Book Fair

 

A Few Words on 'Book Fair'

 

We all are well acquainted with the compound word ‘book fair’. There are numerous and various books in a book fair. Lots of publishers, lots of authors and lots of readers get a chance to meet one another in such an occasion.

If you are a voracious or an avid reader, you are supposed to grab an amazing opportunity there. Surely, it will provide you with an attractive as well as a progressive experience. Believe it or not, the more you turn over the pages, the more enthusiasm will you gain to read more and more. Well, broadly speaking, ‘the more you read, the more you learn’.

Yes, we all are given chances to grow and develop our taste of mind. However, there are books of several and various genres. Sometimes, we require listening to our parents’ advice even more than usual.

Nevertheless, we cannot deny that a visit to a book fair enlarges our spectrum of learning. Apart from that, we can listen to the mellifluous melody of the artists in this fair. Yes, we are not confined to the pages of books alone. In course of time, life presents us various opportunities of lifetime that we should never miss. Who can say that you will not be the next great personality?

The True Meaning of Freedom

 

It is a glorious day today. Broadly speaking, it is the 75th Independence Day of India. Well, frankly speaking, it feels amazing to be a part of the flag hoisting ceremony. But there are a few questions lurking from deep within: How much do we love our country? How much independent are we from our heart? How much do we really honour those independent souls who paved the way of our Independence?

Yes, there are a great number of questions apart from the above-mentioned ones. Can we answer them thoroughly? Don’t we feel that our childhood provides all of us around the globe with the best freedom or independence ever? It is not a matter of outward celebration; it is rather a matter of our inner realisation.

Definitely, we all must let the true meaning of “freedom” dwell in our hearts. We can never become free, unless and until we know how to accept things with our understanding.

Well, it might sound a bit queer; still, we all, each and every human being, should try to analyse ourselves; we must get ourselves rectified from the inside. We should have no partition, no distinction at all. Only then, I suppose, shall each and every one, no matter where, who and how we are, become a part of the true meaning of freedom.

Summer in India

 

The dazzling beams of the sun give everyone a sensation of the scorches, for sure. Yes, summer has come. It is the time to bathe in the heat of the sun as much as you want. After the light Indian winter, when the spring is over, the sun feels definitely merciful as well as malignant. At the onset of the Indian summer, it feels a bit lively, a bit regaling that it is no more the time to stay drowsy under the blanket. It feels as if a new era is in the offing. Well, I wish that it were like this forever—bright, jubilant, and full of life and cheers. So, so goes on in every heart. Wait! You have just experienced the tip of an iceberg and nothing other than that. The more time runs, the more days go by, the more it becomes intolerably blistering, the more you can witness that the Indian summer is not full of mirth alone. Everything is supposed to be like this, isn’t it? People wait and look up high in the sky for a drop of rain to drench their dry lips. Nevertheless, the alluring aroma and sweetness of the mangoes are indeed amazing. Yes, like everything else, there is an oasis, a shaft of hope lying underneath.

The Aftermath of the Pandemic

The Aftermath of the Pandemic

Is the pandemic COVID-19 a bane in all respects or a boon in disguise? The entire scenario of the globe underwent a process of transition triggered by the pandemic. What is more important to note is that the procedure of change occurred within merely a few months. Now the question is whether it is an entirely negative or a positive turnaround. Broadly speaking, there has been a permanent shift in consumer-and-business behaviour, given the effects of the disease. Yes, there has been a great turning point to the financial and business sectors.

 

At the outset, that is, when the pandemic outbreak first came to light, there was a great plummet in finance not only of an individual but also of an organization. Hard times began to hover all around the world. Anyway, thanks to the technology industries, life did not stand stagnant. Life never ends as if it goes on forever. People began relying upon technology even more, much more than before. That is to say, previously, before the outbreak of COVID-19, many of us, or should we say, most of us went to the groceries and other shops for purchasing everyday commodities. Due to the pandemic, we came to cognize technology industries anew. We began to receive everything at our doorstep. No more waste of time, no more pains in jostling to get the commodities from the retailers. Whatever we order online, we are supplied at the threshold.

 

Giving up the old, age-old, and stereotypical practices and behaviour, we have learnt how to become smarter, how to make the most outcome in the wink of an eye. Nowadays, even in the post-vaccine era, if I ask you to shop something, whatever it is, will you not simply say, “Wait, let me place an order online for you?” There are a plethora of things to be spoken of. Since the technology industries are thriving more and more, their stocks or shares also become a source of income for all and sundry. Yes, for sure, there has been a shift in the attitude of consumers and businessmen, and the shift is permanent.

 

Sustainable Development, the only Reconciliation between Development and Environment

Since the primordial era, man’s irresistible impulse urged him to become civilized. He learnt to make fire by using the flint stones; he also came to know how to manage his own food, clothes and shelter. Moreover, he applied his sense to roll the wheels and tame both wild and domestic animals. These were possible by means of development that has made us what we are today.

The term ‘development’ covers many areas, like the economic, the social improvement and so on.

On the one hand, the economic development refers to the notion of increasing possibilities of employments. On the other hand, the social development includes urbanization.

The advancement of science and its miraculous inventions assist society and economy to become more and more developed day by day. But here a question peeps from everyone’s mind. That is to say, don’t these so-called developments hinder the environmental conservation?

When we are inclined to heavy industrialization and urbanization, we usually make deforestation. Without visualizing the actual consequences to be faced in near future, we get involved to destroy ourselves indirectly. Rainfall is uncertain and deficient everywhere. Soil-erosion, drought and flood have become very recurrent incidents. In the past, the trees used to hold the ground tightly, which has disappeared at present. As a result of the erosion, the depth of the rivers is getting more and more decreased. Time to time drazing is required to restore its profundity. Resulting in, they overflow, sometimes washing away the entire territory. Water-logging is a very common happening in Kolkata and its outskirts and the prolonged deposited water is the breeding ground of the mosquitoes.

Because of knocking down of trees, when it starts raining, it pours incessantly and when it is summer, the sunbeams are extremely scorching. As an effect of this, the entire cycle of seasons gets disturbed.

During the year of 1985, the man made development by way of deforestation, especially in the Himalayan watershed areas, aggravated the danger of flooding; it averaged 1,471 square kilometer per year. India also lost fifty per cent of her mangrove area between 1963 and 1977. Despite thirty years of flood-control programs that had already cost an estimated $10 billion, floods in 1980 alone claimed nearly two thousand lives, killed thousands of cattle and affected 55 million people on 11.3 million hectares (28 million acres) of land. As of the mid-1990s, sixty per cent of the land where crops could be grown had been damaged by the grazing of the nation's 406 million head of livestock, deforestation, and misuse of agricultural chemicals and increase of salinity.

Due to deforestation, natural weather and climate also get affected from their usual stands. Therefore, required rainfall does not arrive at its actual time and sometimes, it gets delayed to come because of which cultivation also gets hampered.

The trees maintain a perfect balance between Oxygen and Carbon-dioxide. While the former is essential for all and sundry to breathe in, the latter aids the greenery to prepare their foods with Chlorophyll. Due to development, the felling of trees causes a large imbalance in the air. So, the normal ratio of the two gases is getting agitated.

Due to cutting down of trees in an indiscriminate manner, due to polluting the environment at large, we have created a great imbalance in our ecosystem. Consequently, many species are becoming extinct year after year. Take for example; Hangul and Snow Leopard in Jammu and Kashmir, Vulture in Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat, Swiftlet in Andaman and Nicobar islands, Nilgiri Tahr in Tamil Nadu and Sanghai Deer in Manipur are all endangered classes of animals and birds, which the Government of India is trying to recover and rescue. Wildlife Institute of India, Bombay Natural History Society, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History are some of the research organizations undertaking research on conservation of wildlife. Recently, global warming is a very dreadful phenomenon, as a result of which, the polar ice getting melted raises the sea level and many coastal areas are imminent to get submerged.

In the name of development, natural resources are getting exploited overtly. Take for instance; water is a limited resource, which is being contaminated each and every day. At present, the residents of the multi-storied buildings, due to high population, have to be supplied with fresh water. So, the ground water level is getting decreased each day. Moreover, hybrid vegetables are produced to meet our needs, because there is over population density. This hybridism not only invites various kinds of diseases to modern mankind but also reduces the productivity of lands, making them become barren. Environmental conservation is thus getting affected more and more.

Apart from that, the domestic and industrial waste water causes pollution to this limited resource. Washing dirty clothes, cleansing cattle, scrubbing utensils etc. are absolutely anti-environmental activities. These can be found in the domestic scenario. The filthy drainage water also gets mingled with the rivers. An impeccable instance of this case would be the Ganga. When the carcasses and the corpses float on the river, the germs get mixed with the water, creating environmental degradation.

Due to uncontrolled dumping of chemical and industrial waste, fertilizers and pesticides, seventy per cent of the surface water in India is polluted. The nation has 1,260 cubic km of renewable water resources, of which 92 per cent is used for farming. Safe drinking water is available to 95 per cent of urban and 79 per cent of rural dwellers.    

However, a start was made in terms of River Action Plan to clean up the polluted rivers in the country. Ganga Action Plan, the first phase of this plan, began in 25-class I towns in the three states, namely, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Unfortunately, even after ten years, it remains incomplete.

The environmental effects of intensive urbanization are evident in all the major cities, although Calcutta—once a symbol of urban quality—has been freed of cholera and most of the city now has water purification and sewer services. Analogous improvements have been made in other leading cities under the Central Scheme for Environmental Improvement in Slum Areas, launched in 1972, which provided funds for sewers, community baths and latrines, road paving, and other services. However, as of the mid-1990s, only 21 of India's 3,245 cities had effective sewage treatment.

Just like water, air is another component that we always need to survive. Over-use of fossil fuels contaminates it, Chloro-Fluro-Carbon (CFC) that is emitted while manufacturing and repairing refrigerators make it unfit to be inhaled. Moreover, the atomic explosions used in wars upset the environmental balance and conservation to the utmost.

Air pollution is most severe in urban centers; but even in rural areas, the burning of wood, charcoal, and dung for fuel, coupled with dust from wind erosion during the dry season, poses a significant problem. Industrial air pollution threatens some of India's architectural treasures, including the Taj Mahal in Agra, part of the exterior of which has been dulled and pitted by airborne acids. It is a perfect instance of Stone Cancer. Moreover, in what was probably the worst industrial disaster of all time, a noxious gas named Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, killed more than 1,500 people and injured thousands of others in December, 1985. In 1992, India had the world's sixth-highest level of industrial carbon dioxide emissions, which totaled 769 million metric tons, a per capita level of 0.88 metric tons.

In order to solve the enormous problem of air-pollution, what we need to do immediately is to utilize the complementary resources like the solar energy, the wind energy and tidal energy.

Besides air-pollution, land-pollution and sound-pollution are some prevalent occurrences now-a-days. Due to the former, the fertile fields are becoming arid and turning to pure waste lands. It definitely affects the environmental conservation.

The violated usage of microphones over the allowed range, the fireworks and so on destroy the balance of nature. These cause pollution, congestion, tension, noise and accidents frequently. Deafness is our daily companion now-a-days. Evidently, the most harmed persons are the destitute.    

In the modern age, people are developed, life styles are refined, but, who cares for the poorest of the poor? Are they really considered to be a part of our society? In the Stockholm Conference in 1972, Indira Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister, said that poverty is the greatest pollutant. If we are incompetent to propagate the developments to the lower and marginalized strata at the same time, the entire development process becomes incomplete and futile. It seems that we better return to the era of nature.

Every year, people observe 5th June as World Environment Day, when they deliver series after series of lecture, when lots of seminars are held to arouse public awareness regarding environmental conservation, but simultaneously, also some of us, speakers and listeners, keep on doing disgraceful acts, which affect our nature. Each and every nook and corner of the earth will feel better and more beautiful, only if we take up the task of undoing our misdeeds collectively again from the very beginning with conscious minds and environment-friendly attitude.

However, some steps have been taken by the Government of India for the protection of environment and bio-diversity. Amongst those, the important measures include the enactment of the Wild Life (Protection) Act (1972), Wetland (Conservation and Management) Rules (2010), National Plan for Conservation of Aquatic Eco-system, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and so on. Some of the significant Indian Acts related to the environmental conservation are Fisheries Act (1897), Indian Forests Act (1927), Mining and Mineral Development Regulation Act (1957), Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (1960), Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act (1974), Forest Conservation Act (1980), Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act (1981), Environment Protection Act (1986), Biological Diversity Act (2002) and Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act (2006).

The National Committee on Environmental Planning and Coordination was established in 1972 to investigate and propose solutions to environmental problems resulting from continued population growth and consequent economic development; in 1980, the Department of the Environment was created. The sixth development plan (1979–84), which for the first time included a section on environmental planning and coordination, gave the planning commission veto power over development projects that might damage the environment; this policy was sustained in the seventh development plan (1985–90). The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute has field center areas throughout the country.

The Wildlife Act of 1972 prohibits killing of and commerce in threatened animals. In 1985 there were 20 national parks and more than 200 wildlife sanctuaries. As of 2001, 4.4 per cent of India's total land area was protected. In addition to 75 species of mammals, 73 types of birds are endangered, as are 785 plant species. Endangered species in India include the lion-tailed macaque, five species of langur, the Indus dolphin, wolf, Asiatic wild dog, Malabar large-spotted civet, clouded leopard, Asiatic lion, Indian tiger, leopard, cheetah, Asian elephant, dugong, wild Asian ass, great Indian rhinoceros, Sumatran rhinoceros, pygmy hog, swamp deer, Himalayan musk deer, Asiatic buffalo, gaur, wild yak, white-winged wood duck, four species of pheasant, the crimson tragopan, Siberian white crane, great Indian bustard, river terrapin, marsh and estuarine crocodiles, gavial, and Indian python. Although wardens are authorized to shoot poachers on game reserves, poaching continues, with the Indian rhinoceros (whose horn is renowned for its supposed aphrodisiac qualities), especially valuable.

Of course, both progress and transition are necessary to create a better future, but at the same time, it is also not desired and expected that they will cause harms to the environmental conservation.

Therefore, sustainable development is required all over the world. The expression ‘sustainable development’ means the economic development that is conducted without depletion of natural resources.

It sounds quite shameful to utter that the initial generations of men inherited a clean earth, but, nowadays, every person gives a defiled one to his progeny.  

 

Inviting Innovations in Transportation

 

Did nature create the human beings or did the human beings create nature? Which is the true answer? However, the relative importance belongs to both of them. One is relying upon the other. They are like true friends indeed. However, the days that we are having now reveal the harshest fact that man is polluting the other, that is, nature as much as possible. But why does he do so? There is truly no perfect and absolute answer to this question.

Human beings are components of the natural environment. That is to say, man and nature are interrelated to each other. Everything benevolent happens because of this relationship. Broadly speaking, whenever this tie or this bond gets disturbed, everything will collapse in the wink of an eye.

It can be said that science and nature walk hand in hand. Frankly speaking, science is more dependent on nature, not merely because of the components helpful for scientific discovery but also for the execution of the scientific formulae.

Unfortunately, now-a-days, every scientific process, it may rather be said that every scientific attitude of man contaminates the environment. It is truly unimaginable that the human beings are treacherous to their origin, that is, nature.

Man is becoming more and more developed, more and more civilized in his own way, sometimes with his scientific inventions and sometimes with his easy approach to taint nature. He invented various kinds of transports, and at the same time, various kinds of green house gases like Carbon dioxide, Nitrous oxide, Trichlorofluromethane, Carbon tetrachloride, Fluoroform, Methane and so on and so forth, not just to pollute his environment but even to dig his own grave indirectly.

At present, transportation epitomizes around 10% of the gross domestic product in the United States of America, according to Research Innovative Technology Administration 2012, 3 – 3. Moreover, transportation is necessary to many aspects of the economy of the USA. It incorporates transportation of people to reach their employment, or other ends. However, transportation takes into its account of 28% of the emission of the greenhouse gases in the USA in 2012, as per the knowledge of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2013.

Moreover, the emissions from transportation sector are expected to increase hastily within the next few decades. The International Energy Agency (IEA) propounds that the use of energy and consequently the emissions of carbon dioxide will rise about between 2000 and 2030. The developing countries like China and Indonesia and so on will fall victim to this phenomenon greatly; the emissions in those countries may get doubled between 2000 and 2020. These basically occur due to increase of personal travel and goods movement, and apart from these, use of fossil fuels for these purposes.

Day by day, urbanization is taking the prior place more and more. In the urban areas, not only the factories but even the transports are emitting Carbon dioxide. People consume fuel electrical power and resulting in, they increase the number of their carbon footprints.

Fortunately, at the present times, some measures are being taken against pollution and climate change due to the emission of greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide mitigation measures to urban transport projects are being undertaken that offer the scopes for improving the cost-effectiveness of mobility investments.

In the meantime, Japan has taken some stratagems for leading the Fourth Industrial Revolution. “Japan Revitalization Strategy” got revised in 2015, and decided at the cabinet meeting on June 30, 2015. The country has expressed a few basic approaches for dominant sectors. First, comprehending the directions of world technology and industries and strategies of leading companies may be helpful. Second, analyzing Japan’s strengths and weaknesses and thus endeavoring to improve may come to an aid. Third, sharing the strategies all over Japan for government, private sectors and research institutes may be helpful as well.

Apart from that, there are transportation technologies and stratagems that are commencing their journey for helping to meet the climate change. These technologies and strategies include automotive and fuel technologies, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and mobility management strategies for reduce the demand for private vehicles. The climate change beneficence of innovative engine and transport technologies are, however, comprehended. Yet there are a very few or a small number of studies that are available on the energy and carbon dioxide emission.

Intelligent transportation system (ITS) can curtail fuel consumptions and emissions by reducing congestion, smoothing the progress of optimal route planning and timing, perfecting accelerations or decelerations, permitting pricing and demand management stratagems, bettering the public transportation mode use, and so on and so forth.

Now the question is – What is innovation? It is nothing but a central notion of economic development and is perceived as a key driver of a company’s success. From the organizational point of view, innovation is essential for creating new scopes or for ruining the existing ones in order to survive in challenging the dynamism. Furthermore, technological as well as organizational innovations may be considered as fundamental novelties or changes for betterment.

Therefore, the solutions to these problems need to be discovered by the people themselves. They can use solar energy, wind energy, atomic energy, and tidal energy and so on. When fossil fuels have invited a great curse all over the world, some alternative energy should be found out. At present, many companies have shifted from using fossil fuel energies to the utilization of solar energy.

It must be said that whatever the circumstances are, whatever the innovations may be, all the human beings must work shoulder to shoulder for the entire world, because world cannot be composed of a number of counties and their barriers only but with the help of brotherhood that can break the barricades of the nations to make them a unified whole. All the fragments of the jigsaw puzzle should be harmonized to make them a complete and beautiful picture. Only then the whole world will become a better place for living with less pollution and more innovation, and for that people should take steps with much immediacy.