Deora under fire

An unfortunate fire accident has occured at the Indian oil depot at Jaipur.The petroleum Minister Murali Deora was honest and practical in saying that the fire has to die out on its own when the fuel ends.Immediatley all Tv chanels started blaming Deora for government's helplessness to put out the fire.In fact Deora was frank and forthright in saying 'No expert can do anything'.We are not used to such pragmatic and frank comments from ministers.

This is an uncommon fire.A fire of this magnitude has not happened in India before.Neverthless Indian oil authorities are duty bound to have put in place all reasonable precautionary measures to extinguish a fire of this nature.The cause of the fire and failures of IOC personnel are to be probed to prevent recurrence and put in place a fool proof disaster management system.

Experts also feel it is difficult to extinguish fires of this nature because of various factors.The inflammable nature of the patroleum product,abundant supply of the material that would aid combustion,difficulties in accessing the storage tanks,difficulties in co ordination of equipments and fire fighting personnel,make it ardous to extinguish an inferno of this nature.One expert said on occasions like this one can only take steps to ensure 'controlled burning'.This would ensure that the fire does not spread too far.

understand an US company has a patent for an invention to extinguish fires caused by inflammable liquids in storage tanks.

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5377765/description.html.

This technique uses the following features.A foam cover is established on the surface of the storage tank.This would extinguish fire,prevent re-ignition and burn back.An inert gas like CO2 is first pumped in to the tank.Fluid flow is established in to the tank from the bottom of the tank.Water is pumped in to the tank.A foam concentrate is added to the water.A mixture of CO2,foam concentrate and water from the bottom of the tank produce gas bubbles.The gas filled foam bubbles are carried to the surface of the burning liquid by the flammable liquid.The inert gas escapes there and snuff the flame.The foam spreads a layer rapidly to prevent burning back.
The required apparatus for the injection of the foam filled gas and water are to be installed at the site of the storage tanks and operated during such exigencies to put out fires of this nature.

One hopes at least after this mishap,authorities concerned would take steps to implement ways and means to fight fire of this scale in storage tanks.The environment pollution caused by this massive fire and its after effects on people living in close proximity to the area of fire would be another concern for the government.It is estimated,the loss to the nation because of this fire would run in to billions.Considering that, it would only be prudent to invest in safety precautions and prevent recurrence.

The young face of India - Suhash Gopinath

The World Economic Forum at Davos announced the Bangalore based Suhash Gopinath for the "Young Global Leader" award for 2008-2009 along with A.R.Rehman.Gopinath is just 23 years old now.He is the youngest to recieve this award in the history of World Economic Forum.This years YGL award features two other Indians(by birth)Hotmail.com's Sabeer Bhatia and Lousiana State Governor Bobby Jindal.But this post is about Gopinath.

Suhash Gopinath became the youngest CEO at the age of 14.A class IX student,he floated his own web solutions company,Globals Inc,headquartered at California .Today his company is a multinational company with presence in 11 countries with a multi billion turnover employing over 250 persons mostly of his age.Globals Inc has over 200 clients worldwide.His clients include some Fortune 500 companies also.Gopinath's company offers world class quality solutions in web,mobile and softwares.He had to float his company at US,since Indian laws does not permit minors floating companies.The first employee he hired for his company at the age of 14 was 30 years old.When he was 16, CNBC and e-Business canada recongonised him as world's youngest enterpreneur.At 17 he was recogonised as World's youngest CEO by BBC,Washington Times and The Age. Other milestones in young Gopianth's career so far are given below.


In 2005 the karnataka government awarded the State Rajyotsava Award to Gopinath.

In 2007 the European Parliament and International Association for Human Values conferred "Young Achiever Award " on Gopinath.The European Parliament invited him to address the European parlimentarians and businessmen at Brussles.

In 2008 World Bank President invited Gopinath to be part of World Bank's Advisory body for Kenya and Nigeria for increasing employee ability and fostering student skills.

In June 2009 Incerdible Vienna conferred the "Make a difference Award " on Gopinath.

In October 2009 Global Social Innovatos Forum,Singapore conferred the SIP Fellow Award on Gopinath.

Gopinath completed his Engineering at Bangalore. His father is a defence scientist at Bangalore. Gopinath had his share of embarassments initially,for many people refused to believe the boyish Suhash as CEO of a company.In many forums and meetings the organisers could not recogonise him. International companies refused to have business with Globals because the CEO did not even have a proper moustache.Gopinath's Engineering college lecturer at Bangalore even applied for a job in his company.But Suhash could not oblige him since 'the emphasis was on skills'.

Gopinath is a much sought after speaker around the world now.He delivered lectures to students in Islamabad.He has delivered lectures at IIM Ahmedabad,IIT Kanpur,IIT Bombay, IIT Madras and Anna university,Chennai.He is delvering lectures in Enterprenureship across the globe.He has delivered lectures at European Business School,Germany,university of Cologne and university of Colombo. Gopinath's idol is surely Bill Gates.But when he met Bill gates, he found a humble Gates telling Gopinath "I should be afraid of you.I started my company at 20, but you started at 14".

Gopinath is the resource person for IIT Ahmedabad,Advisory board member of IIT Bombay for enterprenuership.He is the youth Ambassador for Indo-Pak Leadership Program organised by School of Leadership,Pakistan.

There could be many more budding young Gopinath's in India.Gopinath has set a benchmark for present day young enterpreneurs.One hopes Government would come forward to help young enterpreneurs through a single window enterprenuership cell.This could unearth budding enterprenuers and will surely be a step forward in realising vision 2020.

The controversy over Bt Brinjal

Bt Brinjal refers to a Genetically Modified crop(GM crop).This Bt brinjal will contain a gene artificially introduced into its genome.This gene is produced from a soil bacterium called'bacillus thuringienesis'(bt).Hence the name Bt Brinjal.Agri-Biotechnology Support Program(ABSP)is an USAID program under Private-Public Partnership.Mosanto India Ltd and Mahyco are two bio technology companies from Maharashtra involved in the development of Bt Brinjal.The Indian Institute of Vegetable Research (Varanasi), the University of Agricultural Sciences (Dharwad) andthe Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (Coimbatore)—are working with Monsanto and Mahyco in this project.Bt brinjal is under trial for the last 9 years.There is a regulatory authority called Genetic Engineering Approval Committee(GEAC).This committee's approval is required for commercial cultivation of any GM crop.Bt Brinjal was sent for approval in 2004 to GEAC.It was cleared by GEAC.But many NGO's and civil groups raised environmental concerns and expressed doubts over health safety.Then Supreme Court directed constitution of a sub committee to GEAC to review data on field trials.

Last Week GEAC has finally cleared Bt Brinjal for Commercial cultivation.Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has also cleared Bt Brinjal for commercial cultivation.Now approval from Agriculture,Health and Family welfare ministries are awaited before commercial cultivationof Bt Brinjal is started.This would be the first Commerical GM food crop in India,if cleared by the government.The only other GM crop commercially cultivated in India is a non food crop,Bt cotton.Thus India's entry in to Commercial Agricultural bio technology was first started with Bt cottonin 2002.Only 3 hybrids of Bt cotton were approved then.This was also a joint venture by Mosanto and Mahyco.(MMB).But by 2007 another 22 bio tech companies got sub licence from MMB to produce Bt cotton varieties.In the last 6 years Bt cotton cultivation has increased by 200 times in India.Cotton Corporation Of India claims cotton yield has increased owing to Bt cotton cultivation.They also claim Bt cotton is safe for human beings,animals,birds and environment.Countries like USA,Mexico,Australia and China introduced Bt cotton cultivation way back in 1996.At present about 9 countries including Argentina,SA,Columbia and Brazil have started cultivating Bt cotton.

Yet many NGO's are bitterly opposed to GM crops.'Navadanya' conducted a comparative study on Bt cotton crop fields and natural cotton crop fields.They compared Bt cotton fields cultivated for last 3 years with non GM cotton fields in Nagpur,Amraravati and Wardha.The study revealed vital soil enzymes which make nutrients available to plants have been drastically reduced in GM fields,though bacteria were reduced by 14 %.Navadanya has warned at this rate a decade of GM crop cultivation would lead to total destruction of soil organisms.This would leave the soil dead and would become unfit to produce food crops anymore.This corroborates to reports about decline in soil productivity after growing Bt cotton.

The impact of GM crops on soil organisms has not been looked into by many world bodies.The Delhi based Navadanya was the first to bring this to light.On this premise government should delay approval to Bt Brinjal and study this aspect in detail. Also another imporatant thing to be borne in mind is that no GM brinjal has been released for Advanced farm trials anywhere in the World.

Potential health hazards in bio engineered food is no secret.Animals fed with GM food have shown problems with growth,organ development,damaged organs and poor immune response.Bt Cotton farm workers have already complained about Itching skins,allergies,Swollen faces and eruptions on body.All these were related to various levels of exposure to Bt cotton.In Philipines people living close to Bt cotton crop fields have developed inscrutable symptoms.It is frightening to learn genes introduced in to GM food survive digestive process and get in to human body.Imagine a mutant gene entering a human genome. The consequences could be far reaching.It is believed Bt toxin can cause powerful immune responses.It is also said Bt crops have an aminoacid sequence similar to known allergens.In other words when one consumes GM food,unwittingly a potential allergen is introduced in to ones own body.Experts feel more studies are required to study the impact of Bt toxin on soil ecology.

The whole problem as seen by experts is that,pest management now relies on controling one or more genes in the crop.Thus by introducing a bacteria gene in to the crop,they might succeed in controlling the bacteria,but are oblivious to health and evnvironment hazards.

One hopes Government would be prudent enough to study all aspects encompassing biosafety,potential health hazards,environmental concerns etc before taking a decision on Bt Brinjal,even if it means a long delay.

Global Hand Washing Day

Global Hand washing Day will be celebrated on October 15th.For many this might be yet another day celebrated globally.But I feel 'Global Hand Washing Day' has some relevance to India and its vast multitude of people. Many days are celebrated internationally. Most of them are for creating awareness and have a didactic value. The theme is to raise awareness about the benefits of hand washing with soap,especially among school going children.But unfortunatley most of these special day celebrations end with one day and is never carried forward.But this time, the target being school going children,at their tender age,at least, even if a slender 10 % children globally,understand its benefits and carry it forward,it will be a huge success.Frequent hand washing means less chances of contracting infectious diseases.The message is 'Clean Hands Saves Lives'.

Statistics reveal that 1000 children die of diarrohea every day in India.In other words 41 children die of diarrohea every hour in India. More than 3.5 million children before the age of 5 ,die of diarrohea and pneumonia globally.Out of this,nearly 2 million children die every year due to diarrohea alone,according to WHO statistics. Hold your breath! it is the second leading factor killing children all over the world.Experts feel, a simple hygenic habit of washing hands with soap,could reduce this figure by half.

Just because Soap manufacturers utilise this day to advertise their product (See Dettol Soap Ad in TV) or the fact that Lifebouy is a local partner to celebrations in India , one should not look at 'Global hand Washing Day' as another commercial stratagem and lessen its significance. The other partners to clebrate GHD in India are Plan India,Water Aid and FXB Suraksha. GHD will be celebrated across 5 continents. In 2008 when UN General Assembly celebrated the 'International Sanitation Year' , it was decided to spotlight the importance of hand washing with soap globally in 2009.UN also decided to celebrate GHD through Public-Private-Partenership.This is another clarion call for improved hygenic practices.More importantly it is the most cost effective preventive public health intervention.Celebritites like Fara Khan and Yuvaraj Singh have agreed to participate in the GHD celebrations in New Delhi on October 15th.

Wash Hands with Soap and Keep diseases away.Spread this message on October 15th and help to fight infectious diseases.