most people have no choice but to use it. But Facebook in 2019 is

    increasingly easy for Americans and Europeans to quit without particular consequence, in

    a way that Google, say, isn’t.

#  Once you’ve got a usable digital currency, why would you want to “get into” other

    currencies? I use dollars every day, but don’t spend a lot of time buying up euro and yen

#  But if you think Facebook is powerful now, just wait until it’s, essentially, the global

    federal reserve, overseeing a global currency over which it has not just monetary control

    but a visible, mineable record of every transaction made.

    Maybe Globalcoin would have been the right name after all.

==========================================

==============

08  July  2019

Rsvp :  hcp@RecruitGuru.com