Lead in Food and Water

Risk of lead absorbed from food and water: The recent controversy about lead levels in Maggie Noodles
India seeks damages from Nestle after Maggi noodle lead scare
should trigger a wider debate. It is not just packaged food that may contain lead. 
Lead in drinking water: You and your children can ingest lead from your drinking water. Visit
Lead Contamination of Drinking Water in India due to PVC Pipes 
Lead poisoning does not stop because lead levels are reduced: Lead can accumulate in your body even over a period of months or years. There is nothing called a “safe blood lead level in children”. It does its damage as long as it is there, however low its level might be. Visit the page on lead on the website of the US Govt’s Centers for Disease Control.
Lead poisoning is dangerous:  The US Govt site referred above says “Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to affect IQ, ability to pay attention, and academic achievement. And effects of lead exposure cannot be corrected”. It goes on to say that lead-based paint and lead contaminated dust are dangerous sources of lead for U.S. children. This is despite the fact that lead-based paints were banned for use in houses in the US in 1978.  The science magazine The New Scientist carried an article (in 2013) written by Perry Gottesfeld. The full text of this editorial can be viewed at:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21829190.200-the-wests-toxichypocrisy-over-lead-paint.html#.Ub-ncJWPSS0Gottesfeld cites results from a study sponsored by the Gates Foundation, showing that more than 674,000 deaths around the world each year (2010 rates) are attributable to lead exposure (see http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(12)61766-8/abstract ). This Lancet article also mentions that lead exposure can cause intellectual disability, heart disease and stroke.
Immersing painted idols in lakes and tanks is dangerous: Immersing colourfully painted idols in tanks and lakes causes leaching of lead paint and can contaminate drinking water sources. India does not ban lead in paints; it only has a voluntary standard. It is said that 30% of the paints in the market, essentially from small time manufacturers have excessive lead content.  Visit
http://toxicslink.org/docs/Lead-in-Paint-Report-2015.pdf

Mangoes and Litchis of Office

I don’t have any other comment on the controversy in Patna over mangoes and litchis, at least for the present; but, I think we can usefully add a new phrase to Indian English: “the mangoes and litchis of office”. In course of time, this phrase will undoubtedly get into English dictionaries all over the world.

If you haven’t heard of the controversy, visit

After Battle for Top Post, Its Nitish Kumar vs Jitan Manjhi on Mangoes and Litchis

Hemant Sonawala, Pioneering Entrepreneur in Computing

Hemant Sonawala had returned to India in the early sixties after doing a Master’s in the US. His first job here was that of a CSIR Fellow at the IIT, Bombay. So, it was no wonder that he started hi-tech business activities in India, dealing with Texas Instruments and with the Digital Equipment Corporation. His technical knowledge combined with business acumen took him to pioneering heights of the Indian computer industry. Hundreds of Indian professionals in the field got their experience by working in enterprises started by him, starting with Hinditron. Many of them are now leaders of the profession. Hemant’s contributions to creating the Digital Equipment (India) Ltd. were very important to the growth of the Indian software and services industry. His leadership has been very valuable to the Computer Society of India.

I had the great pleasure of working with him and Dr P P Gupta in planning and running India’s first international conference in the computer field – Networks 80. We recognized that computer networks is a technology with significant socio-economic value and felt that its potential had to be demonstrated – Mr Hemant Sonawala agreed to be Exhibitions Chair. Ambitious plans were made. In one of the brainstorming sessions held in this context, the three of us cooked up a proposal to have a multi-city demo of a futuristic railway passenger ticket reservation system. This was selected as an application which, over the years, could make a contribution to the quality of life of millions of people. Sonawala offered to lend a mini-computer from Digital Equipment Corporation, and the National Centre for Software Development and Computing Techniques (NCSDCT) offered to design and implement the demo. Mr P Sadanandan was then Head of the Database Group at NCSDCT. The team under his leadership took on this responsibility. Sonawala and I went off to meet the Railway Board Chairman to request Railway’s cooperation and participation in the conference. He agreed readily. The Posts and Telegraph Dept. agreed to provide data-connectivity over leased lines between Ahmedabad, Bombay and Delhi. The project went on well and we got more or less ready to demo the three-city system.

But unfortunately, the Railway Board Chairman who had been enthusiastic about the project reached his retirement date, and we got derailed! The new officers we met had their own priority – movement of something like 400 million tons a year of freight. One of them made a memorable comment which illustrated the value people placed on the customers’ convenience as a justification for computerization. “Have you seen a railway seat go empty?” he asked. “If A does not go, some B will go; we have been asked by the Govt to focus on freight capacity utilization”.  The demo was given at the conference anyway, though on a reduced scale. A number of Railway officers took interest in the subject and a paper was presented at the conference by Mr H. S. Srinivas Prasad. Hemant had, as usual, contributed to the important first step of a major project by his teamwork and by encouraging & supporting the other team members.

Dr Gupta’s enduring enthusiasm for this mass application was to make the Reservations System a reality through the energy of his CMC Colleagues a few years later. He made a presentation to the Railway Minister on the concept and CMC won an order to implement a reservation system for the Northern Railway as a first step. The good thing about our democracy is that it is enough if you do some good in one of the four regions. The representatives of the people will ensure that all four corners are soon given the same facilities soon! A CMC team, working out of their R & D Labs in Hyderabad, did an impressive job of designing and implementing the system and had covered all four regions of India within a few years.

The great success of the Railway Passenger Reservation System made everyone understand the benefits of computerization coupled with computer networking. Those who had been skeptical about banking applications changed their minds. You have seen what bank computerization and networking did for India in the decades that followed.

One of the results of Networks 80 was that we became confident conference organizers, ever willing to take on another big conference. I think it was the CSI Annual Convention in 1987 in Mumbai. Sonawala was the Organizing Chair and I was Program Chair. The two big hotels in Bombay at that time were not big enough to hold the Convention. Sonawala suggested that we put up a huge geodesic dome in the oval maidan! This temporary facility was in addition to renting space at the two big hotels, because everything could not be fitted under the dome! Sonawala cheerfully went ahead with his plan and delivered the goods!  The audience was well over 1,000 in several sessions.

In addition to being a very good professional and businessman, Hemant was a great human being. Despite his heavy workload, he always found time for professional and social service activities. His work through the Computer Society of India (CSI) and his social service activities through the Lions are well-known. His work, in collaboration with Prof PVS Rao and the CSI to train visually challenged youngsters in computing is legendary.

No article about Hemant can be complete without a reference to his jokes! He always came prepared for giving any talk; this included choosing a joke about some blond or brunette. Then he would pick on a friend in the first row, say Prof Mahabala or Prof PVS Rao, and modify the joke to fit him in! Everyone would have a good laugh!

Hemant's passing away is a great loss to every one of us who has worked with him. We have individually benefited a lot from the inspiration and encouragement he gave us in our endeavors. I will always remember him as a cheerful, enthusiastic and supportive colleague and friend. 

Hundreds of Hemant's colleagues like me share the grief of the family - Hemant’s wife Rekha, son Saurabh and daughter Paula.

Srinivasan Ramani

P. S.

1) Mr Sonawala passed away on Saturday, May 30, 2015.

2) I have included in this article a few paragraphs that I have published earlier, because they are relevant here in the context of Hemant’s work.

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