It’s amazing how people with huge
amount of money and technical knowhow stoop to multiply money, in this case
fully aware that these will lead further deterioration of air quality,
resulting in serious health issues, causing deaths as also environmental degradation.
Air pollution kills millions of people and maims many more. It is the direct
and indirect cause for heart attacks, strokes, asthma, lung and bladder
cancers, low birth weight, low verbal IQ, poor memory and attention among
children, faster cognitive decline in older people and – recent studies suggest
– a link with the earlier onset of dementia. This blogger too had started to face
adverse effects of severe air quality deterioration (as also constantly exposed
to high levels of noise), as I lived next to a crowded traffic junction (in pits of Delhi)
as also later used to commute in two wheeler in one of the most bleak air quality
condition (the notorious Bengaluru traffic) unleashed by ‘development’ through personal
cars and traffic jams, thankfully I moved to cleaner town, in the last few
years symptoms of being exposed to pollutants have subsided but I still get
wheezing sometimes. In the last many years India has seen explosion of brands
of cars. The kind of marketing strategy followed by these billion dollar companies
clearly indicates that people who are getting the benefits of market driven
economy are necessarily low on intelligence, hence these amazingly juveniles
ads to make them take decisions on buying these luxury products in an essentially
impoverished country. It is also conceivable that the high end manipulators get
associated with these money bags, essentially these are innovative ways of transferring
money among the elite and consolidate their hold over people. In return lax
laws and adherence standards are worked out for convenience of the company. MNC
are also known to encourage these ethical laxities as they seek to outdo their competition
to multiply money, kickback is a common reference. In many instances MNCs have
no option as the laws are kept subjective and manipulateable, it is a very
special game played out by top level bureaucrats, politicians and marketers. Advertisement
in this context is quite a harmless way of distribution of money, it also keeps
the market media narration compelling and manipulateable as also helps sustain
the development thrive in semblance of professionalism. It is therefore no at
all surprising that some amazingly crude people get richer and richer, as the
society in general degrades, prejudices and discrimination gets consolidated.
Germany is known for its
excellence in engineering and high end machinery, when you have calibre to
innovate and a mindset to excel it is rare to go for manipulation and short
term gains. It is inconceivable, therefore, shocking that Volkswagen was caught
rigging its pollution tests, and that too in a highly sophisticated manner. It reminds
me of doping by top class athletes. It tends to break the trust, an utter disbelief
to begin with turns into anger, why would anyone that too cash rich and extremely
talented commit such criminal acts, to make it worse, put the lives of people at
risk? It must be the arrogance of invincibility, as also the constant urge to
stay ahead of competition, earn more than competitors –a reason for existence in
some circle. Crude form of capitalism has brought in the worse among the best
people. That is what is sad about this incident.
Now if a multibillion dollar and
a reputed company like Volkswagen can do it in US, where the laws are
stringent and punishment severe, then think what all they might be doing in
countries like India where laws are kept lax, punishments in the realm of subjective
perceptions as also easy availability of battery of high end manipulators ready
to twist/divert the narration to the requirements (indeed the intense competition
is in this ability to manipulate!! Sophistication herein is mistaken by some as
signs of service industry gigantism). Now if Volkswagen is doing it then what
prevents its competitors from not doing it? India is seen as a huge market for automobile
industry, hence it is conceivable that unscrupulous practises could be used to
stay ahead of the race and multiply money. This blogger has reason to suspect that
these criminal acts (and negligence) must be common practice across the board. Having
experienced severe forms of air pollution, caused by automobiles, I am not
ready to believe that they are adhering to stringent standards.
My suspicion is further strengthened
by the lackadaisical concern for Volkswagen case by Indian market media, it is
not surprising since revenue from stupid car ads is their roji roti, even BBC was seen to be quite mild towards car manufacturers.
This is a serious issue and has severe ramification on air quality standards therefore
health concerns of citizens. Government should have immediately taken cognisance
of these developments and asked for stringent testing of all the brands of four
wheelers manufacturers in the market.
Post script: if Google was an Indian company how would it expand
its market? To start with, it is difficult to conceive Google to be an Indian
company, cutting edge innovations or the mindset needed for these rarely thrive in
this part of the world. But still, Google would diversify into Google Mining
& Property developer, Google jewelers, Google life insurance so on…it
seems that Google, or for that matter Apple, doesn’t know how to multiply money!!
