Mayank's Blog

In the backdrop of US arm-twisting India on the Dow issue , it becomes extremely important that the government remains much more careful while passing the Nuclear Liability bill. Alas, this is not the case. Manmohan Singh and Co. seem determined to sell Indian lives at throwaway prices for benefit of US companies. India has an ambitious and indigenous nuclear power program to achieve the goal of 20,000 MW electricity produced by nuclear energy by 2020 which will be further increased to 60,000 MW by 2032. Thus India will produce 25 percent of its electricity from nuclear power plants by 2050. To meet these projections, India would need a major FDI in nuclear energy. This would be provided by US companies like  General Electric and Westinghouse by way of supplying and building the nuclear power plants while the operator will be government controlled Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited ( NPCIL ). All over the world, the Nuclear Liability bill (or its variati...

It was my second year of engineering course and I was in the Electronics Communication Lab. The practical examination for the subject was going on and the external examiner was expected to arrive anytime to check our readings. I was sweating out to get correct readings for Amplitude vs. Frequency of a circuit but to no avail. May be the equipment was faulty. Out of ten readings, only two matched. Faced with the prospect of flunking the exam, I fudged the readings to produce a graph which resembled the expected one.  The only problem was that I noted down my first readings with a pen, so I had to cut them out to take down new readings. The examiner got suspicious at this and started querying me. After much arguments to convince him of the authenticity of the readings, which later turned to pleading, I was allowed to pass the exam with only the passing marks. Moral of the story : Always note down scientific readings with a pencil .