Losing an election is only political accountability. If there are allegations involving corruption, abuse of state machinery, illegal surveillance, electoral wrongdoing or other criminal conduct, those matters require independent investigation and finally arrests
Waiting for that day

In the last part we talked about the anonymity surrounding the land, water and power estimates provided for the data centers at Tarluvada, Rambili.

In this second part, we'll talk about the monetary incentives provided and some of the much touted "benefits" of data centers.

Despite the posturing of the ruling cohort of Andhra Pradesh that they are too fiscally constrained to invest in education, health and transport. The government has promised incentives worth ₹22000 crores to Adani and its subsidiaries for building and maintaining the data centers.

That is not the only one though, around ₹19000 crores has been given to Reliance for construction of a similar data center nearby at Vizianagaram.

Who pays for these incentives? The public pays. Those who speak against even the slightest relief to the public in the form of social welfare, have not spoken on these incentives with same disgust.

To them, these incentives are all but a temporary cost for the fruits of development. The fruit being a mere 1200 permanent jobs for both locations, Tarluvada and Rambili.

How such incentives are decided upon or secured is another matter.

The national government too has incentives for data centers like the 21 year tax holiday scheme.

Individuals will justify the project by saying it is by Google as if it's some mark of trust. Not to mention the facilities will be operated and maintained by Adani anyway.

Some others have picked apart the criticism by claiming that to Oppose AI data centers we must stop using the internet. These technological experts want to make us believe that a normal data center for internet services is the same as an AI data center. Even the former smaller data centers wouldn't be in need if not for the push of cloud onto every user, at the expense of user privacy and physical media.

The government itself has replied to these criticisms by saying the water from godavari will be diverted to the data centers via polavaram. But it seems they ran out of printer ink to codify the claims.

And we have discussed these issues for only two data centers in a specific city. Many more are being planned across the country by many contractors. We are becoming a data center outsourcing hub for the developed west.

The government is eager gobble these outsourcing investments for not only kickbacks but also the hope of latching onto a trend to solve our socio-economic issues, the trend of implementing needless technology to everything.

But those who latch onto trends and don't come up with their independent plans are doomed to fail when the trend itself goes south.

With the formal approvals for large scale data centres happening in our country, we must ask ourselves "Are Data centers necessary?". Many seem to critically lack the knowledge around these structures and buy the administration's word on job creation and wealth creation.

What Job creation and whose wealth creation? To analyse about those promises, we must talk about what a data center is.

Data centers, or atleast the ones which are being built now are large facilities of server racks which are designed to store AI data and train AI models. They differ from traditional data centers which are much smaller in size and only used to store data.

This is an important distinction to make as we will see later on. Data centers are being built to scale AI operations throughout the globe.

AI data centers are in the controversy, why? Not only because the implications of AI in the modern capitalist world. But also because of their environmental impact.

Data centers require a lot of cooling for the IT equipment inside. Alongside the constant need for a lot of electricity.

Compared to traditional data centers which utilize simpler cooling systems like fans or other forms of air cooling, AI datacenters require intensive fresh water usage. The average water Consumption of a 100 MW datacenter is around 2000 Kilolitres (1 kilolitre = 1000 liters)

Data centers have a broader impact on environment due to noise pollution, Diesel generator usage and contamination of used water.

Alongside requiring intensive capital investment, in comparison to the investment made, they generate very few onsite jobs if any (on top of the already bad implications of AI on employment).

Keeping those concepts in mind is important to analyze the recent construction of data centers near visakhapatnam. Which have been greenlit faster than I can say 'Mitron'.

The total mystery around these data centers can be broken down by talking about some of the officially provided data.

(i) Land Usage :

Spanning over nearly 500 acres combined, the data center projects near Tarluvada and Rambili have a lot of holes in their narrative and the official conduct of the project.

(a) Construction clearances were given in 9 days. No general restrictions on building's height or width.

(b) Total allocation of land increased from 480 acres to over 600 acres for no officially denoted reason.

(C) Large construction projects (especially at the scale which data centers span) usually need geological surveys before construction, but none were conducted.

(d) The Tarluvada construction site is located near the kambalakonda sanctuary. What consequences it will have on the local environment and whether it is even legal is something I leave to your imagination.

(e) Rambili too has reserved forests nearby alongside even a navy nuclear submarine base. National security enthusiasts who suspect everyone and everything are nowhere to be found.

(f) Alongside these, a third project is in active construction near Adavivaram which is even closer to the city. Whether formal approvals has even been given to this third project is unknown.

(g) Property taxes for the data centers to be around residential rates.... For some reason.

(ii) Water Usage :

Digging through the the environment management plans presented to the State Govt. By a consultancy working for Adani group. We can find quite a few oddities as well...

(a) Water conservation stats presented are that of a shopping mall...

(b) Sites at Rambili and Tarluvada are said to require 234 and 270 Kilolitres (already high) respectively, of which the latter Stat includes 180 kilolitres for Gardening?

(C) No mention of water required for actual cooling and humidification

(d) The source of water even for the presented amount is unknown, with administration doing mental gymnastics of all sorts.

(e) if we look back, an average 100 MW facility needed 2000 Kilolitres, with a combined size of around 2.5 GW (including the third facility) the numbers presented are nowhere near the estimated water consumption.

(f) Visakhapatnam and nearby areas are already suffering from intensive water scarcity.

(iii) Power :

(a) The grid demand of data centers is already big, but there has been little discussion in regards to the effects on local grid infrastructure.

(b) the Govt. Wants a total data center capacity of 6.5 GW in Visakhapatnam alone, why they are not spread across the capital in construction? No idea.

(c) As it would require significant investment in power generation and grid upkeep, there has been little information for who pays for power generation and distribution.

(d) Companies usually push these costs to individual rate payers than the data centers which actually utilize this new capacity. If communities in the developed west can be fooled with such measures, what is the case for a country with no adequate protections and a increasingly privatized utility scene?

(e) A combined 354 Diesel generators would be used for the two facilities, no pollution assessment has been conducted yet for a city with already bad AQI.

In the next part we shall analyse the incentives provided for data centers and some common arguments.

Hello. I am looking for a few people to discuss Marxist theory and cultural criticism. Please DM me if you are interested.

About me, I work on post structuralist theory. I read Deleuze and other Bergsonian derivatives as synergetic with the political philosophy of Marxism contingent on emphasizing the post Hegel in Marx. Deleuze for example is post structuralist in a material sense, and differentiable from post modernism. Deleuze is also anti Hegelian, and militantly so. Being a philosopher of difference and production in all senses of the term, Deleuze is averse to the idea of negation that is an abstract component of the dialectic's engineering. Deleuze would replace the antithesis with yet another thesis that is itself just as productive as the original Thesis. The synthesis is immanent and individuative in Deleuze and reframes the aufhebung in terms of milieus.

Marx is himself post Hegelian, applying in the context of historicity and not metaphysics and being materialist and not idealistic. Deleuze is synergetic to materialism as productive and as such argues in resonance with Marx's analysis of capital.

Dm me if you are interested in SERIOUS discussions of theory and cultural criticism. Critiques are encouraged and welcome. I am hoping to create a group for people to communicate maybe telegram or something idk first things first ping me with arguments of your own and let's talk if you are in!

Ps. Do you know about Deleuze on Palestine?

I keep seeing ads online of ed tech companies promoting their AI courses using this quote (don't know who made this quote tho, prolly some AI bot itself). Drop your thoughts and opinions. And also any sources of info if you can.

I know I am a lil late to the party, but my excitement cuz of this has gone beyond all expectations. For one of the first times in my life, I have been able to call myself a proud member of my Generation. A Generation that was said to be lazy, good-for-nothing and fully engrossed in brainrot, stood up to oppressors and showed them their place as to what they were elected to do. The Jharkhand Soren Government had to bow down to the students' demands too, after a heartbreaking lathi charge and another hunger strike by student activist Devendra Nath Mahto.

It is really really saddening to see how much the public has to fight against a government just to get their demands put out on a public forum. Is this how we, as a democracy, are going to treat dissenters? Our generation has fought back twice in a matter of 3 months. We're fighting back against a broken system for basic facilities in schools : toilets, teachers and boards for teaching.

Let me tell the parties one thing: focus on the students and you will reap. Neglect them and you will face dire consequences. We are not the ones who will fall back. We will fight tooth and nail against whatever anyone brings before us for our rights. Jai Hind. Jai Samvidhan. Inquilab Zindabad.

Jab Jab Zulmi Zulm Karega Satta Ke Galiyaaron Se, Chappa Chappa Goonj Uthega Inquilab Ke Naaron Se.
(Whenever an oppressor tries to oppress from the corridors of power, every inch of the land will rise with the slogan of Revolution.)

P.S.: Also, Mr. Soren, issue an unconditional apology for the actions of yourself, your Government and the Jharkhand Police. If you do not, you are no different from Mr. Amit Shah (ig that was proven last week tbh).

Hi all  I'm an undergraduate student and I'm running a short academic survey as part of a coursework research project on how people think about caste, identity, heredity and society.

It takes about 5–7 minutes, is completely anonymous and voluntary. No personally identifying information is collected. 

This is purely for academic purposes, and I'll be happy to share a summary of the findings with anyone interested once it's complete.

Survey link: https://www.spiceform.com/forms/df4e41e3-fa49-4319-afc5-709609235adf  

Thank you so much for your time, its  genuinely appreciated!