Rich because Green, or Green because rich?

One could quibble with BCG's analysis. Phil Rosenzweig of Switzerland's IMD business school has arguid that management writers are prone to "the halo effect": they treat the temporary success of a company as proof that it has discovered some eternal principal of good management. The fact that some successful companies have embraced greenery does not prove that greenery makes a firm successful. Some firms, having prospered, find they can afford to splurge on greenery. Some successful firms pursue greenery for public-relations purpose. And for every sustainable emerging champion, there are surely 100 firms that have prospered by belching fumes into the air or pumping toxins into rivers, as a visit to Chaina or India will show only too vividly.

Nonetheless, the central message of the WEF-BCG study- that some of the best emerging-world companies are combining profits with greenery is thought-provoking. Many critics of environmentalism argue that that it is a rich-word luxury: that the poor need adequate food before they need super-clean air. Some even see greenery as a rich-world conspiracy: the West grew rich by industrializing (and polluting), but now wants to stop the rest ot the world from following suit. The WEF-BCG report demonstrates that such fears are overblown. Emerging-world companies can be just as green  as their Western rivals. Many have found that , when natural resources are scarce and consumers are cash-strapped, greenery can be a lucrative business strategy can be a lucrative business strategy. Indian Corporate houses have dovetailed their core competencies and core potentials in the realm of promoting 'green technology' not merely for ethical reasons but it also makes a lot of business sense. 

GREEN GROWTH ( Emerging Combining "Growth" with "Greenery".)

The enrichment of previously poor countries is the most inspiring development of our time. It is also worrying. The environment is already under strain. What will happen when the global population rises from 7.156 billion today (that just happened according to UNPF) to 9.3 billion in 2050, as demographers expect, and a growing proportion of these people can afford goods that were once reserved for the elite? Can the planet support so much economic activity ?

Many policymakers adopt a topdown and Western-centric approach to such planetary problems. They discuss ambitions regulations in global forums, But since most people live in the emerging world, it makes sense to look at what successful companies there are doing to make growth more sustainable.

 A new study by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) identifies 16 emerging- market firms that they say are turning eco-consciousness into a source of competitive advantage. These highly profitable companies (which the study dubs "the new sustainability champions") are using greenery to reduce costs, motivate workers and forge relationships. Their home-grown ideas will probably be easier for their peers to copy than anything cooked up in the West.

The most sailent quality of these companies is that they turn limitations ( of resource, labour and infrastructure) into opportunities.

Exemplifying this, India's Shree Cement, which has long suffered from water shortages, developed the world's most water- efficient method for making cement, in part by using air-cooling rather than water-cooling.

Manila Water, a utility in the Philippines, reduced the amount of water it was losing, through wastage and illegal tapping, from 63% in 1997 to 12% in 2011 by making water affordable for the poor.

Seeting green goals is a common practice, Sekem, an Egyptian food producer, set itself the task of reclaiming desert land through organic farming. Florida Ice & Farm, a Costa Rican food and drink company, has adopted exacting standards for the amount of water it can consume in producing drinks. THese firms measure themselves by their greenery, too. There are examples galore to authenticate this attitudinal / intentional change that is happening in the business sector. 

There are other logistical issues that needs to be taken into considerations.

In emerging markets it is hard for companies to stick to one specialism, because they have to worry about so many wider problems, from lousy infrastructure to unreliable supplly chains. So the sustainability champions seek to shape the business environment in which they operate. They lobby regulators: Grupo Balbo, a Brazilian organic-sugar producer, is working with the Brazilian government to establish a certification system for organic products. They from partnership with governments and NGOs. Kenya's Equity Bank has formed an alliance with groups such as The International Fund for Agricultural Development to reduce its risks when leading to smallholders to produce sustainable packaging , including a new "green" plastic derived from sugar cane. 

The firms also work hard to reach and educate poor consumers, often sacrificing short-term profits to create future markets. Masisa organises local carpenters into networks and connects them to low- income furniture buyers. Broad Group has measuring air pollution that can fit into mobile phones. 

DEMOCRATIZATION OF INTERNET

To reach another person on the internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. Internet Corporation for Assigned Name and Numbers(ICANN) was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the internet secure, stable and inter-operable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet's unique identifiers. ICANN doesn't the control content on Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn't deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet's naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet.

What is domain name system(DNS)?

    The domain name system, or DNS, is a system designed to make the Internet accessible to human beings. The main way computers that make up the Internet find one another is through a series of numbers, with each number (called an "IP address") correlating to a different device. However it is difficult for the human mind to remember long lists of numbers so the DNS uses letters rather than numbers, and then links a precise series of numbers, with each number (called an "IP address") correlating to a different device. However it is difficult for the human mind to remember long lists of numbers so the DNS uses letters rather than numbers, and then links a precise series of letters with a precise of numbers.

    The end result is that ICANN's website can be found at "icann.org" rather than "192.0.34.163" - which is how computers on the network know it. One advantage to this system - apart from making the network much easier to use for people - is that a particular domain name does not have to be tied to one particular computer because the link between a particular domain and a particular IP address can be changed quickly and easily. This change will then be recognized by the entire Internet within 48 hours thanks to the constantly updating DNS infrastructure. The result is an extremely flexible system. 

     A domain name itself comprises two elements: before and after "the dot". The part to the right of the dot, such as "com", "net", "org" and so on, is known as a "top-level domain" or TLD. One company in each case (called a registry), is in change of all domains ending with that particular TLD and has access to a full list of domains directly under that name, as well as the IP addresses with which those names are associated. The part before the dot is the domain name that you register and which is then used to provide online systems such as websites, email and so on. These domains are solid by a large number of "registrars", free to charge whatever they wish, although in each case they pay a set per-domain fee to the  particular registry under whose name the domain is being registered. ICANN draws up contracts with each registry. It also runs an accreditation system for registrars. It is these contracts that provide a consistent and stable environment for the domain name system, and hence the Internet. 

AFSPA { Armed Force( Special Power) Act.}

The Armed Force (Special Powers) Act. (AFSPA) was passed in september 11,1958, by the Parliament of India. It was first applied to the North Eastern states of Assam and Manipur and was amended in 1972 to extend to all the seven states i.e. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. It was later extended to Jammu and Kashimir as the Armed Forces ( Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 in July 1990.

The AFSPA gives the armed forces wide powers to shoot, arrest and search, all the name of "aiding civil power." An officer is entitled to "fire upon or otherwise use forde, even to the causing of death, against any person who is acting in contravention of any law or order for the time being in force in the disturbed area, prohibiting the assembly of weapons or of things capable of being used as weapons of of fire-arms, ammunition or explosive substances."

Contentions:- 

    The AFSPA becomes controversial law because of its certain provisions over which contentions raise among the civil society. Firstly, it makes no distinction between a peaceful gathering of five or more people and a mob. So, even innocents - who have no role in creating a situation that results in that region being called 'disturbed', also come under the purview of the law and become victim of it. Second, it gives Army officers legal immunity for their actions. Third, declaring an area as a 'disturbed area'. It is entirely on the central and the state governments to decide whether an area should be declared as 'disturbed' or not. 

It violates certain laws under which an individual gets legal immunity like Article 21 - Right to life, Artical 22-Protection against arrest and detention, CrPc, Military's Immunity / Lack of Remedies, The Army Act, States of Emergency. The AFSPA, by its form and in its application, also violates international laws viz. the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (the "UDHR"), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the"ICCPR"), the Convention Against Torture, the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, the UN Body of Principles for Protection of All Persons Under any form of Detention, and the UN Principals on Effective Prevention and Investigation of Exctra- legal and summary executions. 

It must be at a bare minimum complied with international law and Indian law standards. This means the powers to shoot to kill under section 4(a) must be unequivocally revoked. Arrested must be made with warrants. Section 5 should clearly state that persons arrested under the Act are to be handed over to the police within twenty-four hours. Section 6 should be completely repealed so that individuals who suffer abuses at the hands of the security forces may prosecute their abusers. Moreover, the definition of key phrases, especially " disturbed area" must be clarified. The declaration that an area is disturbed should not be left to the subjective opinion of the Central or State Government. It should have an objective standard which is judicially review-able.   All personnel acting in a law enforcement capacity should be trained according to the UN Code of Conduct for law enforcement personnel.

If the Indian Government truly believes that the only way to handle the governance of the disturbed states is through AFSPA then it must bring aforesaid reforms in the Act. So that it could address the human right violation cases effectively. 

Higher Education in India.

After secondary education system in India it is the higher education poses challenge to the creation of skilled mainpower. 

Higher education playes a crucial role in the supply of high level manpower for the socio-poletical and economic developement of a nation. To this end, the effective management of this educational sector becomes necessary. But, the situation in higher education is more problematic for India's participation in the global knowledge economy. The overall quality of the higher education system is well below global standards and it has shown no significant sign of improving. High-tech complain that a large majority of engneering and other and other graduates are inadequately trained and must be " re-educated," at considerable expense, by their employers or not hired at all. The large high-tech firms -such as IBM, Infosys and Wipro- have set up their own in-house academies to prepare employees for productive work.

The highly regrded Indian institutes of technology and a small number of other Indian world-class institution produce only a small number of graduates each year. Many of these graduates leave the country for employment or further education immediately after graduation.

The government's plans for expanding and upgrading higher education are inadequate both in size and scope. They are also impractical. Some of the new IITs, now in the planning stage, are located far from metropolitan areas, and convincing well-qualified faculty to relocate there will be difficult if not impossible.

On the quantitative side too, there are problems. India now educates only 10 per cent of the age group in higher education. Dropout rates among that 10 per cent are high. A growing number now attends often low-quality colleges and other institution that are not founded by government- some of which are little more than teaching shop and degree mills. currently plans to raise the participation rate to 15 per cent by 2015 - still well under what other emerging economies are now educating- seem inadequate to achieve 15 per cent participation.

From previous few years many initiatives have been taken in order to develop the status of higher education in india.

Many new colleges and universities have been opened by Indian education system in all major discipline.     

Global Gaps in Education

UNESCO warns of an impending shortage of millions of teachers across the world.

At least 2 million new teachers will be needed to achieve the second of the eight UN Millennium Development Goals, namely, universal primary education by 2015. The UNESCO Institute for Statistic' forecast is based on the staff required to maintain the present student-teacher ratio keeping in mind the growing number of student.

Another 6.2 million teachers will be needed to replace those who will retire or will give up the profession for other reason. About 1.12 million new vacancies for primary teachers will come up by 2015 in Africa alone, south of the Sahara. Other than Serbia and Palestine, only two non-African countries rank amongst the 23 nations with the greatest increase in demand for teachers.

At the same time, some countries like Nepal, Ecuador and Mongolia have substantially cut down on their teaching staff in places because of a drop in population figures per se or in the number of school-going children - a chance to redistribute budgets and focus on qualitative education instead of on quantitative efforts.

THE CoFfEe RING Investigators

What is so interesting about the dark ring that a drop of coffee leaves behind ?

Wong: Coffee rings reveal the dissolved particles present in a liquid-because these particles gather along the edge of the ring. The  way they do so depends on how quickly the liquid evaporates and water kind of dissolved particles it contains.

What lessons can be learnt for other liquids from coffee rings ?

Yunker: When coffee evaporates, water and dissolved particles flow from the centre to the edge. Since the edge of the drop is 'pinned' to the surface of the table, it cannot hold together at the centre. This increased concentration of particle along the rim of a drop affects many liquids- and represents a big problem when a medium is supposed to spread uniformly, for instance printer ink on paper. But now we have finally figured out how to deal with this effect. 

How did you manage this ?

Yunker: By changing the shape of the particles dissolved in a liquid. In our tests we established that when the particles were spherical in shape, the ring effect was evident. But when the particles were elongated, they deformed the surface of the drop, creating forces of attraction between the particles. This resulted in the formation of blobs that could resist the flow to the edge and, in turn, the particles got deposited evenly.

So what is the next step ?

Wong: we can use this insight , for instance, to develop tiny lab-on-a-chip device to establish the presence of dissolved substances in blood, a good technique that can improve medical care in poor countries.

Any other applications that are conceivable ?

In micro technology, if we manipulate the evaporation of liquids with dissolved metal particles, the rings will form tiny structures along their edges that are very good conductors of electricity.

JEALOUSY- THE BIGGEST FALLACY

Why are people jealous of the another?

    Always to be each other's hurdle.

  Do they really pay,

  Whom they are alacritous to slay.

Neither they heed them nor they feed them,

  But still they are raring to cheat them.

    If you can't plant roots.

 What right you've got to enjoy the fruits?

  Why do you create fear and terror ?

God has given everyone the equal share,

  The difference lies only in your dare.

       If you do germane endeavour,

Automatically, you'll attract 'His' favour.

     In your life; never ever,

Try to sell anybody down the river, 

otherwise, you'll be devoid of your share.

the who create can only, exterminate,

what you do is merely a wild goose chase.

of course, try to be jealous, 

But only to be jealous and not so callous.

  Ergo, kill your ill - will, 

Enjoy and let other revel the life's thrills.