The recent outcry over pesticides in water and
beverages also shows up the attitudes in certain matters all
round our society [me included, of course]. We all love a good controversy
like a good drought. It gives a lovely chance to shoot others and retain a
'chalta hai' attitude for ourselves. "Oh, What a Lovely War" [actually a famous
anti-war parody] could as well be our anthem!
When we move house to a no-power area for
example, don't we invest in torches and a stock of batteries? And if
we are gaining something by moving there - say cheap land, labour, may be
subsidies and a value-add, is it outside our interest to invest
in all that makes for a stability of income, quality, reliability and in
the end, valuable reputation?
On the other hand, Government departments will get
away from their responsibilities and in a developing country, public utilities
like water and energy will always be short. Of course it is one thing to bargain
and pursue with the government but the reality is that where you have a vested
interest in a clean thirst-quencher, the initiative needs to be yours, however
unjust it is. It is yet another injustice that politicians seeking one-term
gains and bureaucrats of 'inertial mass' will hit out at private
enterpreneurs and MNCs. Cow's milk has been known, albeit in few
cases, to contain traces of effluents, possibly from grass that they
were possibly fed, but the organised dairy sector is a politically powerful
one. Few environmentalists and the media, wittingly or unwittingly, aid
this mud-slinging. The fall-out is often a too-little-too-late gesture, mostly
involving expensive equipment.
Sometimes departments or an industry suddenly
impose purchases on the industry and consumer. RTO authorities, after tom-toming
a self-employment scheme in pollution-check centres in the mid-90s,
suddenly imposed a regime involving an "upgrade" of exhaust
gas analysers costing 4 times the existing ones, regardless of effectivity,
that in fact sent hundreds of small entrepreneurs oit of business. Catalytic
convertor retrofits were imposed in the 90s, on owners of cars, involving a
massive cost even if rendered useless by leaded fuel while unleaded petrol
is unavailable in most places. CNG conversion is imposed even as there is
only one vendor for kits. In the 70s and 80s, a variety of appliance
manufacturers refused to honour their warranty without a stabiliser being
purchased from them. PC manufacturers similiarly insisted on the user buying
air-conditioners in the 80s. ELCBs are compulsory installations in
buildings even if they result in nuisance tripping. ESPs or electrostatic
precipitators are compulsory in cement plants even as there is a risk of
monoxide fires.
At times, authorities announce intentions to
commission projects whose budgets will lapse or will be delivered after the
concerned busy-body is to retire - like roadways, power plants and
water-works. So there will be violations and thefts on one side and
indefinite delays and excuses on the other. But if the equipment can be
purchased hurriedly and add 'cosmetic value' like mammoth unwieldy and
over-priced photovoltaic plants in the midst of "100% electrified zones" or
power-guzzling streetlights, such projects are 'implemented
expeditiously'.
Likewise, many town administrations invested in
centralised irrigation systems and waterworks, but never upgraded their
technologies. Next, the central Government invested in the world's largest
chemical fertiliser plants and further, under the licence-permit raj, protected
the manufacture of chemical pesticides and detergents, under laws that
choked any reason to improve them. Consequently we were saddled
with products and processes that were banned in their original countries.
The same in the case of plastics and polymers that range
from packaging and containers to dyestuff and paint, other bulk
chemicals like battery electrolytes and treatment chemicals for fabric and
paper.
Adding to all this, water from irrigation
canals deposits layers of salt as it dries up, while over-pumping without
re-charging of water-bearing soil layers deep down drags more
of natural salts with the water. Also this makes the deep soil layers
permeable to water from any nearby water bodies, like the sea, without letting
it filter naturally. Further, we use more disposable products than before.
Effluent disposal is a confused mix of centralised and de-centralised
systems, as is recycling. Consequently, the soil is mixed with all
manner of substances it has never been exposed to. Roots of plants now suck
up stuff they have never been exposed to, thereby into all our "natural"
intakes. And the impact is felt everywhere.
Water treatment options in the 60s may have
been limited to basic hydraulics and chemical processes. But over the years, if
groundwater has been contaminated over a wider region and with
more toxins than before, we have technologies like Reverse Osmosis
and solar stills or SoDis which require no chemical intervention
and unless really sub-standard equipment or materials are used or damaged, the
water is indeed clean. Some bottlers have invested in these and a few more
would, once assured of an economic market and uniform enforcement.
They have stakes and they have earnings. Some even have to follow an
international company-standard for plant and water specs. But what about the
common man? How many municipal waterworks have consistently enhanced
capacities and upgraded their processes to meet the demand and
specifications for drinking water?
We learn of several incidents of mass wastage,
food-poisoning, contamination or putrification due to tropical temperatures. Yet
a large number of us prefers to throw away stuff than freeze to peserve it. And
be fooled that whatever we buy, even out-of-season products like apples and
potatoes, to be "fresh" when it is well preserved and frozen.
Even though more and more middle-class families are
adapting to refrigerators at home, these are considered "luxury items" and taxed
heavily. Let alone good compressors and refrigerant gas, we lack adequate
production capacity in steel, paints, varnishes, tools and insulation to
make for real economy of scale and competitiveness in the AC&R sector,
even as Indian makes are technically proven by exports to several
countries. Restrictions on CFCs an the lack of an equally effective refrigerant
class has not helped much, either. Instead, foreign brands make their
ingress here - ironically using an Indian manufacturer's facilities at
times. Failing to meet the demand for reliable, durable, low-cost,
low-size, low-power products and like the Godrej-GE combine, losing the Indian
market altogether. If the Indian consumer is 'phoren-crazy' to an
extent, (home durables are actually a carefully considered
investments) the Indian durables industry is perhaps as tired or
demoralised. Cosmetic reforms have done little to make it any easier
to get good men, materials, machines or money to grow the
industry.
A popular myth at times aided by SEB
officials holds that a 'fridge' can inflate energy bills,
whereas on the other hand the increase in energy consumption is nominal,
definitely lower than the value of food prevented from
wastage. Another myth is that power cuts make for wastage. In fact
auto-defrost devices maintain efficient cooling, typically by cutting off
power roughly for 1 of every 8 operating hours, so as to keep the ice crust
on the freezer wall within 6 mm. Many families defrost their refrigerators every
night and as many shopkeepers switch them off every night. If left closed,
a well-maintained refrigerator, once run for a day or two without
load as prescribed by the manufacturer, will cause no adverse effect to
most perishables.
Our government has announced encouragements for
cold storages from Budget to Budget but we see little initiative
from the co-operative, finance or private sector. Except in high-value-add
niches.
Farmers of high-priced fruit and vegetable and
their progressive bodies, however, realise the higher price benefit from
freezing their produce and selling in off-season months. The famously
successful cooperative diaries in number of states run plants at their
scatterred Milk Collection Centres in many many villages, where milk collected
from various cattle-owners is chilled and transported to the dairy for
onward processing and distribution. There are some state-level joint-sector
and government-owned bodies in this. But little
across-the-board encouragement or activity in terms of providing direction,
land, labour or capital, to facilitate a nation-wide network of cold storages -
let alone freezer trains and trucks to connect them. On the other hand, in
the West, even though the ambient temperatures are low, entire 'cold chains'
were develoed by initiatives across the entire value chain of farmers and
traders from the late 1930s onward, to store and transport all
perishables under tight temperature and moisture control, across
continents and oceans, so as to overcome any local shortages, prevent
wastage. This on their common but own initiative and costs. Regimes and
standards came later. Today, there is a stable cost-price balance in place.
Their investments are largely written off, except an occassional expansion or
upgrade.
Unfortunately the Western cold-chain model is too
late to emulate. Herein lies an opportunity for fresh ideas, local innovations
and initiatives. And herein is the threat of AC&R companies, beleagured by
market saturation in developed countries, products rendered obsolescent by the
ban on CFC refrigerant and attempts to dump huge volumes of equipment, by
"educating government" in India as the likes of Enron did. Or by pressurising
the Indian licensees of overseas food & beverage manufacturers to buy from
their tied-up vendors. The investment and all efforts to build a
nation-wide system of cold chain are uphill. Our Government is broke if not
beset by other issues.
However, once stakeholders get together and decide,
there are mechanisms. Like direct international institutional borrowings, Clean
Development Mechanism and Carbon Credit, provision to form not-for-profit
companies, co-op societies and trusts for local development. Then there are
alternative technologies like vapour absorption refrigeration which does
not require ozone-depleting gases, heavy motors and compressors, but a heat
source like solar-heated water or a burner fed by LPG/CNG, producer gas from
agro-wastes or coal gas. Various agencies need to take the initiative to
collaborate, seperate the wheat from the chaff in each of these new
ideas and exploit them, without waiting for a messiah from above. There are
success stories to emulate, if that is needed. Like the co-operative dairy
one cited earlier.
Likewise, for power. Let not the massive
cascade-tripping of 12th-14th August in the US mislead anyone to
believe that the several derailed public utilities were without
back-up or captive power plants. Almost all important operations had captive
geheration capacities. Especially at airports, hospitals, banks, the Stock
Exchanges all over, telephone exchanges, radio/TV stations, server-farms,
mainframe computers and such critical installations. Less critical
installations too, like Hotel and supermarket buildings in the West
routinely house stand-by gensets, UPS and No-Break generators. Even if there are
no more than 10-12 grid-level faults a year. Such is the attitude.
No data in the major IT networks was
lost. Warnings, monitoring,
supervision and communication of this crisis worked, even if
chaotically for a while. All large generators were connected to the common
grid - by contract or statute and a few of these were initially unable
to 'cut in' and hold the supply as needed. The suddenly
overloaded grid ran to an erratic line voltage and frequency, that made it very
tricky for all generators to feed it - no matter how many. This results in
'cascade tripping' in the wake of demand and supply imbalances. Yet, look
at the peoples response. Though facing a calamity they were far less used
to,each section of society - the power industry, civic administrattion, business
community and consumers - all stood by and helped each other.
The contrast between 'there and here' is
in the attitutdes, not technology nor money. Here our stars, like IT barons
of Bangalore think nothing of publicly cursing the local infrastructure,
how embarassing it is to have a black-out in the presence of foreign business
visitors, how bad the roads are, etc ... Are they running 'paan-beedi' shops
that cannot afford suitable back-up utilities? Haven't they seen similiar
facilities of their counterparts in the West? That the visionaries of our
old business houses have indeed built thoroughly planned intergated
industrial townships, which inspired models of planning in other Asian
countries that have overtaken us, but that is yet another story. The old order
also had a ruthless "this or else ..." approach to certain priorities,
which buillt reliability and a no-compromise quality in some
areas.
We have the capability but while the old industrial
order has given away to a tired, cynical or plain greedy lot, the new order is
yet to know its onions. We have the fora like this one, where people not
only discuss and act, but we need these everywhere and for everyone to pitch in
and build a one-billion-strong growth army called India.
Impossible?
