Yesterday I was watching a TV programme aired by the Asianet News Channel in Malayalam language titled ' Akalangalile India' (അകലങ്ങളിലെ ഇന്ത്യ) which means the India far away. Every week this programme took up a news story that normally those Indians sitting in their comfort zones fail to realize about the realities of life their own country men face else where within their country.

Yesterday the theme that they covered was the plight of common people living on either side of the India-Pakistan border in the north-west.

Political ambitions of a few elite Indians belonging to two prominent religions caused India to be divided into two while the Britishers decided to hand over the reigns of governance to the locals some six decades ago. Many in the British political echelons of those days perhaps were of the knowledge about the rivalry of a few emerging Indian leaders in the Indian political organization that the British had created and nurtured for training the locals for future democratic governance of India. After all the British had realized the aspirations of the emerging educated non-royals of India in getting themselves elevated to the neo-royalty of modern India of the twentieth century. Politics has always been a life threatening adventure of those who have overcome the basic needs of life and the emerging leaders of India were no different !

The British could have tried to bring about a forceful peace among the warring Indian leaders and extended their decision of handing over power to the locals at an appropriate time later when the leadership issues among the Indians are sorted out. But the Indians outsmarted the British by instigating religious passions of the illiterate masses and the British had perhaps no alternative but to divide India, that too on a totally arbitrary basis quickly worked out on the basis of religious proportions, something never tried in administrative parlour  ever before in this land.

A Himalayan blunder was made by a few that caused the Indian holocaust of 1947. Had a little bit of wisdom prevailed in the minds of one or two Indians of the emerging Indian politics and one or two in the British government, this blunder and this holocaust could have never happened.

For the mistakes of these handful of people, thousands killed each other and committed all sorts of inhuman acts of  butchery that even the beasts would be ashamed of.  

They had unknowingly became the pawns in the hands of their ambitious leaders and committed such a deadly sin that even their future generations were not going to be spared !

And those who were directly in the midst of all these have all perished. It is their future generations who have ultimately became Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis who keep paying for their sins !

It is generally believed that seven generations have to suffer for such sins. That is believed to be a divine decree.  When no one of their future leaders of these countries appear to be so unconcerned of their plights, one may be inclined to believe in the prevalence of such divine decrees.

If you ask any of the leaders of these countries individually and personally, they all admit their sympathies with the suffering of the people at the borders of these Indian origin nations. They are all concerned when they speak personally. They are all humane when they speak out their minds.

But when they take collective decisions, their decisions never reflect their personal feelings. All their decisions are for aggravating the sufferings of the border land peoples.

I keep wondering about this kind of a situation in governance. Who or which is that force that directs the decisions in any government ? Individually you talk to all of the top functionaries in private. They all would perhaps say something quite contrary to their own collective decisions.

Why is it like that ?

How do we make our collective decisions ?

Is it actually a democratic majority decision ?

Is there any unseen and unrecognized force that causes such decisions that go against the self convictions of the individuals in the collective governance ?

In any case, the Indian border lands appear to be cursed regions. We may have to wait for seven generations to over come the curse ! Otherwise why these Indian nations collectively decide to spend all their resources in gathering arms and ammunition to be put on fire across these borders that used to be their heartland some time ago ?

I have no answer !

Do you ?


[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link which gives the   list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

Unlike the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the Election Commission of India is a statutory constitutional authority. The UIDAI though functioning only with some disputed executive authority has anyway moved ahead with the preparation of issuing biometric identity cards to all citizens of India and the Indian public seems to be obsessed with the idea of getting this ID called Aadhaar. [The large number of visits to my blog titled " Finally Aadhaar ID is Downloadable-Here is How You Get It !" is just an indication of this] Perhaps citizens of India have a feeling that Aadhaar would become the foundation of their existence in India as a citizen in the future !

As of now, all governmental authorities in India are working independently compelling one to feel the existence of innumerable governments and authorities determining their fate, rather than just one authority, who is in control. Then they cannot complain, because it is all due to their own reluctance in exercising their responsibility of choosing their governmental authorities, wisely.

Perhaps, the only way they can do it is by participating in the process of electing their representatives to the legislative bodies, the central parliament and the state legislatures.

When it comes to the conduct of elections in India, the authority that determines the process is the Election Commission of India (ECI) which is constitutionally an independent authority outside the supervisory control of the executive authorities. However, the ECI has not much independent machinery and infrastructure to do this of their own. It has to take the help of the existing governmental systems and infrastructure. Even the financial allocations for its functioning have to be from the executive branch of the government.

A good majority of people in the country are constantly on the move on account of their vocations. Besides thousands become eligible for voting every year when they attain the prescribed age for casting their votes and almost an equivalent number cease to be voters on account of death and other such incidences. In such a scenario, it is a Herculean task to maintain a fair and dependable voters' list, the most essential thing to conduct a fair election.

Considering the fact the the ECI has no permanent infrastructure of their own makes the preparation and updating of the voter's quite frequently a task prone to unprecedented errors. In reality, a good majority of people in India are not represented in the voters' list. There are ample chances that the same person may be included many times. There are also enough chances that a person whose name is included in a list may not be aware of the same. 

The work of the ECI in preparation and updating of the electoral rolls for a constituency depends much on the effectiveness and dedication of the enumerators and the staff drawn temporarily for the purpose from other governmental departments. As these staff do not have any permanent office for this purpose of which the common people are aware of, there is enough scope for the voters' list getting prepared in a manner which is totally unprofessional. 

For example, consider this. Some years ago, the ECI determined that a photo Identity card issued by them would be mandatory for any one to vote. Millions of rupees got wasted in making erroneous cards because there was no clear instructions on how the data should be collected. The names of the voters were noted down in vernacular languages and then transliterated in English alphabet making the person with a name that he or his family would have ever imagined. Such goof ups forced the ECI to back track from their mandatory orders making the voters Id a thing of ridicule.

But this also helped many in other ways. The prevailing election processes over a few years in the recent times eliminated almost all educated citizens from the voters' list of India making most middle class and higher class citizens getting separated from the election processes completely. For quite some time the voting percentages in India have been abysmally low hovering around 40-60 percent in most cases. In other words, the elected representatives no more represented the true majority ! The literate class has become a frustrated lot in India having no say in determining their political functionaries. This eventuality slowly happened without many of them even realizing the same. 

The literate middle class has become more and more reluctant in exercising their franchises. Either their names did not appear in the voters' lists or they did not bother to get it included or they simply did not know how to get it done. In earlier days, it was the work of the political parties and their agents to do all the needful to give all the relevant information to the voters so that the latter find no difficulty in locating their names in the voters' lists and knowing the polling booths where they could cast their votes.

But of late, the political parties and their agents have started showing a determined laxity in this. Knowingly or unknowingly they preferred avoiding certain sections of the populace from knowing their details so that they could exercise their franchises smoothly. On the other hand, their existed no facility wherein a voter can find out his name and his polling station by his own efforts. It is not surprising then that the voting percentages dropped down drastically !

When this is the situation for the literate and affluent classes, it is every body's guess about the reality that existed in the rural areas.

With this kind of a scenario that has been existing, it is a welcome move that the ECI has now begun in starting an online facility for the people to apply for inclusion in the voters' list in their respective constituencies in India.

I am not sure how effective it is in its outcome. However, one can now make an effort by visiting the  citizens' service website of the Election Commission of India.

The first thing one has to do is to register in the site by clicking the New User Registration link of this page. For registration one needs his or her mobile number and a valid e-mail id.

One you give this, a one time pass word is send to your mobile for confirmation which is then used to proceed to the next page for entering your primary information and your own passwords.

Once this much is done and submitted, a page will open giving all your profile information for final confirmation. You need to take a note of this information for all your future reference.

Your future id for this site would be your mobile number and your pass word would be the one you have entered while registering for the first time.

Later use this information to enter the site as a registered user.

Then you can make online applications for inclusion in the voters' list. You can also upload your digital photograph from your computer.

Once the online application is completed and uploaded, some officer of the ECI would visit you for verification and issue of the voter id card later.

I have not tried this to this end to verify its workability.

You may try yourself. If it works, it is indeed a praiseworthy effort of the ECI.

They are doing their part. Let us do our part !

The games of horse racing and cricketing are not of Indian origin, but are legacies that my country men and women got irresistibly entangled with because of those white gentlemen officers who were bosses of their grandparents often exhibited their royal style by indulging in these games which were told as the games of the aristocrats. 

So their grandparents took it for granted that these games are symbols of aristocracy and affluence and passed on that concept to their children.

So, even after the Britishers packed off from the Indian sub-continent, the Indian mind, the majority of them, dreamed of becoming like their royal bosses of the past whom they adored for their styles and  manners. They wanted to imitate their white bosses and their families to become aristocratic like them.

They imitated their language, their club culture and their games and these things predominated their talks and thoughts most often. Perhaps they attributed the success of their foreign masters to these things and wanted to be like them by adopting these in to their lives !

They envied the whites to the extent of some deep seated hatred but loved their charming culture secretly in their minds !

When the whites left their land, they find it difficult to raise the expensive horses to continue with the horse races and the polo's.

But cricket was indeed different. It needed nothing much of that sort !

Moreover, their erstwhile masters still mentored this lazy game called test cricket which took days to come to any conclusion. Their teams were ready to play with the teams of from the neo Indian nations.

They worked hard to inculcate and indoctrinate the pliable Indian minds with a type of game addiction in such a way that even the learned psychologists would find it difficult to explain the reasons !

With horse racing disappearing the scenes and the Khadi clad puritan Indian politicians denouncing betting and making money through all forms of chance games officially, this cricket soon transformed itself from a gentle man game to that of a game of bet and gamble.

The greed for quick moneys transformed test crickets to one-day-crickets. The Indian youths who toiled to master this game and get the favour of their control board members soon became celebrities making such monies even the cine stars could not even dream.

It was the trick of money begetting more money in cricket now in India.

More and more gullible Indians were getting glued to this game even while they never ever chanced to get a feel of the game by themselves.

The hard and heavy cricket ball and the wooden bats have become symbols of attack weapons and ammunition that have deadly properties only to be handled by select heroes. So the cricket players have become real life heroes who acted without any dupes making them all the more desirable demigods for the public, too eager to worship any such gods !

Added to all these is the greed that governs the minds of many of those from this land. They are willing to do anything for amassing quick money that they themselves have ever paused to think of its utility. The glitter of money and wealth has blinded them to see its actual usefulness for them in reality. They seem to to think of getting it and not of its real value for making their lives hassle free. Had they done that, perhaps many of them would not have spend their lives living in constant fear of those official and unofficial hounds who are after them to tear off their newly added flesh of wealth !

All these complexities are part of the developing culture of India now. A civilization of race mixing and culture mixing never going too far to some acceptable amalgamation !

And perhaps that is what makes India a preferred destination for the cocktail lovers who are after those Bloody Mary's even without ever realizing its real punch !

Too complex, too complicated ! Isn't it ?

About my perception about the wide spread prevalence of corruption in my country, I have wrote some of my hypotheses about it in these columns. If you have n't seen it before, you may have a look at these by clicking the links below:

While people with corruptible minds are every where, it is not possible to eradicate corruption totally from any society so long as such people exist.

But those high profile corruptions which are perpetuated by those in high positions and authority in a democratic system could be reduced to a great extent if the society could some how make certain systemic changes in the rule books.

In democratic India, the Constitution has overlooked one very important aspect of democracy. The Constitution of India is not making a ceiling on the time period for the top elected posts of the country such as the President, the Prime Minister, the Chief Ministers, etc. Though it specifies the term for a particular government, it is not making any ceiling on the number of terms an individual could be in a position of high authority.

For example, in one of the best democracies in the world today, the United States of America, no President can be in office for more than two terms or eight years. However good the President may be, perpetuation of his or her rule indefinitely could be something against the spirit of a true democratic rule !

In effect, a democracy with out a limit on the individual's term of authority is not a democracy at all. It has no difference from the aristocracy that many nations followed in the past. Looking in this perspective, India is not a democracy at all ! It is being ruled now by neo aristocrats in rotation or by mutual understandings. Alliances are nothing but conveniences to perpetuate self interests of a few and are not with any willful mandate of the majority people !

The individuals remain the same, though the titles they hold may change periodically ! Political scientists should invent a new term for this kind of a cracy ! Now for effecting the title changes, elections are held and huge money has to be spend by the title holders.

Now if the title holders have to spend money for this, they have to get back the money some how. They are bound to use their positions of authority for that and that leads to corruption induced by those in high authority. If the fence eats the crop, what could be done ? In a way how could any one blame these individuals because of an original fault in the Constitution that could not be foreseen earlier when it was drafted ?

It is a vicious circle. If any Indian wants to serve his nation and his society, he or she has to spend huge amounts and efforts to get the attention of the people so that the latter could think of electing him or her. If he or she becomes successful this way, then he or she has to get back those amounts that was spent earlier and the system does not have a legal method for refunding the amount spent. The option left is to get back the amount by adopting such methods that are not defined in the rule books. 

There is another danger to this. If the person tries to adopt such a method and get back the amounts, then he or she has violated the rule books and could be caught at any time later when his or her authority weakens. 

So he or she has to do all such things to retain the authority or get back to the authority in the future also till he or she dies. That means a perpetuation of corruption by this individual who has become a member of the demo-cratic system called politics.

Logically, there appears two things by which the Indian system could escape this vicious circle of perpetuation of corruption by those in high authorities.

First, let the rule book be amended so that the term of authority for the top elected posts of the President and the PM and perhaps the CMs are limited to say a maximum of ten years.

Second, let there be a change in the rule books by which there is provision of refunding of election expenses for the winners. Remember, it is the winner who is bound to seek the positions of authority  for trying the illegal means to get back his or her money spend on the elections.

As I have explained earlier, there is no guarantee that this will eliminate corruption.

Perhaps there is a possibility that those who are left with some moral goodness in their consciousness would at least  not try to justify their wrongs and hopefully adopt a path of righteousness. And if it happens, it would be a great milestone of achievement to India !

But again, such a change in the rule book is now possible only when this country is fortunate to get a strong leader at the top who is willing to act saying : ' enough is enough now and let me do it now for my people' !

A couple of days ago, I happen to see a website of a South African company specializing in the design and construction of low cost houses that could be made in just three days ! Later I have found information in the internet about the existence of many such firms who are specialists in this field. The idea they are promoting and implementing is nothing complex as compared to the high tech industries. But they are simple and most useful for human beings.

There are many unconventional options and designs. Pre fabricated and cast in site versions. The beauty is that these designs are very easy to make and are decent and more importantly, inexpensive.

[You may click these links to find it yourself : 1. Cast in-situ houses  2. Modular Homes  3. Modular Home Designs ]

If you search the internet you find that the world is much progressive in this except perhaps this large nation, India.

Indians are now consuming Chinese manufactured things in large quantities. The Chinese have gone ahead in this area too. There are many small and big manufacturers who make various kinds of panels for house construction.

Another important aspect is the large scale use of unburnt soil bricks of various kinds in house construction. Some efforts in this line could be seen in India here and there, but not in an organized manner.

On the overall, house construction in India so far in the organized sector has been in the conventional manner. Burnt bricks, cement mortar, steel reinforced cement concrete, some glass, some aluminium, tiles, etc all labour intensive, time consuming and expensive.

None of the present designs of houses in India are eco friendly. A independent house of say, 900 sq.ft carpet area takes at least an year to complete and costs as high as Rupees two million. On the other hand, a dwelling unit of similar size in a multi storied apartment building in urban India takes more than three years to complete and costs anything in the range of rupess three million to ten million.

Even though India is the second most populous country in the world, more than half of its population of 120 billion people live without a proper shelter. These populace is classified as the below poverty line (BPL) people whose average family income is less than Rs 5000 per month. It is just unthinkable that such people can even afford a housing unit even if it costs only one tenth of the cost of a small house that I mentioned above.

Besides, India has a serious shortfall of skilled labour in the house construction field. There is serious shortage of masons, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, construction supervisors, planners, experienced engineers and architects.

It is foolish to think that the Indian government can do some thing to sort out such issues. The governments in India now are too short of visionary leaders who could foresee such problems and use their leadership to do some thing !

It is not true to say that India does not have any governmental organizations to do research work in this field and popularize such useful technologies. Organizations such as the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) and many state government sponsored housing boards and other such governmental organizations have been in the field of house research and business for many decades. However, none of them have deviated much from the conventional methods of construction and could not popularize any practical and aesthetic housing designs which are affordable and also good to live comfortably.

Rapid growth of concrete constructions have caused serious depletion of river sand in many regions in India. Kerala is a good example in this regard. Here, river sand has become a scarce commodity that it is being imported from far away countries like Combodia. Even factory made sand, which is nothing but crushed rock, is also getting used as an alternative. The cost of river sand which used to be a few hundred rupees a couple of decades ago is now costing over Rs. 10,000/- a cubic metre. Cost of standard burnt brick has also increased many fold.

Concrete buildings are not at all comfortable to live due to its thermal characteristics. Homes built with RCC roofs absorb all the heat of the sun during the day and radiate it inwards in the night to the discomfort of the dwellers. People who can afford, then spend much on air conditioners and consume so much electricity making India a power hungry nation already, even with half of its population sleeping in the open skies !

All these call for urgent actions to popularize alternative design and construction technologies with regard to the future houses in India both for the urban and the rural people.

All over the world, changes have been brought about by dynamic and visionary entrepreneurs. This is an area where such people can think differently and evolve a business model that is useful to them, the users and the society.

Why not we think about designing, manufacturing and marketing completely knocked down (CKD) houses which could be assembled at site in a few days with the help of trained personnel ? Such houses should also look better aesthetically, comfortable, affordable and maintainable with a long life.

It is not difficult technically. Technologies and know how already exist in the world elsewhere.

What is needed is willing entrepreneurs who can take up the challenge to make a change !

The possibilities and opportunities are immense !


[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link which gives the   list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

This blog is not about those Indian businessmen who made  global foot prints by acquiring large business firms in foreign lands. It is about those hardworking Indians who through sheer enthusiasm and dedication have successfully manufactured useful products and yet could not keep a noteworthy presence of their products in the market. Many of them either carry out their businesses on a low profile or proceed in a wavy manner or simply vanish from the scenes without any one noticing.

Some time ago I happened to visit a food product factory being run by a low key Indian business man in Central India. I had heard about his success in producing glucose in large tonnage using many kind of starchy agricultural products as raw materials. This industrial conversion involves many complex chemical processes and was a guarded industrial secret kept by the foreigners some decades ago.

His father who worked for the foreigners in the pre-independence era later ventured in to this field and set up a few factories in India to make this product profitably. His sons later continued with the business. Knowing about this story, I got a technical interest to see the functioning of this industrial unit hidden from normal public gaze somewhere inside the rural area of central India. My interest  perhaps was due to my formal training in chemical engineering. I told my intention to a friend who worked as a superintending engineer of the state electricity board who was officially connected with the work of this factory. My friend in turn informed the owner of this factory who agreed to receive me as a guest to his premises. Incidentally another friend of mine who worked as a leading banker told me about the financial status of this business man. According to him, this industrialist made huge profits from his business and was indeed a billionaire. 

So finally I reached the small town to the pre-designated spot where this business man came personally to receive me. I was surprised when I noticed him coming on a two wheeler to meet me and a four wheeler driven by his driver. The four wheeler was for taking me to his factory. I was taken around the factory by one of his knowledgeable supervisors and I learnt a lot about his factory and the processes. Later I was invited to his house to have lunch with him.

He was indeed a very average looking ordinary Indian and his wife a caring Indian housewife who prepared all the food herself for us. There was nothing there to show off the billions they possessed ! I had a long conversation with this man during the couple of hours I spent with him in his house. He was knowledgeable, successful and enthusiastic to try many innovations in his factory and production lines. He was already making huge profits. Those worked for him in the factory were apparently very satisfied as they were being provided with  permanent employment and the employer apparently was kind and considerate to them.

We talked about the Indian business scenario and many such things related to it. During the talks, he told me about the poor scope of business development, especially in those areas concerning with the processed food industry. The discussion pin pointed to the case of the tomato ketchup industry and about the failure of the case of a ketchup factory set up in Central India by a business group with much fanfare and its eventual failure. His point was that the processed food industry such as this, though had been successful in the western countries, was not so in India.

When he concluded I asked him a different question. I asked him the strength of employees in his factory and the highest pay that he was paying to his highly paid employee. There were nearly 1000 people working for him and the highest paid were only a few and they got something around Rs.10,000/- per month. No doubt, his employees were getting more than what specified by the government as minimum wages and they were a satisfied lot. But he as the owner made a neat profit of over ten thousand times that of the highest paid one got ! I told him that his employees were in fact 1000 consumers who could potentially consume processed food items like glucose and tomato ketchup but unfortunately their incomes are so low that they do not have any extra margin  incomes to indulge in such small luxuries. Whatever money they got is just sufficient to meet their essential needs !

I told him a scenario like this instead. What could have been the situation if he could have distributed, say 25 % of the yearly profits among his employees ? That would be an average Rs.25000 /- per employee per year and that would amount to Rs.25,000,000/- in an year extra in the hands of his employees that would get pumped in to the consuming markets immediately. Perhaps that would turn hands at least 20 times in an year making the total money in the market at a whopping Rs. 500,000,000/-

And that would make the market potential swell so that business men like him would be able to grab it back with their business acumen ! Imagine the government grabbing a neat percentage of that as the taxes !

Imagine the potential when the thousands of businessmen like him in India would do the same ! Then millions of extra house holds would be in a position to buy tomato ketchup, glucose products and such other things which otherwise they would not dare !

It is the simple trick of creating the markets ! It is the trick of mentoring the markets to grow for your own benefits ! It is the trick of inclusive growth !

When I explained this to him, for quite some time he was speechless ! Finally he said: 'Sir, I think you told me some thing that I haven't cared to think so far !'

Though he insisted that we should meet again in future, I could not meet him later. I also do not know whether he made any changes in his business outlooks later !

The point I wanted to make here is simple : Most Indian business men, though shrewd, are misers of the highest order when it comes to sharing of their profits with their employees and shareholders. Even those in the government are also not better when things like giving out come for consideration.

Many of them fear that a proliferation of affluent people in the country would make things worse for them ! Of course it is a baseless fear !

Money accumulation in the hands of a few people are not going to make a prosperous state. Let it happen for motivational purposes. But at the same time, it should not be by depriving the majority. A system where business profits are shared to a large number of people would ensure a society with more people with higher purchasing power. A society where the purchasing power of people are high would grow faster !

It is all about creating more and more economic activities. More economic activities means more employment and more opportunities for innovation and development.

Wake up Indian business men !

There is nothing you would gain by accumulating wealth for yourself ! There is no guarantee that your accumulated wealth would be of any gain to your descendants ! Accumulated wealth in a deprived society is potential danger !

But there is much for you and your descendants to gain if you voluntarily share a portion of your accumulated wealth with the people who associated with you to make your profits !

Every extra rupee that comes into the hands of more and more people is going to make the markets swell and the country richer !

This is just one aspect of spreading prosperity. Being in leadership position of wealth and power, you are also in a position to pull talents to perform much better. That is called mentoring !

For that you should learn the art of developing organizations built up on compassion, empathy and of course character and not organizations built up over inhuman robotic mechanisms !

If you learn these things, there is nothing that can stop this country from becoming another USA or Japan !

If you do not adopt these, your success would be short lived even when you have billions in your accounts !

Should I tell more about the reasons of failure of the Indian businessmen and the Indian society ? You may not publicly accept those failures if you sit there with your muscles tightened !

It is just a food for thought !

Today morning I was searching for the the tablet that I am required to take regularly to keep my blood pressure within limits. I keep all those pills the doctor prescribe for me for various health problems in a small box which functions as my medicine chest.

Without my glasses I cannot read even the small letters of the newspaper. But my glasses are of no help to read the fine prints on the shiny metallic strips that hold most of my pills. I doubt the existence of  any one in the world who has such a marvellous vision to read those things printed on the tablet strips !

So normally I rely on my sense of touch and guess to identify the tablets that I am supposed to swallow every day to live !

As usual I was about to swallow a white tablet which I guessed as the one needed for my BP. But then as if from a premonition, I thought I should check it and make sure. So I tried to read the name of the medicine. With so much effort with my glasses at different angles, I came to the conclusion that the one I was to swallow was not the one that is needed for my BP. This one was some tablet left over from some previous prescriptions ! I could perhaps be an anti allergic tablet that the doctors consider as a panacea for all kinds of acute illnesses !

Being a person who is some what comfortable with reading and writing and the internet, I check the details of the medicines by searching the world wide web. Experience has taught me that I should not rely fully on what the doctor's say when it is a matter of swallowing their pills ! So I do satisfy myself before deciding to swallow any allopathic medicine. These medicines can do more harm than good if you swallow those like an idiot !

Today's incident somehow caused me to think. What would have happen if I swallowed a drug that is not safe having side effects instead of the drug which I was supposed to take ? What if the drugs in question have serious effects if taken or not taken ?

Then I notices another thing. None of these drugs have any legible writings on them to warn the patient about its side effects or its probable uses. What they have instead is a faint warning label : 'To be taken under the guidance of a medical practitioner only !'

So far in my life I have not come across a doctor who had told me all about the pill I was supposed to take ! The chemist is the one who interprets the doctor's code writing and tells me what, how and when !

But even that can not solve the problem that I faced. If I have many tablets to swallow at different times, I am at a loss to identify these tablets. Most of them look similar. The brand name is prominently written and does not make any meaning and no one is going to remember such complex made up names. The generic names again are written in micro prints that one needs some microscope to make out the spellings for a possible check with the google search !

How can an illiterate person identify the drugs when it is not easy for even a literate one to do that ?

No wonder then that the drug induced illnesses are on the rise. [Read this !]

Drug companies all over the world operate as a big cartel and this fact is now getting more and more clear to the public. Drug companies have their own reasons. But I think they should consider packing their products with readable information that the patients can easily understand.

While retaining the authority of prescribing the drugs kept with the medical practitioners, information about the possible uses, generic name, precautions, etc could be printed on the medicine packs in legible form.

Drug controlling authorities and the law makers also should think about it.

I think you would agree with what I wrote !

[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link which gives the   list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

One of the the greatest gift that God has given to human beings is the gift of making a choice using his or her mind which is under the full command of the individual and fully free to make any kind of decisions. Practically humans are with free wills ! Even while the human mind could be influenced by many factors, the final choice vests with the individual.

While creating humans, God in his wisdom, had determined that nothing whatsoever would be done to remove this power of free will from them. And that is a universal law of God. God being the designer and creator of life, could have done it in any other way. He could have made humans just as programmable robots. But that was not the case !

But that does not mean that God is not guiding human beings from knowing what is good and what is bad for him. He has given that capacity too to humans and together with it the capacity to choose, either good or bad !

What could be the reason for this ?

Imagine for a moment that you were in God's place. Imagine that you had designed and produced a few humanoids which are programmed to know what leads to destruction and what leads to survival for them. They are also programmed to know what ways some tasks could be accomplished that are beneficial to everyone. And more importantly they can do and decide things for themselves ! They are designed with superior intelligence to decide and act the way they like.

Suppose that I were in the team that designed such a group of humanoids. I would never like those humanoids to use their decisive powers to do bad things that eventually cause much harm to them and may even destroy themselves. Because each them is valuable to us, their creators ! On the other hand, we would be very happy if they decide to do good things for every one including themselves. Such of them are precious for us. Not only they know how to do things, but they also know how to do  good things always after considering all pros and cons !

Perhaps we are like these humanoids that we might work to create, for God and his team who created us !

An intelligent being who can know good and bad and select good always is better than a being who can do good in a situation that permits only good ! At least that is how I see it !

Why does a created being with intelligence to know good and bad with the ability for a free choice often prefer to err rather than proceed the way that would perhaps cause its creator to be happy ?

I think it is some inherent desire co-existent in such beings to rise above the creator even when it knows well that it is not possible ! And that desire transforms it to be a rebel against the caring love of its creator. And that rebellious attitude is denial of the love and care of the creator to such an extent that it feels that it can exist even without creator. A foolish attitude by forgetting the superiority of the creator over the creature !

This situation is the one that transforms a human being, though intelligent but with limited capacity and power, to be over zealous about his or her own abilities to become selfish and egoistic. Selfishness and ego then elate pride to the extent that going against the desire of the creator becomes more important in life even when the individual knows well that it leads to wrong choosing and bad acts. And doing bad things would be detrimental to his or her own life and also to the lives of his or her fellow beings !

This way a human being, a precious being for God, with all the God given abilities might chose to deviate from a good path and chose a path that leads him or her away from the love and care of his creator- a situation that he or she needed most for maintaining his or her life without untimely cessation.

I think most of us have a tendency to deny love ! We have a tendency to underestimate love ! We consider some one who is loving and caring as a weak hearted person. We adore those who terrorise us with the power to cause us harm ! Because, we  erroneously decide that the display of destructive power is the real power !

A child may not obey its parents who are always loving and who do not take the stick to punish it every now and then for its wrongs ! An employee may consider an non barking boss weak and may not like to do the things such a boss lovingly demands !

A citizen might give more respect and show more obedience to the street police officer than his or her head of state because the formers' wrath he or she knows as immediate and sure while about the latter he or she is not that sure, though the latter's immense power is well understood !

But does an intelligent human being need to be reminded of the stick always just as an immature child or an unintelligent beast ?

Perhaps God does not want it to be like that. That is why God is not using his power to punish humans for all their wrong doings every now and then.

But God does not need to do that. He had made the unchanging rule in the beginning itself ! All human beings would face the consequences of his or her wrong choices and acts some time, though not necessarily immediate !

Those who will fully deviate from God's will are doing sins and the outcome of sin is an ultimate cessation of God's love that maintain the individual's potential to live for ever like God !

Knowing this would any one  like to reject the love of God ?

Perhaps yes, if their bloating ego and pride have caused them to be mentally blind ! I think the majority humans have made themselves to fall in this group !

I earnestly wish they realize this !


[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link which gives the   list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

Modern democratic systems have evolved in such a way that they have two main types of people occupying the administrative organizations:

1. The elected Representatives of the people, called the politicians, who become organizational heads of various governmental organizations or ministries for some time as long as they have the people's mandate.

2. The permanent appointees occupying the service posts called the bureaucrats who are heads or in charges of various offices or functions, subordinate to the political bosses.

So the governmental administrations are carried out by organizations of people with varying degrees of power and authority. The power and authority of the people in these administrative organizations are generally supposed to be  increasing as one goes higher in the organizational set up. But the higher levels of governmental organizations are composed of individuals who do not occupy those posts for a relatively shorter period which could be anything between a few days to a maximum of five years.  

This is true for the republic of India, which has been in existence for the last over six decades as a democratic nation. However, peoples' aspirations seem to be neglected fully in  democratic India and such neglect seem to be on the rise as years pass.

Take for example the following:

1. India has not added much to its railway infrastructure. The progress is pathetically low as compared to other nations such as China. Same is the case with roads, sea ports and airports. Moreover, the quality of the existing infrastructure has not improved much in comparison to modern development in other countries and the development has not at all kept pace with the growth in population.

2. Nothing much has happened in the literacy rate. One third of Indians even in this modern era do not know reading and writing. While most of the countries in the world have made remarkable achievements in this field, India still maintains the poorest pace with regard to general literacy growth.

3. Nearly half of the population, a whopping 600,000,000 Indians, are pathetically poor as per world standards. The performance of Indian rulers who ruled for six decades is extremely poor if one compares this period with a similar period before independence when India was under the foreign bosses !

4. India has not achieved much in health care and social security systems. Neither its performance in environmental aspects anything worth mentioning.

5. The law and order system and the judicial systems are degraded versions of the systems originally made by the foreigners. No one can safely say that these systems are any  better in independent India !

7.  There are not any noteworthy contributions from the 1200,000,000 Indians in the field of science, sports or any other field in the last six decades as compared to other nations, commensurate with the population.

What could be the reason for this kind of a situation for this nation which is other wise blessed with one of the most fertile and hospitable terrains in the world ?

Is it the over population ? I don't agree. The high population should be the most advantageous situation for any country to develop at a much faster rate, provided there is a proper management system in place !

Is India inherently poor ? No, never. India is potentially rich. Only thing is that the Indians who are at the helm of affairs are people who either do not have the talents to tap the potential or are not placed properly to accomplish it. How can a driver drive a car, when his owner does not allow him to drive ? How can a scientist do some meaningful research when his boss does not understand the ABCD's of research ? How can an IAS secretary with basic education in History understand the nitty gritty of the Aviation sector and make his minister boss with basic education in say, Law, take appropriate decisions for the Aviation sector of the country ?

The problem with India is that it is having many administrative systems manned by people who are not competent with relevant knowledge and training to understand the problems and take appropriate decisions in their respective areas.

A government secretary who is meant to advice political boss who is not an expert is himself or herself a non expert. Same is the case with his or her subordinates who come from the same  administrative services. Someone who was handling Child and Women Development yesterday could be handling Science and Technology the next day ! The political portfolios of ministers and their offices keep changing according to political compulsions every now and then ! How can the country have any consistency of rules and systems in such a situation ? Where is the time for any one to think for the people and the country ?

Then there is the lower rung administration with a permanent sort of set up. They are the same always irrespective of their political or bureaucratic bosses changing every now and then. They keep seeing many type of bosses and their whims and fancies to such an extent that after some years they lose all their respect to their bosses and take things for granted. They know that the top bosses are totally helpless without them. It is the latter who keep the files and who know the procedures. The minister or his secretaries can perhaps do any thing in such a situation other than touring and attending seminars or such other functions through out the country and also in other countries. A great deal of time is also spend in planning their tours and travels and public speeches. Where is the time for these so called heads to calmly think if at all they have such a faculty still working ?

Most often the top bosses act as post offices and parrots ! They mark the papers and files to down below functionaries and get reports made by the down below ones to read out elsewhere. The top, both bureaucrats and political bosses, in such a scenario degrade themselves to be led by others instead of they giving the directions. They degrade as spoon-fed babies and parrots in a very short time ! The only major decisions they seem to take interest would be the posting of people and allotment of work to those of their choice. Again, how they are making this choice to know the people in their vast administrative organizations is another interesting thing to ponder ! Of course, their interests in touring both within the country and outside remain mostly intact. Any files that they happen to take special interest would be those where their special interests are some how motivated by some one and it is well imaginable what such interests would be !

It would also be very interesting indeed to find out how the decision making files move in the administrative organizations of democratic India and who writes what in these files and how the ultimate decisions evolve !

Again, the administrative system of India is comprising of people of various degrees of calibre and character. While about half of the central administrative service officers get in to the service through the all India civil services examinations, another half get into it through departmental promotions from lower cadres. There is no harm in this kind of a system, except that it makes up a system with varying kinds of weaknesses and strengths in the organizational set up.

A senior IAS officer publicly stated the kind of officers that comprise the Indian system in the following manner:

1. Officers who are competent and honest !
2. Officers who are incompetent, but honest !
3. Officers who are competent and dishonest !
4. Officers who are both incompetent and dishonest !

I would like to add a fifth kind in the above : Officers who are competent, dishonest and destructive !

Unlike the system in the USA and some other progressive countries, the existing individuals in the service class decide how they should function or organized. They would not allow the existing system to be changed in any way that they construe as a possible threat to their own authority. Moreover, it is not wrong to say that the Indian administrative service officers have systematically captured most of the administrative authorities to themselves that it is not easy for their political masters with lower knowledge in such things to change the system even when they have a desire to do it !

In effect the politicians and the administrative bureaucrats naturally became complimentary to each other for keeping all the authority of actions to themselves, without knowing how and when to act for achieving results that are for the betterment of their nation and its peoples.

They are scared of losing their authorities and hence they would never ever ask any one outside their own fraternity for any possible advices even when they do not know what to do next or how to proceed next for the better. Being designated as the highest authorities of the land, it is not at all befitting for them to take expert guidance outside their fraternity. Even when they do such a thing at times, they never agree to any expert advice in-toto. If previous experiences are any indications, in India hardly any such things have happened which went totally as per the learned advice of the external experts !

Democracy and the incompetency of the political leadership in a way have proved a boon for administrative officers of the third, fourth and the fifth categories as mentioned above to twist the system the way they liked without any one hardly noticing. This way the bureaucracy, the guardians of the system, has practically fallen prey to self interest and greed rather than working as checks and balances for ensuring a proper democratic system.

Now-a-days a number of fresh high calibre graduates from reputed engineering, management and other such educational institutions are also taking up the civil services examinations of India seriously and getting into it because they have realized that no other service in India enjoy such vast powers. They work hard to crack the tough civil service exam, as if to capture power to enjoy an aristocratic life for the rest of their career, even when the salaries the civil services offer are comparatively much less to what they could have probably got in the multinational corporations !

I know that there are honest young men and ladies among them who are desirous of doing some thing better for the country, soon to get disheartened by the system which would not so easily allow them to perform the way they wanted. Soon their engineering and management learnings get diluted and forgotten as they hardly gain any thing in that front to augment their experiences. Their experiences would now be provided by the lower bureaucracy who knows how to mould their fresh and young masters ! Coupled with that and together with the pragmatic approach of their seniors under the physically active political system would now make these young and intelligent officers to enjoy the powers rather than use the powers for the benefit of the society at large, in a few years time if not happened earlier !

Can any one imagine any IAS officer, belonging to both genders, who had got in to the cadre due to their so-called high calibre, knowledge and determination to crack tough competitive examinations, would turn out to be so corrupt and greedy later in their career that they can amass hundreds of crores of rupees by illegal and corrupt practices using their authority ? Perhaps it is difficult for the common man to think that it is possible for these wise men and women to do like that. But it is happening in India ! It proves that the possession of any high genius or cleverness is not  a substitute for true character.

India needs people of high calibre and character at all levels if it has to compete with other nations in development. Otherwise, its 1.2 billion odd people would never be able to achieve anything worthy because they are administered and managed poorly by a faulty governmental system composed of a mixture of people of all sorts without any efforts any where for getting the best management and leadership !

Indian system does not show any dynamism and is so reluctant to changes. The key decision makers in the system would not allow any novel ideas to be adopted if they have their way. They will be the last ones to support or do some mentoring for any one who has novel ideas for the country. But if any one authority does that by some accident, they are the ones to do the lip service and pampering to that high degree that the person concerned would slip and fall without achieving anything !

I always wonder this ! Why most in my country clamour for high posts and positions without ever having any agenda to do any thing good for the rest of the society using their positions of power and clout ! Why are they so to cling to power positions when they know for sure that they could not use their power in any manner because of their possible ignorance and incompetence ? Is moving in beaconed cars accompanied by some uniformed men with arms, such a big attraction ? The Indian public has long adored the powerful policemen and the uniformed security personnel. So getting in to a position where some of those kinds show obedience is indeed a great reward for many Indians that they can go to any extent of getting into such positions ! Hardly ever they realize that these spoiled and hard worked uniformed men are cursing them throughout and are waiting for an opportunity to pounce on their harassers if ever an opportunity comes !

The breakdown of the Indian law and order situation  is due to this aspect whether the so called administrative experts admit or not ! The bosses, have neither the time and the free brains to think of this eventuality and to make a system of dedicated and duty-bound security personnel ! The more they try mechanically, the more these men become ragged with a burning malice towards all in the society.

Our bureaucrats do not realize this saying : Never harass the cook who cooks the food for you ! But they keep doing it and keep eating the food the harassed ones keep making for them ! Should I say how it is made ?

I am not making this lengthy. The Indians need to learn to behave as human beings of a modern society. Especially the Indian bosses- whether they belong to the governmental administrative systems or any other kind. It is indeed the bosses who can shape the fate of a society and hence the bosses need to have these two  C's  in their hearts and brains : Competence and Character !

If they have those, they would not be scared of making any changes and trying out new systems and practices and using their brains. They would then learn to be generous, broadminded and with a determination to do good for the society they lead ! They would not like to cling to their seats of power and position when they cannot possibly act to do good for the society and the nation. They would gladly allow others who can do it better.

And that is the essence of democracy !


[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link which gives the  list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

Buying a engineering project is different from buying an equipment or machinery. Generally, an engineering project is a fixed infrastructure having various kinds of interdisciplinary systems and works integrated in to one well defined system engineered and built at a specified location different from a pre-existing manufacturing facility. Engineering projects may or may not contain assemblies of various kinds of pre-fabricated equipment and manufactured machinery integrated with various kinds of constructions and erections in situ (on site). On the other hand, an equipment or machinery may be entirely manufactured by the supplier at his own manufacturing facility and supplied at the specified location of the purchaser either as a fully working and tested item or in parts to be assembled and tested at the purchaser's specified location.

Equipment and machinery involving complex engineering and  projects involving engineering may both cost millions of rupees and may take a few months to a couple of years for completion after placement of order or signing of contract.

In the case of high cost manufactured machinery, such as airplanes, locomotives, ships, switch gears, hospital equipment, etc the purchaser has to take decisions based on the design features and cost data as available from the manufacturers. In this case, the manufacturers are presumed to be more knowledgeable in the design and other technological details of the equipment and the purchasers are to take the decisions of procuring based on the usefulness, serviceability, initial cost and recurring costs, etc.In this case, the purchaser also has the options to know about the performance of similar machines elsewhere and also about the reputation of the manufacturer in meeting with the commitments.

However, in the case of engineering projects, this scenario is entirely different. For implementation of a project the following stages, called the Project Life Cycle (PLC), are involved:

1. Formulation of the Project which is Feasible:  This has to be undertaken by the investor either by himself or by a team of engineers on his behalf, generally called the Client's Consultants. The job involves the feasibility studies and putting the relevant information in the form of a report called the Techno-Economic Feasibility Report (TEFR). This phase is one of the most vital stages of any engineering project. A project proceeded without carrying out a proper feasibility study is likely to meet with failure during the course of implementation. Here, project failure means project not getting implemented in the pre-specified time or within the pre-determined cost or when the project does not yield the pre-determined benefits in totality. It is better to go a bit slow during the project formulation stage because hurries to get the project report made by the formulation engineers or to put pressure on them to get the report made quickly would make the feasibility report with many assumptions, some widely differing from actual realities. A well experienced team of experts could study the feasibility of a project and prepare the report in about 3-6 months provided they have access and facilities to gather all the relevant information in time. For certain kind of projects, the project formulation time period could be even longer. If a project is found techno-economically feasible, the facts have to be spelled out in the report in detail so that the project could be audited for success or failure later. THe TEFR forms the bench mark for project audit when money is spend for the project implementation. The role of the purchaser's engineering consultants is very vital at this stage. Any inexperience or lack of expertise on their part would pave a way for possible project failure.

2. Decisions for Making Investment in the Project : This has to be done by the investor or his authorized representative who is empowered to make capital investment decisions. It is presumed that the purchaser has made all efforts to understand the TEFR and all the salient points made by the project formulation engineers as reported in the TEFR. The TEFR also gives the purchaser the inputs to assess the confidence of the formulation engineers in the success of the project. Hence, it would be a good idea to have a detailed interaction with the formulation team before the project is proceeded with.

3. Preparation of the Tender Specifications for the Project: It is a good idea to specify the number of contract packages for a project in the TEFR with their assessed costs. It is also a good idea to discuss the overall scheme of the project with a few experts in responsible positions in a few such companies who have the requisite expertise in undertaking similar kind of projects with more or less similar engineering or technology. These interactions should positively be commanded by the engineering group leader from the purchaser's side who is well versed with all aspects of the purchaser's requirements and limitations. These interactions should provide the purchaser's side the key inputs with regard to the present market situation with regard to availability of key equipment, project mobilization issues, cost issues, logistics, lead time for manufacture of materials and equipment, etc. This would also help the purchaser's side to frame up the best contract packages so that the purchaser gets the best competitive prices and the best execution strategies. A time period of three to four months would be needed to complete this for a medium scale project involving a few hundred million rupees. The tender documents should preferably contain the eligibility criteria (EC) for the bidders who are desirous to participate in the tender for doing the work as the contractor for any specified package. This is required when the purchaser is a public authority responsible for public funds in any way. EC has to be made after a thorough preliminary evaluation of the available vendors and should be made in such a way that the best ones are qualified and those without the essential capabilities to organize, manage and execute the contract are not qualified. How to get the good EPC contractor and how to weed out the bad ones depends much on the manner in which EC is defined by the purchaser.

4. Tendering and Tender Evaluation: In project contracts involving multidisciplinary engineering and technology, it would not be possible to evaluate the techno-commercial aspects of the bids made by the bidders easily. If the technical specifications are made perfectly with enough technical guidance to the bidders and with little chances of much deviations after award of the work, there is not much necessity for having detailed interactions with the bidder at this stage. The bidders have to confirm the techno-commercial conditions of the purchaser as defined in the tender documents to be deemed as at par, provided the qualify the EC. In such a scenario, the tender can be finalized on the lowest price bid. However, in many cases, this does not happen this way. Most often, the tender documents as made by the purchaser give a chance for the bidders to rake up techno-commercial issues for much debate. If this happens, the finalization of the bids could become a lengthy process involving many months. It can also make substantial changes in the scope of the tender and the costs. Hence, this should be avoided by seeing that the tender documents and specifications are prepared with confidence and without gross technical errors or scope for better alternatives. A project tender after tendering should be finalized and contract awarded within the shortest period not exceeding about three months. If this cannot be done, there is all likelihood that the project may linger during execution proceeding towards failure.

5. Award of Contract : Normally, signing of the contract for the packages of a project in reality enforces the real commitment from the sides of the investor and the contractor both towards the implementation of the project as planned. The date of signing of the project contract is to be reckoned as the the zero date for actual implementation of a project. Once the contract agreement is legally signed, one can presume the project to commence activities towards completion. However, for poorly planned projects, this may not be so. In India, project completion as per contract agreement rarely happens in the public domain due to poor planning and formulation making ample opportunities for litigation and arbitration at a later stage. Bagging of contracts by bidders who are not actually eligible to undertake the work also makes things complicated as far as the project progress and quality are concerned.

6. Design and Engineering Stage: The details of the project actually getting implemented are reflected in the design and engineering drawings and documents prepared by the contractors tailored for the the specific project after the award of contract. The contractors could have their own concepts about the scope of the works involved because that was what helped them in negotiating the case during the tender stage. However, normally no work could actually be implemented at site unless the contractors get their design and engineering drawings of the project checked and approved by the purchaser or his engineering experts ( generally the purchaser's engineering consultants). At this stage, two engineering groups, one from the contractors' side and another from the purchaser's side are fully involved. While the contractor's side tries to create the project designs and its minutest details according to the overall goal of the project as per the contract agreement, the purchaser's side checks them for engineering soundness, conformity to scope as agreed, conformity to engineering standards and safety, etc. This stage is the real test of skills and expertize of  engineers from both sides. When both sides are skillful and competent there is all likelihood that the project as built would be sound and fit and would give satisfaction to both the the purchaser, the users and the contractors. Unfortunately, in India the importance of the engineering groups at the side of the EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) contractor and the purchaser (purchaser's engineering consultants) is not well understood by the decision makers at the top levels at both sides. Many so called EPC contractors do not have any competent engineering groups at their side and they try to manage the design and engineering by outsourcing the work to free lancers and other such groups who are ill prepared or incompetent do undertake such works. This in turn makes the work of the purchaser's consultants difficult and thankless making the latter blamed for the delays in getting the contractor's drawings approved. Incompetent engineers doing this work for the purchaser also makes things much complicated. While an  EPC contractor with a competent design engineering group could get his drawings approved at the initial submission itself, one depending on outsourcing the same to splinter groups could cause inordinate delays and also incur unnecessary costs due to excessive factors of engineering safety due to ignorance. The process of design and engineering is so complex that even many top technocrats do not understand it well unless they had previous experience in this line of engineering work. Incidentally, the best technocrats would be those who had a chance to get some years of experience in this kind of engineering work involving project formulation and project design and engineering ! Unfortunately, this breed of engineers are on a declining trend in India and migration from this field to other fields of engineering seldom takes place due to the ignorance of human resource planners in this field. Design and engineering can take as much as 25-40 % time of a project's overall time schedule. Almost all decisions involving the project features and quality aspects take place during design and engineering stage.

7. Civil Engineering : Most engineering projects involve many works of civil engineering. These are site surveys, site preparations, earth works, Reinforced Cement Concrete (RCC) works, piping and sewer works, construction of buildings, equipment foundations, roads, tanks, etc. These works are to be as per the approved civil engineering drawings of the project. Civil engineering also involves debris clearance, painting, and many other such works. Services of experienced civil construction engineers, supervisors and workmen are all required in making the civil works proceed in a sound manner. In India, now-a-days, there is acute shortage of well trained man power in this area in many regions causing uneven quality of civil works from place to place.

8. Procurement of Equipment and Machinery: Many engineering projects involve procurement of tailor-made equipment and machinery from various manufacturers. These could be process machinery such as pumps, valves, fans, compressors, blowers, motors, conveyors, crushers, filters, dust catchers, etc or equipment such as tanks, vessels, bins, pipelines, boilers, etc or electrical equipment such as switch gears, motor controls, cables, etc or instrumentation and automation equipment or any other such specialized equipment or machinery. These are to be procured to suit the specific purpose of the project scheme from specialized industrial equipment suppliers based on detailed specifications finalized during the design and engineering stage. Experienced engineers well versed in inspection, testing, erection and commissioning of these specialized equipment would determine the success of these machinery. Many times it would be necessary to organize training of the purchaser's personnel who are required to operate and maintain these equipment and machinery after the project is commissioned.

9. Erection of Equipment : Many activities at site go concurrently. Erection of equipment may go concurrently with the construction of the building or electrical cabling works or piping works. However, these have to be micro planned in such a way that no one activity is counter productive to another. Modern project management tools help the project managers and the site engineers in this regard. Now-a-days many software tools that make the Project Engineering Review Techniques (PERT) and Critical Path Methods (CPM) easier are available for those involved in engineering project implementation. However, in India, due to various reasons such professional tools are not fully utilized for taking real benefits in projects  in the public domain.

10. Testing and Commissioning : A well planned project would not be difficult to be tested and commissioned smoothly. However, most often much complications do take place at this stage which include  fatal accidents too. This reflects  poor project management with regard to quality of work. Often many equipment get to damaged conditions due to poor handling at site calling for emergency repairs even before the equipment gets into action. Proper sequencing of work is very important to ensure a trouble free testing and commissioning. Experienced testing and commissioning engineers also make much difference in this.

11. Performance Guarantee Tests and Handing Over : This is the stage at which the project is inspected finally for its overall fulfilment of agreed objectives and performances. The purchaser and contractor make documents recording the formal handing over and taking over of the new assets as created in the project. In a well managed project this is a happy occasion while those mismanaged projects it may not happen and lead to future litigation between the two sides.

12. Post Completion Audits : This exercise is not normally done by many. However, it is a good practice to do it and observe the projects performance, quality and such other objectives with what was speculated initially during the formulation stage. If the project is observed as fulfilling the feasibility stage objectives with regard to its functions, costs, quality, time of completion, etc then the engineering project could be considered as a success. This stage is the last of the Project Life Cycle.  The purchaser should also ensure archiving all records relating to the project from formulation stage to completion audit stage for the future references.

The above is the general activity sequence of any engineering project from concept to commissioning. However, depending on the actual scope and technical content this could have some differences. Again, each project life cycle stages would involve much more detailed activities involving several groups and individuals making a large scale engineering project much complex.

Engineering projects involve large scale transactions of money and have much bigger stakes for both the purchasers and the contractors. Engineering projects involve multidisciplinary skills and expertise. Project execution sites are like war zones which might cause fatalities if proceeded without ensuring proper care and safety norms. But in today's world, no development is possible without successful implementation of various kinds of projects involving multidisciplinary engineering.

Countries like India with high population and population growth, demand for more and more infrastructural facilities including production facilities keep growing and therefore there would be great demand for people who are well versed in all aspects of project formulation and implementation. It may not be in the interest of India to depend on foreign know-how and skills always in this context. [You may see this blog also in this context]


[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link which gives the  list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

Before trying to answer this question, I would like to refresh your thoughts on the well known definitions of good and bad.

A good way of living, in my opinion, more or less proceeds  with the acknowledgement of the following:

1. Recognizing the fact that there is a God, the Supreme Creator of the Universe, who is to be revered and remembered always as our existence is because of Him. Since, the all powerful God has  created such lowly creations like we  human beings , there is all possibility that He has created or caused the creation of various other orders of  intelligent beings of varying powers and capacities for various functions concerned with the vast administration of the vast universe that we have known or even not discovered yet.

2. Recognizing the fact that our fellow beings on earth being creations of God are our own blood relations or brother and sisters  connected to us through God. Hence we need to love God and our love to God should reflect through our love to our fellow beings, fully acknowledging the fact that our brothers and sisters may not reciprocate our love and concern in the same manner and that is due to the prevalence of ignorance.

3. Recognizing the fact that while we all have different activities and responsibilities to perform from time to time, those responsibilities do not make us superior or inferior to any one and hence we should always be considerate to our fellow beings and never ever try to deprive others of their rights.

4. Recognizing the fact that we have God given abilities and intelligence, in varying degrees, and these must be utilized to make continuous improvements to our thoughts, minds and living a harmonious life in this world including enjoyment of all reasonable joys and pleasures that God has provided us on this earth.

5. Recognizing the fact that while wealth and power to accomplish many things may be be acquired  in this life, these special privileges should be utilized with care and responsibility.

6. Recognizing the fact that the life in this world is not an end to itself and may proceed uninterrupted in much more advanced and intelligent manner with our individual personality retained intact, provided we are humble enough to listen ,  recognize and proceed as per the feeble directions that come from God as received in our minds that we have deliberately made receptive to tune in to such directions.

7. Recognizing the fact that harsh realities and problems that bring much pain to body and mind are unavoidable in an imperfect world like ours and such unpleasant realities of life are not necessarily inflicted as a result of any wrath from God, but due to certain violations of universe rules by individuals who chose to follow a life not according to the will of God. Though God has the power to eliminate such problems, in His wisdom He has not so far decided to act against it and we are not to question the wisdom of God in such matters.

8. Recognizing the fact that we have to nurture our  God given qualities of curiosity, innovation, wisdom  , doing good and seeking God to higher levels than what were inherently with us.

On the other hand a bad way of living proceeds in the following manner :

1. Not really believing in the existence of a Supreme God or not really concerned with the existence of such a Supreme Being while considering any one who is capable of fulfilling any kind of desires to give some degree of satisfaction to be revered , respected or even worshipped as god, which means a kind of refusal of acceptance of the invisible First Cause and Centre of Everything in the Universe.

2. Behaving as if power and wealth are for fulfilment of self satisfaction with no concern for fellow beings.

3. Believing that those who do not have power and wealth exist for the purpose of doing slavery for those who have it.

4. Believing that might is right or letting a greedy nature to overpower all acts making one too selfish.
5. Enjoying sadism or have a desire to see others suffer or feel happy when others suffer.

6. Enjoying life while cunningly trouble others or feeling unconcerned with the problems of others; believing that life is short and enjoying it as much as possible at whatever cost is okay.

7. Be passive and not inclined to resist bad or support good and live a life of fulfilling self interests only.

8. Having an innate desire to control others and be like a worshipful god.


Now coming to the pertinent question: why is it difficult to follow a good way of living on earth now ?

The answer that I have found for this question is some thing as below:

God has neither made earth nor the living beings there as perfect, though He has the capacity to create perfect abodes and perfect beings and perhaps done that elsewhere. As far as we are concerned, we are imperfect beings living in an imperfect world.

However, God has given us the capacity to make our world towards more and more perfection. God has also given us the fullest liberty for using our creativity and the freedom to take all decisions of life. We are at full liberty to believe in God or not to believe in Him. All necessary intelligence is given for this purpose, though in varying degrees.

To chose good or bad is within our control and God has determined not to interfere with that, though He might occasionally give us some clues or guidance if only we are willing to take note and act on it.

Just as there are many human beings who prefer a bad way of life for its immediate or apparent benefits, there also exists invisible beings who are imperfect and are superior to human beings but similar to those human beings whose choice is to follow the bad way. The invisible acts of these imperfect superhuman beings could apparently make human beings distract from facts to accept untruths as truths.

Thus apparently one may feel that a bad way of life is immediately beneficial and enjoyable. It is like a narcotic drug which makes one feel good immediately when taken only to bring a total destruction of his life later.
So it becomes very difficult for persons who are not so careful to miss the hidden dangers of following bad.

So one may find many persons who are perceivably bad, getting riches and powers for quite some time to keep doing their bad activities.

But if you observe them closely for a longer period, you might also observe some pathetic downfalls some of them have faced on account of their own acts. It is not wise to consider those downfalls as wraths of God, but it could be considered as a result of the violations of the universal laws of God.

Besides, the apparent delay that we perceive in getting the evil doers punished by God may cause one not to believe in the existence of God, who is the First Source and Centre of Everything. This happens because we tend to consider the Supreme God as similar to us in thoughts and actions and we cannot possibly comprehend an infinite God and His wisdom with our finite minds.

Because of the limitations of the finite logic of some human beings, they cannot perceive the assurance of God about the possibility of an everlasting life even after material death for all human beings who have lead a good way of life on earth causing them to chose a bad way of life making them deprived of that great possibility.

So, more than the temporal downfall or cessation of material life that those bad guys faced, it would be another application of the universal law of God that could make them earn them the sympathies of the good ones. These bad guys would perhaps lose an opportunity to live even after death with their personality intact, something they never considered as a possibility !

How could they ?

They kept rejecting the possibility of the universal rule of a sovereign God whose laws are perfect and unchanging and they could never use their brains to find those clear evidences that have been all around them !

Just consider this :

More than 47000 page views have happened for my blogs here in this site ever since it came into existence.

The majority of my blogs are on topics like this.

But only a minuscule of my readers are attracted to such topics ! 99% or more appear as if unconcerned to know those things which could be much more beneficial to know than those contemporary issues.

How sad !



[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link which gives the  list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

It was some time in the late Nineteen Nineties that I began to face a period of utter professional slackness in my career as an engineer after about two decades of service in the public sector steel plant at Bhilai. The company was passing through a dull phase of activities. Perhaps there were also some professional jealousies from the side of a few of my colleagues and seniors that they thought it desirable for them to keep me almost  aloof from important professional assignments that otherwise could have engaged me fully  in my work. All these invariably resulted to give me enough time to engage my mind in non professional things of life as well even during office hours !

In a way it was a blessing in disguise, indeed !

There was enough time for me to think , read and explore the world wide web. I also had enough time now to have informal interactions with a few of my colleagues and juniors who used to come to my cabin at their leisure. But Mr. Vipin Kumar Aggarwal was not one among them. 

Mr Vipin Kumar Aggarwal, as I knew, was a dynamic electrical engineer, a bit flamboyant in his youthful times and a couple of years senior to me. He had joined the department I worked after having some illustrious career in a few other departments in our company. We were just casual professional acquaintances and we knew pretty little about each other.

So, I was surprised one day when Mr Aggarwal came to my cabin when I was alone and requested an appointment from me to spare an hour or so the next day for some important  private talk. After getting my nod, he just went away making me wondering about what it could be !

The next day, sharp at the appointed time he came to my cabin and sat down in front of me. It was about noon, may be an hour before our scheduled official lunch recess time. When I inquired the matter, with a friendly smile he made a request which I felt as odd and strange: He wanted me to teach him about my religion and my concepts about God !

In the Hindu predominated organization and region where I worked, people perhaps referred me as a Christian because that is not very unusual in this part of our country. Though no one did that in my presence, I knew it because of the way the majority identified people of other communities when those being referred were not present.

Though India is constitutionally a secular country, writing one's religion and caste are mandatory when one is required to apply for any government job or something similar to that. Thus I happened to be a Christian in the general category not eligible for any government concessions similar to the upper caste Hindus. In India, religious belief has nothing to do with one's official religious status ! The freedom to declare one's religious status officially as per one's belief from time to time does not exist. Religious status quo gets passed on from generation to generation unless one takes the great pains to get it changed officially taking much pains !

At the time of this story, I was in reality a nominal Christian, not paying much attention to God or spirituality in my life. No one who knew me till then could have ever perceived me as a religious person !

So this odd request from this Hindu colleague made me perplexed. Perhaps he was misguided by someone ! I told this to him frankly. He had come to a wrong person to get spiritual education and knowledge about Christianity. 

But to my surprise, he admitted that he knew about my spiritual or religious pauperism and yet wanted me to give him some discourse on Christianity and spiritualism, in whatever way I could. I could not turn down his request some how. 

So, I turned out to become  a private guru to Mr Aggarwal from that day onward. I began my discourses  on religion , spirituality and my concepts of God to my sole and special disciple whom I found out to be an attentive pupil, listening patiently and quietly whatever I said. For a few days he kept coming to me to spend about an hour in my office cabin almost always at the same time observing a remarkable punctuality. 

In a couple of day's time, my knowledge resources stored in my mind dried out forcing me to read my Bible at home so that I could teach my pupil some thing new for an hour the next day.

Though  Mr Aggarwal was a silent listener in the beginning,  he began to question and discuss on the topic in the later days. One day he said that what ever I discussed so far had may things similar to what is written in the Bhagawat Gita- the legendary discourse of Lord Krishna to Arjuna in the Indian epic Mahabharat. That was the time that I realized that my student was not that ignorant as he pretended to be in the beginning !

As my knowledge of Gita was almost nothing at that time, he brought me an English version of Gita for me to read. The compulsion to teach this insisting  student forced me to read Gita carefully. I was surprised to find some touching truths which were similar to many concepts in the Bible in a broader way.

As we progressed, it became necessary for me to read the English version of the Quran and I was touched by its authoritative style of telling moral and spiritual commands to ignorant human beings taking most of the biblical stories and events as the fundamental theme.  More importantly I was surprised to find the higher level of reverence that the Quran attributed to Jesus Christ.

These striking similarities in the major religions of the world touched me and we discussed these and the failure of these religions to bring peace to man kind. We discussed the chaos being created in the world by the religionists even when the religions taught some thing just the opposite in their holy texts.

Our spiritual studies and discussions this way  continued for some time when for the first time I talked about Satan and his nefarious opposition to God and such things the way it came into my mind.

And that day suddenly Mr Aggarwal declared that he got what he wanted to know. He was realizing something called the activities of an invisible power which acted against God's will in this earth. He told me that now he was in a position to connect certain things and this was some knowledge no guru taught him earlier. He thanked me profusely for teaching him a very fundamental truth, though I could not understand the reason for this kind of a gesture from this gentleman at that time.

Till that day I had never asked him why he had chosen to come to me, an ordinary mortal of no known spiritual goodness, to learn and discuss spiritual things. But now as he appeared fully satisfied in his learning and apparently found out what he wanted to find, I asked him that.

He was very reluctant to disclose the answer to that initially. With my persistence he finally agreed to tell me. But on a pre-condition: I should not treat him as an insane personality and keep what he told as a secret to my self if I found it non acceptable. I agreed.

Then he told me that personal secret of his that he kept almost to himself all through out his life. He told me that he had a few past lives. He has some memories of his past lives and even memories of the way he died in some of the lives earlier and some memories of being guided by 'devdoots' (angels) while he was existed after his death. He also had some memories of the devdoots taking him to the presence of a radiating presence of light whom the devdoots introduced as 'god'. And the god he met in this life after death commanded that he would have one more life , perhaps his last, though he was not desiring it. The life after death appeared more desirable to him.

Very importantly he had vivid memories of seeing his would be parents in his present life before he was born.  He told me, he had verified those and found out those things true from his parents later in his life. In the present life he was not very happy during his childhood days. He wanted to go back to his life after death and so secretly he planned to commit suicide while he was a teenager. But he got some directions in his mind that he would meet a person or guru who would give him some important knowledge later and after getting that knowledge, he would no longer be required to take a rebirth as a human again.

Mr Aggarwal being interested in esoteric knowledge soon become interested in such things commonly believed and practiced in his Hindu community, such as astrology, numerology, etc and gained quite good expertise in these topics as well while he pursued his normal studies to become and electrical engineer.

I listened patiently to his story. To tell the truth, I neither believed him nor disbelieved him. I was becoming a learner and listener. I had trained my self by this time not to judge any one without fully knowing the facts or applying my mind fully over it. It could perhaps be a mere coincidence that during those days I happened to read a news paper report about a German professor visiting India in search of individuals who remembers their past lives and this professor had reportedly studied over two hundred individuals and found some truths in those cases.

There are many things in this world beyond the normal understanding of formal scientists and intellectuals, my mind told me. There exists truths transcendental to material truths that are not perceptible to the ordinary human minds. I was also beginning to understand the existence of God, a supreme intellectual mind in designing and maintaining our world. A curiosity to know more about God was taking roots in my mind.

But some later happenings that happened in a month's time forced me to give some credentials to what Mr Aggarwal told me. First, some of my other colleague have by this time noticed Mr Aggarwal's secret and regular visits to my office cabin and some of them inquired me about it. Many of them knew his backgrounds much more than me ! For some of them, he was a reliable amateur astrologer who could read their zodiacs and describe their past or predict their future quite remarkably. At the same time he used to be quite a worldly man with perhaps some vices for others to talk about. He was  also well built,  handsome, healthy and energetic, capable of undertaking many activities concurrently. So there was some truth in what he told me and yet there were some things not fully understood by me.

He admitted his astrological knowledge and some incidences that happened miraculously as predicted by him. In those days, I never believed in astrology and considered it as a pure pseudo science and I told my opinion to him. However, we decided to examine astrology with a critical but unbiased approach. As a test of that, he told me that he was to face one of the greatest life threatening situation in a couple of days from then and he might not survive death as per his calculations based on his birth chart. His calculations showed a small chance of survival and living for another few more years, but with great physical debility. But while detailing this to me, he appeared very calm and happy. He told me that, he felt happy because he would not have another rebirth as the knowledge he was supposed to gain had been obtained from his guru now. I did not know whether I should believe him or not, but yet I consoled and ridiculed him telling that a person like his bodily health as of then was not going to have any such problems at least so immediately as he told.

But I was wrong. In another a week's time I learnt the news of him getting admitted in the ICU with a massive heart attack. When he was temporarily shifted to the ward, before being taken to the super specialty hospital in New Delhi for an open heart surgery, I visited him. Debilitated and sick with an imminent risk to life, I found him extremely happy in his sick bed. In fact he had made a scene in the hospital with every one to convey the news to me so that I could meet him in the hospital. When I entered his cabin in the hospital, he rose up to receive me with a gleam, quite unusual of any heart attack victim in a hospital bed, disregarding the immobility advice from his doctors. Enhancing my embarrassment, he was non hesitant to declare to all those of his friends and family-all of them strangers to me- about me being his latter day guru and his gladness to go to the other world even if death over powered him then. He even forced me to place my hands over his head and pray for him in silence, some thing that I had never done in my life !

He was moved to New Delhi shortly and he underwent a difficult open heart surgery and survived. When he returned back and joined back in service, he remained as a good friend to me and is still continuing his friendship, though he had forgotten many of the detailed memories that he had before he had the attack.

His astrological predictions proved true. In our later day friendship during the next decade we had some occasions to critically observe some birth signs and predict some future course of events with certain level of accuracy.

All these have considerably enhanced my curiosity to seek and search for spiritual truths while I continued my normal life both professionally and at home. And my continuous search finally landed me in finding and knowing the revelatory knowledge of the Urantia Book. Though the Urantia Book does not seem to support either the apparent truthfulness of the astrological predictions or the rebirth story similar to what Mr Aggarwal had, I have found out the clues that make such things appear as truthful.

In reality our world is full of partial truths making those who are not fully aware getting to take it as fully true or fully false. It is indeed very difficult to extract the fine grains of truth from a field full of scattered husk and hay of untruths !

I did  not have any intention to reveal the above said story of Mr Aggarwal so soon. But again it was he who sent me an e-mail recently with a detailed description of his memories of god and the other world, a couple of days ago, asking me to publish it through my blogs. After a decade of debilitated life after his surgery coupled with his other chronic diseases of diabetes with extremely high dependency on insulin he seems to believe his second innings of life coming to a near end. He wants the world to know his story and think about God too while they keep pursuing their worldly goals.

While I do not purport to convey the idea of a whole some truth in Mr Aggarwal's experiences, I do support  what he stated as his experiences as true from his side. I now know that human mind as it is resident on the material brain is a receptacle which could receive and process communications from multiple sources and we may not really have the capacity to understand all those sources.

But to me this real life story is an instigator of thought for a few people in this world who are willing to think beyond common material understanding of life.

When I analyse the experience of Mr Aggarwal from the knowledge I now have from the Urantia Book, I can make some conclusions as the following:

1. Devdoots (invisible celestial personalities of varying powers and functions who exist in a non material realm commonly also referred as angels) are real and are not some myths. Similarly there are personalities who are celestial rulers who could be in a way be understood as gods of varying powers gaining their godly powers from the One and Only One Universal Father God, the First Source and Centre of Everything and the Original and Eternal God. While devdoots have a normal invisible existence, they are in many ways superior to human beings in mind capacities. But all devdoots are not perfect followers of God's will; many of them in the immediate vicinity of humans are capable of deceiving gullible human beings, distracting them away from truths. This latter phenomena is particularly true as far as earth and earthly beings are concerned. On earth there are millions of such invisible devdoots who have deviated from God's service to follow a rebel  godly ruler of the lower order now commonly known as Lucifer and a few of his companions of similar order and standing. Under normal circumstances no human being as of now can know the actions of the devdoots (angels) whether they are rebels or not. But the rebel devdoots on earth are capable of influencing pliable human minds under certain circumstances. Since they have chosen to be rebels to the Supreme Godly organization, what they normally try to undertake most clandestinely is to create situations to twist truths so that humans are confused either in believing in the existence of God or know the true God and His will. This becomes more damaging when the rebels continue their nefarious activities while the good ones keep following God's  rules strictly.

2. If devdoots are a reality, Deity or God is also a reality. But for human beings of earth it is also important to realize that the lower level godly rulers of the Lucifer lot are also much like gods and what Lucifer and his lot have been trying in some material worlds like earth have been to establish and project him as god ignoring the fact that their power and seemingly endless life that they have are obtained from God. They stand to lose when the seemingly slow process of God's merciful justice gets implemented in some future time.

3. There is a life after death and there are techniques by which some devdoots are capable of projecting some memories or experiences to human mind under certain circumstances. But rebel devdoots may cause some human beings to realize this in some twisted manner deviated from the real truth. So it is important to know the truth by applying the inner wisdom to separate truth from pseudo truths or false hoods.

4. Rebirths are also a reality but rebirths do not take place again and again on earth. But, nevertheless, an experience that Mr Aggarwal had is still possible when some devdoots perhaps had caused him to believe it that way.

5. Astrology based on the positions of stars and planets and prediction based on those could seem to be true due to various factors. While influences of certain universal gravitational force lines on a persons birth genes could not be ruled out, attributing those to stars and planets would only seem to be true but not exactly true. Again the power of God's ruling above these aspects should be acknowledged. In other words, giving extra attention to know one's future on the basis of astrology is not desirable. It only enhances one's anxiety to life situations and may reduce one's living under full submission to God's providence. Hence not desirable for ordinary beings while a few of better mind capacities may use it to appreciate God's wisdom in universe design.

6. Numbers, gem stones, biometric lines of the palms, eyes, etc  all likewise reflect the immense wisdom of God in many ways. However, none of these should distract a man or woman from his or her normal way of living by reducing them as magical charms determining one's fate.

Finally, let me admit this. I am not an expert to tell authentically what is right or wrong. I have only shared what my convictions are from my present level of understanding. It is very much true that my friend Mr Aggarwal had helped me a lot  to think seriously on the esoteric and spiritual aspects of life together with my life in this earth as an ordinary human being.

Was he my guru or I his ? Now I know that none of us are superior or inferior in front of God. We have only duties and responsibilities to perform, whether small or big ! Our special skills and abilities are no measure of the degree of godliness in us.

We all have godliness in equal measures. It is only up to us whether we take advantage of that to be with God or not !

Thank you for reading this much ! If you did, keep thinking about it whenever you are free from the worldly affairs.

  

While I was an engineering student pursuing my chemical engineering, I was thinking that some day I would be doing my career in some chemical process industries which produced petroleum products, fertilizers, insecticides, bulk pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, etc. I had never imagined that I would spent a good deal of my career in water supply, sanitation, water treatment or waste water engineering. 

I began my professional career in a captive thermal power station of an integrated steel plant. My job was to manage the production of de-mineralized (DM) water for steam generation in the boilers. The steam is used for rotating the turbo-generator machines which produced electricity. Steam is also required for various other heating and process applications in the steel plant. After its thermal energy is used up, steam gets condensed to become condensate water which is recycled to the boilers again for generating super heated steam. The losses of steam and water in the boiler water system required addition of make up water in the form of DM water. Quality of water and steam is very critical for the smooth operation of high pressure boilers and high speed steam turbines. Hence, all aspects of water chemistry is given due regards and attention in a properly managed thermal power station. My first job helped me to understand the nature of water and water treatment in much detail, including the chemical quality management aspects. In reality my function was of dual nature, because I was required to look after both the production processes and the quality control aspects of the chemical testing laboratory.

My second innings in my professional career was as a water supply and sanitation design engineer, a job conventionally done by civil engineers. I considered this job a bit inferior to my status initially. But soon I realized that this field is essentially sanitation engineering which is a very important aspect of city and town management and also one of the most neglected engineering area in modern India. My senior was an en experienced civil engineer who spent almost whole of his life time in this field. It was not much difficult for me to master the conventions of practical designs of this field and there was opportunities for me to improve upon the conventions because of my chemical engineering background.

Later I had opportunities to function as lead design engineer and consulting engineer for many projects involving water supply, cooling water systems,  water treatment, water softening , gas cleaning, effluent treatment, bio chemical treatment, coal chemical processing, etc which gave me much opportunities to expand my experience and knowledge in interdisciplinary engineering. Most importantly, insights into the way of functioning of the Indian system with its complex ,contradictory and vague rules , statutes and influences have also been acquired concurrently.

All these helped me to understand and analyse the root causes of the systemic lethargy in India to a great extent, though no one ever required me to do such a thing !

I have seen some municipal corporations in India taking over three decades to implement even mundane water supply projects which could have been done in one or two years time. I also find many cities and towns with no water supply and sanitation services. Regrettably many cities and towns of India also do not have any plans for making such facilities in the near future. Even progressive cities like Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of the most literate state of India, have failed in implementing and managing good waste handling and disposal facilities.

Any developed and progressive country can perhaps call itself developed when the majority of its citizens are able to get good drinking water in sufficient quantities and also when they enjoy decent sanitation and waste disposal services.

Unfortunately, India stands at a pathetic low level of development when water supply and sanitation norms are concerned. [I suggest those interested to read this wikipedia article : Drinking water supply and sanitation in India] Waste disposal facilities are virtually non existent. 

As a professional engineer with decades of experience in this area, I feel ashamed of such a pathetic situation in this country.

It is not very difficult to design and implement good water supply systems and sanitation systems linked to effective municipal effluent treatment plant systems for any cities or communities having a population of 5000 or more. So also is the case with solid waste management.  However, very few cities and communities in India have such systems.

What are the reasons for this kind of situation in India ?

Why is it that the Indian leaders and administrators do not feel ashamed of such deplorable conditions of their country ?

In my opinion, such a situation arise out of many things, all linked to each other in one way or the other.

The following are some of the main reasons as I see it:

1. Excepting a few large metropolitan cities, the city and municipal corporations have degraded to become play grounds of local politicians. As a result, the bureaucratic organizations that are required to assist the democratic city governments have become lethargic or non committal or ineffective to do any proper planning or city management.Often, the city administrations are headed by pliable or incompetent bureaucrats who are posted by the state administration as per political compulsions and priorities. Besides, the personnel and staff that get in to these administrative organizations of the municipalities and corporations are selected without any due consideration of their specialist experience or qualifications that they soon become vested interest groups. Specialist wings of the city administration such as the town planning, public health engineering, water supply and sewerage, public works, etc become side tracked to such an extent that their specialists and engineers no more are required to show any professional competence. It becomes all the more convenient for the incompetent political heads and bureaucratic chiefs to have such incompetent technical people as their subordinates that the former never feel the necessity to improve the competency of the latter. Soon, for any infrastructural development involving water supply, water treatment, sewage treatment, solid waste management etc the political heads and bureaucratic chiefs become the decision makers including those matters that are purely technical in nature. Such decisions eventually create nonviable or inferior schemes and projects which would either never get fully implemented or commissioned for the benefit of the people. Such technical incompetence soon creeps in to the operation and maintenance areas as well.

2. Lack of coordination among various governmental agencies and departments.

3. Lack of respect of contractual obligations. Indians are infamous for this kind of an attitude. Once contracts are placed, the Indian authorities at all levels seem to create undue problems for the contractors mostly for personal benefits. Delays of payments and works on account of such objections created by the officers and staff of the city governments often create a situation that good EPC contract firms with expertise and experience in the relevant fields avoid taking up such contracts.

4. Indian top authorities are keen to keep all major decisions to themselves even when they are not competent to take such decisions. Delegation of powers exist only in theory and not in practice. The root cause of this situation is the eagerness to get importance for unfair gains.

5. Incompetence of vigilance personnel and authorities to judge technical issues. Often such a situation makes the technical personnel from taking firm and sound decisions for the overall good of public projects. Again, this situation arises out of the lack of vision of the law makers who create such rules and regulations without due consideration of expert opinions. In my opinion, it is not a good practice to allow non technical authorities to find fault with technical decisions and file vigilance cases based on such findings. Even when there is a prima facie technical error, it has to be based on the recommendations of an expert technical committee.

6. In India, disciplines of engineers do not carry much value once an engineer gets posted. It makes the engineers who are trained in some discipline not getting the appropriate jobs and making the particular engineering discipline becoming a non preferable one for fresh students eventually creating a shortage of trained man power in certain areas. A typical example is the shortage of sanitation engineers or environmental engineers in the Indian city administrations.

7. Indian engineering institutions and technical universities plan their engineering curricula quite arbitrarily without due research on the requirements of the potential employers and their needs. The courses are planned based on the aspirations of the youngsters who are pretty unaware of the usefulness of the courses that they are going to study.

8. Experienced engineers have practically no say in the selection and deployment of fresh engineers within their organizations in India. This function is almost entirely decided by non technical people who have no idea about the work of engineers. This creates adverse imbalances in engineering expertise within even engineering organisations. Technical groups of city administrations are no exception.

9. Technical groups in India which are required to do collective engineering tasks are made up of technical personnel having incompatible capabilities and competence. The continued practice of reservations, favoritism, etc play an important role in this. The result is failure of the group to perform effectively even when there are exceptionally good individuals in the group.

10. Lack of consistent opportunities for EPC firms to maintain their expertise on a long term basis. There is no guarantee of work in areas such as water and waste water engineering, solid waste management, etc from the local authorities. The allocation of budgets and funds are erratic. This causes much uncertainties for EPC firms to maintain their expert engineers and technicians on a long term basis. Much bunching of work also happens making all work to suffer of time schedules and quality . EPC entrepreneurs try to maintain their technical organizations without enough numbers of permanent experts and managing the show somehow by outsourcing or entering into temporary understandings to form consortia or similar other gimmicks making a mess of things that eventually everything proceeds without any proper direction or planning.

11. India now has a number of so-called environmentalists who are text book experts and have no practical experience or expertise. They copy impractical norms and quality parameters and make big noises of not achieving certain values of quality parameters with regard to environmental quality norms on water, treated effluents, land fills, air , etc. These so called experts often make things complicated and often provide much fodder for the non technical media and the public. In the developed countries, often decisions on such things are taken on the basis of best achievable technology (BAT) and best practical technology (BPT) . In India, text book experts are least concerned about practical aspects and costs involved. This compels many organizations to spend huge sums of money for practically achieving no results, especially in the areas of water treatment, effluent treatment and air pollution control.

12. Indian organizations do not allow planned development of expertise in engineering and technology. Whatever experience the engineers gain happen randomly and in much unplanned manner. Hence it is not very easy to identify and evaluate the real experience and expertise of engineers. Again this evaluation is left to the whims and fancies of non technical personnel, making many experienced engineers wasting their times without actually contributing to works where they could do it well or important engineering assignments getting in to the hands of inexperienced engineers and non technical leaders bull dozing them to commit gross errors.

13. There is no political will in India to make these services privatized allowing  reasonable charges to be levied from even the affluent class of urban citizens. There is no reason to fear that the affluent urban citizens are so selfish and ignorant that they resist such facilities that would make their lives better. However, the present political atmosphere is such that every good move by one political party is opposed by the other parties who are not in power. This kind of attitude can change only when the mind set of the politicians change and they think collectively for the citizens and their country rather than for themselves.

14. Indian cities develop and grow in the most unscientific manner due to the absence of effective town planning. Very few cities have free spaces earmarked for development of infrastructural facilities for water treatment, waste water treatment, waste processing, laying of pipe lines, etc. Even after 60 years of independence and even after the whole world has progressed, the Indian authorities feel that these are important matters which require firm actions. Ministries handling urban development, housing, water, environment, etc all seem to work in different directions. Few Indian citizens are aware of the existence of such ministries or their objectives. Incidentally these ministries keep changing every now and then with different names and objectives making any sustained actions never taking place with regard to water supply, sanitation and waste disposal in urban or rural India.

15. No one India seems to be in control of planning and execution of infrastructural projects with regard to water supply, sanitation and solid waste management for the Indian cities. It could perhaps be a good idea to notify the names of the key drivers of such projects with their responsibilities and authorities known to the public.

16. India has an acute shortage of design and engineering personnel who can formulate and plan an infrastructural project on water supply and waste water management for the cities and to do the detailed engineering works involved. As of now, India may be good in developing computer software, but it is not good in works involving conventional and core engineering due to its  expertise and capacity continuously on the decline in this area for the last many years. Serious thinking and corrective steps at the highest levels only can save India from becoming a slave to other nations in the future. One of the reasons for this shortage is the reluctance of brilliant engineers to take up this career in India because in this country being in this field of work they earn little respect now and of the prospects of being at the receiving end to be bull dozed by their not-so-brilliant colleagues who chanced to climb up the career by taking up other easier routes. No wonder why the brilliant IITians of India prefer to become IIMees by doing an unlearning of their difficult engineering- a thing perhaps never happen in a developed nation !

As some one has recently written in the Economic Times, this situation can be rectified if the politicians of India think about their country for a moment. It is possible if the bureaucrats think of their country for a moment instead of spending time on wasteful tours and meetings and lamenting on the inefficiency of their political masters. In my opinion the latter are better placed to correct the situation if they want. They have a greater responsibility as per the Indian constitution. If they collectively decide to make India a better place, no politician can ruin that. That is the safeguard they have as per the constitution. If politicians are willing to support them, things could move much better. Again, there is much need to enhance the confidence of the engineers working in core areas in this country and their confidence levels. Without them, neither the politicians, nor the bureaucrats can hardly achieve anything !

That was what Singapore had done. That is what China has been doing. That is what the developed nations have been doing.

India needs to learn how to honor and motivate its engineers to perform. If not, much of those brains are all going to migrate to places where they can use their brains effectively and work with some prestige.

It is a big opportunity to prove India's capabilities first in Water Supply, Sanitation and Solid Waste Management and making India filth-less and hygienic before trying to make the missiles, bombs and the rockets using borrowed technologies. This field has enormous potential for job generation. It also has enormous potential to generate income for the government.

I know the stories of many young men from India who never got any worth while employment in India, getting good paying employment in small county water treatment and sewage treatment plants in the USA. If the US could pay over $ 5000 per month to an Indian born supervisor of a water treatment plant of a county of 5000 odd population, why can't India do it ? USA is rich, because the majority there think big. The moment the Americans think like the Indians they too are going to be doomed !

Think India, think ! Think and act the way those progressive peoples are doing ! Remove your narrow mindedness and your greed and your unjustified fears ! You have immense potentials to come out of the pathetic conditions. Even those of you who like to exploit the nation from behind the curtains- it is better to change. You too would benefit a lot than you do at present !

Improving the health of the citizens is good for every one. Even for those who have made vast fortunes in India and thinking of staying in alien countries for breathing well.

And what I said above may be applicable to all other fields as well !

[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link that gives the   list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

Some of those near to me appear to be annoyed with my eagerness and enthusiasm to spread the knowledge of the Urantia Book, though I never ever to attempt to preach or divulge the information about it to any one who is not driven by an innate desire to know more. Of course, I feel it my duty to make it known to those who are capable of understanding  the deep knowledge that it contains. Whether they are ignited with the desire to know more is absolutely their own free choice. If they are not, I do not want to become a preacher for them. But if they are willing to know, I would be extremely happy to talk about it.

Unfortunately, I find hardly any one interested in it. Those who are very near to me and those who happen to hear from me about some truths that I gained from this book due to their physical nearness to me should have felt an urge to know more, just as I had felt when I came to know about it first. But unfortunately and sadly I realize that they are not getting the excitement that I got and am getting when I read to comprehend the great truths revealed in this book.

There are those who are my nearest and dearest who feel the urge to tease me by pronouncing the name of the book in some awkward manner. Some of them pronouce it Oo-ran-thya and some others Oo-ran-shya! Either way it makes no difference as this word was not there before the book came into existence and the authors never told any one how to pronounce it ! I prefer to pronounce it as Oo-ran-shya because that was the way my mind accepted it when I first read that word.

I am happy that a small number of readers of my blogs do get to know about this book for the first time. A still fewer of them might be visiting my urantia-india website to know more about the book. A couple of them might be there who ventured in to reading the book. I am not sure, though a few of them have communicated that. I have no idea, how many of them could have found some interests initiated within their minds to explore and study the book seriously.

I remember the markedly hostile reactions of some of my dear ones who castigated the book as satanic without ever bothering to know its contents. They are otherwise practicing and pious Christians. How sad ! It hurts me not because they have rejected some irrefutable truths I have found most rewarding for study and meditation. It hurts me, because they chose not to use their God given capacities to separate truths from untruths thereby losing some great opportunities that could have perhaps made them different and worthy personalities. I know what they are losing but I cannot force any one to accept my findings ! I cannot discuss the thoughts of my mind with those who are decisively non receptive !

It could have been much of an opportunity of happiness to me, had I found any one near to me interested in the book as I am. Unfortunately for me, it is not to be like that. I know the reasons, but for the time being, there are no solutions to that.

True, the Urantia Book has given me such great opportunities to understand the truths behind many things that I observe as the way they are on this earth. I now know why human efforts for quick rectification of wrongs do not yield results. I do understand why earth is the way it is and does not seem to proceed the way I would have liked it to be. I do understand why bad things keep happening quite often while  good things are not so common. I realize why trials and tribulations happen to good people while evil minded ones seem to prosper.

The book has told me some important things I should keep in mind. It has told me the importance of keeping patience and I do find the benefits of practicing patience.

But there are more in the book than that. Precious knowledge ! Indeed very useful for those who can comprehend those ! They are not mere knowledge. They are divine words of wisdom from divine sources !

I have already become a missionary of the Urantia Book. And I feel greatly honored and happy about it. But I know it won't make me any special creature any way ! And I am not to aspire to become any such special one ! Again, I am not to force or influence any one. I am to introduce the existence of this book of revelatory knowledge to those in this world who might think it worth to have a look !

The rest depends on how the children of God on earth use their God gifted free-will to make their choices.

While I am writing this blog, I read the writings of another inspired reader of the Urantia Book far away who too have decided to be a self appointed missionary of truths whose short message to me I read with joy. The short blogs of this Urantian truth propagator could be read here : Irrefutable Truths . 

One of the noticeable changes that occurred in India after it partially adopted the free market economic policies of the Nineteen Nineties, is the mushrooming of engineering colleges in every nook and corner of the country.

Yes, the Government of India has been giving fantastic sops to entrepreneurs to set up engineering colleges in the last few years by setting up the All India Council for Technical Education with statutory powers as delegated and implemented through the provisions of the AICTE Act of 1987 .

As per the published statistics of AICTE, the approved intake capacity of technical institutions to train youngsters in diploma, degree and post graduate degree courses in technical and management fields is going to be nearly 3.5 million in 2012-13 as compared to nearly 1.7 million that existed during 2008-09. A neat 100 % growth in four years ! [See the statistics of AICTE here !]

While this kind of a growth is justifiable on the basis of the number of engineers per thousand population in the developed nations like the USA, South Korea, Japan, etc there are very disturbing realities that cannot be overlooked whether or not the policy planners are willing to recognize it.

Setting up and engineering college or a management institution or any such technical institute is prima facie does not come under the purview of a business activity, though in reality it stands out as a profitable business at least for those who grabbed the opportunities in the very beginning.

Let us examine the process of setting up an engineering college and the likely incomes that are generated by such an institution.

The first step is registering a society or trust which is nothing but a registered association of people with the stated objectives as promoting technical education in the state or country or region. Essentially, there would be a few founder members who cleverly make the bye-laws of the society in such a way that the actual promoters control all issues of managing the society for ever. It is not necessary that the founder members have any knowledge in engineering. If the members are mostly from the same family or friend circle, it would be of much advantage. 

The next step is to mobilize the funds. A negligible sum comes from the membership contribution of the society members. The major sum comes as loans or donations made by the individuals to the society. They need to have at least 10-20 % of the total money required to set up the engineering college initially in the account of the society.

At present, setting up the engineering college initially would require about Rs 5 -10 Crores. Let us see how it works out:

         1. Purchase of about 5-10 acres of land away from the city limits ( the more the better) : Rs 2-5 Cr

         2. Costs of AICTE approval including security deposit:    Rs 1 Cr

         3. Buildings and other infrastructure            : Rs.2-4 Cr 

Now, how to initially finance this amount. Suppose that there are 20 members in the society. Each member contributing Rs.10 Lakhs would make Rs. 2 Cr. That is enough for the society to proceed with their project. The rest of the money could be raised through bank loans or other personal loans.

Initially the AICTE gives temporary green signal to proceed with the allocation of a few branches of engineering and the number of approved seats for each branch of engineering. The trend adopted by the new engineering colleges is to start courses on Computer and Information Technology, Electronics, Electrical, Communication which requires the minimum infrastructure and offer the maximum possibility of various course combinations. In any case, the start up institute gets permission to start 3-4 streams of graduate studies with an intake capacity of about 160 students in an year. 

If the college is fortunate, they get all their seats filled up. If not, they may get around 100 students. There is government patronage in getting the seats filled and in fixing the minimum course fees. As the minimum fee is government determined, the start up engineering college in the first year itself would be in a position to earn about a crore. They manage the finances by paying less initially to the faculty and the staff so that a surplus is generated in the first year itself. Every year the number of students increase to become the maximum in four years time. The revenue of the college (society) by way of student fees now surpasses more than fifty percent of the total money invested. In a few years time, the society cleanly comes out of all debts and would have good sums to spend in improving the infrastructure, beautification and other improvements with money accumulating in its accounts. The society members get back their loans with interest. If the college has survived a decade, the chances are that it becomes a good institute provided the management committee and the staff do their job well. 

Legally, the individual members of the Society which manages the college cannot have any personal gains from the profits of the college. But it should be remembered that the majority Indians do not have any mindset to do any philanthropic work. The simple logic for them is this: If there is no fayada (benefit) why should any one do some work ? So definitely fayada is there. But how this benefit is to be realized is not written in the laws and the statutes. So the unfair siphoning of funds accumulated by collection of hefty fees do take place. The methodologies are the same old practices that are adopted by people who are entrusted with powers to manage. It does not matter whether it is the industry, the NGO, the society or the government department ! Absence of the laws or inadequate check systems or pliable individuals all make these things easier. But at the same time the law enforcement agencies can target any one whimsically if they so desire. This gives the power centres ample scope to control things the way they want. In short, prevalence of arbitrariness becomes the way of governance in a country which claims to be democratic.

Now coming back to the fate of the millions of fresh engineering graduates whose parents spent nearly a million rupees for getting their engineering degrees ! There is no authentic data on how many of them find a useful job. Even then, private estimates by various agencies figure out unemployment levels as high as 30 % among engineering graduates of India. Remember, this is the situation of the present. You can well imagine the situation when the number of graduates double in the near future as planned by AICTE.

Even this unemployment figures could be misleading. The actual could be much higher considering the fact that the majority engineering graduates of any discipline are going to be employed in non engineering jobs including computer software related fields. In the software industry and the BPO industry of India, the markets lie beyond the boundaries of India and no one really knows how far this industry could go like this. Will the software industry bubble burst some day ? What would happen to the millions of Indians and the Indian economy that have now surrendered themselves to an economic activity which they do not really understand with regard to its market dynamics ? In other words, what would happen if the major markets that are outside India change their priorities ? Only foolish people will try to live without contingency plans !

So what are we supposed to do then ? Training engineering graduates and postgraduates in the engineering colleges in huge numbers is one thing. But that is not going to help India getting improvements in engineering expertise in any way. No fresh engineer is good to undertake any real life engineering work with confidence unless he or she gets the opportunity to get trained under experienced seniors for a couple of years. Again no engineering graduate can gain useful experience when opportunities of actual work exposure do not exist. A good number of working engineers in many organizations in India hardly get any useful experience to make them an expert in their field of work.

Indian planners, who are definitely not experienced engineers or technocrats, have forgotten the importance of having matching numbers of trained technicians and engineering supervisors and the importance of them gaining reliable work experiences by doing years of actual work. When India prefers to import equipment and systems from China and other countries, what is clearly forgotten is the opportunities lost in this country to get its people trained in core engineering and technology works.

Operating in this manner without understanding the fundamentals have landed India into a precarious situation. If any one wants to set up a manufacturing base in India, he is posed with the problem of shortage of experienced technicians and engineers. In a competitive world, how can you think of spending huge sums for training all your man power some where else always ? Barring a few, almost every manufacturing facility now India are foreign owned. They may close shop at any given time when things do not move in their favor.

Engineering graduates, post graduates and doctorates who work in the engineering colleges as teaching faculty cannot be considered as engineers with practical experience, in India. This is because of the extremely poor mobility of engineers from industry to academics and vice versa in India. The AICTE which is presently dominated by academicians seem to prevent this from happening for reasons that could be guessed easily. Engineering curricula in India is crammed with theoretical topics which are of practically no use in real life situations in many instances. Engineering colleges and universities need to learn tailoring of the courses for the benefit of the industries where the engineers are going to be employed by mutual interactions. However, due to the impractical approaches by AICTE and the institutions, such a thing can never happen in India as that are happening in developed countries like the USA and some European nations. The result is that India produce more cut-paste engineers who haven't really understood what engineering really is !

Now let me come to the personal side of engineering career. Engineers are the most isolated lot of professionals in the world, even while they do their jobs in teams. This is because, every individual engineer, in most situations of actual engineering, does a unique work most often not really understood by their colleagues, peers or seniors. Their problems are not realized by their family members, their employers or their colleagues who themselves could be engineers. This is true even for those engineers who happen to be modern IT engineers. Engineering in reality is a brain storming work and as human beings are, no one really wants to live with fuming brains always. Thus in real engineering field, a number of engineers learn the tricks of cheating their hardworking colleagues to gain easy benefits. Many times, especially in India, deserving engineers get neglected when clever colleagues snatch their opportunities. In such a situation, most often it so happens that the clever ones get elevated to top positions of technocracy. This complicates the matter further for real working engineers because now it would be their bosses who would do the actions of killing the real engineering and technology work environment. Real brainy engineers would be totally deprived of their opportunities to excel in their fields doing good for the country and the society. The easy goers would be happier and benefited if their organization get an equipment, project or technology from external sources rather than getting it done using their own talents ! Many organizations in India with major stakes in engineering and technology have failed miserably to accomplish their goals or sustain their goals only due to this kind of a situation. Indian engineers due to various reasons become so selfish that they fail to do mentoring their subordinates so that the latter can give their best in their career.

Another aspect which I have noticed is important to be understood in this context. The engineering curricula, as I said earlier, is too theoretical oriented that the young graduates do not get much opportunity to learn professional ethics and other soft skills that are essential in life. At the same time, when many of them proceed to do their management studies, they forget their engineering for all practical purposes. Unfortunately, post graduation and doctorate courses in engineering are more theoretical and are prepared by those who have learnt it in the same manner before. These courses only prepare an engineering graduate to be a teacher of some theoretical aspects  of applied physical sciences and they would no longer be in a position to distinguish between science and engineering. Unlike in other professional courses, engineering has degraded itself to be worth of considering as a professional course. Thanks to the way it proceeded in India in the last few decades.

The degradation is too visible when you notice the eagerness of some technocrats who proudly declare them as management experts and not as engineering experts. They consider engineering as an inferior job. This is a peculiar situation in India. No engineer in high positions in developed nations would ever prefer to say like this. In fact this particular situation has created a situation in India that many engineering organizations are now headed by non-engineers.

If any one has failed the engineering profession, no one else should be blamed. It is the so-called engineers themselves who created such a situation in this country. By creating that kind of a  situation they have knowingly or unknowingly made engineering a free-for-all profession with no value. That is perhaps the reason why the top brain engineers from the IITs and other such institutes are trying their level best to use their education to leave this country seeking better pastures elsewhere where they can use their talents and creativity in a better way !

India needs engineers who can work for India with honor and dignity. India needs to provide its engineers the opportunity to try out their skills without the hassles of constraints and pressure of opportunists. When that is possible, perhaps we could think of keeping pace with our neighbors like China.

At least we would be doing some justice to the million of youngsters who are hopefully spending their moneys and brains to acquire the basic skills in engineering. If we fail to do that, then it would soon be the engineering bubble that is going to burst in India !



[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link that gives the   list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

The answer to the first question is, yes. Answer to the second question is, no ! It is not difficult to come to that conclusion even when you are a believer of the Bible. 

Adams and Eves are a slightly different species of intelligent living beings similar to men and women of earth. Now, let us examine some of the basic similarities and differences.

1. The common name of Adams and Eves as a species is Adams while that for men and women of earth is Humans. Both have similar body features with  material bodies and reproduce sexually. Adams are original inhabitants of distant non-evolutionary spheres or planets (non-evolutionary here  means that they are specially planned and created by agencies of God) while humans are inhabitants of evolutionary planets such as earth (evolutionary here means the processes of creation of God where most of the developmental processes take place in a natural way most of the time obeying certain universal rules while critical changes are planned and effected only intermittently at long intervals of time). Thus Adams are non-evolutionary created beings of God while humans are evolutionary created beings of God both having material bodies and similar appearances. 

2. Normally, Adams have no death while they live in their native planets and hence they are non-mortals while humans live for some time in their material bodies in their evolutionary planets like earth and their material bodies die and decay after some years of time. So humans are mortals. But humans are provided with a unique God given power within their minds including free will decision making powers that many of them are capable of surviving death and continue to progress enjoying endless lives while keeping their personality essence intact, provided they fulfill certain essential conditions of using their free will wisely while living as mortals. Such humans who continue to live even after death would get suitable bodies and forms that make their continued living possible. During this period, they get opportunities to know about other living beings of various kinds (both material and non material kinds) that exist in other evolutionary and non evolutionary worlds of  the vast universes and would also get opportunities to live in the worlds of the Adams during the initial stages of their post mortal lives. During their post mortal lives, some of the progressing humans may also get various kind of responsibilities and training as part of the universal administrative system of God and would finally acquire such qualities to be in the presence of God. 

3. Both Adams and humans are intelligent beings with superior mind capacities to know about the existence of their creator God. This unique capacity makes them different from animals and plants which also have lives but no minds to know about God. So, animals and plants have only one existence in their native worlds and they neither possess the capacity to survive material death nor they possess the unique quality of individualized personality with survival values beyond death. But remember, the material bodies of animals and plants undergo the process of recycling. That means, the matter in them might again find a place in the bodies of their subsequent generations. But their memory and intellectual capacities constituting personality features are lost when they die.

4. Originally Adams are superior to humans in mind capacities and certain physical capacities. However, post mortal humans might progress to higher levels of mind capacities as they continue to live.

5. Adams and Eves are capable of procreation with men and women: Progeny of a male adam and a female human would acquire some of the better biological features while the progeny of a male human and an eve may not always produce such racial improvements in humans and hence the latter process would encounter various problems and difficulties due to in built genetic design characteristics. 

6. Evolutionary human beings have certain coloring substances within their skin cells that respond to the the main colors of the visible spectrum of light. Thus during the process of evolution, human beings differentiate naturally to become six different colored races such as Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Indigo with varying physical and mind capacities. Red, Yellow and Blue races are superior with Blue race having the highest intellectual qualities and the Red race the lowest. Orange, Green and Indigo races are inferior with Indigo race having the highest physical abilities. On the other hand the skin color of Adams is Violet. On earth the first six races existed and intermingled before the first Adam and Eve couple were brought to earth some 38000 years ago. The present human races that exist on earth are a mixture of all these colored races. Humans with genetic features originating from adams are the least in the human population on earth as of now. These racial mix up can be observed in the blood groups of the present day humans. Those with negative blood groups are perhaps the ones who got some genetic inputs from the adamic genes while the positive blood group factor in humans originating from the ancestral animal genes during their evolutionary progress. [ You may read this blog: Negative Blood Group and the Adamic Connection !  to have some more information on this. ] 

8. The only additional quality that humans could have obtained from the infusion of adamic genes in them is a biologic uplift  that would enable humans to get certain higher capacities of learning mostly concerned with higher principles of philosophy and spiritual knowledge if they ever are inclined to learn such things. In other words, a higher percentage of adamic blood in the human race would have enabled human race to learn the benefits of discarding violence, enmity, brutality, hatred, selfishness and other such animal or evil nature and the benefits of adopting love, mercy, goodness and similar other godly attitudes.

Bringing an Adamic couple to earth was in accordance with a universal development plan of God. The purpose was to bring about some genetic improvements in the bodies of the naturally evolving tribal peoples of earth who had attained highest levels of material development possible by the controlled natural evolution. This would have been possible when the descendants of the original adamic couple increased in number to about one million on earth in later years and a desired intermarriage between the adamic progeny and the tribal people took place in large numbers.

Had this happened in that manner, the later generations of human beings on earth would have been increasing  in population with the adamic genes to such an extent that at some time all people of earth would have been with the adamic genes. This would have created a situation where all people on earth having both efficient physical capacities ( gained from their natural evolution) and efficient mental capacities (gained from the adamic genes). The modern human population on earth, while having the abilities to overcome the hardships of nature would also have the capacities to understand higher spiritual meanings of life and to make their planet a better place to live, by their own efforts and actions. The majority of them would have been in a position to understand and appreciate the plans of God in a better manner. They would have been in a position to live in a material world with a love and appreciation of the spiritual worlds.

But unfortunately, that did not happen on earth in that manner, because of an error committed by the adamic couple who had come to earth for achieving the biologic upliftment of the evolutionary people of earth.

This error later became known on earth as the 'original sin' in the later day stories and religious books of the earth's people. Had this sin not taken place, perhaps earth would have been a better place to live. The earth humans would not have fought among themselves for petty issues arising out of greed, ego, selfishness, ignorance, envy, anger, atheism, theism, in-compassion, laziness, antagonism, and the like.

What was this error ? The original adamic couple who were sent to earth with a mission, instead of waiting patiently for their progeny to grow in number as advised by their superior godly personalities in accordance with the universal laws of God, acted in an undignified manner. Original Eve did an adulterous act. She conceived a child from a tribal earthly man and gave birth to Cain, her first born son from an earthly association. Knowing about this, the original Adam in a kind of retaliatory act, proceeded to take a tribal woman as his second wife who bore him a girl child. From this originated the story of Eve eating the forbidden fruit (apple) first and Adam eating it later. Their acts of first sin !

In getting Eve in to this adulterous liaison with the tribal man, another tribal man played the role of a friendly facilitator. He played the role of a cunning serpent and came to be known as the serpent of the garden of Eden in the later folklore. In all these acts, some super human personalities invisible to human eyes, too played certain facilitating roles. They, though mighty godly beings who were part of the invisible universal administration of God earlier, had erred to foil the universal plans of God in a bid to isolate earth from the the same universal administration of God. And that is yet another story.

The earthly tribal people had been considering Adam and Eve as respectful godly beings superior to them before this incidents happened. But when Eve and Adam acted in this manner, the respect of the tribal people turned to hatred and enmity. Remember, this can happen even today. Certain acts of superior people can hurt the feelings of inferior peoples seriously to the extent that the inferior groups can move in a frenzy to kill the superior ones. In fact, this was the reason for the Godly restrictions for Adam and Eve to show restraints and patience for implementing their mission.

Thus a general kind of enmity and suspicion developed between the existing tribal peoples and the progeny of Adam and Eve in the later years. The intermixing of these races of peoples did not happen the way it should have been.

Our present day scientists and biologists are wondering why the human population have this characteristic difference in their bloods with regard to the Rh factor. Almost 95 % of the human population have the rhesus monkey blood factor (Rh +ve factor) in their blood while the minority fraction has this factor absent in their bloods (the Rh -ve people) Recent genetic mapping studies have proved that the Rh negative factor got in to humans some 35000 years ago. You can see and read reports of this by doing an internet search. Thus, the story I have narrated above should be correct even with the presently available scientific evidences.

If you are a bit logical with a superior mind capacity, it is not difficult for you to understand that the stories of the religious books are not  false, after all. But they are written from hearsay folklore that existed thousands of years ago, by people having some superior abilities than their contemporaries. These have gone through many re-writings and re-telling by many over the next few millenniums and many centuries. They constitute our traditional knowledge and our evolutionary knowledge and beliefs.

Since the majority of us do not have gained from the superior genetic factors of the adamic blood, it may pose difficulties for most of us to comprehend certain advanced knowledge that apparently appear as contradictory to our belief systems. That is why our scientists find it difficult to assimilate the spiritual knowledge of our religions and vice versa. That is why we find the general antagonism every where in our present day living that cause much difficulties and hardships to each and every one of us. In reality, our problems are our own creation, either knowingly or unknowingly. If unknowingly, our genetic shortcomings are to be blamed to some extent.

But our world is on a progressive path. The error of the original Adam and Eve had caused a slowdown of our development pace. But yet we are progressing. Had the fault did not take place, our progress would have been the way God had planned for us. The 21st century humans would have been much different than what they are at present. And that difference would have been mainly in our attitudes and outlooks and not in our material progress.

Just imagine what could have been this earth with we possessing all the scientific knowledge and technological abilities while we equally possessed the qualities of love, compassion, love and reverence to God, passion for service, humility, selflessness and such other positive qualities a bit better than we presently have ?

That does not mean that the evolutionary peoples are incapable of acquiring such qualities without the said biologic uplift. It might  still be possible if we willfully decide to go in the right path. Had we been biologically upgraded with the adamic genes, perhaps we could have attained a higher civilization on earth much earlier ! A civilization advanced both in material and spiritual prosperity !

In this context, you may also like to read this blog which I wrote some time ago:

Adam and Eve : Did God Create them for Making Us Sinners for Ever ?