Uttarakhand Bans Bt Brinjal

Good news is not entirely dead and nor is it totally scarce these days as this very brief announcement in today's The Hindu shows: Link The beautiful and picturesque state of Uttarakhand in India has banned Genetically Modified Brinjals from Monsanto even before the Central Government could take a decision on the issue. With the immense anger over the issue (and I have heard that Minister for the Environment Jairam Ramesh is becoming sympathetic to those who would like to see GMO food kept out of India) a state has taken prompt action and closed the door on a crop of questionable merit.

My congratulations to the good people of Uttarakhand and to the state government and to the many good people who have opposed this crop. I shall look forward to congratulating Mr Jairam Ramesh when he, too, follows Uttarakhand's lead and takes a similar, right decision nationally.

CTBUH 2010 Conference in India

I have had some correspondence with a young Indian engineering student, Avadhut Joshi, on some forums and he has sent me details of a conference on "Remaking Sustainable Cities in the Vertical Age" conducted by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. India is a large country but with an enormous population, it has no choice but to build skywards. People need homes and as the country becomes steadily more affluent,

In recent weeks there has been some very good news coming out of India and I think this is really good stuff. The website does not talk about who the exhibitors will be at the conference, but, whoever exhibits now, there is going to be a buzz about new technology in this field and that can only be a good thing. With interested young people in India looking at these very interesting areas, the future should be good.

My thanks to Avadhut for this information. I have requested him to write a report if he attends the conference. I shall feature it here with credit to him if he does find time to write it.

A Group That Everyone Who Cares About the Environment Should Join

As someone who grew up in Chennai (then known as "Madras," a name that I still prefer) my fondest memories are of the beautiful Marina Beach and of my family's Sunday evening trip there. Over the years, the beach has suffered tremendously. The shells that we would collect as children are no longer to be found because sewage that is let into the sea kills off virtually all of the marine life. And the daily encroachments of "civilization" and its runoffs, continue to inflict harm on one of the most beautiful things about a lovely city.

There is now a great group working to preserve the Marina and Besant Nagar and other beaches, and trying to influence other cities to do the same to beaches that they have messed up as much as Chennai has messed the Marina up. With the controversial name Let's Rob, this group plans to "Reclaim Our Beaches" as a beautiful environment for the Indian people to enjoy again. This is a group of highly dedicated people working hard to do something that will benefit millions. I would request everyone who can to please volunteer or spread the word about them. These are good people. They deserve all the support that they can get and I hope that they succeed beyond their own wildest expectations. For India's sake, they deserve to.

Good News from India - "Solar Valleys"

I often click onto the URLs of Indian newspapers with a sense of trepidation - news of some idiotic coal fired powerplant coming up somewhere or of some similarly wasteful enterprise is what I have come to expect - call that the cynic in me, but when you have been looking at how things move in India for as long as I have, it is difficult not to be skeptical, if not entirely cynical. However, The Hindu has this excellent piece on a new "Solar Valleys" proposal that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hass embarked upon: Link The proposal for a 20,000 MW target for harnessing solar energy by the end of the 13th Five Year Plan is something that India sorely needs to achieve. It is a matter of survival for India as a nation - the country simply cannot afford to buy horrendously expensive oil, gas and coal anymore with the hard-earned money of the Indian people. The costs in terms of environmental pollution, foreign exchange outflows and of money going to countries that have arrogant and condescending attitudes to Indians is something that India needs to halt asap.

I am no fan of Indian politicians or politics but I hope that this plan succeeds way beyond what the Prime Minister desires. There are only positive results to be expected no matter what degree of success is achieved.

India's Solar Energy Push - Wall Street Journal Video

Canada Offers Green tech to India - Will Any Indian Businesses Bite?

I know that the USA has a singularly bad record of doing business with India especially in the field of Green technologies despite the US Exim Bank offering vast amounts of money to Indian businesses that would like to license the immense amount of technology that American companies have developed. Many American companies couldn;t care less what happened in a neighboring county, leave aside what happens outside their state. with that attitude, they are unlikely to bother about India. And it is the same in India despite the US Exim Bank offering loans denominated in rupees in India through several major Indian banks.

Now Canada, the USA's smaller but extremely aggressive neighbor, has stepped in and is trying to offer green tech to India. Ontario Premier, Dalton McGuinty, a man who I personally think is as sleazy as politicians can get, but more of that later, is in India at the moment along with a delegation of Ontario businesses offering the latest in Canadian tech to Indian businesses according to this article in The Hindu: http://www.hindu.com/2009/12/04/stories/2009120456371800.htm

Canada does have some phenomenally good companies offering a wide range of technologies with applications that could make a huge difference if Indian businesses were to adopt them. I love Toronto as a city and am always amazed by the energy that it displays. I do wish that the province of Ontario would dump McGuinty, but then I don't like most politicians and he is not the only one I would like to see dumped by the electorate. As my grandmother, the great Savitaben Kamdar used to remind me when I was a boy, even dead snakes have their uses. I am happy to confer the status of a useful "snake" on Mc Guinty, as he has done something that culd be useful both for Canadian as well as Indian businesses.