Corporate myopia.

I had written a post some time back citing issues with cost cutting. You can find the link here.
The same view find space in today's ToI. Here. (I think I should take credit for this article assuming that the reporter was inspired to write the article after taking inspiration from my post.)
Even though the article is more of an informative than opinionated but I believe that the author is trying to point out that these approaches to cost cutting do more harm than good. As it mentions 'Tissue paper rolls have disappeared from most gents toilets. Women colleagues say their toilets still have them, although the quality has dropped' , I wonder what kind of savings will a company make when it goes for such kind of cost cutting in a reckless manner. Even in our office the paper rolls were replaced by the heat convector sot of thing which was cheaper to operate, took some time to dry off your hand and only one person could use at a time. I wonder how would that bring about a saving given the capital cost incurred on buying the convector and the cost of electricity but it definitely created a problem for a lot of employees.
Every company stands on three pillars of strength. The first is capital, which comes in form of machinery and infrastructure. The second is customers who are the purchasers of the company's endeavor. The third and the most important one is the human enterprise that comes in form of employees. It is only when all the three are given equal importance that the stability of the company can be guaranteed. Lose one, lose all. And in IT and BPO companies, the employees ARE the machinery. (Can you expect a computer to work by itself?) So here we have two of the pillars combined to form one and people see the apathy of HR. In such a circumstance the only thing that will happen is people will start leaving the company and badmouthing the company.

G.O.D

Rediff has an interesting article on the idiosyncrasies of India Inc. Here.

A similar article had come some time back that tracked that a significant chunk of the scientist community had belief in God. Here.

There has been a lot of heated discussion between the theory of natural selection and intelligent design and both of these theory don't have any proof. So for the time being they are only hypothesis. After all no body has seen God till now and neither has somebody lived through ages to see natural selection in action and vouch for it. Therefore it is fruitless to talk about whether god exists or not. The only question I would like to put across is, does having faith in a power beyond imagination have any repercussions on the conduct of human being in general and scientists & business men in particular?
To answer this question let me take two scientists who are equal in every respect except for their belief in god. One is religious (test) and the other is an atheist (control). Will one's career graph be better over the other? GOD will definitely not come and tell the secrets of nature in the ears of our religious guy. And since both of our gentlemen are scientists we can assume that the have equal scientific temperament. The only thing that I see might differ in the life of the two gentlemen is of having patience at work! (Research is definitely more about brains but is also about the level of persistence on can show in the face of obstacles.) Under the trying situation when years of your work have left you with nothing but written crap, the hope of some supernatural being seeing you will give the hope to persist. The hope to take the one extra step. As one of my professor used to say 'People just give in when they are at the door step of success!'

The same thing I believe goes with the businessmen. Optimism and persistence are the key to survival in any cut throat business. And it is belief that a businessman reposes in God that gives him the strength to get up every morning.
But just having faith in God and doing nothing else will not make you successful. If that had been the case India would have been the most prosperous nation given the bounty of hermits that we have. The optimism that comes to a spiritual person cannot compensate for hard work. It can only act as an adjuvant.

going backwards!

Technology has changed the way we work and think. Everything is at the touch of a button and you can reach to anybody you feel like where ever they might be. It is a total boon. You can log on to orkut and scrap a friend or 'Hi!' to an old flame. The capacity to communicate has become so instant that now we don't think. We just do it. All the long mails that used to get exchanged in the earlier part of internet revolution are now getting reduced to one liners on social networking sites. The only longish mails that I receive nowadays is from US office. :)

I don't remember if I have received a paragraph of mail from someone in the last year. But I wonder if there has been a change in the attitude due to the advent of instant messaging culture? You just don't take any time to think and type what you have it in mind. We simply choose to blurt out whatever we are thinking.

When our species started, they used to think in terms of words. Words like 'apple' and 'orange'. These words just depict the final goal that the Neanderthal man had to reach. As we grew (as a species) the thought process started to develop, moving from words to sentences and finally to paragraphs and passages. But now I see a reverse trend happening when we are moving in the reverse direction. The speed at which we communicate has surpassed the time taken to arrive at a conclusion and therefore we have become 'momentary thinkers'. Our opinion on an issue is dependent only one the last person who talked to us. (It doesn't take him time to convince us.)

When I look at the available literature I find not only good books written by scholars but letters and diaries of great men. I wonder if our generation will be able to come up with such kind of stuff. At least I don't foresee anything like Nehru's letters to his daughter or letters by Feynman in the book shelves. I am worried if we will have any thought leaders among us.
----
Doris Lessing (Nobel Prize 2007) echoes the same feeling when she says 'we live now in a fragmenting culture, where our certainties of even a few decades ago are questioned, and where it is common for young men and women who have had years of education to know nothing of the world, to have read nothing, knowing only some specialty or other, for instance, computers’.
Its nice to see great people agree.

I hate 'no'

I ask a friend of mine 'oye, kal chalna hai Agra? ek din ka trip hai. 650 rupaiye main poora agra aur mathura dekh lenge. deal hai'. Pat comes the reply 'no'. Trying to understand why 'no', 'kahin ja raha hai kya kal?'. 'Nahi'. 'to kyon nahi jana?', 'bas yaar aise hi.'

'Are yaar kya pain hai?' I don't understand why people say a no without giving a thought. Maybe we all have lived in such a enviornment where everyone is taught to say 'no' first and then give the proposal a thought. Probably we have been trained to first to look for what is in the proposal for the proposer before we look at our benefit.

Or it might be simply lethargy. I have seen quite a lot of people who have been good in studies and a few who have been good in sports. The overlap has not been great though. But I fail to understand the plight of the people who do not do anything. When I say anything, I am referring to trying. I can understand a situation where somebody cannot excel in studies despite his best efforts, and somebody who cannot shoot a ball through the hoop despite his best attempt. But I fail to understand why people simply do nothing and stay confined to their rooms. I can only feel sorry for them. But I can perfectly understand their situation. They have not attempted too many things in life to realize what is it like do it. Take trekking for example. Unless you go for a trek you cannot understand what is it like to trek. Its like your life is missing out on a whole world of experience. There are so many things to do, so many things to see, that I find it foolish to limit yourself to the confines of your room. Go out and enjoy what this world has to offer.

Jaisalmer - Call of the desert.

I have always wanted to see three things of nature as I've grown up. The first was ocean. I was able to see the Arabian Sea when I had come to Bombay as a teenager. It was great to have the moist and salty wind at your face. The next was snow. During my trip to US, one day while I was chatting on yahoo, suddenly I realized that the weather monitor in the messenger window was showing that it was snowing in North Wales. I jumped off the bed and opened the window to find tine snow particles floating down from above and the parking lot before me was covered in a white bed spread. It was an amazing experience as I rushed out in -2 degrees C to enjoy my first snow fall. The third was my trip to the Thar.
The slick 8 lane highway between Delhi and Gurgaon ends at Manesar and then you have a 4 lane road all the way to Jaipur which does no justice to the traffic on the road. But I find it strange that even in the interior parts of Rajasthan we have good roads. What ever be the reason for their great condition but they significantly eased our road trip of roughly 1400 KMs. (wow!!)
I left Gurgaon at 4-5 PM on Friday and reached Jaipur (Gujjar ki Thadi) at around 10 PM at night. Thereafter I was picked up by my firends. and we drove towards Jaisalmer via Jodhpur. I slept half the way, and woke up to see my friends having milk from a sweet shop. Unlike at my place every other guy in Rajasthan seem to wear huge colorful turbans. Possibly because of the intense heat in these parts of the country but it puts up a nice picture of "Incredible India !!". On our way we stopped in the morning, near a road site tea shop. One of my friends wanted to catch some sleep on the charpoy. Seeing the sleeping bag, a kid burst into a infectious laughter, and saw all of us ROTFL.
On our way somewhere we had realized that the driver we had hired for the trip was driving very rough, and Rahul was particularly concerned about his new pajero. :) Apart from that we were not having the same level of discussion we would have had if the driver hadn't been with us. So while eating great parathas, at one of the omnipresent dhabas along the highway we decided to get rid of the gusy and asked him to pack up and leave. (I sincerely felt very relieved when we just had 3 close friends in the car. Prior to that the discussions had been very cold.) We went further on our journey and reached pokharan. We stopped at a roadsign and took a picture, just to remeber the place where Buddha had smiled. I took a pic of the mile stone that said " Pokaran 0 KM" so that some day when I narrate about my travelogue to people I have evidence.( That's my idiosyncrasy :). We had a great desire to get ourselves clicked in the pit of the blast. But unfortunately no body is allowed to go near 'shakti sthal' (name of the blast site). Nevertheless we went ahead towards Jaisalmer. One thing about the road side view that came as a surprise to me when we were moving from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer was that Rajasthan is not all desert. Even in Jaisalmer district you will find fields which grow mustard.
We next arrived at Jaisalmer at around 12 PM and found the it looks all yellow. This yellowish hue to the city comes primarily due to the use of sandstone for construction purpose. The Jaisalmer station looks more like the set of film theatre. We ate at the Trio hotel . The food was not much to boast about. One special thing that I had there was 'sangri ki sabzi' which was nice. We loitered around for some time and got ourselves a booking at one of the camping places at the sam sand dunes. While on our way we came across the Wind Energy farms set up by Suzlon. Each one of those windmills cost upto 2 Crores (INR) and generates 40K worth of electricity everyday. That essentially means a breakeven in 2-3 years! Not bad at all. ( I wonder at the might of human imagination where we can make pots of money from even barren lands.)
Reached the Sam sand dunes at around 4 in the evening and straight to the dunes. Contrary to one's perception, sam dunes are far removed from the actual Thar. They are more like a picnic spot for people who want a sandy experience. The actual Thar starts 3-4 KM from the Sam sand dunes. And if you want to go there you need a permit from the army. We had great 3-4 hrs. there and as the shadows grew longer we receded to our tents. At night we had a great get together, camp fire and folk music organized by the Organizers. We were pleased to find Vishal Bharadwaj with us. We met him and appreciated his work.

We had planned to get us early in the morning and go again to the dunes. But then you know. Plans are plans. We slept through the morning and got up at 8-9ish and headed for the dunes. Rahul wanted to test the four wheel drive option of his pajero. So we went to the dunes by his vehicle. It was doing fine, except at one point of the incline we felt that the car was tilting sideways. Quickly retraced our path and landed ourselves on are relatively flat dune. We spent some time there and then headed off to Jaisalmer city. On our ways, we also visited the famous Jain temples of Jaisalmer. I have seen the images of the interiors of the Jain temples in one of my ICSE history, but it is only when you see them in real you come to admire its true splendor.
Thereafter we started back towards Jaipur. It was a long journey back home with all the fun filled memories. It is great to go on 2-3 day weekends. You can see a lot and feel rejuvenated. Lets hope we see more of them soon.

The Impulsive guy

Being impulsive has a lot of disadvantages. Sometimes impulsive decisions have to be made in make or break situations. You enter into a brawl when you could have kept cool and settled the matter later on in a peaceful manner. But, you had to go for it just because of the kind of audience that you entertain (maybe your friends / significant others) or the reputation that you had to live up to. In these times the rage gets you, and you end up doing stuff you wouldn't have done. You might have smashed somebody or uttered some unpleasant stuff. Whatever you do in a fit of rage, starts to haunt you once the rage is out.

But people who are at the other extreme of the spectrum are in a no better situation. People who stay calm in adverse situations do have better results than the impulsive once ( at least the probability of getting knocked out is less !!) but there is no instant gratification of rage. Gratification is important. Sometimes it can be more important than the next pay cheque. (That is the reason for the Hari Sadu ad!! ) Believe me, it can haunt you in the long run, like no ghost could have done and can lower your confidence. It is nice to contain the rage a lot of times, but once in a while it is also good to let it out. It is easy for people who are impulsive by nature. It is in their nature to be impulsive. But it is a Pandora's box for those who are not.

If you are not impulsive by nature and you have done something in the heat of the moment then
its after effects will take a toll on you. Therefore Beware!!

But if you have already done something like that in that of a wider audience, then look at the brighter side. If the audience had some chicks among them then let me tell you a well known fact "Chicks dig for Impulsive guys." May be that will ease of the tension a little. :)

May you live in interesting times!

You must have heard this phrase from somebody.

May you live in interesting times.

I have heard it quite a few times and wished others even more. It has chinese origin and was used by JFK in his Day of affirmation address at Cape Town, South Africa. As mentioned in wikipedia the phrase is a part of a curse Chinese curse the other two being

• May you come to the attention of those in authority.
  
• May you find what you are looking for.

Wikipedia mentions this phrase as a curse that could have come up from another chinese phrase "It's better to be a dog in a peaceful time than be a man in a chaotic period।" But I seriously do not consider this to be a curse and consider it as a good thing, which is the sole reason for me writing a blog on this issue.

Chaotic times is a perspective. It is a time of change and reconciliation. And this change can be good for some and not so for others. Most people despise the changes that they have in their lives. Almost everybody, has a part of his or her life which is routine. Be it work or home. And when a change is being forced upon, every one despises it.

Consider a case when one company gets acquired by another company. Even though the employees might realize that the changes that are coming in the company are for good, they despise the fact that is being forced upon them. And then the regular bitching at the water cooler starts. But I guess at these times, people who readily accept the changed circumstances and begin to play within the changed paradigm benefit the most.

There have been cases where change in single government regulation has wiped out hundreds of businesses. But many of them have still managed to thrive, since they started to accept the new reality and act accordingly.

Any change that occurs in life, when forced upon just changes the paradigm in which we play. It might open up issues unheard of, opportunities unthought of. The first step to handle the situation is to accept the new reality. The next step beings when you start devising strategies to coup the situation.

A fiasco called Cost Cutting.

It seems like life is going well and every newspaper in India talks about the changing face of India. I come to office everyday. Some days there is lots of work, and someday i spend time by the foosball table.
Then, suddenly you come to see that there are small changes that that are coming along the HR policies of the company. And suddenly the gossip mongers begin to utter words like "cost-cutting". And then all little changes in the company that you observe begin to make sense.
Cost-cutting always starts in a company when topline is stagnating/declining. It is in these times that the CEO begins to start with increasing the bottomline by decreasing the cost so as to please the shareholders.
I don't disagree with the right of a company to start cost cutting, but i believe that these things should be carried out with care or they might alienate the employees. But sometimes the company goes on a reckless haste that it stoops to low levels in its cost cutting binge, as it happened with my company.
Now, I am not going to mention instances where I have felt so for my company, but these actions show in general, the disconnect that the management is having with the company.
As it happens with every startup, initially you get a lot of freedom. you get to decide when to come and go, when you eat. All this is okay, till the time you are doing your job.
But as the company grows and becomes mid sized, these freedoms are taken away from the individual in the name of Corporate Policy, sometimes leaving people in front of a computer with no work and all time. How do you expect the employees to feel good about the company if you find yourself in a similar situation.
Bottomline is that bottomline is not everything for a company. There needs to be a connect between the top echelons and the people down stairs, for the company to be healthy. Or else it will remain more like a dysfunctional system where every individual is an island.

India Gyrating!

I normally don't watch Hindi movies. But have to watch them sometimes to give company to friends or too many people have suggested me. At my college, I had lots of movies at my disposal and limited time. By watching Hindi and English movies I have developed a liking for the Hollywood movies and a sort of disdain for Indian Film Industry(IFI). It seemed to me that all that IFI can dole out is meaningless crap that has little relation to the actual India that people live in. There is no shred of reality in the movie that the Indian audience can connect to. Only songs to fill in the sequence of drama by a few people who call themselves actors. The movies seem to be made for the NRIs who expect to see lush green/yellow mustard fields in the background with the actors lip-syncing in the front. Another segment of Indian movies seem to focused on groups who are in a sad state because of the BAN on Porn Industry in India. Therefore, the directors often attempt to make movies and try to test the line for the censor board.
But recently in the last 2 years a lot of new movies have come in which have given me hope that something is changing the mindset of people who are running the show. The movies that I have seen in the last 1.5-2 years seem to capture the mood of the current generation (at least myself!) and provide meaningful content instead of some song and dance sequence. I see a marked attempt by this new breed of directors to test new waters instead of sticking to the old formula of movie making. The best thing that I appreciate about movies is that every time I watch the same movie I get to see something new in the same frame, some thing that makes me think that how meticulous the people must have been who were responsible for it.
Take for example the latest movie I have developed an appreciation for "Khosla ka Ghosla". The movie doesn't have any big actors or people backing it, but it hovers around a concept that can happen with any middle class family. The first scene when Khurana comes in and talks to Khosla is a masterstroke of genius, and I am all for it. The scene where Omi comes in with his cane is some thing that looks very real. On seeing that movie, I started wondering how would I react if something like that happened to me. Now, how many movies can actually do that to me? make me think like that? I would definitely give 160 bucks for watching the movie.
The beauty of these new age movies is that the new thing not just shows in acting and plot but comes about in every facet of the movie. Today I was watching the Beedi song from Omkara. In the dance sequence one of the steps was taken from the way farmers cut paddy from the fields. Seeing that sequence I was just amazed and wondered how much thought must have gone to make that sequence.
Kudos to IFI and I want more of it.

America!!

So finally I land up in America! Its cold, its scenic, its organized, its beautiful, its technology. Quite a lot of my friends have asked me how is America like. I guess that would be very difficult thing to attempt in the first place, leave alone the task of completing it. But the most striking thing that comes to my mind is that, in America, every thing seems to be in the proper place. Every thing seems to be organized and lined perfectly. The roads are correctly painted, the ubiquitous signboards seem to be placed very correctly. Every thing seems to be lavishly packaged. Air Conditioners seem to be everywhere. Constant electricity and water supply that are worthy of bragging for a flat in India are taken for granted here. There seems to be a logical flow to everything. Two-wheelers don't exist in US. At least that's something that I haven't seen here till now. Also when you travel in US by car it turns out to be cheaper than any other means of public transport system. The gas prices are very low here and this leads to almost all people owning a car here. And therefore the cities are not very densely populated. People spread out to the suburbs of the city which can be as far as 40-50 miles ( approx. 80-100 Km) and commute every day. This would be something unheard of in India to spread so far from cities, but seems to be the daily routine here. The smooth traffic and great roads make travel by car easy and fast. Also, the geographical spread out helps in providing all the basic amenities to people around here like playgrounds, hospitals etc. so that all people have access to them.
Another thing that I have found here is the bizarre options available for food here. I usually go to a store chain nearby called Whole Foods, which sells organic food, and am simply taken aback by the options available for every item. There are 4 kinds of potatoes and 3 kinds to tomatoes. Whenever we go grocery shopping I simply don't understand what to buy? Here one can find all kind of vegetables that are unheard of in India. There are food items from all around the globe (including India). There is food from South America, China, Europe. Having a look at those stores makes me imagine, all the farmers around the globe sweating day and night, to feed the rich and obese kids of United States of America. And the packaging is simply amazing. The Americans, I guess would be having the highest per capita consumption of plastic. They seem to use plastic bags for everything. Every time I have been to one of the stores, I have found that people don't bring carrying bags. It seems like too much wastage, which is outrageous.
I believe I have given the readers a small peek into what they call the American way of life. Rest next time.

Understanding the middleman

Reading what Mr.Manmohan Singh said last week seems to be a new approach towards dealing with the middlemen that come in trade and industry. It is simple. If you cannot fight them join them. These middlemen have always occupied a center stage in trade and industry. They have been in social circles with events such as marriages, and they have been the mandwali dons in underworld activities. Even 'The Godfather' was in a way a broker. We generally tend to disregard these middlemen as rent seeking people but fail to understand the value they create for the society. I agree that had the world been ideal these middlemen would'nt have been in need but it is not so, and there is asymmetry of information and these middlemen try to bridge out the gap. Basically the middlemen are needed for various reasons:

• They are needed in situations where there is asymmetry of information. For example a real estate agent. In case you want to sell/purchase property, you would like to get a good deal without getting too involved in all the stuff. so what you do is just go and appoint a realtor. He brings in his experience of deciding the correct purchase price for the house as well as brings the whole market of saleable houses at your doorstep so that you don't have to roam around.
  
• They are the liaison officers between two parties. For example if two families want their sons and daughters to get married they would usually prefer an intermediary so as to improve the chances of a marriage actually taking place. A village pundit works exactly the same way. There are also liaison officers who work between government and industry and facilitate to ensure expedited work. They would also come in this category.

But they we need to understand that there are a lot of situations where middlemen are undesirable from the point of view of one of the concerned parties. Just take the case of the middlemen is arms purchase. I fail to understand what value addition do they bring for the government in the deal. But from the point of view of the arms company they are multi million dollar question. And they wouldn't wanna take chances with such a opportunity. Therefore they employ these middlemen. But it is a total waste from the side of the government because it raises the cost of the deal, as the cost of the middlemen is recovered from the government. Like all the purchases that are bought purely on the basis of their utility, even buying arms and ammunitions is a yes or no situation. There is no scope for any grey area in decision making. But it is the inefficiency of one of the parties, namely the government, which lead to such a situation that the middlemen come into play. Therefore I believe that instead of making such statements the PM should focus more on the decision making process for arms purchase and try to eliminate discretion out of the whole cycle.

P.S. : With the advent of the internet the information asymmetry that we were talking about is fast disappearing and so is the situation getting worse for the middlemen. For example real estate web sites that facilitate sale/purchase of property are doing better and cheaper job as compared to the realtors. The stock brokers are getting replaced by computer terminals. We can very soon expect a situation when we will be our own realtors and brokers.

Phoren education on Indian Shores

Recently there has been lot of hophulla over allowing foreign universities to set up campus in India. There is a lot of mixed reaction to this idea and a lot of groups (political/nonpolitical) are debating on the issue. The basic points lent by those in favour of such a move is

1. Allowing foreing universities to set up campuses in India will help in increasing the number of seats that will ultimately help in getting more and more Indians, access to free education.
2. These universities will have a social benefit in that they will bring the worlds best teaching methodologies and practices. When introduced in India they will also help the Indian universities in coming up to the level of universities outside.
3. The research and development done by these universities will of high standards and will create a benchmark for Indian universities to replicate and to learn from.
4. These universities, making profit from their investments will add to the exchequer.

But various groups have raised concern over such a move. The issues that go against inviting foregin universities in India are:

1. The very first issue is the kind of univerities that come for development of India campus. There are already hundred of mushrooming institutions like University of North-Central Nebraska, which work just like degree mills, and do not have a standing in their home country. It is these cash-starved universities that will plan to set satellite campuses here and not MITs and Stanfords.
   
2. These universities don't come for the development of the human resources of the developing countries. They have their own interests and that is purely profit. So the universities that will come to India will only target at the higher class of the population who can already afford their expensive fee structures. Thus the not-so-well-to-do populace will not benefit from such a move.
3. The most important part of educational infrastructure is the faculty it has. In our case I wonder how will these universities get the required faculty. Either they bring in some foreign faculty on board or start poarching from the Indian universities. The idea of getting somebody to come and teach in India, is possible but does'nt seem to be a long term solution. Why would somebody who is born and brought up outside would like to come to India except for the accompanied tourism that the stay brings. And even the aspect of "visiting a developing country" will fade out in a couple of exchanges. So the next thing starts and that is poarching of staff from Indian universities. In this process what will ultimately happen is that the professor who earlier used to teach a broad spectra of students (in terms of wealth) will be facing a class who are well to do. I don't think this has any benefits for India at large.
4. Also, it would be very unrealistic to assume that these universities will introduce India to cutting-edge reasearch. In the first place, such research are kept very secretive in their own country. Under such a circumstance I have no shred of doubt about the kind of research that will come to India. It will mostly be in the fields which require more manual work, and are not so strategically important. It will just be like the off shoot of some foreign university outsourcing backend work to India. I wonder how will it help in the long run when India is aiming to be a Industrial and Technological superpower.

To be brief, I think it is only when the government invites good univs to India, and the list is kept selective, that we will benefit in the long run. Stringent conditions must be placed to ensure that only those universities come to set shops that are serious about India and not some fly-by-the-night campuses. These guidelines may include checks on faculty recruitment policies, check on fee structure and research output. This has actually worked with China and therefore there is no reason why it cannot work in India. The only thing that's needed is a strong commitment.

Quis custodiet ipsoscustodes ?

Recently I have shifted my home to Gurgaon, a satellite city close to the capital. The place is nice and has some problems of absence of public transport system. When I arrived at Gurgaon, we stayed at a company guest house which is in sector 14. A place called Defence Colony is very close by. Myself with other new joinees would go for evening walks across the colony and marvel at the houses, estimating their values and calculating the number of years it would take to own such a house. (Of course the number of years was more than the average life expectancy at birth in India which is around 65 years and therefore beyond our reach). Looking at those houses I pondered over choice of career. Monetary benefits has been the sole guiding principle for my career choice and for this reason I had opted for a engineering. But now as I stood before those huge monuments of sucess I wondered whether the decision was right. I wondered where I went wrong. As far as I knew, the army officers are paid a pittiance, and that's why only three groups of people choose to join the army:

1. People who want to do something for their country.
2. People who have to maintain a family legacy.
3. People who have no where else to go.

Still I wondered where does all the money come from. There have been cases of ketchup colonel and coffin scam within the army, but with so many bunglows around I kept wondering where all the money comes from there. Then one day a friend of mine made the disclosure of the unaccounted wealth. The process of recruitment in the officer cadre is very strict but the soldiers are taken through recruitment drives conducted by the army. Also the criteria for recruitment in case of soldiers is not very clearly defined. Now, this loophole is used by our 'respectable' officers for minting money. Bringing in their discretion, they charge 1-2 lakh upwards for every soldier recruited.
On hearing his narration about the bravery and integrity levels in the army, my respect for the uniform has vanished in thin air. Whenever I cross those streets lined with sprawling bunglows, I remeber the question posed by Dan Brown in his novel Digital Fortress "Who will guard the guards?"

Am I a Coward??

I have been pondering on this question for so long, but answer does'nt seem to come. I guess sometime or the other everyone has to confront these questions. It's just that my time for this question came early. Bravery, I guess is reflected in the decisions that we take in our life time. Bravery may seem very close risk taking ability, but I guess there is a strong difference. Dictionary.com says that bravery is a show of courage were courage means "The state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger, fear, or vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence, and resolution." Brave are those people who take actions when danger is staring at their faces. On the other hand risk-taking is just a opportunistic (not necessarily unethical) mindset. The risk-takers, knowingly will never encounter danger. Mind you, both these qualities are not mutually exclusive.
But apart from the distinction made between bravery and risk-taking how can one quantify bravery? I guess it can be done only through looking at the decisions of the concerned person and the circumstances in which the decisions were made. But even decisions have a mixed background. Some decisions taken by us are totally impulsive in nature. Such decisions have to arrived at in split second time. And then there are decisions, which get a lot of time to think..... to ponder, to sleep over it. The second category of decisions obviously show your colour. But it also has reason mixed with it. So can we, use such decisions to quntify bravery? Or , we should use the parameter of impulsive decisions as our criteria? Implusive decisions have little or no reson attached with it.(where do u get the time to think in half a sec?) But in the same half sec, things like prejudice, taste etc. have a overbearing influence in one's decision making?
If anyone can figure out how you classify yourself as brave or coward please let me know? I would like to know myself. And I am totally ready to accept myself as a coward if I am so. And if I find myself to be brave I will happily award myself the bravery certificate by Dr. Greenfingers.

Dance of Democracy

I love this title, which appears on the election page for ToI. The alliteration while being hilarious also successfully potrays a true picture of democracy. From the times of war of ideologies, (Communist Vs Capitalist) Democracy emerged to be a truely sucessful form of governence. But lately it has become more of a belly dancer dancing to the tunes of the seperatists. These seperatists just need a silly whimsical reason to seperate out from the lot. The current sitution in India maked me wonder whether democracy is good or bad.
The basic premise on which democracy works is that of having individuals with strong individualistic principles. But what if your country fails to generate those men with ideals and passion. Or if the structure is such that such ideals are strifled before they can come to a platform where they can be tested and tried. What if you have a moron who is good at giving speeches that tends to divide the society and unleashing mindless passions and a sense of insecurty among men from their own bretherns? Surely he will succeed to get his point across. But in the meantime he will leave a big gaping hole in the social fabric of the country.
What needs to be done here is to make such great democratic structures to overcome high handed behaviour on which people can repose their faith. Swaminathan Aiyar, in one of his articles had mentioned about the importance of having strong democratic structure for the successful running of democracy. He talked about a British colony which had huge trade surplus at the time when it was part of the british commonwealth. But as soon as British left the country leaving it as a democracy it collapsed turning to a trade deficit nation. Mr.Aiyar blames this downfall to the absense of any strong democratic structure/institutions. Unless and untill the democratic structure is strong. Unless the institutions that uphold the democracy like police, judiciary etc. are fair and efficient one can't expect the democracy to run efficiently.
The same has been happening to India, lately. Here, rules are applied on people based on their faith and caste and position. A politician can never get into a jail. No sooner a verdict is pronounced against him he/she develops a chest pain and is sent to the ICU of the best hospitals (Supursinh Naik). Rich people can get away with broad day light murders(Jessica Lal case). Even the judiciary is no good. Eventhough we can say it is fair but the verdict comes after some natural death of the accused.
I often read in the news papers that the Comptoller and Auditor General rapped the government on poor dealings and hadling of fiscal, but have never heard of any response from the government side. Seems that after making the CAG office they turned a deaf ear towards it.
We talk of democracy and the right to free speech, but what should happen to it when every one wants to divide the country to get their won share. The case gets more complicated in this country where there are millions and billions of tribes and castes. What do you do? We have a super large list of political parties in India. If one observes the list barrind 1-2 ideology based parties all the other are based on communal lines, lines of caste, creed and language. Does'nt it simply means that the politicians are hell bent on dividing us? Instead of focusing on issues of growth and development these parties just play the blame game and divide and rule policy.
Where is all this leading us? Where are we going? With all those glitzy malls coming up does anyone even care about plight of the poor. Lets see, where is dance leads us to..till that time let the democracy dance :)

Taxing Times

Taxation policy is interesting. Taxation is not only a way of getting money for the government to run but is also a very useful tool to drive the direction of investment and capital. There are opportunities provided by the government for saving on taxes, if an individual or a corporation invests in a particular sector. The final benefits of those tax savings might go to

Location: The government might reduce tax for companies setting up shops in a particular state which might have few industries or natural resources to drive industrialization to itself. The low taxation regimes of uttaranchal and union territories are prominent examples of location based tax advantages.

Sector: The government might give tax holidays to certain sectors of industry so as to provide incentive for those sectors to grow up. IT and ITES are among the prominent examples, of sectors that enjoy tax holiday.


RBI: I am not sure whether Reserve bank of India or the Federal bank of any country would be the direct benefitiary. But government provides incentives for investements that are able to garner Foreign Exchange. The recent enactment of SEZ act is one of the prominent example of such kind of taxation benefits.

Social Cause: I am not aware of anything in India, but tax incentives are provided to companies in China which employ a certain percentage of disabled people. Recently talks have been doing rounds in India, for providing tax incentives to companies that employ a certain section of people(SC,ST,OBC)

In essence depending on the policy of the government, it can change the direction of investment by making a sector or location lucrative with respect to others. These were the broad ways in which govenment directs the spending/investment of companies. At the same time the government also works at a micro level to encourage people to spend/invest their money in particular activities.

Education: The government provides tax benefits to people who for their education purpose availed Education loans. This is indirectly an incentive for poor people to avail loans for higher education.

Housing: The government'c commitment towards providing housing for people is also reflected in its providing of tax benefits for home loans.

Women upliftment: There also singnificant benefits provided to women folk for their upliftment. Their taxation is lower than that of men. Also property held on their name is charged less (Have no idea wht that means).

While all these ways are used for bettering the lot of the deprived ones. These tools are often used by unscrupulos people to deprive the government of the tax it owes. So there can be several ways that the taxation policy can be made. In India people are charged on the basis of their income. It simply means that you show your income and are taxed on that amount. At the same time, people talk of taxation at the point of consumption. I had a long argument with one of my friend (Ashwin) over this issue. He was hell bent on the idea of implementing the the point-of-consumption idea. The idea sounds cool and is supposedly cool. But i had only one contention over the proposal. Do you tax the poor and the rich the same way? This is something that is more dependent on heart rather than logic. And there are stuations where you can't always resort to logic. I have always believed that "one of the important roles of the government is to remove the demarcations created by nature." The demarcations are primarily based on lines of being rich/poor or disability. The role of government in these circumstances is to give the same opportunities to everyone, regardless of his/her birth. Also I believe that in a democratic system the rich get much more benefit from the society than the poor. They have access to water, electricity, roads which one cannot find in the hamlets of our noth-east. Considering this line of argument, if the taxation policy gets changed to point-of-consumption then every individual regardless of being rich or poor will have to pay taxes. Therefore i definately do not confirm with this point-of-consumption taxation policy. However i am sure that the consumption habit of individual reveals a lot about his income level and therefore can be a useful check on black money. I can only imagine how complex issues might crop up, considering the level of diversity we have in India. But never the less, the formulation of the taxation policy would be interesting.

Changing Face "RnD India"

In my past posts i have discussed issues that plague the Indian R'n'D scenario. There is a inertia in the system right now, and this needs to removed. Taking into consideration a lot of people grazing through all blogs i have a few suggestions regarding improving the R'n'D culture in India. I sincerely hope that someone would read this blog and take my suggestions to proper forum.

Re-engineer CSIR
www.csir.res.in says "To provide scientific industrial R&D that maximises the economic, environmental and societal benefits for the people of India." But i wonder whether its mission is being fulfilled. CSIR has perhaps the largest network of laboratories spread across the length and breadth of India(38 to be precise). From Jammu, to Jorhat and from Bhavnagar to Tiruvanthapuram. It has a workforce of 18,225 and government support of Rs.1074.54 Crores. Considering the huge size of everything related to CSIR , it has a pathetic record in reseach. To prove my point a request the readers to have a look at the news papers of the past 2-3 years and search for any technology transfer or any cutting edge reasearch done at any CSIR laboratory. You shall find none. Contrast this with National Science Foundation (www.nsf.gov) and you shall find a stark difference between the the two. NSF has been on the forefront of basic reseach. As compared to CSIR it is not a string of government laboratories but a funding agency. In essence, the infrastructure of CSIR is lying unused and rotting. To this, I would suggest starting educational institutions along with these laboratories. And then slowly turning them into fullfledged universities. The task of the governing body of CSIR should be reduced to that of funding agency which provides project based funds and not funds for running the institution. These institutions have huge buildings and land and qualified Staff who can deliver teaching. Also involving fresh students to these places will help to clear out the fog of the past and help in quality research. Research not only needs great labs but also great minds which can think fresh.

Avoid Duplication

Another issue that bugs Indian research, is the issue of duplication. There is several work going on in different institutions in India which is essentially duplicating the work. Take for example, at IIT Bombay, there are 3 departments working in the area of Computational Fluid Dynamics. They are Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Aerospace. But they are not synergising their effort by coordination. People in one department do not know what people in other departments are working on. Therefore it becomes very essential for having an agency which keeps track of the work, so that things don't get duplicated. We can have CSIR keeping a track of the work that is going on in all reasearch institutes.

Monetary Grants

This a very very important thing. R'n'D is not done by instruments but by people who use those equipments. So it becomes very important to satisfy them and show them a better future so that they don't have to move out to distant lands. Now what does funding comprises. I believe it comparises good package. The amount that current P.hD's get in India is abysmally low and something needs to be done to amend this.(I have talked about it in my previous posts). Also the grant for attending conferences should be increased. (One of my friends wants to go for a conference in US, but funding he is getting is INR 25k which is nothing. He will have to shell out the remaining amount from his own pocket.) Whether one accepts it or not there is a definite charm in attending conferences outside country. And i believe that this should come as a perk for people working in research labs. I believe that it is better to have a few excellent research labs rather than a large number of mediocre ones.

Reverse Brain-Drain

In the last 20-30 years a lot of people have gone and settled themselves in european countries. Currently there are 79,736 students studying in US. We have done nothing to harness the talent pool. Even in advanced countries like Japan, people go out to US to get a P.hD, but then they return back to their own contries. We don't see it happening with India. I think in this regard, India should'nt just wait to see the reverse brain-drain happening but should proactively approach it. We should try to woo all those great researchers who can put us on the world research map. When these intellectuals return to Indian labs, these labs will furthur act as a centre for attracting good people. Apart from money you also need an intellecually stimulating environment.

Industrial Interaction

No research is valued if it remains in the confine of the laboratory. Ultimately, it needs to reach to the common man so that the economic/social benefit of the work is realised. Under these circumstances the industry plays a very crucial role in helping the academia realise the benefits of their work. At the same time there needs to be some emphasis on industrial reseach, financially supported by the industry which fuels this interaction. The state of interaction between industry and university is in a very disintegrated state, where neither of them are willing to take the responsibility. The government needs to come forward to bridge this gap. The recent initiative of CSIR, NEW MILLENNIUM INDIAN TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE, is a good one. But given at the pace at which it is moving, it will reach there in the next 100 years(by then, academia and industry will be indistinguishable in other countries according to my prediction.)

Intellectual Property Rights
IPR though something which has a long history in India, only recently has acquired importance in India. With the neem and turmeric cases, more and more scientists are realising the importace IPR. But yet again the idea still has'nt percolated to the entire research workforce. The government should emphasize on the outcome of the reseach work in term of quality papers and patents. CSIR website itself confesses that "In the field of IPR, CSIR’s track record is enviable given its rather recent entry into the area." We all know how good its track record is. In 2004-05 CSIR had 140 patents which is abysmal considering the money and resource going into the system. The funding for these laboratories should be strictly outcome based (i.e.-on the number of patents etc.) The government should also make changes to add more monetary benefits for good research. Having an Indian version of the Bayh-Dole Act would be a good start.

If you look at all the issues in whole you will see nothing but a vicisious cycle where the whole system is flawed. But coming down to the nitty-gritties of the case are small issues which maar the system. If these small issues are resolved then surely the next 5-10 years will bring more fortune for India than never before. After all "hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies. "

R'n'D in India II

This continues from my last Blog. This weekend on Sunday ToI Mumbai edition(March 12.2006) carried out an article titled "Spot the Indian Nuke Scientist". The article is a nice way to emphasize my last point, namely, that of "Life after" a P.hD. There are very few options available to P.hD's in India. The opportunity cost of doing research in India Vis-a-Vis being a Tom,Dick and Harry in a TCS or Infosys is very high(As discussed in my previous blog).
The article talks about the fact that most of the people who work at BARC and related intitutes come from the heartlands of India, from places like Barelliy etc. etc. But it misses analysing the plight of the Urban youth. (By Urban youth, i mean the upwardly mobile class.) who have have the issue of the opportunity cost coming in.
To get into TCS, Infosys or Wipro you do not need to be some geek or exceptionally talented guy. But confidence and sophistication are given a lot of weightage. These are the qualities of the urban youth who easily land up in such 'cool' jobs.
But on the other hand the so called, Rural youth (However stud, he might be in his/her field) is low on self confidence, self-esteem and sophistication. It is because of these issues plus idea of a government job that they land up at such a place.
Another factor that keeps smart people at bay from these institutions is the fact that the work culture is pathetic to say the least. People have the perception that there is Red Tapism everywhere (It exists even in IITs.) The system is not meriocratic at all. At places like research institutes, Human Resources is a very big thing. It is infact the single biggest thing. And at such places you do not reward sucess and penalize faliure the system is definitely going to crash. Thats exactly what has happened in these research intitutions.
One of my friend after his 3rd year had gone for a Practical Training at GTRE, Bangalore. He was appalled to see that the engineers over there did'nt even know how to multiply imaginary numbers. He had to teach them!!!
It is great to see that we have some very great institutions for research like TIFR, ISRO,BARC which make me feel proud as an Indian. But the foundations of these institutions is in a deep mess right now and if nothing is done, you should stop dreaming about competing with china, leave along US.

R'n'D in India

These days a lot is going on in IIT Bombay to encourage people to go into research. From conducting "why am i in IIT?" sessions to inviting professors to every hostel to tell people about their field of research. It is nice that IIT is gearing up to meet the challenges for the future. But with all the good students either opting to go abroad or go for the booming "IT sector" or becoming cyber coolies the people left in fundamental research is dwindling. I think to stop people from moving out to other avenues it is very important to strike the propblem at the root itself. If we look at the things that people go for after their graduation we have the following:

Remuneration: This seems to be byfar the most important aspect while considering for a career. It is true that when one completes his P.hD his starting salary is high. But, junta takes such thing in a very short time horizon. maybe a 6 months or a year. A PhD at IIT gets hardly 8-10k where as a starting salary for a IIT graduate these days is 30k which is 3 times the stipend of a PhD.

Travel: Another lucrative offer for doing research could be the lure of foreing conferences. But have a look at the funding provided for attending conferences. It is a pittance in india. At the same time MIT offers $1500 just for attending conferences per student every year. In IIT the offer is abysmal, where IIT offers Rs.25000 and for the rest of the funding you will haev to apply to DST,GoI and other funding agencies. So this is also not lucrative enough.

Reserch: Now coming down to the work. Reserch here is severly strifled by the lack of infrastructure. One of my friend says that he is tired of modelling and simualating and wants to do some experimental research and for that purpose the is apping to the US. May be the argument is very far fetched, but it is true. We at IIT have a cluster( 64 nodes, blah blah). But half the time all nodes are down and other half the time 50% nodes are down. so even the compuatational power available to these reaearch institutes is pathetic to say the least.

Life after: so what after a P.hD in india? you spent 5 years working hard in front of a terminal and here you are. The placements are very good for people in CSE and Electrical but pathetic for the other departments. It starting salary of a Chemical Engg. P.hD would be 7-8 lacs which is way below the opportunity cost lost. During those 5 years they couldhave earned min 5*5=25 lacs plus 2-3 promotions.
The only avenue that you have now is getting on a CSIR lab or become a prof. There is hardly any industry opening.

I believe that rather that advertising about their research areas the faculty should look into these problem which have a greater weightage in the minds of a young graduate at the turning point of their life.

Welcome

Welcome!
Suswagatam!
So many different ways to convey the same feeling. But do they convey the same feeling? I don't think so. Most of the time people confuse themselves and their writings by refering to the thesauras in search of a better word or a replacement. But each word has its own individuality. Its own meaning. The feeling that each word evokes in the mind of the reader will always be different. The fact that two different words exist ('happy' and 'ecstatic') mean that they call for different (however close) feeling to come up in the mind of readers.
Welcome and Suswagatam are definately different.
Welcome to my blog!