The case can be seen this way - Mysore (erstwhile Kingdom - not ruled by British or India ) needed to tide over frequent droughts. Dams were built to address the situation. Many acres of land were submerged in Mysore (current Karnataka) to the dam waters. But the Kingdom benefited from this. Money, land, labor was all provided by Mysore (not India, not British, not Tamil Nadu or Madras).Kaveri does not generate water on its own - the water is collected from the catchments areas in Mysore during the rains.
Vast areas of land which were earlier submerged downstream now came up. This was immediately reclaimed by Madras for agriculture. Due to proximity to British, it was able to extract a favorable ruling. (The same applies to Mula-periyar with which TN is fighting Kerala) This meant all resources and foresight of Mysore for its prosperity and benefit was laid waste by Madras.Karnataka has one rain season from the Southwest Monsoon whereas TN has two - one from Northeast and other from Southwest monsoon. http://www.tn.gov.in/crop/rainfall.htm
Despite the two monsoons, why has TN not invested in building dams to store water in the Kaveri basin within its territory? Simple it needs money to be invested and also lands will be submerged within its area. So its better that Karnataka and Kerala build the dams with their money and lose their lands to provide water to TN.The irony came to fore during the recent spate of floods - it accused Karnataka of releasing Kaveri waters causing more floods in TN. Common sense did not prevail to see that holding back a gushing river can cause a dam burst as well as flooding in Karnataka. So TN expects Karnataka to wag to its whimsies - hold water for us and release it as it pleases us. The underlying point is - the Maharaja of Mysore blundered by deciding to merge with India .The demography of India was widely different from Mysore. Mysore/Karnataka had/has no problems - population density, illiteracy, higher education, civil administration, judiciary, social equality. The results are for all to see. Pls refer to the site of Union Ministry of Statistics http://mospi.nic.in/6_gsdp_cur_9394ser.htm which confirms Karnataka growing at over 14% p.a. against the Union Of India's growth of 9% p.a.
But history cannot be reversed and now we are part of the Union of India. Consider the industries - hi-tech or manufacturing or aviation - Karnataka beats the Union . But it suffers a body blow to its political aspirations because of less population - only 20 seats to the Union parliament. Over the years, it has received step-motherly treatment vis-a-vis its populous neighbors. Corporate earnings, service taxes and IT exports are filling the Union coffers with little coming back to the state. Name one Kannadiga minister in the Union Cabinet over the last 60 years.
Consider TNs clout - Finance, telecom, health - all with Tamil. See the way Dayanidhi Maran is functioning - not as Telecom minister of the Union but of TN. Just see the no. of telecom projects he has diverted to TN at the expense of other states.No matter what you call this, democracy as practiced in India is flawed. It is more of monocracy - vote-banks rules. The results are obvious; you have smaller states feeling a sense of alienation. If this sense of alienation and lack of political equality is not addressed, it may prompt armed rebellion like what is already seen in the North-East.Why can't India become a democracy in true terms like the United Kingdom and the US of A.?
Let each state have equal representation in the upper house - say 4 seats per state. This will counterbalance the current advantage held by the populous states. Why can't we become the United States of India? Once this happens, all such trivial disputes will be resolved amicably. If TN wants water cached on Karnataka land, it pays a premium to get it (for maintaining the dam as well as for the lands submerged due to the dam as well for maintaining the catchments areas to feed the river).
To meet its water needs, it needs to build dams in the catchments areas in its territory. Bullying its neighbors Karnataka (over Kaveri) and Kerala (over mula-periyar) is no way for a civilized state to behave. TN cannot expect to raise 3 crops a season when Karnataka farmers do not have water to grow a decent 2 crops to sustain their households.
The whole world is watching Tamil behavior to its neighbors both within the Union (Karnataka, Kerala and AP) and outside ( Sri Lanka)
Friday, February 09, 2007
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Smart City project: Prospects brighten
The prospects of the proposed Rs 1,500 crore Smart City IT project to be set up in Kochi brightened with the five-and-a-half-hour discussions here on Wednesday between the State Government and Dubai-based Tecom (Technology and Media Free Zone Authority), the promoters of the project, ending in a happy note.
Chief Secretary Lizzie Jacob told newsmen after the discussions that the two sides had agreed on many conditions and a final agreement could be expected in two weeks' time. Tecom chief executive officer Abdul Lateef Al Mulla also said that the discussions were very good and that he expected that an agreement would be signed.
The two sides agreed on several points, especially on the questions of the Kerala Government's stake in the project, the non-transfer of Infopark and the presence of other IT companies in the Kochi area.
Abdul Lateef Al Mulla said the two sides agreed on the Government stake of 16 per cent in the project. The Government had demanded a 26 per cent stake. However, the 16 per cent stake could go up in phases as the project progresses.
As per the agreement at the discussions, Tecom has agreed to the Government position that Infopark need not be transferred. The other point on which agreement has been made is that Tecom will not object to the presence of other IT companies in Kochi.
Observers see the agreement on these three points as a great victory of the LDF Government headed by VS Achuthanandan as the former UDF regime headed by Oommen Chandy had agreed to the Tecom conditions on these points.
As per the earlier pact between Tecom and the former UDF Government, the State to get a mere nine per cent stake, the Infopark had to be transferred to the Dubai company and that no IT companies could come up in the Kochi area.
The Chief Secretary said that only some points more had to be discussed now, and a pact on these also could be reached in another round of discussions for which no date had been set. "I hope this can happen in two weeks," Lizzie Jacob said.
Abdul Lateef AL Mulla said that one of the points to be cleared now was the land price. However, he did not want to tell newsmen what was the price offered by his company and what the Government demanded.
The last point on which agreement has to be reached is on the number of job opportunities to be created at the proposed IT facility. It is said that the Dubai-based company is ready to agree on the number of job opportunities to be created in 10 years, but a decision is yet to be reached on the Government's insistence that 70 per cent of these employments should be available during the LDF's tenure.
Hours before the discussions, Chief Minister Achuthanandan claimed that the upcoming Smart City agreements would be far different from the ones reached at by the former UDF regime.
Prior to the afternoon discussions, the Chief Minister and top officials of the Dubai-based company had held talks on the project coming up at Kochi.
Chief Secretary Lizzie Jacob told newsmen after the discussions that the two sides had agreed on many conditions and a final agreement could be expected in two weeks' time. Tecom chief executive officer Abdul Lateef Al Mulla also said that the discussions were very good and that he expected that an agreement would be signed.
The two sides agreed on several points, especially on the questions of the Kerala Government's stake in the project, the non-transfer of Infopark and the presence of other IT companies in the Kochi area.
Abdul Lateef Al Mulla said the two sides agreed on the Government stake of 16 per cent in the project. The Government had demanded a 26 per cent stake. However, the 16 per cent stake could go up in phases as the project progresses.
As per the agreement at the discussions, Tecom has agreed to the Government position that Infopark need not be transferred. The other point on which agreement has been made is that Tecom will not object to the presence of other IT companies in Kochi.
Observers see the agreement on these three points as a great victory of the LDF Government headed by VS Achuthanandan as the former UDF regime headed by Oommen Chandy had agreed to the Tecom conditions on these points.
As per the earlier pact between Tecom and the former UDF Government, the State to get a mere nine per cent stake, the Infopark had to be transferred to the Dubai company and that no IT companies could come up in the Kochi area.
The Chief Secretary said that only some points more had to be discussed now, and a pact on these also could be reached in another round of discussions for which no date had been set. "I hope this can happen in two weeks," Lizzie Jacob said.
Abdul Lateef AL Mulla said that one of the points to be cleared now was the land price. However, he did not want to tell newsmen what was the price offered by his company and what the Government demanded.
The last point on which agreement has to be reached is on the number of job opportunities to be created at the proposed IT facility. It is said that the Dubai-based company is ready to agree on the number of job opportunities to be created in 10 years, but a decision is yet to be reached on the Government's insistence that 70 per cent of these employments should be available during the LDF's tenure.
Hours before the discussions, Chief Minister Achuthanandan claimed that the upcoming Smart City agreements would be far different from the ones reached at by the former UDF regime.
Prior to the afternoon discussions, the Chief Minister and top officials of the Dubai-based company had held talks on the project coming up at Kochi.
Monday, February 05, 2007
Sensitive data dumped at recycling center - Indian Consulate tossed visa applications from business, political figures at S.F. facility
From the SF Chronicle
Thousands of visa applications and other sensitive documents, including paperwork submitted by top executives and political figures, sat for more than a month in the open yard of a San Francisco recycling center after they were dumped there by the city's Indian Consulate.
The documents, which security experts say represented a potential treasure trove for identity thieves or terrorists, finally were hauled away Wednesday after The Chronicle inspected the site and questioned officials at the consulate and the recycling facility.
Among the papers were visa applications submitted by Byron Pollitt, chief financial officer of San Francisco's Gap Inc., and Anne Gust, wife of California Attorney General Jerry Brown.
"It's shocking and totally unacceptable," Brown said when asked about the incident.
Information on the documents includes applicants' names, addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, professions, employers, passport numbers and photos. Accompanying letters detail people's travel plans and reasons for visiting India.
"As we see it, the documents are not confidential," said B.S. Prakash, the consul general. "We would see something as confidential if it has a Social Security number or a credit card number, not a passport number."
But security experts say it wouldn't be hard to obtain someone's Social Security number using the information available in the consular documents. They also point out that some of the Sept. 11 hijackers used false passports, which wouldn't be hard to obtain using data and photos from the documents.
"This is absolutely sensitive information," said Charles Cresson Wood, a Sausalito information-security consultant. "It needs to be safeguarded."
Pratik Sircar, deputy consul general for the Indian Consulate, said the office on Arguello Boulevard processes visa applications and other paperwork for 14 Western states.
"We have a shortage of space," he said. "We keep this material for a year, and then we have to destroy it."
However, the consulate didn't destroy the documents. Instead, it hired a hauling company in December to cart the boxes to the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council recycling center near Golden Gate Park on Frederick Street.
The open-air facility is accessible to the public seven days a week. Anyone can walk through the gate and poke around."We thought it was their job to shred the material as soon as they got it," Sircar said. Andy Pugni, general manager of the recycling center, responded that he doesn't know where the consulate got this idea. "We take in paper, put it in large containers and ship it off for recycling," he said. "That's all we do. We don't shred." Pugni added: "We assume anyone who brings stuff over here will be smart enough to destroy any sensitive materials. I wouldn't bring any of my own materials here."
Alerted by The Chronicle to the presence of confidential documents in a corner of the recycling yard -- many of the white boxes were clearly marked "visa applications" -- Pugni had a truck brought in to haul the papers to an East Bay company that will boil them down and recycle them as blank pages. All that remained in the yard Thursday were remnants of the boxes.
But a sampling of documents obtained by The Chronicle indicate that the boxes contained confidential paperwork for virtually everyone in California and other Western states who applied for visas to travel to India between 2002 and 2005.
They also contained thousands of documents submitted by Indian citizens and people of Indian background residing in the region. "It's hard to believe that this is how confidential information is treated," said San Francisco resident Farah Champsi, who was born in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, and requested copies of her birth certificate in 2005. Her application ended up at the recycling center. "This is terrible," Champsi said.
Visa applications were submitted by current and former executives of many of the region's leading employers, including AT&T Wireless Inc., Oracle Corp., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Williams-Sonoma Inc.
The documents illustrate the extent to which major U.S. companies have established operations in India or rely on India for key services.
A letter from Gap's then-CEO Paul Pressler accompanying the visa application for Pollitt says the company's CFO was heading to India for several days in April 2004 "for the purpose of visiting Gap Inc.'s sites and vendor facilities." After the application surfaced this week, Pollitt said he found it "both astonishing and alarming to learn that basic safeguards were apparently not in place to ensure the privacy of my personal information. "As a past victim of identity theft, I am painfully aware of how important it is to ensure personal information is well protected," he said.
Another Bay Area exec whose privacy was jeopardized is Rob Haragan, co-founder of NetDevices Inc., a Los Altos company that specializes in network security. Much of NetDevices' research is conducted at a facility in Bangalore.
Haragan, a former executive at Cisco Systems Inc., applied for a visa to travel to India in 2004. He estimates that he's since been to the country more than a dozen times. He said he was surprised to learn that his application spent weeks at a recycling center. "The consulate absolutely needs to correct this," Haragan said. "It's a breach of trust." Brian Biega oversees storage of internal paperwork at Redwood City software giant Oracle, so he knows a thing or two about the proper handling of confidential documents. He, too, applied for a visa to visit India in 2004, and his application also ended up at the recycling center.
Biega didn't hesitate when asked how Oracle's famously truculent CEO Larry Ellison would react if boxes of sensitive information were left at a recycling center. "I'm sure I'd lose my job," he replied.
At the Indian Consulate, Consul General Prakash said there may be a cultural dimension to the level of outrage related to the incident among Western visa applicants. "In India, I would not be alarmed," he said. "We have grown up giving such information in many, many places. We would not be so worried if someone had our passport number." Deputy Consul General Sircar said that in other countries, Indian officials are able to go to the roofs of their offices and burn documents they're no longer able to store. "In America, you cannot do that," he said.
Sircar said the consulate would find some other way to deal with its excess paperwork in the future. Pugni at the recycling center said that shortly after he had the documents carted away, a representative of the consulate arrived at the facility. "He apologized for everything," Pugni said. "Then he said he was on his way to Best Buy to pick up a shredder."
Thousands of visa applications and other sensitive documents, including paperwork submitted by top executives and political figures, sat for more than a month in the open yard of a San Francisco recycling center after they were dumped there by the city's Indian Consulate.
The documents, which security experts say represented a potential treasure trove for identity thieves or terrorists, finally were hauled away Wednesday after The Chronicle inspected the site and questioned officials at the consulate and the recycling facility.
Among the papers were visa applications submitted by Byron Pollitt, chief financial officer of San Francisco's Gap Inc., and Anne Gust, wife of California Attorney General Jerry Brown.
"It's shocking and totally unacceptable," Brown said when asked about the incident.
Information on the documents includes applicants' names, addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, professions, employers, passport numbers and photos. Accompanying letters detail people's travel plans and reasons for visiting India.
"As we see it, the documents are not confidential," said B.S. Prakash, the consul general. "We would see something as confidential if it has a Social Security number or a credit card number, not a passport number."
But security experts say it wouldn't be hard to obtain someone's Social Security number using the information available in the consular documents. They also point out that some of the Sept. 11 hijackers used false passports, which wouldn't be hard to obtain using data and photos from the documents.
"This is absolutely sensitive information," said Charles Cresson Wood, a Sausalito information-security consultant. "It needs to be safeguarded."
Pratik Sircar, deputy consul general for the Indian Consulate, said the office on Arguello Boulevard processes visa applications and other paperwork for 14 Western states.
"We have a shortage of space," he said. "We keep this material for a year, and then we have to destroy it."
However, the consulate didn't destroy the documents. Instead, it hired a hauling company in December to cart the boxes to the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council recycling center near Golden Gate Park on Frederick Street.
The open-air facility is accessible to the public seven days a week. Anyone can walk through the gate and poke around."We thought it was their job to shred the material as soon as they got it," Sircar said. Andy Pugni, general manager of the recycling center, responded that he doesn't know where the consulate got this idea. "We take in paper, put it in large containers and ship it off for recycling," he said. "That's all we do. We don't shred." Pugni added: "We assume anyone who brings stuff over here will be smart enough to destroy any sensitive materials. I wouldn't bring any of my own materials here."
Alerted by The Chronicle to the presence of confidential documents in a corner of the recycling yard -- many of the white boxes were clearly marked "visa applications" -- Pugni had a truck brought in to haul the papers to an East Bay company that will boil them down and recycle them as blank pages. All that remained in the yard Thursday were remnants of the boxes.
But a sampling of documents obtained by The Chronicle indicate that the boxes contained confidential paperwork for virtually everyone in California and other Western states who applied for visas to travel to India between 2002 and 2005.
They also contained thousands of documents submitted by Indian citizens and people of Indian background residing in the region. "It's hard to believe that this is how confidential information is treated," said San Francisco resident Farah Champsi, who was born in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, and requested copies of her birth certificate in 2005. Her application ended up at the recycling center. "This is terrible," Champsi said.
Visa applications were submitted by current and former executives of many of the region's leading employers, including AT&T Wireless Inc., Oracle Corp., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Williams-Sonoma Inc.
The documents illustrate the extent to which major U.S. companies have established operations in India or rely on India for key services.
A letter from Gap's then-CEO Paul Pressler accompanying the visa application for Pollitt says the company's CFO was heading to India for several days in April 2004 "for the purpose of visiting Gap Inc.'s sites and vendor facilities." After the application surfaced this week, Pollitt said he found it "both astonishing and alarming to learn that basic safeguards were apparently not in place to ensure the privacy of my personal information. "As a past victim of identity theft, I am painfully aware of how important it is to ensure personal information is well protected," he said.
Another Bay Area exec whose privacy was jeopardized is Rob Haragan, co-founder of NetDevices Inc., a Los Altos company that specializes in network security. Much of NetDevices' research is conducted at a facility in Bangalore.
Haragan, a former executive at Cisco Systems Inc., applied for a visa to travel to India in 2004. He estimates that he's since been to the country more than a dozen times. He said he was surprised to learn that his application spent weeks at a recycling center. "The consulate absolutely needs to correct this," Haragan said. "It's a breach of trust." Brian Biega oversees storage of internal paperwork at Redwood City software giant Oracle, so he knows a thing or two about the proper handling of confidential documents. He, too, applied for a visa to visit India in 2004, and his application also ended up at the recycling center.
Biega didn't hesitate when asked how Oracle's famously truculent CEO Larry Ellison would react if boxes of sensitive information were left at a recycling center. "I'm sure I'd lose my job," he replied.
At the Indian Consulate, Consul General Prakash said there may be a cultural dimension to the level of outrage related to the incident among Western visa applicants. "In India, I would not be alarmed," he said. "We have grown up giving such information in many, many places. We would not be so worried if someone had our passport number." Deputy Consul General Sircar said that in other countries, Indian officials are able to go to the roofs of their offices and burn documents they're no longer able to store. "In America, you cannot do that," he said.
Sircar said the consulate would find some other way to deal with its excess paperwork in the future. Pugni at the recycling center said that shortly after he had the documents carted away, a representative of the consulate arrived at the facility. "He apologized for everything," Pugni said. "Then he said he was on his way to Best Buy to pick up a shredder."
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