In search of Truth

My good friend Narin has started a debate in Face book and thrown a lot of data and trying to prove that the Modi factor is just a myth. I am not sure whether I can use the word debate here; because what he is trying to prove is his preconceived notion that the Modi factor is just an inflated balloon and taking the pain of puncturing it with his arguments.

This is my attempt to analyse what Mr. Narain has told and try to find out the truth behind the statements.

Before politics and data crunching, let us have a bit of Physics.

In quantum theory it is said that the light travels as waves as well as particles of energy and one cannot exactly fix up the velocity and the position at the same time. This is known as Heisenberg theory of Uncertainty. Refusing this Albert Einstein has made a famous comment “God does not play dice with universe”.

What Narain is trying to do is playing the dice very intelligently; he uses absolute numbers in some comparisons and percentage calculations in other areas. Certain areas he benchmarks Gujarat against Tamilnadu and in certain areas he benchmarks Gujarat against Bihar.

I believe that, the correct way is to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges and not apples to oranges. Fortunately, I am not such an intellect who can twist the facts to suit my own convenience.

Before we actually go into the posting, let me make something very clear.

1.   I whole heatedly bow down to the unsung, unheard common people of India who have made all achievement possible. By their sheer dedication, devotion, determination and call of duty is moving the wheel of economy of this nation and big salute to them.

2.   No way, I am trying to degrade the developments of any state by comparing it with another, and I wish and pray that all states should flourish and all my county men and women should have a comfortable and peaceful life.

3.    Most importantly, I have no requirement of keeping the flag of Gujarat high and degrading my own state of Tamilnadu.

Mr Narain has started with the power supply situation of Gujarat. His arguments were

1.   1. The claim of 24 hours of uninterrupted power supply is nothing but a lie.

2.   2.Gujarat has a weekly power /shutdown one day in every week for industries.

3.   3. Gujarat supply power to the national grid in the morning when the requirement is high at high cost and buy back electricity in the night from the national grid when the requirement is low at a cheaper cost.

4.    4. So Gujarat government forces the agriculturist to use electricity for irrigation purposes in the night only.

5.    5. Gujarat has different cables to deliver high tension current and low tension currents, which is a high cost affair, which was rejected by the central controlling authorities.

6.     6. Out of one crore and twenty one lacs plus households, more than eleven lacs of household do not have electricity.

7.    7. When people of the state do not afford, power what is the fun in selling powers to other states. 

Now let us look into these questions, and try to find out the answers.

1.   1. Unfortunately for the first question, there was no data provided by him, except for loud talks. My question of the duration of power supply or power shut down was not answered. The current state of affair of Tamilnadu, in electricity situation, the lesser said is better.

2.    2. Regarding the power shut down, another learned electrical engineer who is working in a Power Generation and Distribution Company says that it is very common and basic requirement for the upkeepment of machines and electrical lines. As we come from a state where there is no electric power for at least twelve hours a day, I hope we do not need such maintenance works. My questions in this points were a) Whether it is a scheduled power shut down or an unscheduled power shut down and if there has been an unscheduled power shut down then what is the frequency and duration. This question was also unanswered.

3.    3. We all know the relationship between demand and supply and if one is able to use it to his advantage, then we need to learn from him, nothing more nothing less.

4.     4.Usage of power to irrigate agricultural fields was also answered by people from the same field. Then explained that the evaporation of water during the day time will be more than of the evening and night time and even Tamilnadu Agriculture Department advices the farmers to irrigate the fields in the night time only. As usual no answers from my learned friend.

5.    5. Different feeders for low tension and high tension cables, was also countered by the same electrical engineer with technical data. No answers as usual.

6.     To draw this conclusion, he has used the Union Government’s data. Good work, but what he has informed is half truths. The real data looks like this

Households main source of lighting
	Total No	Electricity	%
Bihar	18,940,629	3,098,435	16.36
Gujarat	12,181,718	11,013,214	90.41
Tamilnadu	18,493,003	17,265,059	93.36

This data shows the number of houses that uses electricity as the main source of lighting. Our friend has calculated the difference and assumed that the houses which does not use electricity as the mail source of energy to have no electrical connection at all and claim that eleven lacs sixty eight thousand five hundred and four houses do not have electricity at all. 

Using the same yardsticks, twelve lacs twenty seven thousand nine hundred and forty four houses do not have electricity in Tamilnadu.

If we look at the data of Bihar, more than one crore and fifty eight lacs houses do not have electricity.

Now you can calculate which number is on the high side and take your decision.

But please do not put the blame on this performance on the heads of BJP which was a major coalition partner in Bihar for a long period with Mr Nithish Kumar.

The following data shows the number of houses has no lighting at all.

	Household with no lighting at all
	Total No	No Lighting	%
Bihar	18,940,629	15,040	0.079406
Gujarat	12,181,718	116,903	0.959659
Tamilnadu	18,493,003	81,962	0.443205

Fantastic job done by all three states. Kudos to all.

Just for information, this list gives you an idea of houses that uses Solar as the main energy source. Seems we have a long way to go in non conventional energy sources.

Useage of Solar Energy as main source
	Total No	Solar Power	%
Bihar	18,940,629	109,389	0.577536
Gujarat	12,181,718	16,016	0.131476
Tamilnadu	18,493,003	13,669	0.073914

If we don’t know how to express what we know in numbers, then we know little about it. When we know little about anything, then we leave things to chance and not to choice.

Watch this space for some more interesting info.

Connected Links

Narain’s posting on 23^rd Jan 2014.

My questions posted on 23^rd Jan 2014

Narain’s datas posted on 24^th Jan

Census data which was the base of the argument.