Sunday, July 29, 2012

Admiring The Dragon Nation..

Its been almost a year and a half for me staying in this Asian giant, yet it never fails to impress me. When I first landed here with over 100's of doubts, queries and apprehensions in mind, I never thought I will stay back even for 6 months in the land of Dragons. Destiny, they say is funnier than what we think of it. As I complete 18 month of my stay, I try to look at this nation for the Infrastructure they have built with a foriegner's eye.

Over the course of next few minutes, I will take you through some of the most incredible investments.To cushion itself against the recession, the Asian giant is investing in one of the most ambitious public works programs the world has ever seen.

The 1.4 mile Bailing River Bridge in Guizhou is one of the hundreds of Infrastructure projects initiated by the Chinese as a way to create jobs and improve its domestic economy. The Baling River Bridge (Ba Lin He Bridge) is a suspension bridge in Guanling County in Guizhou Province of China. The bridge spans the Baling River Valley and was opened to public traffic on December 23, 2009. The bridge is part of the G60 Shanghai–Kunming Expressway between Kunming and Guiyang and reduced the travel time across the river valley from one hour to four minutes. The suspension span is 1,088 m (3,570 ft) long, and the bridge has a total length of 2,237 m (7,339 ft). It is also one of the world's highest bridges with 375 m (1,230 ft) clearance above the river.

                                                                                                          Image Source:Time.com

There's an old Chinese saying that goes: “If you want to be rich, you must first build roads.”

And, boy, have they built some roads: In the past year, we've seen the world's longest sea bridge, the world's longest gas pipeline and a high-speed railway that's left everyone else in the dust — literally.

China is one of out of the several countries that signed a contract to re-construct the ancient "Silk Road" linking China and India with Europe. The estimated cost of the project is around $6.5 billion.


                                                                   Image Source:Wiki Commons

If you felt that was it, then just hold your breath. China is one of the 32 countries, who signed agreement for the construction of highways to span the continent and reach Europe.


                                                                     Image Source:Wiki Commons

So you thought, it stops only at the roads. Hold on your breath a bit longer. The South-North Water Transfer Project is a multi-decade infrastructure project of the People's Republic of China to better utilize water resources available to China. This is to be achieved through the South North Water Diversion Project (SNWD). Whilst the main thrust is to divert water from the Yangtze River to the Yellow River and Hai River, other spin-off plans are also loosely included. Amongst these, a controversial plan calling for the capture and diversion of water from Brahmaputra River, located in Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon north of India, has been under study for years. However, due to widespread protests by the Government of India and Bangladesh, the chinese are rethinking the implementation of this project. Nonetheless, the thought of diverting the entire river flow needs some applauds

                                                                                          Image Source:Wiki Commons




China is not left far behind when it comes to buliding some of the tallest in the world. When I looked up from the bottom of the Shanghai Financial Tower, I said to myself, "you are kidding me". My eyes turned to the adjacent building under construction. The curious self that I am, I asked my chinese friend to throw some light about the ongoing project and got to know that it will replace the title of the tallest bulding in China and will hold the coveted title of 2nd tallest building in the world known as "The Shanghai Tower". Estimated Project Cost $2.2 Billion.


                                               Image Source:Wiki Commons


Hangzhou Bay Bridge is a long highway bridge with a cable-stayed portion across Hangzhou Bay in the eastern coastal region of China. It connects the municipalities of Jiaxing and Ningbo in Zhejiang province. At 35.673 km (22 mi) in length, Hangzhou Bay Bridge is one of the longest trans-ocean bridges in the world.The bridge shortened the highway travel distance between Ningbo and Shanghai from 400 km (249 mi) to 280 km (174 mi) and reduced travel time from 4 to 2.5 hours. Having travelled on this bridge, I can say, this truly is a man-made wonder on this planet without much a doubt.

                                                       Image Source:Wiki Commons





 The Jiuquan Wind Farm will be the largest wind power base in the world when completed in 2013.
 
 
                                                                                                    Image Source:Wiki Commons


My blog would not be enough, such is the enormity of investments made  by the China. We, as rest of the world can sit back and take notice. More than that, we should emulate what the Chinese government is doing for its people, rather than criticizing for what it is not doing.

Having seen the Chinese development story from close quarters, I can tell you all one thing with confidence, you need more than determination for taking your country to greater heights.

I wish and pray that one day, even our country will scale the heights of the past glory set by our ancestors before the British withered it away.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Something Beyond Cricket...!

Around this hullabaloo surrounding the gentleman's game, I was left pondering about the most inquisitive of the questions, "Why is India lagging behind in Football?"


Being a die-hard football fan isn't helping my restless mind a bit. Every time I sit back late hours to watch a champion’s league match or a major FIFA tournament, it makes me think about the lack of dominating presence of my own country in this beautiful game. Trust me, everyone likes to cheer their favorite football stars, however, cheering your own countrymen is a different feeling altogether.


In all this curiosity, I started to research more about the Soccer history of India where I came across some startling facts. The year 1948 saw India participating in the London Olympics for the first time. Well if that was not surprising, then how about this one," the players were predominantly barefooted!!". The mere thought of playing football barefooted surprises me as would anyone who plays football for that matter. The result was a 2-1 loss to France but not before winning the hearts of the audience.


A golden chance to write history was missed when the All India Football Federation decided against playing the 1950 FIFA World Cup Finals citing reasons such as cost of travel, lack of practice time and valuing Olympics over FIFA Football World Cup. The years 1951-1962, although described as a golden era of Indian Football, it failed to keep the momentum going until 1964 India played in its most memorable tournament yet. The 1964 AFC Asian Cup where they finished as runners-up thanks to then-current manager Harry Wright. India won their first match against South Korea 2–0, then lost 2–0 to the hosts Israel then won 3–1 against Hong Kong which gave India second in the tournament.


That was all in the glorious chapter of India’s soccer history. After the Asian Cup, Indian Football just lost its way totally. Such is the agony for football that India doesn’t even have a permanent stadium. The only stadiums that are FIFA and AFC approved are the Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium also in New Delhi, Nehru Stadium in Chennai, Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune, and most recently approved after a renovation the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata.


Being a football fan deeply saddens me about this sorry state of affairs of India Football. A silver lining would be FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s comments,” ‘Sleeping Giant’ India slowly waking up”. With India all set to bid for 2017 U-17 world cup in 2015, I hope with the millions of Football Fan in the country will surely have their dream come true.


I wish all the good luck to the Indian Football Fraternity, in bringing back the Indian Team into the world map of Football.

Chetan Shetty
Saturday, 28th July 2012
Shanghai