On Dogs Lovers and Power Illiteracy

Stray dogs protecting their turf (Pic source: DNA 14Dec17)

I have always found it difficult to understand the dynamics and the power of "Noble Intentions". How is it that when two sets of well meaning people, both trying in their own way to create a better society, end up making it more dysfunctonal?

Let me illustrate this with an example: stray dogs in our cities. 

Most people are wary of stray dogs, and see them as a threat, and a health hazard, while there is another set of folks, the 'Dog Lovers' who see nothing wrong in having stray dogs share our roads, parks and public spaces. If anybody gets bitten it is because they 'provoked' the dog, and therefore deserved what they got. 

Does their love for dogs extend to other animals as well? Not quite. Nobody would raise a finger, let alone filing a police case, if a harmless rat snake was beaten to pulp, or if pigs drowned in the sewers. But dogs? They are a 'man's best friend', and therefore, special.

Quite unlike the folks who get bitten on the streets, the Dog Lovers are superbly networked, and well organised. They are loud and vocal; they have the ready attention of not only the local newsreporters but also the sympathies of the Supreme Court. So when they take up cudgels on behalf of the strays, filing police reports against those who are violent towards stray dogs, naming and shaming people, all that the opposition can do is to roll over, and play dead.

How did the Dog Lovers come to weild so much power and influence? Why does our overstretched police force take on the unikely role of protecting stray dogs? The answer is simple: the law requires them to do so. 

As per Indian law, street dogs cannot be beaten, killed or driven away or displaced or dislocated. Under the Animal Birth Control (ABC Dogs) Rules, 2001  enacted under Section 38 of the Indian Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 (A Central Act), stray dogs can only be sterilized, vaccinated, and then returned back to their original locations. 

What happens when the state ABC department does not have the capacity (funds, personnel, infrastructure) to deal with an explosion in the population of stray dogs? Nobody seems to know, or care.

In NOIDA along there are an estimated 13,600 stray dogs. A few months ago, a child got severely mauled by a pack of stray dogs . When alarmed citizens got together to drive away strays and ended by beating a stray dog to death, police cases were promptly filed against them. So, at present, the very thought of messing with the Indian legal system, with its backlog of cases, is enough to deter any sensible citizen from messing with stray dogs. It is better to get bitten than to get stuck in the Indian courts.

How did a small band of Dog Lovers manage have such a disproportionate influence on the law of the land? A part of the answer lies in what has been articulated so well in Eric Liu's TED Talk - "Why Ordinary People Need to Understand Power". 

Liu rightly points out that power illiteracy all pervasive and that citizens have depressingly low levels of civic knowledge, civic engagement, participation, and awareness. They are naive about all the forms of power that are at play: money, people, ideas, information, misinformation, the threat of force, the force of norms.

Those few who do understand how power operates in civic life, those who understand how a bill becomes a law, how a friendship becomes a subsidy, or how a bias becomes a policy, or how a slogan becomes a movement, the people who understand those things wield disproportionate influence.

Clearly, Dog Lovers in India belong to the power literate elite who weild a disproportionate influence in our cities. In many ways they themselves are like the proverbial dog in the manger - they will not ease the burden on state ABC departments, nor will they stop barking at those who act against stray dogs.

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BTW

Kerala, seems to be among the few states where stray dogs do not enjoy a special status. It has citizens groups that actively participate in anti-stray dog campaigns and support the culling of strays. Across India, only the High Courts of Kerala and Karnataka have taken the position that local municipal laws prevail over the PCA Act. It is not a state of affairs that pleases the stray-dog lovers.

Thanks to this awkward state of semi-rebellion the state sees a lot of parodies centered around the helplessness of the civil society. In this one, a local alpha stray-dog, "Tiger Sabu" is being interviewed by a nervous TV news anchor, a few days after demonetization: 



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REFERENCES & LINKS

* Jaagruti - Indian street dogs and their rights - https://jaagruti.org/information-to-empower-you/indian-street-dogs-and-their-rights/
* Noida - child mauled by stray dogs - https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/noida/child-mauled-by-stray-dogs-in-greater-noida/articleshow/59198467.cms
* Animal Welfare Board of India - https://awbi.org/
* (4 Jan 2018) Hindu: Stray dog victim still in ICU - http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/stray-dog-attack-victim-still-in-icu/article22362867.ece
* (1 Apr 2018) ToI: Noida: Residents, security guards booked for thrashing stray dog to death- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/noida/noida-residents-guards-booked-for-thrashing-stray-dog-to-death/articleshow/63565399.cms
* http://www.dnaindia.com/delhi/report-plaints-on-noida-s-stray-dog-menace-fall-on-deaf-ears-2567534
* Eric Liu's TED Talk - "Why Ordinary People Need to Understand Power" -  https://www.ted.com/talks/eric_liu_why_ordinary_people_need_to_understand_power

A Tale of Two Retailers

A 3in1 phone-lens at Miniso - solid Value for Money

"Oh, Miniso?", said the sales-person at Muji, "You could call them our 'poor cousins'. Our prices are higher because we sell high quality products".

We have all heard this quality spiel before. Every fruit vendor in Delhi uses that line to sell his wares. At Muji, apart from sounding contrived and utterly unconvincing, it also presumes that the Indian customer is a fool.

Miniso and Muji are two retail brands with a lot in common. Both proclaim their Japanese pedegree in design aesthetics and quality while getting most of their products manufactured in China; both have 'affordable quality' as their USP, and both represent the changing face of Japanese FDI in India which is trying to diversify from its hitherto narrow focus on the automobile sector.

In their approach to the Indian market, however, Muji and Miniso could not be more different. 

Muji @DLF Mall of India, NOIDA

Muji is a company that started in the early 1980s in Japan. It is positioned as a "reasonably priced" brand, keeping the retail prices of its 'no-brand' products "lower than usual" by the materials it selected, streamlining its manufacturing processes, and minimising packaging. However, in India, it has chosen to tie-up with the Reliance conglomerate and positioned itself as an upmarket brand. 

Miniso, on the other hand, is a relatively young company, started in 2011 by Miyake Junya, a Japanese designer, and a Chinese entrepreneur, Ye Guofo. Unlike Muji, its sells quality products at prices that are actually reasonable by Indian standards.

The difference between the two retailers is quite telling at the DLF Mall of India, in NOIDA. Here, Muji has take up a large space on the first floor ('International Boulevard') while the Miniso outlet is about a fourth in size on the lower ground floor, at the same level as other budget shops, BigBazaar and Store99. While the Muji store exudes a lavish sense of space and luxury, Miniso is cramped with overflowing shelves and narrow aisles. 

Perhaps the biggest difference is that while Miniso is full of customers stuffing their baskets and lining up at the payment counters, Muji remains desolate in comparison. A handful of people saunter in as though they are visiting a museum, and most of them walk out without making a purchase.

Miniso @ Mall of India, NOIDA

What expains this difference? The price-tag could be one. In India, Muji's products have drifted far from their motto of being "reasonably priced". Most of the products in fact come with a two price-tags, and, amazingly, the Japanese JPY price is less than the equivalent INR price! For instance, a simple ruler carries a Japan price of JPY150 (INR93)and its India price is INR150! 

It is when I asked the Muji guys about this that I got the Miniso-is-our-poor-cousin comment. When I ask them about the rush in Miniso stores compared to Muji, their answer was - "Oh, that must be because this is NOIDA, where people cannot afford Muji quality!". 

Having lived in Japan for two years, and interacted with the impeccably polite and tactful staff at Muji stores at Tokyo and Tsukuba, one thing is certain: For all the investments they are making in India, staff training in India is far below Muji standards.

This summer, while Muji tries to weave a snooty cocoon for itself and attempts to attract customers with "upto 50% discount", Miniso, the 'poor cousin', has already expanded to 19 stores in NCR Delhi alone, and is laughing all the way to the bank.

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LINKS & REFERENCES

* (2017) - How Miniso became a mega success - http://knowledge.ckgsb.edu.cn/2017/05/31/c-suite-interview/miniso-mega-success-interview-ye-guofu/

* (2017) ET - Japan's investments in India is getting diverse - https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/japans-investments-in-india-getting-diverse/articleshow/58863341.cms

Mucous Cyst Rx

"Its just a local trauma..."
"No, its a bacterial wart! be careful, it infectious...certainly needs a surgery and biopsy..."
"Oh, just a simple mucous cyst!"

Two months, four doctors and three hospitals and many thousand rupees later, we have gained a few insights into the way in which our medical system works. It give you a glimpse of how private medical care is designed to make a mountain out of a molehill, to scare and fleece the gullible.

Two months ago, our son Aki got a cut on his upper lip which, instead of healing, developed into an eruption. Flesh etruded out of the cut which bled profusely from time to time. One day it would seem to be healing with a black scab but return to a a fleshy, bleeding nodule the very next. About 10 days after it showed no signs of healing, we took him to a doctor at the nearby Jaypee Hosptital. The pediatrician said it was just a "local trauma" and prescribed a  an anti-inflamatory syrup.

Aki found the syrup tasty but it nothing to reduce the eruption, or the bleeding. So off we went for a second opinion, to pediatrician at Patparganj, one strongly recommended by doctor-friends. The clinic was crowded and, from the number of vaccine adverts on the walls, quite popular with pharma companies as well. The doctor here came through a fair, honest, consciencious physician. "This looks like a wart", he said, "It needs to be surgically excised...it is just an Out Patient (OP) procedure in any government hospital, but given the crowds, you won't be seen unless you know somebody personally. If you go to any private hosptial, make sure you get the estimates clearly, in writing, before you get the child admitted". He also graciously returned - to our amazement - his consultancy fees (INR500) because, in his words, "I only advised you to go elsewhere." 

Next stop, Max Hospital. Here we got to meet our first pediatric surgeon. One look at Aki's lip, and he declared that it was "mucous cyst". Pulling our a couple of blank sheets, he explained in detail how it developed. "Sometimes, the process of healing ends up blocking the flow of mucus cells...and instead of keeping the lip surface moist, they end up discharging mucus under the skin. This develops into a cyst which ruptures and bleeds easily." Surgery, apparently, was the only way to get the cyst removed.

How much would surgery cost? Well, the answer depends on whether or not you have a mediclaim insurance cover. If you do, then it would cost about INR 25,000 if you got it done at Max Hospital. The cost of booking an operation theatre, anaesthesia specialists and a days' stay at the hospital, we were told, made a relatively simple procedure expensive. 

Would this be defenitely covered under mediclaim? Guys at the billing office were not so sure. "Lets see", they said, "We will submit all the papers and then know in a couple of days". Not quite reassuring.

So now we went for fourth opinion with a surgeon at Kailash Hospital, Noida. The diagnosis at Max was reconfirmed. This certainly was a mucus cyst that needed to be 'surgically excised, or cauterized'. The cost was a couple of thousands less but, given the crowds at this hospital, nobody wanted to an operation date, or the insurance coverage.

Back at Jaypee Hospital, the feedback from the billing office was the same. The procedure would cost not less than INR 25,000, which included no less than INR 8000 for 'micellaneous consumables'! The cost of the biopsy, of course, would be extra.

Since none of the pediatric surgeons said that it was emergency procedure, we thought about it for a couple of days, checked with other hospital, and settled for a surgery at Felix Hospital. This was the only place were we met a pediatric surgeon who inspired confidence in us with his surgery-as-last-resort approach. This was the also only hospital that had an OT readily available, did not insist on conning insurance companies and came up with surgery cost estimates at INR 5500. The only down side at this hospital was that they charged thrice the amount for consultancy fees for pediatric surgeons, compared to far more reputed hospitals. 

Anyway, sometimes when all is not so well also ends well. A supposedly common medical condition was misdiagnosed, received inflated cost estimates for the surgery, and was finally sorted out for one-fifth the estimates. One thing is clear, the nexus between private private, medical insurance companies, and TPAs is designed to fleece patients - especially those who may not have the luxury of time to seek a fair deal.

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Postscript:
After the final follow-up visit, our doctor requested that we evaluate him online. I received three sites on WhatsApp -- Practo, Lybrate and JustDial. This is an interesting new trend - doctors want to create a reputation that is independent of the hospitals in which they serve. I am not sure if this is good for the patients because we now have one more broker in between, and the additional costs are built into the doctor's fees :(

* Practo: Verifies feedback with an OTP sent to mobile number, collects proof of visit (bill/prescription), and creates a login for you, on the sly. 
* Lybrate: Does not have a clear section for doctor feedback. Verified using OTP. No need to login.
* JustDial: Badly designed site. The doctor's review page forces you to post your comments on FaceBook and Twitter (default option). Crazy.

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LINKS:

- Oral mucocele - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_mucocele

The Air We Breathe

Over the past one week, I have been analyzing the market for air purifiers in the NCR Delhi region. It is just the right time of the year for an assignment like this - the quality of air here takes a nosedive with the onset of winter.

Today the reports of suspended particulate matter - especially PM 2.5 - were particularly alarming. It peaked at over 715 mg/m3 when the prescribed limit is below 60 mg/m3!

Just before the festival of lights, Diwali, farmers in Northern India harvest their summer crops and prepare their fields for the winter sowing season. Since it is too expensive to physically remove the post harvest residue from the fields they just burn it.  A huge cloud of smoke then slowly drifts over Delhi and settles down with all the smoke from Diwali firecrackers, turning the national capital into a gas chamber.

This year, a one-off intervention by the Supreme Court resulted in a ban on the sale of firecrackers, so there was a marginal reduction in the smog and haze, but it still left most of us teary eyed, and with a niggling irritation in the throat.

Pollution is not bad news for everybody. There has been a spike in the number of companies selling air purifiers, big advertisements in the newspapers point to the fact that 15 odd companies are all set to make hay while the sun shines dimly through the smog.

According to the Philips salesman at GIP Mall in Noida, air purifiers have been flying off the shelves as Diwali gifts. The company is barely able to keep pace with the demand. From what one could see, in their enthusiasm to sell, their glib sales pitch is also barely in touch with scientific facts.

"We human being consume about four kilograms of food everyday", said the Philips salesman, "But do we know that we also breathe in about 24 kgs of air, with all the pollutants in Delhi?" I did not know that. Having been under the impression that the volume of air is measured in liters or cubic feet or cubic meters, I have been trying to figure out the actual volume of air consumed by us everyday.

The World Health Organisation and US-EPA has some clear figures on this. Considering the fact that the air contains 20-23% of oxygen, and that an average human being breathes in about 0.5 liters of air with each inhalation. At about 20 inhalations per minute, we are consuming no less than 6-8 liters of air while we are sitting around doing nothing. This jumps up to 60 liters/minute while running at 5 miles/hour. So it turns out that we are breathing in no less than 14,400 liters of air every day (0.5 * 20 * 60 * 24). This volume would take up all the space in a room measuring about 500 cubic feet!

The Philips salesman might have been talking through his hat, but there is no denying the fact that most of us are unaware of the sheer volume of contaminated air entering our lungs every day!

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LINKS and REFERENCES

*  WHO  Factsheet - Ambient air quality and health - http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/

* USA - California Env Protection Agency research - https://www.arb.ca.gov/research/resnotes/notes/94-11.htm

* YouTube video - How much oxygen does a person consume/day? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-QYVKYKyfg

* https://www.quora.com/How-much-volume-do-we-inhale-and-exhale-in-a-day

* Oxygen intake - https://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/respiratory/question98.htm

Water Diviners

“There is water here,” the old man from Kasaragod said simply, after reading the landscape and its botany, and placing his hands on the earth.

I was struck by this line from recent article by Lalitha Sridhar in the Hindu. She was describing C. Kunjambu Attan, a highly regarded 76-year-old water diviner from Kerala and his visit to Bidar, a drought-prone city in Karnataka, India.

It is not uncommon in India to come across stories of great mystics who had special powers to commune with nature. The book, "Autobiography of a Yogi" contains numerous instances of sages who developed a capacity to communicate their thoughts to their people sitting thousands of kilometers away, and of yogis who could "create" fruits out of thin air. In a more recent book, "Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master", tells the story of a Muslim boy who was impelled to find his life's calling a Nath-panthi yogi.

A water diviner may not be categorized as a Yogi, but unlike the seekers of the ultimate spiritual Truth, they seem to be putting their talents to good use -  not in some distant afterlife but in the immediate here and now. What could be more useful that helping thirsty people in parched lands quench their thirst?

This also makes me wonder if there are mystics and diviners who try to prevent the colossal wastage of water we see all around us -- especially in urban areas.Take Noida for instance. Potable drinking water for the city is sourced from the distant Ganga river (80%), and from groundwater aquifers (20%).

Despite the huge expense involved in transporting, cleaning and distributing water to the cities, the UP Jal Nigam seems to care little about wastage. Users are charged a paltry one-time annual fee that creates no incentives to prevent overflowing water from literally going down the drains.

Are there any Kunjambu Attan's who can help prevent the mindless wastage of water in our cities -- especially in the scorching summer season?

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REFERENCES

* Sridhar, Lalitha - How Bidar Beat Back the Heat -- http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/how-bidar-beat-back-the-drought/article18282462.ece

A Bridge That Went Too Far

A debate is raging over one of India's first "successful" Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects.

The Delhi-Noida-Direct (DND), an arterial, privately-built road connecting NOIDA to Delhi has been declared toll-free by the courts, and the company in question, ILFS-NTBCL, is trying it best to return to status quo.

By all accounts, the status quo seems like a perfect sweetheart deal where the private company keeps on making handsome returns in perpetuity, at the cost of the public.

The DND story begins in the early 1990s when the country had just initiated major economic reforms and its public infrastructure was in a woeful state. A company formed by retired government bureaucrats, IL&FS, won a contract for building the road-bridge in 1997. The construction was completed ahead of schedule, and the bridge was opened in 2001. Under the contract, the company was to get an assured return of 20% return on investment, over a 30 year period.

What exactly was the investment involved? Now this is where things start getting murky. IL&FS reported that engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) cost was Rs 193 crore. The cost for acquiring the land, facilitated by the Noida administration, was just Rs 11 crore. On to this amount, the company added an a huge  "management fee" of about Rs 200 crores, bringing the total cost to Rs 378 crores.

As if this was not enough, the Total Project Cost (TPC) was calculated ex-post and remained open-ended to include just about anything (with zero-risk to IL&FS). This ensured that the TPC and the toll-rates could be revised upwards with each passing year. It also ensured that the "20% assured return" would always remain unmet, and the total cost spiraled to Rs.5,000 crore in 15 years!

In 2001, the government was wet behind the ears about PPPs. Soon after the DND project was completed it realized that the private developers were leading it by the nose, and came up with a series of measures to ensure fair-play and public accountability in PPP contracts. By 2005, Model Concession Agreement (MCA) were ready for PPP projects, along with samples of other documents like Request for Qualification (RfQ) and Request for Proposal (RfP).

So what happens to the contract that was signed between IL&FS and the government (UP & Delhi)? The company, quite naturally, continues to claim that it has the legal right to do as it pleases.

Fortunately this issue has come to a head with the filing of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL). The Allahabad High Court noted that NTBCL had “recovered all reasonable returns” on its investment, and was no longer entitled to collect toll. The company filed an appeal to the Supreme Court which tossed it aside with a note of sarcasm - "You have only ten kms of highway", the bench said, "and you claim that you have made a road to the moon"!

A follow-up study is now analyzing the company records for the profits it has made so far. It would be interesting to know exactly how the ex-bureaucrats went laughing all the way to the bank.

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* Puri, Pradeep (2016) Article by the ex-IAS officer who joined IL&FS -
"Making the DND Flyway Toll Free can Ring Death Knell for Private Investment in India"  http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toi-edit-page/making-dnd-flyway-toll-free-can-ring-death-knell-for-private-investment-in-indias-infrastructure/

* Rejoinder - Mohanty, Nalini (23Nov16) - "Why the DND is a Virtual Sellout at Public Expense" - https://www.newslaundry.com/2016/11/22/why-the-dnd-is-a-virtual-sellout-to-private-companies-at-public-expense

* Mint (2Nov2016) - http://www.livemint.com/Politics/sh9pNZbfTPnt7r0ZPjxjtI/Price-of-making-DND-Flyway-free-to-use-amounts-to-Rs5000-cr.html


* DNA (28Oct2016) - http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-dnd-flyway-row-you-ve-not-built-a-road-to-moon-sc-tells-noida-toll-firm-2268316
* Indian Express (28Oct2016) - http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/issues-and-arguments-how-a-key-delhi-noida-bridge-went-toll-free-3730051/

* Singh, Abhinav Prakash (10Apr2013) -- Delhi-Noida Toll Bridge- Loot in the name of Public-Private Partnerships (An excellent primer!) -- http://centreright.in/2013/04/delhi-noida-toll-bridge-loot-in-the-name-of-public-private-partnerships/#.WDVCctV97IU

* Chandran, Rahul (2007, Mint) - http://www.livemint.com/Companies/GaP1xmYycrKNl8KPvvcFEK/With-DND-he-paved-the-way-for-smooth-publicpvt-partnership.html

* Qunit (16Oct16) -- https://www.thequint.com/videos/2016/10/27/bigger-loss-toll-free-dnd-means-commuters-face-ticket-less-mess-noida-allahabad-high-court
- the court noted that “the Concessionaire, according to their own financial statements, has recovered Rs 810.18 crore (approx) from toll income from the date of commencement of the project till 31.03.2014 and after deduction of operation and maintenance expenses and corporate income tax, the surplus was Rs 578.80 crore.”

Captain Sparrow

Has there really been a shap decline the population of House Sparrows in India? In our corner of the National Capital Region (Noida) evidence points the other way.

This summer our home seems to have become the favoured destination for a variety of creatures. A couple of squirrels have claimed the space under a bedroom airconditioner; A pigeon laid two eggs on another window ledge, a tennis-ball-sized honeycomb nest on the foyer roof is home to family of yellow wasps, and the fourth corner of the house is the domain of Captain Sparrow and his family.

Three years ago, four organisations - BNHS, MoEF, NCBS and NCF -  had launched a two-month campaign to build public awareness on the disappearing House Sparrow. While participating in the nation-wide "Citizen Sparrow"survey I had pointed out that, at least in Noida, there was absolutely no shortage of this little bird. They were all over the place - in the hedges, on the Arjuna trees, and all over the local vegetable market. 

As if to reinforce this data-point, Captain Sparrow landed on one of our windows that just would not close. In this gap, safe from the prying claws of crows, rats and black-shouldered kites, it started making a tentative nest. At first it was a shoddy piece of work and none of his girlfriends were impressed. He then added a roof, some extra furnishings, and got steady with one. 

First it was a single, tiny, speckled egg. 

A week later there were three more.  

All four eggs went out of sight for a while until one morning we discovered that there were two plump little chicks in the nest. 

Every morning they made a huge racket and Captain and his wife seemed to be perpetually going to and fro getting them things to eat. If any of us approached the nest for a peek, the chicks would quickly backtrack in to the deepest corner, turning themselves completely silent and invisible against the straws and twigs.

Then, as suddenly as they had come, both the chicks turned into young ladies and flew away. So that was that we thought, time to clean up the window sill and settle down for some peace and quiet. 

We then went off on a three week holiday in mid-May. When we returned home in the June, not only had Captain refurbished his hangout, it was now a plush nest with two more chicks! 

So in just one summer, our window sill has been a maternity ward that has seen four baby sparrows fly out into the world.

Will Captain Sparrow come back again next season? We hope so!

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LINKS

* Citizen Sparrow - http://www.citizensparrow.in/
* India Searches for its missing sparrows (2012) - http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/india-searches-for-its-missing-sparrows/article3287189.ece
* Citizen Sparrow Survey Report (2013)

Kirana Broadband

A few years ago experts had predicted that the arrival of malls, hypermarts and then the online stores would spell doom for the Kirana shops - the tiny mom-and-pop corner stores.No such thing has happened, at least in our corner of the world.

In Noida, corner stores continue to thrive, even while charging premiums, or at the very least, the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) for their goods. Unlike the mega-malls and online stores, they continue to be better tuned in to customer needs. Their range of goods tends to be rather limited but with longer hours (06:30 - 22:30) and options of making monthly payments, the strong point continues to be personalised services.

Something similar is now happening in the broadband services space.

The first-mover here was the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). They were the first to lay an extensive optic-fibre network and had a captive market of residents with fixed-line telephones. It was a great business opportunity and they blew it - thanks largely to their amazing line-men who just could not kick the habit of demanding bribes, making shoddy wire-connections, just to ensure failures and, in turn, to keep the speed money flowing.

Repeated complaints to senior BSNL officials had absolutely no effect. This was the classic Rhett Butler approach to customer satisfaction - 'Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!'

The local entrepreneurs soon sensed a business opportunity. Now we have three competing broadband entrepreneurs - Paramhans Internet, Fiberworld and RT Radiaant. Each of them offers competitive prices, access to an optic-fibre network, and built in multiple redundencies to ensure minimum down time.

For instance, Fiberworld uses an optic fibre network with a set of six Radio Frequency (RF) antennas providing a backup. It was using the optic-fibre network from Triple Play until it switched over to Perfect Internet, a few weeks ago.

The good thing about these local service providers is that they operate on the Kirana work-ethic. Quick response to customer complaints, customised services with no demand for bribes. On the down side, their wiring is messy and ugly, not unlike the cable-TV guys who had a cobweb of cables dangling across buildings. Exposed cables also tempt the companies to keep competition at bay by cutting cables, and corners.

Now all the Kirana Broadband guys are looking over their shoulders, anxioulsy awaiting the arrival of Reliance-Jio, the King Kong in broadband arena.

Reliance Jio claims to have laid more than 250,000 kilometres of fibre-optic cables, covering 18,000 cities and over 100,000 villages, with the aim of covering 100% of the nation’s population by 2018. In the first phase itself, Jio aims to have 100 million wireless broadband and 20 million Fibre-to-Home customers.

Will the Kirana Broadband service providers be able to survive the Jio marketing blitz? Will they fare better than the cable-TV companies that had got decimated by DTH services?

Whatever the outcome, the customers are like to get better, more reliable options, as the days go by!

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REFERENCES & LINKS

* Reliance Jio - http://www.ril.com/ourBusinesses/Jio.aspx
* Triple Play - http://www.tptl.in/
* Perfect Internet - perfectinternet.in

Cuscuta in Noida

A mop of blond hair looks ugly on evergreen trees.

Parasitic infestations by the Cuscuta species, that seems to have started as an nuisance for garden hedges, seems to have grown in to full blown epidemic in various parts of NCR Delhi.

In Noida, there is an entire avenue that has been colonised by Cuscuta species..

Is there a way to rid the magnificent pilkhan trees of this infestation? So far all available information on WWW seems to suggest that the scientists have only figured a way to deal with this infestation in cash-crop plantations.

If you have an alfa-alfa farm, a solution - albeit expensive - may be at hand. But isn't there a biocontrol agent that could deal with the cuscuta problem? -- a parasite that kills another parasite perhaps?

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LINKS:

* e-Flora of India - https://sites.google.com/site/efloraofindia/species/a---l/cl/convolvulaceae/cuscuta/cuscuta-species-1/delhi
- https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/indiantreepix/u1eHxg-Gldk

* Biology and Control of parasitic weeds -- http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/boggulareddy-1406855-biology-and-control-of-parasitic-weeds/

Insect Season

It has been an unusual combination of summer and monsoon this year. The dry heat lasted for a lot longer in May-June, and then, after a few showers, most of the rainfall happened in August-September.

Last year, at the Sector-105 park in Noida,  all the Arjuna trees were loaded with plump, green, Tussar Silkworms. This year there were none. Instead, we had some other unusual guests.

(All ids by Shaku @ Florida-U)

Parthenium beetle, Zygogramma bicolorata, Family Chrysomelidae.

Common Silverline, Cigaritis (Spindasis) vulcanus, Family Lycaenidae
Note the "false head" at the back of the wings - excellent defense mechanism..

Common Silverline (top view)

Flower beetle, Mylabris pustulata .  Family Meloidae (blister beetles or oil beetles, because they secrete a pungent, oily substance when attacked, that might cause blisters in predators body; feed on flowers, so also called flower beetles ).

Most likely, Small Cabbage White, Pieris rapae, definitely Family Pieridae. These are really delicate, and lose their, already pale, wing coloration very fast, its usually difficult to find a fresh and intact specimen.

Treehopper, (possibly, Centrotus sp.), Family Membracidae.  Fascinating little insects, also called cow bugs (horns, obviously), or thorn bugs. 

Indian or Asian Honey bee, Apis cerana indica

Common emigrant, Catopsilila pomona (Family Pieridae) 

Lemon or Lime swallowtail, Papilio demoleus. 
This one seems to have lost part of its wings to a predator!  The bottom part of the wings have red or orange, eye-shaped spots that often serve as a defense mechanism, to fool predators.  So the predator attacks from the tail end of the butterfly, and gets only the wings, while the butterfly can escape!  This is one of the papiolionid butterflies that does not have a tail-like extension to its wings (that give the family its name - swallowtails).

CC Fraud -- Club Group of Hotels

Recently, we got conned into 'buying' a time-share holiday scheme from a company called "Mountain Club Resorts PL, New Delhi", Club Group of Hotels.

Their game was pretty simple -- and beguiling. First they dangled a "free holiday" at the end of an hour-long marketing pitch. When you decline to take up their offers, the smooth-talking gets smoother, and the prices keep going down until you take the bait on the basis of "zero interest" payments of multiple installments spread across a couple of years.

Then they take your credit cards and charge you the full amount saying that the CC company would be converting them to 'easy installments'. You are hurriedly made to sign at the bottom of some legal papers. It is only later that you kick yourself for being so gullible -- especially when you notice that the legal doc has blanks spaces that have not been filled, and the bill from the credit-card company is for full, upfront payments!

A rather belated internet search reveals that RBI had banned "zero interest" many months ago.

You desperately contact the company. The smooth-talkers are Mountain Club Resorts now feign ignorance. "Is there a new RBI rule? They must've introduced that after you signed up". When that line fails to convince, a new offer comes up - "We'll pay up the interest charged by the CC companies". When you ask them to send confirmatory emails, they just dissappear. Phone calls go unanswered; emails are ignored.

Is it too late? What do you do?

First, inform the credit card companies. In our case, the process with Citibank was a lot easier than HDFC bank. Citi just blocked the credit card, issued a new one and then initiated a "dispute" inquiry. The very next day, there was a follow-up call to assure us that no payment was required for this transaction. HDFC was a lot more cumbersome. They wanted to have a written application, signed and submitted to a local branch. Customer-care service was tardy and a test of patience.

Next, inform the Reserve Bank of India. The RBI Ombudsman page had officers listed city-wise to take up the complaints . Our case has now been forwarded to the Department of Non-Banking Supervision (DNBS).

What happens next? Watch this space.



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LINKS

* RBI bans zero-interest payment schems (26 Sep., 2013) -- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/RBI-bans-zero-interest-loans-on-EMI-to-credit-card-holders/articleshow/23065529.cms

* Fraud membership offered by Club Group of Hotels -- http://www.icomplaints.in/fraud-membership-scheme-offered-by-club-group-of-025237.html

* Complaints registered online -- http://www.complaintsaboutbusiness.in/tag/club-group-of-hotels/
and http://www.consumercourt.in/product-services/110075-cheated-club-group-hotels-gold-star-hospitality.html  (Club Group of Hotels / Gold Star Hospitality)
and http://www.consumercourtforum.in/f29/club-group-hotels-just-behind-your-mollah-don-t-fall-prey-them-84052/

* ...and  more! -- http://www.complaintbox.in/cheating-by-club-group-of-hotelsdestination-resorts-india-pvt-ltd/ (Club Group of Hotels / Destination Resorts PL)

* RBI -- http://www.rbi.org.in/commonman/english/scripts/departments.aspx#DNBS
- http://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/bs_viewcontent.aspx?Id=159

* Banking Obudsmen - RBI - http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/AboutUsDisplay.aspx?pg=BankingOmbudsmen.htm

The Right Swallow

What a remarkable coincidence!

Just the day after I struggled to identify an unusual, elegant bird perched on an electric line, it turned up as the IBC bird-of-the-day!

Wire-tailed Swallow

Pic by Sid Adhikari
Source: Internet Bird Collection - http://ibc.lynxeds.com/photo/wire-tailed-swallow-hirundo-smithii/sitting-dead-tree

A Special Zone

View NOIDA - Along the Expressway in a larger map

I visited the Noida Special Economic Zone (NSEZ) yesterday expecting to see something, well, special. 'Disappointed' may be a mild word to describe the experience.

It did not start that way though. When I was stopped by security guards at the main gate for an id proof and the 'Plot number', the special-ness quotient went a few notches higher. Beyond those gates of black polished granite, I imagined a neat, world class industrial park, packed with enterprises that were busy producing and exporting things destined for the global markets.

Inside NSEZ, I just wanted to go to the telephone office (BSNL) to return a dysfunctional modem. So the guards directed me to a less special Gate-II. "Here a Rs.10 pass",  the guards there said, "Roam around as much as you like till midnight!".

Once inside, it did not take long for me to realize that even though there was a lot of area to roam around, there was nothing much to see. Wide and poorly maintained roads, shabby gardens, nondescript buildings and stray dogs lolling about in open garbage heaps. At the BSNL office, the guard was asleep on a wooden bed; a dusty, discarded microwave transmitter lay near the stairwell. Most of the office rooms were empty.

As my luck would have it, the only BSNL employee in the building was right one to take back my modem. He tried his best to dissuade me. "The speeds will improve! I guarantee!". When I insisted on withdrawing the broadband connection, he changed tack and conceded that the government enterprise had been neglecting the 'last mile'. Optic fibers had been laid till the exchanges but due to internal tussles and vested interests there were just not enough staff to service customers in Noida.

Outside the BSNL office, driving around a bit more, I realized that there was an extra-special zone within this 300 acre area, considered to be outside 'customs jurisdiction of India'. All the swanky new buildings were clustered close to the main gate.  Most of these were software companies like TechMahindra, iGate and Mosaic ITES. The service sector was obviously the flavor of the season. All the rest seemed well past their glory years.

The glory years' must have ended with the tax breaks. In India, the Special Economic Zones were first created in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the hope of repeating China's success with SEZs. Noida's NSEZ came up in 1985 and was one of the seven established by the central government. It was also the only one which was both landlocked and the only one located in North India. Companies that invested here were beyond the reach of India's convoluted labor laws and they enjoyed tax-breaks for 15-20 years.

How are the SEZs doing? My superficial view of NSEZ may have quite uninspiring, but, on the whole, they seems to be rocking. In 2004-05 they contributed 10% of India exports. Five year's later, in 2009 this share went up to 20% of total exports. 

Yet, there was no doubt that NSEZ could be managed much more efficiently. If only the government would create an incentive structure to reward professionalism, all the way from the level of the guards and BSNL employees, to the bureaucrats sipping chai in their air-conditioned offices!

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LINKS & REFERENCES

SEZ 

- http://www.nsez.gov.in/nsezwebsite/SezDevloper.aspx

- Google Maps -- https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=202036517216705407893.0004b11f9c0b2060cbba5&msa=0&ll=28.538815,77.398531&spn=0.002757,0.004823

- The Special Economic Zones Act, 2005, was passed by Parliament in May, 2005 which received Presidential assent on the 23rd of June, 2005. After extensive consultations, the SEZ Act, 2005, supported by SEZ Rules, came into effect on 10th February, 2006

- List of operational SEZs -- http://sezindia.nic.in/writereaddata/pdf/ListofoperationalSEZs.pdf

- 172 SEZs under the SEZA 2005: 19 established before this Act; Noida SEZ (2003) is among the seven established by the central govt.

- Noida SEZ came up in 1985, then came Vizag SEZ in 1989. The next set came only ten years' later (Kandla, SEEPZ Mumbai, Kochi and Surat in 2000)

- share of SEZ units / Export Oriented Units (EOUs) in the national exports has gone up from 10 percent in 2004-05 to about 22 percent in 2008-09. 

- Under the scheme, a SEZ Unit can be set up in any of the seven Government SEZs (erstwhile Export Processing Zones) while EOUs can be set up outside SEZ across the country as per territorial jurisdiction of concerned Development Commissioner.

* NSEZ - Noida -- http://www.nsez.gov.in/nsezwebsite/AboutUs.aspx

- NSEZ the only Central Government SEZ in the northern India, headed by the Development Commissioner, was set up in 1985 in Noida Phase-II on a 310 acre plot of land. 

- Government of India has so far invested a sum of Rs. 1177 million on its development. NSEZ provides excellent infrastructure, supportive services and sector specific facilities for the thrust areas of exports like gem and jewellery and electronics software. 

- This is the only land locked SEZ , contrary to other zones which are situated in Port Towns and hence emphasis of type of units to be set up are those with high value and low volume.

- jewellery and software development units -- These two sectors have contributed more than 30 per cent of the export turn over during the year 2008-09.

- jurisdiction of Noida Special Economic Zone is spread over EOUs in nine states namely Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Union Territory of Chandigarh.

* Chapter VI: Special Fiscal Provisions for SEZs -- exemption from any duty of customs and excise

> Customs Act, 1962 or the Custom Tariff Act, 1975

> Central Excise Act, 1944 or the Central Excise Tariff Act, 1985 

> service tax under Chapter-V of the Finance Act, 1994

> securities transaction tax leviable under section 98 of the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2004 

> Central Sales Tax Act, 1956 (fos goods other than newspapers!)

> Income-tax Act, 1961 (subject to a few modifications in Sch-II)

- deemed to be a territory outside the customs territory of India for the purposes of undertaking the authorized operations, so as to encourage - 

(a) generation of additional economic activity 

(b) promotion of exports of goods and services; 

(c) promotion of investment from domestic and foreign 

sources; 

(d) creation of employment opportunities; 

(e) development of infrastructure facilities; 

Just Grass

The sight of grass often reminds me of a few lines in Max Erhman's famous poem, Desiderata:

"Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. 
Neither be cynical about love; 
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass"

I am not very sure if love is "perennial" but that is certainly an apt word to describe grass. Even during the worst North Indian summers', when every bit of exposed earth has been reduced to bone-dry, crusty soil, the grass is still there just below the surface, holding out against the dust storms with its seemingly dead roots.

The tables turn with the arrival of the monsoons. Suddenly, seeds that swirled with the dust, strike roots and settle down. Tiny shoots that appear on wet, brown soil, and turn rapidly into lush green carpets.

A closer look at these carpets reveal amazing micro-ecosystems. Even in the smallest patches, there is a wide variety of grasses, each at its own height level and each with its own type of stalked flowers to toss spores into greater distances.

Yesterday, I found six distinct varieties of grass in a five-foot patch. What are they called?

L > R  (work-in-progress!)

1. Smooth Brome
2.
3. Crowfoot Grass
4. Indian Crowfoot Grass
5.
6.

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LINKS

Flowers of India - Grasses - http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/grass.html

Yamuna Biodiversity Park -- https://dda.org.in/greens/biodiv/yamuna-biodiversity-park.html

Nilgai & Shades of Grey

A Nilgai (Litt. 'Blue-Cow'- Boselaphus tragocamelus) has been foraging in our neighborhood for the past few week. Every time I see I see this magnificent wild animal, I wonder if I am color blind.

I see shades of grey, brown, black and white (on the hoofs) but at no point during the day or night does it look blue in color...why then is this antelope called a Nilgai??

Mosquito-Nama

Which is this mosquito that landed on my CD after a happy-meal?

Over the past two weeks there has been a spike in the mosquito population in NCR Delhi. As soon as winter gave way to the warmth of spring there seems to a lot more life in the open drains and exposed water-tanks. Since vector control in general and mosquito control particular requires a concerted action in any neighborhood, perhaps this is a good indicator of how a community functions.

In our New Delhi suburb the response of residents follows an interesting pattern. We turn on their electronic insect repellents all day, step over exposed drains and pools of stagnant water, refuse to clean our water-coolers and then complain that the local government is doing nothing to help.

We, of course, know all there is to know about health hazards but, somehow, it seems to unseemly, so 'undignified' to roll up our sleeves, to clean up the water-coolers or to step outdoors to clean the drains - especially when you have the luxury of complaining that the others are not doing what they are supposed to do!

Coming back to the happy-meal mosquito, its a culex. This species is particularly active at dusk and is a carrier for filaria and encephalitis.

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REFERENCES

Culex menace: The sting that triggers encephalitis (ToI 4 Apr 2012) - http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-03/delhi/31281034_1_culex-anopheles-mosquitoes

FACT SHEET ON MOSQUITO CONTROL BY INDIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION -- http://www.imakerala.net/ecc/fsmc.pdf