Editorial
Power problems
ON MARCH 13, the Power Minister, Mr. P. R. Kumaramangalam, told the Lok Sabha that as much as 35-40 per cent of the power generated was being `lost' because of ``improper accounting of transmission and distribution and technical losses, even as such loss es have been computed at 23 per cent''. He said that theft and pilferage ``at the macro level'' was estimated to be more than Rs. 20,000 crores per annum, and that a large number of thermal units in the State sector were being run at an operational effic iency level of less than 40 per cent, the consequent average annual loss on this account being more than Rs. 12,000 crores. This Lok Sabha statement by the Minister sums up neatly the reason why private participation in power -- which is crucial for the development plans of the sector -- has not made much headway despite the official efforts made in this direction over the past few years.

Miscellaneous
Will Myanmar fall in line with ILO?
The just concluded 88th session of the International Labour Conference has adopted a resolution which has asked Myanmar military rulers to stop the practice of forced labour by November this year, or else face efforts to isolate the country within the in ternational community. The ILO system has never before taken such a step, but the crucial issue is whether the effort will succeed in view of, among other things, Washington's policy of `engagement' vis-a-vis Beijing, writes Ranabir Ray Choudhury.

Croocket
THERE ARE a few interesting, as well as, intriguing aspects of the ongoing brouhaha over financial foul play, by cricketers and its apparent connivance by cricket boards. That the sport involved hundreds of crores of rupees, in terms of betting, fixing a nd other shenanigans, must have come as a shocking revelation to many.

Politics
Born to rule
WHEN independent Malaysia introduced a rotating kingship, the editor of Debretts, the Bible of the British aristocracy, proposed the monarchs of Europe should take turns to head the European Union. He may have been justified in believing that royalty had been restored to its pedestal, but the emotional exuberance in Damascus suggests the most convincing evidence comes from regimes that reek of radicalism, not the handful of thrones that have survived war and revolution. It is in the Third World republic s, that the son rises again and again, to uphold the sanctity of inheritance.

Technology
Making water potable
`WATER, Water everywhere, nor any drop to drink', wrote the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, alluding to the irony of a water-starved crew of a ship on the high seas, in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, penned in the early 20th century. At the time, no one could have foreseen that a time would come when drought on the land, too, would become endemic in several regions, and a growing threat in others.

Telecommunications
The message of free connections
THAT WAS the unkindest cut of all. The Communications Minister, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan, must have said, ``You too Brutus!'' Or, like Wolsie, he must have felt, ``Had I served god with the same zeal as I did my masters he would not have so forsaken me!'' Mr . Paswan has a long track-record of riding the governmental gravy-train and distribute largesse, to gain the political advantage and the image of a champion of the down-trodden. He sprang on the national scene as the MP, winning elections, in his constit uency, with the largest number of votes in the country.

Page One | Index | Home