Red Devils overpower the Reds

ManU vs Liverpool ( 21 Mar 2010 )

Liverpool travelled to the city of Manchester to take on ManU over the weekend fixture. The match was important for both teams. ManU had to win to get back on top of the Barclays Premier League table to dethrone temporary leaders Arsenal. Liverpool on the other hand had to win because the race for the fourth spot was getting tighter with each and every game played.

Liverpool kicked off the first half and had dream start,Superman Torres heading the ball into the net within five minutes and giving Liverpool a clear advantage over their bitter rivals. Old Trafford was shell shocked, the ManU fans dumbstruck and absolutely silent. But within minutes Mascherano committed a silly foul on Valencia, pulling him behind when he was making a run into the box. Valencia was clever enough to get into the box before going crashing to the ground. The result, ManU was awarded a spot kick. Rooney steps up to take the shot but before that Torres expressed his disgust by kicking the area marked for keeping the ball. The Liverpool goalkeeper leapt the correct way and prevented the ball from going into the net but Rooney made no mistake in slotting the ball on the rebound. ManU were level with ten minutes of the game gone.

ManU created more chances than Liverpool in the first half. Park Ji Sung, the South Korean International missed a dolly header from a cross by Valencia. Barring the first 20 minutes, which was explosive the rest of the game in the first half didn't bring out any excitement as both teams were playing it safe and defending the ball well.

Liverpool's formation had two players honing the CDM (Centre Defensive Middle) role. This was kind of a negative thinking from the manager since Torres was left alone upfront and a striker cannot do much without people from the mid-field supplying with him with crosses.

The second half saw a superb goal from Park Ji Sung when about 60 minutes of the game was played. The nature of the cross from Darren Fletcher was brilliant and Park Ji Sung made no mistake in heading the ball past Reina. Liverpool's defense were caught unawares once again even though Rooney was completely shielded by Carragher.

With ManU in the lead Liverpool had little control over the game. But two simple chances fell for Torres who on any other day would have put the ball past the goalkeeper. Torres' touch on both the chances was heavy and gave the ManU defenders a chance to clear the ball from the area. Had Torres converted both these chances Liverpool would have given ManU some tough competition.

A couple of substitutions by Rafa in the last twenty minutes didn't help Liverpool much. The urge to score and attack was not at all prominent in the Liverpool squad. The referee blew the final whistle after five minutes of injury time and ManU were jubilant. They were once again on top of the Premier League Table and are now eyeing for the 19th English title. By winning the title this season they would surpass Liverpool wrt number of English tiles and become the greatest club in the history of English football.

Liverpool's failure to qualify for the Champions League next season would mean exit of many of their top players. Financial resources would be cut down and there might be a chance for a financial crisis in the world's sixth richest club. Some drastic measures are needed to take Liverpool out of this crisis and only time will tell how?

FINAL SCORE: MANU 2- 1 LIVERPOOL

A world linked by rail network

China's ambitious plans to link all major cities in the world via a high speed rail network would not only make travel cheaper for the common man but also will aid in boosting commerce and trade between nations. Just imagine if one has to go to London from Delhi, the normal way is to fly and this would take about 24hrs and would cost around Rs 20000 for a one way trip. Now with this new high speed rail link in place the rate would drastically come down but of course the travel would take slightly longer. But the advantage being the traveller would get to see the scenic beauty all along and that too for a cheaper rate.

This ambitious plan if materializes would make the world a global village and would bring people from different regions together. There are a number of obstacles for this plan to succeed viz

1. Nations from different continents need to give their approval for this project and must make a thorough feasibility study.
2. How does one solve the problem of VISA? for example the traveller from Delhi to London would naturally pass through some major European cities like Paris, Berlin, Islamabad etc. Should he get the VISA for all these nations or only for the destination nation? If the VISA is only for the destination nation then what would happen if gets down in between?
3. How to prevent terrorists from taking undue advantage of this? Trains can be stopped, hijacked and rail networks sabotaged. How can countries prevent unlawful infiltration?
4. What about the stations? Would only the national capitals be linked or other major cities also in the international rail network line?
5. How would the maintenance of the rail network be done? Should an international body be formed or should individual nations maintain the network coming under their territory? If individual nations are going to maintain the infrastructure on their soil then the developing countries would come under pressure to maintain strict quality standards on par with developed nations. This would mean financial aid needs to be given for developing countries.

Linking nations between Europe and Asia is quite possible because these two continents are connected by land. What happens to nations in North America, South America and Oceana? There would be a need to build gigantic rail bridges over the mighty Atlantic and Pacific oceans. This would call for skillful engineering to put the infrastructure in place and which can withstand the vagaries of nature. Critics might object to this idea of linking continents via rail when air travel is available. They would deem this idea as irrational and a major disaster.

The good part of this ambitious project is the travel industry would get a major boom. If the national capitals are linked through this high speed rail network then the tourism in that country can be boosted by a 'hub & spoke model'. The capital of a particular nation would serve as the centre and tourists can travel to any other part of the nation by the available modes of transport within that country.

This project would seriously make the airline industry to rethink their business plans. A common middle class man would prefer spending less money and wouldn't mind spending a day more to reach his intended destination rather than shelling out more money for the same distance of travel. This of course doesn't hold true for the elite class of people for whom time is money.

The business plan behind this high speed rail network would be to make international travel cheaper for the each and every citizen in the world and also promote commerce between nations.

If all nations can pool in their resources and plan this project to the minutest detail, the high speed rail network would become a reality. For the time being China alone has come out boldly and has agreed to spend on the infrastructure in exchange for energy resources.

Superman TORRES to Liverpool's rescue

Liverpool 2 - Blackburn Rovers 1

This season ( 2009-2010) has been particularly a difficult one for Liverpool. The hope for a title challenge has long faded away and now even the place for the fourth spot seems to be a difficult one. Liverpool took on Blackburn Rovers this weekend at Anfield. Liverpool, confident from their win in the Europa League were looking back to be in winning ways in the Barclays Premier League. Blackburn were coming to Anfield with a good home record and sought to get anything out of the game.

Liveerpool's line up looked impressive with Gerrard playing in the centre middle role and Kuyt and Torres playing upfront. Liverpool had some nervy moments in the first half. Pederson striking the ball with mighty force but right into the hands of the Pepe Reina. Kalinic had another wonderful opportunity when he stole the ball away from Lucas, shoving him to the ground but failed to curl the ball past the Liverpool goalie. Pederson had another chance but once again Reina was there for Liverpool with a double save.

Liverpool steered by Gerrard went up by one goal during the first half. It was captain courageous who started and finished the move with a super cool finish. Minutes later Carragher made a mistake of handling the ball inside the box and giving away a cheap penalty kick for Blackburn. Andrews made no mistake in converting the spot kick. Blackburn was level and Liverpool were finding themselves once again in murky waters.

If Liverpool was to win the game then no other than Torres had to come up with something special. The Blackburn goalkeeper found himself in no man's land when Maxi Roriduez passed the ball to Torres who made no mistake in putting it into the empty net.

Liverpool no doubt won the game and at the end of the day it was the points that mattered. But the manner in which Liverpool won was not convincing enough. For a club with such rich history and reputation the match should have been a cakewalk, with at least three to four goals scored. Liverpool has often allowed opposition teams to come back into the game even when Liverpool has the lead. This has cost them points and more than that a top four spot at the moment.

Ofcourse football is a crazy game and nothing can be said until the last game is played. Fortunes can turn in and turn against any team's favour. Liverpool with 10 games in hand still has a wonderful opportunity to finish the League in the top four spot.

Go ahead Liverpool.

India- Challenges towards sustainable development

Sustainability comes from a multi prong approach like (1) Awareness at public and political levels (2) Urban transport and environment (3) Water resources and demand management (4) Risk of climate change- our big cities are all coastal.


India is a multicultural country. There are both urban and rural challenges that need to be overcome for India to maintain its sustainable development. Urbanization is taking a toll on both urban and rural development. Close to 30% of the Indian population is living in urban areas and this number is bound to reach 40-50% in the next twenty years. This means a large population has to be sustained in small pockets of high density areas. Now with more people moving into urban areas India is slowly shifting away from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy. This would mean a severe resource crunch. This would mean cities have to expand and agricultural land has to be given up to meet the basic need of shelter for people. But this again brings us back to square one, a vicious circle, because less agricultural land would mean less produce of agricultural products and a greater burden on India’s exports as far grain and pulses are concerned.

Another area where India might face challenges in the future will be in electricity generation to meet all her industrial and domestic needs. The 123 agreement between India and the United States of America equips India sufficiently with the necessary technical knowhow but keeping in mind the rapid progress that India is making and also taking into account her population size there would be some hurdles in meeting the electricity demands. First of all to go nuclear would entail a huge investment in infrastructure and this would mean cutting down budgets from other areas. Secondly international political issues come into the picture if India uses this nuclear technology for her defense tests because this would mean a termination of the 123 agreement and a complete cut in the supply of nuclear fuel from other nuclear powered countries like France, Australia etc. This would hamper India’s progress and would tend to be one of the major barriers in her sustainable development.

The urban transport in India needs a changeover. Most of the cities are choked with vehicles. With India becoming the preferred location for manufacturing of automobiles by world’s leading auto majors we can only assume that the number of vehicles on road would increase by a tremendous amount in the next twenty years. The need for India is to have a good public transport system that caters to the needs of the common man without hassles. Now more vehicles on the road would mean more pollution and this defeats the sustainable urban development program as far as environment is concerned. The challenge is how to encourage investment in the automobile industry in India and also simultaneously giving thoughtful consideration as to how to cater to the needs of a clean and green environment with such a large number of vehicles on road.

Even though India boasts of a long coast line and many rivers that run through her lands, she would lack in providing sufficient portable drinking water to its citizens. To take advantage of the large quantities of sea water available to us we need the right technology to convert salt water into portable drinking water. This needs sufficient capital investment in setting up of the technology and system, maintaining it and also closely monitoring it. A second solution would be to link all her rivers but this again would encounter local political situations where one state would not allow waters to pass freely to another state.

Sustainable development competes with many deeply entrenched values and therefore progress is slow. With a proper feedback mechanism, which includes monitoring, learning and adaptation we can strive to put in a procedure which aims towards creating a sustainable India. Many of the projects described above either would take a long time to get implemented if the government alone tries to pursue it. More public-private partnerships with foreign direct investment would help in speeding up the process of implementing things.