I have tried to analyse this situation a bit.
The first table (2005-06 data) shows that India exports 1.5 billion dollars worth of Marine products and more than 1 billion dollar (second table) worth of livestock products. So in all, 2.5 billions of dollars of exports is something we rate as Non-vegetarian.
Now, if u see from the 3rd table, it is clear that India has net imports of 10 billion (i.e imports is 10 billion dollar more than the exports) and amongst this, 7.5 dollars is due to petroleum products (7.5 billion more of petroleum imports than petroleum exports).
This is the kind of consumption that India has when it comes to petroleum and i
ts related products.Now, assume India stops all of these slaughterhouses, that means India's balance of payments is more negative by 2.5 billion dollars. Do you have any idea how much loss does that mean when it comes to India's international trade (things like increased trade deficit,etc.. don't want to get too technical here). But it simply means that we are selling less than what we are buying, and this means loss in terms of business.
Well, by this time, you must be cursing me on the point that I am supporting slaughterhouses.
What I intend to convey by this blog is that other than all the steps mentioned above against government , we must also reduce our usage of
petroleum products. This predominantly involves 'Judicial use of personal vehicles'. I know the use of cars is sadly regarded as social status in our society, so I don't intend to say that Stop using cars. But find alternatives whenever possible (I cant think of ways that we can do that, but comments section is open for that).
So if we really think that we are vegetarian, we must first reduce the use of petroleum products, which can have cascading effect on the stoppage of slaughterhouses... Give this a thought, my fellow
Jains/vegetarians.Also, as day by day fuel consumption is going up, the global worries of fuel shortage has forced people to generate fuel by alternative methods. Tyson foods (largest producer of meat) has proposed and doing a reasearch on turning animal fat into fuel, to tackle the fuel demands. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19420483/)
So, one more reason to un-petrofy** your daily uses, if you think you are against killing animals and not just against eating animals...
*4500 Cr rupees ~ 1 Billion dollar
** un-petrofy - reduce the use of petroleum and related products (this is not a dictionary word, purely my vocabulary :D )
4 comments:
after reading the title i got interested...nd u noe y :P; i felt i could again bring those ole days of healthy arguments back...but alas the topic nd content hv no relation.....so i'll comment on both- topic nd content albeit separately......
the topic well u noe wat i feel abt it....we really aren't jains by any stretch of imagination...nd vegetarian well it cannot be equated with jain, nd i still feel all this talk of jain/vegetarian/non vegetarian is all hogwash.....
now the content.....it seems thr is some credibility in wat ur sayin in terms of the net effect of not banning slaughter houses wrt to their importance in our BoP nd stuff....but dude seriously....petroleum consumption nd banning slaughter houses...riduculously naive comparison man.....
i agree completely tht we must reduce our consumption of petroleum products...but passenger cars make up a very small proportion of the actual consumption of oil man....thr r tons of other uses of the crude oil tht we buy...though i agree passenger car travel should come down especially in bbay.....nd yea reduction not jus by "vegetarians" but by every1....
we need to primarily decrease our dependence on oil so tht fluctuations in the oil mkt do not significantly affect out BoP....also we need to encourage investment in alternative energy sources.....
finally, India shud keep the slaughter houses functionin, they provide incomes to loads of ppl nd also those who eat the meat are happy nd satisfied.....coz i belive we hv no rite to dictate who eats wat...we can jus decide wat we can eat/not eat......
nd dude...nxt time topic agar excite kare...toh content mein bhi kuch maal hona chahiye.....sirf item song se picture nahi chalti :P
@rahul :
my target audience for this post is totally different. I just want to make those ppl realise that there are many other things by which you can actually persuade govt to do what you actually want. like, once the consumption goes down, so will negative BoP, and then we can urge govt to stop the slaughter houses.. we keep saying that govt should do this and that.. but we are ourselves not ready to take the burden.. that is not what real jain is.. well, may be to understand that, you need to indulge a bit deeper into jainism and its society... there is too much of show baazi.. social desitabilit factor is pretty high... :)
I think it was an interesting perspective on the issue.. but I think there were a few things which you probably overlooked or I would have looked at in a different way..
- the 2.5 billion revenue as you mentioned is specifically from Marine and Livestock "products" which would not necessarily mean killing them. As we already know, lot of the Livestock is considered sacred in our country and it is the byproducts which cover for a large amount of exports ( which could include milk products, manure, fertilizers, ... and this adds to the value they provide in supporting the food chain).
- 7.5 billion import of Petroleum is no doubt a Big Number and is definitely going to increase, and I agree with you that need exists to decrease our dependancy on such a limited resource.. but as the industry and world exists today.. reliance on petroleum as a primary resource and fuel is a bare necessity.. The interesting fact that you would probably want to find out would be to check the per capita petroleum consumption.. I am absolutely certain that the amount of petroleum consumed is next to nothing on that terms..
Also speaking of which, India stands as one of the countries to which world looks up to when it comes to use of Alternate source of energy specifically speaking Wind Energy.. But moving forward to these types of energies takes effort... it is not just a technology shift.. it is a mind shift.. these are expensive technology only for advanced users and is so because it is not developed and reliable enough to commoditize..
Coming back to the trade deficit, I think what is more important is to move on and think on not just how to reduce the negatives but also to increase the positives by looking at newer options and opportunities to export and this is where innovation and novel creations can bring up a country.. this is where people of our ages and about 10 years more can make the difference..
this is again a proven fact... and we need not look far...China stands right next to India geographically and has increased its petroleum intake.. but It has at the same time ventured out into the export market in such a big way (albeit all limitations of language, government control, etc) and has increased its positive revenue big time!
Just what I thought towards your take.. coming back to which I agree to your fact of trying to reduce dependance on crude oil where possible.. but speaking about Jainism it would be not a complete take on it.. I would still stand by what Jainism says of trying to avoid slaughter houses..
2 numbers which would give more autheticity to your doc would be revenue generated by the slaughter houses and per capita petroleum consumption and how effectively we use it.. What you probably could say is using the petroleum consumed more effectively.. and that would be probably where India could have a lot of scope to improve..
well anyways... ended up writing a long reply ... --- thought I would add my 2 cents.. Interesting topic nevertheless :)
@Ankur:
the livestocks figures are different than dairy products and fertilizers... (btw, india doesnt export manure :D) .. and about sacredness, its only in india,.. most part of exports make up beef (cow product).. and FYI, beef is available in most muslim areas in india too..
you gave a good lecture on macro economics of india :) ..
my target was jains only.. who are not bent towards saving on oil but make huge hue and cry about slaughterhouses... and obviously, i am 100% against those... but using more oil actually means +ve cascaded effect on things which we have been opposing...
when we speak about per capita consumption, india would rank amongst lowest in world, i agree to that point of yours.. but my target is solely jains here who boast of what they are doing :D ... and one more thing that i m sure of is that per capita consumption of fuel amongst jains will be higher than other communities :D.. as per capita income amongst us is also high... still, i would add that data here, if i get hold of it. (also, i need to find that percentage of crude used in fuelling vehicles :D, as told by Rahul)
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