Statue of Unity

There are some individuals and paid media felt that allocation of 2 Billion Rupees (33 Million US$) to construct a Statue of Unity was not required. Perhaps, after reading few facts and figures mentioned in this blog, they may change their opinion.

First of all: 2 Billion Rupees that has been allocated for 2014-15 Budget is 1/10th of total money required to complete this project. It needs 25 Billion Rupees - Roughly (410 US Million Dollars). So money allocated currently is much less than what is needed. Just to give an idea that why cost is a fair amount, we can take a look at the cost needed to build Spring Temple Buddha in China in late nineties. It took 55 US Million$ and considering the inflation 400 Million is not a big amount. Also another point to consider is that all the money is not going to be spend only on Statue but also on a memorial, visitor center buildings, a memorial garden, a hotel, a convention center, an amusement park, research centers and institutes.

Entire project span to complete the work is estimated to be of 56 months, which includes 40 months of construction work. This means a stable job for plenty of construction worker around that area for almost 4 years. After the completion of statue for maintenance and other stuff, it will require a staff of more than 500 people. So, it is another way of pumping a money in the economy by creating a stable job for years to come.

Now, About how to recover the money that is going to be spend to build a statue? Let's look at some of the numbers. Statue of Liberty in USA gets over 3 Million Visitors each year. Every visitor spends minimum of 20$ on their trip (actually it is close to 40 but let's go with lower side). This means Statue of Liberty generates 60 Million$ annually. If the same amount needs to be considered for Statue of Unity, it will be require 7 years to recover the money that has been spend. If comparison between USA - India is not fair, then let's look at the number of visitors going at Taj Mahal. Each year over 6 Million people visits Taj Mahal - that is double the number of visitors than Statue of Liberty, which means, money to recover might take actually less than 4 years. Out of 6 Million people who visits Tajmahal- 200,000 of them are foreigners. This is foreign money coming to the Indian economy through Tourism - a very big plus.

If we look at the Statue's across the world, it is generally gets tied to a Religion. Christ in Brazil or Buddha in China-Japan. Even India's best monument - Taj Mahal in a way is tied to a religion - a monument built by a Muslim ruler for his wife. Considering that aspect, a party (BJP) which believes in core Hindutva (right wings) could have selected a statue of any other Hindu God and surely not for a person who belongs to their rivals - Congress. But Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is a right choice for statue of Unity - because he was truly the founding father of the Republic of India. Plenty of things-roads-schemes-colleges-hospitals have been build for Nehru and Gandhi but Patel has been left out and this is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest leader of India.




Even if theoretical numbers do not match to recover money in 4 years and it may take 10 years, it is totally worth building Statue of Unity for Sardar Patel. There are businesses which does not start generating profit for decades but the jobs that it creates and product that it produces is far more valuable than checks and balance.

Eye-Wash (iWatch) from Tim(e) Clock (cook):

So, Apple announced a new phone which looks very similar to Samsung Galaxy S5 with less feature in it. Apple comes to a point where other manufacturer where at least a year ago. Changes to iphone are reactionary rather than visionary. Apple Pay is copy of Google Wallet, iWatch (eye wash) is a copy of Samsung's watch. Apple was proud to introduce 1080p display while brands like LG are going with 1440p display. 8MP Camera while Sony is launching Z with 20+. Less we talk about security happier Hollywood celebrities are, as they experienced their iCloud account hacked just a while ago. It is actually very funny that apple fans were making fun of Samsung's Smart Watch and large screens earlier during their release are the same people who wants to buy Apple Smart Watch and Bigger phone.

Those who wants to argue about Apple invented smart phone, do not forget Motorola invented mobile phone but we all know where they are. Those who want to argue about Apple is known for perfecting the technology to make it worth buying, well do they remember Apple Maps? Apple's failure are their feature. Those who wants to argue about it is an American product, I wish they check ten of billions of dollars apple have stashed overseas because American tax rates are so high in the US. Also Apple itself does not make any part of the iphone, so much so that entire processor in iphone 5 where made by Samsung. As far as new payment feature is concerned, just one line: "Our ambition is to replace (read empty) this," said Cook, holding a wallet & wearing iWatch will be like carrying radiation around your body 24/7 (cancer law suits coming up).

Compliment that most people give about apple products is that it is easy to use, more like Geico ad, "even caveman (read stupid) can use it". i in iPhone stands for idiot phone. Actually, Apple should term this as downgrade your smart phone because sure it does not sound like upgrade. When people buy watches now a days that is because it looks nice and wonder others on how much it cost? unlike iWatch where world knows its (just) 350$ (very cheap comparing with current trend of watches).

It was a flop show again from Apple. Expecting them to deliver new innovation is perhaps asking too much. Simple things such as its charging ability and water resistant equipment might be the least of the expectation which was not delivered today.