How secure is communication at DG Shipping?

We are all aware of how secure paper and paper communications are at DG Shipping's office, and its subordinate offices, in India. Nothing more needs to be said about an organisation where touts flourish openly outside their offices, and all documents are available, easily. At a price, ofcourse - though if you want them genuinely, it is another question.

But now look at the electronic communication part of things?

As a seafarer who was also the head of an infotech company, I got some youngsters to run an audit on the DG Shipping website, as well as the MMD website. What they told me was so shocking, that I do not wish to share it here - or anywhere else, except by printed hard copy to the relevant people.

But just as an example:-

# Private email addresses are happily used for official eMails, in direct contravention of all Government of India policies on the subject, by officials at DG Shipping. For example:-

"dgcommcentre@satyammail.net"

How secure is this otherwise open email address, then?

# While the website claims that the site is designed, hosted and maintained by the DGS Computer Cell, the truth and reality are otherwise - and very easily traced back to a certain private company with interests also in the maritime education field, amongst other things.What is this all about, then?

# The sanctity of question papers for the written exams is in doubt - this has often been rumoured about, and basis the above, needs an exhaustive audit. If the exam question papers are rattling around in the same servers, then??

# What is with the over reliance on Internet Explorer and MS, why is DGS not using technology which can be read open source too?

# The website is not optimised for usage on mobile phones or Mac/Apple.

# Most of all, the website layout is thoroughly confusing and the search functions do to not work well.

On the ground level, for seafarers, the "instructions" on the website as well as the forms on the website are not in concurrence with actual practice onsite in the offices. If seafarers have some queries, they are told to refer to the website - but then the actual practice is way different. Score one for the tout-babu nexus again.

Is it too much to expect a half-way decent website from DG Shipping, please?

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incidentally, this is the security of our information on the DG Website, asprovided for on their own terms and conditions, here:-

http://dgship.gov.in/privacy.html

Our Disclosure of Your Information

We will not disclose your information to anyone outside of DGS or other Allied Offices, except as described in this section.

We may disclose aggregated anonymous statistics about many Users to advertisers, content and service providers and other affiliated and unaffiliated companies.

We sometimes engage third parties to perform services for us, including in connection with this Site, that require us to disclose Users' Personally Identifiable Information to them. If we make any such disclosure, we will require such parties to keep the information confidential and to use it only to perform the services.

We may from time to time wish to disclose your information to third parties that wish to market, or provide information about, their products and services to you. We will only do so after obtaining your permission. The only other times we may disclose your Personally Identifiable Information collected on this Site are as follows:

• In the event of an asset sale, merger, consolidation, restructuring, reorganization, liquidation or other similar transaction involving DGS or this Site, we may transfer some or all User information, including Personally Identifiable Information, to the successor company.
• We will disclose your Personally Identifiable Information when we believe such disclosure is required by law or for the protection of persons or property.
• We may disclose your Personally Identifiable Information with your consent, as well as when disclosure is necessary to accomplish the purpose for which you provide it. For example, when you request information from advertisers in the "Reader Services" section of our publications, we will disclose your Personally Identifiable Information to the advertisers you specify.

Humiliation and difficulties experienced while getting DCE at MMD Mumbai

One of the most frequent inputs I get from seafarers, officer and crew, has to do with the issues faced by people at MMD and DGS offices all over the country. And of all these, one of the most frequent issues is the what should be simple job of getting a DCE endorsement from MMD.

Over here, the name of one specific person, "Captain Prashant Y. Manchalwar" keeps cropping up again and again. Not just from seafarers, but also from vetting inspectors abroad, who speak with the officers and crew.

Anybody else got any inputs on this before I publish the full report, please - because this one is seriously disturbing.

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Wow, got some more inputs including tapes on one Capt. R. Johri, also at MMD, Mumbai. What is happening? Need to check for authenticity as well as double check, but as of now, seems there is a price for everything at MMD.

Good heavens.

A tribute to Cross Island Bombay - from the TS RAJENDRA

Previously published at MoneyLife

http://www.moneylife.in/article/wwii-shell-found-off-mumbai-heres-what-your-media-cant-tell-you-so-we-dredge-out-the-details/21087.html

WWII shell found off Mumbai: Here’s what your media can’t tell you, so we dredge out the details

November 02, 2011 01:15 PM

Veeresh Malik

Many of the stories on the WWII shell found off Mumbai have simply bombed. No, this shell will not cause any harm to the city, not any more than the Diwali firecrackers which tried their best to shatter the peace. But why was the shell undiscovered for so long? An insider take

Cross Island in Mumbai has been an integral part of the life of any seafarer who has been trained on the TS Rajendra. It is also very important from the point of view of those heading out by boat from the New Ferry Wharf (aka Bhaucha Dhakka), not too far from Mazagaon, or for those heading in or out of the now soon to be filled-up and yet un-renamed Princes and Victoria Docks complex of the Mumbai Port Trust. Most of all, much of the support fleet for the oilrigs operate in this channel, and around this island.

Uninhabited largely due to a total lack of fresh water, and with added stories on how it was haunted by the ghosts of Portuguese soldiers who were done in when the British took over Bombay, even the local fishermen chose to avoid it. We were anchored not too far, and would sometimes take a sailing boat close to it, but had strict instructions never to make landfall as the foreshore was also rumoured to have quicksand pits. There were also some Indian Navy instructions on the subject. That also kept the tourists off.

The real reason why Cross Island never made it as an offshore destination or to the "A" list of tourist destinations in a land-starved Mumbai, however, is simple. The waters around it are extremely polluted, and for some reason also very corrosive—just running your hand in the sea as you went past in a sailboat or motorboat was enough to give you an acidic itch for days afterwards. Also, it stinks, the seawater in this area. This was in the mid ‘70s. It is said to have only become worse in recent years, as the bay gets silted up, and the tides are not strong enough to replenish the water there. Typically, the water is so dirty, that it is like in the Sunderbans (Bengal)—you cannot see your fingers if you put your hand in. But in the Sunderbans, there is always freshwater coming from upriver, and the lack of visibility is due to mud.

There are also a few cannons lying scattered around, as well as what looked like the remnants of one large gun of the howitzer variety on that island. Again, nobody dared remove them, despite the existence of one of the largest scrap-yards in the area, because of the stories surrounding the haunting of Cross Island. And the main story was that if anybody tried to go to the Island after dark, the old cannons and guns would come alive, with the wrath of the soldiers who had apparently been left there to die.

Another reason: Cross Island had also reportedly been used for target practice by the British in the years leading up to, during, and after WWII. And there were some terrible stories around that, too.

A cartographer’s report for the waters around Mumbai mentions how siltation for a variety of reasons has caused the Thane creek, upstream from and north of Cross Island, to become more like a swamp. This again is very true—till as recently as a decade ago, huge barges along with tugs could come as far inland as the old Thane Creek road bridge. Now you are lucky if you spot a small fishing boat and that too during high tide in the same spots.

One such cartographer’s report can be found here, and makes for interesting reading:

http://mycoordinates.org/cartography-as-a-tool-in-study-of-dredging/

So when it was first reported that a Jaisu Shipping-operated dredger had recovered a WWII relic, a shell with about 100 pounds of explosives in it, my thoughts went immediately to the stories we had heard. And discounted them right away, because little further enquiries confirmed that this was, in all likelihood, a shell for the BL 5.5" artillery howitzer, and probably a relic of some firing practice exercise, where one of these shells had simply failed to detonate.

And sat there in the seabed, right under the port channel, while hundreds of ships, boats and other vessels just went about their business—day in and day out—in one of the busiest ports of the world.

But then, that information also fell flat—it was not likely that this sort of an artillery shell would have been used for target practice on an island so close to the city. Besides, there were no available records of the Port of Bombay having been equipped with such an artillery battery facing inwards. The howitzers used for this shell, if not properly aimed, had the capacity to go right across to the other side of Bombay, where now lies Chembur and even in the war days existed an oil jetty called "Pir Pau".

Or was this from the famous Fort Stikine, since her manifest does indicate that she was carrying these shells, too? This could be probable, considering that the port dredging operations are still pulling gold out of the same waters, traced back to the same explosion in April 1944.

Every which way, a single shell that has been lying undisturbed for decades, is not likely to cause more damage than a big hole in the ground. Certainly not enough to endanger a city.

But what it does reflect, from a commercial point of view, is the way our authorities have neglected the dredging and subsequent growth of India's premier port. Waking up now to this need, after depths available in the area went down from 8-10 metres during WWII, to as low as 3-5 metres, is ample evidence of the neglect that Mumbai Port has faced.

It is quite likely that more such debris and material, whether from the Fort Stikine or otherwise, will continue to be found in and around the approaches to the various berths in Mumbai Port, and that some of these may well be explosive in nature and will require great care. Many of my colleagues have gone over those waters hundreds of times—and people continue to do so.

It is important to dredge the approach channel. It is even more important to clear the channel of all such dangerous debris and explosives. But it is not likely to cause immense harm to the rest of Mumbai. Unless some idiot brings it ashore and deliberately tries to set it off.

Why such an explosive was not carried away by boat itself to the Naval Station will remain an unanswered question. Presumably there is a brass or metal value which was being ascertained, till it was realised that this shell was still very much alive. Because, and in this case as the son of an Army officer, a 5.5" shell is a very interesting "decoration piece", often found amongst the pride of possessions of elderly retired Armed Forces officers. Others would love to have them too, but they simply aren't available any more.

But they don't have the explosive inside it. And this one did.

No 'decoration piece' is really worth the effort—if it is still packed!

Open observation on Indian flag ships and life therein

Basad on first hand observations as well as supported by inputs from others, the one big thing that needs to be done is that people involved in the shore aspect of shipping need to spend atleast 6 months onboard an Indian flag ship every five years.

The full cycle, from recruitment to briefing to joining to life on board and sign off/debrief.

This business of revalidating tickets basis a course or being involved in shipping ashore is simply not enough.

This doesn't include a separate treatise on the games indian shipping companies and their agents play in context with salaries, taxation, and the rest of it.

the mystery of the RAK Carrier - where was she for 40 days?

http://moneylife.in/article/the-mystery-of-the-rak-carrier-where-was-she-for-the-past-40-days/18662.html

The mystery of the RAK Carrier: Where was she for the past 40 days?
August 04, 2011 03:49 PM | 
Veeresh Malik

At 8-9 knots, sailing time from Singapore to Mumbai would not exceed 10 days. The RAK Carrier, now sinking off Mumbai, took 40. Where was she in between?

Time was not too long ago, a ship would go adrift or get stranded in and around Mumbai Port about once every two years, and would then become the focus of all discussion at the Seaman's Club. Now it appears to be a weekly affair, like the "specials" on sale in the Irani Hotel next door, and everybody knows that the special is simply what was not moving so had to be flogged.

The RAK Carrier, an Indonesian flag bulk carrier, is one more example.

About 26 years old, with a history as long as that of any history-sheeter, she sailed out of Singapore on or around the 2nd of May 2011, ostensibly towards Indonesia to load coal for Dahej in Gujarat. She then reappeared off Singapore on the 20th of June 2011, ostensibly loaded, and then sat patiently outside Singapore till the 24th of June. She then sailed out towards India through the Malacca Straits, making good about 8-9 knots, giving an ETA (expected time of arrival) Dahej of 7th of July 2011.

So far so good, but then suddenly on the midnight of 24/25 June 2011, all position reporting seems to have stopped from her AIS (Automatic Identification Signal), including most surprisingly no reports when passing Colombo or making landfall off India, until she arrived off the Port of Mumbai almost a month behind schedule. Down by head, and certainly looking like she was about to go under, conveniently near the only port in India where rescue would not be too much of a problem.

For all we know, the Master decided to go on a short tour of the Indian Ocean through most of the month of July 2011, while the cargo receivers in Dahej waited patiently for their coal. Or something happened to the cargo en route, and after that, it became a very brilliant insurance claim. But why does a ship take almost 40 days to come from Singapore to Mumbai, is the question which people should be asking, and also doing a quick check on what's really in those cargo-holds.

Incidentally, the value of the cargo would have been many times the value of the ship, especially in these depressed days. And the coal would find ready buyers anywhere in the world. But that's unfair to the seafarers who probably fought bad monsoon seas before making it to off Mumbai, too.

However, it is not unknown for ships to go elsewhere, offload cargo, fill holds with ballast water, and then go under. Shipping records are full of such cases.

For example, in the days when trade with a particular African country was "banned", ships would often load oil for, say, West Europe. Along the way, the cargo would be quietly unloaded at a port in that African country, and then the ship and ship-owners would go through all sorts of manipulations to close the voyage. In one glorious case, when a particular ship—on her last legs anyway—was going to be scuttled, the ship sent out a sinking signal and asked for help, and the rescuers found everybody dressed in formals with their suitcases neatly packed.

We are not saying that the RAK Carrier is an elaborate insurance scam. Far from it.

We have said it before, and we say it again—it requires a very simple notice to mariners issued by the DG Shipping in Mumbai addressed to all ships globally when they come anywhere near Indian waters—especially those calling Indian ports. All ships coming into Indian territorial waters must establish identity and purposes. All overage ships (those over 15 years old as per marine conventions) must in addition also provide full details of any and every possible issue including cargo, insurance cover, class and adherence to every possible aspect that makes her seaworthy.

Why would the DG Shipping not do it? This is unknown, but in their 'PAVITra WISDOM', maybe they will do it now?

Information Sources:

1) Information on RAK CARRIER movements sourced from:
 http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/datasheet.aspx?datasource=ITINERARIES&MMSI=351810000

2) Information on possible insurance issues—sourced from the grapevine.

(PS: In addition, I just saw some TV clips of the sailors from this ship. They seem to be interestingly very calm and collected. In addition, it appears as though they had the time to save and get along stuff like their laptops and stereos as well as all their documents. This is something strange, the Indian authorities need to hold these seafarers and question them to find out what happened).

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Originally published at MoneyLife

The future of seafaring . . .

There is no cogent number on how many seafarers there are in the world, simply because there is a vast range - mainstream ocean going ships, armed forces, research vessels, coastal fleets, inshore transport, pleasure craft, support services, port auxiliaries, and the rest of it. Then, add to this, the vast number of "ir-regulars", from pirates in the Indian Ocean to people forced to work on fishing boats, and on to pure and simple "unknown ventures". The last known figure for seafarers on mainstream ships alone was about 1.2 million, by BIMCO - but way back in 2005. The ballpark figure for seafarers of all sorts, worldwide,  qualified in some form or the other, is around 4-6 million - and may well be more if one takes into account the number of people who are at sea variously and absolutely unqualified.

 

Add to this the number of people from other trades who, for one reason or the other, also work on ships - as inspectors, security personnel, repair workers, hospitality workers on cruise ships and similar - and can be said to have acquired reasonable seafaring skillsets - and you have an even bigger pool of people who can, in some way or the other, work on ships. And who will, obviously, impact the supply-demand economics. Ideally, much of this group of people should have been organised, in one way or the other. Truth is, the number of seafarers who are part of any ITF affiliated agreements, is said to be around 600,000 (ITF, 2010). So, at a modest estimate, almost 90% of the people who are "at sea" are really that - disorganised groups of people without direction or collective strengths.

 

Organised or otherwise - and it is important to remember that the global bastion of worker rights, People's Republic of China, does not permit its seafarers to be part of unions - all seafarers share one thing in common, though - being party to the tendency and economic requirement on the part of the owner and operator to always keep cutting costs. Sure, suitable noises are made about "quality", but if you compare quality of life ashore in other professions with the way quality of life onboard has evolved for the seafarer over the last few decades, then one thing is clear - the shipowners of the world are absolutely aware of how the largely "open register" system of ship-owning works towards making the seafarer a commodity which can be exploited almost at will.

 

There is yet another deeper issue at play - if salaries at sea are increased, and quality of life improved, then more people from the costlier developed countries will want to come to sea. These people will then certainly be well organised, as well as lobby with good success rates with governance in their own countries, to ensure reservations and jobs for themselves. However, at the same time, higher salaries will also lead to more qualified people from these countries coming to sea - and then leaving seafaring early. Because (i) they would have saved up enough in a short time and (b) their qualifications would find a ready market ashore.

 

This, if you are a shipowner looking at a bottomline before anything else, is disaster. First you spend a lot of money training up a lot of expensive people which will also make your ships uncompetitive. Next, these very people will move on rapidly, leading the shipowner into a fresh spiral of high training costs. So, basic truth Number One if you want to be a succesful shipowner is to ensure that the system works to keep seafaring as an inferior career choice, depending more on people coming in from poorer countries, where some minimum levels of competency can be obtained. After that, they have to ensure that their ships are able to employ such people, which is where the conflict between "better than just technically seaworthy" and "open reigster" comes in.

 

Are we, then, likely to see an improvement in quality of life at sea and for seafarers in the near future? Or will it always be a situation where salary is driven by supply/demand as well as cyclical surplus/deficit scenarios, tweaked around a tipping point, where 2% makes all the difference between good times and bad?

 

The answer, as always, is not as simple as pure numbers would lead many of us to believe. Here are some possibilities that may impact things:-

 

# The "Black Swan" effect - where a logical but unseen effect may suddenly cause a huge change in seafarer dynamics. Increasing prices of oil, shut-down of a major trade route, unpredictable weather, and more. The lessons of Suez Canal being shut down in the '70s are not all that far behind us, nor the effects of the various defaults and failures in the financial markets, or simply the possible effects of more regulations impacting shipping.

 

# Higher unemployment ashore in many countries, including the traditional seafaring countries in Europe which saw seafaring going on the back-burner, which could see more people come "back to sea". This, incidentally, is already being observed in England and Scandinavia. Shipowners will always prefer people from their own countries, choosing to save on the foreigners they end up hiring - sanctified by ITF, by the way.

 

# The faint chance that life at sea may well become better soon - with better communications, lesser working hours, bigger complements on board and most of all - introduction of suitable relevant HR practices pertaining to seafarers more than "crewing department" kind of treatment most seafarers are subjected to. Another simple truth and influencing factor - the freshest air is still what you get at sea.

 

In all this and more, morality and ethics have hardly any role to play, especially as far as shipowners and operators are concerned. The drivers are always, but always, purely economic. Due sounds are made, of course, towards flags and nations - but if true beneficial ownerships are analysed, then these seldom, if ever, stand any test of truth.

 

The seafarer, on the other hand, is expected to perform at sea as per a variety of unwritten traditions, the most important one being "ship before self". Never mind double book-keeping on wages, substandard food, tremendous over-work. The psychological demand on seafarers is simply unrelated to the reality of numbers whether onboard or ashore.

 

What, then, is the solution for seafarers? Or are they destined to keep on sailing, generation after generation, with working conditions aimed at keeping them in what is known as "inferior goods" conditions? Truth be told, again, seafaring jobs do tend to fall into the category of "inferior goods", witness the drastic decline in basic courtesies and respect (not) being extended to seafarers by "authorities" worldwide. Be it restrictions on shore leave, criminalisation, or simply the way the juniormost of Customs or Immigration or Health or other categories of people who visit ships officially treat them, it is very clear that the seafarer commands less respect in some case now than, say, a State Transport bus driver. Sad, hard words - but true.

An article on piracy and steps on board from January 2011

This was first submitted for publication in SAILOR TODAY in January 2011, and is even more valid today, so here goes, repeated . . .

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It is now about time that a simple demand be made by seafarers working on Indian flag ships - that a contingent of Indian Navy personnel be carried onboard all our ships operating in blue waters between Aden, Singapore and the Southern Indian Ocean. Attacks within Indian Economic Zone as well as not too far from the oil exploration areas are now becoming commonplace, and before tragedy strikes or they become another accepted danger of being at sea, a strong, message needs to be sent across clearly that any Indian merchant ship is going to not just be safe in Indian waters but also respond vigorously internationally.

It has also to be stated and is an open secret that more than a few foreign shipping companies are openly carrying armed personnel on board, and the crew as well as officers onboard are certainly benefitting from this, lifeboat capacity and other minor issues be damned. It is easy for those sitting in their little ivory towers in Mumbai and Delhi to pontificate on rights of innocent passage - what do they know, many of them have armed guards to protect their petty little backsides the moment they step out of their offices.

So what are seafarers supposed to do, then, about this reality? Especially for those sailing under the Indian flag . . .

1) Insist with your shipowners that they provide armed guards onboard in case the vessel is trading Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean. The current defined danger area is bounded by the Indian coast, Arab coast and African coast as well as 15 degrees South and about 78 degrees East already, as per a NATO report. Look on a map, and see how far this gets us?

2) Insist on vastly increased levels of personal insurance and danger pay. There has to be at least 15-20 years worth of salary, protected by inflation, as insurance. In addition, triple pay, at least. This is the least that people who are putting their lives on the line need, and close to keeping in line with much lesser than what those in the Armed Forces get.

3) Make this point very clear during the revalidation classes, as well as every possible interaction with the company ashore, preferably in writing. Take the trouble to get in touch with the Union, MUI or NUSI, both have been very pro-active of late, and there is every reason to cooperate with them - especially Mr. Abdul Gani Sarang, whose doors are always open, as personal experience shows.

4) Reach out to the media, print and television, and let them know what you feel. Get on to the internet, blogs and all, including photos. Write to your elected representative, Ministry, and others. File pre-emptive RTIs. The pen is your strongest weapon, and the keyboard a force multiplier.

At the end of the day, WE shall have to make our voice heard, and dignity as well as safety restored. The pirates, such as they are, don't dare venture near Israeli flag ships, as well as ships of some companies they know are carrying armed personnel on board - about time they ran and turned tail when they see the Indian red ensign too.

Veeresh Malik

The Great Iron Ore Export scam - from Indian seaports . . .

Previously published at Moneylife . . .

http://moneylife.in/article/the-great-iron-ore-rip-off-buy-from-india-for-60-s-and-sell-it-for-around-200-a-tonne-landed-price-overseas/16790.html

The Great Iron Ore Rip-Off: Buy from India for 60 cents, and sell it for around $200 a tonne (landed price) overseas

As a nation, we are peddling our scarce natural resources that cannot be replenished. Global players are mining iron ore for a song, destroying the natural habitat around the mines and shipping it to metal-hungry destinations and making super-profits. As usual, the powers-that-be are silent  

As an ex-seafarer, the first cargo I loaded on a ship, way back in 1975, was iron ore from Vishakhapatnam (or Vizag) to Japan. Always interested in matters beyond my purview, I remember that the charterer in this case was the government-controlled monolith, MMTC (Minerals and Metals TradingCorporation), the buyer a Japanese trading house connected with Sumitomo-and that the price achieved for this shipment, delivered at the port of Nagoya, way back then, was around $17 a tonne.

The price that the Indian Government achieved, through MMTC, was around $10-$11 per tonne -ex-Vizag, loaded onto our ship. The rest was on freight and other costs. Laughingly, it was pointed out that kickbacks were high, around 15%-20%, but were likely to be impacted because the Emergency was on everybody's heads in those days. Even people at MMTC and STC (StateTrading Corporation) had to be careful.

This was for what is known as '60% FE lumps'. A very highly sought-after grade of iron ore that we export from India, and the rate is set in such a way that it permits for variations in quality along a few other parameters, using this as a benchmark.

60% FE in lumps is about as good as it gets. The Japanese term for it was the equivalent of malai, or "full cream", and we have a lot more in India. In the area, largely, called "Maoist", but that's not the subject of the debate.

The debate then was whether it was more profitable for the Nation of India to ship this iron ore to the US-East Coast (Norfolk) area-where the price achieved was around $25-$27 a tonne, landed.

What came in the way, in those days, was not just the freight rate-ships had to go around the Cape, since the Suez was closed. In addition, it was whispered,doing business with Japan was better for some corrupt people, since the Japanese were rumoured to not be averse to the idea of more than a few dollars per tonne as kickbacks, and making "relationships", while the Americans got slightly moralistic about such things then-5% to 7% was what was supposed to be their limit, and you often had to accept it in wheat.

Which was not a good idea, because India was getting 'free' wheat under the PL-480 scheme in any case in those days, which is a scam many may have forgotten.

In addition, the Japanese were very keen to provide the funding as well astechnology for building a railway line from Vizag into the pristine Aruku Valley area, to get the iron ore out more efficiently, and this was pushed through as a 'people-friendly' step to help connect one of the remotest parts of central India to the rest of the country.

Of course, nothing is free, so India was going to pay the Japanese back. In iron ore. And remember, west of Hong Kong was a huge swamp called the Pearl River Delta, then. And South Korea? South Korea was still teaching its sailors to work on ships. Under Indians.

So, we sold our iron ore in Aruku Valley to the Japanese for a song. How much they sell it in further trading, now that China and South Korea are also consumers, would be interesting to learn. Chances are, the onwards sale is atmarket prices, while the first sale is at the old pre-negotiated prices. We are still paying for that Railway Line, remember?

Think of it like this-you have a home in a remote part of, say, Maharashtra. You have some great boulders there, which can be extracted, broken down, and made into brilliant granite slabs. But you don't want to sell them or move them, even to the nice Japanese guy who comes to your house, because technically you can't and even if you could, you want to sell it one rock at a time, because the house is in a remote place.

So now the Japanese guy goes back to the government guy, and makes him a deal-the Japanese will pretend he is loaning money to the government, which will then cover the loan through its public sector banks, and the Japanese guy will then make a road to your house which nobody else can use, not even you, and then he will take all the granite away as soon as he can, for free, in payment for the road he helped build.

You will be left sucking your thumb, you may have to pay a toll to enter your own house on that nice new road, and if you protest, you will be called Maoist. But then, this is not about them.

That railway line from Vizag up into one of the prettiest parts of India rapidly being mined out of existence (the natural caverns being formed nearby are used as oil reservoirs, incidentally) now stands as a tribute to Japanese engineering skills. And runs between 40-80 rakes of iron loaded trains to the port cities of Vizag and Gangavaram, from where it heads off mainly towards the hungry steel mills of China, South Korea and Japan. But there are hardly any passenger trains on that route, and the few that operate, have to give way to the iron ore trains. I have been on this route once-and reached the other end 24 hours late, as we kept giving "pass" to iron ore rakes thundering past us.

To anybody except the most foolish it is clear to those who know this industrythat we are as a nation selling our resources. Fair enough, this does not want to become yet another article on the political and sociological, as well as economic aspects of this trade-people have been called 'Maoist' for less. But can we look at the numbers again?

The international prices of iron ore are shooting upwards, by as much as $20 to $30 in the last few weeks, and anticipated to go up by a similar amount to around $200 per metric tonne in the next few months. This is despite much lower requirements in Japan, and slightly reduced requirements in China, the two top global markets for iron ore. The top three suppliers of iron ore are Australia, Brazil and India.

The indicative price currently is around $170 per metric tonne for iron-ore lumps with a 60% FE content, cost plus freight landed at Qingdao in China as a benchmark, and freight rates varying from $8 to $16 per metric tonne depending on size of ship as well as market forces on freight rates. The saleprice of this kind of iron ore from Australia or Brazil is around $130-$150 per metric tonne, and rising, with some minor amounts for insurance, loading costs, holding costs, and other such expenses.

The royalty paid to the Indian government by the new iron ore exporters being invited in, like Posco, is Rs27 rupees a tonne for iron ore lumps. That's all. 60 cents. Not even a dollar a tonne. The rest is, apparently, part of the whole loan-loan-loan and more loan cycle, since Posco will help develop the area. At every stage in this financial game, there is a transaction cost, and it is instead of being in percentage points, now into multiples of the costs involved.

Agreed, there is a cost involved in mining the iron ore, extracting it, and converting it into lumps, which even after allowing for all sorts of cost overruns is not going to exceed $20 a tonne-an extremely high outer estimate. Agreed there is a cost towards "developing" the area, whatever it means. Agreed, some babu somewhere can justify how after 35 years, our export price is down from $15 a tonne to 60 cents a tonne.

But can anybody justify why the Indian government, the state government, the various public sector entities, the watchdogs, the parliamentary committees, the environmentalists, the media, everybody and more-why can't we get even some percentage of the increase in iron ore prices to the country's account?

Assuming the price has gone up by $50 a tonne, all other costs remaining the same, shouldn't the nation get at least some part of it-especially when all we appear to be getting is 60 cents a tonne?

And that is why anybody who disagrees will be called a Maoist, a seditionist and an anti-national. But this article just wants to know-how much of the increased price will we in India get?

An aside: The same companies who bid for iron ore mines in India, also bid for iron ore mines elsewhere in the world. The higher costs being achieved make it feasible to prospect for and take iron ore out from all new areas. There are more than a few Indian companies in the running for this business, and the royalty that apparently some of them are willing to pay for "futures" is in the $100 plus levels-for future imports into India, when we become an iron ore scarce and deficit region. Already plans are being made to ensure that ports being developed under infrastructure loans are geared up to handle current export and future import of iron ore.