Should Cricket replace Hockey as National Game?

Indian hockey is split down in the middle, players say they want better money but Hockey India says it doesn't have the money.Who is to blame for becoming a national game into a national shame? Are the players justified in their demands and is the systemic mismanagement led to the present crisis ?

The pathetic state of the Indian hockey and the debacle of its loss to England 0-2 in Chile and failing to even qualify for Olympics, has challenged the government either to change the national game or get rid off those who are responsible for the same. But why is it so. Cricket too went through similar debacle when the Indian Cricket team failed to even go past the first round of the 2007 world cup. But the team bounced back by winning the 20-20 World Cup. The Board, media and the ex-players were always in support of the team even after the big loss. This is the kind of support that India hockey team needs. I have found media biased to the game of hockey as it has its own vested interests.

The question that is being debated everywhere is "Hockey Debacle: Is India in danger of losing her national symbols?". Indeed, cricket has overshadowed hockey and has become flavour of the hour. People are just crazy about cricket, they live cricket, they eat cricket, they drink cricket, and they sleep cricket. But are these enough reasons to make it a national game.

England is considered to be the land of cricket but they live soccer. Soccer is like religion to them which they blindly follow. Should they do the same, and make it their national game.

West Indies which ruled cricket for more than 20 years is finding hard to finding the talent for their country to represent. The people over there are now crazy about "Basketball". We need to understand no game evolves in a day. Cricket in India itself took more than 20 years to reach upto this stage. After winning the world cup in 1983, they never looked back, their governing body also took adequate measures in the interest of the game.

Many people argue that Cricket is to be blamed because of Cricket that Hockey has been neglected. But I considered it as the flawed reasoning. It is Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) which is to be blamed. It seems to be one man show - KPS Gill who has been in power for the past 12 years inspite the Sports Ministry’s 1975 stipulation that no person shall contest more than 2 terms. Whenever India goes for a tournament it has faced new challenges. Big players have been dropped, captains and coaches have been shuffled. Fifteen coaches in the past ten years and yet KPS Gill has continued to be at the top. It was really shocking for a hockey fan to know about Dhanraj Pillay being dropped unceremoniously, when India barely used to qualify for the finals of major tournaments. This demands an answer.

On the contrary, Cricket brought the touch of entertainment into the game. With IPL, a revised game format, cricket outshone everything whether it is saas-bahu serials of Ekta Kapoor on television or masala movies of bollywood. But is the losing shine of hockey and cricket being very much popular really enough to replace hockey as national game. I don't think so. We can't do so.

Today, the Royal Bengal Tigers are on the verse of extinction. What we did. We started the "Project Tiger" in order to safeguard our national symbol. Why didn't we thought of changing the national animal from tiger to dog or say any xyz animal. The A.R. Rahman's "Jai Ho" won the Oscars and was highly acclaimed globally. And I think it is much more popular than our national anthem. Can we think of changing our national anthem to Jai ho. No, we can't.

I don't wish to go into a kind of quizzing. But i can't resist. How many of us know who is the captain of Indian Hockey team. How many of us have ever visited or ever know that a website (www.ihf.gov.in) for Indian hockey federation exists. Even if it the website is , it is has been there for namesake, rarely updated why? How many knows who is Mr. Gill. How many companies, states came up with prizes for the Indian Hockey team when they came up winning the Asia Cup defeating Korea 7-2.

Why did the "Chak De" turn into "Cheque De" for Indian hockey team?

It is high time we need to give hockey its due and restore the pride of our national sports rather than making cricket a national game. Hockey needs to be encouraged right from the grass root levels. It is demanding for "Project Tiger" , we need to take a call to bring back the Golden days of Hockey again.

A Race with a Ticking Doomsday Clock !

A Race with a Ticking Doomsday Clock !

The heads of the state and governments from across the globe met at the Danish Capital for the most-awaited summit in the recallable memory. Their mission couldn't be more ambitious: To save the planet from the catastrophic effects of climate change caused by the human race. Everyone across the world agrees on the dire need to limit carbon emissions and check global warming. Unfortunately still they are not in unison.

What made them so divided? Who are with whom? Who should do how much? who is going to pay? Will the two degree inch you towards doomsday? Is the underwater meet is enough ? Is this the time for reckoning?.....

We need to find out the answers.

It has been forecasted that the climate catastrophes are inevitable if the global temperature is rise above 2°C above its pre-industrial era level. The tipping point of 2° will be triggered by trillion tonnes of carbon emission. Over the last 250 years, of that one trillion has already been used up, mostly by the industrial nations. So, the fight is over the remaining half. And now here comes a tragedy, it is estimated that at the current rate of carbon emission, the balance 50% will be exhausted in just 40 years.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) headed by R K Pachauri, has estimated that emission levels need to brought down by atleast 80% from 1990 levels for the temperature to saty within safe zone. There's huge war over how the burden should be shared. I still doubt Copenhagen showed the light of a new day. The doomsday clock is well and ticking...And we still need to take a call.

We need to know "Who is with Whom" and What can make them come together for a cause.Global Warming has already started a wave of cold war by dividing the world into different blocks namely

• JUSSCANS (US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada)
  
• G77 + China
  
• European Community
• AOSIS (Alliance of Small Island States)
• LDCs (countries with lowest lowest socio-economic level of development)

JUSSCANS are the biggest and most carbon intensive economies. They don't want to submit to a global emission cut pact or a penalty-based scrutiny of commitments. They prefer a 'pledge and review' or 'schedule approach', which will allow countries to decide what minimal actions they want to take.They want India and other developing countries to undertake same kind of emission cuts as they will be taking.They also want the cuts to be shared on current and future emission not on the basis of historical responsibility. They are reluctant to provide finance and technology to developing and poor countries and prefer to sell their clean technologies. In short, they are keen to 'Kill Kyoto'

G77 + China
Emerging Economies: India,China,Brazil and South Africa are the leaders of G77. On per capita basis, their emissions are very low compared to rich nations, but in gross terms, because of their size, their emissions are growing the fastest. Rich nations find it difficult to convince their domestic audience that they might have to provide finance and technology to these economies.

Vulnerable 14 are the weak economies, Maldives, Bangladesh and countries just above sea level. Rich nations try to prise them out of G77 and form a separate bloc.

African Countries, weak economies are maily in G77 in the hope of getting funds for adaptation.

Oil Producing Countries such as Kuwait and UAE are there in G77 for tactcial reasons; they fear an economic hit if oil consumption were to fall, and so lobbying for response measures for compensating countries like them which could suffer revenue losses due to climate mitigation.

European Community was once a powerful votary of the kyoto protocol but now wants to dump it and go with US proposal of 'pledge and review'. France, Germany and UK are the key players.
AOSIS have the moral voice at the convention as they are the most vulnerable; even a minor sea rise in sea levels could drown them. Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Malta are some of them.

LDCs like Nepal, Bangladesh in Asia and several African countries has the support of all. Everyone- the rich and the developing countries agrees tha these countries should first get financial and technological support.

The divide between them needs to be bridged if the planet Earth is to be saved. The time has been reckoning from many years....

Let us look at the "Reckoning Time" chronologically...

1990
Negotiations for a UN convention on climate change launched by UN general assembly

1992 Rio Conference produces the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It enshrines the responsibility and duties of countries based on 'historical emissions'. It doesn't have hard targets, though.

1995 The Berlin Mandate
Recognising that the mother convention doesn't contain strong targets to achieve the goal, process set in motion to negotiate a protocol under the convention.

1997 Kyoto Protocol
It is finalised. It determines targets for emission cuts for industrialised countries against 1990 levels. A strict compliance mechanism with penalties in place.

1997-01
Hectic parleys where US plays spoilsport. Targets for industrialised countries to reduce emissions pared.

2002
Kyoto protocol becomes operative but US and Australia refuse to ratify it. First period for reduction of emissions set between 2008-12

2007 Fourth report of UN's IPCC warns that global temperatures must not exceed 2°c above pre-industrial era. Demands higher emission cut. Countries meet at Bali. Industrialised countries fight to push a greater burden of emission cuts on developing world and reduce their own burden of providing finance and technology.

2008 Recession hits globally. Obama promises to alter US potion on Climate front. Manmohan Singh alters India's stance, pledges to keep India's per capita emissions lower than that of developed countries. US remains unwilling to give technology and funds to emerging economies. EU follows suit. US launches work on domestic climate bill. India, China, and other developing countries, finalise their domestic climate change action plans.

2009 Attempts are made to kill Kyoto Protocol. African Countries boycott talks to put pressure for maintaining Kyoto. Uproar in parliament over India changing its climate stance. PM reiterates India's long standing position. China reveals a figure for reducing 'carbon intesnity" volunatarily. India follows suit on December 3 as it announces 20-25% carbon intensity cut on 2005 levels by 2020. The stage is set for Copenhagen.

Copenhagen The Copenhagen Accord (which has not been adopted by the Conference of Parties) agrees to weak and non-legally commitments from developed world. The agreement will be disastrous for the world, particularly the poor and the most vulnerable, as it will allow emissions to increase in the rich world. It agrees to a process, which will ultimately kill the Kyoto Protocol and undermine the legitimacy of the UNFCCC. It changes the framework based on equity and historical emissions. It agrees that developing country action, which are not supported through international finance and technology also be open “international consultation and analysis”, which could become a backhand way of bringing in international commitments on these countries. This is euphemistic language for international monitoring, reporting and verification.

The Accord proposes a pledge-and-review model for emissions reduction, which means that developed countries are only asked to take voluntary, domestic actions. This is a step backwards from the current Kyoto Protocol, which legally requires industrialised countries to make modest emissions cuts between 2008 and 2012.

In May 2009, India, China and 35 other developing nations had submitted an ambitious proposal to the UNFCCC to strengthen Kyoto by requiring nations to cut their emissions by 45 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. This is what scientists say is needed in order to avoid dangerous temperature rises of 2°C or more.

By agreeing to a pledge-and-review deal today, India has done an extraordinary about-face. The UN has estimated that current pledges by developing countries would sentence the world to temperature increases of at least 3°C. There is nothing in the Copenhagen Accord that can compel industrialised countries to take stronger near-term targets in order to avoid dangerous global warming.

Still miles to go for the notion "Lets share the burden"

Acknowledgement:The Times of India, Centre for Science and Social Research, The Hindu
Some Facts and Figures:
*US accounts for 29.3% of global emission; EU 26.5%, Russia 8.55%, China 7.6%, India 2.2%

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid

JAN 13, 2009: A TRYST WITH BOP

For the first time I am reading any book of Mr.Prahlad. He is indeed a great thinker. I just couldn't stop myself from writing this blog in between while reading. Let me just brief you about the book. I will keep updating it as i continue reading it.

Did you know that the people who earn less than $2 a day could also be a consumer? Did you know companies could make better profits by concentrating on this segment? How? Why is it that with all our technology, managerial know-how, and investment capacity, we are unable to make even a minor contribution to the problem of pervasive global poverty and disenfranchisement?

This is what C.K.Prahlad has tried to convey and answer in his book, "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid". The Book provide you with these facts and tell you how the BOP (Bottom of Pyramid) market is important. I just adore this book and his efforts for such an enlightening words. He has wonderfully challenged the readers against their pre-conceived notions about the commercial opportunities in serving the relatively poor nations of the world.

Here in this blog,I have tried to put up some of the best facts and quotes which i have encountered in this book.

"The Power of Dominant Logic"
All of us are prisoners of our own socialization. The lenses through which we perceive the world are colored by our own ideology, experiences, and established management practices. Each one of the groups that is focusing on poverty alleviation—the World Bank, rich countries providing aid, charitable organizations, national governments, and the private sector—is conditioned by its own dominant logic.

"The Dominant Logic of MNCs as It relates to BOP"
Assumption:The poor are not our target customers;they cannot afford our products or services.
Implication: Our cost structure is a given; with our cost structure, we cannot serve the BOP market.

Assumption: The poor do not have use for products sold in developed countries.
Implication: We are committed to a form over functionality. The poor might need sanitation, but can’t afford detergents in formats we offer. Therefore, there is no market in the BOP.

Assumption: Only developed countries appreciate and pay for technological innovations.
Implication:The BOP does not need advanced technology solutions; they will not pay for them. Therefore, the BOP cannot be a source of innovations.

Indeed, rationale is still the same which is persistent in the ideologies of the MNCs. Although efforts are being made and now it is changing. But as you know "Change is the biggest challenge"

Will update it soon ...