Living Planet Index and why it is necessary to save Tigers?

The Living Planet Index (LPI) is an indicator of the state of global biological diversity, based on trends in vertebrate populations of species from around the world. Recent report shows that more than half of the world's vertebrates have disappeared between 1970 and 2010. In the same period, the human population nearly doubled. Bloomberg writes that “If animals were stocks, the market would be crashing”. (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-30/depressed-market-half-of-world-s-wildlife-disappears-in-40-years.html). The report also points out that humans are currently drawing more from natural resources than the Earth is able to provide.

Source: Bloomberg

If we had cared for Tigers we would have reduced some of the damage done to the biological diversity. One may wonder how Tigers matter. Why the mankind should bother about the Tiger? After all, it is a ferocious animal which can never be domesticated and can turn into a man-eater when not able to hunt. But Tiger is at the top of food chain. For its population to increase, the prey base has to increase at some proportion.  For the prey base to thrive, the feed stock for those animals should be sufficiently available. That would demand for the forest to expand to provide for these animals. A home for tiger is a home for other animals too. The forest that houses Tigers and the diverse wildlife also serves many other functions that of a rain catchment area, of slowly releasing ground water to regulate floods, and as a natural factory to convert carbon into oxygen bringing an ecological balance. Now you see that Tiger count is a very good indicator of the health of the ecosystem as the Tigers as the highest predators shape the ecosystems in which they live.

Source: National Tiger Conservation Authority(NTCA)

If Tiger’s population is decreasing naturally over decades, it does mean that the whole pyramid of animal diversity is shrinking. When we disturb the ecological balance, the nature takes its toll in one way (global warming) or another (floods, river siltation etc.). For human development to continue, we need to take better account of our resources. Right now except for human beings, life on Earth is not a bull market. If other animals count is reduced to half now, what will the man kill when the remaining animals become a minority? Ghost of Malthus will rise if we do not respect the forest boundaries and force the remaining animals to extinct.

New ways to construct a house (in less time and money)

New materials and methods are giving multiple options to build a house quickly and with less money in comparison to RCC structures. Let us look at some of the developments.

Glass Fiber Reinforced gypsum (GFRC)

GFRC panels are used extensively to build walls, floors and staircase. Traditional brick walls consume materials - bricks, sand and cement. And significant labor and many months timeline is needed to build a house. All that is cut short by using the GFRC panels. Doors and windows can be cut-out precisely in these panels. Concrete is poured in the pockets of GFRC panels to make it strong. Use of steel reduces as the weight of the total structure is grossly reduced, so steel is mostly needed as reinforcement to carry gravity loads. Since no plastering is needed, cement’s use drastically reduced. The house will be ready in a matter of 3-4 weeks. Watch the video in which civil engineers from IIT Madras demonstrate the making of a GFRC panel built house. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUQEUcB7cMM)

Pre-fabs:

This is more of assembly at site since most of the construction is done at the factory. If you need to build a kiosk or a bunk house, you don’t have to construct it, rather you buy and get it installed in a weekend. You can get it moved to another location if the situation demands it. Sintex on the sellers of these pre-fabs.

Source: http://www.sintex-plastics.com/prefab/prefab_usp.htm

Bamboo house:

This is innovative thinking in making use of the bamboo to build structure of the house. If bamboo can be used in making a ladder which easily holds loads of a person or two, why not extend the use of it and build column structure to carry gravity loads? Yes, sure. There are many houses built that way to prove the reliability of this method. For your next farm house or sun-shades on your roof, you can try this by calling companies like Wonder grass (http://www.wondergrass.in/).

Source: http://www.wondergrass.in/

As the cost of housing is ever increasing, search for alternative methods for low cost housing will also increase and one can expect lot more new things happening in this segment.

Book Review: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

Watanabe is a Japanese youth studying at a University in Tokyo. He has two girlfriends Naoko and Midori. Both are unusual, suffering from depression, and need help to recover and Watanabe is the friend who they trust. He is worn out between these two, grows up from the experience, loses one and settles with the other.

Naoki is introduced to Watanabe by a childhood friend of hers who commits suicide in his youth. That puts Naoko into emotional trouble. And Naoki has this in her blood too as her younger sister also had committed suicide for psychological problems. She is put into an unusual hostel which serves as a home for those suffering from emotional issues and it helps bring together through many activities and teaches them to help themselves. Watanabe as a close friend of hers offers help and attempts to fill in the confidence in her to come out and face the external world. He finds that is he is deeply in love with Naoko. Reiko, another patient at the hostel, is a roommate of Naoko. She has an ear (and hands!) for the music and “Norwegian Wood” is one of the songs she plays on her guitar. Though herself a patient, she is another source of strength for Naoko in getting better. Three spend good time together when Watanbe visits the hostel. And there is hope that Naoko would get better and become normal.

Top Left: Haruki Murakami Right: Stills from movie adaptation of the novel

Midori is another student in Watanabe’s class. She is attracted to him for his unusual, serious and sincere behavior. She is going through difficult phase in her personal life as she had lost her mother recently and her father too is on the deathbed. Watanabe turns out to be a true friend for her understanding the situation she is into and supporting her while she gets through the difficult times. A bond develops between them and that turns into love.

Watanabe has to choose between Naoko and Midori and seeks guidance from Reiko on this matter. He learns from Reiko that Naoko could not get better and committed suicide. That news comes as a shock for Watanabe and he travels alone to unknown places to find peace with himself. Finally he recovers from it and connects with Midori.

What starts as a usual, predictable plot takes many twists and turns. It explores many strange human characters. The novel is more about those who are not normal but very sensitive and emotional and who can’t bear the pains which normal people would tolerate and get over it. This novel is also full of descriptions of the characters having drinks and casual sex and this theme recurs throughout the book and makes the novel more dramatic.

Though this novel has autobiographic tone, its author Haruki Murakami clarified that it is not his biography and his personal life is lot boring. It is believed that Norweign Wood is one Murakami book that “everyone” in Japan has read.

Book Review: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

The plot of this short novel begins with a young Pakistani, Changez, who heads to USA for his higher studies in a prestigious university. After his studies, he manages to get a job in an investment banking firm. His intelligence, hard work and commitment help him to get noticed and grow within the organization. He finds an American girl friend too. Before it turns out to be all is well story, terror strikes on the World Trade Center at New York bring down twin towers come to the earth. That incident changes the way white Americans looked at Muslims living in the country. The protagonist of the story too observes people around looking at him with suspicion. A colleague of him advised to shave off the beard. Checks at Airport turn embarrassing. Strangers attempt a physical assault on him when he is alone in the car park. His girlfriend falls sick and moves away from him. All these developments put Changez into introspection and he finally realizes he truly belongs to his home country Pakistan and that is where his destiny is. He resigns from the job, packs off his bags, heads back to his home country. He finds a job in a College but his passion turns him into a social activist.

The whole story is told in first person in autobiographic style, over a conversation with an American tourist visiting Pakistan talking to the author in a restaurant. Though it is supposed to be the dialogue between the two strangers, it is the uninterrupted monologue which runs through the entire novel. So the reader gets to hear only person throughout the novel, the narrator in first person. This style is unique and may be unsuitable for a work of fiction but the author make it work for this story.

This book was shortlisted for The Man Booker prize in 2007. Its author Mohsin Hamid is talented and a writer to watch out for.

Opinion: Jindal Steel and DLF: Business laggards or political victims?

The recent developments in the business world have severely affected the fortunes of two companies who were regarded as the leaders in the business segments they operated in.

Supreme Court judgment to cancel the coal block allocations affected the whole power industry and Jindal Steel & Power has taken the biggest hit. Now it is charge sheeted again by CBI. Last week, SEBI took decision to keep promoters of DLF out of equity markets for a couple of years for giving false information while listing its stock. These incidents have put great pressure on their stock prices which have seen multiple year lows.

So was this in their destiny? The issues they are facing are nothing new but many years old. What about the timing? As the weight on the lid came down, Pandora’s Box got opened?

Stock performance charts for Jindal Steel and DLF in the past 4 months. Source: Google Finance

Just a year or two ago, Naveen Jindal was a celebrated businessman cum politician. TV shows discussed how he was able to balance the demanding roles of a politician as an elected MP and that of a head of a vast business enterprise. His dual role complemented each other as they concluded. But now, in the changed political scenario, it does not appear to remain so.

If you read the biography of KP Singh “Whatever the Odds”, you will know that it is more than the business cycles, managing the politicians were a challenge for the chairman of DLF. Once he was in the list of top 10 richest men of India. But his wealth deteriorated along with the market capital of DLF.

The political connections which helped few businesses grow in the past are now taking a toll on them. Losing political favor is no good for any businessman, in India and everywhere. A billionaire businessman of yester years is now in jail in Putin’s Russia. Indian businessmen (who are out of favor) may not be in the same risk but their fortunes and revival depends on their ability and willingness to cope with the changed political scenario.

For stock market investors, it is time to go beyond financial statements. Those with good political quotient seems to have better opportunities to make money.