Motors are used for many purposes today and consume an estimated 40-50% of India's electricity. Is there a need to become efficient?

They also are used heavily for water, starting in Bangalore in 1894 and now used commonly in borewells across the countryside. Does the industry bear any responsibility for declining groundwater levels?

A short tour through Bangalore's water history that is closely tied to the motor industry ends with the question: what does the future look like?

The article starts and ends with the question: can our society change?

Shorter version without images published in AIEMMA (All India Electric Motor Manufacturer's Association), September 2008.

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When we use our water to bathe and clean we put stuff (cleaners, solvents, chemicals) in it. Our used water flows into our drains and into other eco-systems where other life-forms see this flow as their incoming supply. Thus what we put in impacts others. We can minimize these impacts if using ahimsa (non-violence) as a guiding principles.

Ahimsa is core tenet of Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and most religions.

Published in Jain Spirit in 2002, this essay is about understanding the downstream impacts of our water usage at home and how to minimize them using Jainism principles. Applies to most spiritual traditions, especially Hinduism and Buddhism. Essay appears even more relevant today as places like India use more and more household chemicals and pesticides (even those deemed too toxic and banned in the west).

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The Narmada dam has the support of the vast majority of the Jain community in India, but the project violates the major tenets of Jainism.

A look at the dam from the perspective of various Jain principles (applies to Hindu and Buddhist and most religious principles too).

A shorter version was published in 2001 in Jain Spirit and a version with a different introduction published in Sutra in 2008.

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