My heart bled for me to see the serial terror strikes in Mumbai last evening on live streaming Indian TV channels online, unfolding in the commercial central of the maximum city like the diamond hub Zaveri Bazar and Lamington Road. Precious lives and livelihoods were taken away for a proxy war that Mumbai is not responsible for. Every time something happens to Mumbai like the train bombings or the Ghatkoper bus blasts, people proudly talk about the resilience of Mumbaikars to bounce back the next day, as if something has not occurred at all unfortunately. In a city that never sleeps, time is precious- no one has time even for family, leave alone bystanders. In a metropolitan hub that Mumbai, we provide (I am a Mumbaikar as well) the bulk of the central and state revenues which the other regions feed on and yet Mumbai does not get any thing; no superior healthcare, transportation or the basic security. The 26/11 attacks seem to have taught us nothing at all. The perpetrators of the attack dared the country once again. We still shamelessly talk about the Mumbai Spirit as like the ANZAC Spirit, getting molested and staying mum about it demonstrates our incompetence to protect our selves and not our Gandhian virtues.

Afzal Guru and Kasab are still enjoying the ‘Incredible India’ Atithi Devo Bhavah hospitality on taxpayer cash. The lack of strong political will and vote bank electoral politics gives us a soft image, that India cannot even persecute its traitors and terrorists.  Israel is condemned everytime, and for reasons well known; but it is a powerful tiny state who defeated many neighbors who were mightier than its size in 1967 and 1973. India is a sleeping elephant, which needs to given a jolt out of its slumber. China is encircling India with its string of pearls strategy and Pakistan is well known for its slow burn warfare tactics. Politicos now have an opportunity to turn away from the anti graft sentiment to national security rhetoric, ideal window to change public discourse very conveniently. Terrorism has destabilized the entire sub continent for a two decades and will continue to do so until, we do not take national security seriously. Over the long the term, our politics need to change and we have to elect people who can deliver in terms of ministerial leadership; strong leadership gives a strong message. Let us move beyond wishes and crocodile tears towards doing something concrete, albeit i have a strong gut feel that I will be repeating this same sentiment a few months from now.

Politics and Governance needs a major rebooting of the software which runs our everyday lives (I talk about this aspect quite often as we live in less resilient world than the previous generation and good leadership is the need of the hour ). Corruption is a malignant cancer all through out the developing world, cripples development, drive people in to desperation and catalyzes civil strife. The problem is not with democracy, the problem is with the electorate. It is very simple; no pain, no gain. The middle class is perched in the bliss of everyday life enough to be distracted by the rot at the top of the pyramid. The poor are simply too helpless  to act, sadly. The middle class will only wake up politically when the bare essentials will be taken away from them and when they will not be able to send their children to school or bring dal and roti to the table.

The political elite are all a cartel, an attempt par excellence in self preservation. Food Insecurity, Terrorism, Job Creation and Climate Change are all mega trends that needs a new dynamic of governance; an engaged participatory networked meritocracy where popular buy-in is present. This point has been emphasized by the rising profile of ministerial portfolios in India such as Rural Development and Environment rather than the traditional power posts in Finance and Defense.

Lets start thinking about the change, today.

(This is an Idea Post)

We wake up everyday in the morning with hopes, apprehensions and a sense that life maintains itself through a pattern of days and the work associated with it. As an almost twenty five year old grad student, with a passion to make a tangible difference in the community and society I live in, albeit in a tiny portion, finding my footing is a challenging emotional and personal journey. Life is a good slave but a bad master. There is no default button on the dashboard of our lives. We are a product of serendipity, luck and efforts which we make everyday. Given that I have read three different academic domains at the tertiary level, because of the sheer fact that I have diverse interests and my parents wanted to have a humanities oriented engineer at home, who is rather comfortable in writing and doing research rather than doing engineering process design courses at the graduate level (I am a masters degree holder in engg, i do not know how but that’s the fate I have !)

Finding a niche is indeed a work in progress, as I believe that a person has to create himself an indispensable skill-set for the hire and fire job space, where life long employment is a struggle to manage. We are truly in a generation where an evolutionary social Darwinian transformation is occurring. Creating a stable niche in all the psychological chaos is indeed a crucible for innovation. We learn a lot more in the time during college through social learning mechanisms than through blackboard and the whiteboard/projected slides in the lecture theater. Student clubs, creating projects, internships, travelling and learning through social media channels are the stuff which molded me. Our peers teach us or break us. To paraphrase, Martin Luther King Junior; its always the small creative minority who are always making the change happen rather than warming the pews in the Cathedral of life, where we have to attend Church because it is a social obligation and not because prayer (analogous to opportunity) is the reason why they are around.

Life is too short to waste, every day is a blessing and obstacles are opportunities in disguise. A perspective shift is indeed a paradigm shift. Find a niche, enjoy the chaos and create value for the brother in need in your housing estate. Every day is new a semester in the institution called life.

Politics at the meta-physical level is a battle of ideas. One perspective to govern is weighed against another perspective. All the Ism’s; Capitalism, Socialism and its various derivatives, such as compassionate capitalism, democratic socialism are just different shades of the same color.At the end of the day, politics is still about movements and mass mobilization. Cadre based parties with ideological polarization still do better at the ballot box than the most well intention ed Civil Society type Non Profits. The Green Party movement internationally grew out of the local community movements into a powerful political force to reckon with. Greens are especially influential in Germany and other EU Nations. The ban on Nuclear Power in Germany by the year 2022, was triggered by a growing green vote in the nation.

The battle for ideas on the streets and subsequently on the ballot box is demonstrated in the political theater in Bangkok with the telegenic Ying Luck Shinawatra, riding on a sympathy wave voted in by rural peasants in Chang Mai and the adjoining areas on the popularity of elder brother Thaksin. It was clearly a battle of ideas at the forefront- An elite and military backed and pro monarchy democrats against a pro poor and populist with a rural mass base. The needs of a middle class against the wants of an agrarian poor. This battle is being illustrated worldwide from Caracas to Tehran. Ahemadinejad wins because the poor vote for him and Hugo Chavez wins too because of populistic measures like low fuel prices and free healthcare and education ala Cuba. Populism wins votes, lets admit it.  Good Economics does not make good politics always, sad but true.

Often, ideology is media powered, they are the flavor of the season like Neo-conservatism during the Bush 43rd presidency or the ‘change’ fever is the Obama flavor in the ice cream parlor of political discourse.  Ideology should be about the set of ideas which bring development, serve the have nots and be pragmatic about what works for the time frame and what is a relic. Ideology which translates into development with a popular buy-in sustains itself. Ideas that work count, communism is good for a politics class read….

As cable TV and Internet connectivity penetrate the most obscure hamlets in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia, the information divide is being bridged regarding have and have nots. Although electricity coverage and decent secondary education access are very much substantial issues to be dealt with, the spoken word  reaches the poor, via vernacular new channels in India even if they cannot read the written language. This access to news of the world is trans-formative. The discourse is electoral politics in India has shifted from caste and religious matters to basic utilities such as Electricity, Water and Road Access. The rich cannot survive in an island of peace around an ocean of poverty. Philanthropy makes strategic business sense. Tomorrow’s middle class is also also tomorrow’s consumer base for the corporation. Keeping the poor, poor is not good business sense.

The philanthropic endeavors of Azim Premji to start a development and education training oriented university has the potential to professionalize the non profit sector and primary education. The TATA Group were the original philanthropists who built hospitals and townships, the business of rendering social services should not be limited to the government, business is an important component of the machinery of society.  Philanthropy is good vehicle for helping out our Brothers in need in our community. Community building which the hallmark of Gawad Kalinga in the Philippines is based on the sweat equity model where companies and individuals contribute in Nation Building. A fairer society makes for a productive society. Poverty and inequity is at the heart of the Arab spring, not religion. Development is growth, and growth oriented politics means healthy democracies.

Poverty is capability deprivation of the highest magnitude. Poverty contributes to vulnerability; it is the sense of defenselessness, and inability to make the optimum choices in the presence of a stressor like a flood or drought or a earthquake. The poor do not have any power to mobilize the right capitals; economic, cultural and political and capitalize on their social capitals to extricate themselves out of the current mess. Most of the resource poor in the developing world are dependent upon the environmental commons  for their livelihoods; subsistence agriculture  and fishing. In the light of urbanization and globalization, there is displacement from rural to urban space due to work pressures and the loss of incomes from farm based occupations. Sustainable Development is a policy nightmare, balancing fiscal and environmental stressor on a level playing platform is not possible. Poverty drives people to cut tress for logging companies and for mono-culture palm oil plantations in Kalimantan and the Amazonian regions. They are the lungs of the earth and the ideal climate change buffers. Local economic factors jeopardize global climate dynamics.

Norway is linking development aid to Indonesia to forest conservation, in its ‘forest pact’. Global Philanthropic foundations are increasing climate change adaptation funds for local communities. Human migration on a large scale will happen if we do not create buffers and adequate income generating resources at the local and regional levels. Microfinance is a major tool which can provide capital to start sustainable businesses around eco-tourism ventures in Vietnam and Indonesia. Poverty alleviation, local economic development with developmental aid and micro finance is fundamental for sustainability…

Climate Change is the flavor of the season for quite some time, as visualized from Cancun, Copenhagen talks and all the global politics churning up new power equations with China and India collaborating to stifle a deal at Copenhagen and hence the Cancun talks were low on expectation and hype, where actual deal making and wheeling materialized.It is indeed a political issue. Climate Change is a master variable such as hydrogen ions in aquatic chemistry. People depend on nature for their everyday needs; food, raw materials and other essential life substrates. These are not generated in a lab, nature is the ultimate lab of GOD’s creation. Technological fixes to policy problems is partial in character. End of pipe technologies like carbon sequestration or basic electrostatic precipatators are a stop gap solution. Fuel substitution is ideal not financially feasible as the modern industrial economy is pegged to the Oil futures index and indirectly tied to gold prices. It is an inextricably weaved mess, with politics driving it and thwarting renewable energies which provide energy security to communities off the national grid. Nuclear Capitalism fuels subsidy driven cathedrals of cash known as nuclear energy reactors.

Environmental issues have reached the top table of corporate hegemony. Environmental awareness among consumers are rising, corporate social responsibility is the new buzzword with ISO 26000 certification. Greening of a supply chain is on the major agenda of of the Walmart’s of the world. Carbon footing is an indicator in a sustainability report which is prepared as an annual ritual.  This is mere green washing, it is time that we get real about climate change as top down approaches facilitate and catalyze, but ground up strategies build resilience and adaptive capacities in communities at risk from climate change led event disruption.

Climate Change disrupts weather patterns, hence agrarian cycles get ruptured; food production and security gets effected for the millions who depend on grazing, fishing and subsistence agriculture for their livelihood. Biofuels from food based substrates like corn raised food prices in developing countries which lead to rioting couple of years back. Energy, Environment and Society are intertwined in a complex network of webs.  In the light of climate change, water cycles have amended its course; which have lead to the increase of water borne diseases. Its a Public Health catastrophic trigger. Hydro cycles impact energy production via hydro-power plants such as on the Mekong delta dams.

Climate change is a non traditional security stressor, as global human migration in thousands on a low level is happening in Chad and Sudan with the depletion of Lake Chad. At the local level, floods are happening in Singapore with increased frequency. Climate Change is every one’s problem and the NIMBY syndrome won’t work anymore….

Why do civilization oriented systems of governance not work? Faith based value systems work good at the micro scale, governing our existences from a mild variety on a social bonds orientation in secular democracies and western societies to arab monarchies which are based legally on theological grounding. Iran is a perfect case, as it was a middle eastern powerhouse under the Shah, pre 1979 revolution where even the secular middle class supported the Ayatollah in a counter movement to decadence of the secular regime of the Shah. There is a common strand between the two- the pre and post dispensations in Tehran are one party regimes, dictatorial at its least. Ahemadinejad is a bad administrator but a shrewd politician who rallies the masses on anti zionist rhetoric and its famed (infamous) nuclear program. Iran is a resource rent based state, enormous gas and oil reserves which support the infrastructure of  Shia imperialism from Gaza, Beirut to Manama. The Arab monarchies, suffering in the heat of the Arab spring are buffering themselves by the cash ions against acidic reform demonstrators.  Money talks, but for how long is the important question.  These are the most stringent theocracies in the globe, are case studies of the resource curse syndrome as governance is not really their forte.

Israel and Pakistan were the two states formed in the late 1940’s on the basis of religion. Israel is a technological powerhouse and on the other hand Pakistan is on the edge of being declared a failed state. Some ingredients for governance are universal, whether secular or religious; human developmental indicators are the stuff that the G8 are made up off.  Turkey and Malaysia are good examples. Sudan invoked religious & martial law in the 1980’s, instead on developing roads and twenty years later they are splitting into half.   People matter, whether black or white does not make a difference.

June 27, 2011 by Manishankar Prasad

In an age where 1.1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water and sanitation services, water could be a big business opportunity which small countries with a technological edge can capitalize on. One good example is Singapore, which is well positioned to act as a hub for Blue Tech and serve the Bottom of the Pyramid Hybrid Value Chain. With the massive water technology R&D undertaken by the tertiary educational institutions and the commercial ecosystem in Singapore, this ‘Tiny Red Dot’ could be the next Israel as far as Blue Tech is concerned.

Hub for Blue Tech

By the year 2030, half the world will be living in urban spaces, where the mere provision of basic amenities will be a struggle. Mumbai is the financial capital of India, but it has half its populace living in shanty-towns like Dharavi, which is Asia’s biggest slum with a population of 7 million people [1]. Similar stories can be shared all over urban Asia. In Manila alone, 37 percent of its present population of 14 million lives in shanty towns. By 2050, the slum population in Manila is expected to reach nine million.

Water is a systemic public health issue. As it is the substrate for life itself, water can cure but it harms too if it is not potable enough to drink and may be a carrier of infections in our body. Water is also considered from the non-traditional security perspective as well because water is a matter of survival, and a potential trigger for human conflicts. Aden in Yemen will be the first ancient but modern active city to run out of groundwater completely by the year 2017.

Hence there is an eminent urgent need to ensure clean water access, which is a fundamental human right, and not a privilege. Access to clean water has been taken as a given because it is a natural endowment, but as the population crosses seven billion globally combined with the scourge of advancing climate change, clean water is becoming a novelty to get because bringing it to the taps takes resources, infrastructure, capital investment and techno-scientific expertise.

Water governance in Singapore is a globally renowned success story with the ‘Four National Taps’ water strategy. NEWater or reclaimed water has reduced Singapore’s dependence on imported water. The quality of water from the taps is of drinking water grade. This is unthinkable in other parts of Asia where vector borne diseases are common.

Singapore was awarded with the esteemed 2007 Stockholm Industry Water Award for its holistic approach to water resources management which has made water use sustainable for different sectors of society in an urban island environment [2]. Singapore is also most probably the only country in the world which carries out such large-scale urban stormwater harvesting by using 7000 km long drainage system to direct the collected rainwater into 17 water reservoirs. The government has invested more than SGD 5 billion (USD 3.45 billion) to build water-related infrastructure over the past seven years, including four plants that recycle sewage water for homes and industries [3].

Singapore is the world’s largest user of membranes per capita and a pioneer in large-scale water reclamation. Singapore companies such as Hyflux and MattenPlant are exporting Blue Tech – the water technology version of clean technology to markets overseas from Algeria to Australia. Hyflux and Sembcorp is to Singapore what IKEA and SAAB is to Sweden.

Every small industrialized economy such as Finland, Belgium or Luxemburg has a particular strength in manufacturing and innovation. Singapore with its niche talent pool and with its strategic geographical location, is well positioned to become a global hub for Blue Tech serving the thirsty ASEAN region and the extended region comprising of South Asia and the Chinese speaking world.

The Bottom of the Pyramid Hybrid Value Chain

The Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) conceptual construct was pioneered by the Late C.K Prahalad, who had written his iconic book 6 years back, providing insight on how people living on less than two dollars a day are legitimate consumers for multinational companies, and how they can create value and improve livelihoods of consumers. Hindustan Unilever and ITC e-chaupal are all creating value for the consumer and the community they serve.

The Hybrid Value Chain leverages on the strengths of business and social actors. Multinational corporations contribute to the Hybrid Value Chain with their sophisticated supply chain networks, reaching to the smallest hamlet where even the government does not have its reach in the developing world. Coca Cola has market access to the smallest communities in Sub Saharan Africa, as the local Mom n Pop storewill have a bottle of the fizzy beverage. TNT was the first respondent in the aftermath of the Aceh Tsunami and Earthquake. Multinational corporations do not reach the smallest non descript ‘kampungs’ by sending its marketing representatives, they tie up with local traders and community organizations to embed itself in the commercial landscape of the community.

A crucial component of this Hybrid Value Chain is constituted by non profits, philanthropic foundations and social enterprises. Technology as an entity is disconnected to society, without the active intervention of social actors. Bringing a technology from the wet lab to the ground should involve actors such as the anthropologist, engineer, local administrator, donor, and the research staff. Hence, a sociotechnical approach is recommended to address the water problem.

Examples of players in the water Hybrid Value Chain include social enterprises such as: Waterhealth International and Aquaya providing low cost technology to communities at a pilot scale; Grameen Veolia, a social business joint venture between the Grameen Group of Bangladesh and the French environmental services major Veolia having a tie-up to provide clean drinking water at break-even cost in the arsenic ridden country; Sarvajal, a venture of the Indian Piramal Group having a franchise model of building water service businesses in the communities it serves in western India; and the World Toilet Organization, Singapore’s very own homegrown social enterprise collaborating with other institutional players in bringing clean water and sanitation to communities in Cambodia and Thailand.

Singapore can be a hub for Blue Tech and serve the Bottom of the Pyramid Hybrid Value Chain by using its leverage in the global marketplace as a ‘connector’ linking businesses, technology providers, social enterprises, research institutions and financial backers in the water industry. Investments in Singapore’s water industry have already doubled in the last five years up from SGD 660 million in GDP value-add in 2005 [4].

[1] http://www.macalester.edu/courses/geog61/espencer/slums.html

[2] http://www.nrf.gov.sg/nrf/strategic.aspx?id=146

[3] http://www.alternet.org/water/141025/singapore_becomes_a_model_for_water_technology_and_reuse/

[4] http://www.greenbusinesstimes.com/2011/05/27/water-industry-investments-doubled-in-singapore-news/

The author would like to acknowledge Ms Shriyanka Nayak’s contribution regarding data inputs for this article. Ms Shriyanka Nayak is a recent graduate of the Environmental Engineering Program at NUS.