The Second Mini-meal I Partook at The Hindu

The Second Mini-meal I Partook at The Hindu

I came across a number of newspaper reports, on none of which I could share my thoughts except by way of what is called “Shorts” on YouTube. In my blog space, I call them mini-meals, as explained in an earlier post. The first in this meal is about ...

Banke Bihari Temple in Western UP

The Supreme Court of India has set down, implicitly, why temples are needed in Indian society. To quote, “...nowadays religious tourism is one of the biggest sources of revenue.” Of course, to whom religion offers such munificence is implied through the reason the Uttar Pradesh state government states, “[U]se temple funds to develop the Shri Banke Bihari Temple Corridor Project.”

This temple, situated right on the banks of River Yamuna, is the seat of a hoary tradition: the place where Lord Krishna cavorted with his young female friends. Indeed, devotes do enact such dances in front of the Lord (the idol) with hardly any inhibitions, only that when I witnessed, females and males danced in separate groups.

I have been to Shri Banke Bihari Temple, and its charm lies in the wren of narrow lanes,walking gingerly through which you reach the temple. Will the people residing in these lanes be shifted, will their houses be demolished, and will the development retain the old mystiqueof the approaches to the temple? These are the questions to be asked, or perhaps already asked and answered casually, irrelevantly, not to mention irreverently.

If the state government had wanted it could very well have planned a drive to seek donations (usually tax exempted to silently solicit from corporate India). This is easiest way to get money for any project that the powers that be deem fit to increase their win probability in the subsequent elections.

There is just one more little thing: I do not know why justices of Indian Supreme Court add historical mythology or mythical history in their judgement. The article quotes the judgment as saying, “Lord Krishna...was the first mediator known to the world...”

“Ouch!...” says the Jew who knows that Moses went to Pharaoh seeking the release of his brethren. Now, it is because of this part of the judgement a conflict could arise between Jews and  Hindus pledging allegiance to Lord Krishna.

The case may be heard by the same judge of the Supreme Court if he does not recuse himself.

Lithium ion batteries

The newspaper article commented upon here is about Lithium ion batteries, and their fate at the end of their useful life. Check that, it must really be about the fate of the people who could come into contact with the batteries in their (the batteries’!) end-of-life stage.

“[G]rowth in EV [Electric Vehicles] adoption ... may impose environmental costs without a robust recycling framework...leakage of hazardous materials into soil and water.” So, this is where the author’s concern for environment comes in. Acceptable.

Yet, the cart is ahead of the horse. One has to think of what happens in procuring Lithium before being concerned about its end-of-life disposal. Lithium is mined. 

As with most mines, one does not go prospecting for it in downtown Chicago! Not even in the suburbs of Delhi, Mumbai (beyond Navi Mumbai!). It could be in the forests/wastelands in the Vidharba (?) region of the state of Maharashtra, in the slopes of the Himalayas, within the Sathyamangalam forests in Tamil Nadu, in the forested lands near Tumkur in the state of Karnataka, along the Grand Canyon and forests of British Columbia in Canada, in the Black Forest of Europe, in the Amazon rain forest, any part of Alaska (some forest land must have been cleared for the unfruitful meeting between Trump and Putin, just a day or two ago!), and on and on.

Yet, these places may not be unpopulated; rural communities would definitely have sprung up in pockets and would have established their livelihood. Who cares, in the context of development? This is not the only problem with mining Lithium, which is a very thirsty process, soil degradation is a certainty, and get this, one cannot escape air pollution . In a sense, then, we would be shifting air pollution from cities to many sites in the middle-of-nowhere. Who cares?

How to solve two of the batteries’ end-of-life problems is mentioned in the newspaper article. These are precise management driven solutions; one, tweaking the base price of Extended Producer Responsibility issues, and two, corruption, mentioned circuitously as resistance to compliance. And, there is an unfavourable, and possibly meaningless, comparison between what is being done in the UK and in India. In India informal recyclers are to be brought into the “value chain” (an abhorrent managementese), giving not even a sideways look at the negative sides of such an “inclusion”, particularly safety and provision of PPE (personal protective equipment, too expensive) to the workers.

Then, in both the front and back ends, EVs can be seen as nowhere near “Green”. The urban population wants clean city air, no matter what happens to the outliers. “Mine, baby, mine!” seems to be the mantra (in Trump’s lingo it means his, and not digging!), and keep on truckin!, with EVs!  

Banking

After reading the headline of an article in a daily newspaper, I was quite thrilled as it mentioned more physical branches of private banks (the ones in which the male employees seem to have a dress code, neck tie not properly knotted) are being opened, and public sector banks are following them (though not in the dress code!). I am all thumbs when it comes to handling bank affairs through Net banking. I would not scan the entire screen before giving up on a particular button to press, or not look at the remote top right corner for the arrow indicating what I should do next and such. So, a physical bank branch is Manna from Heaven!

Banks enjoy input from the so-called ‘soft’ information they can glean about their customers as they stride in. Physical branches lost their attraction to the lenders, the banks, when ‘a fundamental shift’ happened in the 1980s and ‘90s adopted algorithmic credit scoring techniques, as per the article. Customer’s faces and their pocketbooks became a series of ‘0’s and ‘1’s. And, this transformation was not easy on the customers; I know as I was in the US then.

The way instruments of Information and Communication Technologies have spread in banking, when you enter a Net banking site it feels like you are stepping onto a mat of water hyacinth! You do not know when the mat would open up and down you’d enter the nether world. The above is how I feel when I try to do Net banking on my laptop/mobile! Now, I am happy that my neighbourhood physical branch would be available, with a couple of friendly faces for at least this year.

The article mentions other benefits offered by physical branches, such as introducing new savings instruments, credit schemes and so on. But, about these I am not at all keen. I am fully retired and I have a consultant upon whom I solely rely to make as judicious a decision as possible as to what to take out from what investment and where to put, usually in Mutual Funds; not for me the hurry-burry of the stock market and shares.

All said and done, I refuse to be the flotsam and jetsam of the ocean liners of banking, to be discarded when it realizes that I am not adding to its assets. I prefer my bank to be only slightly more productive than the cashbox in my house.

Wait for the next mini-meal!

Raghuram Ekambaram