It is official: India's capital is a filthy place and the only good thing about the air pollution in New Delhi is that everyone from the President to the city's poorest, breathe in the same filth: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/blog/eyeonasia/archives/2009/03/worlds_worst_ai.html?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_global+business Interesting, too, that this distinction does not find mention in the Indian media in the run up to an election. Could the Indian media, horror of horrors, be biased as has been alleged in several places, India included? Are Indians getting their news from two bit propagandists and sundry jingoists who cannot bring themselves to address the country's worst flaws? Aren't these hacks also apologists for the crooked politicians and bureaucrats in India because they do not hold them to account for their misgovernance?
The answers, if anyone wishes for a honest response, are in the affirmative to all of the questions above. The facts are also clear as has been posted on this blog in the past. Thousands of crores of aid money, much of which could be used to make life better, is not being used at all in India. The enormous potential of the sunlight and the winds that the country receives is being ignored by a government of ignorant buffoons who prefer to invest public funds in buying filthy coal mines in other countries, in doing deals with petty dictatorships like Omar Bashir's Sudan in getting oil concessions and which use two bit clowns like the so-called energy "expert" N N Sachitanand to knock down the potential in fast developing renewable energy technologies using ignorance and not knowledge as arguments.
While I am not going to be able to vote this May as there is no way that I can make it to India come election-time, I shall watch the campaign carefully to find out if there are any politicians who promise simple but concrete solutions to make the air and water cleaner. And, as this blog is determined to do, to show fossil fuels the fist, they will be featured here.
Showing posts with label N N Sachitanand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label N N Sachitanand. Show all posts
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Saturday, July 26, 2008
With Clowns Like This, is it a Wonder that Renewable Energy is Going Nowhere in India?
A senior environmental journalist in India alerted me to this article: http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1179584&pageid=0
The writer, N N Sachitanand, is supposed to be a "commentator on public affairs." With such expertise as Sachitanand professes especially as far as solar energy is concerned, I am not at all surprised that renewable energy is going nowhere.
I find it interesting that this expert is unaware of any means of harnessing solar power other than by using photovoltaics. He has no idea, from the very limited scope of his article and the nonsensical conclusions that it draws on solar power, that there is such a thing as Solar Thermal Energy and that there are large plants being set up in Nevada, Arizona, California and even in Saudi Arabia of all places. The man also cannot seem to understand that if solar powered rice cookers were used in even 20% of homes in India to cook rice for lunch every day, that would amount to huge savings in liquified propane. Solar water heaters would save electricity in homes by decent amounts as well. But then, anyone can be an "expert" these days, it seems, and journalists cannot be bothered to check up on someone's antecedents in their enthusiasm to publish something that sounds profound even if the writer has actually strung words together in the hope that they would eventually make sense.
I cannot be bothered with sending DNA India a comment - their crappy website refreshed itself thrice while I was trying to type a detailed comment in, and they most certainly have a word limit that restricts comments to praise of writers whom they commission to write these expert pieces. At the same time, pieces like this one bring to light the fact why a country that is fortunate enough to be bathed in sunlight most of the year, still cannot find a sensible way to harness the natural gift of energy that it enjoys. In a land of uneducated politicians and sundry buffoons, any so-called "expert commentator" can sound intelligent. In the end, the whole nation suffers. Tragic, at the very least, if you ask me. In fact, it is much worse than that.
The writer, N N Sachitanand, is supposed to be a "commentator on public affairs." With such expertise as Sachitanand professes especially as far as solar energy is concerned, I am not at all surprised that renewable energy is going nowhere.
I find it interesting that this expert is unaware of any means of harnessing solar power other than by using photovoltaics. He has no idea, from the very limited scope of his article and the nonsensical conclusions that it draws on solar power, that there is such a thing as Solar Thermal Energy and that there are large plants being set up in Nevada, Arizona, California and even in Saudi Arabia of all places. The man also cannot seem to understand that if solar powered rice cookers were used in even 20% of homes in India to cook rice for lunch every day, that would amount to huge savings in liquified propane. Solar water heaters would save electricity in homes by decent amounts as well. But then, anyone can be an "expert" these days, it seems, and journalists cannot be bothered to check up on someone's antecedents in their enthusiasm to publish something that sounds profound even if the writer has actually strung words together in the hope that they would eventually make sense.
I cannot be bothered with sending DNA India a comment - their crappy website refreshed itself thrice while I was trying to type a detailed comment in, and they most certainly have a word limit that restricts comments to praise of writers whom they commission to write these expert pieces. At the same time, pieces like this one bring to light the fact why a country that is fortunate enough to be bathed in sunlight most of the year, still cannot find a sensible way to harness the natural gift of energy that it enjoys. In a land of uneducated politicians and sundry buffoons, any so-called "expert commentator" can sound intelligent. In the end, the whole nation suffers. Tragic, at the very least, if you ask me. In fact, it is much worse than that.
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