Preventing deaths during the heat wave

Over 1000 Indians seem to have died as a result of the current heat wave

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/heat-wave-death-toll-telangana-andhra-pradesh/1/440597.html

Medical advice includes wearing a hat:

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Heat-exhaustion-and-heatstroke/Pages/Introduction.aspx

My recent reaction was to suggest through these blogs that political parties could distribute inexpensive caps possibly imprinted with their party logos. Of course, cotton caps with visors may be superior, because they shade the face as well. Individuals can also help, carrying two or three caps extra when they go out, to donate them to people who get sun exposure during their work. People who get such sun exposure develop premature cataract as the practice of dark glasses is not common among them.  Caps with visors can reduce that risk as well.

It is tragic to see school children walking to school and back wearing ties; even girls are made to wear uniforms with ties by some schools. This is ridiculous in hot areas. Instead the school uniform should include caps in such areas.

Another cruelty is making doormen and waiters in hotels and restaurants wear heavy tunics in hot weather.  Ties for waiters in crowded restaurants having no air conditioning or poor air conditioning is yet another stupid practice.

Let me attempt a little plagiarism, making a variation in Tagore’s prayer:

Into ever-increasing common sense
Into that heaven of Freedom from ignorance, my Father, let my country awake! 

Why some social networking sites and apps grab your data

Some social networks and apps get their hands on contacts stored on your cell phone  even if you do not wish to hand them over. Many of us put into contacts every person who sent you email or gave us a business card. Ten years later, you have thousands of contacts and you have no time to look through your contacts and delete those that are irrelevant. The grabby social network may invite most of these contacts, if not all, to join you on the network! By getting some poor bloke into the network, they probably increase their presumed market value by a few cents! Don’t be surprised if your dry cleaning shop joins you on a social network soon!

G. Sampath has written a very good article related to this topic "The Hindu": 

THE BIG DATA CONUNDRUM

Missing the big picture on Big Data by G. SAMPATH

I think a lot of what is called big data is mere garbage.

Internet and education in the developing world - hype and reality

I had written an article

http://obvioustruths.blogspot.in/2012/09/the-reality-of-mobile-value-added.html in 2012 on the reality of Internet access over the cellular network in India. Hundreds of readers who have read it might be interested in some updates.  My recent publication on the Internet and education in India offers more recent data and deals with a number of questions.  

In particular, is it true that the mobile Internet is likely to cause a revolution in India in rural education? Do we really have net neutrality? Is Internet access fairly priced, or does it discriminate against novice users, poorer users, students and rural users? Will the smartphone act as a window to the whole of human knowledge and, in the hands of the Indian student dramatically transform him/her into a highly educated person?  Or, will the bulk of Indian students find little of value in it? What is the reality about Web content in Indian languages? How much is there and what is its quality? Have low cost tablets made a significant impact on Indian education?

I have attempted to answer many of these questions. You may wish to read my recent paper (May 2015) which is freely accessible over the Web:

The internet and education in the developing world -
hopes and reality

Srinivasan Ramani

Full text at:  http://www.slejournal.com/content/2/1/8

I welcome comments and suggestions.

Will our cell phones work during a disaster?

Kathmandu Post had carried on Feb 4, 2014 an article named 

Call for sturdy telecom infrastructure
Following the earth quake in Nepal this year, it would be valuable if a study is carried out to find how the cellular telephony infrastructure of Nepal performed during the disaster.

Scientific American noted in January 2013 that India had over 400,000 base stations in its cellular telephony infrastructure. It had an admiring word for these stations coping with a massive power blackout that affected 700 million people in the country in July 2012, because they had diesel backup power.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cellular-towers-moving-to-solar-power/

However, the Scientific American article mentioned above reported that 3.2 billion litres of diesel fuel were consumed by the Indian telecom industry in 2011. We do not know what fraction of this goes into backup power for base stations. The biggest concern is that in the event of a major disaster such as the flooding in Uttarakhand in 2013, towers could run out of diesel fuel and that the area could be left inaccessible by phone for many days.

A Wikipedia article mentions that in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy that hit New York and New Jersey in 2012, up to 25% of mobile phone towers were powerless.

http://solarenergy.net/News/another-way-solar-can-change-the-world-solar-powered-cell-phone-towers/   gives us hope that cell phone towers can be converted to run on solar energy and save us money and reduce pollution. However, this does not seem to be happening too fast in India. See the following report from the Economic Times of September 2013:

Less than 1% of India’s 4.4 lakh telecom towers powered by clean fuel

In view of the importance of cell phone towers, authorities concerned should have an audit carried out regarding India’s disaster-preparedness in this regard.

END