Reflections of Rajaram Bojji

Corruption is at the root of all our problems-- all basic values, excellence, integrity of person , profession get compromised in corrupt environs. It is not a matter of just an individual remaining above personal gains in terms of money, but many of of our honest officers allow gross corruption by the powers in return for own power and position, facilitate robbing public money by the political bosses, justifying that after all they need the funds for their party etc; a hollow premise. This is actually distorting our values- projects with bloated estimates, get cleared not for merit but for immediate benefit of return on the basis of percentage to the clearing authorities. Good people doing this knowingly, do the mistake of lending their righteous faces to mask the wrong doings of the system. I believe we should not forget our Father of Nation in this matter. Means also are important. Once compromise starts, there is no line you can draw; this far and no further: enough is enough kind...

If India wants they can construct the freight corridor with gravity power towers, saving 87% of energy as per the calculations given below. The entire project is financially viable with profit assured and uses indigenous technology and so if funded from the sovereign funds, (through RBI Bonds), the wealth remains within the country but adds to real positive cash flows! We need a leader with vision to add this important infrastructure connecting Western Ports to North of India, without need to take loan from Japan and then buy equipment and technology from foreign countries, but still spending the same level of energy as we are doing today, not helping the cause of global warming. It is a double whammy.. incur heavy yen nominated debt, get inferior performing technology at higher cost, first to improve economy of other countries before India gets benefited. Is there some wise one out there in this infinite space of Indian bureaucracy to listen and act for my country? GRAVITY PO...

Nilekani's thoughts are typical all of us who got their education in India, opportunity to serve either through Corporate structure or Government sector like me, sticking to ethical standards both in private and public life. Yes I too feel fulfilled with my 35 years in Indian Railway Service of Engineers my patents/ service as MD Konkan Railway very satisfying with unavoidable internal fights with bosses with different agendas- a normal occurrence in any society. But the price we pay for self interest of quite a few highly placed individuals is too steep. In government sponsored or controlled projects invariably our technology though superior to imported options, get marginalised, with procurers prevailing the decision and policy making corridors of power. Whereas our country could have become wealthier and provide the same riches which the rulers aspire for, but in longer time frame, with making India number one in technology leadership in the world, the third world mentality prev...

Let me share a few thoughts! Yesterday my taxi driver, (now a days we find more down to the earth wisdom in their perception of the world), was telling how the number taxis booked by software companies is falling while the bookings to Apollo hospitals has picked up. he concluded that the lay offs taking place in Hyderabad, starting from call centers first, and now Citi bank has caused even reduction of traffic congestion in Hyderabad! Interestingly he asked a question whether Bush is responsible for all this!!! I wonder if I tell a villager in India , that IBM is trying to make a huge computer with cat like brain, he would look at me strangely and say all these years the village thought the young men in ties with some computers hanging around their necks and going about rural surveys, and looking very important, were very smart and doing very high class work. But if now the computer people are still trying to reach a cat's brain, then those boys are playing with mice only! That is...

Dear Mr Louise Gardner, I am glad you quickly responded. I did expect this response and am not disappointed. But bear with me and and pray introspect on what I have to share with you after 40 years of public life and as the only engineer from India whose work is covered both by National Geographic and Discovery in 160 countries- my Anti Collision Device technology and Skybus metro rail- I am also specially chosen to be appreciated by the World Intellectual Property Office Geneva for my innovations. Life of scientists and engineers is guided by the mission to contribute to improve human life. In my limited way I am trying. Engineers think I am not the routine engineer and feel uncomfortable with me and scientists think I am below their level, because I do laugh at some colleagues who are scientists who miss the wood for the tree. All the scientists put together in the last century have failed to give one alternative to the fossil fuel energy source- esoteric concepts of helium 3 gas or ...

Today 19th Nov back in 1863, to stand and listen to what Abraham Lincoln stated in such a short 2 minute time, is truly moving! Nov 19th , 1863 Gettysburg Address of Abraham Lincoln The Bliss version, written well after the speech as a favor for a friend, is viewed by many as the standard text. Its text differs, however, from the written versions prepared by Lincoln before and after his speech. It is the only version to which Lincoln affixed his signature, and the last he is known to have written. Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live....

Humans have not really been producing real wealth- but used creative genius in financial markets, to create funny money- which , which when reaches a critical proportion burst out as bubble!Now we have to pick up pieces of our life and slowly struggle back to normalcy and wait for some more creative geniuses to produce another round of funny money cycle to get feel good factor driving us out to shop,shop and shop until we drop dead! I pray for once we recognize creativity in non-financial sector, that is in real life sector, to improve quality of lives with reducing costs of supporting infrastructure, through aggressive application of science and technology. The enemy to put obstacles for this is within- too many cynical know- alls! In financial sector, it s a closed group & mutually beneficial society; normal public being kept out, but in real life sector and main street, the man on street to the man in White House have a say with layers of bureaucrats to bicker all the time. A ca...

Dear Mr President, welcome! I am worried the path ASCE is taking. A solution to save 98.5% of man made energy in transportation is being denied publication in our Journal on Transportation Engineering! It is a disservice to the members of ASCE to be denied an opportunity to be the first to share a breakthrough development by one of their members. Now they will have to read from some other journals. USA needs urgent solution to make us energy independent, and economic down turn can be addressed with such energy saving transportation solution like Gravity Powered Urban Rail! It is not a joke to be able to save 98 to 70% of man-made energy , replacing the same with gravity power, while using the existing infrastrutire too. I am intrigued as a very senior civil engineering professional with enough professional work reported all round the world, and not needing an endorsement at this stage in my life, what our society is looking for- to be unconcerned with current problems of scoiety makes ...

Hi Mr King, Liked your neat write up. I share this historic moment with you. So much of hope has been placed in one man and Obama must be feeling the heavy burden now- but he is so likable guy and starts with a huge all round good will. But he needs a break - a lucky one to turn the tables of the economic mess we have today created by the financial wizards who played a glorified Ponzi game with virtual money without actually creating wealth. But will he able to spot one even if one is available? He needs a truly value adding and wealth creating invention which can boost the country's lifestyle at affordable cost! Quite often the bureaucracy and established lobbies actually block him from access to such work- his own high position which gives him power to deliver also ironically blocks him from getting access to his solution which is badly needed. Let me share an example. USA imports oil and we pay heavy sums to gulf countries and now they are not buying back our treasury bonds, as...

I don't understand why the finance gurus still talk of derivatives as a natural corollary of financial system's evolution. The simple bench mark for any innovation should be, you cannot create more value than the available wealth; by perception based floating papers, using further such virtual paper to create even more of the same variety, we create a virtual realit of wealth. It is a hidden game of similar to the same scams perpetrated in earlier days of banking too.It is only Warren Buffet who stated in no uncertain terms that the derivatives will prove to be the weapon of mass destruction for the financial system and got his company out of it. It is time that experts like Rangarajan come out strongly and condemn and ban the derivatives approach in financial systems for protecting the economy from another future down turn. I am glad at least Dr Reddy, our former RBI Governor in a talk with me did agree that considerable risk and inadequate transparency prevail in quite a numb...

Reference Scientific American article on Force Fields( 4th Nov.08) : My gut feeling is the vast energies of the cosmic origin, shaped the system we see over millions and millions of human years. It looks ridiculous for a small tiny speck, our planet earth, and its inhabitants to attempt to redefine the force fields with little understanding. But it is exciting to keep on wondering at the discoveries we daily make in our little world with limited reach allowed to us by our extremely constricted tools of senses aided by imagination and conditioned intelligence! That is why we keep on contradicting our once highly laudable scientific truths and dust off again as time progresses, and go back to them! Best is to enjoy the process as long as it lasts! The simple gravity force we have all round us, we don't know much. But I discovered that with stops at 450m, peak speed of 108 kmph, and average speed of 54 kmph, we can have urban transportation on our planet, which can be powered by gravi...

I was reading Patralekha Chatterjee's article recently about how Mumbai can be reduced by a fringe political party into a shrinking cowering city with all the great national icons of from Maharashtra just cringing and showing a total lack of national spirit. I wonder what happened to the beautiful and proud legacy of Shivaji, Balagangadhar Tilak, Babasaheb Ambedkar and many a national leader who emerged from Maharashtra! Current leaders are reducing Maharashtrians to a mere third rate job seekers who think some one else is stealing their jobs!! What a pity from being leaders of the nation and rulers to fall to this dismal levels that a student in exam hall gets attacked and hurt and a simple labourer , a citizen of India, gets lynched motivated by the leadership! On top the leaders lack the courage to admit what they have done and disown responsibility too. I am proud of Matathas, their valour and respect for human values. This generation is seeing the a total disintegration of the...