Symbiosis International University 2008 SNAP - Question Paper

For the subsequent ques. in this section, accurate answers carry one mark every. Directions for
ques. no. 6-11: learn the passage and ans within its situation. Rajendra K. Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is getting nightmares because of the Nano, Tata‘s soon-to-be-launched Rs. 1 lakh car. Sunita Narain of the centre for science and Environment (CSE) says that it isn‘t the Nano by itself but cars overall that provide her nightmares. The villains in my nightmares are either the Nano nor cars overall, but stupid government policies that subsidize and encourage pollution, adulteration and congestion Sanctimonious greens call the Nano disastrous because of its affordability millions more will now clog roads and consume more fossil fuel. This is elitism parading as virtue. Elite greens own cars, but cannot stand the poorer masses becoming mobile, since the consequent will eat into the time of the elite! More logical would be a protest against big cars that use more space and fuel, or highly polluting old cars. Instead green hypocrites aim at a new car with the least cost, best mileage and lowest emissions. The Nano will not burden us with too many cars. India has very few cars per person by world standards. London and New York have ultra-high car densities, yet have clearer air than Delhi. Our issue is too many policies, not too many cars. We subsidize vehicles on a gargantuan scale invisible to lay folk. Roads and flyovers cost crores to build and maintain, yet road use is free(save on a few toll roads). Traffic police and lights are costly, yet are given free. These invisible subsidies starve cities of funds to expand roads and public transport. Land in cities now costs lakhs per square metre. Yet parking is free in the suburbs, and often costs just Rs. 10 day per day in city centres. A single parking space of 23 square meters land worth Rs. 40 lakhs. A car occupies more space than an office desk, yet the desk space pays full commercial rent while parking space costs just about Rs. 10 per day. Daily parking charges range from $30(RS.630) in Washington to $30(Rs. 1260) in New York, CSE launched a sensible campaign to raise parking fees in Delhi to Rs. 120 per day, but was foiled. So, parking space now exceeds green space, a scathing comment on priorities. The world price of crude oil has risen 13 fold since 1998 to over %139 per barrel, but Indian petrol prices have barely doubled. Left Front politicians, who once wanted to soak the rich, now want to subsidize them. Under-recoveries of oil companies‘ total may be Rs. 2,00,000 crore, even after a latest price hike. This is far more than the cost of Sarve Shiksha Abhiyan (education for all) and the Employment Guarantee Scheme put together. We sanctimoniously lecture rich countries to decrease their green house emissions, yet subsidize our own. Diesel is subsidized to be cheaper than petrol. So, Indian car makers produce the highest proportion of diesel cars in the world. Diesel fumes contain suspended particles that are highly toxic. This subsidy kills. So does kerosene given at throwaway prices, ostensibly to benefit poor villagers. 1 3rd of all kerosene is used to adulterate petrol and diesel. This causes horrendous pollution even in the greenest of cars. What‘s the way forward? We must abolish subsidies and raise taxes on vehicles and fuels to reflect their full social cost. The biggest but lowest visible subsidy is for parking, and we should begin there.

Earning:   Approval pending.