Infosys, TCS not hiring as many - Is the Computer Science future doomed in India?

As I settled, with my book, in my favorite seat besides the big show window, in the coffee lounge that I frequent, heard someone call from behind, "Sir? Sir?". I turned and looked up. This was the girl from the coffee shop. "Sir, do you have some time? I need some advice". I had seen the girl in the shop for over a year. She had served me many times earlier. Yeah, sure, tell me. "Sir, I need internship in some company in HR department, can you help". That is how the conversation started. She had approached me since she had seen me many time before with books or with someone discussing business, so thought I might be able to help her with her internship. I found out that she had done engineering in electronics from a college near Chandigarh. She was working as an assistant brew master in the coffee shop. She had enrolled in a distance learning MBA in HR, for which she wanted to do internship in some company.

"Sir, this franchisee option would be perfect for you", said this salesman from Franchisee India. He was trying to get me to take franchisee of a brand. In the conversations, I figured that he was an electronics engineer from a University in Jalandhar. A girl he introduced me to, who was working with the brand as their channels manager, was his classmate, also an electronics engineer.

I have seen and met so many engineers, doing anything but engineering, that I am left wondering what did they really do with their 4 years of engineering in the college.

I had an opportunity to go to a few local engineering colleges where I was invited to give talk to the final year students. In the gatherings, all I could see was young faces, obediently sitting and listening.There was no spark, no inquisitive question, no telling of stories, no grand dreams.

The sad part of the story is students enroll into engineering courses to get jobs, not to engineer something great, something cool. Most go thru' the rigmarole of standard courses being taught since last many decades, without much understanding, with the hope that companies will come for campus recruitment, and that they will crack the interviews and get a job. The passion to know, to create, to innovate is sadly missing. Irony is, landing a good Job being the only objective of getting into engineering, makes it harder to get a job!

One thing that I hear these days that amuses me no ends, is that Computer Science is finished. See, Infosys, TCS, Wipros of the world don’t hire as many anymore. Automation is killing the jobs. Don't know if all the computer engineers will get the job or not. Big question mark written all over the face!!

Well, I know the answer, they won’t. Not because computer science is finished, but because they never really started learning or doing true computer science.

What for sure is going to go away is basic, entry level jobs. However, if you see, computer science is only starting now. Now is the most exciting times for computer science, enabled by immense processing power available on tap, extremely cheap all pervasive connectivity, huge amount of data to play with and online help available to learn new tools and techniques. With the availability of immense processing power, and availability of data that can be persisted, because of availability of cheap storage, problems that were considered too complex to be solved, just a few years back, are getting solved now with immense ease. Computers' intelligence is increasing exponentially as computers ingest huge amount of data and learn from it. Even earlier, we knew the theory of making computers learn, but we did not have the processing power nor enough data for computers to learn fast enough. Now, both the conditions have been met.

It is computers that drive cars, it is computers that now interpret your XRays and CT Scans. It is computers that write news stories and movie reviews. It is computers that run the stock markets. Computers, listen, see and respond. Improvements in these areas have happened over last few years, driven by the enablers I mentioned earlier. Remember those days when the computer could not understand the English we spoke, because of our Indian accent, well, all that is history, computers not only understand accents, they respond back in the accent of your choice.

Well, it is not just computer science, where exciting stuff is happening, equally interesting work is being done in almost all fields of engineering. Electrical - renewable energy, fusions, batteries for electric cars and so on. Electronics is all about the devices that are becoming more and more powerful and increasingly small, you don’t have to look further than your smart phone to realize the revolution electronics is bringing. Metallurgy is into finding and creating new materials that can be super conductors, materials that can be used for bendable screens etc. Heard of hyperloop? A near vacuum tube, wherein pods will transport passengers at speeds greater than the airlines. This would be one big Civil engineering marvel. Robotics is an amalgamation of Mechanical, Electrical, Electronics and Computer Science engineering areas. Companies for profit have been floated, to extend the human life to 500 years and ultimately for humans to live as long as they wish. These are not just some research projects, these are for profit ventures, in which people are putting serious money. Advancements in Biotechnology, requires cutting edge research in all areas of engineering, same for nanotechnology. Manufacturing and mechanical engineering going thru' revolution because of 3D printing.

I have barely scratched the surface, there are many more avenues. What is required is deep understanding of the area, going to the edge of the knowledge. Once there, seeking job is last of the problems.

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Harvesting Cancer

Bhakra dam at 740ft is one of the highest in Asia. When it got commissioned in 1963, it changed the fortunes of the farmers in the region, and little did they know, lives of their future generations. The farm productivity of the irrigated land increased by 39% to 43%, compared to the rainfed plots. Increase in agriculture productivity however came at a very heavy price. People of the region literally paid for it with their lives. Cancer rates sky rocketed in 30 years, so much so that Punjab is now called cancer capital of India.

Intensive agriculture, aided by canal based irrigation, has enabled not only multiple crop cycles, but agriculture of unsustainable crops like paddy, resulting in tremendous stress on the soil and water. Soil is sought to be rejuvenated by use of increasing quantity of chemical fertilizers, where as water is increasingly getting pumped from the ground, getting depleted at an ever increasing rate.  Further, to protect the yield, farmers take no chances, and poison the produce and the soil, with pesticides. Concoction of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and multiple crop cycles, is resulting in dangerous levels of harmful chemicals in the blood of the locals.

Punjab has only 2.5% of total agriculture land in the country but uses more than 18% of all the pesticides used in the country!

South of Sutlej River in Punjab, called Malwa region, also called cotton belt - Batinda, Mansa, Faridkot, Ferozpur, Muktsar, Moga, Barnala, Sangroor  - is the worst effected by cancer. Other regions of Punjab - Majha (North of Beas and Sutlej till Jehlum) and Doaba (Between Beas and Sutlej) - are fast catching up on this dubious distinction.

Irrigation enabled green revolution. However, in the scramble that ensued, short term objectives got way too much weightage, compared to long term and sustainable objectives.  The problems range from the abuse of fertilizers and pesticides, resulting in poisoning of the soil and the produce, to unsustainable crop cultivation. Cultivation of paddy is resulting in water logging and soil turning saline, in places that are close to the canals, and dangerously depleted ground water table in other places.

To think of it, Bhakra Dam, besides many other ingredients, is a key input to the "harvest of cancer" in the region. 

The Land of Nalanda

When Nalanda was being destroyed in India, Cambridge was getting established in England. The story has unfolded on predictable lines since.

Here in Patna for Badminton National. Arre nahi babumoshaye, not me baba, for my Son.

Well, the idea of this post is not to bore you with where I am and what I am doing, it is to share the sheer darkness that still pervades this place. I have come back after 17 years. Last time I was here, it was for one of the cricket world cup matches in 1997. My recollection from that time is, sea of rickshaws every where, moving, rather crawling in all directions. The only change between then and now is the fact that rickshaws are replaced by auto rickshaws. The filth is still there, all pervading, omnipresent. Roads never existed earlier, they don't exist even today. Tons of people, just busy, doing their chore, oblivion of the dust, smoke, stench in the air. Samosas, litti with chokha, is being fried right next to open gutters, which has doubled up as garbage dump, which is there every few yards. Don't get me wrong, these garbage dumps are not by design, they just spring up impromptu, based on where ever someone, anyone, wants to throw garbage.

Chief Minister came to inaugurate the tournament, and with him came the Sports Minister of the state and couple others. They addressed the gathering. In the list of uninspiring / inaudible speeches, these, in my opinion, would top the charts. A few things that all the speakers did not forget to mention, before they started their respective speeches, was to welcome the participants to the land of Buddha. I was like, did you not drive on the roads that we took to come here? Why do you make mockery of Buddha's name by continually referring to him? If the reference is to be made, it should be like, hey we are sorry, that we have abused this land of Buddha, sorry that we have destroyed generations of people, sorry that we have taken away hope from the people, sorry that people here don't dream, they only have nightmares.

However I know, the land that once had a university like Nalanda, thinkers like Buddha, has the potential, if only the leaders stop raping it, looting it, for their personal benefits.

I look forward to my third coming, hope to share picture of a land truly becoming of where Buddha attained enlightenment.

Na Nar ke Na Narayan Ke (Neither of human nor of God)

A Sadhvi, who is also a Union Minister, made this comment, "Aapko tay karna hai ki Dilli mein sarkar Ramzadon ki banegi ya haramzadon ki. Yeh aapka faisla hai".

When a person makes this kind of remark, it tells me that the person does not have the basic goodness and calmness, in short does not have Godliness to be called a Sadhvi. The remark also suggests that it is depraved of basic etiquette, common sense and intelligence for it to be coming from a Minister. Hence in my opinion, she should be stripped of both these titles, forthwith.

unfortunately, this is becoming more of a pattern. Some overzealous BJP associates think that the majority that BJP got in the Lok Sabha, came on the back of vast majority's alignment with BJP religious ideology. Hence they think they have a licence to not only continue down their earlier path of religious bigotry, but in fact go down that path with renewed fervour and speed. In truth, the Lok Sabha mandate is more for economic progress, aspirations for better living standards and just plain fatigue with the status quo that Congress was pushing.

The danger is that as the time progresses, as the Modi government's honeymoon period wears off, and as the government comes under pressure, which invariably all governments do, these vitriolic voices are going to get shriller, plus more of BJP & Co may join this hate bandwagon to play to the galleries.

This evil must be nipped in the bud. Any later than now, Modi government may not have the political capital to stop them.

The Last Mile!

The tiles fit snuggly into each other, as they were laid out on a flat foundation of sand. The workers, the mason, the material and the whole jing bang was there. The dirt pavement, which was such a hazard during rainy days, and such a dusty place to walk on otherwise, was finally getting a makeover. Walkers mostly preferred to walk on the road, making the road even narrower for the vehicular traffic and in the process risking their lives. Now things would be different, walkers would finally get their space. After enduring a few weeks of construction material on the road, all the noise, dust and the traffic jams that ensue, finally the pavement was ready. It looked neat.

But then, it started, one after another, in quick succession. There was recesses in the pavement at every few meters for the rainwater drainage inlets. The vertical tiles that separated the pavement from the road at the corners of these rainwater drainage inlet recesses started falling. They had not be secured properly with enough adhesive or the angle was not proper or both or something else, but they fell. They always do! As they fell, the beautifully laid out pavement tiles that were sitting so snuggly intertwined with each other loosened. First the ones at the corner loosed and fell, and then the next row followed, till the corners just collapsed. It looked like a pile of rubble. Soon, the loose tiles where gone. The corner looked like a mud slope from road to the pavement, of what was left.

Not that money was not spent, not that labors or masons were taken away from the spot before they could finish. No, nothing of that. It was simply a question of not taking care of the last bit, not doing a proper job of tying it up and sealing it properly.

Everywhere I see, I see that enough money is being spent, but it is the last bit, the last mile that which not done properly wastes the entire effort and the money.

The story repeats, weather it is the pavement, or the cover of the drains, which do not fit the opening properly, or the railing along the side of the parks, which are fixed so flimsily that you know that they will fall if given a push, or electric poles which have the naked electric wires hanging out of the small opening at the bottom of the pole, with the door to the opening, invariably missing or hanging/dangling.

Following Pareto's advice, I had definitely put this in the bucket of 20% things that if done right have a potential to provide 80% positive effect! 



 

My God

My God!
Every day for last 43 years I heard her voice. Hardly ever did I not see her or not speak to her. It was my routine to touch her feet before leaving home in the morning, whether I was going to school or college or work. Getting her blessings in the morning gave me a feeling of invincibility. Whenever I was stressed, just sitting with her would calm my frayed nerves. Even today, whenever I am in a tough situation, I close my eyes and imagine her giving me a reassuring... smile and confidence that she is there.

No, she was no superwoman, she was no magician, she was my mother and the power she had was love. Limitless and unconditional love. Love so strong that it even transcends the boundaries of the living and non living, for, even though she is gone, I still feel the warm glow of her love. I can still see her smiling and blessing, when every morning I close my eyes and touch her feet.
I have not seen the almighty God, the creator of everything, but I have seen my creator, my God, my mother. It is my God, who gives me strength and motivation to seek the all mighty, for when I find the all mighty, I will again find my God, my mother. For me the all mighty God is only a way to get to my God!
 

To the detractors of Kejriwal

I understand where you are coming from. If I may, I can categories your objections broadly as follows -

a) process and procedure for introducing the bill
b) about Kejriwal's grand ambitions, with an eye on Lok Sabha
c) about running away from the responsibility of governance

Here's my point of view -

a) Processes and Procedures - For last 67 years, we have seen how these processes and procedures have been used by the "System", the "Government Machinery", what ever you call it, to deny the country men what is duly their right. Right at the top of this Govt Machinery sits the elected bodies (loksabha, rajyasabha at national level and legislative assemblies at the state level), filled with politicians. So it is no surprise that they set the tone. You go to a police station to get a complaint registered or ask for verification for the passport, or go to local municipality to get your building plan sanctioned or get an electricity connection, procedures and processes are waved in your face. Ever thought why? Because, by making it complex it is easier to scare the people into giving the speed money to get things done. Processes and procedures are used to reward or thwart the efforts. I do not think Lokpal bill is a panacea, but I do believe it is one of the things that needs to be done besides so many others. I hope even the detractors agree with this fact, so why not let the processes and procedures take a back seat and let a good thing get passed.

b) Kejriwal's grand ambitions - First, let me say that it does not bother me. For me that is not even a question, as I look at what he is trying to do now or plan to do for the country and for the people. That is all that I am focused on. Having said that, let's assume that he indeed is ambitious. So, what is wrong with that? Are we all not ambitious? In fact I am happy that an honest, intelligent person, with integrity is ambitious and wants to do something at national level. Is that not good? Would you much rather have a criminal, dishonest person running the country?

c) Running away from the responsibility of governance - Mahabharat, Chanakya Niti, basic texts on governance, all of them cover this extensively. The basic principal is not only to have the good of people at heart, but the ability to deliver that as well. In the present setup, though the Kejriwal govt took the office, it was up against the challenge of entrenched opposition, that wanted status quo. The govt did what it could in last couple months, however, it was clear that the moment it goes after the big guns, or tries to implement the big ticket items on the agenda, hell will break loose. It did. The response of the government, in my opinion is a smart one, instead of becoming a lame duck government, not being able to deliver what is good and is promised, when it found itself stone walled, it quit. The calculation that would have gone into this action would be something like - re-elections are going to be called along with the Lok Sabha elections, the party will come back with majority and then carry on with its agenda of cleaning the system. Smart, isn't it. Also, at the same time, Kejriwal and the team can put their energy in planning for Lok Sabha elections, getting the right candidates etc. So, what is wrong? If a good thing can get bigger, all the more better.

The "I" in "Me"

For a long time I have struggled with one question - "Who is the "I" in "Me"? My brain, thru' the exclusion principle, had reasoned that it itself, that is my brain itself, must be the "I", since it is the store house of my thoughts and my thoughts is what makes me who I am. I was comfortable with that idea, since it seemed rational, however, I was not comfortable for long. If that is all that is there to be known, if that is the ultimate truth, I should have been at peace with myself. As I had reasoned, knowing the ultimate truth will bring me peace, it will make me calm, it will quench my thirst, my brain will quieten down. Well, I was nowhere close and still ain't.

Hindu philosophy offers another explanation. It says, "I" is the atman. Atman is not any part of the body, not even brain.  It further says, it is not possible to know the "I" thru brain. An analogy to explain it more vividly - one does not need any light to see the sun, sun is seen in its own light, similarly, one does not need brain to see "I" the atman. Seeing atman is like self awakening. Seeing in this case, ofcourse,  is not the seeing thru' eye, it is to know, to experience, to awaken, to become self aware, to realize that "I" is different from the body and "I" is the only constant, hence it is the only truth.

Question is how to get to this "I" in "Me". Hindu philosophy says, you get there thru' guru. Guru, it says, is the only way.

The key takeaway for me has been that brain is not the way to get to "I". All this while I have been thinking that brain/intellect could be a way to get to the "I" in "Me". It was a revelation to me, when I heard what the Upanishad's say, that this is an independent path.

Let there be Million Indias but No Hungry Child in One India

Huston we have a problem! However, this one is not for Huston to resolve.  It is a Himalayan problem, that we, the dweller in the shadows of Himalayas, have to comprehend, come to terms with and fix.

The problem is "Unity in Diversity". I expect a question, why is that a problem, is that not a virtue? Exactly, that is what we have been told and taught all thru' our school, and is now ingrained in our brains. We are a land of diverse cultures, multiple languages, different faiths, blah blah blah and yet we are united. Really? Common, really?

Even at the height of India's dominance of the world (at that time India controlled approximately 33% of World's GDP), India was not the geographical India as we know it today. India was multiple independently ruled states that stretched from Indian Ocean in the south, to Himalayas in the north, and from today's Afghanistan on the west, to today's Bangladesh on the east. That kind of independent states structure did two things to our region (if I were to call India as a region rather than a country)

a) it brought a lot of prosperity to individual states, within this region, and the region as a whole.

b) From time to time it allowed external forces to invade this region and loot the wealth, since individual states were not all very militarily strong, and sometimes played one against the other, ultimately leading to Britishers subjugating the entire region.

So, what is the take away from history?

a) By uniting we have solved the problem of security, we are a much more secure region, that can not be subjugated in bits ad pieces, as was possible earlier, when the region was divided

b) Uniting these diverse parts, means we are living a common minimum program. Which essentially means, we as a united nation, only do those things, run those programs, that are acceptable to all.  In a setup where there are diverse set of cultures and creeds and faiths and different development levels, you know what happens, there is very less that come out as common, and lot of good things of different geographical areas, cultures, faiths are left out, since they are not acceptable to others. So, what has it done to the region? Well, it has left us with sub optimal growth. It has wasted multiple generations in this region. It has spread poverty equally!

It wont be an exaggeration, if I were to say,  we are not united, we are bound together. We have tied our hands and feet to each other so that all of us can sink together!

What we must do. We must overhaul our federal structure. Make each state autonomous. In the new structure, center should have control over only three things - Defense, Foreign Relations and Monetary Policy for the region's currency, everything else should be run by the States. Each State must choose its Prime Minister, these Prime Ministers can then choose a President for the entire nation. With a center that is only responsible for Defence, Foreign Relations and Monetary Policy, the buck will securely be with the respective States so as far as development and growth is concerned. Let there be no ambiguity in who is responsible for children going to bed hungry.

Once Upon a Time in Thapar

"Madam, we promise we will return the rucksacks and the tent, with no damage, in time. It is just 4 days trip madam. No, madam, we don't have the money to keep as security, please please take our watches as collateral". That did the trick, it always worked. (Those were the times, when people still wore watches). We got the basic stuff from Thapar's Hiking and Mountaineering club. It helped that the teacher responsible for the club was our Psychology prof and we had decent image. We had to collect some more items, gloves, jackets and if possible, hiking shoes. We had a lot of friends in the hostel!

This was first of the three trips that we would eventually make on the same trek - Kandaghat to Chail. Patiala to Solan is 2.5 to 3 hours, by bus. By the time we reached Solan it was dinner time. Had stomach full at one of the dhabhas close to the bus stand. Took a local bus to kandaghat. A few hundred meters from the Kandaghat bus stop, a narrow track slopes down to the Ashwani Khad. To get to Chail, one has to go down, cross the Ashwani khad gorge and then back up the mountains on the other side. We waded thru' shoulder tall grass, with candle in a steel glass acting as a make shift torch. We got to the bottom of the gorge and tried to pitch the tent. After multiple failed attempts, we decided to spread it on the ground itself. Mulay and I went around to collect fire wood, while Mahajan got ready to make tea. Mahajan  lit the fire and put the pot to boil. I found some mint smelling shrubs in the dark.Yeah! Mint flavored black tea! Mahajan tended to the chai while Mulay and I lit the left over cigar. Lying down on the spread out tent, watching the stars in the clear sky, it never felt so good. Chai got ready. Mahajan picked the pot from the fire to pour, spilled most of it. What the .... next few minutes, it was free for all, choicest expletives got exchanged. We drank what was left. It was cold, we slept in the spoon position, with blankets on. We were still cold, we took out all clothes, one by one, from shirt, towel to our underwear, from the rucksack and put on top of us.
Morning was crisp, white and bright. It was the sound of mule hoofs that woke us. Mules around us were drinking water from the stream close to where we are sleeping. The guy tending to the mules came over, asked us what we were doing. We sweet talked. We were always good at that! The guy offered us to come to his place for breakfast. We brushed, washed, packed, got ready for the breakfast. We went up the hill on a narrow track, reach a thatched roof house. We sat in the verandha, ate thick chappatis, took some pictures with the host, got directions for Chail, thanked the host and got on the way.

There was a stream to cross. Thankfully, we picked the right spot to cross over, remembering the proverb "still water runs deep". From here on it was climb up the hill.  Mahajan in front, I in the middle and Mulay bringing up the rear. Frequently Mulay and I caught ourselves catching our breath and looking at Mahajan, climbing effortlessly in front of us. "Sala motor". It must have been close to 1pm, we were dead tired.  We must have been walking for 4 hours. We rested under a tree, an almond tree, laden with fruit. Couple kids came and stood on the otherside of the track looking curiously at us. They were shy. We picked some almonds from the tree, gave to the kids. Kids took them and disappeared. A few minutes later kids returned. They had Khira in their hand, for us. The most delicious khira I ever had, juicy. We picked more almonds and gave to them. They again disappeared. A few minutes later kids came back, this time with a man in tow, their father. The guy gave us more Khiras. We chatted for a bit. We learned that the almond tree was also his! Oops! The man invited us for lunch. We politely declined.  He insisted. Never to let go of the 2nd chance, we followed him down the hill. He had a thatched roof house, a veranda in front and stepped farm beyond that. One lady came out of the house, we bowed to her. The man told her to make some chapatis for us. She disappeared in the house. The man took us to his farm. Showed us what was growing, maze and turmeric. He insisted that we take some with us. We talked him out of it. Did not want to carry more weight. What would we have done with turmeric. Chappatis were ready. Muuuuah! Pure nectar. We gobbled 2 each in less time than it takes to say "chappati". With a remaining appetite for atleast 2 more each, I looked at Mulay, ah! ok,  remaining appetite for 4 more, we told the host to stop. Our civility forced us to decline more. Before hunger could get better of the civility, we took some pictures, thanked profusely and left.

Up and down, up and down a  few hills and we weren't sure if we were headed in the right direction. The track did not have mule shit! "Shit! not the right track". We spotted some huts down the narrow path. It was a 30 minute detour to get to those huts. It was getting dark. Before we reached the huts, we ran into this guy, who was leading a pack of mules out of the hutments. He offered to put us back on the right track to Chail. We could see the lights on the hill. A few more kilometers perhaps. Rucksack was feeling heavier, legs were wobbly. It felt as if the last few kilometers are going to kill me. Mulay was almost dead. Mahajan, sala motor! Finally, we could see the road. We got there and sat. Lit the left over of the left over cigar.

Walk on the road was not too steep. We were near the town now. Stopped this guy and asked him for the direction to the Gurudwara. Reached the Gurudwara, payed our respects and asked for shelter. Gurudwaras never refuse. We were allowed to stay in the main hall, on the first floor. We dumped our stuff and came out. Spotted this dhaba. Everything else became a blurr. Rajma, aloo gobhi and tandoori roti. The bestest ever Rajma and the crispest ever tandoori roti that I ever had. In an otherwise very focused event, where nothing came between us and the food in front of us, we only had one interruption when we exchanged expletives on Mulay dipping his finger in Rajma, every time he scooped it up with his roti. We lit remains of the cigar, Mahajan watched the smoke, too tired to talk. We went to the Gurudwara, spread our ground sheet and the tent on the floor. The moment we rested our head on the floor, we were asleep.

The guy must have yelled for a while before we woke up. Its was morning. We had our shoes inside the main Gurudwara hall. Shoot! We collected our stuff and were out in less than 5. On the side of the road was a hand-pump. Ladies filling water at the pump were curiously looking at us as we brushed, washed, and packed. A new day had started and we had to get to Shimla by evening...

A pile of rat shit!

53%  of India ‘s land is arable, as per 2011 world bank report.  In hectares, we have 2^nd largest land area, under cultivation, after US. That is huge. No wonder, this region nurtured an ancient civilization that found it perfect to settle and grow. It was a sought after land for many intruders, who wanted to conquer it and then settle down here to enjoy its riches. However, we in the present are wasting the natural bounty. Infact we have made this huge fertile land our bane.

India is the 2^nd largest producer of rice - 23% of entire worlds output; 2^nd largest producer of wheat - 18% of worlds production, 2^nd largest producer of fresh vegetables – 10% of world production.

What do we do with this bounty? We let it rot! Why, because we want the food to be available for our own countrymen. So, the government buys the food and stocks it. Does not matter if we do not have storage space, we just stock it in open. Does not matter if the food spoils, we still have a pile to look at from a distance and feel happy that we have a pile, even if it most of it has turned into rat shit!

In financial terms this is how it translates – Farmers spend money to grow the agriculture produce, farmers use fertilizers, subsidized by the government to the tune of INR65,000 cr. Farmers get free electricity, in most parts of the country, to pump ground water for irrigation, this translates to approx. INR30,000 to 35,000 Cr. Then there is subsidy on diesel, subsidy on seeds and other miscellaneous schemes that keep getting announced from time to time. Add to this the cost of the effort put in by 50% of our population, which is engaged in agriculture, approximately 600million people.  You are looking at a staggering bill! However, this is just the cost of production. 

Now, comes the procurement time. Government again spends money to buy the produce and stock it. Government has administrative machinery to organize buying and purchasing of the agriculture produce. Government machinery costs money.  For stocking, government creates storage spaces, though grossly inadequate and substandard, these storage spaces consume a lot of money to maintain (at least on paper). Government has many organizations to manage this infrastructure, and logistics of movement of farm produce from one region to another, like FCI. These organizations are overstaffed, inefficient and corrupt to the core, these eat more money.

Then what we do? We wait. We wait for the food pile to turn into a pile of rat shit, so that the cycle can start again!

Am I making case for no food buffer?  Absolutely not. We most definitely need some. But, typical of us, when we do, we overdo. There is a reasonable limit for actual food buffer and there is a way to manage that buffer. Beyond a certain level of actual food buffer, we need to create a financial buffer for food.  We can sell excess food in the world market, pocket that money, invest that money in safe securities, which will earn interest as well, and use it when we have to, during the rainy days, when our buffers run low or when the production in lower.

Ask the Right Questions!

I will ask a few questions and I guess the problem will become self evident. The context of all the questions below is present.

Question 1 - Name the person responsible to ensure Industrial growth in India?

Question 2 - Name the person responsible to ensure Industrial growth in your State? 

Question 3 - Name the person responsible to ensure Social Development - Health, Education - in India?

Question 4 - Name the person responsible to ensure Social Development in your state?

I bet most of you can't answer the above questions. Well, I was not trying to test your GK. I am pointing to a problem of ambiguous responsibility in our government setup. There is no single Ministry responsible for the above. More over, the responsibility between Center and State is ambiguous. How can I hold someone responsible for not doing a job, when I do not know who that person is! 

Our government is not structured it is fractured. Let me illustrate this more vividly -

We have a Ministry of Coal, a Ministry of Petroleum, a Ministry of Power, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. If you ask the question, who is responsible for the irritating power cuts even after 67 years of independence, you wont get "a" name. Is it the Coal Minister? Is it the Power Minister? Is it the Petroleum Minister? Or, should by now the Minister of New and Renewable energy be held responsible? Well, to make the matters worse, the responsibility gets fractured even further, if you add the State's power minister in the mix.

So many jokers, but no answer to a simple question, "why do we have power cuts"? Because, Power Ministry can not generate enough power, because Coal Ministry can not produce enough coal, despite having worlds largest coal reserves,  because the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry is not able to sort out the natural gas rates, because the New and Renewable Energy is under funded, because the power distribution companies owned by states are under water and can not afford to purchase power, even if it were available. It goes on and on. We have so many links in the chain that are owned, operated and driven by different people, sometimes with varying objectives, that it defeats the purpose of the whole.

Would it not be a more efficient government structure, if we had only one Energy Ministry, anything and everything related to energy would fall under it, be it the raw material - coal, petroleum, natural gas or the way to extract the energy or the way to distribute it. Then we can hold that Minister responsible, who in turn can hold someone under him/her responsible. It will be a more cleaner, clearer setup.

The point I made above with energy sector is not to say that the problem is only with the energy sector, the problem is widespread.

How do we fix it? First, ask right questions. Answers to those questions will throw up a new structure. 

It is funny and sad to see the small parts working at cross purpose, pulling the whole down!

Born a few thousand years too soon!

Finished reading Hyperspace by Michio Kaku, mind stimulating concepts. I am sharing one here. Types of Civilizations - Type I, Type II and Type III. We are not talking about different social groups here on earth. We are talking about universe wide civilizations. What are these civilization types and how are they different? Let's start with ourselves. We just arrived on the scene, in last 100 years or so we developed some rudimentary scientific capability, we are not even Type I civilization, we are Type 0 and we don't count. The essential difference between these civilizations is determined in terms of their ability to harness more and more energy, as higher energy is the key to unlocking universe’s many mysteries. However, by no means does it mean that there won’t be yet more mysteries to unravel once what are known are unraveled. Type I civilization is what controls energy resources of an entire planet. It can control the weather, prevent earthquakes, manage and channelize volcanoes, harvest the energy of oceans and has explored the solar system. Type II civilization is that controls the power of the sun itself. It does not mean passively harnessing solar power; it means actively mining the sun for its energy, being able to divert it for a specific purpose, to energize massive machines, which cannot be energized by any other planetary energy source. This civilization will begin colonizing the local star systems. Type III civilization is the one that controls the energy of an entire galaxy. It has the ability to harness the power of billions of star systems. It has mastered Einstein’s equations and can manipulate space and time. They probably have also unraveled the mystery of multiple dimensions.

Michio Kaku reckons, that a civilization like ours, Type 0, given our rate of growth, may reach Type I status in a few centuries, from where we are at this point in our development. Thing to keep in mind, life on earth began3.5 billion years ago, we have been in Type 0 status for approximately 3.5 billion years! Given the exponential growth of civilization, a Type I civilization has the potential to transition to Type II in approximately 1000 years. That is when it gets the ability to create Federation of Planets, like in Star Trek. It has mastered the art of manipulating gravitational force by wrapping space-time and hence can reach nearby stars.

Advancing to Type III may take a few more thousand years. Type III civilization will be able to harness the power of entire galaxy, wrapping space-time will be routine way of commuting and doing trade. It will perhaps be able to harness the galactic center, which has millions of super massive Blackholes with virtually unlimited energy. Leveraging that energy, Type III civilization may be able to unravel the higher dimensions and throw some light on why the Big Bang happened.

Given what may lie ahead, I guess I was born a little too soon. I had like to believe that there is rebirth, so that I can come back again in future, to learn and know more about us and things around us!B

Women - How frustrating it must be!

How frustrating it must be, when one realizes that most of your decisions are not yours to make, that most of your life choices are picked by someone else, that you have a voice, but someone else speaks for you. That, in short, is life of a woman in India.

It starts right from birth - whether a female foetus will ever see the light of the day, to growing old respectably - whether she will be taken good care of or not, and everything that happens in between.

The birth of girl child is dependent on the sex of other children the parents may have, the beliefs of in-laws and the society that she is taking birth in. The chances go down considerably, if parents already have girl child and the in-laws are overbearing.

Once born, whether she will get good food or good education depends on whether there is enough left after male sibling's needs have been taken care.

Nearing marriage age, whether she gets a compatible partner or not is all about chance. In our arranged marriage system, it is true for the boy as well, but in case of girl, it is more so. She has to really count on her good luck to land into a good, considerate and loving family. She does not marry a man, she marries an entire family. Hence forth, it is not just the husband who makes the decisions for her, but his extended family members consider their right to do so too. Whether she is able to pursue her ambitions, interest or professional carrier, as she desires, is dependent on how others in the family feel about it. When to have children, when to go to her parents house, when to relax during the day, what day to wash clothes and hair, what to cook, how to cook, what to wear and countless other items, are handed down to her as advice, that "must" be followed. If she dares to not follow the advice and the so called "culture" of the family she married into, she opens herself to cold stares and barbs, at the least, and unspeakable consequences, at the worst.

The most frustrating, I guess, is the time and stage when the oppressed takes on the role of an oppressor. This happens at middle age in life of a woman. During world war II, Nazis had appointed Jews as guards at the concentration camps, these Jew guards were many time more ruthless on their fellow Jews than the Nazis. Something similar plays out here. The executioner however can never be at peace, can one?

Later stage in life, the roles reverse one more time, now the oppressor is again weak and meek. There is new lady master in the house, and the cycle goes on!

 

Tackling Poverty

Key is agriculture reforms. However, there is very little that has been done in this area. Huge workforce is engaged in agriculture, but they are under employed. Too many people keeping themselves busy, doing too little. Not that they are lazy, just that there are not many opportunities. Govt must create an environment where the percentage of population involved in agriculture comes down considerably, allowing consolidation of farms, enabling mechanisation and adoption of efficient farming techniques, resulting in improved productivity.

It is a waste of time and effort to make small farms productive beyond a point. By throwing small handouts to them from time to time, their misery is only being prolonged. Suicides will continue, even with Minimum Support Price regime, free electricity, no tax and waiver of loans from time to time.

Effort should be made to move people out of agriculture into other sectors of economy. Migration of population to urban economic hubs should be encouraged and facilitated. Government on the other hand has been trying to just do the opposite, with schemes like NREGA. Government pays to keep the people poor!

Government should set a growth target of 5% for the agriculture sector, up from dismal 1.5 - 2%. This can not be achieved by throwing money and some crumbs at an inefficient system. The system must be overhauled. It starts with putting someone in-charge, who has the zeal to fix it. Not someone like Pawar, for who agriculture is one of the many things that he does on the side, while he gets some time from Indian politics and International cricket politics.

Till the time that Indian agriculture does not pull its own weight, it will remain a drag on the overall Indian economy, keeping people in perpetual poverty. I wonder what is government's long term vision, if there is one.

Indian Economic Revival - Another Chance Squandered?

Under the political stewardship of the father of India's economic reforms, it is surprising that this government has violated some of the very basic good economic governance principals.  Or is it that this government became so delusional about the amount of wealth or the consistency of maintaining the growth of the heady days of 2006 and 2007 that it took gamble with its finance, which are now coming back to haunt it. Or is it that the people who pushed for some of these economic programs (Sonia Gandhi and Coterie) came from non economic backgrounds and with no leadership vision to see what is right for the nation over next many decades vs. the here and now. Have we again squandered our chance of providing decent living to our people that is not based on grants, but rather on providing people the opportunities to earn it themselves?

Government came up with a bill NREGA - National Rural Employment Guarantee Act - 2005, that guarantees 100 days employment to any adult in the Rural area. However, it is missing one crucial component, guarantee of commensurate output from the States/ Municipalities that execute this program. For all practical purposes, central government just provides wages to people, if they show up for work, even if there is no work.

On one side, people get paid for doing mostly nothing productive, on the other side, the productive part of economy is being starved of labour. People from the farmlands of Punjab and Haryana can testify this. No labourers for the sowing and harvesting seasons.Whosoever is available asks for wages that are many times over what was normal. Labour intensive construction industry is hit equally bad.

It is a double whammy, while the govt is spending tax payer's money on unproductive work, that too something that is locked down for years to come, it is creating supply side constraint for productive part of economy that depends on flow of labour. In a labour surplus country the government policies are creating labour shortage. We are squandering our only competitive advantage in the world, large pool of cheap labour. It is not surprising that we see high inflation in these areas.


Another bad economic decision - Petro products price regulation - When UPA came to power in 2004, under Manmohan Singh, it brought the petro product priving under government control. Contrary to what one would have expected from an economist of Manmohan Singh's stature, he turned the economic logic on its head and killed the open market that was created by the previous NDA regime for the petro products. Many private companies lost their investment and many foreign companies that wanted to enter India, in petro retailing, just pulled their investments out. Now, for last few years, the government is trying to undo its doings by deregulating the petro prices. Once step forward, one step back and a decade lost.

There are so many such instances of economic blindness that it is not funny. 

Tet

Lunar new year is the biggest festival in Vietnam. Locally it is called Tet, short for Tet Nguyen Dan. This year it was on 10th Feb, holidays extend from 8th till 18th. The festivities are comparable to Diwali in India. Markets get decked up, frantic buying happens. Entire population it seems comes on the road on their two wheelers, zipping in all directions. If you want to see a kamikaze in action, this is the place and time! Folks on two wheelers driving on the wrong side of the road, not even on the sides, but middle of the road, ploughing right into the incoming traffic!

Pictures of Old Quarter streets. I found shops laden with different kind of lamps and shinny decorative material.

One site, that you probably wont see anywhere, people transport fully grown Marumi Kumquat trees, laden with fruit, on their bikes! Huge pots are tied to back seat of the bikes that zig-zag their way thru' heavy traffic, that seems to come from all directions at you! Another tree that people buy, for prosperity and happiness during Tet is Peach Flower.

The one below is Marumi Kumquat. In the background, you can probably see a barber. There are a plenty "Barber under a Neem Tree" in Vietnam.

The bushes with pink flowers are the Peach Flower trees.

Government agencies beautify the gardens and roads with flower beds and decorative lights. Hoan Kiem Lake, near Old Quarters, in Ha Noi, is a popular tourist attraction place. The garden along the lakeside is beautiful. Tons of people descend on the garden and click their way to happiness and joy!

Happy New Year!
 

Courage

Courage is often described with reference to someone doing something heroic, under some very stressful, risky or threatening situation. But that is hardly a true measure of courage. Even the most docile of the creatures may exhibit courage, if faced with life threatening situation and left with no option. Courage, in my opinion, is the ability to walk the path that one believes in, when other easier alternatives exist. Courage is displayed by seemingly very ordinary people doing very ordinary tasks. Courage is to do the right thing, when you know the right thing.

Chandni Chowk of Vietnam

Old Quarters in downtown Hanoi is the Chandni Chowk of Vietnam. A must visit place for foreigners. Narrow streets, people on foot, on two wheelers, whatever cars you see are taxis ferrying foreigners in and out of the place, small shops, smaller shops, hole in wall shops, street vendors. Then there is more, people who only own stools, small stools placed on the sidewalks. Stools so small that your knees almost touch your chin when you sit on them. The owner gets you what you want from nearby restaurants and shops, while you sip your beer, watching the world go by before your eyes. Beer is cheap, the one on tap, not sure about the hygiene, costs less than USD25cents. Bottled one, safer, costs USD75 cents.

One popular street intersection is called International corner. This is where you find folks from allover the world, sipping there beers and talking loud.  Weekends have the night market going. Some streets get closed to the vehicular traffic, temporary stalls come up, you can move up and down and get good bargain on lots of stuff.

One word of caution, just because beer is cheap don't drink yourself silly! :)