Just another brick in the wall....

This post is sort of in continuation to the last one, albeit on a very different topic. Edward Luce, author of IN SPITE OF THE GODS (about the rise of India) argues that India has two distinct growth rates due to its skewed education outlook. The budget for higher education is equal to or more than the budget for primary education. So say many others, chiding our abysmal literacy rates. Has anyone stopped to think whether education is actually upto any standard for the future.

I will quote two sources here: Alvin Toffler & Sir Ken Robinson, the first being a futurist & the second being an educationist.

Toffler discusses the idea behind the current education system. Before middle ages, most professions were either hereditary or learnt through an existing practitioner. There wasn't a formal education system. With the advent of mechanization & industrialization, the need for people involved in rote tasks increased. The requirement was for hands & not the brain, the skill being largely mechanical. Those who could apply their brains shrewdly climbed the industrial hierarchy, while others languished on factory floors. Hence an education system was created to cater to the industrial needs: kids were taught importance of time & punctuality, given rote tasks for improvisation& the like. However, the world is changing rapidly, and we are back to multi-tasking since each person is a walking organization now. SoHos are changing the way we work, & in spite of having a great amount of automation, we are required to have varied skill sets for changing demands. 

Sir Ken takes the argument further by saying that the industrial school system was meant to prohibit creating in order to amplify repetitive skills. Hence the school system concentrates on developing the brain & hands while the lower half of the body is left out. He emphasizes the importance of multi-tasking to creativity & varied knowledge to problem solving. The more we concentrate our knowledge & narrow our spectrum, the more unaware we are of the impacts in other fields. As a result, our solutions are half-baked or require large amounts of co-operative activity, which is quite time consuming. 

The idea behind education should be to nurture one's creativity, encourage problem solving & out-of-the-box thinking, instead of being given repetitive no-brainers. So the question we, as Indians, should be asking ourselves is not how much to give to whom, but whether to give anything to these ruins of the past? They have no future to nurture us or our next progeny; they are OBSOLETE.....

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slipping forward... pessoptimism

Im reading IN SPITE OF THE GODS by Edward Luce which tells the weird growth story of India, inspite of all the drawbacks it faces. I havent formed any opinion on the book.

But a series of related events & articles have been observed by me lately:

- Mulayam's English hatao, computer hatao

- Shobha De's article against him in today's Times

- Sri Rama Sene attacks & an interview by the founder to Outlook

- A friend's shock at seeing a temple in front of a 1000 year old cave complex

- BJP & Congress circulars promising PDS grains at 2-5 Rs./ kg

- a friend's narration of wheat imports from Australia lying unattended on some port

- BJP & CPM's anti-nuclear stand

- Maoist attacks on election booths

- Lack of leadership by any party

- Criticism of new candidates from the corporate world

These are in no particular order. My observation is that while most of us are happy at the post 90s liberalization, we cannot make up our minds whether to move forward with the world or go back to pre-industrial world (a.la. Pol Pot). Luce talks about modernization reducing no of jobs in industries, Mulayam of the same due to computer related automation, & so on...

I cannot comprehend how one can miss the point that the world has always been changing. I can only imagine a Neanderthal walking upto me & saying I have extinguished his foraging lifestyle & job due to agricultural inputs. In the same sense, mechanization of agriculture has led to reduction in jobs available in rural areas. Modernization of machinery has the same impact on industrial & service sectors. 

At any point in time, one type of profession is going out while the other is being born. The difference today lies in the speed of change. Earlier professions changed at the rate of a few generations; now they change atleast 3 times within the same generation. I wanted to be an architect, but after coming out I realized I couldn't achieve all my dreams being just an architect. So, I specialized into landscape architecture. A few years down the line, maybe I'll specialize in landscape planning exclusively. I am ready for the change & I think everyone should be.

We do not live in a Nehruvian world where job security was paramount. The nature of the profession changes every 5 years today & there is no way we can provide lifetime job assurance. Even for the farmers, job definition has changed from subsistence farming to edible foods to cash crops to exclusive oil crops to contract farming with industry to demand based farming & cold chain management & so on.....

The question again, as has been raised in my last post, lies in whether we can provide requisite infrastructure to everyone. Unless we can do that, we will never solve our unemployment problem.

Infrastructure as the critical component of change...

I recently watched a TED talk by Shai Agassi on introducing electric cars on a mass scale. He concentrates on the infrastructure aspect more than technological imporvisation. His premise is simple: the battery is like an oil well; if we buy oil today & not the well itself, why should we buy a battery. So, the solution is to sell electricity & not the battery itself. He plans to create a network of electric stations (like gas stations) which will replace used batteries with new ones. The batteries will be owned by the provider & not the owner, and hence the owner has to pay only for electric use. His calculations show that this will allow an electric car to run at 8 cents a mile compared to 60 cents a mile for petrol!!!

Whether his calculations & planning holds true or not, i'm impressed by the fact that he has used infrastructure as a tool for improvisation. It is true that we take for granted our huge oil refineries & millions of gas stations as integral infrastructure to run our car. Today, the electric car is expensive not because of its basic cost, but because it does not enjoy infrastructure support at par with gasoline vehicles! To create that will allow a level competition... I think we have started to see this in India with the rise of CNG & LPG pumps everywhere, gas is increasingly supplanting petrol / diesel & public transport is encouraged to use these fuels!

It raises more important questions for me. Many technologies that we do not find economically prudent today, but more sustainable nonetheless may be victims of infrastructure support rather than anything else. We need to relook at our planning & infrastructure to see whether we are really planning for the future or just pushing our present? Imagine living without the internet today, & yet if India had not embraced the famous STD PCO with satellite linking and rise of last mile connectivity, we would still be internet disabled!No Infosys, no BPOs, just plain old industry....

Please watch the video here

India hosts TED!!!!!

Whoa! its news to me..i just read on the TED website..

TED will have a SPECIAL INDIA EDITION on nov 4-7 2009 at Infosys Campus Mysore!!!

Whats more? Its open to members & non-members both! The registration fee is a whopping $2400 (including accomodation, meals & airport transfer from Bangalore), but for those who can afford it...

WHAT THE HELL!! JUST DO IT!

This is one of the rare events where global creative thinkers come together to display their research / projects / ideas. Please visit http://conferences.ted.com/TEDIndia/ for further details. & for those who haven't looked at TED, www.ted.com

Standing in the summer sun....

Today's article in Times of India discusses Intelligent traffic control systems vs manned traffic. The author talks about how an intelligent traffic system will not only take away jobs, but also be redundant in the Indian scenario. He also claims that manned traffic is the only solution to Indian problems.

I dont know if the gentleman has ever seen a traffic cop standing in the middle of a tarred road on an Indian summer afternoon. Appalled would be an understatement. These men risk their lives (to unruly drivers) and health (to sun, rain, name it) to just maintain some sanity on our roads!!! Ahmedabad has a lot of road rage & traffic cop beating incidents. These people merit a better life.

To say that the intelligent traffic system will take away their jobs is absolutely rubbish. Besides, it feels like the Mulayam manifesto of removing computers so that more people can be employed to do the same work!! 

The intelligent traffic system monitors traffic on a real time basis, by counting vehicles & adjusting traffic cycles to the flow in any given direction, much like a traffic cop does. However, it is but a dumb computer & needs to be supervised. Hence, cities like London have central control room where 10 operators manage about 80 intersections!

We have the advantage of manpower to our side. We can install on-site traffic monitoring booths, where the cops can stay inside & supervise the traffic at ease. They may come out when needed only, eg in case of an accident or major traffic jam.

Another advantage of the system is that it can capture an offender's number plate photo & send the fine directly to his / her house. This reduces the stress on the cop, who does not have to run after offenders, or argue unnecessarily with them.

These are just two examples I gave off my head. The IT system can aid us much more, by giving real time traffic data for better management & planning, while serving the needs of our large cities.

please vote

Today's paper shouts: "Maoist attacks on many booths, yet polling (average) at 62%..."

While we urbanites are too lazy to move ourselves (myself being a culprit) to vote, leaving the shelter of our airconditioned offices & standing in a queue to vote; rural India is voting, even in places where it costs them their lives. 8 people have died at poll booths (in addition to kidnapped election officials & injured & dead army / police personnel). In Kandhamal (where Christianity related riots took place), a large number of tribals have come forward under army / police convoy protection to vote. Some booths, where firing & landmine blasts took place did report 0% turn out. But then, even with the probability of such events happening elsewhere, many people turned out.

I have discussed earlier with Rooney, the futility of voting in a democracy, including ours (& even the great USA). However, if these simpletons can believe in democracy & turn out to vote, i must exercise my right, whether useful or not....

to buy or not to buy...

We have zipcar now... for those who came in late:

zipcar is a company that rents car, A la Hertz; however the difference is that one subscribes to it like a monthly rental or similar & can ask for any car in their stable. Obviously all cars have different rents, but the convinience is amazing!

To put an analogy, you can go to downtown office in public transport & then order a BMW to reach client lunch meeting, which you can drop anywhere. You can order a family wagon on a weekend for your trip, or a 4wd for off-roading.. The idea is you buy the timeshare of the car, not the car itself. It is cheaper in the long run as you pay only rent (like EMI), and you dont have to maintain it or look for replacements when your car malfunctions!

I don't know if I would like to use this, but if I were to apply this analogy to automobile manufacturers, maybe they could come out with a system where you buy timeshare of their particular model or segment & they provide you latest upgrades for free. For this, you dont pay them the whole amount, but a continued EMI. This concept has partly taken off with second hand car market, where you can drive in your old car & drive out in a brand new one!

However, the issue is that in the current economy, we are paying out loans to banks for all our capital investments. If we pay the auto company a fixed (or variable, depending on scheme) amount every month, & get a fully functional automobile in return (the amount including services, repairs & replacement car during service), why would we ever want to BUY a car?

The whole idea of ownership is changing, we need to change too...

Freak...aaaaaahhaauuggh...onomics...

I read (rather flew over) Freakonomic a few days ago. The book is a totally captivating read, but it left me nowhere at the end! The authors claim that the book is not meant to lead anywhere, just make the people aware of the economic problems in modern society. It is a collection of articles written by the authors in some dailies in US. Interesting as they are, the book should have been released as a collection, with a less glamorous title. I believe they have shirked from the responsibility of editing & compiling a meaningful document, which is what it could have been.

The authors demonstrate (Using simple economics / math) how:

- real estate agents dont care how much more we could get on our property, while they sell their own for the best prices

- Ku klux klan is a money laundering / frustrated people's society

- Drug dealers at the lower heirarchy dont earn enough to live while their bosses are filthy rich

- Your name can make or break your life

- Parents have no active role to play in a child's life (but a lot genetically)

- Crime rate in US has dropped due to legalizing abortion

etc etc etc

Each of this is simple to read, although stretched beyond its reading length. The economist, I feel, should have been more responsible to atleast demonstrate some of his skills beyond data collection & basic manipulation (which any statistics student can easily do...)

If data is what they were trying to manipulate, i suggest one look at the graphic work of Hans Rosling (www.ted.com) who shows the differences & similarities in growth patterns of countries around the world, birth rates, infant mortality, etc. More importantly, he teaches a method of graphic interpretation for laypersons, which Freakonomics overshoots completely!

Capitalism as parasitism...

I just finished "Confessions of an economic Hitman" by John Perkins, & Im indebted to Mufaazaa for gifting me the amazing book! While I cannot make up my mind whether it is fact or fiction, the book does cover the most widely debated topic today: American imperialism.

The author claims to be an Economic Hitman (EHM) for a private company(that was sold off to another company subsequently). His sole aim is to create lucrative economic projections about third world countries, justify world bank / IMF investments into them, and then gain contracts worth billions of dollars for his own company. The larger aim is to make the country so indebted in the long run that it defaults its payments & accedes to US power by allowing military bases on its soil, opening its natural resources & workforce to US companies & voting as per US instructions in the UN. Thus US gains a slave without spending a dollar, since all the money is funnelled back to the States by its companies.

The author denies this being a conspiracy; rather its just a set of minds that methodically go about getting richer by sucking dry the resources of other countries. Perkins claims to have worked in Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, Indonesia, etc. He also puts forward another way of supremacy for countries that are cash rich: the middle eastern nation-states. Here the US asks the countries to buy US bonds and use the interest to finance infrastructure development in their countries.

The greatest ease for US is that the dollar is a universal currency & it isnt backed by a gold standard. Hence, it can print any amount as long as the world is confident of the American economy. The book is written just before the depression set in & has important lessons to teach.

Perkins also talks about American dollars funnelled to terrorist organizations & CIA assassinations of top global leaders, not for political motives, but purely for greed. He also points out that most of American bureaucrats & politicians are, in fact, on the payroll of large American Corporations. To sum it all he has coined the word: "Corporatocracy". It think its says a lot.

I read Chomsky some time earlier, & coudlnt convince myself about what he wrote. He seemed leftist to me. Perkins, however, is a capitalist who has grown to despise the system which gains its riches by killing & starving others.

For the first time in my life, even if momentarily (until i do further research), I am glad that India has not bowed to American pressure in that last 50 years & opened up its economy only in the 90s, a time when American power is either declining or concentrated in numerous wars elsewhere. 

Perkins also points out that America is the only country (other than Iraq) to have invaded other countries in name of justice / democracy (Vietnam, Korea, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan) while the sole aim was economic greed. It is, the modern East India trading company. Instead of being one company, its an informal consortium of the largest corporations in the US.

I will write more posts on this topic as i reflect & research more, I hope to start a dialogue with the readers... & we thought our politicians are corrupt!!!!

Na...aah....No...oh!!!!!

There's this big moral battle & im unable to take sides! I just keep wondering & arguing with myself: to be or not to be!

Im talking about Ms Nano by the Tatas. While tech-geeks are hailing a great Indian invention (almost), the transport planners are up in arms against the probable exponential increase in congestion that she will create.

The geeks have retorted that Nano pollutes less than a two-wheeler, and will make travel more orderly, as the great two-wheeler riders are responsible for rash driving most of the time. The transport planners agree with the latter, but cannot reconcile to the former...

So where am I? I agree there will be increase in congestion, and increase in cars. So less people will use public transport & since we cannot come to terms with congestion taxes as a nation, we will create endless traffic jams.

But there is another side: the sheer willpower and simplicity in invention! The Tatas have succeeded in creating a car that is technologically at par with the best luxury cars, while being sold at a pittance. They have created a complete car at the cost of an auto-rickshaw! & the most accomplishe heavy-weights have contributed to its advanced engineering. 

My inspiration is in the fact that if we can create a low cost- hi end car, why are we still using archaic techniques / technologies in other parts of our lives? Why do we have manned signals, buses that look like a walking dumpyard, camel carts, polluting two-wheelers or cars, & so much more? 

If each of us aims to create one such great technology, we would all be much better off, be it transport planners or tech-geeks. Forget the argument guys, LEARN FROM IT!!! & now that Nano has already arrived, think of how to live with her....

In sanity.... A million little pieces

I recently read A MILLION LITTLE PIECES by James Frey (borrowed from Pranav). I was initially quite skeptical of reading the book, since the back cover said it was a story of a drug addict's rehab time. Frankly, i thought he would banter about the difficulties of rehab & ways of doing it, blah blah. Interestingly the book is controvertial: the author has listed it as non-fiction but changed a some incidents to suit the story. The publisher has written a note to the same effect, as the fact came up after publishing the first print.

Frey describes his journey through rehab almost like a fiction story, the whole drama is continous & catchy. Starting with his beaten up image to his time through rehab & his disbelief in the entire program, the pace is quite comfortable. While accurately describing most of the symptoms & rehab programs, Frey manages to weave together a small romance, some drama & a lot of retrospection into the story.

I was caught by his self-talks around halfway through the story where he starts wondering why AA (alcoholics anonymous) works or doesnt work, why the success rate of de-addiction is so low as less than 15% , and who is responsible for the larger ill prevailing in the society. 

While Frey takes complete moral responsibility for his own drug addiction and state of mind, he hates the support programs which try to channel his addiction towards belief in god, social support, confessions, etc. His musings over belief in god being just another addiction to run away from responsibility & life are quite thought-provoking. Also, he talks about how some doctors are trying to prove that addiction may be a genetic disease & why he wants to reject the possibility (even though his grandfather was an alcoholic), and take moral responsibility.

However, the climax about the start of his addiction - the reason he runs away from life, hates his parents (even though he knows they love him & support him all the time) and hates society / wants to die takes away the prize. It comes at the end of the story, and is quite unexpected as it does not affect the story from point of its continuity, but makes an important point all the same.

One should read the book to understand the perils of addiction, the feeling when addicted, to know about addicts & their thought process in general & the state of society & the world that leads people to drug abuse & addiction. 

I felt that the story was most part fiction, and the romance (which takes up quite a lot of the story) could have been completely avoided to make the story crisp & precise. But its a good read nonetheless.