Manohar Khushalani was one of the panelists who appeared live on NDTV for a panel discussion on the water crisis faced in India. This video gives an insight into the problems faced by Indians when it comes to water as well as some expert opinions on this matter. Some of the other panelists are Raghav Chadha, VK Madhavan, Medha Patkar, Dr. Vaman Acharya, and Arunabha Ghosh.

India is facing a major water crisis. People are facing drought-like situations and running out of tap water in major cities like Bengaluru, Chennai and even in the capital, Delhi.

Raghav Chadha started the discussion by giving facts such as, the water availability has increased in Delhi in the last 4 years from 50 percent of the population receiving usable water to 80 percent. He also said the government is planning to rejuvenate lakes and also create new lakes as resources for freshwater. He also mentioned that the condition of south delhi districts, which earlier faced the problem of clean water and also improper sewage treatment, has now been fixed and will be provided with usable fresh water in the upcoming months.

Prof. Manohar Khushalani mentioned the fact that India as a country consumes more groundwater than any other country. He also stated that water should now be treated as a subject for the central government instead of being treated as a state subject. The states do not have enough coordination and are busy in handling the inter-state water disputes while the residents are still suffering. He also mentioned the fact that there needs to be more research put into methods for getting water from rivers and other sources.

VK Madhavan then gave some key perspectives such as, that the water crisis is caused not only due to excessive use of water but also improper distribution and conservation of water. He argued that the source of tankers that provide water to communities is uncertain, and there are still major areas that don’t have assured access. At a later stage of the discussion he also mentioned that cities are largely dependent on groundwater but do nothing when it comes to implementation methods like drip irrigation to conserve water. India receives a huge amount of rainfall which doesn’t necessarily seep into the ground and thus should be stored and filtered in an efficient manner.

Medha Patkar emphasised on the fact that the current structures and working of dams and related buildings are destroying the rivers. She also highlighted that the government should be focusing more on mini and micro water shedding instead of macro water shedding. She also said that the government’s main strategy should revolve around controlling the access to water on a per house basis and that for major changes the community itself should play a big role.

While water scarcity in India as an issue has not been discussed as topmost important matter, it is high time the people should focus on this subject, or else it’ll be too late to realise and it will affect India and its people way more than it is doing today.

Chennai, the fourth largest city in India, is the worst hit city when it comes to water crisis. Chennai city officials declared that the day when almost no water is left, had been reached, as all the four main reservoirs supplying water to the city had run dry. Two years of deficient monsoon rainfall, with a rainfall deficit of 55 percent, particularly in late 2017 and throughout much of 2018 had led to this crisis. This has impacted millions of people who are left with inconsistent access to water. This is said to be the case of current developed states like Karnataka and Maharashtra in the future. Karnataka has very small amounts of resources left and soon will be piling their hopes on Maharashtra to receive water. On the other hand, Maharashtra because of its size and location, is under immense pressure to provide not only to its residents but also neighbouring states. The rainfall in these 2 states has also started declining in the past few years which only has caused more problems.

Some of the other valuable points that are mentioned by the panellists are; controlling the use of water in the agriculture industry. Sugarcane, which is a crop that depends on water heavily, is grown in parts of the country that have a scarcity of supply. This reduces the availability of water for the people for their personal use; recycling and recharging should be the topmost priority of any water management organisation, i.e. filtering out the water received by rain and distributing that water to the households that don’t have access to groundwater; the yearly monsoon pattern shows that the rain is declining in most parts of India and this also should be a major concern; even though the government is planning on making new residential buildings for development, they are not checked about proper water consumption levels and are sometimes specified with uncertain sources of water so as to receive license to build those structures.

Professor Manohar Khushalani was invited on a panel discussion on ABP News with the anchor Romana Israr Khan on the segment ‘Samvidhan Ki Shapat’, on Monday, the 18th of November at 5 PM. 

The panel began with an introduction about the political twist in the heated pre-election environment on the report on the quality of water in Delhi released by Ram Vilas Paswan, the Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public distribution. The claims of terrible water quality were refuted and questioned by Arvind Kejriwal, of the Aam Aadmi Party. 

https://youtu.be/FpmkR21XbEA?list=PLhUwzuRPD83JfAxltjZQrE2C2O6yCSib_

(Professor Manohar Khushalani with Mr. Harish Khurana, Mr. Haroon Yusuf, Mr. Raghav Chaddha and the anchor Romana Israr Khan)

Along with Professor Manohar Khushalani, the ex-director of National Water Academy, Mr. Harish Khurana, the spokesperson for BJP, Mr. Raghav Chaddha, the spokesperson for AAP and Mr. Haroon Yusuf, the spokesperson for INC were present in the panel debate.

The debate opened with Mr. Chaddha claiming that Mr. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the Minister of Jal Shakti had previously reported in September that the quality of Delhi’s water fared even better than the water quality in Europe and that Mr. Manoj Tiwari had agreed to the claims. AAP refuted the claims saying the samples were selectively chosen and misconstrued to present a defeating image, citing political reasons.  It is important to remember that the World Health Organization states that 80% of India’s groundwater is contaminated by various organic and inorganic pollutants and that India is ranked 20th out of 122 countries in WaterAid’s water quality index.  Mr. Khurana refuted the previous report by Minister of Jal saying his statements are being distorted to suit a narrative and the state of India’s water quality is grim and unfortunate. This discussion revolving Delhi’s water quality is of immense importance as approximately 2439 people have lost their lives in 2018 alone to various water-borne diseases such as Chlorella, Typhoid, Hepatitis amongst others. Mr. Manohar elaborated on the technicalities behind report finding and lauded the authenticity of the Bureau of Indian Standards but went on to state how 11 reports alone weren’t enough to gauge the quality of water, especially citing the lack of information surrounding the report.  A very significant point was bought to notice by Mr. Manohar who reminded us of the importance Air and Water quality holds to the residents of every area, how previously our surface water was clean and the storm-water drains created during the British era were perfectly functional. But with the advent of covered up drains and Unauthorized colonies, Chemical farming, usage of fertilizers has led to a decrease in the quality of water and improper sewage system has caused our water to pollute. 

The extremely heated and informative discussion ended with anchor divulging into the importance of Air and Water quality to the standard of living of the citizens of the country, and how it is important that the politicians look beyond the politics and genuinely improve the quality for the people. You can watch the entire discussion and find more information here- Panel Discussion on water

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpmkR21XbEA&list=PLhUwzuRPD83JfAxltjZQrE2C2O6yCSib_&index=7

Since you’ve seen part of the debate in this video, you would also appreciate that there was not enough time to go into this exciting topic in detail. My intention is to expand my point of view in a series of articles beginning with this one – Part I of the series. Also in Part II we will share the complete debate, so that we can get our co participants viewpoints across as well. To begin with, lets look at the sequence of events as reported by BBC ^​*​

The US Department of Defense has released three declassified videos of what it now calls an “Unexplained Aerial Phenomena” – the new nomenclature for UFOs

The Pentagon said it wanted to “clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real”.

In its statement, the Pentagon said: “After a thorough review, the department has determined that the authorised release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems, and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.

“DOD [Department of Defense] is releasing the videos in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos. The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as ‘unidentified’.”

The videos had already been leaked in 2007 and 2017.

Two were published by the New York Times^​†​, while the third was leaked by an organisation, To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences, co-founded by former vocalist Tom DeLonge. The musician co-founded the academy in 2017 in order to study UFOs and other paranormal phenomena.

Tweeting about the release, DeLonge thanked shareholders in his organisation, and said “I am hoping to fund further research into the objects.”

“With today’s events and articles on my and @TTSAcademy’s efforts to get the US Gov to start the grand conversation, I want to thank every share holder for believing in us,” he said.

“Next, we plan on pursuing the technology, finding more answers and telling the stories.”

Many people surmised at that time that there were alien’s navigating those Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).

According to the New York Times, the clip from 2004 was filmed by two navy fighter pilots and shows a round object hovering above the water, about 100 miles (160 km) out into the Pacific Ocean.

Two other videos filmed in 2015 show objects moving through the air, one of which is spinning. In one, a pilot is heard saying: “Look at that thing, dude! It’s rotating!”

Let’s look at these videos described above

Obviously these aerial objects were not following any known laws of Newtonian physics . This author^​‡​ has always held that many new laws of dynamics are yet to be discovered or harnessed. One of them is Gravity. Yes we use Gravity of heavenly bodies to catapult or alter the course of rockets and satellites, enabling them to wander into the universe. This technique helps to save fuel and helps the spacecraft to remain navigable for a longer time. Hence Gravity is a force, a form of energy which is so powerful that it can hold Gigantic Planets, Suns and Stars together.

Yet my colleagues in the debate on Times Now program probably felt that if they were UFOs then they were to follow the same laws of physics which purportedly governed the rocket science of contemporary Space agencies like NASA. ISRO, Roscosmos and CNSA. Yes these Agencies have done remarkable work in outer space, but we are infants of science, if you compare yourself with the unimaginable size and extent of the Universe, and our place in it.

As beautifully put by Jonathan Marcus ^​§​ , “The fascination with the unexplained never goes away. And the UFO phenomenon is perhaps one of the most potent of these stories, linking uncertainty about worlds beyond our own to conspiracy theories about government and especially the US government. Down the centuries people have looked to the sky and tried to explain mysterious lights and objects.”

Roswell, New Mexico, currently known mostly through myths about aliens and UFOs, is a major Tourist destination with plethora of tourist attractions, skywalk and UFO museums, art galleries, Alien Zones, Inns and Hotels, was a little known place in 1947. It catapulted to fame when One morning around Independence Day 1947, about 75 miles from the town of Roswell, a rancher named Mac Brazel found something unusual in his sheep pasture: a mess of metallic sticks held together with tape; chunks of plastic and foil reflectors; and scraps of a heavy, glossy, paper-like material. Unable to identify the strange objects, Brazel called Roswell’s sheriff. The sheriff, in turn, called officials at the nearby Roswell Army Air Force base. Soldiers fanned out across Brazel’s field, gathering the mysterious debris and whisking it away in armored trucks. The farmer’s discovered debris, was initially described as a flying saucer, by the local media.

On July 8, “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region” was the top story in the Roswell Daily Record. But was it true? On July 9, an Air Force official clarified the paper’s report: The alleged “flying saucer,” he said, was only a crashed weather balloon, but later it emerge that it was part of a secretive balloon programme to monitor the Soviet Union.

However, in 1950, there was another twist to this public fantasy when the skeptics grew more numerous, when the Air Force conducted a series of secret “dummy drops” over air bases, test ranges and unoccupied fields across New Mexico. These experiments, meant to test ways for pilots to survive falls from high altitudes, sent bandaged, featureless dummies with latex “skin” and aluminum “bones”–dummies that looked an awful lot like space aliens were supposed to–falling from the sky onto the ground, whereupon military vehicles would descend on the landing site to retrieve the “bodies” as quickly as possible.  So we can see how much folklore is associated with the UFO mystery

Subsequently the testing base for advanced aircraft, known as Area 51 in Nevada, became the alleged centre for UFO research. For the conspiracy theorists this was where the US government sought to harness advanced alien technology.

Over the years many of the most outlandish theories have been debunked. But in 2017, the Pentagon did finally admit that it had a long-standing programme, now terminated, investigating alleged UFOs.

Undoubtedly the Idea of Aliens do fascinate people because of mystery attached to it. The event at Roswell got so embedded in public mind that it has inspired novels like Roswell High by Melinda Metz or even a recent television series Roswell, New Mexico , which is an American science fiction drama, named after the city . 

The inevitable question that follows is, are we a freak occurrence of life in the Universe, are we alone in this cosmos of Trillions of stars, galaxies, planets, exoplanets and what have you or is there life elsewhere too

DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12571016
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12571016

More about this in subsequent articles

Part II will examine whether Science Fiction is really Fiction?

Part III will deal with the quintessential question: Are we alone in the Universe?

Also Read:

• The UFO sighting investigated by the police
• UFO ‘sighting’ becomes legend like King Arthur

Doordarshan News was showcasing Chandrayan-II Launch and Journey Modeled and Animated by Students of IIIT-Delhi, under the guidance of our editor, Prof. Manohar Khushalani

The interview and animation were telecast all day on the eve of the launch.

https://youtu.be/pwHYXPecA_4

That was Doordarshan. It was on Rajyasabha TV also as part of all it’s hourly news bulletin. On YouTube, this video posted by RSTV had already clocked nearly half a Lac hits (50K)

Rajya Sabha TV
Displays Chandrayan-II launch Modelled and Animated by Students as part of an Independent Project under the guidance of Prof. Manohar Khushalani at IIIT-Delhi.

This program had been telecast every hour with every news bulletin on the day of the launch

 

Modeling and Animation has been done as an Independent Project in IIIT-Delhi under the Guidance of Prof. Manohar Khushalani by Students Katyayni Singh and Harshit Verma

 

Chandrayaan-2 is India’s second lunar exploration mission after Chandrayaan-1. Developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the mission is planned to be launched to the Moon by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III).

 

A lunar orbiter, lunar lander and lunar rover mission, Chandrayaan-2 was scheduled to be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh on a GSLV Mark III rocket sometime in April. However, this is a visualisation and not an exact depiction and is based on the information available at that time

To see the original simulation click below;

 

Chandrayaan-2, India’s second mission to the Moon is a totally indigenous mission comprising of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover. After reaching the 100 km lunar orbit, the Lander housing the Rover will separate from the Orbiter. After a controlled descent, the Lander will soft land on the lunar surface at a specified site and deploy a Rover.

 

The mission will carry a six-wheeled Rover which will move around the landing site in a semi-autonomous mode as decided by the ground commands. The instruments on the rover will observe the lunar surface and send back data, which will be useful for analysis of the lunar soil.

 

The Chandrayaan-2 weighing around 3290 kg and would orbit around the moon and perform the objectives of remote sensing the moon. The payloads will collect scientific information on lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, lunar exosphere and signatures of hydroxyl and water-ice.

 

Through our modelling and animation, we have artistically visualized the launch and landing of Chandrayaan 2. The film begins with shots of GSLV MK III from diverse angles. To capture this historic launch, media houses have sent their helicopters. A few seconds before the launch, the viewer hears the countdown to liftoff. As anticipation builds, the smoke from the rocket increases. The rocket lifts off uproariously, ascending towards the sky. The payload separates from the rocket at this stage. Once the payload exits the atmosphere, the effect of gravity is nullified. From the payload, the lander floats towards the moon until it lands. The ladder opens while landing. The rover exits the lander. (This is not a manned mission, but, the ladder still opens, as a rehearsal of the next Manned Mission