creativentropy

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t > COVID-19

Preamble

As on March 27th 2020 — n-COV-2019 has affected 0.007% of Global Population and as with all exponential things, its hard to imagine where this ends and how — even if we know the estimates from renowned “Epidemiologists”.

If you turn this around, 99.993% of us are unaffected & ~2.3B of us are in “lock-down” to prevent the spread. That’s 32% of the Global Population is under lock-down.

Its the first time that Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials & Generation Z are experiencing a pandemic. Last one was the 1918 Spanish Flu which wiped out a large percent of Global Population.

I’ve taken the aid of hopeless & impatient optimists to act during & after the pandemic.

Exhibit A: Bill Gates’ Archival View of the next Epidemic during Ebola Times

Exhibit B: Bill Gates’ long discussion on what we can we best do now — in light n-COV-2019

Exhibit C: Naval Ravikant’s Tweet on his hope on a new kind of Politics

If you spend some time (~1hr) listening to Bill Gates, and combine the numbers above, you’ll realize that once the Corona Battle is Won, a bigger & longer war lies at “t” > n-COV-19. So this article is for all those ~2.3B warriors staying back home to prepare for “that” longer war because believe it or not we just have < 3 months to prepare for “the long war”. My hope is that we will win the novel-Corona Battle in less than 3 months.

Anti Social Anxiety

Perhaps its the first time in cognizable memory that we (as a generation) are looking at a common phenomenon for long enough to understand it. Its pretty stressful for us to do that because almost all of us are trained in the past decade by “extra” personalized content, more than required “choices” in almost everything and being in “constant touch” with more people than we possibly can. The equations of our economics were being re-written on those very matrices which had made all of above possible.

BAM! the novel-Corona breaks that chain.

I am amazed how this possible Black Swan impacts the agenda of future set by Yuval Noah Harari not so long ago in his book Homo Deus. Off the point.

So, the Anti Social Anxiety will be the anxious impact of post novel-Corona Economic Scenario & how the world looks at more bigger long term problems like “Climate Change” & “Combating Cancer” which is and will impact far more people that n-CoV-19 can ever do.

Experts on the subject, estimate that it will cost us ~US$3 to US$5 Trillion or even more globally — that’s about 5% to 7% of Global GDP. As with exponentials, large numbers are pretty hard to comprehend.

Watch out for “measured Globalization” and “shrill Geo-Political Narratives” getting intensified in near future.

What new Systems can we new build to re-structure Economics to make it

pro-science  

pro-environment (Combat Climate Change) and

pro-health (respond well to public health issues — viz Pandemics, Cancer etc) ?

Hope

One insight into the novel-Corona Pandemic is that it makes it clear how small things affect large systems and cause disruption. If you turn that around, its critical for us ~2.3B fighting this skirmish of Corona from our homes to think through how we will respond to the “longer” war that lies ahead of us with small acts in our daily lives.

The curve is already too flattened on adverse effects of Global Economic Structure, Cancer & Climate Change for any one of us to realize its true impact. Think critically & plan & prepare well during the spare time you may have during the lock-down.

The overarching hope is that the novel-Corona battle creates some sort of Global Hyper Alignment on fighting the Economic, Health & Climate wars with firm resolve.

Actions

In myopic time-frames its best for us, the educated salaried folklore to salvage and save what needs to be saved and re-build what needs to be re-built.

Education & Generation Alpha — take some time out to educate the next generation about the right problems to be solved and how to stay Hyper Aligned. Help them make up for lost school / college days.

Save the Aligned Company — if you feel that the organization you work with makes positive contribution to the pro-climate, pro-health Planetary Goal, offer to work more than expected, offer to get paid less than expected in order to save the institute that you work for. Good Founders & Managers will feel as much or greater stress of this situation on whether to save the company or whether to lay off, make it easy on them.

Re-assess & further strengthen all your current strengths, skills and social capital — use them well to do point #1 & #2.

In not so myopic time-frames / long term actions

Preventive Healthcare — induct exercise & good nutrition so that we’re always in a useful state for overall society.

Frugality — in all our habits, avoid over-consumption & over-stimulation and hence overspending!

Develop Judgement on separating black & white from the gray. Good Problems to solve versus not so good problems (which are essentially a time-suck). Invest more & more of our strength, skills & social capital on Good Problems then.

Conclusion

The idea is to continue this conversation on “What After”, “What’s the best” and “What If” in light of novel-Corona. Inviting you to suggest better, sharper and concrete actions to the fellow readers to prepare well for the post-Corona War!

[creativentropy]

Vote to Balance

Its election season. I am penning typing this blog to explain my thinking behind “how to vote”. The landscape at a very aggregated level looks like PM Modi versus Pakistan and rest of political India. The reason its important to blog now is because near the election time we get to hear a summary of all political and cultural views. Since all political parties are fighting for our (voter’s) attention, they present their views in the most concise way possible. In recent past I heard voices from The Wire, Quint, Republic TV, Arun Shourie, Ravish (of NDTV), Arnab, Modi, Amit bhai, Arvind Kejriwal, Mamta Banerjee and of course our own Rahul Baba. I attempt to present a summary of summaries of what they say and ultimately walk you through my own decision making process.

Its well understood today that Amit-bhai is the real power centre in BJP. Modi is presented an image of what we would like to see in a PM. Shah the strategist, has the CBI, ED, Income Tax etc departments all under his control while Modi speaks what is fed to him by party’s intelligence and which aligns with the strategy. As I understand that Mo-Shah’s plan to run government and win elections can be condensed in the following below points

Appeal to people’s pride and project pride in demographic which are driven by pride (upper Hindu castes).

Craft a vision to woo the middle class.

Create a subliminal “hindu-muslim” rift by attacking Pakistan (via speeches).

Fourthly, articulate governments work with respect to Jan-Dhan, DBT, Aayushman Bharat, GST / DeMo - a part which is increasingly becoming a non-election winner.

Rahul and rest of opposition on the other hand is fighting this one on the basis of

Polarisation caused by the political party in power

Destruction of institutions

Opportunism in the Balakot Air Strikes

Rafael Deal

Common greed of being in power or get Modi out.

In both these narratives, one is just marginally better than other. Or to put it the other way one is just marginally worse than other. Who is to blame - us - the aam junta!

One of the two hallmarks of the election of 2014 is Modi presenting a vision of what development will be for India and how he plans to achieve it. Coupled with the corruption of the UPA government, this helped him sail through the majority mark. I think that the delta between the promise and the reality of the 2014 vision and the recent loss in 3 states has put the whole “development” agenda on a very distant back seat. Its back to religious vote bank consolidation by both political parties. The desperation is such that on one hand BJP is consolidating the hindu vote bank by polarising speeches and on other hand they are also trying to woo the muslim vote bank by working the bureaucracy in the middle east to get Modi ji a lot of “middle-eastern” civilian honours. Do check out PM Modi’s State Awards section on his WikiPedia page.

So how do I vote? I remember seeing Modi ji’s old election video of 1999 elections where he says that people have voted this time to punish. “Vote to Punish” is a major motivation to vote. Vote to Punish strategy works best when a party not in power is trying to throw out the party in power. Modi excels in that - so much that when he is in power he does a good job to pass on all non-achievements to Congress. He did it in 2007, 2011 when he was in power and it was best in 2014 when he wanted to come to power. All evil is Congress. 

Well, I have a spin on this philosophy - 'Vote to Balance'.

Vote to Balance is to give credible power to the opposition. I know that Rahul baba is a very distant hope to provide any credibility to anything, but, we got to start somewhere. The start happens when we start seeing at a very dis-aggregated level - very locally. I think of how the work of my sitting MP has made my life better - has s/he tried making laws to make my life better or was s/he just a passive - “good for nothing” MP. Compare it with the other option WITHOUT noticing their political affiliations. I try to make a very local choice - I shut the news sources couple weeks before elections.

If the MP candidate is good for nothing and even if he is in BJP, I will not vote for him no matter how much I love Modi. Likewise, if the MP is good but s/he belongs to Congress one can vote for them no matter how incapable Rahul may be.

Democracy is a long under-construction activity but each brick in that construction matters - regardless of its colour. Choose a good one, choose wisely.

Happy Elections 2019.

P.S.: I have a tough choice to make between Congress’ Urmila Matondkar and sitting BJP MP Gopal Shetty this election.

[creativentropy]

"Amateurs talk about vision, but professionals study logistics"

If you are a millennial, like me curious enough to know, what this “de-monetization” move will mean to you, me, our farmer, mason, carpenter, student, teachers, politicians, businessmen, salaried employee, NRIs, women, company CEOs, non-profit volunteer, lawyer, manufacturer, consumer, construction labour etc, please read on. So for a person who likes the move, I followed some reportage & engaged in deep discussions about the other side of the argument and tried to educate myself as much as possible on the impact of the move; following Charlie Munger’s advice "I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don’t know the other side’s argument better than they do.”  Please set aside at-least 1 hour of reading for completing the whole thing. I can safely say, no one, not even the PM or the top leaders know what the effects of these are, logically only time is to tell; for now here’s the compilation on current affairs with its reasoning.

Why we should not trust economists, and what are the reasons? HuffPost (India)

The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable. The article argues that the demonetization move will do little to make black money hoarders accountable because they are smart and will find a way around the measure.

RBI’s explanation on the move, fundamental FAQs

This is helpful - Can I withdraw cash against cheque?Yes, you can withdraw cash against withdrawal slip or cheque subject to ceiling of ₹10,000/- in a day within an overall limit of ₹20,000/- in a week (including withdrawals from ATMs) for the first fortnight i.e. upto 24th November 2016.

Some people moved the Supreme Court against the decision and Supreme Court stayed the decision, why?

Petition says, All this, not only crushes the economy but also lives of those citizens, who may require money more than the allowed limits and many of them may not have credit or debit cards. Government says, “Centre has filed caveat in the apex court which means that no order could be passed by court without hearing government contentions”. The bench also pointed out, “Discontinuing of higher denomination notes appears to be carpet bombing and not surgical strike”

Why will RBI, not the Government benefit from demonetization?

RBI’s liabilities are interest-free whereas its assets are interest-yielding. This spread between interest-free liabilities and interest-bearing assets is the source of the RBI’s income, which is tax-free by law. This is where seigniorage comes from. A portion of this cash income is credited to the government after deducting running expenses and various reserves. The bottom line is that seigniorage is paid from income flow not liquidation of the balance sheet. The difference in assets and liabilities is kept as a buffer against rupee movements. This buffer is only a liquid resource for seigniorage if bonds are actually sold at a profit. The size of the buffer (the CGRA account) represents a policy choice on the part of the RBI in choosing how to deal with rupee fluctuations in the context of “borrowed reserves”.

Why is Manata Banerjee against the move?

Salaried middle class, the pensioner and the small trader are slowly running out of patience due to the inadequate financial infrastructure. Bank officials working overtime to cater to this huge crowd are running short of cash.  

What’s Aarthakranti, many say Anil Bokil is the mastermind behind this?

Anil Bokil says, if we move towards cashless economy, income tax and other forms of tax can be abolished and through a foundation of meritocratic society wealth will be distributed justly.

How can black money still be converted to white? HuffPost (India)

Using poor people as mules, using professional money launderers, advance salaries & giving loans or donations to the temples are some of the reasons listed here.

It will take 116 days (4 months) and not 50 days for situation to normalize, why

Rs 14,50,000 crore is in the now defunct Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. In 4 days 50,000 crores have been disbursed from RBI, and 18 crore transactions per day enables withdrawal of 12,500 crores a day. Even if we assume that the full amount of Rs 12,500 crore is being disbursed in Rs 2,000 denomination on a daily basis, it will take 116 days to replenish the financial system with what has been declared illegal. Good one.

Luteyns Delhi zone, allegedly filled with lazy babus, trying hard to derail the demonetization move, why?

It is becoming obvious that the present government’s light hand on those at the top of previous administrations who were guilty of past misfeasance on a gargantuan scale needs to get replaced with greater accountability and punishment, if the Lutyens Zone is to be scared off from further acts of sabotage in the remaining period of Prime Minister Modi’s term in office.

Romour debunking, read on.

Best one, Congress used Kenyan election voting lines to show the public inconvenience.

Why demonetization is net positive move?

In the long run, this is a significant positive shock to the Indian economy and society. If substantially implemented, this will send a strong signal about India’s anti-corruption drive and is very likely to improve the country’s reformist stance. It also provides a boost to the government’s financial inclusion drive, pushing more households towards efficient banking and payment infrastructure. In the immediate run, we are likely to witness larger bank deposits, price corrections and better tax collection possibilities in the economy—all great for Indian bonds.

Why does ex-RBI-Gov D Subbarao feel skeptical about this move?

Because, Indian government could use the currency that is not returned to solve its fiscal problems or to recapitalize banks, but pointed out that such a step would send out the wrong message.

Pyrrhic victory, what are some broad ranging effects of this move in terms of nationalistic & theoretical economics terms?

This one is a slightly intellectually dense article, took some time to go through arguing that Modi has reaped political benefits out of this move, but long term effects of this are not as good as many may think them to be.

Why will this move backfire for BJP?

It’s the old “vegan fallacy” -- if something tastes terrible, it must be good for you. This article argues that BJP led Modi government will have to pay a electoral price for this move. Fair enough. What did Ex Gov Rajan say on this back in August?

Rajan feels that the hoarders always find ways to split the whole in smaller chunks and convert to white, there are clever ways to counter black money, but the article does not enlist those clever ways.

What’s the impact on the small businesses?

Very valid points by Bloomberg on several supplier / labor related issues faced by the small business owners. The interesting thing to observe will be how these businesses will adopt cashless economy thought its value chain.

How much time will it take for the ATMs to be recalibrated to sizes of new notes?

Finance Minister says it will take 2-3 weeks, if we apply the “leadership discount factor” lets say its 4-6 weeks.

RSS Leader, Govindacharya says that in the long term this will have no far reaching effects, why?

He was initially happy but later on after deep thought the happiness fizzed out when he figured out that the effects will be insignificant. The reasons were not pretty convincing to me.

Urjit Patel said, government pushed against Rajan’s opinion on demonetization, doesn’t say why?

The printing of new notes started 5-6 months ago. Kudos to all involved that it was kept secret.

Some more online stories – about this woman who went scathing on critiques of the move, the unfortunate deaths, SBI writing off the NPAs,  Pankaj Sharma’s OpEd on new age Demagoguery, trucks being stuck, wealth manager Anand Rathi on the move, says its positive & this Association of Democratic Reforms on political funding.

You must go through the interesting 7 page opinion compilation on social media originally written by Shreyas Gadgin Matha, Deepak Mehta, Peri Maheshwer, Kanishka Sinha, Tarun Bhambra, Vishesh Tayal independently. 60% of which is respectfully borrowed from Shreerang Godbole’s feed.

As I wrote in the first paragraph, the grand jury is still out to figure out the impact of this move, Tuglaq or Chanakya no one knows. But as the title suggests, the key is in logistics and operationalization. For an expert organizer PM, lets see how his team and machinery deals with this mammoth challenge. I request you the reader to go through the details and form an opinion for yourself. In the meanwhile, I am out to help out my dhobi, chaiwala, subziwala finance a smart phone and open a PayTM account.

Yours, KG

P.S.: The original quote is "Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics."- Gen. Robert H. Barrow, USMC (Commandant of the Marine Corps) 1980.

[creativentropy]

Struggle for Independence in an Independent India!

While we fought for independence from 1857 until 1947 to get away from the claws of British, we are now fighting since then for independence of thought, independence of social stigma. How far have we progressed and how long is the path to glory?

Past couple of days, I have been reading multiple posts and articles in newspapers and digital media about the heroics of Indian independence. The valiant heroes of this country, the greatest leaders of all time and the selfless warriors who gave everything to achieve freedom. It is awe inspiring to know and learn about the ideals set by them, starting from Mangal Pandey to Mahatma Gandhi. And finally giving way to Ambedkar and team’s Indian Constitution.

The Preamble to the Indian constitution is the vision set by these founders of independent India. A vision which came out of the learning, the struggle and the sacrifice which lasted 90 years for independence. A vision that was set in view of then political and social situation in the country. A vision, which we all wanted to see live. And still want to see it live.

JUSTICE, social, economic and political; - The preamble reads. Justice takes years to come today. Sometimes, it just doesn’t come because we haven’t appointed enough number of judges in the system. Political justice is farfetched in majority of states; people don’t even think about it.

On the other hand, we have come very far from where we were back in 1947. Landmark judgements like Kesavananda Bharati vs State of Kerala, India Gandhi vs Raj Narain, Shreya Singhal against Section 66(A) of the IT Act and so many other such cases are a testimony to a working Judiciary in India. Only that, there is a need for more vigor and strength to this wing.

LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; reads the next line from the Preamble. My biggest concern lies here. Liberty of thought in India goes as far as the society permits us to. As far as our families see it acceptable. As far as the government doesn’t think it is dangerous to their existence. We still live in a society which is dictated by a collective thought with little importance to individual thought. Any outrageous / courageous thoughts are immediately suppressed and will have no records whatsoever.

EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; - Apart from major cities, our social complexities and stigmas are still the same. Our lives are defined by our birth, with our caste and gender. Almost every election in India is won using caste politics, almost every marriage still has a “dowry” involved, half of the government positions are filled using reservations. We almost seem to be in a state of limbo when it comes to Equality in this country. Either we don’t fully understand it, or we fail to achieve it.

But again, if we look back at 1947, we have come a long way to be equal. Gender equality in particular is something we have to cheer and be happy about. Today majority of India respects women as equal to men. The younger generation of this country has almost no gender discrimination. I hope to see this progress in the areas of caste and creed as well. Long way to go!

FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation; I don’t want to discuss Fraternity in this post. I want to hear from you guys if we are there or how far away are we.

The struggle for independent India where justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity are witnessed is still on and there is hope. I want to see this happen in my lifetime. Happy Independence Day!

PS: Couple of organizations I work with and do some excellent work to achieve one or all of these in the country – We, The People, I Do, Nirmaan Organization. If you wish to contribute to these organizations in any form, do reach out to me!

- Manoj

[creativentropy]

75 days, 203 calls & showers of rain.

As rains make their way to the western parts of India crawling towards north, I am happy that my countrymen in Marathwada have their share too. Over the past 75 days (initiative started April 8), we’ve have made efforts, to help provide relief to the drought affected areas of Maharashtra.

A group of friends along with me made diligent effort in reaching out to people they know, sensitizing them about the issue and saving water drop by drop. As a discipline, I made at least 2-3 calls each day from 7:30 to 8:30 pm, in parallel to day job, during which I engaged in deep conversations about draught relief participated in co-ordinating ground relief operations. Highly educational. I could only admit the complexity of the situation on ground was beyond imaginable.

Over the past 2 months, a lot of teams have put in a valiant effort in mitigating the effects of less rain, chronic debt and a populace who had given hopes up on life. A big shout out to NAAM Foundation doing long team rehab projects in Latur & Beed, Dagdu kaka Lomte for mobilizing “shram karya kartas” in expanding bed of rivers and Pragati Abhigyaan in sensitizing more than 100 volunteers to make the farmers aware of various insurance schemes Government. Big big salute to all the volunteers who’ve helped solve the problem in a big way.

My special thanks to all my close friends & colleagues - who’ve come forward in support. As of today, we’ve been able to raise 2.6 lakhs in funds, and help conserve water all throughout the season. 

Dedicated to two people who served as an inspiration to the drive - 

Reporter Ravish Kumar & Bono

BIG THANK YOU who contributed as I take the opportunity to officially close the relief work coordination for the season. 

[creativentropy]

IPL vs PIL - 2016 Drought Part 2

I hope you all read the previous article Kunjan wrote on the drought situation in Maharashtra. As mentioned by Kunjan, the water scarcity crisis has reached to an extreme level since past few months and summer is still to come. Further, there have been quarrels between people on access to available public water resources from tanks. Fearing that there would be water riots, the government has applied Section 144 - which makes it a crime if more than 5 people go near a public water tank in 2 districts of the state. This note is in continuation to our mission of spreading awareness about the drought situation in this country and especially in Maharashtra.

Almost the entire country was looking forward to the Mega IPL kick off at Mumbai today, and Loksatta Organization felt that water is being wasted for IPL when there is severe drought in the state. A PIL was filed claiming that 60000 litres of water was being used per day to maintain the ground and pitch at a time when several regions of Maharashtra were facing drought.

There is a huge ongoing debate on TV and print media whether not playing IPL in Maha will solve the drought issue. While I agree to the fact that not playing IPL in Maha will not solve the issue, the PIL was successful in getting eyeballs to a much needed issue of drought. In its statement, the HC made scathing comments against the Govt of Maharashtra and BCCI.

"Was there any application of mind on this issue that you are giving permission for an event like this when such a huge amount of water is required. For Holi, an appeal was made saying 'it should be a dry holi'. How come this was not taken into account here?" the court asked.

"Is it not the duty of the state govt to enquire when there is water shortage, how they [cricket boards] are getting abundant water for pitches?" it added.

"We are concerned with the larger issue. What has the state government done? We have our own apprehensions," said the court.

During the hearing, at one point when the MCA argued that it only provided stadiums and the BCCI was the final authority on holding the tournament, the court said, "Only if water supply to BCCI is cut, you will understand."

The HC has directed the government to file a detailed reply by April 12. While the CM of the state, Mr. Fadnavis is willing to shift the matches out of the state, a more clearer response on how the state plans to tackle the drought situation will be more helpful.

Call to Action:  request all top thinkers, management consultants, experienced adults, enthusiastic young and smart friends to pitch in ideas and action points to help relieve this situation - mail in with [MH-2016] as a subject line with any ways you can help with or want to help with - to kunjansg@gmail.com - reading a few resources above you’ll be convinced that solution exists for this and we all can chip in to make this happen in our own strong ways.

[creativentropy]

2016 Drought - Maharashtra

Since the past few months - there has been a steady media coverage, sometimes in prime time, sometimes buried behind the newspaper headlines and sometimes it finds a mention on Social Media too - following my philosophy on chasing one issue over months, for the next few months, its going to be the Maharashtra Drought situation where multitudes of factors have resulted in imposing Section 144 in 2 districts of MH. Kudos to a good piece of journalism by Ravish, the journalist I adore the most - I have pooled in a bunch of papers and am in touch with people and volunteers who can mobilise resources in the affected areas - I will keep on updating the blog with more action items on the situation and more resources -

Start here -

Ravish’s NDTV Prime Time on MH-2016

Indian Government’s Manual on Drought Management - Published in 2009 under Sharad Pawar - written thoroughly.

Summary of the above doc by UNDP

Kenyan Example of Drought Management

“Aaj bhi khare hain talab” - a book by Anupam Mishra - which documents the life and work of several individuals and communities, across the country, in setting up water harvesting and management systems through talaabs (lakes / tanks)

Stories of Change

Call to Action:  request all top thinkers, management consultants, experienced adults, enthusiastic young and smart friends to pitch in ideas and action points to help relieve this situation - mail in with [MH-2016] as a subject line with any ways you can help with or want to help with - to kunjansg@gmail.com - reading a few resources above you’ll be convinced that solution exists for this and we all can chip in to make this happen in our own strong ways.

Smallest of action will triumph biggest of noble desires, so lets team up on this and make sure that we provide relief to our countrymen battling the draught.

Lets cut through all the superficial fads of current affairs, and think deeply on things which will affect us the most.

Looking forward to all the action -

KG

[creativentropy]

Gandhi’s first visit to the Parliament.

"Loktantra ka Mandir” - someone rightly pointed out sometime back, speaking of-course about our Lok Sabha. I though if I am in Delhi, let me pay a pilgrimage visit. So, I visited the Lok Sabha for the first time on Anurag Thakur’s invite via my friend Vipin. After being frisked 9 times I made it during the zero hour today, into the “Visitor’s Gallery” of the lower house. 

Sushma Swaraj, standing besides her long time mentor, LK Advani, was responding in her usual style to a question posed by a Congress MP, jovially exchanging compliments with the MP. As time passed, I noticed a very civilized question answer session between Venkaiah Naidu and a Congress MP - extremely logical questions about urban rehab & slum rehab. Following which there was a discussion about how Haryana Jat protests affected railways to which Suresh Prabhu responded with his list of facts and figures. At about 11:40 AM, PM entered. Waiting patiently behind Venkaiah Naidu to finish his response, and quietly assumed his seat. After which - PM summoned Ravi Shankar Prasad to murmur something in his ears. Work I could figure out from the body language, he want back hurried and ruffled some papers. The question hour progressed with some more intelligent questioning and civilized answering. 

  The hall is very small - much smaller than we perceive it on our TVs, from where I was sitting, it was barely 5 feet into the well of the house. The size difference between what we see on our TVs and in real reminded me about how everything is different through lens of the media! Perception & Reality. The hall brightly lit with white halogens and wide angle cameras placed at regular intervals to cover all the MPs. 

  At 12-noon when my visiting time got over, I left with awe inspiring respect for our democracy. Fantasizing about the kind of impact a “Jan-pratinidhi” can create because of the networks, resources and information he/she has access to. I went around the round pillar-gaurded passage of the LS - iconic of the building - "teerth ki pradikshana banti hain". I be-friended some MPs from Gujarat and asked them to click some pictures of mine and send them to me via WhatsApp, as my mobile was with the security. We strolled for a bit and they were narrating the experiences of being a first time MPs. 

  After tasting the famous Rs. 33.75 lunch plate at the LS canteen, I made my way back to work. Wondering if this one time visit was enough, may be to visit this majesty more often, should I become a full time member?

[creativentropy]

A Journey from -30 C to +45 C : Bubble Expansion

A little more than a year ago, I was in Vermont, USA exploring a new country and studying about electric grids and the future of electric grids – the smart grids! I was exploring a new lifestyle, a new culture, a whole new climate (-30 C was a shocker, I had to survive it with 5 layers of sweaters and jacket) it was a huge learning experience. A bubble expanding one.

What’s a bubble expanding experience: it’s a well-known fact that we humans as a race, live in our own little bubble, our own set of beliefs and assumptions, our own set of limited view of the world. Each time, you meet someone new or experience something new which challenges your assumptions, beliefs and world view, your bubble expands.

In the last week, I spent time in extreme rural areas of Rajasthan, where we provide smart electricity to folks who did not have access to electricity earlier. These are areas so remote, that there is no road to reach them, no mention of those places on Google maps, it’s practically nowhere. If you don’t have people with you who have seen the place before, you will never find the places. We often crib about ‘kaccha sadak’ in rural areas, here there’s no ‘sadak’ for 10s of kilometers. We traveled to these places in the last week in 45C temperature to interact with them and know their feedback about electricity!

You can see the household markings down there which are practically based out of nowhere!

The people over there are amazing, they are all tribal ‘Bhils’ and everyone there will tell you a story about how they are related to Maharana Pratap. Extreme standard of living will not fail to wrench your heart. It’s not that they are poor, they easily make more than 30,000/annum from their farming but the sheer remoteness and lack of access to urban/town like amenities makes their condition pitiable. But I have no doubt that, given the right opportunities, the folks there have every bit potential to progress on their own!

One very entertaining experience was, how ‘Modi-Rahul’ analogy helped us get our work done. Using utter shrewdness and exploiting the current political mood, I made extensive use of Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi to inspire the villagers to do good and do right. I made it clear that whoever uses electricity optimally, recharges his/her energy meter regularly and contributes to the progress of the village is the Modi of the village, and whoever acts as a nuisance, tries to damage our solar panels or steal electricity is the Rahul of the village. They all laughed and message went out loud and clear. I thought - gone are the good old days when Ram-Ravan analogies were used to differentiate between good and bad, politics is so deeply in our culture now that ‘Modi-Rahul’ analogies strike a better, more practical chord.

So, yes since the past 8 months or so at Gram Power and a year before that while I was in the US, my bubble has expanded many folds. -30C to +45C, the extremities in temperature so aptly summarize it.

There have been quite some bubbles expansion experience between the temperature ranges I’ve had so far about which I’ll blog later which will only let us know that India and the world are much bigger than we ever think them of being - Mumbai bubble, Bangalore bubble, Goa bubble, Tehri bubble, Dubai bubble, Jaipur bubble, Delhi bubble, Vermont bubble, the TATA Jagriti Yatra bubble and the Nirmaan bubble!  

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Last week, me and couple of my friends choose to spend some valuable time in randomly surveying people about a lot things pertaining to voter awareness and governance. It was an excellent experience for me personally, understanding different viewpoints and perspectives. The story I am going to talk about today is probably the finest interview we got during this effort. Shah Alam, speaks his heart out about his life and what can change.

That fine evening we went to a Mall in Banaglore and Shah Alam, the baggage counter in-charge, spotted us with a camera. He was excited while he asked us "Will you take a photo of me?". And we told him that we would love to take a full interview itself. Without even asking what the topic was, he gleefully agreed to give us the interview amidst the bag keeping work he was doing.

You can watch the interview here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHJgH2MLJpg

We asked him questions about employment and why he had to shift to Bangalore, so far away from Assam where his family lives. He said "Everyone wants to be with their parents, but it is for money I came so far. Today I am here, tomorrow if I get more money in Chennai I will shift there!". According to him education is very important in this country and the government atleast in Assam doesn't do much for his cause. And so he feels people like him are left with poverty and migration for jobs.

When asked about voting, he said he will vote. On further questioning, he revealed that he was not very hopeful about any change but only that its his responsibility to vote and so he will vote. He wants to see a leader for whom he can vote with full heart. "Mann se aur dil se" in his own words. It was evident from his face that he was unhappy with the system and he really is looking forward for some good days in India else he will even shift out of the country for a better life. His interview surfaced a lot of issues on ground. The development in the Northeast states, quality of education in this country, leadership crisis, migration and so many more. I wonder how many Shah Alams are there in this country who are hoping for something to change in their lives which will enable them to live happily.

In the end, he asked me to show this video in the Parliament and that he wants every MP in the country to see and understand his plight. I promised him to take this interview as far as I can, and make his opinion heard. Join me in making his voice heard and make it count. Vote this time, choose the right leader and help Shah Alam and so many others in this country in their search for happiness and better living.

PS: It has been an year since we started this blog. Some times consistent, some times no post at all. It has been quite a journey for me and Kunjan and are glad that we kept this blog alive. It means a lot for both of us. This post, hence, calls for a anniversary celebration too!

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The Struggle of Indian Democracy - From being Owners to Democratic outcast.

This post is a continuation of the "The Struggle of Indian Democracy - Hero Worship". India is one of the largest democracies in the world. Democracy is known as "The Government Of the people, By the People, For the People" form of system. The preamble along with the constitution makes people as the owners of this country. The framers of the constitution gave the citizens all the power. It is very interesting that majority owners of government do not really know about or care about it. Lets take a sneak peek at this.

BR Ambedkar said "The Constitution can provide only the organs of State such as the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. The factors on which the working of those organs of the State depend are the people and the political parties they will set up as their instruments to carry out their wishes and their politics." This particular line has a clear emphasis on people of the country. The Political Parties we see today are formed by people as instruments to carry out their wishes and thereby develop the nation. When India turned republic the biggest fear was "will people make use of their power?", "Will the general public take the ownership? Will they act like the real employers of politicians?"

The literacy rate when India became independent was 12% (Source: Wikipedia) which was a big reason to worry back then. It was an impossible task to get every citizen on the electoral rolls in those days. There are incidents reported when women replied with a "Wife of Mr. X" when asked for their name. Such was the situation in the country. The responsibility of governing the country after the first general election in 1952 was bestowed in the hands of Pandit Nehru and the Indian Nation Congress. With the poor literacy rate, it was almost impossible for these leaders to educate everyone about the ideas of Indian Republic and the responsibilities of the citizens. It was expected that these leaders will take special interest to educate the voters of this country. As their best effort, all the information about governance and constitution was included in the school books of all syllabuses in the country.

Fast forward to today, we see a literacy rate of 74% in 2011 (again, wikipedia) but the percentage of people with civic awareness is still very little. (The good news is its changing!). In most parts of the country, people feel that politicians have all the power and they rule the country. Well that might be true today! But what we do not understand is that we ourselves turned this situation on us. We go for voting but do not read about the contestants. We elect our leaders but ignore to keep a check on them. We see bad roads, but do not complain about it. We know things are not right, but never really think about working on it. Democracy is about discussion and action, and we lack almost both. In the end we all just lament "Kuch nahi hoga!" and leave it there. The supposedly owners of democracy do not even participate in it. This situation has to change. And this is the BIG thing which can change the face of this nation. As the number of people participating actively (call them active citizens) in our democracy increases, the country's growth will be positively affected.

And all this is not completely our mistake. If people are not well informed about the system itself, how can they take the ownership of democracy? How can they be the employers of political representatives. Keeping aside the socio-politic-economical issues of the country, I feel the biggest issue the country faces is civic and political and governance illiteracy. The moment we make all our citizens aware and make them realize this ownership, we are good to go and grow! Join the movement of active citizenship today!

[creativentropy]

The Day "Sunday Times" became Gehlot Times.

On blatant waste of tax money on self promotion & political gains in pre-election times.

On Sunday, I opened the "Sunday Times" to spend some time with newspaper to take stock of current affairs - I usually refrain from reading newspapers but, owing to ample of time I had; I did start reading the news paper. On Saturday, Her Majesty Sonia-ji & PM Singh had visited Rajasthan to inaugurate a few oil refineries. The cover page was bought by Government of Rajasthan to make people know that PM & Her Majesty were at inauguration of refinery. I condoned that fact, moved on to the next page - the actual front page was covered with press reports about what happened during the inauguration. Well, press reports made sense because it's the newspaper's job to cover news and convey the happenings to people. I turned the page - again a Government of Rajasthan advertisement; followed by press reports covering that advertisement. "Out of the 22 page newspaper - 14 had either advertisements by Government of Rajasthan or press reports covering it"

14 out of 22! (The actual pictures of that newspaper are in #8 of the footnotes)

This left me choked, agonized, disturbed and most importantly hungry for news! I had no idea of what is happening in rest of Rajasthan or rest of India or even in the world after reading Sunday Times. 

Well, this has been the case all across Jaipur, all places of public advertisement has been purchased by Mr. Gehlot for self promotion using Information & Publicity Department's budget under the pretext of publicizing Government of Rajasthan's "awesome" schemes! Bus stands, hoardings, you-name-it publicity medium, it has Gehlot's picture under the banner "बड़े फैसलों  से आगे बढ़ा मेरा राजस्थान". The guy is saturating-ly omnipresent. 

I don't know if its a common pre-election practice by ruling parties in all states, but this must absolutely stop. Absolutely.

Its tax-payer's money these politicos are spending for party and self promotion. Utter, blatant shame!

You have thousands of problems still to be solved in your state - electricity, urban & rural sanitation, health, education - put the money there, people will feel the impact and vote for you! For taking your message to public there are many robust and less expensive ways. First, do actual work - no publicity better than word of mouth. Second, hold public rallies - leaders do that. Third, let newspapers do their work - there is no point purchasing space for an event which the media is anyways going to cover. If you feel that you are getting inadequate representations, ask the journalists to come to your office and address a press conference. Why buy the newspaper for self promotion with public money?

This brings me to another subtle masterstroke practice of the Indian National Congress - read B. Shantanu's & A.Surya Praksah's take on how Congress has named 450+ Government Schemes on Nehru-Gandhi family most predominantly Rajeev Gandhi to gain permanent assured publicity for Congress and Her Majesty Sonia-ji & Beloved Prince Rahul! 

You may easily put me in a mental box of a Modi-fan or an Internet Hindu or Anti-Congress person - but all these emotional arguments are backed by policy level facts,public expense data as well as a few RTI applications. I am strictly against spending of public money for political gains or personal gain or family's or party's publicity. If it happens in Gujarat, Goa, MP or Chattisgadh or any other state - including the India Shining & Bharat Nirmaan ads - it attracts same severity of criticism.

For now, shame on you Gehlot ji.

---Edit during 2014 Elections, For the same reason, shame on you Modi ji too!---

Sources - 

Hari Dev Joshi(INC) formulated the 1975 PR Act - http://dipr.rajasthan.gov.in/hotnews/PublicRelationRules1975.pdf

Notice how mere staffing the PR Office in Gov. of Raj. runs into crores a year - http://dipr.rajasthan.gov.in/hotnews/Deptt_manual.pdf

Look at how Government is the 3rd biggest source of revenue for newspapers - http://www.kanvic.com/Media_&_Entertainment_files/Kanvic%20newspaper%20ad%20market%20Rajasthan.pdf

Other press articles on waste of public money - http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/government-s-ad-blitz-wastage-in-a-time-of-austerity-213938

GoR's justification - http://dipr.rajasthan.gov.in/hotnews/Prativedan.pdf

GoR's new PR rules (by Gehlot ji) - http://dipr.rajasthan.gov.in/hotnews/AdvtRules.pdf

Latest Budget look at how 52% expense is on non-plan expense. - http://www.finance.rajasthan.gov.in/speech/1314/budgetataglance201314.pdf

The Source of it all - the actual ToI Sunday Issue (Pics) - Here's the link 

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Secularism - The most abused word in India.

Political vote banks, Muslim minorities, Hindu mainstream, minority welfare, reservations.. Are we in the 21st century really? Is India independent for the last 60+ years? If Hindus talks about Hinduism they are not secular. If a Muslim talks about Islam (s)he is not secular. If a Hindu wears the Muslim Taqiyah only then (s)he is considered secular!

As per the constitution of India, The government must not favour or discriminate against any religion. That doesnt mean that the politicians should not pray to god at their home or should not perform Namaz! We all know these facts, we all understand what secularism is. Yet we follow the news and criticize people about it. Why?

Is there a way we can shun the main stream media and all the false "Breaking News" - They are just breaking the country's culture. The minority associations do it because its leaders will be famous and earn money. The news channels talk because they get paid.

Think about the common man. If all the minority policies were implemented properly in this country, there wouldn't have been a minority feeling among other religions and castes. The minority tag and Secular tag have become a big burden to both the minority and the majority! I don't know if discussions about Congress BJP AAP will help the nation or not, but spreading awareness about this most abused word will certainly help the nation moving forward.

PS: Its a short note and not really an analysis or solution. I would appreciate your thoughts on this and possible strategy to solve the complex mess around secularism.

[creativentropy]

Perplexed by numbers.

I recently sought census data of 2011. I did that in order to find out the number of un-electrified villages in India. There was no data to directly indicate that, I then turned to the Rural Electrification Corporation of India, a nodal agency responsible to electrify rural India. It said there are roughly 23,000 still left for electrification. Even if rough estimate population of each village is 5,000 - the figure comes to 11 crores. A huge number - mind you that's given by REC. 

I again stumbled upon the census web site. This time I found data that gave a clue about the exact state of electrification. It says, 77 million house-holds depend on kerosene as primary source for lighting. Even with modest assumption of 5 persons per house-hold, it comes to more than 30 crore! It's mind boggling to even imagine that 30 crore Indians live without power, have lived without power since the invention of power itself. They have missed over a century of progress and access to basic amenities. I had recently spent a night in one such village, its was peaceful at night; but its the peace that you would not want everyday. Looking at the lives of those villagers, I was reminded of a school time essay topic "What would happen if there were no electricity!"

The wheels of progress turn very slow at these places during the day and at night they completely come to a halt. 

Our government, does realize this problem, a country cannot simply go ahead fully with 30% of its population living in darkness. So, it has come up with a scheme called "Decentralized Distributed Generation" under its Rajeev Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikarn Yojna. All those villages which are not going to be electrified in near future are covered under this scheme. With its seemingly impressive clauses there are two major flaws in the policy itself.

First, the policy has mandated that the company who commissions the generation units in these remote areas are responsible for its operation & maintenance for 5 years. Now, for solar powered generation, you need batteries to supply power at night. And the average life of the battery is precisely 5 years. So, if I electrify the village today, I am not liable to maintain it after 5 years - and the battery fails exactly after 5 years. Whoa! There goes the village back to darkness. 

Secondly, these projects are of relatively small financial size, ranging from anything between from few lakhs to 5-6 crores. No big company is interested in any of these. So it opens doors for small companies. But wait! Its not done yet, the scheme has so many criteria attached to the project that there is seldom any small company that even qualifies to bid for the project. Well, that's the reason most of the tenders floated under this scheme are either delayed or not executed at all. That's classic example of policy paralysis. This slows down the process of electrification. 

Well, it all boils down to private funding. Most of it from foreign lands. And when these funders are made aware of the reality of electrification here, they end up comparing India to the lagging part of Africa. India, was once poised to challenge China, while today you hear more chorus of her being compared to Africa. Where are we headed? 

P.S.: Sorry for dealing in despair this time than hope, its only when we face the truth do we find solutions to it. 

[creativentropy]

A smartly electrified India - so near yet pretty far!

Since the time it was decided that I was going to join Gram Power - I got into action meeting people that I knew who could guide the organization and myself to scale up and reach a large number of people who are yet to see electricity in their villages and life!

The list included Dr. B. C. Jain [Founder of Ankur Scientific], Prof. Sunil Handa [at IIM-A] and getting to know the scene of Maharashtra through my friend Abhigyaan's father who serves as the principal secretary of Finance in Government of Maharashtra - he forwarded me to Mr. Asheesh Sharma, Managing Director of MahaGenCo [Maharashtra Generation Corporation - responsible for all power generation in Maharashtra]. After series of appointments rescheduled I finally got to meet him yesterday.

The meeting was scheduled for 2:30pm and I reached there by 2:00pm dressed in the most formal attire known to me. After collecting the entry pass at the reception at Prakashgadh, Bandra - I went to his Personal Assistant [PA] and told him "I have an appointment with Asheesh saab at 2:30 - in the name of Kunjan Gandhi " He looked at me for a bit and said, "Aacha, saab kaha hain, bahar baithe hain kya?" I laughed and said, "Kunjan Gandhi main hi hu!" we both smiled and he explained that he was not used to seeing young people seeing Asheesh Sharma. He took my visiting card and asked me to wait.

After almost 2 hours of arduous wait - I was called in his plush 2000+sq. ft. office - he himself was a technocrat an IITian and IAS of 1997 cadre - seemingly young person to head a huge company! I explained him what Gram Power does, what issues are we trying to solve and how rural India can reap benefits of smart grids and renewable power. I also spoke about how power theft can be prevented with smart metering and pre-paid metering. Although he was receptive of my ideas he pointed out a huge pitfall in rural electrification. He argued that most of our rural folks are accustomed to getting free electricity - earlier it used to be election time promises of politicians now they have made a policy called Rajeev Gandhi Grameen Vidutykaran Yojna which entitled free power to Below Poverty Line families and they charge families above poverty line Rupees 15-20 for a month of power supply for basic load. So he said there is no way you are going to reap any economic returns from them. The other issue is that of totally un-electrified villages. These are the people who haven't seen electricity in their entire life. They don't even know its utility. They are okay with either having electricity or not having electricity at all. They are indifferent - so all you can do is make them used to electricity by giving free power. Then make them capable of paying for power and then charge them. 

I received similar feedback from the Chief Engineer of MahaVitran [the State Distribution Company] and other officers. I was also told that Maharashtra is an energy surplus state - all load shedding is only done in areas with major defaulters to signal them to pay for un-interrupted power . I was also given a briefing of India's so called smart grid program R-APDRP which deals with digitization of India's Grid. 

All in all, I myself derived some conclusions from series of meetings with Asheesh Sharma and folks at MahaVitran 

The whole of India's power consumer base can be divided into four parts

one with 24X7 power supply and who pays bills,[good folks]

one with power supply and capacity to pay but they don't pay,[notorious ones]

one with supply but don't have capacity to pay[the poor who are electrified]  - and other

who have not seen power in their lives to realize its importance[people still in dark].

Each of this segment remains a cultural/behavioral challenge more than technical and we ought to look into it deeply.

Although power theft, corruption, regulatory norms and reactive government remain a challenge to a clean, smart electrified India - the issue is also cultural a huge majority ought to realize that power needs to be paid for. Technology will keep knocking our doors but it takes will and vision to get up open the doors and accept it.

Wishing all an inspired independence Day!

Jai Hind!

[creativentropy]

Culture and Politics!

I am on a bus from Burlington to New York City, on my journey I meet Professor Hussain from Lahore, Pakistan. We start talking, in Hindi - about how things are similar in India and Pakistan and how all of us behave same in foreign land. He was advising me using words 'beta' - I was surprised and mildly at unease because I had never Imagined a Pakistani calling me 'beta'.

I began thinking about how the two countries are united culturally, though Professor Hussain is from Lahore, he speaks pure Hindi and exhibits some characteristics so native to India. Even if we look east towards China, India exerts a cultural influence on China in the form of Buddhism. 

And the irony of the situation is India is more or less in conflicts with both this countries. A stark example of how politics of all the three countries ignores the cultural similarities of the peoples. 

I recently heard a leader say, "One who does not remember the true history, does not have the capacity to create History" although it was used in a different sense, I find its applicability here.

In a world gripped with so many more grave problems, problems of poverty, mis-administration, corruption, economic crisis etc, the three countries of south Asia are locked in very solvable problems if there is a political will. 

If we only realize that peace and security are ways to prosperity and prosperity solves many problems we will be able to appreciate the urgency of peace better. 

And there is much greater need of political will, governments on each side must function on mission mode for establishing mutual trust and peace. I am even going to say that the Indian government must establish a special ministry "Ministry of Pakistani.Chinese Peace Process" whose sole objective is to solve impending issues with weekly progress. That sends a clear signal that yes, we want peace. The approach with MEA, MHA exchanging letters is fairly outdated.

I am of the hope, that one day relations between all countries of South Asia - devoid of terror and prejudices - will be of such a nature that international borders shall be irrelevant.

[creativentropy]

Pearls of wisdom in Public Life by Ben. Franklin

Amidst the drama of currently unfolding events of Indian politics, which I find quite trifle compared the grandiose vision for the nation we much bear and act upon as citizens. I found these words in Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography - 

"That the great affairs of the world, the wars, revolutions, etc., are carried on and effected by parties.

"That the view of these parties is their present general interest, or what they take to be such.

"That the different views of these different parties occasion all confusion.

"That while a party is carrying on a general design, each man has his particular private interest in view.

"That as soon as a party has gain'd its general point, each member becomes intent upon his particular interest; which, thwarting others, breaks that party into divisions, and occasions more confusion.

"That few in public affairs act from a mere view of the good of their country, whatever they may pretend; and, tho' their actings bring real good to their country, yet men primarily considered that their own and their country's interest was united, and did not act from a principle of benevolence.

"That fewer still, in public affairs, act with a view to the good of mankind.

"There seems to me at present to be great occasion for raising a United Party for Virtue, by forming the virtuous and good men of all nations into a regular body, to be govern'd by suitable good and wise rules, which good and wise men may probably be more unanimous in their obedience to, than common people are to common laws.

"I at present think that whoever attempts this aright, and is well qualified, cannot fail of pleasing God, and of meeting with success.

B. F."