Reducing SPM

One of the best things that is happening in present time is the public focus and tremendous amount of research going on renewable sources of energy. Across the world in US, Germany, China, Japan and India the installation of solar panels is on a rise. Today more than ever the world needs to go back to nature and this is a very important step in that direction .


 Since the Industrial Revolution the burning of fossil fuels has lead to increase in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. CO2 is a greenhouse gas that traps heat and results in global warming. Because of the combustion of fossil fuels the amount of Suspended Particulate Matter in the atmosphere has gone up in cities where population is densely packed and inhalation of this SPM results in diseases of lungs and many others including cancer.

The fall in prices of solar panels and the developments in the field of electric vehicles creates an optimism in our minds that very soon the conventional petrol and diesel car will be replaced by electric cars and this electricity may be obtained from the power of the sun.


Already across the cities of India we have hundreds of thousands of e-rickshaws running . This little vehicles can carry 5 people including the driver, run at moderate speeds. In many cities this is replacing the petrol and diesel rickshaws that were a major cause of pollution. The petrol rickshaw owners mix lot of kerosene with petrol to reduce fuel cost. The ignition of such fuel not only damages the engine but releases poisonous gases into the atmosphere.

 The SPM levels in most large Indian cities are alarming use of electric vehicles will solve the problem. The billions of dollars that are spent importing fossil fuel can be replaced with energy worth billions/trillions of dollars from the sun, from wind and tidal power, from bio-gas obtained from industrial and domestic waste.

NATURE

Have you ever wondered why on earth did some chemicals came together in water and formed units that would replicate itself. Not only it replicated itself but this units evolved in time getting more and more complex with innumerable variations. It reached a point where a particular species ultimately had male and female members and mated for new beings to come into existence. Since there animals were genetically more complex , nature had to divide it into male and female members so that the the defective genes of one animal is condoned by the good genes of the other sex. 

But the question why on earth did this set of chemicals had to come together and form life what was the need? Once the first instance of life was created then why did it started evolving and getting better and better. What is need of this process and what is the ultimate goal of this process?

Another question that comes to mind is that --Is it a case that the chemicals came together by themselves or if there is some other influence at work that engineered this process. If there is indeed such influence what is the cause of the the influence and how did the influencing factors themselves originate?

And finally :- Since there are quadrillions of earth like planets across the universe is it possible that life might have evolved in them. Probably at this point of time the life on some of them maybe more advanced than us in terms of intelligence , technology , scientific and spiritual achievements. 

Importance of Scientific Temperment

Scientific temperament is a must , without scientific temperament humans become prey to superstitions and blind beliefs. We live in a country where fraud babas, fake sadhus and other fake spiritual men or astrologers make tremendous amount of money by fooling people. Sometimes people are anxious to know about their future they go to one of these frauds and these frauds would make some predictions about their future show them some problems and give their solutions and what these solutions are ?They would either ask the person to wear a ring with a precious stone like Gometh,diamond,neela etc or would advise them to do a havan besides a fire or do some sacrifice or do some pooja(worship). For centuries India has been under this poisonous influence of these selfish, dirty men and women who make money from people's fear, blind beliefs and superstitions.

When the first Census of India was done 1900 only about 6% of the population was found to be literate. Now being literate doesn't imply being educated. So one can imagine in those days probably only 1 in 200 was educated most people did not know who their rulers were . Infact in one of his lectures Gandhiji said that when he asked some poor villagers whom did they think was ruling them the villagers replied that it was some god that was ruling over them. Now such a nation where majority of the population is illiterate and doesn't even know what is happening in the country are bound to be enslaved by other countries.

In those days the country was suffering from untouchability and an ugly caste system. There were people who thought themselves to be of some high caste and would avoid touching people of lower caste. The people of lower caste cannot go to schools cannot do higher jobs cannot even drink water from the same well as that of the higher caste. If they did the village kangaroo courts would impose severe punishment on them. This subjugation of a big portion of the population was one of the big reasons for the down fall of the nation.

After independence untouchability and discrimination based on caste, creed and religion was made illegal. It has worked but still today there are people who believe in the ugly caste thing. Even today a good number of people don't want to marry their children to people outside their caste. Although in the cities the condition has changed and caste has become a thing of the past.

Even today you find the educated going to these fake men so that they can make their future better. Temples across the nations run by trusts for making money are raking in the moolah. In recent years lots of fake sadhus are found to be in antisocial activities that include money laundering and rapes. The recent case of Asaram from Gujrat and many others across the nation has somehow made people aware but still millions throng to the fake spiritual men.

It is very important that people start differentiating between fake and real. There are of course genuine people , genuine yogis and sanyasis they would put no superstition into your head . The secret is question everything and find out the truth for yourself. Just because some great man has said something you cannot accept it blindly. Old ideas and thoughts have to be challenged and questioned because with time lot of superstitions might have crept in.

Einstein and Music

Yesterday I was reading a book on Einstein's life by Swami Tathagathanada of Vedanta Society of New York. I was pleasantly surprised to know that the great physicist was also a musician and a very talented one . At the age of 5 music was Einstein's inner necessity. Not only did he play beautiful works of Mozart , Bach and Schubert but also improvised them. 

    Einstein's friend Paul Plaut mentioned in 1928 that  Dr Einstein would often play his violin late in the night improvising melodies while he thought over complicated problems. As he got his answer in the middle of playing , he would shout excitedly "I've got it". It seemed as if somehow the solution of his problem came through music. 

We know very well that Einstein devoted his entire life to Physics but what we don't know is the other thing to which Einstein had devoted his life was music. He never discussed music with others but simply said listen, play , love , revere and keep your mouth shut. 

It also states that Einstein found some harmony between physics and music. Maybe it something that's worth doing some research on if music can indeed make the mind work better. 

India - Education, Economy

When Swami Vivekananda was alive ie in 1901 a population census of India was done by the then colonial government. Back then the Literacy rate among Indians was a meare 5.35% , male literacy was 9.83% and shockingly female literacy was a mere 0.6%. Such a nation was bound to be a slave since without education man is nothing but an animal. 

One more fact is that this figures are for literacy. Now literacy is not education. Education is a relatively long process. Being able to read and write was just the begining. By 1941 the literacy rates had risen to 16.10%. Female literacy in 1941 was 7.3% a growth of 1200% over 1941 and male literacy was 24.9% a growth of 270% over 1901. This probably explains why we got indepence in 1947 more educated people around. 

So in 40 years India's literacy increased by 300% and what happened after that which included 33 years of Indian Independence. In 1981 the percentage of literates had gone up from 16.1% to a mere 36.23%.One more thing that is noticeable is that the growth in literacy of India between 1941 to 1951 was very small from 16.1% to 16.67%. So in 40 years the growth in literacy was a mere 125%. Compare that to South Korea in 1945 its literacy rate was 22% which increased to 87.6% in 1970 and by the 1980s its literacy went up to 93%. This shows that the Indian government made very little effort to increase the spread of education in the first 40 years. This explains why South Korea developed so fast and India lagged behind. 

Since Indian Independence the government consisted of people who were not interested in the well being of the nation. They hardly did anything to stop the rapid population growth. Even today each year we are adding an Australia to our population. While South Korea is actually has a birthrate that would reduce its population. The South Koreans are economically prosperous. They became independent much after India . South Korea was a very poor nation when it became Independent but withing a few decades it grew into a very prosperous nation. 

Some of the biggest companies from the world are from South Korea. Although it did have a quite a rough political history but South Korea went through decades of very rapid economic growth and today its per-capita income is more than $35,000. South Korea has one of the most densely packed population in the world it has a population density of 472 people per square kilometer. 

Same is the story of Israel . Countries like South Korea , Israel became independent much latter but today are way ahead of India in economic and technological achievements. India has lot of catching up to do and for that people have to vote for correct people who work honestly for the people. The sooner people realize this in India the better it is.

Internet and India

India now has approximately 300 million Internet users. More than 65% of the Internet users are from cities which have around 31% of the country's population and around 35% of the Internet users are from the rural side. However 69% of India's population lives in villages so the need of the hour is that the rural Internet penetration must also go up and it will go up.

     One great advantage that India has is that today there are more than 800 million active mobile phone connections. In India one can access the Internet and do some basic browsing at a mere Rs 2 to begin with. The growth in the number of Internet users across the country will boost e-commerce. This is sector that is bound bumper growth in the coming years. By the end of 2015 it is very likely that India's Internet users base will be between 360 -400 million. India has now displaced USA from second spot in terms of number of Internet users.

      As Internet penetration goes up more and more people will have greater access to information can buy and sell stuff online and it will become a great tool for learning as well. Looking into the future one can foresee a time when many of the rural folks of India will actually attend collage from their home by enrolling in one of the free online MOOCS or simply studying online. One can easily watch videos of lectures and also see practical demonstration of various concepts. 

    Its very much possible instead of going to the market farmers of India may directly sell their products to the consumers thus earning more. A higher earning farmer gets into a virtuous cycle of well being. It works this way --- When a farmer earns more he would spend more on education , technology and health of his family. This would result in a more educated , knowledgeable and healthy farmer who will go on to increase his production per acre thus making more money and the extra money is invested back in agriculture. 

    Most farmers in India are poor at the moment as their incomes go up even they would consume more so the market would expand thus demand of farm products will go up. 

    Access to Internet will make sure that they don't have to travel large distances to get their work done and they will be abreast with the latest happenings across the world. Just like mobile phone has revolutionised the communication system in the nation. Internet is bound to have a deeper impact among the masses.

Innovation and Development

A spark of innovation can destroy systems built over thousands of  years. Innovation can change lives. When man figured out how fire can be used it was a game changer for him. He was now no longer afraid of dark because fire provided him light in the dark. He was healthier since he learnt to cook the food in that fire and eat it. Also frequent heating of the meat helped him to preserve the meat for longer periods of time. Fire became his weapon and his protector since wild animals were afraid of fire. The smoke that he got from partial burning for firewood helped him to keep harmful flies like mosquitoes away. He used fire to make stones hot and give them shape that would make them sharper and hence more lethal. 

     A simple innovation Fire which man started using either by observing nature ie Forest fires that happened when two trees rubbed vigorously across each other and copying the same (as we see it among American Indians and Australian aboriginals) or by chance stumbling on two flint stone pieces rubbing each against the other  generated a spark powerful enough to ignite dry grass or saw dust. 

Thus the first innovation of man FIRE made him the undisputed King of the Jungle a class above other animals. 

So we see that at the very basis of human evolution innovation has played a very important role. Without innovative thinking man won't have come up so far. Human innovation did not stop there but continued and accelerated.

   The next big innovation was wheel. The wheel enabled humans to build carts that made transportation easy and fast. This innovation was so big that even today most of physical inventions made by man is directly or indirectly someway somehow linked to the wheel. The tyres of your cycle, motorcycle, car are wheels . The same principle of wheel is responsible for the working of various machines . The hard disk or the DVD drive of your computer uses the same principle of wheel to rotate. The turbine is a wheel whose rotation generates electricity.  In short the innovation of wheel resulted in tremendous development in the fields of tools and machinery. The wheel played a major role in the material development of man. 

Similar has been the story of many other innovations that happened through the course of human history. Different innovations have had varying degrees of impact. Some changed the world some had very little effect but innovation is essential because humans are always cornered with challenges and humans have to overcome them through innovative thinking. 

Not just challenges but many a times simply following his curiosity man stumbles on various materials studies them their properties and once having grasped this knowledge, man smartly creates products and services that would change they way he lives. 

   It doesn't stop there once a product is first invented it goes through a series of subsequent improvements take for example the hard disk. The first hard disk was of the size of two refrigerators used to consume huge amounts of power and provided a storage of mere 3.75 Mb(megabytes). The cost per megabyte came to around $ 9200. However subsequent improvement in the design of hard drives have made it smaller and smaller. Today you have hard disk that are less than 1 inch in size consume a mere 2 watts of power and a standard 3.5 inch desktop hard disk can store up to 10 Terabytes of data(3 million times more than the first hard disk). The cost per megabyte of storage is little as $ 0.000035 or 3.5 cents per gigabyte. This has been made possible by constant improvements in the design of the hard disk. The basic principle is the same but researchers figured out how to put more data in a square inch of the drive. In the future hard disks will have even higher capacities. 

The development of a nation today depends on scientific and technological work that happens in that country. The modern day examples today are to name a few South Korea, Japan, Israel. Japan and Israel are particularly lacking in terms of natural resources but still they achieved great economic progress thanks to their technological achievements. The are other nations like Saudi Arabia, UAE , Qatar which are rich. But this countries are oil rich and the money make by selling oil is ultimately invested in building infrastructure. The infrastructure is built by companies of countries that are advanced in technology.  Without the technological advancement of western and far eastern countries the Middle East countries would have remained poor since the oil would have been of no use. In fact they couldn't have dug out the oil at all. 

The real wealth of a nation is in the minds of its people. Through good education the young minds need to be nurtured into becoming excellent people and excellent innovators of the future.