Just as the new ‘Missing Link’ (viaducts, tunnels) is simplifying the Bor ghat alignment for the road expressway – the new ’26th tunnel alignment’ simplified the railway section of the ghat back in the late 1920s. The map below provides an overview of the current (post late 1920s) alignment, and the old reversing station based alignment (1860s – 1920s).

Prior to this ‘new’ Bor ghat alignment (which continues to this day, nearly 100 years later) – a complicated reversing station based alignment was implemented in the 1860s.

This complicated alignment was needed to climb up the last stretch towards Khandala. In the 1860s when the original alignment of the railway Bor Ghat was built, the construction technology for the long 26th tunnel wasn’t available. Nor were the steam locomotives capable of ascending that steep gradient. Hence the alternative was to bypass the last hill and take a ‘Y’ route to go around it, with a gradual ascend. This required the reversing station.

See the map (black legend) for the old reversing station alignment of the railway line, and the photo of the actual reversing station tracks (this was above the old ‘Amritanjan Bridge’ over the road ghat).

In the late 1920s, construction technology had progressed – and a new powerful traction technology was also available for the steep gradient – the electric locomotive. This led to the construction of the 26th tunnel (just before Khandala) and the opening of the present ghat alignment. Note, the 26th tunnel was built by Walchand Hirachand’s company. The Deccan Queen became the first new electric train from Mumbai to Pune, starting June 1, 1930.

This new alignment with the 26th tunnel and the elimination of the reversing station saved 30-45 min of the ghat journey.

Much later in the 1980s – a new 3rd ghat railway line was also added – largely parallel to the existing alignment. But the last tunnel was much longer – effectively combining the 25th and 26th tunnels of the old alignment (see map).

Looking at the future – a much more gradual and longer (with more tunneling) ghat alignment has been proposed recently. A gradual (less gradient and less turns) alignment will allow much higher speeds – effectively reducing the ghat travel time, even though the distance maybe a bit more.

But right now, no firm plans are available on when this new alignment will be actually constructed. Similarly, a separate alignment has also been proposed for the planned ‘High Speed Rail Corridor’ (Bullet Train) from Mumbai – Pune.

(Images – 1. Bor Ghat Map of the various rail alignments, 2. Old Reversing Station, 3. Inauguration of the 26th tunnel and the new rail alignment in 1928.)

Some of you may have heard of ‘Bhamburda’ and ‘Erandvan’ areas of Pune. As the old Pune city grew, these ‘villages’ from across the Mutha river were added into the city limits, around 1920.

Today, the ‘Bhamburda’ area is referred to as Shivajinagar. ‘Erandvan’ still continues to be known as ‘Erandvan’ (or ‘Erandvane’) – this is the Prabhat Road/Karve Road/Deccan Gymkhana area. These areas, while new a hundred years ago, today represent the new center of Pune city and most Punekars and many visitors are well familiar with this.

But, have you heard of the ‘Bhamburda – Erandvan University’ located right here? It is one of the top Education, Research and Knowledge Clusters in the entire country. It consists of various top institutes in many diverse fields. Fields as diverse as Films, Journalism, Management, Oriental & Indology Research, Law, Politics, Economics, Sciences, Agriculture, Weather, Engineering and more.

This ‘university’ is located along a 2-3 km stretch, surrounded by hills and dense tree cover. And in the center of the city.

Sounds vaguely familiar? Well, even old Punekars have not heard of this ‘university’ – the reason being that it doesn’t ‘officially’ exist. At least not as a formal entity.

But it is very much there. Ultimately, what is a ‘university’? It is a place of learning and research across various domains – in a good environment, geographic proximity and good cross collaboration between various disciplines, and students and faculty staying nearby…right? All that exists here. And with a rich legacy that goes back over a hundred years.

So what is this ‘university’? Well, I am referring to the many great institutions located in Shivajinagar (old name Bhamburda) and Erandwane (old name Erandvan) in Pune. Quite a few of these were setup along an old road that goes along the Law College and Fergusson Hills, connecting Gokhale Road (Fergusson Road), with Karve Road. And some institutions a bit further away.

Today this road is split into two parts – Law College Road (Chiplunkar Road) and BMCC Road (Agarkar Road). But before the creation of the Senapati Bapat Road, this was one contiguous road. Only after the Senapati Bapat Road junction was created in the late 1960s, did we start identifying these as two separate roads.

This road spans through the old Bhamburda and Erandvan areas.

The first great institution to be established here, was the Fergusson College. The Deccan Education Society, founded by Tilak, Agarkar, Namjoshi and Apte established this college in 1885. In 1905, Gopal Krishna Gokhale built a bungalow nearby and his Servants of India Society was also setup here. Later in the 1930, this became the site of the Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics. The Ranade Institute and the old ‘Aryabhushan Press’ are also located at one of end of the BMCC Road.

In 1917, a group of students of the great Indology scholar R.G. Bhandarkar established the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. The present day Bhandarkar Institute Road didn’t exist then and was created a few years later.

Right next to the Bhandarkar Institute, the Indian Law Society established the ILS Law College in 1925. A few hundred meters further down the road, one of Indian Cinema’s top studios – the Prabhat Studio was established in 1933. This studio produced some of India’s finest films in the 1930s, which won many international awards. The studio closed down in the 1948. Later, in the 1960s – the Films & Television Institute of India was established in this campus.

At one end of this road (area near present day intersection of Law College Road and Karve Road), Maharishi Karve established the first women’s university of the country in 1916 – the SNDT Women’s University.

Barrister Jayakar built a large bungalow across from the ILS Law College in the 1930s. Note that he was the first Vice Chancellor of the University of Poona, which was established in 1948. In fact, the ‘University of Poona’ (today’s SPPU) was started in the Bhandarkar Institute campus in 1948, and it shifted to its present campus in 1949. After the death of Barrister Jayakar, his bungalow was converted to the National Film Archives.

Meanwhile in 1940s, the BMCC College of Commerce was setup right next to the Gokhale Institute. The Agharkar Institute (focused on plant, animal and microbial sciences) came up in the neighbourhood in the 1950s.

Fast forward to 1970s and the Symbiosis Campus started taking shape on Senapati Bapat Road, at the foothills of the ‘Khind’ on the new Senapati Bapat Road. What started as a hostel for foreign students, 50 year ago has now become one of the largest private deemed universities in the country. While Symbiosis now has dozens of campuses in Pune and many more all over the country – the original campus and the ‘main campus’ continues to be right here.

A bit further beyond this 2 km stretch of road, but still very much in Bhamburda area is the College of Engineering, Pune – the 2^nd oldest engineering college in the country, which was established in 1854! It is one of the top engineering colleges in the country. Nearby is the ‘Shimla Office’ – the massive Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) building, built in the 1920s. It used to the national head quarters of the IMD in the 1930s and 40s. Close by, at the intersection of Fergusson College Road and Ganesh Khind Road is one of the oldest dedicated agriculture (if not the oldest) colleges in the country – established around 1905. And there are many more colleges and institutions in the area such as the Abasaheb Garware College, Modern College and more.

As I said earlier all these institutes are not formally part of one single official organization or university – but some collaboration/knowledge exchange between them, does exist. Of course, it needs to improve a lot more and organizational barriers sometimes impede this process. But there are some advantages as well, of being distributed.

Over the past many decades, some of these institutes have moved up, while some have slipped down in their respective areas of work. Some are attempting to reinvent themselves. It’s a dynamic scenario.

Over the past few decades – a similar independent set of institutions cluster has come up along the Pashan, Baner Roads – past the University of Pune (SPPU) campus. I will describe these in a separate article.

Here’s hoping that the ‘Bhamburda Erandvan’ distributed, loosely coupled ‘university’ continues to excel in the 21^st century!

This year’s schedule covers a series of topics including politics, defense, governance, history, music, literature, technology and many more. Good line up of speakers this year with a variety of different experience. (See detailed schedule below).

Some of the interesting speakers to look forward to, over the next 30 days: Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Prof. Seshrao More, Sunil Deodhar, Dr. Suhas Palshikar, Dr. Madhav Chitale, Dr. Madhav Godbole, Girish Kulkarni, Hon. Minister Suresh Prabhu, and more.

___________________

(blog-post from 2012 about Vasant Vyakhyanmala)

In recent years, TED and TEDx events are getting quite popular. They do a great job of presenting ideas from various experts and thought leaders. The first TED India event was very well received and many TEDx events have been held in various cities in India over the past year.

But did you know that an event similar in concept, but covering a broader range of topics, has been going on in Pune for 136 years! The great tradition of the ‘Vasant Vyakhyanmala’ (translation: ‘Spring Lecture Series’) was started by Justice M.G. Ranade in 1875. The idea was to present a variety of lectures, across various topics to the people. In those days, newspapers were in their infancy (Kesari had not yet started) and live lectures were the most effective medium for knowledge transfer.

Since the 18th century Peshwa era, Pune has always been a center of knowledge and education. Post the fall of the Maratha Empire in 1818, Pune city witnessed a tough period lasting for a few decades. The city’s economy was in shambles. Many scholars and learned experts left the city. Things started to improve towards the later half of the 19th century, under visionary leaders such as Justice Ranade (and later on Lokmanya Tilak).

Ranade, Tilak and other leaders of that period clearly saw the value of ‘Information’. The citizens had to be educated and informed. The Vasant Vyankhyanmala initiative was born out of the need to disseminate information and create awareness. Justice Ranade delivered the first lecture in 1875 in English. Over the years though, most lectures have been delivered in Marathi. Through its rich 137 year history, there have been very rare occasions, where the series had to be cancelled. For many years,  the Vasant Vyankhyanmala was held at Hirabag and Belbag. It has been held at its present venue – Tilak Smarak Mandir, for many decades. Today, this series covers wide ranging topics such as Culture, Arts, Economics, Science, Health, Governance, History, etc.

While I have followed this lecture series over the years through media coverage, this was my first year attending it.  The event format and the organization was very good. The only negative in my view was the number of attendees (probably less than 500). In the pre-independence era, 1000s attended these lectures. Today, there are many other media sources for getting information, but an informative and thought-provoking live lecture is still a very powerful source. If you are in Pune, you should definitely try and attend at least some of these lectures, over the next 3 weeks. The lectures are virtually free to attend (Single lecture ticket costs Rs 5 and the season ticket is Rs 100).

There is a need to get the word out regarding Vasant Vyakhyanmala. More media publicity and social media presence will definitely help. I do hope that in the next few years, this great tradition that started in 1875 will continue to thrive, and reach much bigger audience.

______________________________

Schedule* for the 144th Vasant Vyakhyanmala

(* Schedule is subject to change)

In the packed agenda, we didn’t get to see a lot of this country’s tourist attractions – but the brief tours of Haifa, Old City of Jaffa, and the historic city of Jerusalem were very interesting (I will write about this in a separate article). Suffice to say, Israel can be a great travel destination for the Indian tourist. This small country has a lot to offer: great history & culture, diverse nature, nightlife, good food, and a chance to meet with great people.

Israel is a small country, with an area of around 20,000 sq km (just a bit bigger than Pune District), and a population of 8.5 million (less than half of Mumbai). Faced with multiple geopolitical, climate and geographical challenges, it has made tremendous progress in building a world class innovation and startup ecosystem, over the past few decades. Today, Israel has over 7,000 startups, over 350 VC Funds, and over 300 corporate R&D centers. There were over 100 startup exits, worth $23 billion in 2017. This was a big jump from $10 billion in 2016 – largely driven by the huge acquisition of Mobileye (Computer Vision, Machine Learning Tech – for self-driving cars, other applications) by Intel for $15 billion, in August 2017.  The Mobileye exit is a great case-study and success-story for Israeli startups. Historically, U.S. has been the biggest market for Israeli tech startups and companies. Today, Israel has the 3^rd largest number of NASDAQ listed companies (following U.S. and China).

What drives this startup and innovation miracle? In this article, I will attempt to highlight some key attributes and reasons. I will also summarize some lessons that could be learned and applied to the Indian ecosystem. For detailed reading on Israel’s startup ecosystem, I would recommend an excellent book: ‘Startup Nation’ by Dan Senor and Saul Singer (a bit old; published in 2011 – but still quite relevant).

There are three primary factors that have helped in laying the foundation of the Israeli startup and innovation ecosystem:

1. Culture & Education (Scarcity of Natural Resources, Tough Environment, Military Service, Networking)
2. Role of Government (Support for Universities, Incubators, Strategic Focus on R&D)
3. VCs, Multi-National Corporations, and the Corporate Ecosystem

Culture

Israel has faced a tough environment (nature and geopolitics) since it was created in 1948. A large part of the country is desert, with very limited water resources. Israel has fought multiple wars with its neighbours over the past 70 years, and national security is a top priority. These necessities have driven the need to innovate in agriculture, water management and defense sectors, and has driven a culture of ‘problem solving’, with constrained resources. The culture promotes ‘Okay to Fail’ and a ‘Challenge Everything’ attitude.

Military service is mandatory in Israel after age 18. Students enter a three-year program and are trained in a variety of different skills. Depending on their capabilities and openings, they are assigned specific departments and roles. They learn military and other hard-skills in various tech and non-tech areas. They learn important soft-skills such as leadership, discipline and team-work. They also learn about tough decision making, especially in uncertain situations. They build great networks, which often last them a life-time, and are very useful during their startup/corporate life.

Israel is a small country, and is highly networked. A popular saying, we heard multiple times during our visit – “Everyone is connected to everyone else with a maximum ‘one degree of separation’”. These networks are critical in entrepreneurship to help recruit the right people, get the right early customers, raise funding, etc.

One example of the military service training and its direct connection to successful entrepreneurship and startups is the ‘8200 Unit’. We heard about this in multiple presentations during our visit. The ‘8200 Unit’ is one of Israel’s top military intelligence unit, involved with a variety of cyber-security, cyber warfare related initiatives. This unit usually ends up recruiting the top engineering and mathematics students during the military service. These recruits are trained by the top experts and work on challenging projects. The alumni of this unit later on end up studying at the top universities, working with the corporates and starting key startups (especially in the cyber-security, data analytics and related areas).

Education

For a country of just around 8 million people – Israel has 8 top ranked global universities and over 50 colleges. It has 12 Nobel Laureates. The country is among the top in the world in R&D spending (combined government and corporate) as a percentage of GDP at 4.3%. (For comparison – India spends less than 0.8%).

Israel is also benefitting from ‘brain gain’. Top Israeli PhD students who have studied in U.S. and other top global universities are moving back to their country, after gaining top academic research and corporate R&D experience.

On a related note, it is worthwhile to mention that Israel has started attracting a good number of Indian students in higher education (Now at about 1,000 – still significantly smaller than the number that goes to U.S…but rising).

The Israeli education system encourages a culture of risk taking and asking questions, right from the early years.

Government support for startups and innovation

The Israeli Government also plays an important role in the startup and innovation ecosystem, both directly and indirectly.

Directly, it supports many entrepreneurship programs, funds, and incubators (total of 19). The incubators provide the risk capital, facilities and mentoring. Many incubators are connected with the universities. This helps the university students with their startup ideas, and also enables access to professors and other experts for mentoring.

As mentioned earlier the government also plays an important role in funding the universities as well for various research projects.

Another indirect way in which government supports the startups is through funding strategic R&D projects in agri-tech, water management and defense. As discussed earlier, these are key priority areas, and availability of funds and pilot projects (government is the customer) also helps startups.

In 1993, the government helped start the Israeli VC industry, by backing the Yozma Fund. Tax reforms for the corporate sector have brought corporate tax down to 10%. In addition, the Israel Innovation Authority provides direct R&D funding for projects.

Role of corporate sector

Many large and medium sized tech multi-nationals have a strong presence in Israel. Over 320 R&D and Tech centers of multi-national companies are located here. These include Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, TI, Samsung, Oracle, SAP … (just to name a few). Around half of Israel’s tech workforce is employed by these multi-nationals. Many of them are based in Israel’s high-tech hub, Haifa. In fact, Haifa reminds you of Silicon Valley for multiple reasons. The city is located by the sea and has Israel’s most important harbour. Major part of the city is located on the hills next to the sea. Haifa is home to many tech companies and also one of Israel’s top engineering universities, Technion. The sea, the drive through the hills, the tech company campuses in close proximity, the university all remind you of the San Francisco Bay Area.

A good example is Intel (which has been here for over 30 years). They are doing world class high-end R&D here, comparable with the best in the world (e.g. Silicon Valley). The earlier mentioned book ‘Startup Nation’ has a great case-study on Intel Israel’s work on the power saving chips.

These large multi-national companies have invested in Israel due to two main reasons: 1. Availability of top science & engineering talent (from universities and startups). 2. ‘Brain Gain’ phenomenon.

People who have worked in these companies have excellent global exposure to not only the latest technology, but also to markets. Many hi-tech startups in Israel are founded by the alumni of these multi-national companies. Some of these startups also get good exits, with these multi-nationals buy them out. Following the exit, the entrepreneurs move onto newer startups, and also become VCs – thereby further continuing the cycle of further development.

Lessons for India

There are many lessons applicable to India, which can be learned from Israel’s startup and innovation ecosystem. Some of these lessons maybe more relevant than the ones from Silicon Valley. These lessons can be categorized across culture, education, role of government, and role of corporates.

But before we get into those, it is important to note that there is a widespread myth that most entrepreneurs and successful startup founders are fresh undergrads or college drop-outs. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are big exceptions, not the rule.

Experience is a key factor for successful high value IP (Intellectual Property) driven startups. The average age of startup founders in the Silicon Valley and Israel is closer to 40. A typical startup founder is someone who has completed higher education (MS/PhD) and worked further in research/development for some years. This experience is not only useful for gaining deeper domain knowledge, but to also gain a good network of potential co-founders, employees, pilot customers, partners and investors.

While it is important to teach entrepreneurship to undergraduate students and giving them opportunities to build on their ideas – it is unrealistic to expect many breakthrough startups to come out of undergraduate colleges.

Culture & Education

Culture is difficult to emulate. It’s a more fundamental thing. Yet there are some aspects of the culture that are common across the two India and Israel (e.g. ability to do more with less, with constrained resources). These abilities in India need to be encouraged and rewarded. Of course, there is a right way of doing things and doing a total ‘Jugaad’. Need a right balance.

Indian education system discourages asking questions and challenging the authority – quite opposite of the Israeli system. Changing this is a huge task.

At the higher education level, a significant shift is required. India’s investment in R&D is very low across the board, and this also reflects in our funding of our higher education and research institutes. This needs to change. Of course, the efficiency and utilization of these funds also needs significant improvement.

We need to focus on improving our Masters and PhD level programs. We need quality, not quantity. We need to focus on relevant, market-ready IP creation. Today, our institutions like the IITs produce some of the best undergraduates in the world. However, the same cannot be said about our Masters and PhD students. Some of our best undergrads end up doing MS/PhDs outside India (mostly in U.S. and in Europe, Japan, and other countries). This is a key issue and needs immediate attention (will need a separate article to discuss this in detail). The Indian government is taking some steps in this direction (like the recently announced PhD scholarships), but a lot more needs to be done. We need to track and improve the number of IIT, IISER, IISc B.Tech/MS graduates, who do PhDs in India.

Since we don’t produce many world class PhDs, the multi-national R&D centers don’t recruit them here. This is one reason good students are not doing PhDs in India, since there are very few good corporate R&D job opportunities. This is partially a chicken and egg problem. The cycle can be broken by upgrading our research facilities and PhD programs and improving the supply.

In some aspects IITs and the new IISERs are comparable with the best in the world. But they need a long way to go, before we could count some of these in the top-50 global universities. The quality vs. quantity argument is valid here too. Yes, we need more institutes; but we also need sustained focus (and resources/funding) to get at least 1-2 of the old IITs to world class level.

To further improve the quality of PhD programs in India, we need more university to university collaborations. These need to move forward with concrete programs at the department levels – and not just stay at signing ‘MoUs’.

Role of Government

As discussed earlier, the government has to play a key role in improving higher education (Masters and PhD programs). In conjunction, it is also critical to improve our basic research & development capabilities. We need large investments and great execution (like ISRO). As mentioned earlier, our R&D spend as a percentage of GDP is way low at 0.8% (compared to 4.3% for Israel, and 2.5% for China).

Government also needs to fund creation of Incubators that provide funding, support and mentoring for deserving startups. Here again, quality is more important than quantity. As mentioned earlier, Israel has less than 20 incubators. We need more startups with good solid IP; not yet another ‘me-to’ incremental e-business innovation, that too copied from a U.S. startup idea. We need more startups in cyber-security, agri-tech, energy, AI, healthcare, biotech, advanced manufacturing, materials, etc. and less in e-commerce.

A good example of successful (yet low profile) incubator in India, which supports startups with high value IP, in the areas of biotech, materials, energy, is the Innovation Center at National Chemical Laboratory in Pune. We need more startups founded by PhDs and senior R&D professionals, who have created some new, non-trivial IP.

Third and important long term area for government support is exploring the ‘DARPA’ (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA model from U.S. Israel follows a similar model.

DARPA is a U.S. government agency that funds strategic projects in the area of defense and national security. A good portion of this funding is received by the private sector. DARPA provides strong program management and oversight (by its own program managers) on these projects, executed by the private sector. This ensures good execution and efficient usage of the R&D dollars. The Program Managers from DARPA are industry veterans and are experts in specific domain areas.

In U.S. and Israel, the offshoots of defense related spending on strategic projects (through DARPA and other agencies) has resulted in many dual use products and technologies. These technologies are later commercialized or built upon by established companies and even startups. In many respects such agencies provide a basic R&D foundation (much like state supported universities), and help the overall innovation and startup ecosystem.

In India, the DRDO model is mostly all government (public sector). We need to understand, evaluate (and adapt as required) the DARPA model for India as well (Note – a detailed discussion around DARPA and other similar approaches will need a separate article.)

Role of Corporates

Indian private sector companies in tech and other sectors also need a strategic product/IP vision. Today, along with the government, the private sector too contributes to a significantly lower R&D spend, compared to their international peers.

In the IT space, India has been largely focused on the Software Services. Some of these large companies are sitting on large cash piles. The IT Services market is ripe for disruption with cloud, automation and other structural shifts. Now is the time for these IT Services companies to start investing more in product R&D and IP creation. They can also allocate more funds for their venture capital arms, which can in turn drive funding of IP driven product startups.

Closing Comments

We need to progress in multiple areas simultaneously, if we want to build a good, high-value IP driven startup ecosystem. Israel provides some good learning examples. We needs to move to a ‘product’ and ‘solution’ mind-set. ‘Make in India’ should not just be about manufacturing, but also about IP creation, core R&D and import substitution in strategic areas. We need to improve startup to startup and university to university level contacts and close collaborations with Israel, U.S. and other countries. The Indo-Israel Joint Innovation Fund announced last year during PM Modi’s visit is a good start. The Indian market is important for Israeli startups, and joint IP development should be explored. Lastly, we need better alignment between defense driven R&D and funding with our universities, corporate R&D and startups.

(This article is also being republished on Swarajya https://swarajyamag.com/ )

I had written an article about this great 143 year tradition few years back, and I am reproducing a version of that below. I have also included the schedule for this year’s lecture series (click on the images at the end of this article). Do try to attend as many lectures as you can! Do note, many of the lectures are in Marathi (a few are in English). Please use the hash tag: #VasantVyakhyanmala or #वसंतव्याख्यानमाला when you tweet about these lectures.

This year’s schedule covers a series of topics including politics, governance, history, civic issues, music, literature, healthcare and many more. Good line up of speakers this year with a variety of different experience.

Some of the interesting speakers to look forward, over the month: Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Prithviraj Chavan, Mayor of Pune, Mukta Tilak, Dr. Madhavrao Gadgil, Pramod Choudhari and many more.

___________________

(blog-post from 2012 about Vasant Vyakhyanmala)

In recent years, TED and TEDx events are getting quite popular. They do a great job of presenting ideas from various experts and thought leaders. The first TED India event was very well received and many TEDx events have been held in various cities in India over the past year.

But did you know that an event similar in concept, but covering a broader range of topics, has been going on in Pune for 136 years! The great tradition of the ‘Vasant Vyakhyanmala’ (translation: ‘Spring Lecture Series’) was started by Justice M.G. Ranade in 1875. The idea was to present a variety of lectures, across various topics to the people. In those days, newspapers were in their infancy (Kesari had not yet started) and live lectures were the most effective medium for knowledge transfer.

Since the 18th century Peshwa era, Pune has always been a center of knowledge and education. Post the fall of the Maratha Empire in 1818, Pune city witnessed a tough period lasting for a few decades. The city’s economy was in shambles. Many scholars and learned experts left the city. Things started to improve towards the later half of the 19th century, under visionary leaders such as Justice Ranade (and later on Lokmanya Tilak).

Ranade, Tilak and other leaders of that period clearly saw the value of ‘Information’. The citizens had to be educated and informed. The Vasant Vyankhyanmala initiative was born out of the need to disseminate information and create awareness. Justice Ranade delivered the first lecture in 1875 in English. Over the years though, most lectures have been delivered in Marathi. Through its rich 137 year history, there have been very rare occasions, where the series had to be cancelled. For many years,  the Vasant Vyankhyanmala was held at Hirabag and Belbag. It has been held at its present venue – Tilak Smarak Mandir, for many decades. Today, this series covers wide ranging topics such as Culture, Arts, Economics, Science, Health, Governance, History, etc.

While I have followed this lecture series over the years through media coverage, this was my first year attending it.  The event format and the organization was very good. The only negative in my view was the number of attendees (probably less than 500). In the pre-independence era, 1000s attended these lectures. Today, there are many other media sources for getting information, but an informative and thought-provoking live lecture is still a very powerful source. If you are in Pune, you should definitely try and attend at least some of these lectures, over the next 3 weeks. The lectures are virtually free to attend (Single lecture ticket costs Rs 5 and the season ticket is Rs 100).

There is a need to get the word out regarding Vasant Vyakhyanmala. More media publicity and social media presence will definitely help. I do hope that in the next few years, this great tradition that started in 1875 will continue to thrive, and reach much bigger audience.

______________________________

Vasant Vyakhyanmala 2017 – Schedule

____

A lot of Maratha History has not been widely translated into English and other languages. “The Era of Bajirao” – Dr. Uday Kulkarni’s excellent new book, which chronicles the life of Bajirao, will hopefully fill in some of this knowledge gap about Maratha History. This book was released in Pune today. The chief guests at the publication ceremony were Babasaheb Purandare, Air Marshal (Retd.) Bhushan Gokhale and Prof. Raja Dixit.

‘The Era of Baji rao” is a proper well researched history book, filled with numerous references and quotes from original letters, treaties, ‘Bakhars’ and other reference books. Unlike many ‘popular’ history books, this book has plenty of hard data, and doesn’t draw too many conclusions. The data, facts from original sources are presented to the readers to draw their own inferences. Dr. Kulkarni was researching this book for over two years. His previous book ‘Solstice at Panipat’ (Published in 2011) about the 3^rd Battle of Panipat, was very well received and has had multiple editions/reprints.

A practicing surgeon, a retired navy officer, a journalism graduate, a historian – Dr. Kulkarni has a very interesting background. He has his own history library of over four hundred rare reference books. He has also spent countless hours, researching hard to find references in libraries in India and UK. Three years back, he was able to find a rare original document (Panipat Bakhar) in a library in London, which had gone ‘missing’ for over 150 years. I have been fortunate to have known Dr. Kulkarni for over five years, and it is always great to have long discussions with him on Maratha History.

The “Era of Bajirao” starts with a review of volatile history period in the ‘Deccan’, post the death of Shivaji in 1680. Aurangzeb shifted his base southwards in 1681, with a goal of complete conquest of the Deccan. What began was a 27 year war that ended only in 1707 with the death of Aurangzeb. Shahu (Sambhaji’s son), who was in Mughal captivity, was released after Aurangzeb’s death. Shahu set up his base in Satara, and appointed Balaji Vishwanath as his ‘Peshwa’ (Prime Minister) in 1713. Following Balaji Vishwanath’s death, his son Bajirao was appointed to this post. Bajirao was only 20 years old then. This appointment was not a pure hereditary appointment – Shahu had seen Bajirao in action and was impressed with his capabilities.

Bajirao’s reign began in 1720, and in a short span of 20 years, before his untimely death at the age of 40, he had expanded the Maratha power across Central India. He expanded the ‘Swarajya’ established by Shivaji, into a ‘Samrajya’, and was at the ‘Gates of Delhi’ multiple times. The 1720 and 1740 political power maps of India look quite different. Even though Bajirao built the Shaniwarwada and shifted his base to Pune, he didn’t spend a lot of time there. He was constantly on campaigns. The Shaniwarwada and Pune became much more important during the reigns of later Peshwas.

Dr. Kulkarni’s book goes into good detail of Bajirao’s many campaigns. The key ones being his multiple battles with the Nizam, the Malwa expansion, the ‘race’ to Delhi, and the campaign against the Portuguese in Konkan. Bajirao was constantly on the move, and it is interesting to note the numerous tactical and strategic wins he was able to achieve. Having never lost a major battle, his army’s speed & mobility were often his biggest assets.

“…The difference lay in that he knew when to fight as well as where to fight. More important, he knew when not to fight. Mobility was Bajirao’s forte, like the wind he could not fight without space for movement” – Dr. Uday Kulkarni

The Battle of Palkhed in 1728 is considered to be one of the great cavalry battles of the 18^th century, and has been studied extensively by military strategists. The chessboard like fast moves executed by Bajirao against the Nizam culminated in the entrapment and surrender of larger, heavily equipped Nizam army on the banks of Godavari at Palkhed. This battle victory really helped establish the foundation of Bajirao’s legacy. (On a related note – Dr. Kulkarni gave an excellent lecture last year at Vasant Vyakhyanmala in Pune, on this battle).

Bajirao made multiple campaigns in North India, and the 1737 Delhi campaign was an important one. As large Mughal armies were advancing on him, Bajirao made another of his lightning moves, bypassed the adversaries and surprised and shocked everyone by ending at the gates of Delhi. He had no interest in staying there for long, and after the getting the desired terms from the Mughals, headed back as quickly has he had arrived in Delhi. He wanted to make a point regarding his strength. This campaign highlighted the weakness of the Mughal Emperor in Delhi. The Nizam was heading to Delhi to support the emperor, but was defeated by Bajirao at the Battle of Bhopal. This campaign again highlighted Bajirao’s strategy and speed.

Many historians have focused on Bajirao as a great general and military strategist (which he was), but reading the many references (letters, treaties) in Dr. Kulkarni’s book, the reader will realize the strengths of Bajirao as a ‘diplomat’.

“Bajirao had the head to plan and the hand to execute” – Grant Duff (Dr. Kulkarni reference to one of popular quotes by British Historian Duff, who wrote the Maratha History in early 19^th century)

Bajirao got great support from Malharji Holkar, Ranoji Scindia, Pilaji Jadhav and others. Chimaji Appa, Bajirao’s younger brother was his key asset throughout his entire reign. They were together on some key campaigns, and Chimaji also led some important campaigns by himself. The top one among these was the Konkan campaign against the Portuguese from 1737-39. The Portuguese were unleashing religious oppression on the local population and there were many calls for help by the locals.

The final battle of this campaign was the attack on the key fort of Vasai. The fort had excellent defenses and was very well guarded by the Portuguese. After a long and hard battle, the fort finally fell in May 1739.

As a result of this battle and the following treaty, the entire island of ‘Sasthi’ (Salcette) (present day North/Central Mumbai), Thane, Northern Konkan area came under the control of the Marathas. The Portuguese territories remained restricted to Goa and Daman.

Only the island of Mumbai remained with the English. Note, the English were largely ‘neutral’ in this battle between the Marathas and the Portuguese.

If not for that this victorious campaign by Chimaji Appa, it is possible that large parts of present day greater Mumbai would have remained with the Portuguese, well into the British Era (just like Goa).

No story of Bajirao can be complete without a discussion about Mastani. The recent popular Bollywood film did generate a lot of good interest about Bajirao. Without getting into the historical accuracies debate, the film did raise some awareness about this era of history. Dr. Kulkarni’s book has a chapter on Mastani and Bajirao’s family issues, especially towards the end of 1730s. Here again, plenty of actual references (not speculations or popular ‘legends’) are provided.

Dr. Kulkarni has made the river Narmada a central ‘character’ in the book and ‘the river’ presents a summary at the beginning of every chapter. The Narmada has been a North-South divide for many centuries of Indian History. For Baji rao, the Narmada was initially a frontier, and later on the starting point of northern expansion. He crossed the river numerous times in his hectic series of campaigns. His untimely death also happened at the banks of the Narmada on April 28, 1740. He was cremated on the banks of the river, and today his Samadhi sits there at Ravarkhedi (in Madhya Pradesh, near Indore).

For anyone interested in serious history, Dr. Uday Kulkarni’s “The Era of Bajirao” provides hundreds of references. There is a good collection of images (paintings from various museums/libraries). There are many geographical and battle plan maps as well – though these maps could have been a bit better. As I mentioned earlier, this is an excellent work of detailed research. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in not just Bajirao, Maratha History, but 18^th Century Indian History.

Pune Metro Region (image via Google Maps)

Like with many infrastructure projects in Pune (airport, ring road, etc.), the Metro too is many years behind schedule. Today, the Pune metropolitan region has a population of over 6 million, and this is expected to approach 10 million in the next two decades. From an economy perspective, the Pune region will be among the top 5/6 metros in the country by 2030 – with major economic activity in both manufacturing and services.

At present, Pune has one of the worst public transit systems, among large cities in India. The percentage of private vehicle ownership is among the highest in the country. The city is adding over 1,000 new vehicles on the road each day! Big traffic jams, a rarity in Pune not long ago, are becoming the norm. With each passing year, they are getting worse. Improving public transportation is a critical need for the city.

Public transport needs to be enabled through multiple modes: Suburban/Light Rail, Metro Rail, BRT, Bus Service, Mini-Bus Shuttles, Pooled Rides, etc. All these modes have their advantages and disadvantages, and are relevant for specific use cases. This particular blog-post is focused on the Metro Rail. I have written before on Pune’s bus transit system before and will be writing more in the future.

Projects like airport, metro rail need significant investments and need to have a 30-50 year planning horizon outlook. These projects need to account for Pune’s current needs as well as the future growth. The present plan for the Pune Metro consists of two corridors:

1. Swargate – PCMC
2. Vanaz – Ramwadi

This plan was originally conceived many years back. Given the present situation in 2016 and looking at 2030 and beyond, it is important that we upgrade this plan right now, without any further delay.

Here are my suggestions to extend the existing plan (note: I am not proposing any major changes in the existing plans for the two corridors).

1. Corridor 1

Expand Corridor-1 further north beyond PCMC Building to Nigdi, Akurdi and Dehu.

Create an expansion corridor branch (I will call it Corridor 1A for now) that stretches from PCMC Building to Moshi/Bhosari, and onwards to Chakan.

Expand Corridor-1 further south beyond Swargate to Gultekdi, Dhankawadi, Katraj.

A further expansion can also be made to extend beyond Katraj (through a tunnel) to the new proposed airport at Pargao-Memane (near Saswad).

2. Corridor 2

Expand Corridor-2 further north-east beyond Ramwadi to Kharadi and Wagholi.

Create a branch of Corridor 2 (I will call it Corridor 2A for now), which extends to Karvenagar and Warje (from Paud Phata Karve Road, along the river). This will also enable relatively easy access for people living on the Sinhagad Road side as well (across from Rajaram Bridge).

Expand Corridor-2 further west from Vanaz to Bavdhan/Chandani Chowk, Bhugaon and Pirangut.

3. Corridor 3 (new)

The new Corridor-3 should start from Hinjawadi Phase-3/4 in the north-west.

It should cover Hinjawadi, Wakad, Aundh, University, Shivajinagar, Pune Station, and  then stretch further east to Cantonment Area, Magarpatta and Hadapsar.

Other general points to consider for this planning:

The need for at least 3/4 corridors is necessary, given the circular geography and population clusters of the Pune Metro Region.

It is critical that access is provided to IT Parks and Industries in Hinjawadi, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Chakan, Kharadi, and Hadapsar.

Connectivity to Railway Stations (Pune, Shivajinagar, Hadapsar, and Pimpri), Intercity Bus Terminals and Airport is critical.

The end points of the metro rail corridors should be located near (or beyond) the proposed outer ring road of the city. This will enable fast multi-modal transit.

BRT, Bus, Mini-Bus routes should be suitably adjusted to provide good multi-modal connectivity to the stations along these metro corridors.

Suburban Rail corridor should also be utilized from Lonavala to Daund (I have discussed this in my earlier blog-posts). This can be effectively the 4th Metro Corridor.

A view from the majestic fort of Purandar (image credit: wikipedia)

After waiting for more than a decade, we finally have some positive development on the Pune airport! This week, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra announced the final site for the new green-field airport.

The need for an independent civilian green-field airport has been identified for a long time. With a population of over 6 million, the Pune Metro Region is the 7^th largest in the country, and growing fast. The population is expected to touch 10 million in the next two decades. The present Lohegaon airport at Pune is a defense airfield and this places numerous restrictions on commercial flight operations (number of available flying hours, adequate land for passenger terminal expansion, lack of a longer runway, lack of two parallel runways, etc.)

Many projects for the new airport were proposed since the last decade, but with no progress. It was a long wait. Some old timers on twitter will remember my regular tweets (since 2010) about the new Pune airport progress (or lack thereof).

Multiple sites in the Chakan-Rajgurunagar area (North Pune) were considered, but rejected due to land acquisition and other constraints. Finally, this last week the Maharashtra Government has finalized on the site near Purandar. The ‘Chatrapati Sambhaji Raje Airport’ (as it will be called) will come up near the Pargao-Memane villages, located to the South East of Pune, near the town of Saswad and the Purandar Fort. A big thanks to the CM Devendra Fadnavis, the Pune MP Anil Shirole and other authorities for pushing through this long pending critical project!

An aggressive 2019 deadline has been proposed. This is great, but will need extremely good execution.

This new airport can be an excellent catalyst to drive the development of South and South East Pune Region. Over the past two decades, a lot of the manufacturing and software/IT growth of Pune has been concentrated in the North West/North/North East corridors. This new airport will act as a magnet to attract development on the South/South East side. This is good for the long term balanced growth of the Pune Metro Region.

It is critical that a 5-10-30 year plan is created for this area. I believe this area (and development planning associated with it) will come under the newly formed PMRDA (Pune Metro Regional Development Authority). There are many lessons that can be learned from other areas development in Pune, as well as from other cities.

First and foremost, it will be critical to build a good road access to the new airport. At present, the accessibility of this area is not great. The routes through Dive Ghat, Bobdev Ghat and via Katraj Ghat – Khed Shivapur are all not ideal, given the current condition of these roads. The Ring Road project for Pune is another long pending project, and completing this project (at least certain sections of it) before 2019 is imperative for good access to the new airport. A ring road connection from the NH4 near Khed Shivapur to the new airport would be a good first access point.

Here we need to learn from the Bangalore and Hyderabad examples of the past decade. The new Bangalore airport was built in 2008, however the access road (widening the highway, flyovers, etc.) took a long time to build. Hyderabad on the other hand built good road access to the new airport from early on. The goal should be to have excellent road access infrastructure ready before the airport completion deadline.

Looking at the next few decades, it is also important to consider a good fast rail connectivity to this new airport, from the city center. Rail connectivity (public transport access) to the airport is critical.

As I mentioned earlier, the new airport will act as a prime catalyst to develop South/South-East Pune. Proximity to the airport will drive many businesses, industries, education/research institutions, tourism centric facilities to locate to this area.  The long-term plan for this area should include setting up new IT/Software, Business and Research Parks in this area. The existing manufacturing areas (MIDCs) at Jejuri, Shirval/Khandala (Satara district) need to be expanded. This airport will have good proximity to Satara and Baramati as well, and manufacturing infrastructure in these areas can be boosted. A Delhi Aero-City type area should also be planned to locate hotels and businesses near the airport complex.

One important infrastructure piece that is lacking in Pune today is a good international standard expo and convention center. This should be ideally build near the new airport as well.

In addition to Pune, Panchagani and Mahabaleshwar will have very easy access from this new airport (less than 100 km). Similarly, the majestic forts of Purandar, Rajgad, Torna and Sinhagad are also nearby. If a good plan is developed, this airport can drive more tourism in the Pune region (including neighboring districts).

Pune has been lagging behind all the other metros on many of the key infrastructure projects (Airport, Metro, Ring Road, etc.). We have a lot of catch up to do, and fast execution is going to be of paramount importance. Whether that happens or not …. it remains to be seen. But at least as far as the airport is concerned, I am more optimistic this week, than I was at any point in the past 10 years!

Please let me know your thoughts, comments on the points below.

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My ‘tweet storm’ (series of tweets) on ‘Artificial Intelligence’ … see thread below. #AI

Highly recommended primer (see video below) for anyone interested in Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning and Machine Learning. (1/n)

See this link: https://twitter.com/aparanjape/status/742326806666059777

In 2030, when personal digital assistants, driverless cars, intelligent robots are common, we will look back at 2016 as: ‘Year of AI’ (2/n)

#AI Many path-breaking developments in hardware, software are happening right now..important milestones are being achieved every month.(3/n)

#AI Google’s #AphaGo computer winning against the ‘Go’ world champion Lee Sedol .. IBM’s #Watson’s breakthroughs in cancer diagnostics (4/n)

#AI 2016 breakthroughs (cont.) Uber launching the first fleet of driver-less cabs in Pittsburgh… Automated script writing, etc. (5/n).

A key thing to note is how the top tech leaders: Google, FB, IBM, Amazon, MSFT are all prioritizing #AI as their top priority in 2016 (6/n)

These tech leaders are making big investments in their R&D, partnering with universities, buying startups related to #AI (7/n)

Here is an example: ‘Microsoft merges Bing, Cortana, and Research to make 5,000-strong #AI division’ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/09/microsoft-merges-bing-cortana-and-research-to-make-5000-strong-ai-division/ … (8/n)

The tech leaders are also collaborating together in #AI, with respect to processes, data access (key driver) https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/28/facebook-amazon-google-ibm-and-microsoft-come-together-to-create-historic-partnership-on-ai/ … (9/n)

Some SV billionaires and VCs (including @elonmusk, @peterthiel…) have created a non-profit #AI research co: https://openai.com/blog/  (10/n)

Chinese tech leaders like Baidu are also making big investments in #AI (in China and in their SV labs) http://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2016/09/30/faster-artificial-intelligence-baidu-benchmarks-hardware-for-deep-learning/#62ebe2e27420 … (11/n)

Over the past many decades, DARPA has been a leader in strategic tech investments. #AI is a key priority: http://www.darpa.mil/program/explainable-artificial-intelligence … (12/n)

Many European companies are also prioritizing #AI investments (automotive, aerospace, healthcare, etc.). (13/n).

So, where is India in all this? The #AI wave is both a big threat (if we don’t do anything!) and an opportunity for India. (14/n).

Like in many tech races of the past, India is already well behind in the #AI race… but we can (and we should!) try to catch up. (15/n).

#AI can present a big threat to the traditional Indian IT Service Outsourcing model … A model that worked well for past 2 decades. (16/n)

Manufacturing and traditional services sector job growth is also at risk, with #AI driven automation. (17/n).

Like with any new tech disruption, #AI also brings in new opportunities… but in order to leverage these, we to have to move fast. (18/n)

India needs to set up a multi-year strategic program focused on #AI and robotics, which involves the govt and the private sector. (19/n).

This is a ‘moon-shot’ opportunity and needs a @ISRO like long-term program (look at @ISRO’s long term goals set in 60s/70s). #AI (20/n)

We need to invest in setting up world class #AI R&D labs (in our research institutions like the IITs, IISERs…or create new ones). (21/n).

We also need to create good long term incentive structures for the private sector to invest in their own #AI R&D initiatives. (22/n).

Such government and private labs can attract/retain top Indian talent in #AI (that today, we are losing to U.S., Europe). (23/n)

Okay…I think I am going to pause here on this #AI tweet storm :)… Sorry for flooding your timeline! May continue again later though

#AI Was planning to write a blog-post about this …. but realized that I prefer @twitter and the tweet-storm method a lot more!

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PSLV (image credit: ISRO)

Dr. Radhakrishnan mentioned that 80% of the value addition of ISRO’s workhorse launcher, the ‘Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle’ (PSLV) comes from private industry. (Note – the PSLV is one of the most reliable space launch platforms in the world, with 34 successful launches in a row – at one of the lowest launch cost per payload weight).

These private industry contributions for building the PSLV come from over 120 large, medium and small companies. ISRO acts as the designer and system integrator, and assembles the final rocket at Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota. I had known about the industry participation, but the 80% number was indeed surprising. It was great to note the private sector’s role in India’s space program. ISRO is thus not only delivering great rockets and satellites technology, but also helping build an aerospace R&D and manufacturing ecosystem in India. This is critical. Over the past 50 years, NASA has played a key role in driving the development of a similar ecosystem in U.S. The advances made in space tech around materials, propulsion, guidance, navigation and other areas have many direct and indirect technology benefits in other sectors. ISRO should follow a similar example.

For the ‘Make in India’ initiative to succeed, we need high quality R&D investments in the public and private sector. R&D investments as a percent of GDP is an important metric and has a good correlation with the overall strength of the economy. South Korea (highest R&D/GDP in the world) is a great example. It invests 4.3% of its GDP in R&D. U.S. invests 2.7% (highest in absolute terms, given their GDP). China invests 2.1%. India invests only 0.85%.

Government led R&D is an important component of the total R&D spending in a country. Let’s look at the U.S. example. Here is a recent tweet by Bill Gates.

The tweet references a link from U.S. Department of Energy (www.energy.gov), where Bill Gates is drawing attention to this:

“Research and development (R&D) is the unsung hero of American innovation. Government-funded R&D spurs new industries, creates jobs and helps us tackle our greatest challenges. Decades ago, that challenge was the space race; today, it is climate change.”

While we regularly talk about the R&D in private sector U.S. companies such as Google, Apple, etc., what is often ignored is the huge investments made by the U.S. government in this area. NASA and U.S. Department of Defense are excellent examples. Another one is the agency that funds important research in U.S. Universities – NSF (National Science Foundation). Many of today’s great technologies and innovations were built on this R&D Foundation laid by the U.S. government R&D investments. Perhaps the best example of such an innovation is the ‘internet’. Just like U.S., France too has made many strategic R&D investments in areas related to aerospace & defense, energy and computing technologies.

Often government led R&D is also driven by a country’s strategic interests. This is very much applicable to India as well. This is one more important driver for government led R&D investments (and a topic of a separate article).

As discussed earlier, private R&D and manufacturing can build on top of the government led R&D initiatives. Yes, there are examples of wasteful expenditures, especially in the public sector. For one successful ISRO, there are counter examples as well. However, this should not deter the policy makers from allocating more R&D investments in strategic areas. It is important to study what has worked at ISRO, and then to institutionalize these processes in other R&D organizations. (This was one process related question, I wanted to ask Dr. Radhakrishnan yesterday, but we were short on time at the lecture).

ISRO represents one of the best examples (not just in India, but in the world) of effective and efficient R&D. The Mars Orbiter Mission ‘Mangalyaan’ is a great example. ISRO was able to deliver this incredible project for a fraction of the cost (around 10%) of what NASA spent on a similar project.

India’s goal should be create more ISRO like organizations in other areas – R&D driven organizations that develop important strategic and commercial products – and also help build a private R&D and manufacturing ecosystems around them. As a product/technology matures, the role of the private sector can grow. Where possible (in terms of tech capabilities), the private sector can also play an upfront role in collaborating on new technology development.