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The LifeTime Offer

2016-11-07T17:52:00.002+05:30

Vodafone India ₹ 499 LifeTime Offer

Today, as I was having lunch, I received a call. The caller identified me by name. Then proceeded to explain she was calling to offer me a great ‘postpaid’ plan. From Vodafone. Why? I was already on a Vodafone pre paid. No Answer. But I figured. A few months earlier, I had figured that the bill being charged to me was too much for the services I was availing. So I did what a right minded Gujju would. Switched to pre-paid. Now mind you, I have been on post paid for over a decade before the switch.

Back to the call.

She: I am suggestiing a Rs. 499/- “lifetime” plan which would include some 700 minutes of local talk time, 500 SMS and 2 GB of 3G data.
Me (Thinking) : Now that is a pretty decent plan for someone with my kind of usage. My curiosity is piqued.
Me: How long is “lifetime”
Her (irritated voice) : lifetime means lifetime.
Me: What if Vodafone shuts down this plan.
Her: Kya Sir, aisa kabhi hota hai kya. Vodafone will never do it.
Me: Madam, already happened twice to me.
Her: Not possible only Sir.
Me: Madam, couple of months back Vodafone suddenly stopped my per second billing on this number.
Her: Sir, this is a pre paid number.
Me: Madam, I was on a Rs.150/- per month billing plan. Suddenly 1 fine day, Vodafone just sent me a sms saying that plan was shut and I was moved to a different plan, few years back.
Her: Kya Sir, Wo to Rs. 150/- wala plan tha.
Me: Madam, kya aap guarantee denge ye plan lifetime chalega ?
Her: Anyway sir, aap ko kabhi ye billing plan chahiye to ye number pe call kar dijiye.

Epilogue: For the longest of time Vodafone was marketing a system which would recommend the best plan for you. I understand well that Vodafone is a business. But why would you makes your customers expect you to recommend what’s best for them. Do you expect your customers to never find better plans listed in plain sight on your website.
And btw, it is nice to see you work hard for customers with the new competition. It may not last long, I know, but meanwhile, All the best.

Absit Invidia

Education Innovation

2016-05-16T19:30:00.000+05:30

Frequently the question arises of education will change, innovate. What do we expect in the education industry ? This industry I believe, will see some huge changes. The segment I refer to here is the under K-12, maybe restricted up to 10th standard in India, the equivalent of the sophomore year. The model so far prevalent in this industry is capital intensive.

The ability to start a school is based on your ability to

invest in a land tract, or own one, in a prime location or at least sufficiently accessible .

have the capital to build school, and relevant infrastructure.

interface with government for necessary approvals and other purposes like grants, compliance etc.

This greatly limits competition in the industry. Worse, it eliminates motivation to improve.

Instead, what I expect in the future is a triad, which optimizes competition, ensuring better outcomes.

The triad would be

Infrastructure providing businesses

Regulation, Compliance

Testing Services

The Infrastructure providing businesses would focus on providing services like equipped class rooms / grounds sports equipment etc. The Testing services would be responsible primarily for testing the students and proving grading services. This would be inline with the current private testing services. The Regulation and Compliance services regulate teacher qualification and certification, Infrastructure business compliance and grading , Testing services Compliance. The nature of this component of industry makes it a natural fit to be a quasi or government body.

How does this whole thing work ?
Sign up for classes at times you want at places that you are, at a pace that you want. The value you pay for, is no longer only about school location and infrastructure, but is actually dependent on the teacher, which is dependent on the year-on-year outcome a teacher is able to bring to the student combined with the infrastructure the teacher uses. One of the HUGE differences that this model brings to the industry is to evaluate the core value delivery of the teacher, and ensure commensurate value transfer. The ability to switch to a teacher which has a more appropriate teaching style to the student validated by outcomes .

The reason I see value in this model is primarily in it's ability to do 2 things. First, is to transfer value to where value is being created and Second, to map outcomes to this value transfer.

Whether this happens or not would largely depend on 2 things. First is the government's willingness and Second, the support of the stake holders involved.

Technology Endgame

2014-05-20T20:40:00.000+05:30

My brain was wired to wonder what would happen 10 years down the line. Not with my life, but with the profession that I am attached with, of computer software.

In 2000, I believed we would be selling songs on the internet, doing infrastructure management remotely and need security consulting for organisations in ICT and most of that is true.

Now, what next.

When I look at the current landscape in technology + businesses, where is what generally happens. Startups, which do various business models providing similar services, eventually merging to form large companies to provide scale, as and when the service becomes a commodity.
The interesting nature of the startups from around 2005 is simple, automate.

Automate the way we live our life.

What will we do when we have reached this level of automation, and a particular level of efficiency -

Cars are no longer produced for individuals to purchase, but can be 'rented' for short periods. Public/Private scaled transport can be utilized which directly identifies you and deducts monies from your account based on where you got on and got off. The same goes for train travels and for fuel stations when you have rented cars.

On the organizational side, one thing is for sure -

The software backbone for many countries would be owned by the USA, which would have taken over Google. It would have become the platform for governments.
The USA + Google + Amazon combine would provide as services all layers of the cloud alongwith the required information. It would have become the company for hire whenever there would be a conflict.

Still in progress..

Why Mumbai will never be free from traffic

2014-05-20T20:39:00.003+05:30

2004 : Regular commute on the western express highway (which was barely a total of 3-4 lanes) all the way to Seepz, sometimes via Aarey Colony/JVLR.
Chai pe discussions (borrowed phrase) over why are they bothering to build a highway in the middle of the city..why we just cant have a metro from Ghodbundar / Kashimira to atleast Bandra, since we were anyways building the commercial district of Bandra Kurla Complex and the Bandra Terminus.
Anyways Delhi had a metro since the 1990's, and we being the hip and happening Mumbai deserved our own.
That, we all know did not happen.

And, in the meanwhile, atleast I now have good understanding of why something like that or similar will have opposing forces :

Lost Fare - Such a move would render thousands of auto fares/taxi fares needless. Think about Rs. 1 to 2 crore lost on a daily basis. In this context, think of the cycle of increasing taxi-auto fares -> increasing taxi/auto permits -> increasing fares -> you get the idea..
Auto Rickshaw manufacturing - Generally such a loss in fare would result in a lower number of people entering this profession, resulting in about 5-7% vehicles lesser on the road. That is lost revenue for a total of approximately 7000 (autos + taxis) lost, which is in turn a loss of a similar amount or a little lesser number of loans for the banks. About Rs. 30-40 crore gone.
Fuel Consumption - Obviously, without saying, lesser vehicles lead to lesser fuel consumption.. atleast another Rs. 6 lakh on a daily basis lost.
Road Construction - what would we do without these guys and all these flyovers zig-zagging..and ah yes the monsoon..that would be sooo boring.
Politics - Some of these autos, from what I know are owned by the juniormost level politicos - 5-6 per such politico, used as a dole for the underlings...
Rent Seeking - The permit economy of about Rs. 1 lakh per auto for about 3 years and Rs. 1.5 lakh for a cab permit is another lost opportunity.
Politics again - Approximately 7-8 lakh adults, including the drivers and their families rely on this profession.
Cars - Seriously, how many of you would drive or bother to purchase a car if I gave you the option to sit and commute comfortably to your office. So with the cars, is the impact on the car companies and obviously is the fuel.
Jobs - With the cars lost, obviously, a conservative estimate of another 1000-2000 personal chaffeurs become jobless.

In short, this is a trade off between the comfort of the largely educate middle class + the business class, against the employment of the lower middle class. In short, re-distribution/socialistic policies.

What is wrong/right, I do not know.. but this is definitely an example of what is coming next..

The big debate of employment vs technology or the technology endgame... and how the demographic dividend may not exist.

Formation of Indian States & National Unity - India in Danger ?

2013-07-04T13:31:00.005+05:30

Welcome. Please ask yourself which state do you reside in, and the further, the basis of formation of that state.

States, in India, have been formed based on percentage population of people speaking a language.
Such a basis, coupled with other factors, have set India on a path to disintegrating which should gain momemtum, in my estimtates within the next decade, with visible extreme negative results by 2025.
The intensity of this problem has aggravated in the last decade, simply due to the change in technology, making people more connected, in many cases amplifying perceptions of injustice to a particular group.

Why such a basis of division has been accepted, and used so far, is a question that needs serious answering.

Worse, the momentun of such activity has been increasing in the past 15 years, bringing us periliously close to a Europe like reality.

Chattisgarh - formed 1 Nov 2000, separated from Madhya Pradesh.
Uttarakhand - formed 9 Nov 2000, from Uttar Pradesh
Jharkhand - 15 Nov 2000, from Bihar, largely tribal
all have a linguistics basis to a large extent, or some similar demography.
The latest demand for Telangana, which is almost all set to be approved, is another case.

The power that India achieved through Chanakya's achievements have been a thorn in the side of our enemies for far too long, one that is continuosly chipped away at. But an error (if unintentional), a self-goal, of this scale, will always result in damages in such a high-stakes game of nations.

Some additional info -
The current division of states has following issues -
a.
Communalism, based on linguistic, religious lines, encouraging an fiefdom approach, where each state acts as an independent nation, in silos, sometimes completely
contrarian to the national interest or objectives.
The federal approach is a good de-centralisation tool, and can provide better management. The pitfall, and a key challenge, is an absence of a mechanism to align
states with national objectives, which intuitively should be development objectives, devoid of basis of language/religion/caste etc; without stifling power at the
state level.
This problem worsens in coalition politics, when the key party of a coalition chooses resource allocation aligned with changing power equations required to sustain
power at the center, instead of the nations interests.
Further, this being the most dangerous issue, makes a reality of the disintegration of the nation.

b.
Absence of a focus on the common issues. There are many common issues which are facing the nation, and execution of resolutions maybe a little easier in
case of an issue based division.
Some basis of formations could be - geographic + resource based, where similar resources can be exploited. An example would be of the West Coast, where the first
division would be from the Pakistan Border to Mumbai (peaks at 300 mts.), the second till GOa (heights of peak 1 kms) , and the third all the way to Kanyakumari (peaks
at 4 kms) and about a 100 kms into the shore. Similarly northeast belts have a peak at 7 kms.)
Where the size of the state formed this is greater than the average size (based on population + land area), such states can be split into 2, if feasible providing some
instances of competition.
- issues based, The area where Maharashtra meets AP and Chattisgarh have a serious problem of Naxalites.
From the inception of the Naxal problem in 1970's, till quite recently, there is I believe, an absence of a national level response. Had these areas been divided into
another state or 2, either president's rule, or multiple solutions could have been experiments in 2 states, giving us either a resolution or atleast a better
understanding of the problem.
This would also have freed up the CM, especially of Maharashtra to focus on development.

c.
Absence of a consistent framework of measurement
Most recently Mr. L.K.Advani kicked up a storm within NDA by comparing Nitish Kumar to Narendra Modi. On one hand, there was talk that Gujarat was an already developed
state, to which the answer was that it ignored the 2001 earthquake. For Nitish, the question asked was why its labourers still laboured in states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka if it had truly generated employment.

While such statements may have its political relevance, it is not a quantitative assessment across multiple parameters.
What the above incidence does bring out, is the absence of quantitative measurement, and the absence of a clear benchmark of assessment.

2 Chief Ministers may claim at the fag end of their terms that they have 75 % and 97 % literacy, and instinctively it seems the second CM did very well. When faced with the information that the first CM started with 45 % and the second with 93 %, we get greater clarity about actual performance.

Another example of a benchmark required is the revelation that construction of 50 % of the National Highways in the NDA regime spanning about 6 years, of all NH construction in the
last 30 years, which generally maybe simply quoted as 'x kms of NH are ready in our tenure'

Some concluding thoughts -
Maybe 10-15 % of the state boundaries should be amended every decade (and I understand the administrative hassle in doing this), since issues faced by the states would itself have changed in that duration. Most of the hassles faced by such changes, can be to some extent offset by use of good technology, I believe.

There maybe other methods / basis as well, ones, which I would love to hear. Please post them in the comments below.

As the world is more globalised, communication becomes very easy, so does collaborating with those outside nations. While ideally, this should be a facilitator of world peace, as the world citizens interact with each other, seeing and understanding that they are all very similar to
each other in aspects of life and livelihood.
Fact is, international players of power and politics leverage this global integration to gain greater power within the borders of other nations..

P.S. This is my attempt to create awareness and think abot a solution, to what I perceive to be a very grave and very real problem, of possible disintegration of India.

I am neither a specialist in this field, or its related fields, but a worried Indian.

Is India a Shudra nation now

2013-06-09T16:09:00.001+05:30

Across my reading of the Hindu literature, the segregation of the people is generally into the 4 classes. Please note, CLASSES, not castes. The word used for this
social classification is 'varna', not 'jaati'. Loosely translated, it means, a class, a complexion, a category.
Those who defend and fight for honour, largely, to uphold 'dharma' or righteousness, are Kshatriyas. The key capabilities are those of war and battle.
Those who learn, research and distribute knowledge are the Brahmins. The key capabilities are those of learning and teaching.
In most places, it can be seen that a combination, a partnership, a close collaboration of the Kshatriyas and the Brahmins is a necessity for managing/ruling the
people, where the objective is largely the betterment of the people, or upholding dharma.
Those who trade, own business houses, including those of skilled trade like carpentry are Vaishyas. The key capabilities are those of trading and of their particular
trade.
Those who work for others, earning a salary, including various menial tasks are Shudras. The key capabilities were different based on their employment.
Most of us, from our childhood, form an understanding that the four are actually castes. Post some reading, I can clearly see that the particular principle is not
espoused in quite a bit of Hindu literature. On the contrary, ones actions of the past determine which house you are born to, and what kind of activity will one
pursue.

In the above segregation, it is clearly visible that the control of nations, the ability and authority to rule, is vested with the Kshatriyas and Brahmins combined,
via the knowledge of their activities.
When we use the same analogy to the nations, we can see that the US has learnt this concept very well. Considering the domain of Prithu (the Earth), as the kingdom, we
can clearly see that the activities of war and battle, which further translate into knowledge (Brahmin) of weapons, battle and war (Kshatriya) is now dominant with the
United States.
This not being limited to border sovereignity, has become applicable in all other areas as well. Consider the ubiquitous field of management, and the latest industry
of Information Technology and Communication. Most management and knowledge gurus, even when they were from different nations, were persuaded, by means of environment,
money or whatever other reason to move to the US and participate in the knowedlge evolution/revolution there. Some examples - Edison (Germany), Schumpeter (Czech
Republic), Schrodinger (Austria), Ayn Rand(Russian) to name some people who reached the peak of their fields and had moved to the US.
The above, very imited list has contributed to various streams of knowledge ranging from exact sciences to the various social theories. Their effects are clearly
long-lasting. Rand, a proponent of individualism, capitalism and of the currently globe-engulfing consumerism, has ensured that capitalism, a key philosophical, become
a driving force in American dominance. Other contributions from the esteemed list of outsiders, are endless, changing the very course of the way of life, of the
inhabitants of Prithvi, time and again.
Consider weapons development and Lockheed Martin, or the US's more than 100 military deployments across nations in the world.

Even, in business, we can see continued research in various streams, including strategy, economics, OB, Finance (of which the US is pretty much the path-breaker and
creator, specially in terms of instruments, and the framework of transactions), has ensured that the US remains in the dominant position, due to it defining the
dominant design of these fields for a long time to come.
Eventually, the end result, is nothing but a creation of Shudra nations across the world. If you need software developed, Carnegie Mellon, or the Founders of Agile,
pretty much define how software is made. Only, dispensable, easily replacable labour has to be outsourced. The same goes for manufacturing of electronics. Apple
designs, and yes thats all it does. It does not have the manufacturing capability. But it has the business competence to manage the manufacturing capability, which
incidentally is outsourced to China.
This point of view, should give us the necessary insight, of stopping from being the 'supplier' of the raw material, in terms of human capital to such nations, which
leverage such material, for only their own dominant position. Instead, it is very important and necessary to ensure that we move away from being a dispensable Shudra
to a self sustaining, complete hierarchy of complexions, such that we never have to rely on any other nation either for the material or for the technology of
developing electricity, which happens to be our key problem area, currently.

Mumbai - Auto Riksha Permits

2013-02-24T15:42:00.000+05:30

This post is largely about some changes which would be beneficial to Mumbai (rikshaw drivers and commuters both) and not so beneficial to the politicians.

The objectives that would be met are:

1. financial benefits to the autoriksha instead of the middlemen.
2. guidelines which bring clarity to autorikshas and commuters, both.
3. guidelines for vehicles.

Current circumstances: A permit is issued for an autoriksha, which is transferable to another vehicle used. An public service capable license is required to drive these autos. Currently no additional registration or listing is required to be able to drive

Suggestions:
An increase in the number of permits based on the increase in population in the city every year. (before you yell @ me about the traffic problems already, please read on)
The permit of an autoriksha should be issued to those who own a public service license.
This should be necessarily combined with other details like a PAN number or now an Aadhar number.
A single permit per license should be issued. This should restrict the trading of permits as is currently happening. Additionally, a charge of around 6000 per year should be charged per auto permit renewal annually. [I am sure no one will resist, since currently people pay over Rs.1,00,000 per 3 years, and this contributes to a lot of black money.]

The auto - companies be allowed to operate as an auto rental agency in metros as this would bring down the the total number of autos present in the metro, many of which lie idle and are not optimally utilised. The auto companies can rent vehicles to only those who have permits. This should bring down the pressure on banks for such small loans allowing them to focus a little more on roads / other infrastructure. While the overall production may come down for the vehicle manufacturers, an additional income stream from leasing / renting vehicles has been made available. I personally believe vehicle ownership as a concept is not sustainable or optimal and renting is the way to go.

An additional registration be made mandatory for each driver who intend to drive the autoriksha in a district. Such registration be valid for a year to 18 months only.

An additional optional test be made available for this registration, where the driver can get himself qualified for a multi-level certificate, which is based on knowledge of areas, hospitals, police stations, years of experience in driving in Mumbai etc.

Even if it is a first time driver, all autos should be expected to carry either a map or a list of the hosipitals, police stations, ambulance and other emergency contacts.

The day would be divided into 3 shifts. During anytime of the shift the driver would not be allowed to deny passengers (except emergencies and during the last 1 hours of the shift). The last 1 hour is to facilitate the auto driver to head towards his own residence area. Additionally, a board should be added to auto-rikshas clearly indicating the base area they intend to travel to at the end of the shift bringing a little more transparency.

The shift timings would start @ 7 am, 3 pm , 11 pm. First shift gets the morning rush, second shift gets the evening rush, third gets the night shift, implying additional revenue due to night shift charges.

Further at any point from Monday to Friday, 10 % of the vehicles would be off the road based on a numbering system.
This system would be based on the last digit of the vehicles state registration.
e.g. vehicles having last digit as 1 or 2 would be off on a Monday, 3,4 on Tuesday, 5,6 on Wednesday, 7,8 on Thursday, 9,0 on Friday.

The cycle would change every month in continuity.
meaning 1,2 on Tuesday, 3,4 on Wednesday and so on in month 2.

The vehicles themselves undergo a fitness test every year, including their shock absorber capacity, since many vehicles operate with sub-optimal shock absorbers causing many health problems to the commuters.

A similar system can be worked for the taxis as well.

P.S. Please comment if anything needs corrections or any you would like your suggestions to be added.

Equity / Share Markets - India, Globally

2013-02-23T17:05:00.001+05:30

For quite some time have been trying to understand and figure out whether the retail investor can ever make money from the market. There are some queries which if unanswered, clearly imply the retail investor being disadvantaged in the share market, clearly indicating lack of market efficiency...

1. Insider information. This can never be done away with. The top level executives of businesses 'know the score' and will make some market moves in advance based on this information. This 'score' can be the organisation's results or regulatory changes of the government. Not in the USA, Not in India. And contrary to what many believe, post the Rajat Gupta episode, this problem exists at the same scale in all places where a share market functions. The fundamental human is the same everywhere with the same shortcomings.

2. Skill lacunae - executives generally have some management education, and brokers have 'connections', which may not be the case for the retail investor. Most investors may not have heard of a PESTEL or five-forces or Porter, more so in India where the average level of education is lower that other developed nations, where markets function. Even of those investors, aware of PESTEL, FIVE FORCES, PORTER,
it is impossible that a large number of investors have access to the resources which give the information necessary for using these techniques.

3.Technology - Banks, brokers have systems which raise alerts on changes monitored in seconds, in some cases even faster. Some of these entities have also implemented alogrithmic trading (AROUND 73 % ON NYSE)

, which apart from an exceptional case, the retail investor would not have access to.

4. Concerns of the share brokers, bankers is usually expressed to regulators, many times with sufficient co-ordination with other brokers, banks, making it impossible for the regulator to ignore.
On the other hand the problems of the investor are something that the regulators have to really keep an sharp eye out for, a task which in itself is difficult.Combined with the ability of the politicians to influence decision making, which way this is going is well, generally clear.

5. Assuming that you have had a good run so far, it does not take long for a decision taken by the management, something like a change in the fundamental strategy or structure of the company (separating / adding entities especially related ones impacting profitability or sustainibility). So a decision making which is absolutely NOT in the hand of the retail investor is the final factor which I see.
Rationally, these points make one think that investing in the share market may not be an intelligent decision !

P.S. I am very open and interested in hearing counter-points to above..

I am the One and Only !

2013-02-06T19:37:00.002+05:30

I am the One and Only.

Almost every revelation, discourse from any prophet, incarnate, divinty worth their name in salt have uttered thus or some variation.

Bhagavad-Gita 12:06

Bhagavad-Gita 07:14

and many more in the Bhagavad-Gita, Bible and many such religious texts.

And each time that happens, a new religion, sect etc. is formed, claiming to be followers of the only true one and the others to be false (MASSIVE FACEPALM).

Achieving the EXACT opposite of the revelation.

The 'One' is all pervasive, unmanifest ! Logically also it makes perfect sense, the case that there can be only one 'One', and well, that's exactly what the One claimed, albeit about the unmanifest and not the manifestation.

And then each one of us, instead of understanding that there's only one One, with our finite wisdom, generally mislead by marketing managers (religious leaders) ask the question 'Which One ?'

The global religion marketing wars are now common knowledge, each selling their version of the 'One'; (with online ads also being adopted by some)

Ïn Hinduism, you will see religious scholars debating on the dashavtarrs being incarnates; whether of Krsna or of Vishnu, of who the greater God is Vishnu or Mahadev.

And they forget that the almost every form that they claim to be the One, including Vishnu, from whom these worlds are supposed to have emanated, mentioned that the One is unmanifest.

Going further, I have also at a point read a story about the BramhaDev (5 headed) of earth, once getting riled up about something and deciding to go to the One to complain, and being asked to stand in a queue, where he meets the BramhaDev of another much bigger world and thus having a 1000 heads who narrates issues tremendously bigger than his, and this reminding him of the triviality of the issue.

The story is mentioned to remind us that we are really trivial, the path to the One itself is important and should be the focus of our lives, instead of trying to decide which One !!

Legality of the Morality

2012-11-30T18:58:00.001+05:30

Too many incidents happening frequently, which brings up this post :

1. The Palghar Facebook Incident [Shiv Sena Supremo related]

2. Sibal 2G No Loss

3. Gadkari Holding companies issue

4. Legality of calling the Indian parliamentarians names.

and so on...

Days at end, the legality of these issues has been debated.
The Palghar incident caused a relook of the Constitution / laws of the country, the new auction has supposedly given a clean chit to Sibal / Congress in the 2G spectrum auction case, something similar to what has happened with Gadkari and some audits done by his party.
During the fast undertaken by Anna Hazare, parliamentarians were called names, which was immediately raked up as an issue by some MP's.

So what is the crux of these matters.
First, as must be obvious, I hold no qualifications in Law, which as you will see is beside the point, since a majority of the country's citizens do not as well.

The sad fact is this, In each of these cases, let us for a moment assume that what they have done is all legal, but without doubt, in all of these cases, these accused are definitely in a grey area of morality.

So if probably Mr. Sibal did prove himself right, with the help of some crony capitalism, the fact that he has erred does not change. The same holds for Mr.Gadkari. As for the girl from Palghar, sadly the unstated fact is this - she forgot the fact that the area (city/district/state) where she is in, obviously respects the said person, who is now dead. Her right to criticise is obviously legally hers, but the accepted norm globally is to not speak bad of the dead (atleast when the funeral is in process). While it is her legal right to express herself, I would for a moment like to believe that the right comes with a few responsibilities as well.

In the 4th case, the question is not about those who called names, but about those MP's who went on and on publicly about how únseemly, disrespectful to the Parliament this name calling was, very well forgetting, that the general public by whom they were elected were largely in agreement to the name calling and that it was the probably acts of their very colleagues, well below the standards of those calling names, which had brought on this name calling.

Clearly, unfortunately, it is visible that our morality is now the victim of our legality. Almost, all of us are willing to do something illegal, as long as we dont get caught, very well forgetting that it is us who are degraded by that act which is in all probability much more immoral than defined by the severity of the legal penalties.

And that is where the lacuna is, the attempt of the state to guide our behaviour by legality and not by morality.

After all, All Sins are not crimes and all crimes are not sins.

Kodak Easyshare - not Easy..

2011-11-24T16:05:00.001+05:30

First to be fair to Kodak, Thank You for making available 5MP+ cameras to retail consumers.

But you are still stuck being a product company. Now it is all about experience. And sadly, even though your cameras are great, cheap and selling, the end experience leaves some to be desired.

Now its great, that with the later versions of EasyShare software you got on the 'social' bandwagon, provided facebook etc. options but please understand that countries like India, your average user (currently in 2011 and atleast a couple of years more, which if not managed properly can be damaging permanently) is still going to sync with the computer and that is where the Kodak easyshare is not at all easy !

Some problems -
1. the display does not indicate file types while selecting for download to your computer, so if someone has shot a 100 mb movie in between pictures, you are stuck while transferring. And thats exactly what happened, some videos were shot which were around 10 to 20 mb including one which was a 100 mb movies.

2. it choked my computer which had about 2 gb space on the system drive as it uses the system temp folder to copy entire images and movies to be able to show a preview.

3. Probably the programme is badly written as the files are copied twice, once as in previous step and once again while actually transferring, causing an unnecessary drain on the batteries as well and also, it's just plain bad programming.

4. No easy way to manage files from the computer on the camera-installed memory card.

Now 'EasyShare' what exactly does it stand for, Easy Share, right ? ?

Body Guard

2011-11-13T14:27:00.001+05:30

Ok, So one of the channels decided to show BodyGuard at 9 pm. yesterday. Had heard the movie wasn't that great. Had found Wanted crazily hilarious, so switched to the movie sharp at 9 pm.

The movie started with a scene localized for consumption from Rajneeti (Sorry, Rajneeti localized GodFather, and now Rajneeti gets a mention.)

Why on earth would they start a movie like this ?
Well that was it. The movie lost 80% of my interest then. Still hung around even though most of the going ons were nonsense. Finally switched channels when Salman Khan did a SpiderMan (no it was Robot) to jump out of the local train onto an express going in the opposite direction.

Good thing the jump was before 13 Nov 2011, else, post the switchover happening today from DC to AC, a man standing on the train is likely to be pulled into the overhead wires.

Last thing, please change the name of the movie to Body-Spider-Father-Man !!
Sounds dumb ? That's how the start looked to me.

Disclaimer: I am in no position to tell you what happened in the movie beyond this point.
Naming of the new movie starring someone with Iron Man's borrowed steel plate and Dark Knight's pose is yet to be done.
Btw, it would be interesting to know which advertisers actually paid money to sponsor this movie.. ha ha ha ha !!

Did Ayn Rand screw the world !

2011-11-09T00:22:00.001+05:30

For those who enjoy reading a lot, you must know who Ayn Rand is. Her characters like Howard Roark are charcters you dont forget a lifetime.
Her characters usually had a high level of ego, and she propagated the 'selfish motive'.
While her characters and writings are honest in some sense, she has sadly glorified the egotism, and the self centered-ness, justifying that only a selfish man can give the best to the world A high number of mid to senior executives have read her writings, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and I am sure, were deeply influenced to be egotistic !!
This in a world of complete interdependence.

She is also supposed to be one of those who influenced the US of A for its strategy of consumerism..

India's population a strength ?

2011-11-08T22:24:00.000+05:30

This topic is probably been done already before, but I will state some simple thoughts. Am open to answers..

Many future predictions, specially HSBC and Deustche bank predictions mention India's GDP growth to surpass all other countries by 2045/2050, largely considering the India's population as its strength ! Did anyone know, we would all be chatting away on Facebook 25 years back ? Anyways, I doubt whether the population is a strength.

Here's why.

1. Food: Already the vegetable rates are interesting, wonder where they will go. All the big shots Pranab Mukherjee, PM Manmohan Singh etc. have said this is due to change in dietary patterns. I have my doubts. I think it is largely due to politically powerful intermediaries holding Indians at ransom. But if these politicians are right, just think what direct cash transfers will do.

2. Water: Already the average distance a rural Indian woman travels for fresh data water is in kilometers. Wonder where they will get all this water from. And yet we encourage soft drink companies..

The rest of the points are all infrastructure :

Electricity: Already we face a huge shortage in many states. Combine this with a) politically motivated oppositions to nuclear plants b) families splitting/ purchasing capacity increasing resulting in smaller families in a increased number of home units. c) increased white goods - refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, microwave owens, televisions, laptops and cellphones. and it makes you wonder what will so many people do without electricity

Transport : Trains are overflowing, people fall off buses, we are nowhere near setting up regulation for water travel. what will we do ?

Waste Management: Even smaller towns are facing a real estate boom. But where are the sewers, the dry , wet, medical and toxic waste disposal systems ? Even Mumbai does not have a mature waste disposal system yet.

Education: Insufficient schools combined with insufficient teachers combined with dated education framework.

Skills: So much of a population and still corporates crib about absence of manpower, simply put, an absence of usable skills development framework.
Well, we now do have NSDC, but looking at the government's history of execution, we can very well rest assured, the current youth between 15 and 25 will not be capitalising on this initiative. An entire generation unemployed.

Combine all these above points with reduced manpower requirements due to progress in technology and increase in automation.
It now takes less than 1/3rd number of people to produce the same number of cars as it did in 1950's. e.g. Ford needed 0.5 million employees to produce 4.5 million cars, which it can now produce with around 80,000 employees !!

And now what we are doing to fix this: we have schemes like MNREGA which will give out dole to people instead of setting up or fixing skill development/auditing of government affairs OR simply execution capability improvement.

Doing a root cause analysis, it points to simply ONE thing: Insufficient government capabilities of strategy and execution.

Combine this with the cultural diversity we have, and we know this is a long and a very crowded journey...

Yennovation, Monopoly

2011-11-06T18:27:00.003+05:30

I have been wondering, and Yes, I do know that I do that a lot !!

Wondering, about Dominant Design. An alternative name for a Monopoly !!

No, not a monopoly in the orthodox sense of an enterprise, but the monopoly of a particular dominant design.

Why do we have only electricity and no other 'city' after that. A random google search (what else ) tells me humanity has known electricity for over 2500 years, analyzed and have been capable of generating it for almost 300 years. But isn't someone trying to discover an alternate form of powering us up instead of just alternate forms of electricity generation methods !! Dont we loose a lot in transformation ??

What about wheels. Sure it maybe 1 of the most important discoveries / inventions ever, but doesnt anyone think of changing the fundamentals of transport. Arent we advanced enough to stop having wheels as the dominant design. What about planes that jump up like a frog, instead of the runway, before taking off ???

India achieves Six Sigma !

2011-11-06T18:01:00.000+05:30

Of course, it isn't news.

But it's the truth. Isn't it ? Most commonly we say, it is the system. Well, more recently, we have gained an understanding that we are the system.
We know that we are born paying bribes (think about the pregnant woman in the gaon who wanted to get admission in the government hospital for her delivery) and die paying bribes (dont forget the guy who sits at the cemetery who helps with the death certificates, and God forbid, if you are a special case in any way.)

So what can be defined as corruption. In the above cases it was very straight forward to identify, but there can be vague instances as well. A businessman, who is a bank customer giving sweets on festivals to bank employees, expecting on the side, fast service, when the need arises. Some might want to call this good will, but make no mistake. This is corruption.

So what exactly is corruption : When entity1 gives something extra to the entity2 for getting something in return which is not deserved by the entity1 is corruption.

While the Lokpal bill presents an interesting solution, there are a couple of perspective it addresses partially.

The culture perspective.
First, the culture. What is culture ? A mix of definitions tells us, culture is shared values, symbols, behavior, goals. All items representing a particular, generally distinguishing cultivation of mind.

So is corruption part of our current culture. It would seem so. The current aspiration is money, regardless of the path traversed. Look at the behavior we encourage. We would rather 'pay' to get our 'work done', then put an additional effort. And even if you attempt to put such additional effort, in most cases you will be encouraged by people around you to just get the 'work done' by 'paying' rather than wasting time.

which is what brings me to the second perspective, the reward perspective.
Organizational behavior studies clearly show us that individuals in organisations (and yes countries are also types of organisations), will pursue those behavior that get rewarded. Clearly corruption is rewarding, both for the giver and receiver. However, it is not so simple. It is not just the reward, but the trade off decision which is important.

So where did Six-Sigma come from:
Simply put, we have less than 6 corrupt transactions being prosecuted for every million such transactions. Isnt that something !! We must definitely all be aligned to this cause, otherwise how would this be possible ?

Wonder why we insist on shaming the politicians; Statistically, in this case, they are doing exactly what we the people are doing. Or is it the other way around. जसा राजा तशी प्रजा ??

Street Side, Street Smart, Sales Strategies/Tactics.

2011-11-06T18:00:00.000+05:30

Couple of months back, I saw something interesting on the streets in Mumbai, where women were selling some wares. Observed some more, and here it is...

Hot Shots

This tactic is visible in restaurants, mainly Udipi restaurants and also the steetside pavbhaji/tava pulav vendors in Mumbai. Does it happen in your city/town/village as well ?

The bhajis, specially the red coloured gravy ones: bhaji from pao-bhaji, veg kolhapuri, veg patiala, bhendi masala etc. are cooked using a mix of masala which stings on the tongue, and most of us eat food in such places when the temperature of the food is hot to lukewarm. This combination of hot taste and hot temperature confuses the average human being's reflexes: While eating such bhajis, ability to discern hunger and taste decreases, thrist, and eating speed increases.

This generally results in you eating a pao-bhaji quickly, not understanding how much of your hunger is appeased, and generally resulting in a side order of a carbonate drink like coke, pepsi, etc. When you have had pao-bhaji (or xxxx-bhaju) sufficient number of times with a cold drink, you are trained (like a domesticated dog), always ordering the combination.

This video explains a similar phenomenon observed in fleas and Indians :)

Double Trouble

This generally involves 2 women selling fruits (apples, custard apples, chikoos, whatever) or vegetables (corriander, methi etc.) near the railway station. You will see similar pairs in 'designated markets' but rarely in residential localities, where the seller and buyer have an almost daily interaction. Frequency of this is higher post 8 pm, when the buyer maybe tired, returning from work.

1 of the sellers will sit with only 4-5 apples and try to sell them ALL off to the first customer, supposedly at a discount. The buyer, that is you, will generally out of humanity, try to buy the 'last few items' thinking of relieving the lady to be able to go home. But rarely does the lady go home even after selling 'all' her wares.

There will be another 'last' set of fruits to sell :) . Both the sellers have the same supplier, selling the same fruit/vegetable and even divide the spoil equally.

Funnily, we rarely try to question, how is it that 1 lady has only 4-5 apples and the other over 30 ??

Moving Around

Any Wal-Mart clone (a supermarket, for the now very rare, uninitiated) located in a comparatively lower economic area (read, middle and lower middle class) will keep moving its wares around. Simply put, the huge range of colors tend to confuse the human mind. Because of the additional moving around, people 'see' more products, many forget what they are out there to buy, and end up buying up additional, unnecessary stuff. :)) Some part of the supermarket business is not of volume sales, but of confusion sales, which gets better for the supermarket if you have a child under 14 with you. The child will ensure that you buy atleast 1-2 unplanned items. Read more... Children Target Marketing.

Disappearing Act [the one which started it all]

Most of us rarely realise when the size of a biscuit packet or noodles is decreased by a few grammes, keeping the selling price the same. Worse, this is not limited to packed products. I got a taste of this when I ordered for pao-bhaji, which I was wondering, how the restaurant could afford to charge the same as it did about 6 months back. My question was answered when the order was delivered at home. The quantity was almost 50 %. I ordered pao-bhaji a couple of times more, just to confirm, and sure enough the container was a smaller one. :) Same price, smaller container.

Disappearing Act 2

I regularly buy vegetables from the local roadside vegetable vendor, and always wondered why some vegetables were barely available around 5 pm, but the baskets were full around 6 pm.

The answer, I was told is this: Vegetables which were purchased a day prior in the morning, were yet to get over, and while the other stock was lying right under the baskets, it made no sense to bring out the other stock. So even if someone asked, 'aur bhindi hai kya', the answer would be no. Atleast till these bhindis got exhausted.

Wonder if there will be campaigns against bhajiwalas, now the campaigns against auto rikshas has cooled off.

Fresh

Anyone who purchases milk knows, price ranges from Rs. 30 / ltr to Rs. 50 / ltr. Former for Gokul, Amul packets delivered at home, later for, 'fresh' mild from local dairies.

While I have seen many local milk dairies sell truly fresh milk, 1 milk seller just delivered 'cold milk' as 'fresh milk'. Simply put, a difference of around Rs. 8 / ltr.

So Sweet

Almost all of India, at 1 point must have experienced this transaction. A chocolate is handed over instead of 50 paisa at a grocery store or a super market. Apart from the debate over a forced sale, the grocery store gets a profit of 20 paisa. In short, the grocery stored gave you a chocolate worth 30 paisa, not giving you the full 50 paisa it owed you :))

Disclaimer: Most probably these tactics/strategies maybe something that MBA's studied, but MBA's constitute less than 0.01 % of India's population...

Home Loan Purchase

2010-10-01T22:19:00.001+05:30

A great organisation called Mumbai - Growing or Dying ??

2010-09-04T00:41:00.001+05:30

Sigh !!!!!!

My heart bleeds... The things that they have done to Mumbai.
I came to Mumbai in June 1990 for further education.
The charm of Mumbai that lured me...the city.
The beautiful stories that I had heard. Rags to Riches stories. Stories of love,
of unquestioning freedom, of strength, of sacrifice, of mafia dons who cared for
the poor, of trains that run in both directions (most people who come for the
first time here are amazed !).
And look what they have done to it.

http://specials.rediff.com/news/2006/jul/05sld1.htm
and
http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/jul/29sld01.htm
and
http://in.rediff.com/news/mumrain05.htm
and
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Mumbai/Salt_pans_may_be_up_for_grabs/articleshow/2093268.cms

Raped over and over again.
Not by one but by all politicians and political party.
She survives, not cared for by the people she has nurtured over the years, but
on her own, like the whores of Mumbai found from the infamous 'red light' areas of Mumbai to the 5 star hotels.
Many visit her, some use her for a short time, some, a prolonged affair and
others a distant gaze, all wondering what pleasure can she give, but none asking what she needs.

And for those who love her, their hearts will bleed, the so-called political
owners using them for their own purposes.
A mill-land dereserved here, another park de-reserved there, the salt-pans taken.

How much, O Mumbai, will you take, before each drop of blood is sucked dry,
before each pure breathful of air is taken away, before you breath your last.

Epitaph :
(xxxx--2xxx)
Here lies the great city, dead and still being scavenged by a few million.

Creating Systems

2010-09-04T00:27:00.000+05:30

We are an organisation, within another organsition within another organisation, and so it goes.

And we love to create oranisations...maybe we are in the image of the One, maybe we were created in HIS likeness (excuse me ladies ..).

But we have definitely not evolved as much as the one whose likeness we inherited.

The fundamental difference is he created evolving, selg organising systems and let them run.

We, humans still focus on creating elements of the system, and try to evolve it.

A plane difference, that is what it is.

India and Change Management

2010-09-04T00:23:00.000+05:30

I have wondered for a long time now...
India is now changing.. Is this doubted ? Not really ?
Given India's state and the lethargy at which change was adopted, India has not been able to gain momentum to its change effort.
For the longest of times, I have wondered why and reached a conclusion - while it is the absence of the will of government; That is merely a reflection of the will and want of Indians.
Why else would a country of 120 crore, with nearly 50 % unable to get a decent 3 square meals a day, still not change ?
This should have created a revolution a loooong time ago.. except not here !!
And while change happens on the other fronts like infrastructure, business, the key change required is the mindset of people.
Innovations welcome for this task ! Any takers ?? Anyone ??

Reservation Quota's and India 2016

2007-02-08T00:52:00.001+05:30

Written around April 2006...
just posting it here from another of my pages...

The year is now 2016. India of the future.
It was exactly 10 years ago that the sensex broke the 12.5 k barrier, Gold hit a 23 year high, job offers were hitting the 1 cr (lovingly called ’khokha’) mark, jobs and economy were going up in the IT / ITES sector, Dharavi was all set to dissapper in a cloud of growth, India was all set to become the next automobile design and manufacturing hub and economy and people generally had a sense of growth, not to forget, Ralph Lauren recruitingall Indians for the next generation of clothes, just to compete with the hottest global fashion design firms ’’Lallu Dudhwala’’ and ’’Rasik Jalebiwala’’. All were set to become the citizens of the new SUPER-POWER India.
As of today, the sensex still hovers around 1k, gold for those people who have it, is of collection value, since none can afford to pay more than Rs. 100 per 10 gms, most people cannot afford the public travel (even in the shape and cost that it is today), Dharavi is has now extended to cover 95 % of Mumbai, jobs have all but gone, and the very best of all the people we produce fight for the now available basic back-office processing jobs that we do for Thailand and Malaysia. Dont know what goes on outside Mumbai..have heard that we have reached an alarming 15 % rate of suicide ...but who can afford to travel just to find this out ?

HOW did we manage this turn-around .....How was it possible to derail the growth monster going at break-neck speed ??There are theories abound...Left said its the US, BJP the Chinese, Congress said Pakistan and the US said it was Osama, combined with Dawood and Iran.But all agree, the channel was Arjun Singh, the time the first week of April 2006 and the action, the addition of Quota to take the total to 49.5 % (what a figure !!)

It was simple...First came the reservations...and that was it. We never realised what hit us.. even Pakistan couldnt understand what was happening, for a few years they thought it was a ploy...and got real scared.Then in a few years time things started crumbling. The doctors we produced could not heal people...seems Nature and Medicine do not understand reservations. Both (Nature and Medicine) react adversely when given the wrong medicine. Human bodies went to dust faster then one could say Crocin...seems the new breed of pharma cos could not even produce the basic crocin with the set of people they had got..and in the age of cancer and aids, the equation was simple..> Death could be found more easily that a good doctor...

And of course people were falling ill more, how could we forget the contribution of the of the Agriculture universities, across the country. With the concoctions they produced, losing 3 years of crops was merely a formality...And the ones that did not get destroyed created a new breed of ailments altogether !!!

Why is it that Nature does not understand reservations ????

And our automobiles, they are dumb ! Why were those axles cracking at 1000 kms ??? Didnt the automobiles understand that they would have to ’bend’ a few engineering principles ?? After all it was the age of reservations ! and 50 % at that... Couldnt they just understand ?
And to add to all of this our bridges, why O why didnt they understand ?? After all, they should have !!!!!! And all those failed brakes on trains !And those trains on broken bridges....And the attempts called as life-saving for all those people having gone over with the trains !!!And the injured, did they have a chance ????The medicos spent an entire afternoon sitting next to the injured discussing which hospital the injured should be taken to (after all there were reservations there too !!!!! and it was not very easy identifying who was what (SC/OBC) once they were injured and bleeding !!
Oh ! just damn these engineering and medical principles, why dont they understand ...we had to !! Of course we had to have those reservations !!!!
And all those so called Intelligent people, how stupid they were ..the other 50 % ...trying to show us those things lie in knowledge and merit...and heavan forbid ...
We showed them how stupid they are , we told them that the ability to memorize is not really a measure of merit, and they suggested that maybe we should remove all measures of merit itself in this case and have all politicians be treated only with doctors produced from such colleges where no measure was implemented.
Idiots !!!!
Didnt they forget that politicans and vips went abroad for treatment.
There were quite a few sc’s/st’s and obc’s among those intelligent 50 %... the ones who had made it on merit... how is it that they didnt understand... why did they work so hard when they could have got in easliy.
Dont know whats next, some say it was sheer genius on the part of Arjun Singh to control population, some say he made enough money for eternity and went abroad.
Noone really knows where he dissappeared and when he dissappeared. Theories abound. SOme say it was in 2009, when he was part of a committee that went to study reservations and their effects in Afghanistan (but the plane really went to the Bahamas).Anyways, thats where we are today. Have to go now, have a few mice to catch, am yet to have breakfast. Thank God I am a vegetarian, the non-veggies are all struck out, the dogs have all but dissappeared !!!