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National Water Policy By Dr Arvind Kumar The 2012 National Water Policy has been adopted despite opposition from the States to several contentious clauses in the policy. Prime Minister’s assurance that the Central government did not wish to encroach, in any manner, upon the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the States or to centralise water management, did not seem to work as State after the State opposed the move. Many states have opposed the proposal to set up an overarching national legal framework for water governance on the plea that it would impinge on their rights, water being a State subject. Undoubtedly, the official line is that the States are free to take a call on adopting the revised policy. However, there is a catch: reforms will be linked to Central funding for water projects. Tamil Nadu laments: “Incentivising States to undertake water reforms may mean tying up Central funding to so-called reforms measures like imposing water tariff on agriculture u

Merry Christmas to all of You : Dr. Arvind Kumar

Cash Transfer: Hype or Reality By Dr Arvind Kumar The UPA-II government has proposed to roll out the direct cash transfer (DCT) scheme meant for providing subsidy and other welfare schemes to the desired beneficiaries by transferring money to their Aadhaar-enabled bank accounts from 1 January 2013. The DCT scheme has been introduced to prevent leakages and corruption in implementation of social welfare related schemes. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has hailed it as a ‘revolutionary’ measure and the UPA finance minister has welcomed it as ‘pure magic.’ However, the claims of the government have been already been questioned both by people who never got the promised cash and, activists who point out to the high risks involved in such a fundamental shift. Some state leaders have voiced their concerns about the scheme. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday strongly opposed the Centre’s cash transfer scheme, saying the poor will not get the money as there is no me

India-ASEAN Ties By Dr Arvind Kumar India’s relations with member countries of Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are set to gather further impetus in the aftermath of the conclusion of the two-day ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit hosted by India at New Delhi on 20-21 December 2012 to mark the 20th anniversary of the dialogue-level partnership and the 10th anniversary of India’s Summit-level partnership with ASEAN. This Commemorative Summit was attended by two presidents, seven prime ministers, the Sultan of Brunei and the Vice President of the Philippines. India- ASEAN dialogue relations have grown rapidly from a sectoral dialogue partnership in 1992 to a full dialogue partnership in December 1995 and since 2002 India has regularly participated in the annual Summits. The ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit Plenary, on 20 December 2012, adopted Vision Statement which envisages vision for the future direction of ASEAN-India relations in order to enhance the leve

Sashastra Seema Bal Raising Day By Dr Arvind Kumar 20th December marks the 49th Raising Day of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which was set up in early 1963 in the wake of the Indo-China conflict to inculcate feelings of national belonging in the border population and develop their capabilities for resistance through a continuous process of motivation, training, development, welfare programmes and activities in the border areas. In the past forty-nine years of its existence, SSB has endeavoured to present a benign face of the government among border populace in the far flung and inaccessible areas subscribing to the ethos of Service, Security and Brotherhood. The local populace always found SSB standing steadfastly with them during difficult times. Pursuant to the recommendations of the Group of Ministers on reforming the National Security System, SSB was declared as a border guarding force and lead intelligence agency (LIA) for Indo-Nepal border (January, 2001) and Indo-Bh

  Patterns of mortality and morbidity are rapidly changing around the globe. We all know we are going to die, but how and when it happens depends largely on who we are and where we live. The major death causing risks are well-known - perhaps malaria or AIDS-related diseases in Africa, or stroke, cancer and heart disease in North America and Western Europe. A recent study led by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), involving 486 authors from 50 countries, reveals that people can expect to live longer - in some cases, dramatically longer. Overall life expectancy worldwide has increased by more than a decade since 1970. The Indian Ocean island nation of Maldives has shown the most striking improvement: a woman there in the 1970s lived on average to 51; now the average lifespan increased by three decades. The study further reveals a shift away from infectious diseases as a cause of death towards non-communicable diseases such as c

Water Conservation Day By Dr Arvind Kumar The recent decision of Union Ministry of Water Resources to observe 19 November, the birth anniversary of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, as Water Conservation Day to create awareness about the need to conserve water is a laudable move. The urgency for water conservation in Indian context assumes immense significance in view of the fast depletion of groundwater resources, pollution of surface water resources and rapid pace of melting of Himalayan glaciers. Water conservation is the most cost-effective and environmentally sound way to reduce our demand for water. Using less water also puts less pressure on our sewage treatment facilities, and uses less energy for water heating. Saving water also saves energy. Water conservation is an important tool for reducing water demand, and limiting water use should be an everyday practice for people and businesses. In many instances, water is wasted by old habits, like leaving the water r

World Sanitation (Toilet) Day By Dr Arvind Kumar About 2.6 billion people - 40% of world's population do not have access to adequate sanitation and this will become worse with the fast growing population, particularly in rapidly expanding urban areas. To raise awareness and to help break the taboo subject of toilets and those things associated with it, the World Toilet Organization has declared 19 November to be World Toilet Day (WTD), which is marked and promoted globally. Lack of sanitation is one of the biggest causes of illness and death in the developing world. About 2.2 million children under the age of 5 die annually from diarrhoea. Provision of sanitation is, therefore, important for the prevention of illness, and saves huge costs of medical treatment. Absence of basic sanitation amenities force the people to urinate and defecate into open which exposes them to ridicule, shame, and, for women and girls, the risk of physical attack, marginalisation and stigmatisatio

Happy ‘Diwali’ ‘Diwali’ or the festival of lights sets in motion the entire nation brimming with enthusiasm and joyful spirits Celebrations of festivals, especially Deepawali, have become more ritualistic and its sanctity and piety is being eroded gradually getting eroded in the din of pomp and show of the day thereby creating unbearable burden of pollution of air and natural water bodies. buying the firecrackers. This means a huge business for the apparel industry, firecracker, paint and household items and for sweets and gifts. According to broad estimates, the budget of corporate “gift” alone exceeds Rs 3,200 crore, and the sale of firecrackers to above Rs 500 crore. In all, India spends over 5000 crore rupees for the celebration of this annual event. Judicious use of electrical consumption should be made and earthen lamps or diyas be lit to keep the festive spirits. Old clothes, utensils and other products can be donated to poor persons, instead of throwing them in the du

Transforming Railways Dr Arvind Kumar Railways have been the spine of Indian transport system as well as economy. In the days of yore, it was the harbinger of national integration, though unknowingly, when people of all castes and religions travelled in the same compartment. It served as the building block of Indian nationhood linking east to west and north to south, Kamrup to Kutch and Kashmir (or at least Jammu) to Kanyakumari. With the changing times, those ideas and that idealism have seemingly become a passe mainly due to derailment of the objectives that this instutution should strive for. Still a major transporter of passengers and carrier of freight, it is fast losing its monopoly. It transports 30 million passengers every day, which is only 10 percent of India’s long-distance or suburban passenger traffic. When it comes to moving freight, the 2.65 million tonnes it transports every day seems dramatic — but is only 30 percent of the freight traffic in India.

Vijyadashami By Dr Arvind Kumar Vijyadashami is observed as triumph of good over evil. Lord Rama is the symbol of good whereas Ravana symbolizes evil. The annual ritual of burning the effigies of Ravana along with his kiths and kins in different corners of India as a mark of Vijyadashami results in burning of fuel wood in hundreds of tonnes by cutting trees. Besides, effigy-burning also culminates in pollution of air. The time has come to change the mind-set and stop wasting wood and rather save trees. Ravana as symbol of evil represents our negative thoughts which should be abandoned immediately and we should take solemn pledge on this day to do good to others in word, action and deed. We should think of the poor and down-trodden segments of the society and work for their uplift. Instead of cutting trees for burning effigies, we should take pledge to plant more trees so that the demon of global warming is kept at bay and fresh air is ushered in for of all to breathe. Mo

A grateful nation celebrates today the birth anniversary of Gandh Ji, Father of the Nation. It has become a ritual with the powers that be either at the Centre or States to pay courtesy call at Rajghat and offer garlands as a token of tributes to the departed noble soul. Gandhi Ji did not lay down his life for earning these rituals. He never clamoured for any coveted office and rather led a life of an ordinary Indian peasant or a hermit. He experimented with nonviolence, truth, Satyagraha and found these ideals as worth putting into practice. He strove hard to eliminate the curse of untouchability from the India society. Today is the solemn occasion for all of us to emulate the ideals cherished by Gandhi Ji and putting even a single ideal into our practice will be real tribute to the Father of the Nation. Our dalit brethern have to be brought into the national mainstream and this task cannot be left to the Government alone but calls for our involement with sincerity and dedica

Our  Independence Day By Dr. Arvind Kumar  15th August marks the completion of 65 th years of emergence of India as an independent sovereign nation. It is both an occasion of celebrations as well as that of introspection to ascertain as to where we have missed the train. Undoubtedly, much progress has been registered in many fields, but our failures outweigh our achievements. We celebrate our independence day with the usual exuberance that has seemingly lost much of its meaning and the rhetoric which has also lost much of its sheen. Admittedly, it is an occasion that makes every Indian proud of being free from the servility of the imperial power that ruled us for about three centuries. However, there are several unanswered questions that make us uneasy and squirm as we happily move on mouthing platitudes of having attained independence. On the eve of India's first Independence Day, Mahatma Gandhi had refused to attend the celebrations at Red Fort and instead engaged

More Heatwaves Likely By Dr Arvind Kumar According to a new statistical analysis recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a recent rise in deadly, debilitating, and expensive heatwaves was caused by climate change. This analysis reveals that extreme heatwaves have increased by at least 50 times during the last three decades. The researchers associated with this analysis, including James Hansen of NASA, conclude that climate change is the only explanation for such a statistical jump. James Hansen, a prominent scientist and outspoken climate change activist, wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Post recently: "This is not a climate model or a prediction but actual observations of weather events and temperatures that have happened. Our analysis shows that it is no longer enough to say that global warming will increase the likelihood of extreme weather and to repeat the caveat that no individual weather event can be directly linked

Hiroshima To Fukushima By Dr Arvind Kumar A ugust 6th, the anniversary of Hiroshima, should be a day of somber reflection, not only on the terrible events of that day in 1945, but also on what they revealed: that humans, in their dedicated quest to extend their capacities for destruction, had finally found a way to approach the ultimate limit. The Hiroshima tragedy was a catastrophe which brought to the world the birth of atomic weapons. This nuclear tragedy did not teach the world to stop all the nuclear production. Rather the opposite: the super powers and other small states moved to produce and engage in nuclear weapons’ production, proliferation. At the same time, this Hiroshima catastrophe was a big obstacle to any use of any atomic bombs, during all the Cold War years. Hiroshima kept the entire world wild awake during the Cold War period, to prevent any use of nuclear weapons again. And it has never been used again. The end of the Cold War set the entire world free from t

Future Air Pollution By Dr Arvind Kumar According to a recently published study in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics , an Open Access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU), it has been reported that air pollution is a major health risk that may worsen with increasing industrial activity. At present, urban outdoor air pollution causes 1.3 million estimated deaths per year worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. It is further revealed that most of the world's population will be subject to degraded air quality by 2050 if human-made emissions continue as usual. In this business-as-usual scenario, the average world citizen four decades from now will experience similar air pollution to that of today's average East Asian citizen. The researchers applied a multi pollutant index (MPI), suited for global model output to identify possible future hot spots of poor air quality. It appears that East and South Asia and the Middle East represent such hotsp

Sustainable Consumption By Dr Arvind Kumar The following warning signal came from World Widelife Fund’s 2008 report on ‘Living Planet’: “The earth is running out of natural resources like land, water and minerals so quickly that if nothing is done, some predictions say that by 2030 humankind will need the equivalent of two planets to sustain our current lifestyle.” It seems that over the past four this warning has remained unheeded. At this juncture it is worth noting as to what exactly can be done to reduce environmental impact – which has got further worsened – and how shoud we go about doing about it? Preventing environmental damage in the first place is seen as a preferable strategy to asking people to mitigate it after the fact. However, according to Dutch MEP Bas Eickhout (Greens), addressing sustainable consumption was “as crucial as [addressing] the production side. They need to go hand-in-hand but it’s far more difficult. How do you tell people what to consume? You c

Poverty Reduction or Redux By Dr Arvind Kumar According to recent media reports on a preview of the US National Intelligence Council’s global forecast offered at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, it has been estimated that poverty across the planet will be virtually eliminated by 2030, with a rising middle class of some two billion people pushing for more rights and demanding more resources. While forecsting the rise of the global middle class going from one to two billion, the preview further adds that if current trends continue, the 1 billion people who live on less than a dollar a day now will drop to half that number in roughly two decades. While dealing with the negative effects, the preview predicts food demand will rise by 50% in the next 18 years, though global population will only rise from 7.1 to 8.3 billion. Asserting that the middle-class people want middle-class diets, which are heavy in meat, requiring more water and grain to produce, the preview warns that

Afghanistan--Mineral Wealth By Dr Arvind Kumar The availability of huge reserves of fuel- and non-fuel mineral resources in Afghanistan can help stabilize a war torn can create jobs, industry, wealth and potentially pollution. The United States Geological Survey and the Department of Defense Task Force for Business and Stability Operations in Afghanistan have worked together to map out the natural resources in Afghanistan. The team identified key Areas of Interest (AOI)—and subareas within them—that fit these criteria. The AOIs contain mineral reserves or resources that have been well-documented through sampling in trenches, drill holes, and/or underground workings. Most are accessible by existing roads; so to develop or not to develop. There are vast amounts of minerals present in the country.  There are hazards ranging from earthquakes, general aridity (scare water supplies), and of course, war.  Copper, Chromium, Coal, and gold are just some of the potential deposits.

Impending Food Crisis By Dr Arvind Kumar The recent drought in the US has shrivelled most of its maize crop. The US is world's largest producer of maize. Hot weather has also affected crops in South America, Russia, Kazakhstan and China. Maize and wheat prices have climbed in the past two weeks. The question is, ‘Are we headed for another crisis?’ Though food security experts differ on this issue, but there is concern that staple grains like maize and wheat could become less affordable for the poor and sharp fluctuations in prices or volatility could disrupt the efforts of grain-importing poor countries to stay within their budgets. "It is still early days - it might just rain in the US and the situation could improve dramatically," said Abdolreza Abbassian, secretary of the Intergovernmental Group on Grains (IGG) at FAO.  "Our stocks of cereals are relatively comfortable and the situation is not comparable to 2010/11 [when wheat stocks were smaller] or to

International Illicit Drug Day Against Drug Abuse and Trafficking Dr. Arvind Kumar, President, India Water Foundation invited as a Special Guest on”International Illicit Drug Day Against Drug Abuse and Trafficking " at India Gate on 26th June 2012, where he shared his views along with hon'ble Minister Prof. Kiran Walia, Delhi Government high officials of NCB and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, activists and academicians, media persons and other organisations. He expressed his views before the huge gathering of school children, RWAs Senior Citizens and urged them to stop the menace of drug abuse. "According to broad estimates, more than 7 million people die annually due to drugs, the breakdown being 5 million (tobacco), 1.8 million (alcohol) and 0.2 million due to illicit drugs (with opiates being involved in about 60% of such illicit drug deaths). False notions of ecstasy, phantasy and illusion spur the youth to get ensnared into drug abuse. Civil

Need for Accountability By Dr Arvind Kumar Urgency for accountability to the people assumes added significance at this critical juncture when the global economy is in for another imminent economic meltdown. It devolves on all governments, civil society and international donors to prepare for accountability to their respective people, by whom they swear to govern. Of late international humanitarian aid agencies are increasingly realizing the importance of being accountable to the people they are trying to help. Undoubtedly, the implementing authorities try to put the lofty concepts into practice, they face many challenges, from the basic - people don’t always understand the word “complaint” – to the complex – how to be accountable when managing a project/policy implementation remotely due to insecurity. According to Maria Kiani, senior accountability adviser with the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP), “Some [organizations] might have very public commitments to acco

‘Nexus Approach’ for Water, Energy, Food and Environment By Dr Arvind Kumar The 2012 theme for World Environment Day is Green Economy , which is construed as one that results in  improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities . In its simplest expression, a green economy can be thought of as one which is low carbon ,  resource efficient  and  socially inclusive . Broadly speaking, a Green Economy is one whose growth in income and employment is driven by public and private investments that reduce carbon emissions and pollution, enhance energy and resource efficiency, and prevent the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. These investments need to be catalyzed and supported by targeted public expenditure, policy reforms and regulation changes. In the Indian context, the Ministry of Environment and Forests’ GOI proposed move to make it mandatory for PSUs and private companies to put in place and

Ganga Dussehra By Dr Arvind Kumar Ganga Dussehra is celebrated on Dashmi Tithi of Shukla Paksha Jeyshta Masa. This day, sacred river Ganga had descended on earth from heaven. This year it is being observed on 31 st May 2012. When Ganga Dussehra falls in Hast Nakshatra, it is believed to remove worst kinds of sins. Ganga descended on earth in Hast Nakshatra, hence, this day is more significant in comparison to other days. Ganga Dussehra is a festival of faith and devotion. As per the scriptures, bath and donations have great significance on this day. If due to some reason a person is not able to have bath in Ganga, he should perform Ardhaya nearby river and do the Tilodak and Tarpan. All sins of life are removed by performing bath, donations and Tarpan, on this day, therefore, this festival is called Dussehra. Out of all the rivers, Ganga is considered the most sacred and remover of sins (Papamochini). Having a dip in Ganga, gives salvation to a person. After performing

Nirjala Ekadashi Nirjala Ekadashi is the most important and significant Ekadashis out of all twenty four Ekadashis in a year. Nirjala means without water and Nirjala Ekadashi fasting is observed without water and any type of food. Nirjala Ekadashi Vrat is the toughest among all Ekadashi fast due to strict fasting rules. Devotees abstain not only from food but also from water while observing Nirjala Ekadashi Vrat. According to Hindu epic Mahabharata, one day Saint Vyasa went to visit Pandavas and the Madhyam Pandav Bhima, who was also a food enthusiast, stated that all his brothers, wife Draupadi and mother Kunti observed fast on 24 Ekadasis throughout the year and request him to do the same. But he was unable to perform the ritual owing to excruciating hunger pangs. Saint Vyasa suggested him to observe Nirjala Ekadasi Vrat, which will fetch him the holy fruits of keeping yearlong Ekadasi fasts. Bhima abided by his words and performed Nirjala Ekadasi Vrat. Next morning he bec