Bravo!!

This story is no less than any crime detective novel or movie. If this is true (I think it is), congrats and thanks to the Gujrat police and their political leadership. We Indians never get tired of blaming our politicians for corruption, selfishness, hunger for power and what not. True most of the time. But there are a few who have proved that politicians make the difference. Modi is one of them. I have always believed that a leader should be tough and strong. I am sure unless there is ample pressure from the top, the police and intelligence will not work so fast.

If you also have the same question [How did the Gujarat police manage what the police in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Bengaluru could not do in the last two years?] here are a few excerpts from the above mentioned news story:

Modi has projected himself as a "different" leader because he provided safety to people in a country wracked by terrorism. But 18 blasts in 80 minutes seriously dented his image, and his only redemption lay in going about the investigation with professionalism.

By midnight of July 26 the ruling political leadership sprang into action to make senior policemen understand that their investigations will get 100 per cent support, nothing less nothing more. They had at their disposal money, resources, manpower and even a chartered plane.

"From July 26 (the day of blasts) to August 16 (when the breakthrough was announced) none of us went home to sleep. Every morning at 7 we would all go home and return after a shower and in fresh clothes. We would sleep on our chairs in the daytime. We haven't hit the bed yet," said Deputy Commissioner of Police Abhay Chudasama, who along with his boss Joint Commissioner of Police Ashish Bhatia and Rakesh Asthana, police commissioner of Baroda, played an important role in detecting the conspiracy behind the bomb blasts.

A news-hungry media was all the time "fooled" by leaking irrelevant stories and even sketches of the 'accused' were made only to "feed" the media. It was of no use to the investigators whatsoever. In reality, they were going down a different path.

By August 8-9, Modi knew his state police was just days away from success that has eluded the police in other Indian states wracked by terrorism.

Well, I am impressed by the professionalism (which has become an oxymoron to police) and the understanding of sense urgency. Read the full article if you want more details.

Value of Life in India

The blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad caused about 50 deaths. That's sad, unfortunate and alarming. But what about the "at least 146 deaths" caused by stampede at the Naina devi temple in Himachal Pradesh? If terrorism is a big problem, isn't these kind of carelessness thrice big problem? The amount of money and jewellery offered at these religious places is huge. The Tirupati Balaji temple, Rameshwaram, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Dwarika, Badrinath, Jagannath Puri, Siddhi Vinayak, Akshardham, ....and so many other famous religious places get crores of Rupees daily. Why can't the corresponding trusts make enough arrangements so that such incidents do not happen? Is it such a big problem to avoid a stampede? Having seen many of these temples I think it can be done. If only the trustees of the temples care about human life more than wealth accumulation.

This, added with the ailing bridges over many rivers across the country is killing and will kill many more people than the terrorism is.

Opportunity Knocks Our Door

Since many years I have been a big fan of Swaminomics, the editorial column of Swaminathan Iyer in the Sunday Times of India. If you see the sunday times of last 3-4 years (I do not know before that as I used to read some other newspaper before that) he has regularly talked about the energy security. Here is another article on this issue.

The IT services industry has changed India in a way no one would have imagined. Most of the people of my father's generation never went outside India though they had the higher educational qualifications. And when I see my orkut profile I find my classmates all over the globe. Could a farmer or a clerk imagine that his son/daughter would go to Europe, Japan, USA, Australia.... But that's reality today. And that's just one of the many ways IT industry has impacted us.

But India should not think that IT services would keep pumping in money forever. The way Bajaj used to think in 80s that Chetak would sell forever. Time changes, and it does faster than one relizes. It is time we should come up as superpower in some other area also. Energy services could be one such area. We could not become exporters of IT products but we became dominant exporters of IT services. The same way, we cannot become energy exporters but we can become dominant exporters of energy services. This includes nuclear power plants, equipments, manufacturing, commissioning, maintenance and manpower suppliers. This is going to be a HUGE industry in 10 years time.