George Eby Mathew

Book Review: Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Nomad: Right on prescriptions & Wrong on generalizations

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 21:44:00 +0000

Ayaan Ali's Nomad is accurate in its prescriptions that immigrant minorities should not be kid-gloved with concessions as they assimilate into the cultures of their adopted homes. That they should be given the freedom to practice their faith but not political and legal rights that is uncommon to any citizen is a good suggestion. Migrants will be expected to learn English in English speaking countries, they will go through the legal system and will abide by every law of the land prescribed for all freedoms, equality, justice and peace. In that sense, teaching of Arabic by a Western state spending tax payers money adds no economic value to the migrants. So also democratic countries cannot have a family law based on religion. The essential foundations of liberal democracies - equality, justice, fairness and individual liberties - should be preserved.

Where Ali goes wrong is in characterizing the behaviour of her family as a representation of Islam entirely. It is true, that the restrictive tribal constraints Islam places on individuals, families and societies at large have consequences. In actual fact circumstances of war, a dysfunctional family, tradition, elements of poverty, nomadic status and refugee flight breeds the kind of discord, behaviour and outbursts of human emotion that Ali describes in her book. But these can take place with or without the help of a closed belief system like Islam that does not open itself for scrutiny. Irrespective of religion, many African and Asian cultures embrace espouse traditional and tribal values. The concept of shame and family honor though not as violent and condescending as Nomad describes it is not exclusive to Islam. In many cultures the male child is superior. There are implicit and explicit codes of conduct for girls to avoid shaming the family. In my conservative South Indian culture many of these values are still practiced. Domestic tension is not uncommon with regard to choices made in marriage, public code of conduct for younger men and women, respect of the elders, family honor and so on. There are instances where faith is dragged to justify the need for these prescribed social norms.

What makes Ali's circumstances explosive is the combination of tribal values, lack of education among women, polygamy, a war obsessed father, and the clutches of a medieval religion that thrives on narrow mindedness. What amazes me is that Ali's father, having read in Rome and the United states, could successfully insulate himself from being influenced by a progressive worldview. This ability to shut off the West but for a few material input is prevalent in many migrant communities not just Somali Muslims.

Ali's blanket espousal of western values as the right approach to life gets me on the wrong foot. It is true that individual freedoms, a characteristic trait of Western thinking, leads to deterministic outcomes and lends purpose to life. I for one believe extreme individualism and freedom of expression can lead to "tribalism" of a different kind - with the only exception that this time it favours the minorities and not the majority as we have seen in the debate on sexual orientation of individuals in the West. By the same token, these new minorities within the Western societies also need not be given concessions politically, legally or socially that is uncommon to any citizen. In another plane altogether western individualism has limited scope for familial obligations to care for aged parents. If Ali was raised in western society, the urge to support her family financially and the inner conflicts of self-doubt as regards to her obligation to her family would not even have occurred.

The other thing that fascinated me most was the endorsement that this book receives from Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens - two renowned atheists. These endorsements at best can be termed opportunistic as both men have no solutions to offer other than to denounce religion altogether as they see religion as the source of all evil including what Ali describes in her book. Even if the characterization of Islam's violence in the book is true, it can never justify the countless murders of millions in the name of godlessness whether it was perpetrated by Uganda's Idi Amin, Neo Nazis of Germany, Pol Pot of Cambodia, the Italian Fascists or the Stalinists in Russia - many of whom were atheists like Dawkins and Hitchens. I see Ali's suggestion of engaging moderate Christian churches for their role in the assimilation of minorities in Western democracies as a good one. Their warmth and acceptance of immigrants as they are within these congregations, even if for evangelistic reasons, is to be lauded. These communes have provided immigrants with tools such as English lessons, emotional support for families and sometimes even material support during times of adjustment and that has smoothened the transition for many immigrants irrespective of their faith.

Over all entire book is a good read. Ali’s courage in opening up a pandora’s box risking her own life is to be lauded.

Innovation & R&D in Emerging Markets

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 22:31:00 +0000

The Economist recently put up a very interactive online animation tool that helps users visualise the growth of emerging markets in the context of innovation. Here's a screen shot but the real thing is here

SOURCE: THE ECONOMIST

This was first posted here on April 24, 2010

India: Bankrupty through inefficiency and corruption

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 05:17:00 +0000

At least a third of India’s people may be poor but does that mean India is poor. Think again. In Nov 2010, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) in Washington published a report titled “The Drivers and Dynamics of Illicit Financial Flows from India: 1948-2008”. The report said that during the first 60 years since independence, India lost a total of US$213 billion dollars due to illicit financial flows, the present value of which is at least US$462 billion. The total value of illicit assets held abroad represents about 72% of the size of India’s underground economy which has been estimated at 50% of India’s GDP (or about US$640 billion at end 2008),” says the report. India’s underground economy or in other words unaccounted economic activity is at least 50 % of what is reported!. Per capita income calculations really don’t tell the truth. Do they? The desire to amass wealth without attracting government attention is one of the primary motivations behind the cross-border transfer of illicit capital. The same behaviour is true for wealth created domestically and the ensuing struggles in tax administration.

So where is the problem? In two words – inefficiency and corruption. Both lead to inequities in the social structure that has a spiralling effect on the economy.
Let’s look at inefficiencies of two essentials – food and electricity. According to some estimates, pilferage of food grains within the public distribution system (which itself needs to be redesigned) is rampant and massive. Conservatively total leakage is at least 36 % of overall food production. (Some estimates put this figure as high as 50%). Almost one fifth of the ration cards are owned by fraudsters who obtain the ration quota on fictitious beneficiaries. In collusion with the shops another at least 20% of the food grains is diverted to black marketeers.

According to World Resources Institute (WRI), India’s electricity grid has the highest transmission and distribution losses in the world – a whopping 27%. Numbers published by various Indian government agencies put that number at 30%, 40% and greater than 40%. This is attributed to technical losses (grid’s inefficiencies) and theft. By contrast, China apparently loses just 3% of it’s electricity to theft as part of 8% total power transmission losses. OECD countries’ transmission and distribution losses are just 7%. One estimate puts the theft of electricity, common in most parts of urban India, amounts to 1.5% of India's GDP. While 80 percent of Indian villages have at least an electricity line, only 52.5% of rural households have access to electricity. In urban areas, the access to electricity is 93.1% in 2008. The overall electrification rate in India is 64.5% while 35.5% of the population still live without access to electricity. Plugging the losses would infer additional revenues from pent up demand at low costs.

What about corruption. In 2010, US$ 40 billion was pilfered through fraudulent 2G spectrum allotment leading to the Union telecom minister’s resignation in November 2010. In Bangalore, the chief minister, stands accused of denotifying or changing the classification of land in favor of his family members to the tune of at least US$100 million. The Common Wealth Games cost the government $ 14. 8 billion. In May 2010, the CWG cost was up 1574 per cent since bid according to an NGO audit. India’s estimated Tax revenue this year is $ 150 bn. A third of that money is already lost in just three of the scams mentioned. The money pilfered from just the three scams is approximately worth three-quarters of India's IT industry.

The result? The funding to support development is compromised. The gap between the rich and the poor widens. A national report on India’s health care system states that curative services favour the non-poor: for every Re.1 spent on the poorest 20 per cent of the population, Rs.3 is spent on the richest 20 per cent. Only 10 per cent of Indians have some form of health insurance, most of which is inadequate. Hospitalised Indians spend on an average 58 per cent of their total annual expenditure. Over 40 per cent of hospitalised Indians borrow heavily or sell assets to cover expenses. Over 25 per cent of hospitalised Indians fall below the poverty line because of hospital expenses.

Sometime ago, I wrote about India slipping on its Global Competitiveness Index (GCI). Another GCR, this time the global corruption report from Transparency international reported that India is slipping on the perception on corruption negatively. India received a score of 3.3 out of 10 in 2010 in comparison to 3.5 in 2007 and 3.4 in 2008 and 2009 on a scale of 0 to 10 CPI with even Bhutan scoring a high of 5.7. India ranking was worse than all developed countries and even some countries in Africa.

“Corruption has social acceptance,” says Pratyush Sinha, who recently retired as Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC). Talking to daily newspaper Mint, he said: “There would be 20% of people in India even today who would be honest, regardless of the temptations, because this is how they are. They have a conscience, they would not be corrupt. There would be around 30% who would be utterly corrupt. But the rest are the people who are on the borderline.”

So the 20 % of people who are honest need to grow – they must be engaged in the political process. Secondly, problem solving as a discipline needs to be inculcated in all the departments concerned. Thirdly we need to begin rewarding results against defined metrics. If the lot of the poor hasn’t changed in 20 years of liberalisation, we haven’t done much. If India is slipping on all metrices -are we really a progressive nation?
Sources & Resources for further reading
The Public Distrubution System
India's Electricity and Transmission Losses
Electricity Sector in India
Drivers for Corruption in India
State of Public Health

The Stories Behind India's Current Growth

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 00:23:00 +0000

A recent Outlook article summarises India's lackadaisical journey in the last 30 years - aimless, mis-steps that by partial commission and largely ommission led to current economic growth rates which the author states is still faster Hindu rate of growth and not anywhere close to full potential. India has become a bottom up consumption-led economy because of its people not necessarily its leaders

Read on

Bangalore - December 2010

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 05:30:00 +0000

Guest lecturing at RV Institute of Management, Bangalore on the challenges and opportunities in Innovation in India

Khan Academy: In this Academy there is no curriculum

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 21:12:00 +0000

For anyone who hasn't been taught basic maths and concepts properly this is god send. For others who thought formal learning and teaching can happen only in a class room, this is radical. For those who believe for education there needs to be a curriculum, this is blasphemy. As for me, I wonder if I should travel back in time and re-do my math lessons, this way!

India's 64th Independance Day: Radio Interview

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 08:40:00 +0000

Hear me in discussion with Eastside FM's Shailja Chandra on India's 64th Independance day (August 15th) at 12:30 pm (AEDT) on Sydney Eastside FM 89.7

Update 1 : Read an abridged transcript here
Update 2: Listen to the interview as a podcast here (MP3, 36 MB)

Inspiring Video: Banking for Change

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:09:00 +0000

Two-thirds of India’s population of a billion people live in the nation’s 600,000 villages. Despite India’s economic growth, the disparities between the rich and the poor are enormous. Many villagers migrate to the cities in search of work and end up begging on the streets. South Indian bank manager J S Parthiban set out to do something to help their economic circumstances. He encouraged beggars to open bank accounts in New Delhi, and pioneered micro-loans to villagers in his home state of Tamil Nadu. This is his story—and theirs.

Banking On Change (12 min version) from Pilgrim Films on Vimeo.
source: http://www.pilgrimfilms.com/

May 2010 - New Delhi

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Mon, 03 May 2010 20:38:00 +0000

With Australian Deputy High Comissioner to India
Dr. Lachlan Strahan and AIBC chairman, Neville Roach.

Some of Australia’s most influential thought leaders join forces with emerging and established leaders in India at the Advance Emerging Leaders India Summit 2010 hosted in New Delhi on 3 – 4 May, 2010. Australian speakers and discussion leaders include Rory Medcalf from the Lowy Institute, Bruce Hawker from Hawker Britton, George Eby Mathew from Infosys Australia, Gaurav Gupta from Dalberg Asia and The Green Livelihoods Centre, Dr Elizabeth Hill from the University of Sydney, and Anna Rose from the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. Representatives from India include Pradeep Kumar Dadhich (Head of the Centre for Policy and Regulatory Studies, TERI University), Pramath Raj Sinha (Founding Dean, Indian School of Business), Manit Rastogi (Director, Morphogenesis Design Studio) and Ravi Singh (CEO, WWF India). Read More

Wealth Distribution in India & China

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:09:00 +0000

This week BusinessWeek carried an article by John Lee, a fellow at Australia's Center for Independent Studies, a visiting fellow at Washington's Hudson Institute, and the author of Will China Fail?

Some of the comments the article generated can be disregarded as patriotic whiplash. But the article has flaws. What is accurate is that extreme poverty has been reducing, incomes are growing and rising rural purchasing power is a rising trend in India. But wealth distribution is not homogenious in India as the article says it is. One of the other factual flaw of the article was on the share of the rural economy. For one, I don't quite agree that 41 % of India's GDP is now driven by its rural economy. Rural India is still Agriculture driven Agriculture contributes to something like 16 % of GDP.
The key point John Lee missed is that in India too much wealth is with too few people unlike China which is distributed fairly widely. The net worth of Indian billionaires (52) in dollar terms, according to Forbes, exceeded the networth of Chinese billionaries (79) in dollar terms by $ 100 bn. Bulk of the Indian wealth is anchored in surge of the local financial markets.

The combined fortune of India's 100 richest is $276 billion, almost one-fourth the country's GDP, which incidently is the approx amount of money individual Americans give away to charity every year. It would be very noble if we were to begin measuring our 'richness' by the amount of money we give away rather than make.

Stories of Haiti

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:28:00 +0000

Help HAITI with DEBT Relief
Haiti owes the IMF, IDB and others, $890 million in Debt. Sign a one.org petition to ask Haiti’s creditors to quickly cancel Haiti’s debts.'

"The First Generation that can eradicate Extreme Poverty"

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:54:00 +0000

In December 2009, I met Hugh Evans, CEO of the Global Poverty Project. In the brainstorming that followed, we discussed how inclusive innovation can become critical to solving extreme poverty. Evans believes that we are the first generation that can erradicate extreme poverty within our lifetime.
Here's what Hugh Evans does:

New Book Information: "India's Innovation Blueprint"

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:24:00 +0000

George Eby Mathew is awaiting the publication of his first book and one of the first accounts of how modern India is building itself as an Innovation superpower. To be published in July 2010, "India's Innovation Blueprint: How the world's largest democracy is becoming an Innovation Superpower", is an eye-opening 360 degree view of the opportunities and challenges India has to become a formidable force in Innovation. He makes distinct references to the disconnects between what is apparent and what is latent like for example the disconnects between India's physical and mental infrastructure and the disparities between India's rich and the poor. He emphasises that the solutions lie in inclusive growth, rural entrepreneurship and innovation. Among other things, he establishes the inextricable link between Innovation and rural GDP, national GDP and global competitiveness. He offers suggestions on raising the profile of Innovation through a National Innovation System. Here's the Full interview.

The Danger of a Single Story

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:38:00 +0000

San Diego, California - November 14, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:12:00 +0000

@ the Scripps Institute with son, Ashish

Metropolitan Club, New York - November 2, 2009

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:41:00 +0000

Picture Credit: Librado Romero/The New York Times

Spoke at the Metropolitan Club - World Emerging Multinational Congress, November 2 & 3rd, 2009

Restaurants

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Sat, 30 May 2009 08:50:00 +0000

Dragon Boat, Sydney

Zafran, Sydney

Meccah Bah, Melbourne

Din Tai Fung

Role of Government in Innovation Systems

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:13:00 +0000

The role of government in building an innovation network was one of the questions I and others on my panel were asked at the Advance Women's Leadership Summit in Sydney. An elaborate response to the question couldn't be made on the panel for want of time but here are my thoughts on the question in video.

First Posted March 11, 2011

Why Australian Media Companies Need Innovation

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:23:00 +0000

I just returned from the Australasian Media and Broadcasting conference, my second in two years in a row. The themes have disappointingly been the same - cpm based advertising, reach, roi, and rhetoric. Retrospection and review was good. Revolution and resolve was missing. However, the message that I took home was a point made by Fairfax Digital's CEO, Jack Matthews, who ornately pulled a leaf off Clayton Christensen's Innovators Dilemna to link Fairfax Digital's $ 109 mn EBIDTA last year to disruptive innovation. I would leave it to the experts to comment on the numbers but innovation is a topic close to my heart. Read on

Why is the modern view of progress so impoverished?

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:55:00 +0000

The economist, ran a cover article titled "The idea of progress, onwards and upwards in its Christmas speacial on Dec 17th 2009. Three quotes from the article captured my attention:

1. It is good to go up in the world, but much less so if everyone around you is going up in it too

2. Modern science is full of examples of technologies that can be used for ill as well as good. Think of nuclear power—and of nuclear weapons; of biotechnology—and of biological contamination. Or think, less apocalyptically, of information technology and of electronic surveillance. History is full of useful technologies that have done harm, intentionally or not. Electricity is a modern wonder, but power stations have burnt too much CO2-producing coal. The internet has spread knowledge and understanding, but it has also spread crime and pornography. German chemistry produced aspirin and fertiliser, but it also filled Nazi gas chambers with Cyclon B.The point is not that science is harmful, but that progress in science does not map tidily onto progress for humanity.

3. Even the stolidest defenders of capitalism would, by and large, agree that its tendency to form cartels, shuffle off the costs of pollution and collapse under the weight of its own financial inventiveness needs to be constrained by laws designed to channel its energy to the general good. Business needs governing, just as science does.

Read this fascinating article

Save Newspapers from the Digital Mess

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 12:27:00 +0000

I was recently asked to look at the challenges newspapers are facing today and list what I thought were some of the things they must do to stay ahead of the curve.(I am pretty sure I am missing out a few important ones too here). But before you get to the four things I came up with, here's a 150 word worth of whats happening in the newspapers industry today: Read on

Best Places for Global Business

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:13:00 +0000

Which is the Best Country for Global Business? India, ranked No. 48, is eighth in the world for quality of management schools yet 106th for quality of electricity supply. The bigger story is that India trails that other unfurling economic giant: China finishes 34th overall, showing strength in areas like university-industry research collaboration (25th) and national savings rate (7th) while remaining among the world's worst countries for things like the soundness of banks (128th). As for India, there is always discussion about the extent to which that country's bureaucratic, multistate, multiparty democracy handicaps it--a communist government like China's doesn't worry about building consensus for economic policies. This year TIME partners with the WEF to brings in-depth data on 37 key countries at time.com/globalbusiness

Grand Wedding. Groom Beaten. Can education save us from GREED?

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:09:00 +0000

I don't know how you'd react to a story like this. I reacted very differently at different times thinking about it. For those who don't know: Dowry is a custom practiced in most parts of India wherein a bride's family pays (literally pays) the grooms family. Read more about Dowry. By the way, Indian weddings are one of the most extravagant and mindlessly pompous weddings in the world.

NRI doctor beaten up for demanding dowry
Patiala (Punjab): A New York-based non-resident Indian (NRI) doctor was arrested here on Friday for demanding a dowry of Rs 50 lakh ($120,000), but not before he and his family were given a sound thrashing by the bride's side for putting forth such a demand just before the wedding was to commence here.
The doctor, Gurpreet Singh, and his parents were arrested by the Patiala police after the girl's family filed a police complaint. Singh and his relatives originally hail from Ludhiana district. They have been settled in the US for many years. They were assaulted and beaten up by the bride's family and friends at the Chahal Marriage Palace - an upscale wedding venue - here.

So the guy has a professional education and probably doing well in practice, been settled in another country for years - that should have given him a different perspective and ofcourse exposure to other cultures. Well greed has not boundaries does it? Or for that matter think about living the rest of your life not "happily ever after" but thinking "I was bought for $120K".

Can he lead a 'normal' life?. No, he will be an engineer

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:56:00 +0000

Who said computers are for the young

noreply@blogger.com (George Eby Mathew) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 14:14:00 +0000

I have no idea where this clipping is from and so I cannot quote the source. Someone in my family took a paper cutting and scanned it for posteriety.