Changing relations

Prepared a simple chart today tracking the per capita income (PPP terms, in current USD) of India relative to those of China and Pakistan in recent decades. It is rather deflating to recall that till as recently as 2006, India had a lower per capita GDP than Pakistan. But downright stunning to be reminded that China only overtook India in 1991 and Pakistan in 1996! Imagine Pakistan, by some accounts "the most dangerous place on earth" (here and here), not long ago being richer than two aspiring great powers of the 21st century :)

Note: Chart based on IMF data. The data-points from 2010 to 2014 are based on IMF projections made in Oct 2009.

Hauling out the last catch?

The CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) conference in Doha, Qatar has gotten off to a bad start with the proposed bans on trading in bluefin tuna and polar bears being rejected ("U. N. Rejects Export Ban on Atlantic Bluefin Tuna". NY Times, March 18, 2010).

I don't understand Japan's thinking. It's the biggest consumer of Atlantic bluefin tuna and has an obvious interest in ensuring that the fishery remains sustainable in the future. The tuna are imported into Japan and there should not be any fishermen's lobby seeking to prevent its livelihood being cut-off. Is Japan choosing to not reduce/suspend its tuna consumption now, even if it means being entirely deprived of it in 10-20 years time? Strange, for a country which has preserved its environment better than most (Chapter 5: Ecological Strategies of Tokugawa Japan, The Unending Frontier, John F Richards) :(

Pricing to decongest roads

On most Sunday mornings, I go to a nearby theatre to watch a movie. Some years ago, parking on the road along the mall housing the theatre was free and I always took my car. Later, a parking charge of Rs 20 was introduced. I continued to use my car. Some months ago, the charge was raised to Rs 30. I stopped using my car (mostly), and now take an auto for the journey. There's thus atleast one less car taking up precious road space on Sunday morning. Classic market forces at work - as the price of one good (private car parking) increases, users will switch to a substitute (using autos/taxis or trains/buses).

Given that road space is a very scarce resource in Bombay, and that it is very expensive to create further supply of this resource (flyovers can't be built everywhere), the only solution is for the price of the resource to go up. Parking charges (on designated roads, rather than dedicated parking lots) should ideally go up to a minimum of Rs 100 or so, to really deter the unthinking use of cars in Bombay. Of course, public transport services like buses and trains should be augmented and improved in tandem.

Bombay Time!

Had a lot of spare time at work today (as usual), so was browsing various articles online (as usual, again!). I made a fascinating discovery.

Now, of course, Bombayites get the benefit of 40 minutes of daylight saving, since local time is behind the standard time, resulting in relatively late sunrises and sunsets. Once upon a time though, Bombay time was actually 40 minutes behind IST. Bombay had its own time zone, separate from that of the rest of India, for about half-a-century from 1905 to 1955! [I assume that Bombay here refers to Bombay Presidency of British India and Bombay state of independent India, rather than to the city].

The story is very interesting, and related here.

Further clicking brought me to the Project Gutenberg website, where this document seems to show that "Bombay Time" was one of the originally designated time zones when these were created in a global accord in the 1880s (search "Bombay" in the linked url). And Bombay was the only city that had an entire time zone named after it. Good ego-stroking for these less glorious days!