From sensitising businesses to sensitising humans

There have been mechanisms in the market which help businesses offset any negative impact of their processes on the environment. Carbon emissions trading is one of them. Under this, an organisation mandated to reduce emissions by a certain 'x' % by certain year, can either do it by improving its own processes or fund a project which can reduce the 'incidence' of emissions (in comparison to the baseline emissions by a status quo process). For example, a paper business in France can either meet its emission reduction targets by investing (say 'x' Euros) in improving its own processes. However, it can achieve the same by funding (say 'y' Euros) a hydel project in India. And if y < x, the business would prefer funding the hydel project (the hydel project produces zero emissions in comparison to coal based generation).

The environment policy makers and the more aware politicians and academicians are aiming at going a step ahead by doing this to humans. Currently though, they are just being sensitised to do so. Imagine, each human having a quota of emissions (s)he can cause per year. Emissions caused by use of energy - at home via heating and use of electricity, during driving their cars, while travelling by air. Imagine (s)he being given the choice to fund (or partly fund) a emission reduction project (say planting trees, or installing solar cells in a village instead of supplying coal based power to it) to achieve his/her targets; the other way being of course by reducing energy consumption on their own- flying less, travelling by bus/metro rail etc. Or by buying eco efficient products instead of normal products and thus achieving the same amount of reduction in emissions. (Actually, some people are encouraging the world to do this already). And the business opportunities arising out of all this is immense.

The problems of environment have actually created so many business opportunities (and hence wealth and jobs). So finally, problems are not that bad for world.

If this entry excites you, I am interested in talking to you. Please do mail me abajaj [ at ] gmail [dot] com.

Dharti sunehri ambar neela...aisa des hai mera.. 

Found this on an old almirah in the backstage of my school 

Delhi Metro

I am compiling some pictures of Delhi Metro below which my friend Abhishek took on his first journey by the new train system.

The train is closer now 

The train approaches 

The train swooshes past this man 

The comfortable and stylish interiors 

Near an escalator at the station 

a station 

Ticket counter at a Delhi Metro station 

Getting knowledge closer to us

You know I feel that it was not that world just now realised that "knowledge would determine success" in the future. I think there were some intelligent people who came much earlier than us and compiled the first dictionaries or the first encyclopedias. Either of these books houses so much of knowledge from all around the world. Take the dictionary, every thing that is spoken in English is compiled into a single bound volume. And then it has a technique to help us find the required knowledge quickly. So somewhere, people realised that the speed of change would get accelerated in the future and then there would be more knowledge available and ready to use. With some much knowledge floating around, we would need some tool to access them in a useful manner. Something which Google is upto.

Among Google's mission statements are things like: To organise knowledge of the world and make it available for the people to use it effectively. And boy, Google search is just part of their strategies to achieve this. Imagine, they have a Gmail which now scans thoughts of people as and when people think them (or rather jot them in a mail), even before they reach any accessible physical media (like a book, newspaper or a website). So now, they are trying to reach closer to the thought process of the man. (Well I am not sure how do they plan to use people's conversations. Actually there privacy policy says that no human at Google would read it and use it any motives) But somewhere sometime, even this knowledge may be put to use.
All of us have the tendency to get our questions answered at some point of time or the other. The kids look upto their parents to answer there silliest or rather most difficult of their questions. In a way I would say that kids are so efficient! With all their queries answered from their parents in a jiffy, they don't have to spend time searching for the information. That's another motive of Google; they want to reduce the time and money spent in finding information. They want people to spend time in using the knowledge rather than searching for it. To facilitate this, they have a feature called "Ask a question" where you can put up a question in their website and put a price to it, so that whoever answers that would get that amount.

I think all that I want to know and I don't know should surely exist in somebody's mind in some part of the world. Imagine that whenever I don't know something and I don't have the time to find it, I just shout in the air and all people awake in any corner of the world and ready to help me out, shout back with the answer. Or rather wouldn't this an ultimate form of global interation. Imagine a cellphone that help me do that on the move! Wouldn't that day be a day of "knowledge in my hands"?