Society

CSR and the Mining Industry

Corporate Social Responsibility in the corporate world is perceived more as a charity or as a philanthropic activity than as a responsibility. Some good deeds to the community are done merely as  tokenisms so that something can be written under the head of CSR in the company’s website and annual report. Companies must realise or be made to realise that this is a responsibility as serious and non-negotiable as is the responsibility a parent has towards providing for his or her child. This is because the company takes from the community the majority of it’s resources both material and human …

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Striking a ” New Middle Path” between RTI and RTP – Indira Sivan

When Right to Information (RTI) is a citizen-empowering feature that helps a comman man to gain access to data held by administration or public bodies, Right to Privacy (RTP) is a fundamental right granted to citizens to control the access and use of their personal information which are held by government and private bodies. The two rights to a layman might seem discordant. The recent talks to amend RTI Act based on the data safeguarding frameworks suggested by Srikrishna Committee Report has created apprehensions among officials. The recommendations that the Committee report provided focused on three main indispensable parts : …

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India adds 40% solar in all of the new power capacity added in this year.

The solar energy sector has accounted for the largest capacity addition to the Indian electricity grid so far this year. It has contributed around 39%—over 7,100 megawatts (MW)—to the overall capacity additions., according to data from Mercom Capital Group, a US-based research and consulting firm. For comparison, solar energy capacity additions stood at only around 4,313 MW in all of 2016. In all, the country now has a total solar capacity of around 14.7 gigawatts ( 1 GW = 1,000 MW) as of September 2017. India has added more production capacity from renewable energy in a year than from conventional …

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How green is India’s nuclear energy

Existing scenario As of March 2018, India has 22 nuclear reactors in operation in 7 nuclear power plants, having a total installed capacity of 6,780 MW. 6 more reactors are under construction will add generation capacity of 4,300 MW. India plan to reach a nuclear power capacity of 63 GW in 2032. The 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan has stirred up people apprehensions about atomic energy being a clean and safe alternative to fossil fuels. Communities around proposed Indian nuclear power plant sites have launched protests. There have been mass protests against the French-backed 9,900 MW Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project in Maharashtra and the Russian-backed 2,000 MW Kudankulam Nuclear Power …

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Ready to fire. Ready to retire.

When I read the review of the book – Ready To Fire: How India and I Survived the ISRO Spy Case by Nambi Narayanan (Author), Arun Ram (Author) I decided to give it a read for its intrigue and plot.  To be honest, I took it as a work of fiction. Personally, I have never been so keen on updating myself on the affairs of the state. So you need to know that I spend a lot of time on the fictional realm indulging my intellectual hunger with the ephemeral and transient. I like the dark unknown realm for it cranks up my …

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Why Indian Businessmen Prefer Investing abroad?

We were anguished by brain drain in the post independence era when the best of Indian brains were taken in by the charm of western countries and left their homeland as soon as they finished their education. India faces a similar situation today.  The Indian regulations and rules are business unfriendly. Add to it, the harassment from the regulators who make sure they stretch every sinew of the business man to the limits.  Gurcharan Das, an author and public individual, and his Chinese business friend were stepping out of a hotel in Delhi when the visitor stumbled on a protruding …

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How can big companies handle social media ?

Prof Richard Oliver Colin who is the expert in international terrorism says “the so-called terrorists are the creation of the society, a small-time criminal often gets labeled as a terrorist and then ends up living up to that tag”. So I will abstain from using the word  “activists” and instead address them as either disruptors or troublemakers. In an era which is driven by social media and with people getting hyper-connected one needs to understand that it’s only a few who have the ability to articulate and put forth an idea or point of view on their own. A large percentage …

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Manufacturing must take centre stage

  The service sector definitely is the flavor of the season while the manufacturing sector has become the villain. Jobs in the manufacturing sector has come down drastically and in most economies, the rise of the service sector employment is a validation of the disappearance of the manufacturing jobs. Those of us who run companies that have straddled both the industrial era and the information era view this trend with a certain amount of anxiety. The IMF’s world economic outlook survey report says ” the negative consequences of disappearing manufacturing jobs can be sizeable for individual workers and their communities, …

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Tamil Nadu is getting it all wrong

The government of Tamil Nadu is getting good at the cleanup job. But are they throwing the baby with the bathwater? The textile industry and the fireworks industry have almost come to a grinding halt. The recent closure of Sterlite is another great example. Instead of mediating between businesses and the activist groups the Tamil Nadu government has been taking the easy way out by succumbing to populist pressure. This is not going to help in the long run and in the short run.

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Politicians and their cheat sheets.  

In the good old days, it was said, that the politicians possessed a high IQ and a strong mind to complement their social skills.  Obviously, they were wired to serve the people. Every vote cast was a simple act of faith expressed by the people.   What has happened to the politicians today?  It is said that in an empowered society the politicians become ordinary people and that ordinary people ought to acquire political skills.

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