NASA GRACE mission and dwindling global freshwater reserves .

The 2002-2016 NASA and German Aerospace Center joint collaboration project, GRACE Mission (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) has found 34 regions around the world where an approximate amount of 32 billion tonnes of fresh water has moved out from the dry middle latitudes showing multiple areas of growing dryness while higher latitudes and tropical belt regions see an increase in fresh water reserves.

Copyright Bill Rankin

This shift as observed by the GRACE mission is not due to climate changes but human induced actions like massive blocking and redirecting of rivers and other actions (for eg. unplanned ground water exploitation).

Northern India and Northern China has seen massive drying of water storage systems over the past fifteen years of the study.. 

Copyright Bill Rankin

Has global population been playing an interesting role in this depletion ? The two pics show the distribution of population across the world, latitude wise and longitude wise (the world map is in the background).

About 88% of global population live in the northern hemisphere, with about half north of 27 deg N latitude and the other half south of this latitude. Similarly we find, more than 50% of the global population live between 60deg E and 120deg E longitude.

The fresh water availability problem will exacerbate especially in the Northern hemisphere and between 60 and 120deg E longitude, when global population from the present 7.6 billion grows to 8.6 billion by 2030, 9.8 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100 at approx. 83 million every year or 2,27,400 every day !!  (UN 2018 data, medium projections). 

Click here for the link .. 

Hope we are able to come up with a solution

George ..

Greatness of Indian civilization that has withstood the test of time ..

Civilizations and cultures have come and gone, disappeared, leaving very little for us to learn from them. Be it the Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Mesopotamian, none of them could live upto the values they propounded. All of them simply srumbled.. But only the great Indian civilization of millenia has been able to retain it's essence and meaning over thousands of years. What is the underlying flow of values that have guided Indian civilization and culture over the past eight to ten millenia ?

As Swami Vivekananda exhorts us, Indian culture is a living demonstration of the acceptance of and respect to other beliefs and traditions, and as Mahatma Gandhi says  of secularism, it is sarvadharma samabhavana .. 

To understand the real purpose of our life on planet Earth, as former US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy exhorts his countrymen, let us also ask the same question to ourself, let us not ask what our country can do to us, but what we can do to our country ? Our former President Dr Abdul Kalam asks us to identify and understand the purpose of our life on this planet !! 

How can we care for our brethren and our fellow brethren on planet earth and how can we help make it a more safer, healthier, peaceful and loving place to live ?

George .. 

RIP Prof. ECG Sudarshan .

86 year old Padma Vibhushan Dr. ECG Sudarshan is no more.

After PhD from Rochester, Dr ECGS taught for 2 years at Harvard Uty, Uty of Texas, IISc and TIFR. His greatest contribution was the discovery of Tachyon particles which travelled faster than light and challenged Einstein ..

Prof. Sudarshan was  recommended for Nobel Prize record nine times, but was unlucky ..

As a mark of respect for this great Padma vibhushan physicist from India, the students in Alliance University, Bangalore stood for a minute in silence on 14 May 2018...

He hails from Pallom, Kerala. The generally high levels of intelligence observed in Kerala  reiterates the Jewish claim of the lost two Jewish clans to have migrated to South India and established their roots in Kerala among the Syrian Christians.

Rest in Peace Sir !!

George..

Believing in ourselves !! DACOIT !!

Raghav Bahl expresses some doubts about our ecommerce firms have been DACOITised .. Click here for the video ..

It is not intended to be any political but is a good clip which explains how archaic (?) Indian business rules are. Let me explain why we need not be worried .. 

The doubts expressed by our media are unfounded .. They are asking ..

Why Indian companies cannot  become behemoths like Amazon or Google ? 

How does Zuckerberg and Jack Ma control Facebook and Alibaba respectively with very little holdings in these companies ?. Jack Ma only has 8% of Alibaba!

Good questions. A bit of scepticism and apprehension is fine. Patriotism and nationalism are good to an extent, but should we be looking more at global markets than inwards .. ? For one Flipkart we have more Indian entrepreneurs waiting to bloom ..

In my humble opinion, do Indian entrepreneurs really need government support and favourable rules and regulations ? They have reached this level despite governmental support and backing. 

The buyout of Flipkart (the biggest buyout of an ecommerce firm in history) is just a shakeup in the global e-commerce system. 

I am extremely positive and highly optimistic that Indians are capable of much more and they don't need the crutches Chinese and American govts provide through favourable legislation to their businesses to ensure their existence.

If Jio could topple global telecom market and send global telecom giants scurrying for cover in India and are worried of Jio entering global telecom markets, it is clear evidence that Indian talent and skills are above world-class .. 👍

Managing Intellectual Property (IP)

What is IP ?

Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce. - www.wipo.int

It is said

Click here for an excellent video ..

Click here for my presentation ..

Shall be populating this site soon with more data ..

Here is a very good doc on the economic value of IP ..

George..

Teachers - the backbone of any progressive society ..

This is an interesting episode : (from a real life incident)

1994 INDIAN President Shri Shankar Dayal Sharma visited Muscat on official trip - when AI flight landed  3 rare incidents happened  

1. Oman King never visits airport to receive dignitaries of any country - never . But the Oman king came to airport to receive the Indian President.

2. When the flight landed the Oman King climbed up the steps and received the President from his seat.

3 . After alighting the flight there was a car with a Chauffeur standing . But the King signed the driver to move and he himself drove the car with  President  to the hotel suite.

Later when the reporters questioned the King why he broke so many protocols, the King replied " I did not go to the airport to receive Mr. Sharma because he was India's President. I studied in India and learnt so many things, when I was studying in PUNE". 

"Mr. Sharma was my Professor - that is why I did this " !

That is the power of being a teacher !!  (From the Internet..)

🙏🙏

---------

This real life incident is being highlighted to bring to the fore the fact how cultures that have treated teachers with great respect and adoration have generally grown and prospered, than cultures that haven't. In this case, the King of Oman is reminding (referring to the values and knowledge) what he has in life, was acquired in India.

As per Indian culture and belief, the order for reverence in society is like this !

Maatha, pitha, guru, daivam !

India could not have controlled

Let us understand that Hindu culture and beliefs are almost double the age and experience of Christianity or other major religions of the world. Till 1700 AD societal justice, peace, well-being in communities saw India, the mother of all civilizations, controlling 40% of global GDP .. The middle-east, now the hotbed of maximum violence, grief, destruction and devastation, where Judaism, Islam and Christianity originated, barely controlled 2-3% of global GDP then and continues to do so even today.  

Thanks to the British who enslaved and looted India for two hundred years, ensured that we slide down to control just 2% of global GDP by 1947 when using the most potent weapon of non-violence India wrestled itself out of British cruel hands. (Click here for Shashi Tharoor interview "How British colonialism destroyed India" and another excellent one here )

Can such economic prosperity for South Asia (India) come unless the traditions, beliefs and value systems practiced by the people inhabiting the land is impeccable and of such superior mettle ?

As per Indian beliefs and culture, the mother gives birth and brings a child to this earth, takes care till the child is of age, then the father introduces the child to the outside world. Thereafter, in the outside world, the child grows of age and maturity and needs to understand the world around him.

Here comes the guru or teacher who handholds the child to acquire knowledge and wisdom to understand the Universe, its events and happenings. In the process the child tried to understand the unknown force guiding the Universe which we perceive to be God or daivam !

The teacher or guru, thus has a very important role to play in forming the value systems, knowledge and understanding of a fully responsible, intelligent individual in society ..

Perhaps it was this realisation that made the King of Oman, treat his Professor with great respect, much more respectfully than if he were welcoming a simple Head of a Nation !

A teacher plays such an influential role in society in framing the country's future and in the process ensuring a great future for mankind, all living beings and mother nature ! 👍

George .. 

The life of a dynamic Indian manager - Vineet Nayar ..

Born in Pantnagar on the foothills of the Himalayas, now called Uttarakhand, Vineet Nayar is a product of XLRI, Jamshedpur and one of its famous alumni.

He speaks of five stories that shaped his life .. (click here for the link..)

1. Take chances

2. Think different

3. Say it in a way that people never forget

4. Rejection is the best start point of life

5. Press the accelerator, not the brakes

A great HR man, former CEO and VC of HCL Ltd, present Chairman of Sampark Foundation , who has managed to motivate people and organisations by the power of people, XLRI founder Director Fr. McGrath should be proud of this famous alumnus. 

Click here for a great talk where he motivates people to go out and do the best .. 

Do not try to manage people, inspire them to achieve greater goals and objectives. 

Discuss not the problem, but the opportunities ..

His best-selling book "Employees, first, Customer second" is a gem for HR managers around the world.

A people person to the core ..

George..