tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70781162024-03-13T04:25:21.884+05:30Nikhil Kulkarni's BlogNikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.comBlogger688125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-60602322038124835202023-09-11T00:06:00.016+05:302023-09-11T00:16:15.487+05:30The political fallacy of choosing winners <p>These two headlines caught my attention in this morning's newspaper. Juxtaposed next to each other, both of them make the patriotic Indian in me jump with joy - these are the kinds of news headlines we longed for since adolescence.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdYj77_Iun8x32CFEHcVV_vSQn2QeqsgzRHerS4JzMI0eZdFqCgtp7jg3dEVCdCPom8kKS84lysRMWmfFEVjEvCfwaMmY6bhzL-tPdVj02IoTl0bKMlGTVjUjplOa1y5u4bNY9EGva1WzQR0OHQiy4mQPL4Fd_BbPhFHV4yInOr9cmJT9ccVXk/s3863/IMG_20230909_103624.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2116" data-original-width="3863" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdYj77_Iun8x32CFEHcVV_vSQn2QeqsgzRHerS4JzMI0eZdFqCgtp7jg3dEVCdCPom8kKS84lysRMWmfFEVjEvCfwaMmY6bhzL-tPdVj02IoTl0bKMlGTVjUjplOa1y5u4bNY9EGva1WzQR0OHQiy4mQPL4Fd_BbPhFHV4yInOr9cmJT9ccVXk/s320/IMG_20230909_103624.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>Albeit, while the adolescent me would have jumped with joy on reading these, the older mature me is circumspect, even borderline skeptical of the effect these will have on the Indian economy in general, and well being of Indians in specific. My skepticism follows from a series of policy news that has been emanating from the South Block off late. On 3rd August, Government of India (GOI) banned the import of laptops and other electronics used heavily in India's booming IT sector. Prior to that, as a post pandemic stimulus measure for Make In India, the Modi administration had announced several PLI Schemes (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_Linked_Incentive_schemes_in_India">Production Linked Incentive</a>) for various sectors.</p><p>These schemes claim to incentivize setting up of industries in strategic sectors or expedite the production and adoption of certain technologies such as Electric Vehicles. The problem with these schemes however is their eligibility criteria - most of these require existing businesses to demonstrate strong balance sheets and fulfil several strict conditions laid by the government to avail these schemes. Entrepreneurs taking advantage of these schemes are not expected to be free wheeling innovators hustling their way to invent new technologies or innovate on existing ones but rather they are supposed to simply multiply their capacity under a set of rules laid down by the government itself.</p><p>In effect, these PLI schemes are the same old wine in a new bottle. They are a different form of state sponsored Industrial development - a model pursued by Nehruvian economists since India's independence - but in a Capitalist avatar. Instead of the government making a direct Capex into setting up manufacturing capabilities, it pays for private operators to set these up via grants and incentives. My comparison with Nehruvian policies may be exaggerated because under PLI schemes, the business itself needs to invest its own money as well, to take advantage. Nevertheless, directionally this policy initiative still <b>makes the Government the determinant of which industries and which business will get access to resources. </b>In short, the government is getting itself busy choosing winners than let the market forces decide the winner.</p><p>The<b> </b>approach taken by this government is in fact more harmful than Nehruvian policies. Under the Nehruvian model, public sector enterprises were set up - they not only pursued economic goals, their contribution was additionally seen in the area of social development and welfare. Townships created by these PSUs were model towns which afforded great lifestyle and facilities to residents. Employees had social and economic security since these were 'safe' government jobs. Of course, this sense of security had its negative effect making these industries uncompetitive and laggards.</p><p>However, the current model has its own issues - firstly PLIs can only be taken by businesses which meet certain conditions. This means that small entrepreneurs are always left out of the race as they cannot qualify these conditions - irrespective of whether their ideas or innovation are path breaking or not. In fact, such schemes have in past led to the rapid rise of crony capitalists who can influence conditions laid down by eligibility criteria in their favor and corner benefits leaving more worthy players bereft of any advantage. Secondly, unlike the Nehruvian model these schemes will not contribute in any social development or improve quality of lives for people. Finally, as I mentioned before, since these schemes operate on a set of rules laid down by the government, there is little scope for innovative businesses to take advantage of these schemes.</p><p>For example, in the 90s past governments had created several schemes for development of 'Electronics manufacturing' - Indian governments have dreamt of becoming a Chip fab destination since the 90s. However, what we saw instead was the rise of Software companies and not electronics hardware manufacturing. Most incentives however got cornered by Crony capitalists who took government money but could NOT make India an innovator in the Electronics manufacturing race. Most large players in that space either assembled electronics by importing key components from China or pivoted to software services in spite of taking grants for hardware development.</p><p>A similar trend was seen even by the Modi administration recently for its FAME PLI scheme relating to EV manufacturing, when it discovered that many who took the PLI scheme merely imported components and assembled substandard EVs, instead of innovating or creating any fresh manufacturing capacity.</p><p>The biggest favor that successive Indian governments have done to the Software Development industry has been to not intervene via any policy initiatives except for giving a flat 10 year tax holiday. This has allowed the industry to maintain a level playing field. No grants or benefits means that smaller and larger players have an equal opportunity to grow - which allowed unknown players like Infosys to grow into competition with established ones like TCS (which came from the reputed behemoth Tata Sons portfolio).</p><p>Had it been only positive influence like the PLI schemes, the damage would be limited. Now with 'bans' the government is further making it difficult for real innovators and entrepreneurs to thrive. Imagine an innovative AI startup which wants to use custom hardware to create a performance optimized AI tool which can do the same work as ChatGPT but more efficiently. Now this startup needs to navigate government permissions to import hardware - a repeat of the License raj red tapism of pre-90s era, when entrepreneurs were shackled by the government policies.</p><p>Secondly, there will be crony capitalists who will be able to corner government permissions by satisfying the requirements of the escape clauses under the blanket ban. Investors will prefer a company which already has the government license to import than investing in a new fangled young enterprise which has no background in navigating bureaucratic corridors to get these permissions. As a result genuine entrepreneurs will be net losers not only on innovation, but also in attracting funds.</p><p>Finally, companies who will secure licenses to manufacture these banned Electronics in India will have no incentive to produce cutting edge technology products. Because the Indian consumer will not be able to import a cutting edge laptop from overseas, and has to buy a local produce, the manufacturer can pass off 2 or 3 year old electronics product in the market and be assured that it will be sold. These companies are likely to provide the more cutting edge technology to US or Chinese markets because there the consumer will not accept old technology.</p><p>Coming back to the two headlines quoted in the beginning - it is text in the article which made me skeptical than the headlines. Apparently, both the deals - Nividia's deal for AI with Tata's and Reliance Jio, as well as Reliance's chip fab - were brokered via government level negotiations between the Indian and US governments. How many small IT companies, however great tech talent they have, can afford an access to these corridors of government power on either side? What qualifications does Reliance Jio, which has <i>no software services or product </i>company under its portfolio even today, have in being involved in a deal related to Artificial Intelligence?</p><p>I am not claiming that there is a fraud or corruption in these deals. Nada! I am quite confident of the astute credentials of Prime Minister Modi. However, it is the direction of the policymaking which is going to cause collateral damage to Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem, than benefit it. Big business may be able to take advantage of it but the young, but not so privileged entrepreneur, who has the zeal and passion but no "connections" or "pedigree" will not just be left out, but rather disadvantaged by the policies being pursued.</p><p>I hope someone in the advisory council of this administration wakes up to the issues that these policies are going to create. To conclude - <b>governments should stay away from choosing winners in an economic system, and let the markets determine winners - </b>any government which tries to choose winners is doing disservice to its entrepreneurs in specific and its economy in general. </p><p>.</p>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-24267761683287016962023-08-24T00:31:00.006+05:302023-08-24T00:41:19.225+05:30India's DPDPA - a citizen friendly bill with an eye on future<p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinYxytRLWWCxs8YKsZbdnbFDcxCTGvsfleGNbiPiRZGbu1hhApc5tUvBKfActUr8LvB2S6bYelDrbdLyT4kb6pJ_ZLruiKYE4YEUUz8xMIl9lg9obQqPeQAmfL7aw2X0mDfPPrHeotLBJvPJC5XSKvZl4FbCO5ghidj6jP0WrfHKsCqa-Qfidy/s1080/Create%20an%20image%20of%20Indias%20map%20with%20data%20written%20on%20it%20and%20add%20a%20lock%20on%20top%20of%20it.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinYxytRLWWCxs8YKsZbdnbFDcxCTGvsfleGNbiPiRZGbu1hhApc5tUvBKfActUr8LvB2S6bYelDrbdLyT4kb6pJ_ZLruiKYE4YEUUz8xMIl9lg9obQqPeQAmfL7aw2X0mDfPPrHeotLBJvPJC5XSKvZl4FbCO5ghidj6jP0WrfHKsCqa-Qfidy/s320/Create%20an%20image%20of%20Indias%20map%20with%20data%20written%20on%20it%20and%20add%20a%20lock%20on%20top%20of%20it.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image generated by <a href="https://designer.microsoft.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Microsoft AI Designer</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p>Few weeks ago I <a href="https://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/2023/06/india-us-collaboration-is-missing-key.html">commented</a> that the India-US collaboration is missing the key subject of Data Protection law. The Data Protection Bill was still in 'draft' stage then, and now that its been passed by the parliament, I got reading it. </p><p>While my misgivings about Data privacy not being featured in India-US discussions as well as my reservations about the Bill excluding governments and regulators from its purview, continue; I must say that the the law itself has come out as a nicely drafted piece of legislation, and a departure from the legalese of other countries' laws such as EU's GDPR and CCPA/CCPR in California, United States.</p><p><b><i>Firstly</i></b>, the language of the bill is quite lucid and easy to understand - for people like me who are not lawyers, the language was quite easy to understand and digest. Not just simple language, but the Act includes <i>Illustrations </i>within its text to clarify the meaning and intention of different clauses - which makes it far more relatable than any other privacy law. </p><p><b><i>Second</i></b>, probably the first law in India to use she/her for addressing an individual in a gender-neutral context. This is a hugely progressive move towards gender equality. </p><p><b><i>Thirdly</i></b>, the bill has innovated in the right places building on top of the UN adopted Privacy principles and existing template followed by GDPR, CCPA and other laws (ex POPI in South Africa and GDPL in Brazil). The 3 key innovations I noticed are:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Blacklist instead of whitelist</b>: Most laws take an approach of mistrust when it comes to sharing data outside their borders, which is quite antithetical to the globalized digital world for which these laws have been drafted. Digital data is more often moving across national borders than within. Even for countries like India who have a huge Data Centre industry within itself, data will often move outside its borders and then return back to its domestic data centre. Hence, the DPDPA's approach where it only requires data to NOT go to a defined blacklist is far more pragmatic and commensurate to a global digital ecosystem. </li><li><b>Mandating linguistic variety</b>: As users, it has become common for us to just rush through the Privacy notices which websites throw at us, and click on "I Agree" without a second glance. There are many factors at play but one of them is our inability to read legalese in these notice texts, coupled with these notices not being in a language of choice for most people. India where people speak 300 dialects across (at least officially) 18 different languages, one of the reasons could be unavailability of the notice text in local language. Mandating that notice text be provided in all of India's 18 languages is another citizen friendly provision.</li><li><b>Digital office: </b>In an extremely pertinent but forward looking move, the Act clearly describes itself to be meant only for digital data and all its entities - the Data Protection Board and the Appellate Tribunal - to exist as "digital offices" which means, in words of the Act itself: <i>an office that adopts an online mechanism wherein the proceedings, from receipt of intimation or complaint or reference or directions or appeal, as the case may be, to the disposal thereof, are conducted in online or digital mode</i>. This is so heartwarming to read for a digital enthusiast like me. For the first time a law is recognizing the changed milieu which mankind operates in and seeks to take advantage of rather than fight it.</li></ol><b><i>Fourth</i></b>, while many provisions of the law are similar to what other Privacy laws have, I find this to be first law that which does not look at Data Privacy as a matter of protecting Citizen's data alone, but that of maintaining a <i>balance </i>between the rights of individuals and the need by organizations to process their data. To quote the beginning sentences of the Act itself: <blockquote><div>A bill to provide for the processing of digital personal data in a manner that recognizes both</div><div>the right of individuals to protect their personal data and the need to process such personal data for lawful purposes and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.</div></blockquote><div>The act lives up to this motto and I noted some small quirks to achieve this objective:<br /><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Duties of citizens: </b>The Indian law is probably the first one to have put duties of the Data Principal (referred to as Data Subject in other laws). This is a good move which will discourage rogue activists from using the law to harass corporates and other Data Fiduciaries in the name of the Privacy law. This has been a pattern in Europe and US where rogue activists have misused the privacy law to settle scores relating to employment disputes or payment related claims.</li><li><b>Conditionality of consent being lawful: </b>As users we may not be well equipped or have enough time to understand and evaluate the implications of the consent we are giving. Here the law makes it clear that if the consent language violates the act, it will automatically become invalid.</li><li><b>Provision for a limited window holiday to startups: </b>While the law puts the onus of implementing this clause on the Central government, it does allow it to exempt certain classes of Data Fiduciaries (referring to startups as an example) from the duties under this Act for <i>any period</i>. This is good move to prevent the law from stifling innovation simply because startups in India are not yet prepared for it. However, to prevent vested interests in the Central government to misuse this provision perpetually, the Act also states that the Central government can keep giving exemption only until a period of 5 years from the date of this Act coming into existence. Which means that the government will lose powers to exempt anyone for any period from 2028.</li><li><b>Research excluded: </b>Unlike GDPR which allowed research to be exempted from Privacy law obligations only if the data was anonymized or pseudonymized, the Indian law allows research related work to be exempted irrespective as long as the results of the research are not used to to take any decision specific to an individual. This is again a prudent move because certain research may require identified data and de-identification of the data may reduce or eliminate the effectiveness of the research.</li><li><b>Not prescriptive measures: </b>Unlike GDPR (which I had studied when it came out), Indian law does not get prescriptive - it does not talk about technologies or tools like encryption or de-identification. This is a welcome departure from the way the IT Acts (2000 and 2008 amendment) were drafted. This creates provision for longevity of this Act to survive technological and societal changes. This is pretty much in-line with the spirit of the Constitution.</li><li><b>Time limit on dispute resolution: </b>While the Data Protection Board has not been given any time limit to resolve issues, the Appellate Tribunal shall be required to document any cases which have not been resolved for more than 6 months, For the Indian Judicial system where average age of cases is 20-30 years, this provision is a welcome move to bring efficiency in the process. </li><li><b>Preventing Civil courts from adjudicating: </b>The Act only empowers the Appellate Tribunal jurisdiction on cases under this act and prevents Civil courts from entertaining any cases under the Act which the Data Protection board is looking into. This again is a welcome move to prevent lawyers from playing the game of taking the case from one court to the other to delay justice.</li><li><b>Compulsory Parliamentary assent to rules: </b>This is again a good move where the Government of the day cannot pass any rules under this Act voluntarily without consulting the legislature. Every rule made under the Act will have to be brought to the Parliament for ratification in its next session. </li></ol><p></p><p>Finally, is this law flawless - not so much. As I had mentioned in my <a href="https://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/2023/06/india-us-collaboration-is-missing-key.html" target="_blank">previous blog post</a>, this Act leaves out all Governments and several activities relating to law enforcement, judicial review, investigation of willful defaulters out of its purview. This is contrary to the propensity of data leakage incidents from government quarters itself. Government and law enforcement bodies should have been, at least, made responsible for data security and responsible handling of data via Technical and Organizational measures under this Act. </p><p>Secondly, the Act gives sweeping powers to government to block content for access by the general public based on the Data protection board's advice. This actually infringes on citizen's right to information and as we have seen in past, such provisions are misused by governments to block legitimate uses of data, leading to more collateral damage than benefit the nation. </p><p>Thirdly, the Act creates a special class of Fiduciaries called Significant Data Fiduciary (SDF) and following prudent privacy practices like conducting DPIAs or appointing a DPO is only required by SDFs. While this may keep the cost of compliance low for smaller organizations, it will also prompt large corporations to circumvent the law by offloading their crucial data operations to smaller firms or spin-off smaller entities to escape the provisions of the law. I feel that the identification of such malpractices will be an Achilles heel in stringent enforcement of this Act.</p><p>Lastly, as we all know, passing an act is simply a starting point and the major steps lie in implementing which has been a weak point for Indian ecosystem. The IT Act has been in force for 20+ years now and yet data security enforcement is not quite there yet. </p><p>In conclusion, "The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023" is a huge step in the right direction and in the right spirit. It is also a well drafted law. We must hope that its implementation leads to permanent changes in the way India treats data of individuals and helps develop a mature digital data economy in India.</p><p>Amen!</p></div>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-40848258049827249422023-06-25T14:31:00.010+05:302023-06-26T14:19:27.352+05:30India-US collaboration is missing the key subject of Data Protection laws<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhB1lLQnA_ze5NxyvM8NQdzuNMpwQwFSdj6bsAHwnNaj1oaWdxyGuu2Wo_kPUJTTvS0QwoSLXcmmkMOdiAJkodSgaHVc5IIY6tD92j-Sik4b1l8kst-JVfrM0OAA72Y4JOleTQXQjGE9fAi_njR-mTcIiO13pusSXNGkwKj4ooYE29rnHi_rP/s546/image_2023-06-25_143012483.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="546" data-original-width="491" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhB1lLQnA_ze5NxyvM8NQdzuNMpwQwFSdj6bsAHwnNaj1oaWdxyGuu2Wo_kPUJTTvS0QwoSLXcmmkMOdiAJkodSgaHVc5IIY6tD92j-Sik4b1l8kst-JVfrM0OAA72Y4JOleTQXQjGE9fAi_njR-mTcIiO13pusSXNGkwKj4ooYE29rnHi_rP/s320/image_2023-06-25_143012483.png" width="288" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>It’s a national embarrassment for both India and the US that they don't have a data privacy law </b></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;">The Indian Prime minister Modi is in the US and amongst much fanfare a lot of joint initiatives are being announced. But one area which could have been a major bedrock for a global regulation has not even been touched. On the contrary, both governments are now engaged in regressive moves on this subject - the subject of Personal Data Protection.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">TikTok, the popular video-sharing app, has faced bans in several countries, including India, and now there are discussions about <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/16/opinions/tiktok-ban-congress-privacy-law-greer-ctpr/index.html" target="_blank">a potential ban in the United States</a> as well. The concerns primarily revolve around data privacy and surveillance, with lawmakers pointing out the extensive collection of personal information by TikTok and its Chinese ownership. However, focusing solely on banning TikTok fails to address the broader issue of data privacy and government access to user information.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Banning TikTok might seem like a straightforward solution to protect user data, but it overlooks important factors. Firstly, while TikTok is being singled out, other popular social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter also collect substantial amounts of user data. Secondly, a ban on TikTok alone would not be effective since the Chinese government could potentially access similar information through data brokers, which remain largely unregulated in the US.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">To prevent governments from weaponizing user data, a more comprehensive approach is necessary. Instead of resorting to censorship or banning individual apps, governments should focus on passing robust data privacy laws. The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (<a href="https://ec.europa/" target="_blank">GDPR</a>) serves as an example of legislation that limits data collection by companies to only what is necessary to provide requested services. Implementing similar laws would safeguard user privacy and ensure that companies are accountable for their data practices.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately, lawmakers are trying to solve the problem by using blanket bans and authoritarian approaches. Part of the reason why they're solving it the wrong way is because their own intentions are not always pristine - while they would want to block Chinese govt from getting access to their citizen's private data, they want this data for themselves so that they can strangulate the rights of their own citizens when they want to suit their own politican and ideological agenda. While certain instances, such as matters of national security, may warrant access to specific data, the solution being sought seems one-sided and fails to consider the potential for government manipulation and abuse of power.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the case of India, for example, the country is in the process of formulating <a href="https://www.meity.gov.in/content/digital-personal-data-protection-bill-2022" target="_blank">The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022</a>. However, the bill excludes governments and regulators from its purview, <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/explained-what-does-the-alleged-cowin-data-leak-reveal/article66980831.ece" target="_blank">despite evidence indicating</a> that government entities are more susceptible to data breaches compared to private companies. Insufficient cybersecurity competence within government ranks and inadequate investment in cybersecurity make government entities vulnerable to potential data leaks. Therefore, excluding them from data protection responsibilities is a flawed approach.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The ongoing debate surrounding the TikTok ban highlights the need for a more comprehensive and thoughtful approach to data privacy. Banning individual apps or targeting specific companies fails to address the broader issue of data collection and government access to user information. Governments must prioritize the enactment of strong national data privacy laws, taking cues from successful models like the GDPR. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Only through comprehensive legislation and responsible data practices can individuals' privacy be protected and potential government abuses mitigated. It is essential for policymakers to recognize the need for a balanced approach that upholds citizens' rights while addressing legitimate concerns related to national security and public safety.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">.</p>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-83157083073414806312023-06-04T09:27:00.015+05:302023-06-04T11:03:43.464+05:30Learning from the Coromandel express accident <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In a tragic incident that took place near the Bahanaga railway station in Odisha's Balasore district, a collision between the Coromandel Express and a goods train resulted in the deaths of 207 people, with over 900 others injured. The Bengaluru-Howrah superfast express was also involved in the accident. This devastating event serves as a stark reminder of the safety challenges faced by the Indian Railways. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUjk3PwRBK0bgpcZ6YE2y7NIzy2VarhR3vs-ow9oBHoPxoKp3rqZdwXyLqr8pklNDSV2nTKMQnkDwDxT2lyZUOpcYZqscnS-_zQ1Dz7vbtS7utW3I1lpQq9Bo06QXoOLrp8iAvhq-FwklD67kX0hoCymXN1XQWXJlQo1ow9dBteK3GZEjVog/s1280/balasore-train-accident-1-2%5B1%5D.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUjk3PwRBK0bgpcZ6YE2y7NIzy2VarhR3vs-ow9oBHoPxoKp3rqZdwXyLqr8pklNDSV2nTKMQnkDwDxT2lyZUOpcYZqscnS-_zQ1Dz7vbtS7utW3I1lpQq9Bo06QXoOLrp8iAvhq-FwklD67kX0hoCymXN1XQWXJlQo1ow9dBteK3GZEjVog/s16000/balasore-train-accident-1-2%5B1%5D.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">While statistics may show a relatively low accident ratio per kilometer, it is crucial to consider the context: lower speeds, inadequate facilities, and a significantly higher passenger load compared to other parts of the world. Trains in India enjoy the same status as Airlines given the long distance travel is routinely popular. Given this scenario it is important that safety in rail travel is also given the same level of importance as in the airlines sector.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The specifics of why this Accident happened such as technology or human failure may provide certain tactical cues but the Institutional Framework which runs the Indian Railways is definitely something that needs be questioned and reengineered. This article delves into the need for institutional reforms to enhance safety measures and establish accountability within the Indian Railways system.<br /><br /><b>The Complexity of Accountability</b>: The Indian Railways, as a gargantuan institution, comprises numerous layers of bureaucracy, making it challenging to assign responsibility to specific individuals or groups in the event of accidents or underperformance. Unlike the aviation industry, where detailed investigations involve international experts and black box recordings, there is no similar process for railway incidents. Identifying the cause of accidents or even delay in train arrivals becomes a daunting task due to the absence of a streamlined investigation framework.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Not just train underperformance, but Railway projects such as construction of Railway bridges and management of Train station infrastructure (Foot over bridges, Toilets or other peripheral systems) is chronic. Railway bridges are the slowest to construct and often lead to bottlenecking traffic in several Indian cities in spite of efforts to resolve other traffic bottlenecks. Notably, local bodies do not have any authority to construct any bridges or flyovers cutting over train tracks - which makes Railways a single largest bottleneck which can cripple projects across the nation.<br /><br /><b>Reengineering the Institutional Framework</b>: To address the shortcomings in safety and accountability, a comprehensive reengineering of the Indian Railways is necessary. The train operations, signaling and rail infrastructure, and ancillary services (such as catering or merchandizing) should be divided into multiple companies, including a separate entity responsible for governing privately operated corporations. The rail infrastructure entity shall lease the rail infrastructure to train operators and ancillary service operators - just like an Airport leases its terminals, hangers and other infrastructure to Airlines, while the Airlines operate as separate entities. A model similar to the aviation sector, would promote competition and efficiency while ensuring safety remains a top priority.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Breaking up railways along operational lines (rather than the current regional breakup of divisions and zones), will also make it easier to divest certain portions of the Railway corporations and spin them off as Privately held corporations. This can not only help modernize and professionalize the Railway, it can also help in unlocking the value of government investment into Railways over the last two centuries. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Autonomy from Government Intervention</b>: To facilitate effective reforms, all entities, including regulators and private companies, should operate with minimal intervention from government ministries or entities. By granting autonomy, these entities can make decisions based on industry expertise, innovation, and customer needs, leading to improved performance and service quality.<br /><br /><b>Establishing Regulatory Oversight</b>: A regulator, akin to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for airlines, should be entrusted with overseeing safety infrastructure and conducting regular audits of all entities involved in the railway system's operation. This regulatory body would enhance safety standards and hold various corporations accountable for their performance. Furthermore, ancillary services such as catering and merchandising should also fall under the purview of specialized regulators, ensuring quality and customer satisfaction.<br /> </div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The train collision in Odisha highlights the urgent need for a system-wide reform of the Indian Railways. While statistical comparisons might suggest a relatively low accident ratio, the unique challenges faced by the railway system demand a more comprehensive evaluation.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">By breaking up the infrastructure into multiple companies, and granting autonomy to entities, while at the same time establishing strong regulatory oversight, we can enhance safety, ensure accountability, and ultimately improve the overall performance of the Indian Railways. Implementing these reforms will pave the way for a modernized and efficient railway system that caters to the needs of its passengers while prioritizing their safety.</div><br />Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-80933165429606518372023-01-21T20:37:00.010+05:302023-01-22T10:43:05.817+05:30The Power of Dissent<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI3rABLNhu0TQ2pNAsGpF1jzcM-9I_7HhHXtZyMNd_IzkjcvHvv9EPRcShtOcG7L1uA_inSbE-5OjCVrcTE90pS8EpzUfzx-cpbcu04gW7upIaDiRmnjPm8IM_IkkLUuahbN5SZhP9RoLtF2sZrdI4d45f1uiSB1AGt34-nRyiJzpH1E2YmQ/s2325/dan-meyers-QYfFCOFqf7o-unsplash.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2325" data-original-width="2325" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI3rABLNhu0TQ2pNAsGpF1jzcM-9I_7HhHXtZyMNd_IzkjcvHvv9EPRcShtOcG7L1uA_inSbE-5OjCVrcTE90pS8EpzUfzx-cpbcu04gW7upIaDiRmnjPm8IM_IkkLUuahbN5SZhP9RoLtF2sZrdI4d45f1uiSB1AGt34-nRyiJzpH1E2YmQ/w320-h320/dan-meyers-QYfFCOFqf7o-unsplash.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Banksy Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/de/@dmey503?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Dan Meyers</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/QYfFCOFqf7o?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Justice BV Nagarathna of the Supreme Court of India was recently <a href="https://thewire.in/law/demonetisation-supreme-court-dissenting-opinion-excerpt" target="_blank">in the news</a> for being the dissenting voice on two key judgments of the Supreme Court. <a href="https://thewire.in/law/demonetisation-supreme-court-dissenting-opinion-excerpt" target="_blank">The first</a> was a verdict on whether Demonetization by the Modi Govt in 2016 was legally valid, and <a href="https://theprint.in/judiciary/justice-nagarathnas-dissent-in-ministers-speech-case-hate-speech-denies-right-to-dignity/1297195/" target="_blank">the second</a> was about whether a Minister in the Government is (or not) entitled to 'Hate Speech' in the name of freedom of speech. Justice Nagarathna is, of course, <a href="https://zeenews.india.com/india/meet-justice-bv-nagarathna-two-dissenting-judgments-in-two-days-in-line-for-1st-woman-cji-2557397.html" target="_blank">no ordinary judge</a> - she may go on to become the first female Chief Justice of India - and is the daughter of former CJI ES Venkataramiah.</p><p>But this post is not about Justice Nagarathna, it is about dissent, and especially for the ilk who lament that small dissent in face a powerful lobby is useless. I've heard this often that dissent does not make a difference, especially from people do not wish to engage in socio-political debates; some well wishers also advise against making dissent publicly known for 'one's own safety'. One of the arguments made recently in context of the above two judgements by Justice Nagarathna, was that there was no point of the dissenting argument because the verdict still went in favour of the government in both these cases - and hence <i>nothing much changed, so what's the point of dissent?</i></p><p>As a student and proponent of data privacy, this point is especially dear to me - <i><b>what is the point of dissent</b></i>? For those who may not have followed the trajectory of Privacy law in India (a story still unfinished), right to privacy in India emanated from a dissenting verdict. What is more interesting that the original case where right to Privacy was challenged (and then not upheld) was not filed by a member of India's elite urban suave gentry (typically the crowd which is considered internationalized and hence aware of these 'higher order rights'), but by an ex-dacoit convicted of the crime and subsequently reformed. This was a case of <a href="https://indiankanoon.org/doc/619152/" target="_blank">Kharak Singh vs Government of Uttar Pradesh</a> where the petitioner was challenged in a dacoity case but was released as there was no evidence against him. The police opened a history sheet against him and he was put under surveillance. Kharak Singh then challenged this surveillance as infringing on his right to privacy. In this case, while the bench sided with the government claiming that Right to Privacy not guaranteed by the Constitution, <i>one judge </i>Justice Ayyangar cited Article 19 of the Constitution stating that the right to liberty encompassed right to privacy as Privacy was integral to Liberty.</p><p>In 2017, when the Supreme Court of India was deciding on Aadhar Scheme's invasion of privacy in <a href="https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/puttaswamy-v-india/" target="_blank">Puttaswamy v. Union of India</a>, the Supreme Court cited the minority dissenting judgement and agreed with it to declare <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/08/indias-supreme-court-upholds-right-privacy-fundamental-right-and-its-about-time" target="_blank">Right to Privacy as a fundamental right</a> under the Constitution of India. This finally forced the government to initiate formation of a Privacy law, which was presented and then withdrawn in light of criticism last year - and is still under draft. The government had been dragging its feet for a long time on the subject of data privacy and it is one dissenting judgment from 80 years ago which forced the government to come up with a law. </p><p>Before someone declarers Justice Ayyangar's case as exception to the rule, let me clarify that this is not an isolated case in legal history. Not just India, <a href="https://www.barandbench.com/columns/contribution-of-dissenting-opinions-in-constitutional-law-cases" target="_blank">several milestone judgments</a> - especially under Constitutional law - across the globe have been decided due to dissenting judgments. Some notable social injustices reversed by the impact of dissenting voices are:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Right to citizenship for descendants of slaves in America</li><li>Ending of racial segregation in American colonies </li><li>Making wiretapping by government illegal </li><li>Legalization of LGBTQ relationships (both India and the US)</li><li>Abolition of death penalty in South Africa </li><li>Striking down of a ban on abortion in Canada</li><li>Establishment of 'basic structure of the Constitution' in India</li></ul>It may be easy to cite cases of legal dissent because the correlation is direct and well documented. However, dissent comes in many forms - Gandhi's non-cooperation movement was one of the most effective non-violent methods to show dissent, even sportspersons tying black armbands to showcase dissent has often made a major impact in turning public attention towards any historical injustice. <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUR7sVfG24aItQ7kKyPMQT-dfn-scd6gVkaHVEARokNAKkR1K_zIUcfd3B0DKl8Vo-OfbpKn3ECYwDCORW3acnS2UQz7JZof7MYwWz1M2mT56Icl3CTUas9rZqEUUeuQwcWaCqSRhNGmRP2MZhQT64Ql6QOsrXOy9CKphxqjBOYPXeLcssfQ/s1280/imrs.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUR7sVfG24aItQ7kKyPMQT-dfn-scd6gVkaHVEARokNAKkR1K_zIUcfd3B0DKl8Vo-OfbpKn3ECYwDCORW3acnS2UQz7JZof7MYwWz1M2mT56Icl3CTUas9rZqEUUeuQwcWaCqSRhNGmRP2MZhQT64Ql6QOsrXOy9CKphxqjBOYPXeLcssfQ/w320-h181/imrs.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>The foremost example of this was Tommie Smith and John Carlos, two American track and field athletes who put black armbands during the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, as a protest against racial discrimination in the United States. They raised their fists in a "black power" salute during the medal ceremony for the 200-meter race, which Smith won. This iconic image brought attention to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and the struggle for racial equality. Some other notable examples of public but silent dissent are:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The Silent Protest Parade in New York City in 1917, in which a group of African Americans marched silently down Fifth Avenue to protest the East St. Louis riots and lynchings.</li><li>The Salt March in India in 1930, led by Mahatma Gandhi, in which thousands of people walked silently to the sea to protest a British salt tax and to produce their own salt in violation of British law.</li><li>In 1969, group of students at Des Moines Independent Community School District, wore black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War.</li><li>The "Silent Sam" protest at the University of North Carolina in 2018, in which students and activists covered the controversial Confederate monument with black cloth and held silent protests.</li><li>The "Silent Majority" protest in Hong Kong in 2019, in which citizens formed a human chain across the city, wearing white and standing in silence to show their support for democracy and opposition to the extradition bill.</li><li>The "Silent Sit-in" protest in Nigeria in 2020, in which activists sat in silence at the Lekki Toll Plaza in Lagos to protest police brutality and demand justice for victims of the Lekki massacre.</li></ul><p></p><p>Almost every year, we hear silent marches by Green activists at COP meetings or "Fridays for Future" movement, by Greta Thunberg, as weekly school strikes for climate action - these all dissents have pressured governments into taking decisive steps against Climate change. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjbaWOEBghPMYJEG1SC5LdAJzytMkjN0j_Y5YMG6aXHzf52NO7YoFNozQCuxFZSo212_QWqaMuB798I25_O46t2xo6xJb1P8pAfzqSriiBFJpxSn9lXyL84N2JZNkoi7-HYMV0KOYP8438Tyns4O_AKGIpacqkjFr5AebSIn1kNX91kZroDw/s6240/samuel-regan-asante-jR2Jzo6UxDw-unsplash.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4160" data-original-width="6240" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjbaWOEBghPMYJEG1SC5LdAJzytMkjN0j_Y5YMG6aXHzf52NO7YoFNozQCuxFZSo212_QWqaMuB798I25_O46t2xo6xJb1P8pAfzqSriiBFJpxSn9lXyL84N2JZNkoi7-HYMV0KOYP8438Tyns4O_AKGIpacqkjFr5AebSIn1kNX91kZroDw/s320/samuel-regan-asante-jR2Jzo6UxDw-unsplash.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@fkaregan?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Samuel Regan-Asante</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/jR2Jzo6UxDw?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Then one remembers the several silent attempts to protect Jews during the WW-II under Nazi reign of Europe in 1930s and 40s - whether it was a Polish resistance, Norwegian, Dutch or Danish movements - most of these dissents were by common citizens done silently but firmly sabotaging the Nazi establishment's plans. While millions of Jews may have perished during those years, the many celebrated Jews who helped mankind prosper in the post-war years were saved thanks to the efforts of these enlightened folks who just decided not to back down and even thought they could not nothing to resist armed German and SS forces, they used dissent to provide succor if not fight injustice.</p><p>Dissent is important because it allows for the expression of different perspectives and ideas, which can lead to a more informed and well-rounded decision-making process. It also allows for the identification of potential problems and alternative solutions that may not have been considered otherwise. Additionally, it can also serve as a means of holding those in power accountable and protecting against the abuse of power.</p><p>As social media aides the creation of echo chambers and the world becomes increasingly polarized, dissent assumes far more significance to protect future generations from degenerating into a unidirectional zombie proletariat and preventing the society turning into an Orwellian dystopia. </p><p></p>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-29268391042145223712022-07-13T00:53:00.014+05:302022-07-14T14:04:04.848+05:30Sense, Sensitivities and Sensibility <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4BLevOPtGuArRro7yUWxJQxFVKDTgXdJWs5xROuXIQyc_u_FXJ0Z_f406_C7EJ-I9Cy3qRlDVYNBIbgOdaKZoU9zG03iefD9bNGQTgLLuqdkX6syGo31eHaUUamwu2Za2QchnLcmBzjFI3AtcnJ9cT0h-tEDIM05QfG5cVNWbd8DX3jiblA/s1006/800px-Goddess_Kali_dancing_on_Shiva._Wellcome_L0043631.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1006" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4BLevOPtGuArRro7yUWxJQxFVKDTgXdJWs5xROuXIQyc_u_FXJ0Z_f406_C7EJ-I9Cy3qRlDVYNBIbgOdaKZoU9zG03iefD9bNGQTgLLuqdkX6syGo31eHaUUamwu2Za2QchnLcmBzjFI3AtcnJ9cT0h-tEDIM05QfG5cVNWbd8DX3jiblA/s320/800px-Goddess_Kali_dancing_on_Shiva._Wellcome_L0043631.jpg" width="254" /></a></div><p>It's easy nowadays to get offended - and it's also easy to offend someone. So when I read the news about some politician having made an 'indecent' remark about a Hindu goddess, I simply ignored it to be a political slugfest of trying to win the votes of one audience, by offending the other. It probably is indeed so - I honestly do not know. </p><p>However, as the news unravelled I came to know that the source was not this politician from the opposition parties but an Indian-origin film-maker based in Canada who apparently made a movie on Maa Kali and a poster of her film which created the waves. Apparently, the poster showed Kali smoking cigarettes - the filmmaker wanted to showcase Maa Kali as a badass hero and smoking was the way to show off the adjective! As I pondered over this, several thoughts ran into my mind - which the title of this post represents.</p><p>But the very first image which flew across my mental retina was that of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gajanan_Maharaj" target="_blank">Gajanan Maharaj</a> - a saint from the 19th century, revered across Maharashtra and outside by devotees (mostly) of Marathi origin. Since my childhood, we had a photograph of Gajanan Maharaj in the temple at home - Maharaj seated in his distinctive pose holding a Chillum to his mouth. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL-mlhHgRTUFVxdZY7upnjbH4n-uu7lTp4vGJXTRCkam624FjD3mLdVnfPw_e4sNTaz3CFh_rAfe99JJFCsMxbHrNWflHHCMJ53izf00zmdHJIXdY6ieIXW3gih7qTceDCBTsE9wrhkWfNr6sI03iY-KtLvLBSTpySJlC8aLG2GSqofItpuQ/s333/Shree_Sant_Gajanan_Maharaj.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL-mlhHgRTUFVxdZY7upnjbH4n-uu7lTp4vGJXTRCkam624FjD3mLdVnfPw_e4sNTaz3CFh_rAfe99JJFCsMxbHrNWflHHCMJ53izf00zmdHJIXdY6ieIXW3gih7qTceDCBTsE9wrhkWfNr6sI03iY-KtLvLBSTpySJlC8aLG2GSqofItpuQ/s320/Shree_Sant_Gajanan_Maharaj.png" width="240" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Gajanan Maharaj was a saint, like the more popular Sai Baba and other saints from Maharashtra like Tukaram and Namdev (who is also a part of Sikh spirituality). Followers of Gajanan Maharaj can also be found in Madhya Pradesh (mainly Malwa region which was under the Marathas before independence). The picture above is from Wikipedia and is probably the most common picture found in most homes that treat Gajanan Maharaj as a guru. </div><div><br /></div><div>As a child, I remember two distinct aspects which struck me. The first was why was Maharaj so scantily dressed - he was almost naked with just a loincloth and that too covering only his genitals. This was usually explained as a symbol of renunciation - Mahatma Gandhi later also adopted this virtue - but it was completely spiritual for ascetics like Gajanan Maharaj. They did not care for worldly possessions to the extent that they had given up even an article of basic clothing. They probably kept that loincloth only so that their disciples may not find it offensive.</div><div><br /></div>The second thing that struck me was the chillum - because smoking was always declared morally unacceptable. Smoking was not just told to be a health hazard, smokers were associated with a general lack of character. And yet, here was the photograph of someone whom everyone from my grandparents to children was to revere - smoking a chillum and kept next to all other photos and idols of gods! To be honest, I don't really remember what answers I got for my questions on the chillum, but as I matured, this image explained to me the greatness and core tenets of what Sanatan dharma (or Hinduism as its post-17th century version is called) stands for.<div><br /></div><div><u>Sense</u></div><div>Sanatana is a way of life (Hon. Supreme Court of India in its judgement states as much for Hindutva - a term which has been muddled by political currents), though I'd describe it as a philosophical tradition. The deepest sense of the philosophy is to stabilise oneself in such a manner as to become ONE with the universe - there are many ways in which this is stated across the thousands of granthas, techniques and hundreds of schools of thought - the core however is captured by the shlok अहं ब्रह्मस्मि. This first requires one to reach the point where you must accept everything AS IT IS - तत् त्वम् असि. </div><div><br /></div><div>While I don't claim to understand these spiritual truths in completeness, to the extent I understand them or abstract them in my mind, I have been able to use them to reconcile several so-considered contradictions within Sanatan Dharma. Whether it is the fact that Lord Ram engaged in violence (hinsa) to win over an errant Ravan, or that Krishna advised Dharmraj Yudhishthir to engage in white lies with "<a href="https://www.lonelyphilosopher.com/the-fall-of-drona-aswathama-hatha-iti-narova-kunjarova/" target="_blank">naro va kunjaro va</a>", or finding greatness in Gajanan Maharaj holding the chilum.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sanatana is deep, and it does not engage in the shallowness of ascribing virtues or inniquity to worldly actions like smoking or drinking. Smoking of the chillum, a worldly action, has no relation to Gajanan Maharaj's spiritualism. Maharaj is great for the spiritual prowess he possessed, which probably none of us can't even imagine understanding. Gajanan Maharaj can be great while holding the chillum or keeping it away - the chillum plays no part in his greatness or otherwise. </div><div></div><blockquote><div>Sidenote<sup>#</sup>: There is a <a href="https://youtu.be/49X0yYYcYbw?t=409" target="_blank">nice video</a> by Jaggi Vasudev about Sri Ramkrishna Paramhansa's love of food and how he used his craving for food, as a way to stay grounded in this material world in spite of being liberated spiritually. It is possible that the Chillum was Gajanan Maharaj's craving to keep him grounded in this material world until his disciples needed him.</div><div></div></blockquote><div><u>Sensitivity </u></div><div>So, as a student and follower of this Sanatana, I do not find it offensive to see Alcohol or meat offered as Prasad to Maa Kali or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kal_Bhairav_Temple,_Ujjain">liquor</a> to <a href="https://procaffenation.com/the-indian-god-who-drinks-liquor/" target="_blank">Kaal Bhairav</a>. So, political statements on whether a god accepting meat and alcohol as an offering* represents Hinduism, are as shallow as the ones which claim that it is "offensive" to state that god accepts meat and alcohol. </div><div><br /></div><div>Sanatana to me is far above the plane of what you offer your deity - you can offer meat or sweets or ideally, you can offer your whole self - the diety in Sanatana has nothing to do with it. Sanatana is about a spiritual journey where you realise the almighty within yourself - the diety outside, the idol in the temple, and the rug on which you do Yog-Sadhana are going to become immaterial if and when you reach the ultimate consequence. </div><div><br /></div><div>A religion which is about liberating yourself from this material world can neither believe in nor be offended by any words, thoughts or actions which have their existence only in this material world. Hence the (over) sensitivity which is displayed by both sides of this debate belongs to a world, that the spiritual concepts of Sanatana do not recognise.</div><div><br /></div><div><u>Sensibility</u></div><div>My thoughts finally do go back to the filmmaker who made that poster. Kali is an amazing deity - real badass to use a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_(genre)" target="_blank">Western's</a> term. She slayed the asura - an act which probably is illustrative of how we need to quell the demons within our mind, but even if we were to treat it physically - she represents Shakti. The description of Kali in Devi Mahatmyam is representative of the fearsome appearance she exudes: </div><div><blockquote>Bearing the strange <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khatvanga">khatvanga</a> (skull-topped staff), decorated with a garland of skulls, clad in a tiger's skin, very appalling owing to her emaciated flesh, with gaping mouth, fearful with her tongue lolling out, having deep reddish eyes, filling the regions of the sky with her roars, falling upon impetuously and slaughtering the great asuras in that army, she devoured those hordes of the foes of the devas<div></div></blockquote><div>Kali is surely worthy of being portrayed in a grand and menacing manner. As a father of a girl, I can clearly see how Kali should be an essential role model for girls and young women - especially in the context of women's liberation. </div><div><br /></div><div>However, I fail to see how showing Kali smoking a cigarette achieves that effect. With all due consideration to 'freedom of expression' or artistic license that we grant to filmmakers, I do feel there is a need for more Sensibility among them to comprehend what impact their art will have on audiences - not just direct but indirect audiences who receive this art with all their sensitivities throbbing at the first sense of any 'offence' they might want to take. Would I have advised Charlie Hebdo creators also the same, in hindsight, it's probably easy to say - Absolutely!</div><div><br /></div><div>Acknowledged that the world is often pushed forward by those who have the courage to differ and be iconoclasts. Broadcast artists however, operate in a world which has a much wider impact on contemporary narratives than future beliefs. It is one thing to portray a deity in your chosen attire or style in an underground or art cinema - and another to publish a poster for consumption by mainstream audiences.</div><div><br /></div><div>While I find sensitivities of elements on both sides quite incongruous, I also felt that the sensibility displayed by the filmmaker was also abysmal. Going back to Gajanan Maharaj - just like he still had a loincloth covering only a minuscule part of his body, probably just to comfort his disciples, the filmmaker could have used a different trope to showcase the badass character of her hero - Maa Kali.</div><div><br /></div><div>I hope society can return to the days when Sense prevailed, Sensitivities were not restless and Sensibilities of public figures were more refined.</div><div>.</div><hr />
<div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>*the word 'offering' is an incorrect translation of 'prasadam' - but you get the drift!</i></span></div></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i># T</i></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>his is purely my perception given my limited knowledge and may be wrong as well. I certainly do not hope to offend anyone's feelings or question opinions.</i></span></div>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-63505821046153063102022-07-03T23:17:00.003+05:302022-07-03T23:17:23.237+05:30A trip down the early 20s memory lane <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdwvF5VeuP3_nOZB0rrVFiyYOm8LxH8ZMVRLtHVw32gBCQv_xKI3ss768UD9ALBdiu7XBAXW4KEnrff8QOjNPmPK2btSwUiqKsznkRfi8w1jw9NKASpadNrsQTNTmZazuL8H4NRUxGR8jW3KpqTJb5doBVirl0_VBBHmG6ui69rY0z-oWYw/s800/1210010739.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWdwvF5VeuP3_nOZB0rrVFiyYOm8LxH8ZMVRLtHVw32gBCQv_xKI3ss768UD9ALBdiu7XBAXW4KEnrff8QOjNPmPK2btSwUiqKsznkRfi8w1jw9NKASpadNrsQTNTmZazuL8H4NRUxGR8jW3KpqTJb5doBVirl0_VBBHmG6ui69rY0z-oWYw/s320/1210010739.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I am just back from a 24-hour trip to Bhopal, my <i>hometown </i>and my mind is full of several nostalgic moments I experienced in the last 48 hours. It started with a taking a red-eye flight alone - it's been some time since I've taken one of these red-eye ones alone; last few years I've either travelled with family or with some colleague in tow. As a solo traveler, there's that eerie botheration that I may take a nap and miss some important announcement like the Gate of my flight changing or boarding being announced. While I've never had any trouble like this, but the anxious botheration is a part of travelling solo and I experienced this anxiety after a long long time. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then, of course, the emotional rush of being in your city of your birth and upbringing hit me as I took a taxi from the airport towards my destination. When the Taxi guy took a road different to what I'd usually take to get around, I gave him some instructions, only to realise that roads and landmarks both have shifted considerably since I took these roads. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">[Interstingly, it's not been too long since I rode in Bhopal. I had camped in Bhopal at my home for 8-10 months in 2020-21 during the Covid-19 pandemic. But since I drove down in my own car, I took the same roads which were etched to my mind; and also never had to give any directions to anyone. But navigating a taxi driver who probably must have come to Bhopal well after I left the city, made me realise that his and my defintions of the same landmarks was quite different. What I called Board office chauraha (square), was DB city mall for him; what I called tin-shed was platinum plaza for him!]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then I reached the venue to join my parents for the wedding of a close acquaintance. It was probably more than 12 years since I would have attended a wedding party alone with only my parents. Ever since I got married, I was always with my better half - the two of us forming a unit in itself, independent of my parents. Yesterday memories of school years gushed back as I found myself tailing my parents through the party. I felt like being transferred back to those years when we attended numerous parties of my father's colleagues where our main lookout was to hunt for the most delicious serving on the dinner spread!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Thereafter, on my way back I was to take the Rajdhani Express and I decided to ride an auto-rickshaw to the station. Important to note that almost since I was in college, I had stopped seeing the Bhopal Main railway station because most trains, by then, had a halt/stopover at Habibganj (now Rani Kamlapati) station which was much close to my house. So I was probably visiting Bhopal railway station after a gap of 20+ years. [Rajdhani Express has very few stops and hence it doesn't halt at Habibganj.] </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Again the commute was alienating - I had never taken the road which the auto-rick navigated because it didn't exist when I used to live or come frequently to Bhopal railway station. The railway crossings which were landmarks and cornerstones of Bhopal's traffic, for me, had disappeared completely leaving not even a trail of their erstwhile existence. The station itself has been modernised and looked different. And cleanliness near the station impressed me but, ironically also alienated me. I was used to seeing dirty bylanes around the railway station, not wide roads with organized parking! The ride and the destination was almost like visiting a completely new city. </div><p></p><p>Finally, I had a wait of 2 hours before my train came so I started reading a book - the book read was getting pushed down my other priorities for the last month or so. Again came back gushing memories of my Engineering college days, later at NITIE and then at KPMG when I would travel alone to Bhopal and managed to finish a book on my way home and another on my way back. Since Navyaa has been born, I've not had this chance because travel now always entails either being busy managing logistics or spending some time with her. After probably a gap of several years I picked up and finished a book bang within 48 hours - a feat quite refreshing if not pure nostalgic.</p><p>All in all, last 48 hours have not just been a quick trip to and back from Bhopal but also a saporous nostalgic trip down the memories of my early 20s.</p><p>.</p>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-43705040191373173732022-03-20T00:52:00.009+05:302022-03-20T11:03:33.608+05:30The Story of Article 371<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRdCBahDzU63SBmzcNxoiLMMMcT1XYWqdXXq5UWr6Ph1mRxa26BD07E0MdzCiYc5YwjByDwxA0VFAhBjMwWSzE59eYGfuHSMaHB1P7SJ24-U3HM5ZFaAFz1Bl7-vPsw88sZLYCT_tvmC-3CokPJt4aZpHBu_ZcYd9yjn1YSXEpW3rSKMJQIQ/s1478/Aspirant_states_for_india_new.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1478" data-original-width="1402" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRdCBahDzU63SBmzcNxoiLMMMcT1XYWqdXXq5UWr6Ph1mRxa26BD07E0MdzCiYc5YwjByDwxA0VFAhBjMwWSzE59eYGfuHSMaHB1P7SJ24-U3HM5ZFaAFz1Bl7-vPsw88sZLYCT_tvmC-3CokPJt4aZpHBu_ZcYd9yjn1YSXEpW3rSKMJQIQ/s320/Aspirant_states_for_india_new.jpg" width="304" /></a></div><p>The making of the Indian union is a very interesting story. If the efforts of Sardar Patel and VP Menon in integrating princely states into India are the first chapters, the subsequent states (re)organization efforts and the pacts, impacts and outcomes of the States Reorganization Committee’s work were the later chapters which not only formed India as it is today but continue to impact how the relations between the Union and the States playout. </p><p>The impacts of the subsequent chapters are much long-drawn and persistent. They can be as severe as the persistent rise and ebb of violent separatist activities like in Naga, Bodo or Maoist districts or even as mundane as the impact on how Power Distribution companies in States get disciplined by the Union government schemes or how farm sector reforms percolate to the State level.</p><p>One of the most important chapters in post-integration was Article 370, which after its abrogation on 5 August 2019, has gained a lot of media focus. It is argued that Article 370 created artificial conditions which prevented J&K’s development in line with the rest of India both economically and socially – these arguments are not unfounded in fact, even though it can be debated whether abrogation without the approval of J&K’s assembly was the correct way of abrogating the article.</p><p>But did you know that Article 370 has a close cousin, 371 (incl. 371A to 371 H) introduced for ‘regions’ in India with whom an injustice, albeit of a lower proportion, was committed similar to J&K. </p><p>While Articles 370 and 371 were part of the Constitution at the time of its commencement on January 26, 1950; Articles 371A through 371J were incorporated subsequently. </p><p></p><blockquote>The majority of these subsequent ‘371 articles’ are related to north-eastern states of Assam, Manipur, Sikkim, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. These articles are meant to protect indigenous populations and their rights as well as their identities in the larger context of a homogenized Indian Union. The ones for Sikkim, Nagaland and Goa were inserted when these territories were integrated into India much after the creation of the Constitution and integration of rest of India. 371J is an exception because it was created to allow integrated development of Hyderabad to Bangalore belt, in spite of it being spread across (then) Andhra and Karnataka states.</blockquote><p></p><p>But the original article 371 related to Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh and was in contravention both to Dr Ambedkar’s position on states (re)organization as well as the subsequent State Reorganization Committee’s recommendations. When the principle of reorganizing States was being discussed, there were two approaches proposed:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>One language - One state: Meaning all people’s who speak the same language would belong to only one state. This meant that if two culturally separate groups shared a common language, they would be part of the same state.</li><li>One state - One language: Meaning that one state should have one language but at the same time, there can be two or more separate states of one language, depending upon the need for efficient administration or for separate cultural representation.</li></ul><p></p><div>Both, Dr Ambedkar and the SRC favoured the second approach but due to political reasons when the Constitution was prepared and subsequently in 1953 at the time of States reorganization the first principle applied. As a result, there were three regions with whom injustice was committed:</div><div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Vidarbha</b>: Both Dr Ambedkar and the SRC favoured a separate Vidarbha State with Nagpur as capital. This would be a derivative of the erstwhile region of 'Berar' (Varhad) which was a part of CP & Berar - of which Madhya Pradesh emerged (CP) while Berar was separated. </li><li><b>Saurashtra and Kutch</b>: Upon independence, 217 princely states of Kathiawar, including the former Junagadh State, were merged to form the state of Saurashtra with Rajkot as its capital. Similarly, Kutch was created as a separate State in 1950. But subsequently, in 1956, Saurashtra and Kutch were merged into Bombay state, which then split into Gujarat and Maharashtra in 1960 again. Since the principle was One language - One state Saurashtra and Kutch were combined with Gujarat.</li><li><b>Telangana and Rayalaseema</b>: Both Telangana and Rayalaseema were part of the Hyderabad State under the Nizam prior to Independence. Since the Hyderabad state had to be acquired by force, both states were merged into India but the demand for both of these to be recognized as separate states arose immediately after being merged into India. Telangana finally got its due in 2014 when the new State was created out of Andhra Pradesh. But Rayalaseema is still looking for its statehood.</li></ol></div></div><div><div>To be sure, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_states_and_union_territories_of_India" target="_blank">the list</a> of ‘wannabe’ States in India is long, the only reason for singling out the above 3 causes is their explicit inclusion in Article 371 of the Constitution. The explicit recognition of these states in the Constitution makes their case stronger.</div><div><br /></div><div>The core issue here is the lack of political acknowledgement and acceptance of the fact that the One language - One state principle was wrong, and Dr Ambedkar and SRCC were correct. States' organization should have been based on administrative ease and cultural identities – this would not only have helped in keeping the cultural identities distinct but also helped in keeping the size of States smaller for administrative ease. Today with a Billion plus peoples India needs about 50 States rather than the current 28 States and 8 Union Territories. </div><div><br /></div><div>It is high time that the historical wrongs are corrected by abandoning the One language - One state principle; and new States are created recognizing the cultural identities of all indigenous people.</div></div><div>.</div>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-76327093537043093772022-01-30T10:46:00.003+05:302022-01-30T17:18:34.163+05:30Education for the sake of education<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcRuGnzdvyq5d9R9A2X3604uZcAxSigaYBsm_mzZnmDV-7OXr100j0F46ORLXmG0D7q4qMVyanieAX0hoeQZYhyzfla5eAF3Jiir1U-RXoDURZPnSgu-iJqPXlZiMFk9WZF2zA/s869/photo-1472162072942-cd5147eb3902.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="869" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcRuGnzdvyq5d9R9A2X3604uZcAxSigaYBsm_mzZnmDV-7OXr100j0F46ORLXmG0D7q4qMVyanieAX0hoeQZYhyzfla5eAF3Jiir1U-RXoDURZPnSgu-iJqPXlZiMFk9WZF2zA/s320/photo-1472162072942-cd5147eb3902.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@benwhitephotography" target="_blank">Ben White</a> </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p>Do you remember when you last walked for the first time on your own? </p><p>Maybe you don't - probably a memory far too away for you to keep. I remember the first time I was able to sit cross-legged - had been trying for so long and my plump thighs won't allow me to. I remember I was around 4 and returning home with my mom after taking one of those vaccination shots, and as we reached the front door, my mom must have let me sit by the door, and lo, I sat cross-legged. That's my earliest memory of pure joy on having 'achieved' something I tried for.</p><p>I also recollect the first few days of my daughter learning to walk - she was all joy, simply walking around. The joy of mobility on your own, the joy of being able to 'discover' the whole house on your own without needing anyone to carry you. Oh the joy!</p><p>That joy defines for me what education should be like for all of us - joy! As I read <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/india-faces-extreme-pain-aspirations-dashed-economist-abhijit-banerjee-121120500174_1.html" target="_blank">this article</a>, I realised that in today's world where we commercialise everything, education has become very utilitarian - probably why Abhijit Banerjee said: </p><p></p><blockquote>"... two of India's great filmmakers - Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal - were economics graduates but chose to walk a different path. Yet, they did fine in life. So, instead of specific training, what is really important is that you are a lively, thoughtful and open human being. That's the most important part."</blockquote><p></p><p>Steve Jobs, in his celebrated commencement address on Joining the Dots also explained how dropping out was the best decision of his life because he was no longer bound by the curriculum of the university - but could rather drop in any class which he found interesting. If you go through the lives of most innovators and scholars of 15th to 17th centuries, most of them were polymaths not trained in any particular discipline but wanderers who learnt across 'streams' of education - Michaelangelo or Leonardo-da-Vinci or Newton in the West or Ramanujam in India.</p><p><b>How did we get here</b></p><p>Industrialization gave way to mass employment and the need for large masses of people to be trained in performing the same repeatable jobs in large numbers. People, in the early days of industrial civilization, were cogs in a large wheel and thus began today's formal schooling system - designed exactly like a factory. </p><p>Think of a foundry where metal comes in only one form - a bar of metal; and then its molten, then moulded using 'pre-defined' moulds and out come a variety of components in hordes. You will end up with a million gears, ten million screws, twenty million bolts, thousands of rods, pipes and joint pieces. Modern schooling is just like this - we get a million accountants, a million salespeople, a few thousand engineers and doctors, a few hundred MBAs and so on. But, the only problem here is that unlike the bar of metal which the metal components started out as - we humans are all, NOT exactly alike. We're all ourselves already something else, we have poets, painters, sculptors, filmmakers, photographers, nature lovers, logicians, argument makers, deep thinkers, glib talkers etc etc.</p><p>And this means that when the school is trying to make a million accountants or a hundred engineers - unfortunately, it is trying to mould something which already is; in the process, it first needs to break our current form. But humans, the tenacious species we are, are not broken so easily - which is why you find a Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal come out from an economic education. People learn by discipline but they also learn for the joy of learning and when that happens we get their greats. </p><p><b>What's happening now?</b></p><p>The core point is that education needs to transform and <a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/2020/09/the-future-of-education-post-covid-19.html" target="_blank">with the current Covid-19 pandemic disruptions it has already transformed</a> - we will see the effect in as a generation comes through this system. While students still attend (online) schools with a fixed syllabus but now that they're also now used online schooling, they're also more open to exploring so much else - and so much else has also become accessible. Just like Steve Jobs dropped into classes he liked on the Campus, students can find the subjects they like to study and find the an educator for those, online.</p><p>Another change that has happened is the blurring of lines between the end of education and the beginning of work life. On one hand, students are taking up internships, social work and other "work like" vocations earlier and earlier in their lives, on the other hand, more and more professionals are walking out of their regular jobs into mid-career re-skilling. Many are also moving into part-time work and part-time education. Remote Work (Work from Home) is also contributing to the growth of this trend among working professionals to pursue other things - education being one of the options - while working.</p><p>So finally, we're getting to a point where we will fix <a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/2016/07/education-for-employment-is-passe_27.html" target="_blank">the broken system of learning</a> that was created during the 19th and 20th centuries. The reason why we can't see it now is that, unlike the 19th-20th century where the change was instituted from top-down when governments and industrialists funded large universities or school systems, this change is happening ground up - it is more emergent rather than planned, it is a gradual groundswell than a big bang policy shift.</p><p>Having said that, the Government of India, with its <a href="https://static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/userfiles/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf" target="_blank">New Education policy</a> has at least partially helped push these changes in the right direction albeit it is not still 'full steam ahead but it's half-way there. For example, while the NEP does not recognise remote or online education and still makes it mandatory to operate courses through a UGC recognized university system, it does provide ways to unbundle education in a variety of ways. For example the NEP:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>provides for grant of a certificate / diploma after each year of education - thus making it non-compulsory to mandatorily 'complete' a course for the entire 3 or 4 year period;</li><li>allows students to take a break in their education and return back after a hiatus to complete it;</li><li>allows institutions to offer and blend online courses with traditional teaching in undergraduate and vocational programmes;</li><li>allows flexible curricular structures so that credits from one discipline can be combined with another, along with multiple entry and exit points, thus, removing currently prevalent rigid boundaries and creating new possibilities for life-long learning.</li></ul>
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<div>This is a good beginning, even the 'attitude' of the policy as reflected from its language is much more open and thus creates possibilities for the groundswell to leverage. At the least, this policy would not work in a direction opposite to the changes happening in the ecosystem.</div><div><br /></div><div>The third trend, at least in the developing world, is the mobility of students across continents for education. What started as 'brain drain' with IIT graduates seeking a masters in US universities has blown into a complete industry. No longer is it just the elite students going abroad for education but many - and with so many foreign universities offering so many courses, the cost is not necessarily a big hindrance to getting educated abroad. Some Russian and East European universities offer courses even cheaper than some elite Indian institutions. And to leverage the reverse - i.e. foreign students seeking education in India - the NEP also has provisions for 'Internationalisation' of India education systems. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Bringing the joy back</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Ultimately, all these events - Online Education, Pandemic driven changes, New Education Policy and mobility across continents - will unravel many changes in the way we learn. And while my post is focused on India, many of these changes are global and for others, similar changes are happening across the globe. In future we would have more opportunities to learn for joy of learning itself than for vocational, employment or economic reasons.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p></p>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-90059352144260068872022-01-27T01:12:00.009+05:302022-01-27T01:17:56.665+05:30Misinformation and the Republic<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBPn6Ka15wXAv1rr737nqPYSOn7rsTVCWFwVsQP6GkgdNZMUDV3SLV1RepBcmkSycT2SsUUalkX3hhc-LBAymuKzXinogD4rstGZPon4bPBXLOPFTEAyN9IvZGekVArgY0pvtbNhICpbwu5-ovKCocabS-hirBBXjivievaoAfQJWXYDopxA=s870" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="870" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhBPn6Ka15wXAv1rr737nqPYSOn7rsTVCWFwVsQP6GkgdNZMUDV3SLV1RepBcmkSycT2SsUUalkX3hhc-LBAymuKzXinogD4rstGZPon4bPBXLOPFTEAyN9IvZGekVArgY0pvtbNhICpbwu5-ovKCocabS-hirBBXjivievaoAfQJWXYDopxA=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@gabography" target="_blank">Gabography</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p>When India went from being a British dominion to a Republic on its own, two parallel but interrelated events shaped its contours and personality. The first, was of course, the formulation of the Constitution of India - the first modern document which encapsulated the ethos, principles, and aspirations of Indians as a whole. And the second was the formal political unification of Indian territory from 600 plus splintered states and provinces into one nation.</p><p>It is notable that India is one of the world's oldest republics - of the 16 Mahajanpads which formed India 2500+ years ago, two were Gantantra i.e. Republics. The world's oldest self-governing systems were in India (and not in Greece as is popularly believed). While little is known about the Indus Valley Civilization - it is very likely that this civilization also practised some form of the republican political system.</p><p>Similarly, when it comes to a unified India, the earliest unification of the Indian subcontinent in its current form (or rather larger than the current form) was done by Ashok, who came about 300-350 years after these Janpadas. Later, India was largely unified under one common 'Takht' under the Mughals and subsequently under the Maratha-Sikh combine.</p><p>Nevertheless, when India became independent - two problems lay before it; first was a legal-gubernatorial vacuum created by the British leaving the country and the second was the possible splintering of the country into several bits - following the gash of partition. When the British divided India into two, it was likely that some antipathetic British strategists wanted it to trigger a domino of many other such 'nationalist' ambitions within Indian princely states.</p><p>But was the partition really needed? How was a boundary draen into the nation which was united since 3rd century BCE? Was there any material truth in the narrative which led to the formation of Pakistan? </p><p>In today's terminology, it is fair to say that <b><i>the partition was a result of a massive misinformation campaign</i></b> by the Muslim league to paint a picture of India being made of two nations - one Hindu and one Muslim nation. Reality could not be farther from the truth because Indians were divided (if one were to use the word - 'divided') not just into Hindus and Muslims but into hundreds of thousands of divisions - caste, creed, economic status, political allegiance etc. </p><p>The Muslim league engaged in a careful campaign of misinformation in each constituent state to achieve the objective of influencing people to believe in the mirage of the two-nation theory. </p><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>In Punjab</b></i>, Muslims placed more emphasis on the Punjabi identity they shared with Hindus and Sikhs, rather than on their religion. The Unionists had built a formidable power base in the Punjabi countryside through policies of patronage allowing them to retain the loyalty of landlords and pirs who exerted significant local influence. For the Muslim League to claim to represent the Muslim vote, they would need to win over the majority of the seats held by the Unionists. Following the death of Sir Sikander in 1942, and bidding to overcome their dismal showing in the elections of 1937, the Muslim League intensified campaigning throughout rural and urban Punjab.</p><p style="text-align: left;">A major thrust of the Muslim's League's campaign was the promotion of communalism and spreading fear of a supposed "Hindu threat" in a future united India. Muslim League activists were advised to join in communal prayers when visiting villages, and gain permission to hold meetings after the Friday prayers. The Quran became a symbol of the Muslim League at rallies, and pledges to vote were made on it. Students, a key component of the Muslim League's activists, were trained to appeal to the electorate on communal lines. A key achievement of these efforts came in enticing Muslim Jats and Gujjars from their intercommunal tribal loyalties. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Finally, the Muslim League created the Masheikh Committee, used Urs ceremonies and shrines for meetings and rallies and encouraged fatwas urging support for the Muslim League. Reasons for the pirs switching allegiance varied. For the Gilani Pirs of Multan the over-riding factor was local longstanding factional rivalries, whilst for many others a shrines size and relationship with the government dictated its allegiance.</p><p><b><i>In Sind</i></b>, the Sind United Party which had the majority vote promoted communal harmony between Hindus and Muslims. The state was divided economically than communally - the Muslim landed elite, waderas, and the Hindu commercial elements, banias, collaborated in oppressing the predominantly Muslim peasantry. Jinnah, himself belonging to a Sindhi Muslim elite family twisted the economic narrative into a communal one and not Jinnah alone Sindhi support for the Pakistan Movement arose from the desire of the entire Sindhi Muslim business class to drive out their Hindu competitors. Although the prominent Sindhi Muslim nationalist G.M. Syed (who admired both Hindu and Muslim rulers of Sindh) left the All India Muslim League in the mid-1940s, the overwhelming majority of Sindhi Muslims supported the creation of Pakistan, seeing in it their deliverance.</p><p><b style="font-style: italic;">In North-West Frontier Province, </b>the Muslim League had little support, especially because called the Frontier Gandhi, the Congress and Pashtun nationalist leader Abdul Ghaffar Khan, supported the cause of a United India. But Jamiat Ulema Hind, an organization of Deobandi school of thought began to exploit communal tones. Accusations of molesting Muslim women were levelled at Hindu shopkeepers in Nowshera, a town where anti-Hindu sermons were delivered by mullahs. A majority of the JUS ulama in the province began supporting the Muslim League's idea of Pakistan, but the reality is that the referendum held in 1946, which resulted in 99% vote in favour of Pakistan was boycotted by Ghaffar Khan's Khudai Khidmatgar supporters and barely 50% voters had voted in it. Unfortunately, for NWFP, the principle of geographic contiguity went against it.</p><p><b><i>Baluchistan </i></b>was under the rule of a Chief Commissioner and did not have the same status as other provinces of British India. There is widespread confusion about whether and when the Baloch's agreed to become a part of Pakistan. Apart from the pro-separatist Muslim League that was led by a non-Balochi and non-Sardar, "three pro-Congress parties were still active in Balochistan's politics", such as the Anjuman-i-Watan Baluchistan, which favoured a united India. While it is claimed that the province's Shahi Jirga, agreed to join Pakistan unanimously on 29 June 1947; however, the Shahi Jirga was stripped of its members from the Kalat State prior to the vote. Further, the Muslim league's own Baloch representative Qazi Muhammad Isa, informed Muhammad Ali Jinnah that "Shahi Jirga in no way represents the popular wishes of the masses" and that members of the Kalat State were "excluded from voting; only representatives from the British part of the province voted and the British part included the leased areas of Quetta, Nasirabad Tehsil, Nushki and Bolan Agency. </p><p>It is not clear if Baloch's at large ever knew about the whole referendum and the decision to accede to Pakistan was definitely not popularised. Political scientist Salman Rafi Sheikh, in locating the origins of the insurgency in Balochistan, says "that Balochistan's accession to Pakistan was, as against the officially projected narrative, not based upon consensus, nor was support for Pakistan overwhelming. What this manipulation indicates is that even before formally becoming a part of Pakistan, Balochistan had fallen a prey to political victimization.</p><p><b><i>Dhaka </i></b>was the birthplace of the All India Muslim League in 1906. The Pakistan Movement was highly popular in the Muslim population of Bengal. Many of the Muslim League's notable statesmen and activists hailed from East Bengal, and many among whom later became Prime ministers of Pakistan. However, as history now tells us, from the struggle of Begalis in living with the idea of Pakistan and how the Mukti Bahini had to be supported by the Indian Army to liberate Bangladesh from Pakistan, the creation of East Pakistan was a mistake of epic proportions.</p><p>It is not just gullible poor populations who were conned by the Muslim League - among the most notable 'founders' of Pakistan was Jogendra Nath Mandal from Bengal. After the independence, Mandal was given ministries of Law, Justice, and Work-Force by Jinnah in Liaquat Ali Khan's government in Pakistan. But ultimately, despite all his good contributions, Mandal was badly ignored in the emerging political scenario. He returned to India and submitted his resignation to Liaquat Ali Khan, the then-Prime Minister of Pakistan.</p><p>The Muslim league was also a culprit in <b><i>misusing the international scenario </i></b>to further its twisted interests. When in 1939, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared the commencement of war with Germany, the then Viceroy Lord Linlithgow followed suit and announced that India too was at war with Germany. In protest against this unilateral decision without consultation of the elected government, the Congress leaders resigned from all British India government positions to which they had elected. In a secret memorandum to the British Prime Minister, the Muslim League agreed to support the United Kingdom's war efforts — provided that the British recognised it as the only organisation that spoke for Indian Muslims. </p><p>Thus, in reality, <i>the Muslim league never had any ground support from Muslims in India</i> and it was an organization formed by the Muslim elite purely to further their interests. This is one key reason why the resulting state of Pakistan remains a '<a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/2014/07/why-is-indian-constitution-unique_27.html">kingdom of parts</a>' than a nation.</p><p>Lessons from this early period of the Republic's life are very important today because we're again faced with the same monster of misinformation, albeit from a very different [opposite?] direction and aimed at a very different [but also parallel?] objective.</p><p>How <b><i>misinformation makes a Republic die the death of a thousand cuts</i></b>, is the subject of another elaborate post but the wretched tale of the creation of Pakistan is testimony that the <b><i><span style="color: #ffa400;">misinformation is a Republic killer</span></i></b>. This Republic Day, let us at least wow to stop misinformation wherever we see it to guard this republic for our future generations. Our Republic depends on facts to sustain and light the way, and we all benefit from its strength. Defend facts. Dispute lies, misinformation and memory-holing.</p><p>.</p>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-6905046866835231832021-05-24T00:46:00.010+05:302021-05-24T12:13:23.653+05:3017th Anniversary<p>This blog completed 17 years today - <a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/2004/05/place-for-me.html" target="_blank">started this blog</a> online in 2004. But I've been writing since far before - I had a lot of my handwritten posts locked in my drawer, even one unfinished and one completed science fiction. I was 22 when I started blogging and had gained access to a computer with a 24x7 internet connection only a few months ago.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0q4V3sLkubP1A8FE08QcTXdLaxz4CHn_fk7xDbeywmDs1wxqlHsK6O2CtapCBjKcuVF5MKTYF1gY41kAXsML-vUP06asAvgy-gy_ClqC4h-P-ZP8KE6f953gztKhI-lB71pWB/s1098/blogin2004.PNG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="693" data-original-width="1098" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0q4V3sLkubP1A8FE08QcTXdLaxz4CHn_fk7xDbeywmDs1wxqlHsK6O2CtapCBjKcuVF5MKTYF1gY41kAXsML-vUP06asAvgy-gy_ClqC4h-P-ZP8KE6f953gztKhI-lB71pWB/s320/blogin2004.PNG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="background-color: #fcff01;">The first version of my blog from 2004</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Over the last 17 years, I've written on several topics and in the process discovered myself. My writing style has undergone changes, personal posts with memoirs got replaced by views and viewpoints. Off late a lot of my thoughts find their way to Facebook and Twitter rather than here. But writing in prose is still my preferred method when self-musing on a subject. Whenever I've felt to think deeply on a subject, I start researching about it and the researched material usually lends itself to a blog post.</p><p>To me, 2006 to 2012 was the golden period for blogging - this was a time when blogging went from being a new-fangled hobby for a few to being the next wave of Media. Several popular online publications and columnists of today started with blogging. Some of my favourites from that period are <a href="https://www.whatay.com/" target="_blank">Sidin Vadukut</a>, <a href="https://gauravsabnis.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Gaurav Sabnis</a>, <a href="https://greatbong.net/" target="_blank">GreatBong</a>, <a href="https://www.labnol.org/" target="_blank">Amit Agrawal</a>, <a href="https://emergic.org/" target="_blank">Rajesh Jain</a>, and <a href="https://deeshaa.org/" target="_blank">Atanu Dey</a>. Some international bloggers I followed in this period were <a href="http://scripting.com/" target="_blank">Dave Winer</a>, <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/" target="_blank">Ariana Huffington</a> and <a href="https://readwrite.com/" target="_blank">Richard MacManus</a>.</p><p>I was, and still am, inspired by the utopian dream of blogging as an open and fair system of exchange of ideas. Blogs, which can be read by anyone without logging in, discovered by anyone through a simple Google search and commented upon by anyone - are probably the most unbiased medium discovered by mankind to date. Their existence has been overshadowed in the last decade by the rise of gated social networks like Facebook, and either gated media publications or those which have an ideological bias. </p><p>The predecessors of blogs - usenet and later egroups (Yahoo groups, Google groups, mailing lists - many names) were also suboptimal as they required membership. I was a participant in some towards the end of egroups era as well and quickly discovered the ills of moderation and in absence of moderation - flaming within the groups. Not surprisingly, today the same kind of flaming is seen on Twitter and Whatsapp groups where biased media articles are circulated.</p><p>Notably, the predecessors of usenet were newspapers and magazines and they were already overly commercialised and biased by the time the Internet arose. Prior to newspapers were pamphlets - the type used by Benjamin Franklin during American war of independence to spread the ideas of freedom and justice - which I think were similar to blogs.</p><p>Blogs represent an alternate future - you write what you want, people can comment on it, but you retain absolute editorial control over your space. This actually reduces the chances of flaming - though it isn't unknown to see a flaming comment on a blog - but just the fact that this isn't a communal space but where the author retains editorial rights discourages flamers. Needless to say, it is unmoderated and hence provides ample opportunity for open expression of ideas.</p><p>The overshadowing of blogging by Facebook and biased online media houses / gated publications is a bad sign for democracies and mankind in general. The ill signs of this are being seen all over the world where people long for an open and unbiased exchange of ideas - forward-looking policies and non-regressive socio-political discourse. Ideas and their exchange is the bedrock of our progress. If we can't trust what a media house or a person writes, the writing and ideas in it are of no use to us as a collective. At the same time if we lose the freedom to express ourselves openly - if we have to pay - either by cash or through our attention; advertisements or a biased / gamed timeline of posts - it is again of no use because the medium is simply being used to program us rather than help us grow as individuals which then leads to social progress.</p><p>I long for the blogging era of 2006-2012 to return; I wish we have more 'commoners' give up the narrow confines of Facebook and start blogging in an open universe. I long for a system where biased media can be overshadowed by genuine blog posts by commoners, where we can discover like-minded bloggers simply based on their writing and not because we know them from someplace else or that they've spent advertising dollars on advertising.</p><div style="text-align: left;">In short, borrowing a phrase from Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote style="font-weight: bold;">Where the head is held High and mind without fear - let blogging awake! </blockquote><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p><b>Side Note 1: </b></p><p>Incidentally, the most popular post on my blog is a translation of Gurudev's most popular poem Ekla Chalo re. Read it <a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/2005/05/ekla-chalo-re.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </p><p><b>Side note 2: </b></p><p>I find Twitter can co-exist very nicely with an open blogging ecosystem - Twitter not only serves as a micro-blogging platform but more importantly, it's a way to discover like-minded people and hence a gateway to discovering great blogs.</p><span><!--more--></span><p>To cap, here is a list of all topics on which I've written ordered along descending order of the number of posts in them. SocioPolitics closely followed by Technology describes me quite accurately. </p><p></p><ul><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/SocioPolitic" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">SocioPolitic (160)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Tech" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Tech (118)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Musings" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Musings (113)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Rambling-Rant" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Rambling-Rant (60)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Travel" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Travel (54)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Economics-mgmt" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Economics-mgmt (40)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Philosophy" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Philosophy (34)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Reminiscence" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Reminiscence (34)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Entrepreneurship" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Entrepreneurship (32)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/MBA-NITIE" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">MBA-NITIE (31)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Cities%20and%20Urbanization" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Cities and Urbanization (26)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Media-ShowBiz" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Media-ShowBiz (26)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/photoBlog" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">photoBlog (24)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Reviews" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Reviews (23)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Personal" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Personal (20)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/People" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">People (19)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Blog" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Blog (18)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Education" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Education (18)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Funny" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Funny (18)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Poem" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Poem (15)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Amusing" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Amusing (13)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/story" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">story (13)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Innovation" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Innovation (11)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Digital%20Lifestyle" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Digital Lifestyle (10)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/bloozle" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">bloozle (9)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Finance" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Finance (7)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Web2.0" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Web2.0 (7)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Bloozle%20Story" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Bloozle Story (6)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/ConstitutionOfIndia" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">ConstitutionOfIndia (6)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/India" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">India (6)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/ArthavyavasthaSeries" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">ArthavyavasthaSeries (5)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/EntrepEducationseries" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">EntrepEducationseries (5)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/MastishkSeries" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">MastishkSeries (5)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/MiddleEast%26IndiaSeries" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">MiddleEast&IndiaSeries (5)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/BecomingMBAseries" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">BecomingMBAseries (4)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/CityvsSuburbseries" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">CityvsSuburbseries (4)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Energy" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Energy (4)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Ideas" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Ideas (4)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Science" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Science (4)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/independenceDayseries" style="float: left; 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text-align: center;">LondonSeries (3)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/OSIModelseries" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">OSIModelseries (3)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Politics" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Politics (3)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/SlowFastMoneyseries" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">SlowFastMoneyseries (3)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/Space" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">Space (3)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/bookstoreseries" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">bookstoreseries (3)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/cleanFuelPoliticsseries" style="float: left; list-style-type: none; text-align: center;">cleanFuelPoliticsseries (3)</a></li><li><a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/drutgaminiSeries" style="float: left; 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<p></p>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-86319511836065015072021-04-23T01:07:00.014+05:302021-04-30T11:36:45.061+05:30The evolutionary outcomes of Covid-19<p>We've evolved - from monkeys to Chimps to Neanderthals to Homo Sapiens and now to Homo Sapiens wearing masks! </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0RIaH3MocPCwylD8z99X-NU2IzcTqxRRPHWW9xBmwgHdhJQcOXqV7sYsA8anqPbQ-yLxaiF5z8C66e8MAC7DDP4YCJU0aYCkjXcIUFsPeVbuGK9VhXoDO438H06oJrhZvpLNn/s1688/evolution+to+covid+masks.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1688" height="427" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0RIaH3MocPCwylD8z99X-NU2IzcTqxRRPHWW9xBmwgHdhJQcOXqV7sYsA8anqPbQ-yLxaiF5z8C66e8MAC7DDP4YCJU0aYCkjXcIUFsPeVbuGK9VhXoDO438H06oJrhZvpLNn/w640-h427/evolution+to+covid+masks.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Jokes apart, I am truly curious about ... </p><blockquote>What would be the long term impact of the pandemic on mankind's evolutionary future? </blockquote><p>To be sure, I am not claiming that two years of Covid-19 impacted lockdowns mean anything in the millennia-old human evolutionary chain. But as many experts are predicting, Covid-19 is one of the impacts of the combination of global warming, climate change, increased globalisation - as glaciers melt, several microbes and other viruses will start getting unlocked from them and increased globalisation would make the proliferation of these viruses ever faster. And hence <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52775386" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b><i>Covid-19 is not the end, but the beginning of a long chain of pandemics</i></b> </a>which will continue to pervade mankind's destiny for the foreseeable future.</p><p>Assuming the above is true, how would mankind evolve? We're observing different kinds of behavioural patterns among populations across the globe; I will risk categorising them into few cohorts:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b>The warriors</b>: Frontline workers - doctors, medical staff, sanitation workers - who are braving the pandemic from the front. Most of them are not doing this by choice but due to the demands of their profession rather than 'pure' free will. </li><li><b>The volunteers</b>: We've seen the emergence of a new class of warriors - the volunteers - who may not have been part of frontline professions, but are coming out and taking the risk simply out of an obligation to serve the society or people.</li><li><b>The callous</b>: The naysayers or no-mask crusaders, those who oppose every public safety measure announced by the authorities, those who insist on not wearing masks or not curtailing their commune or social activities.</li><li><b>The cautious</b>: Those who believe in following the rules, staying indoors, stepping out only for necessary needs, not participating in social gatherings, discouraging all congregations - social, religious, personal, family etc. These are also those who would religiously mask themselves up if and when required to step out of their homes. </li></ol><div>The categories above aren't absolute - there will be combinations. There are some warriors who fall into callous or cautious, there may be volunteers who're of the callous lot and many who may be cautious. There may be those who are cautious while attending to daily needs, but callous when it comes to, say, recreation or so cautious as to not explore leisure but callous in their daily routine.</div><div><br /></div><div>A doctor or nurse who falls into the cautious category will practice additional safety measures like more frequent hand sanitisation and maintaining mandatory 6 feet distance from infected patients, compared to a callous one. </div><div><br /></div><div>Overlapping the above categories, is the health and well being of the individuals - </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>People with high immunity and those with low or medium immunity</li><li>People with and without past comorbidities.</li></ul></div><div>It is only fair to assume that the well-being status of individuals will be equally distributed across all 4 categories mentioned above. Your genes may influence your attitude (cautious vs callous) and your wellness status; it will however have little or no influence on whether you're a warrior/volunteer or otherwise. How will natural selection play out given all the above factors?</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>For those who are infected, pandemics will successively lead to those with high immunity, and lesser comorbidities survive, over those who have lower immunity and higher comorbidities. In that sense, the pandemic, in general, will reward "better quality genes" over "faulty" ones, cleansing the gene pool in general - thus making future generations of humans more resistant to any future viruses.</li><li>Let's come to the infection rate itself - the infection rate among the callous would logically be higher than the cautious ones. It is fair to assume that the death rate among the infected will remain the same irrespective of whether the person was cautious or callous in the first place. But the fact that the callous ones are more likely to be infected than the cautious ones, would mean that the surviving genetic chain for future generations would likely inherit more cautious genes than callous ones.</li></ul></div><div>In fact, mankind has come a long way since we were wanderer gatherers. Looking at the past as well, it is fair to assume that dangers faced by humanity led to a biological evolution where those humans have successively survived took a more cautious approach (calculated risks vs unmitigated daredevil). This is why, today's humans are physically not as strong as their forefathers were, yet are much more likely to live longer and afford much lesser health agonies in their lifetimes.</div><p></p><div>This leads us to the future - several generations (say 25?) down the line, humans are more likely to take more precautions when faced with a risk, even though they are more likely to have far better immune systems to brave the dangers of infections. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjveQgnvcGUuftu0unS-vQq7nJxS530FPoJGH7Lskw9xWc-Fi56R3V4aQpfJY-9zBd6pX5JScfblH6MQ8L7Fby0lSZeKwd3ABGiQp_cs63QepuKlHsDJK2sGv9rCDsNh3ozcSRq/s2048/photo-1536697246787-1f7ae568d89a.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjveQgnvcGUuftu0unS-vQq7nJxS530FPoJGH7Lskw9xWc-Fi56R3V4aQpfJY-9zBd6pX5JScfblH6MQ8L7Fby0lSZeKwd3ABGiQp_cs63QepuKlHsDJK2sGv9rCDsNh3ozcSRq/w426-h640/photo-1536697246787-1f7ae568d89a.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>This is probably right - the future humans may not live on earth - they may be Mars dwellers or may be permanent space voyagers, living entirely on space ships and far away planets. The dangers they will face will be far more severe than what today's humans, cocooned under the comfortable atmosphere of the earth, face. In space, a callous attitude will only lead to higher risks on survival itself than a cautious one. A more cautious mindset combined with better immunity is a genetic template that will help humanity become a successful spacefaring race!</div><div><br /></div><div>. </div>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-24938724633539365772021-01-31T23:49:00.026+05:302021-02-04T00:36:07.198+05:30A Guide to Privacy on Social Media [apps]<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1610548822710-dc1d32b47a70?ixid=MXwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHw%3D&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1050&q=80" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="267" src="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1610548822710-dc1d32b47a70?ixid=MXwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHw%3D&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1050&q=80" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>The recent announcement by WhatsApp to <a href="https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/updates/key-updates" target="_blank">update its privacy terms</a> - and 'accept or leave the app' stance - led to an exodus of users from Whastapp to competing, privacy-conscious apps such as Telegram or Signal. A week after the exodus began, Whatsapp <a href="https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/security-and-privacy/answering-your-questions-about-whatsapps-privacy-policy" target="_blank">clarified</a> its stance - and WhatsApp's CEO went about providing a long <a href="https://twitter.com/wcathcart/status/1347660768225841152" target="_blank">Twitter clarification</a>. And then, many returned, many who considered moving stayed put on Whatsapp. <b>This post is meant for those who are still sitting on the fence - it clarifies questions like: </b><i>What is this all about? What do I do? Is Whatsapp safe? I've heard Telegram is Russian - so how is it safer than Whatsapp? I can't move because my business contacts are on Whastapp - how do I secure myself?</i></p><p></p><blockquote>PS: I've modeled this post based on several conversations I've had with friends and family on this subject, dealing with the chain of questions they ask, then objections they raise, then clarifications they seek - and finally the change resistance they exhibit. You may want to skip over to the relevant section directly.</blockquote><b>The Controversy </b><p></p><p>As WhatsApp rolled out its new Privacy Policy, a cursory reading of it gave out signals that Whatsapp will now start sharing its data with Facebook its parent. Many people, me included, had this perception after glossing over the changes proposed by Whatsapp. Turns out I was wrong - as per the clarification - Whatsapp continues to remain private for most parts of your 'personal communications' with your direct contacts.</p><p>However, there is a section of conversations which will get shared with Facebook - that is your conversations with Business Accounts. Mostly these are established brands like your Bank or Insurer. In most cases, this will not include your local businesses like shops, laundryman or Milkman - because even though these are businesses who interact with you over Whatsapp, Whatsapp has no way of knowing that these are businesses because they usually do not use 'WhatsApp for Business' app and you are usually chatting with the personal account of the shopkeeper or handyman. This will, however, include players like your Bank, Insurer, Food delivery app or your Telco who have a registered Whatsapp Business account.</p><p>Having said that, while the current change in Privacy policy is restricted to business account interactions, directionally the change is against Privacy and nothing stops WhatsApp / Facebook from extending it over time to personal and groups chats also. </p><p><b>Why does Facebook need to track me? </b></p><p>Facebook is not evil (not brazenly evil at least) - it doesn't want to peep into your bedroom and livecast your personal moments to the web; no that's NOT the reason why Facebook wants your data. Facebook collects data about which brands you interact with to build a database of likes, dislikes, preferences. This database is both specific to you i.e. personalized and also used to generate aggregated statistics. </p><p>The aggregated statistics may be sold to other (big?) businesses who pay for such data - to use in marketing and product innovation</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>to create products people like or are likely to buy and;</li><li>to better target advertisements and other content to you - in short, sell you in a more personalised way or target you based on what you would react favourably to.</li></ul><p></p><p><b>Is that bad?</b></p><p>Is this really bad - not necessarily - as a fellow entrepreneur pointed out to me, that he has come across some very innovative and useful products through personalized ads, which he would have never searched himself as he didn’t know something like that existed! As an entrepreneur myself, I'd love to target my product to audiences who will use it and there is no other way than having data about their likes / dislikes (and other data like their Salary, Bank balances, travel styles, shopping preferences etc), to be able to target them well.</p><p>But as <a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/2016/11/personalization-is-against-privacy-but.html" target="_blank">I have argued in past</a> personalisation, the kind being promoted by BigTech, is not good because excessive personalization of say our Facebook feeds or news coming in via WhatsApp groups, makes us as blind to other perspectives.</p><p>Beyond news feeds, privacy may be desirable to you in other respects of life - you may not want your Facebook friends (which may include your family) to know about the WhatsApp groups you're a part of or even brands which you interact with on WhatsApp. Imagine you receive an update about your recent lingerie purchase from your retailer on WhatsApp, which pops an advert on your mother's Facebook timeline stating - <i>'Your friend just received an update about Victoria's Secrets on WhatsApp, you may like it too, click here to receive updates on your WhatsApp number</i>'</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGD5q9PeSugf3NwWlA_WyHdGYBcaTy6DswtM6b9V0gyHbzdOsw36gnT31VgLbJtefl7gD2Sfpw8pxpTrWVxItPxah-7h-Ic_QueYhOSJ4niYn6LdVSgtJZaoY7iMuFbLIlqZAR/s596/fb-mock-ad.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="473" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGD5q9PeSugf3NwWlA_WyHdGYBcaTy6DswtM6b9V0gyHbzdOsw36gnT31VgLbJtefl7gD2Sfpw8pxpTrWVxItPxah-7h-Ic_QueYhOSJ4niYn6LdVSgtJZaoY7iMuFbLIlqZAR/w317-h400/fb-mock-ad.PNG" width="317" /></a></div><p>Maybe you may not mind this at all or maybe you would. Maybe you'd be more concerned about your mother knowing that you are a part of some Atheists WhatsApp group than about your lingerie buying habits. Privacy is different for different people - some want to protect their political opinion, some their family life, some their sports/adventure preferences and some their religious beliefs.</p><p>In essence, while the current changes in WhatsApp privacy policy may not immediately lead to such effects, over a period of time, tracking by various apps across services can lead to unexpected outcomes which may be to your liking or may not. So this is <b>not about a one-time decision to move or stay with WhatsApp </b>but about learning to operate any and every app which tracks you. </p><p><b>Ok ok! But for now just tell me if I </b><b>should </b><b>move?</b></p><p>Short Answer - Yes. Long Answer - move but you don't quit Whatsapp entirely.</p><p>Different apps offer <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/364009" target="_blank">different features</a> for security and privacy - for example WhatsApp and Signal both provide 'end-to-end encryption' to your chats, but <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/telegram-encryption-whatsapp-settings/" target="_blank">this feature</a> has to be enabled in Telegram separately. Similarly, both Telegram and Whatsapp provide easy "Web access" through the browser, Signal does not have a browser version [it does have a Desktop app]. </p><p>So, feature wise, WhatsApp does have most features, but its ownership by Facebook is what puts it at a uneven pedestal - it can turn bully anytime and you won't have a choice. And even though Whatsapp may have a feature or two which Telegram or Signal don't, adopting alternative apps does enhance your security in the following ways:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Your data - contacts, groups, relationships, chats - are now distributed across different services and hacking just one of them doesn't lock you out of your online existence. You can always use the other modes to communicate with the world and get your access back.</li><li>In terms of the market, competition is always good for the end customers. If Telegram and Signal gain as much acceptance and popularity as WhatsApp (which today has almost a monopoly), all apps will try to outwin each other by providing newer features and enhanced security to users. </li></ol><p></p><p>So you may want to remain on most of the apps where your friends, family, colleagues, peers are present.</p><p><b>Telegram or Signal?</b> </p><p>As I explained above - as an individual, adopt both or the one where your contacts are present. But if the question is with respect to moving 'Groups', here's a the lowdown: </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>For official groups I recommend Telegram mainly because of it has a better Browser based access, and your colleagues may want to be connected to the app on their computers during working hours than manage the phone and computer both. Telegram, being a private organization is also likely to have better <i>support </i>for corporate usage in the longer term.</li><li>For personal / family / friends groups I recommend Signal. The reason is that I find Signal to be much less prone to gubernatorial intervention. Signal is a non-profit with the development managed by volunteers spread across the globe and no particular jurisdiction can exert an undue influence on them. It operates very similar to Mozilla - the organization behind the Firefox browser. <br /><br />Telegram is a private company, though, to its credit, the founder moved from his home country (Russia) and across multiple countries trying to find a place from where he can operate the messaging service free of gubernatorial influence. Having said that, legally Telegram is registered in the USA and UK both. Also, Telegram will introduce monetization in 2021 to pay for the infrastructure and developer salaries, so your personal groups are better off staying on Signal if you don't want to pay to operate them. </li></ul><div>I do not want to make a recommendation for Personal chats because it will depend on which app the other person whom you want to chat with, uses. However, I recommend you familiarise yourself with features such as <a href="https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007320771-Set-and-manage-disappearing-messages" target="_blank">Disappearing messages</a>, <a href="https://telegram.org/faq#q-how-are-secret-chats-different" target="_blank">Secret Chats</a> & <a href="https://telegram.org/faq#q-how-do-self-destructing-messages-work" target="_blank">Self Destruct timer</a>, and using a <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/09/28/signal-tutorial-second-phone-number/" target="_blank">'username' instead of your number</a>. Once you know these features you will yourself start conjuring situations where you'd prefer using them.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>How to securely use Whatsapp / Facebook? </b></div><p>So, as I said - you don't need to quit WhatsApp and for those who use Facebook as well (that app asks for as much or more access!) please go to your app permissions and disable all the permissions except the critical ones.</p><p>For example, here are my WhatsApp and Facebook App settings on my phone: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpFisHn0sW-epFLy0WpDB0mgTOiHyw-NxE_c2wcecWmpTqw1PNbXoVmG_B0Eg4qazMlcRrJzsJSv-A32LG69zJ1A0d8eFy50MakcIToEKPEHWGNX_LLzddYCQ9D6hnOrMrSTGc/s1280/WAFBSettings.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpFisHn0sW-epFLy0WpDB0mgTOiHyw-NxE_c2wcecWmpTqw1PNbXoVmG_B0Eg4qazMlcRrJzsJSv-A32LG69zJ1A0d8eFy50MakcIToEKPEHWGNX_LLzddYCQ9D6hnOrMrSTGc/w640-h360/WAFBSettings.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>As you will notice, the Facebook app has no permissions - I must confess that this does make it inconvenient at times, say if I have to post a photograph or download a photo. When I come across such a situation, the app/phone prompts me to enable the Storage permission, I grant that permission, do what I wanted to, and then immediately go back and remove that permission from the app. For WhatsApp, I had to live with giving it permanent access to my contacts, otherwise using WhatsApp would be have been a nightmare for me. </p><p><b>What else can I do? </b></p><p>Just like WhatsApp and Facebook, there are other apps who track you - for example Amazon or Flipkart or your Banking app or your food ordering app. It is a good habit to keep reviewing permissions given to these apps and disable unnecessary permissions occasionally.</p><p>Another trick I use, which I must confess, is even more cumbersome is not to download the app at all. I use Amazon only through my mobile or laptop browsers - I don't have the app on my phone. This is because Amazon is the most common user of pugmark ads, ads which pop-up in unexpected places based on your personalised browsing etc history. So using it via the browser makes tracking your device impossible for Amazon.</p><p>If you want to go one more notch up, you can give up using Google Chrome, on which you have to be logged on all the time using your GMail username. Instead switch to the Firefox browser or even better use the Brave browser. I won't go into details but Brave is better than FireFox because it automatically blocks most third-party trackers on websites which create those nasty pugmark adverts appear in unexpected places. Finally, when using NetBanking or other sensitive websites you should use the Incognito or Private Browsing mode of your browser. And last, I recommend ditching the Google Search engine and switching to DuckDuckGo - a search engine that doesn't track you or even personalise search results based on your location.</p><p>And finally, like messaging apps, use different browsers at the same time - at this moment I have Brave, Chrome, Firefox and MS Edge all open on my laptop. The logic is the same as I described for messaging apps. By using different services/ software you enhance your privacy because your data is now distributed across different platforms and hacking just one of them doesn't lock you out of your online existence.</p><p><b>What's the big deal with Privacy anyway?</b></p><p>Privacy is like air - you only realise its absence. And as I have mentioned above, it means different things for different people and hence your choice of technology tools should be driven by your own perception of what you think is private. It doesn't really matter who in specific is tracking you, and what do they specifically do with the data. The risk rises when tracking data is shared with parties other than the primary collector of data because:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Your data across different sources can be correlated to the extent that you start getting discriminated. For example, your car insurer can change their premium based on your travel habits or your hospital can charge you differently based on your official travel schedule or your designation and your salary.</li><li>It can become a nuisance - you must have often observed the ads that pop-up when you browse news website based on your past Amazon shopping searches.</li><li>Privileged users (site or database administrators) can create a detailed profile about you from this data and if such privileged access gets hacked, all your correlated data, at once, may get leaked leading to malicious hackers misusing it to blackmail you.</li><li>You can be the target of a Social Engineering attack which can have a <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/nidhi-razdan-files-complaint-over-online-fraud-101611096083824.html" target="_blank">severe impact on your personal and professional life</a>.</li></ul><p></p><p>If you're still not sure that it's a big deal, watch this (and start using Mine!):</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="362" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lwFlsdrTCqI" width="481" youtube-src-id="lwFlsdrTCqI"></iframe></div><br /><p><b>I still think you're just paranoid!</b></p><p>You may be right - I am a little paranoid to draw severe conclusions like ones quoted above, some even hypothetical. I am also paranoid about catching the Covid-19 flu even by touching the elevator button or door handles in the lobby of my building; I do concede I am little risk-averse when it comes to risks which are very unlikely to transpire but, can have wide-ranging ramifications. This probably comes from my overly analytical bent of mind - rather than 'perceive' a risk, I tend to calculate it by the mathematical formula:</p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Cambria Math;">Risk = Threat x Impact</span></b></p><p>So a High Impact lends to higher Risks, even if the Threat value is moderate. Given that the impacts of catching the Covid-19 virus or losing your online identity, both can be catastrophic to your life, Risk is of a very high order of magnitude for them.</p><p>Nevertheless, I wouldn't force you to follow my lead in following prudent privacy practices, you need not do all the things I have mentioned in this blog post. Your own barometer for Privacy may be very different and that's just right! But your Privacy is surely a matter to ponder over and decide for yourself than take the word of a Social Media company. </p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo Credit: <a href="https://unsplash.com/@dkfra19" target="_blank">Dimitri Karastelev</a> on Unsplash</span></p>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-22592463276697122042021-01-29T19:43:00.013+05:302021-01-30T13:57:25.066+05:30Lal Quilla - a citadel with a cursed history<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGqcIrntepw4J_kAL6Yq9A1a1aakOG-1q4aVZLpbfDDgfkNczdkn4rI8nvlN6a3pEnfLnDpe_Te_rXnlHNg7mCenoDPXfM1yQvIH2MbyYKF4TDUn4zU9YXXbvn6hEvfEFTW4MY/s1827/photo-1602230349009-82f740989e4c.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="745" data-original-width="1827" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGqcIrntepw4J_kAL6Yq9A1a1aakOG-1q4aVZLpbfDDgfkNczdkn4rI8nvlN6a3pEnfLnDpe_Te_rXnlHNg7mCenoDPXfM1yQvIH2MbyYKF4TDUn4zU9YXXbvn6hEvfEFTW4MY/w400-h163/photo-1602230349009-82f740989e4c.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>The Lal Quila or Red Fort <a href="https://theprint.in/india/breaking-barriers-to-red-fort-march-timeline-of-how-farmer-protest-turned-ugly-within-hours/592514/" target="_blank">was in the news recently</a> when a tractor rally by farmers, against three contentious farm laws of the Modi government, turned violent after protesters deviated from the route approved by the Delhi Police, entered the city and reached the Red Fort located in central Delhi and one of the protestors put the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishan_Sahib" target="_blank">Nishan Sahib</a> on the dome at Red Fort.</p><p>The Lal Quila has an interesting history; the Fort was built by Shah Jahan, who in the struggle for succession, was imprisoned by his own son Aurangzeb. Subsequently, th<i>e Mughal Dynasty declined rapidly after Aurangzeb.</i></p><p>After Mughal decline, Jahandar Shah took over the Lal Quila in 1712 - within a year of beginning his rule, <i>Shah was murdered</i> and replaced by Farrukhsiyar.</p><p>In 1739, Persian emperor Nadir Shah defeated the Mughal army, plundering the Red Fort, including the Peacock Throne. Less than a decade after that, (upon return to Persia) Nadir Shah was assassinated (probably) by his own nephew Adil Shah who replaced him. Adil Shah was then overthrown within a year by his own brother and nephew following which almost all provincial governors declared independence, established their own states, and <i>the entire Empire of Nader Shah fell into anarchy</i>.</p><p>The fall of Mughal power made the Mughals titular heads of Delhi, and a 1752 treaty made the Marathas protectors of the throne at Delhi and the Lal Quila. In 1760, the Marathas removed and melted the silver ceiling of the Diwan-i-Khas to raise funds for the defence of Delhi from the armies of Ahmed Shah Durrani and a year later <i>Marathas lost the third battle of Panipat </i>to Durrani. While the Marathas later recaptured Lal Quila, shortly after it <i>fell to British </i>after the 1857 rebellion and was a place of imprisonment for the last Mughal Bahadur Shah Zafar, who was the symbol of the 1857 revolt. Apparently, the Red Fort was not defended during the 1857 uprising against the British.</p><p>Almost 90 years later, the fort had lost its value as a military Garrison and a strategic citadel. Yet, in 1945, the British, hubristic upon winning the Second World War decided to hold<a href="https://www.dailyo.in/arts/subhas-chandra-bose-ina-trials-british-raj-empire-azad-hind-fauj/story/1/19004.html" target="_blank"> 'treason trials' for INA officers</a> (ex British Army officers) at the Lal Quila to make it a public spectacle which would teach Indian subjects of her Majesty a lesson! <b><i>Within a year of this, they had to concede to Self Government leading to full independence by 1947</i></b>.</p><p>Interestingly, when the Mughals were on decline, both the Sikh and the Maratha empires held power in their respective areas but in 1788, when a Maratha garrison occupied the Red fort and Delhi alongside providing protection to the Mughal Emperor, the Marathas signed a treaty with the Sikhs where the Sikhs were warned not to enter Delhi / Lal Quilla. So most likely, the Nishan Saheb was not hoisted at the Red Fort ever before 2021. </p><p>I am not sure what outcome will the hoisting of Nishan Sahib at the Red Fort lead to - but history related to the Lal Quila is not very kind.</p><p><span style="font-size: small;">Source of information above is Wikipedia unless an external reference link has been provided.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span>Header image credit: </span><a href="https://unsplash.com/@nemichandra" target="_blank">Nemichandra Hombannavar</a></span></p><div><br /></div>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-49479834843484661032021-01-13T00:06:00.005+05:302021-01-13T00:09:23.435+05:30Cities, Planning and freedom!<p> As I glanced through <a href="https://mymodernmet.com/champs-elysees-redesign/" target="_blank">this article</a> on my newsfeed, the picture caught my eye - so elegant, so mesmerising and so neat! Wow! What a view of Paris - the city of Love.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaWw6lzO6r3zrZv7J4k05q2aMKplbV-eWfM6bqehlh03ibq-beBeLnV7f52tLiUIWDf6Ne99EdsMKYAKCojqW51oRqGd8jitm8VzN5zDszms3AzXtfZar1AFwRxm_LpntX-GuP/s1200/champs-elysees-renovation-PCA-Stream-1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="680" data-original-width="1200" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaWw6lzO6r3zrZv7J4k05q2aMKplbV-eWfM6bqehlh03ibq-beBeLnV7f52tLiUIWDf6Ne99EdsMKYAKCojqW51oRqGd8jitm8VzN5zDszms3AzXtfZar1AFwRxm_LpntX-GuP/w640-h362/champs-elysees-renovation-PCA-Stream-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />Compare this image of Paris to any Indian city and the Indian city will look ugly, disorganized and pitiful - you'd probably use these images to label cities as First World and Third World countries. <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEc-mYW0uiOoLxr4coMkQY-YFRl3km9xS1FeWna3JwP1E3WwD7Qex-z23vFpVeYWMeyO7zn2MozMhstSDkG-IejCT8I8SLTF_jspaNQVlmzoeAjs8fDRoWtp7u3Vto2OoeLR7U/s1987/photo-1565838500329-d10006e80f55.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="914" data-original-width="1987" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEc-mYW0uiOoLxr4coMkQY-YFRl3km9xS1FeWna3JwP1E3WwD7Qex-z23vFpVeYWMeyO7zn2MozMhstSDkG-IejCT8I8SLTF_jspaNQVlmzoeAjs8fDRoWtp7u3Vto2OoeLR7U/w640-h294/photo-1565838500329-d10006e80f55.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>But scratch under the surface of your reactionary thoughts, you will realise that the pictures reveal a very different story. Paris or for that matter any city which looks well organized are usually a result of one regime, one ruler being dominant at the time of development of the city - such that the ruler could convert huge swathes of land from private ownership to state ownership, and then develop them into planned cities.<div><br /></div><div>A chaotic disorganized city, on the other hand, is a result of common people having exercised their individual rights, their ingenuity, their individual personas, their likes, dislikes to create a chaotic mosaic of city life around their smaller privately owned homes. <br /><p>There are, of course, shades of grey everywhere - a chaotic city is almost impossible to navigate - narrow streets, lack of public spaces and crowded ghettos are not the best places for living. Large planned organized cities can afford comforts which the congested metropolis can't. But at the same time, these smaller ghettoed cities have often shown to exuberate character which has inspired artists. </p><p>Planned cities afford great lifestyles but the struggles of a chaotic one can weave a story, a novel and a life full of chutzpahs. The most unexpected encounters happen, not in the well-planned suburbs, but in the thick smoky disorderly cities, full of interesting people to observe, meet and intermingle with. </p><p>Take a contrast between New Delhi created by the British Masters and Old Delhi, the setting of common folk who lived through the Sultanate, Mughal, Maratha-Sikh and finally the British regimes - only to survive to see an independent India. There's so much to marvel in the elegant Rajpath and South Block, but so much to observe if you loiter around the Delhi Gate near Raj ghat. There's much to see if you visit the Lal Quila or Jantar Mantar, but much more to photograph if you were standing at the Paharganj chowk, just observing the daily life around. </p><p>Chaos is the manifestation of freedom which is far more valuable than grandeur or elegance of an (overly) organized life. If I had to choose, I'd choose freedom! </p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Mumbai image credit - <a href="https://unsplash.com/@aswinikumar" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Aswini Kumar</a></span></p></div>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-37282817418757800812021-01-02T01:16:00.016+05:302021-01-02T13:28:19.388+05:30How Covid-19 will expedite the march of humans to Mars<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9-sa8MXZKfLGG-nySu5QBpwiuw1IsFN8BVViX1fGoOrbWIPvHoLPgcA6K4zlcVA3-wb89ZcP3uz5OfKmb4NcVh6e_ePrF2tQGozpu4ujdAkA_0VRjf8c-Edw-11BQbF09iahy/s2048/Concept_Mars_colony.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1583" data-original-width="2048" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9-sa8MXZKfLGG-nySu5QBpwiuw1IsFN8BVViX1fGoOrbWIPvHoLPgcA6K4zlcVA3-wb89ZcP3uz5OfKmb4NcVh6e_ePrF2tQGozpu4ujdAkA_0VRjf8c-Edw-11BQbF09iahy/w400-h309/Concept_Mars_colony.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>The Covid-19 pandemic rages on - a new fast-spreader strain was discovered in the UK last week leading to a fresh round of lockdowns and flight bans across the globe, but the good news is that a vaccine is on the anvil. News reports say that it's been approved in the UK and even if the vaccine is delayed but launches by Q2-2021, this will be the fastest developed vaccine in the history of mankind.</p><p>This is not surprising - medical science has been making rapid progress since 2003 when the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Genome_Project" target="_blank">Human Genome Project</a> got completed. Since Covid-19 <a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-unique-susceptibility-sars-cov-variants-vaccines.html" target="_blank">impacts different people in different ways</a>, its vaccine development also needs to take this into account. In fact, this is true of almost every vaccine and while there may not be a direct correlation between the Genome project and Covid-19, but the completion of Human Genome sequencing along with other medical strides has helped our ability to react to diseases and come up with cures faster than ever.</p><p>What has happened in medicine is but an indication of a general trend - the emergence of Covid-19 has in fact aided and accelerated the adoption of technological innovations, which were anyway happening in the background. In fact, the simultaneous march of Information Technology, Biotech, CleanTech, SpaceTech and several other xTechs will now soon usher in the era of MarsTech - an era where all these "earthly" innovations will pave the way to the survival and proliferation of mankind on Mars. </p><p>I spoke to Engineering students about these trends a few months back and a recording of my session can be viewed here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7aJ_cnM_3E">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7aJ_cnM_3E</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="324" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y7aJ_cnM_3E" width="608" youtube-src-id="y7aJ_cnM_3E"></iframe></div><div><br /></div><p>I have outlined how several seemingly unrelated innovations of the past 30 years, will help in setting up a Martian colony in the next 30. </p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Iridium / StarLink </h4><p>Iridium was envisaged as a constellation of 66 low Earth orbit satellites providing global communications coverage using small handheld phones. The Iridium satellite constellation was conceived in the early 1990s, but the company failed to earn revenue sufficient to service the debt associated with building out the constellation and Iridium went bankrupt. However, the concept lived on - SpaceX is now building its StarLink constellation to provide high-speed internet connectivity. StarLink is going to be a constellation of 1584 satellites at 550 km altitude.</p><p>We don't yet know the fate of StarLink, but the real trick is to understand that a constellation like StarLink would not be just an option, but the <i>only </i>option for the Martian Internet. Given that Mars does not have an atmosphere, and hence no ionosphere - common radio communication will be impossible on the surface of Mars. Also, because the initial martian settlement is expected to be very small - it may not be economically viable to lay a network of fibre optic cables across the Martian surface for data communications. In such a scenario, a constellation of low orbit satellites like StarLink or Iridium would be the best bet for a Martian colony's communication backbone. Not only could these satellites be used for communication but also allied services such as navigation on the yet uncharted Martian surface. </p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Solar Roof / Solar Panels </h4><p>In the last 30 years, we have not only mastered the art of converting Solar energy into electricity but also overcome several commercial and logistical challenges around it. Photovoltaic cell <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swanson%27s_law" target="_blank">prices have fallen</a> from $76.67 per watt in 1977 to $0.36 per watt in 2014; we now have detailed knowhow about setting up large solar farms which can generate Trillions of KW of power. And finally, energy storage technology has also galloped so that we can store and regenerate stored Solar power more efficiently than ever.</p><p>On the Martian surface, where there is no ecology, and hence no petroleum no coal and no other source of fuel - Solar energy would be the most useful source. It may take a long time for us to build safe Nuclear Power stations on Mars given that the lack of atmosphere makes it much <a href="https://www.mars-one.com/faq/mission-to-mars/what-are-the-risks-of-dust-and-sand-on-mars" target="_blank">more susceptible</a> to Martian dust, space radiation and even small asteroids. Strides made in generation and commercialization of Solar Power on earth are going to give a fillip to setting up of even larger Solar power generation capacity on Mars making it possible for early Martians to start their colonies.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Electric Cars & Hyperloop</h4><p>Marian rovers of today are crude forms of <a href="https://www.tesla.com/cybertruck" target="_blank">Electric cars</a> which would crisscross Martian surface one day. Automated navigation and self-driving are also components in today's Tesla's which would be very useful for the Martian settlers to ferry themselves for long distances over the Martian terrain. Again, with no petroleum and no other source of fuel other than Solar - Electric cars will be the obvious commute option on the Martian surface.</p><p>The Hyperloop, a network of tunnels under the surface for rapid transport will further augment the Martian concept of mobility. Given that the Martian terrain and surface would be very rough, uneven, rugged and unnavigable for regular driving, it will make more sense for humans on Mars to dig tunnels just under the surface of Mars to drive from one part of the planet to the other, from one settlement to another.</p><p>Further, flying from one city to the other sounds cool on earth because planes fly under the protective cover of the atmosphere - on Mars where that cover vanishes, flying may not be so easy and risk-free. In this context also, even for long-distance travel, it may be better to use the Hyperloop technology to travel between different parts - even two hemispheres of Mars. </p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Blockchain</h4><div style="text-align: left;">Elon Musk has <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/10/30/elon-musks-spacex-colony-on-mars-wont-follow-earth-based-laws/" target="_blank">publicly stated</a> that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities and disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement. This is indeed noble and forward-thinking - but with no government or laws to operate, how will the first Martians undertake commercial activities between themselves? What currency will be used on Mars? How will banking, lending, even normal day to day commerce operate? Surely we don't expect Martians to go back to the barter methods!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The answer to this question has also been arrived at on Earth. The Blockchain, with its trustless arbitration mechanisms and Smart Contracts will be the fundamental element of a Martian self-governing system. Martians could create their own self-regulating crypto currency which could be the dollar equivalent for all martian commercial activities. Martian laws would be smart contracts which will be co-owned by all Martians based on mutually agreed principles. These contracts would be embedded in blockchain code itself so that there would be no need to "enforce" them through judicial or policing means - it would be controlled by software.</div><h4 style="text-align: left;">Lab-grown meat</h4><div style="text-align: left;">What would Martians feed on? It takes about a month and a half to get to Mars - surely Martians would not be able to carry food supplies with them from earth to survive the entire duration of the travel and stay on Mars. In fact, it may be possible that some humans may stay on Mars for years at a stretch. With no atmosphere, and no way of growing food until the first few colonies are built and they set up terrestrial domes, what would people eat? </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The answer again has already been invented on earth in form of lab-grown meat. As recently as last month, Cultured meat, produced in bioreactors without the slaughter of an animal, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/02/no-kill-lab-grown-meat-to-go-on-sale-for-first-time" target="_blank">has been approved</a> for sale by a regulatory authority (in Singapore) for the first time. The development has been hailed as a landmark moment across the meat industry. While this is great news for Global warming (because livestock for meat contributes to 20% of global carbon emissions), but it is the solution to the vexing problem of feeding early Martians and Spacefaring humans in general.</div><h4 style="text-align: left;">Pandemic Control</h4><p>No atmosphere, exposure to harmful space radiation and low gravity environment is the most potent recipe for bad health. In fact, while there's no intelligent life on Mars, there may be viruses lurking under the surface of Mars which are completely unknown to the human body against which we may have never developed any antibodies. How will early martians live in such conditions? How would a "sterile life" look like? What methods would early Martians use to counter the threat of unknown viruses? </p><p>Dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic has given us several of these answers - the speed with which the vaccine has been developed being one of them. Social distancing, Mask usage would probably be a habit for early Martians and other learnings from how we have dealt with the pandemic, how we have developed and how we will distribute the vaccine at large scale would be experiences which would be useful for setting up processes for an early martian colony. </p>
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<p>To conclude - several innovations by mankind in the last 30 years are coming to fruition and adoption in the next 30 and several of them will pave way for newer innovations which would expedite Mankinds march to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_no_man_has_gone_before" target="_blank">unknown worlds where no one has travelled before</a> - the first of which will be Mars! </p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Martian Colony Image credits - <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Reusing_content_outside_Wikimedia" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></i></span></p>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-62580134439260742842020-12-06T23:58:00.008+05:302020-12-07T18:32:47.983+05:30Need for Compassion in politics and its relation with success of countries<p>7 years ago today, Nelson Mandela left us - committed to ending differences in human race and a keen follower of Gandian values, Mandela is a powerful role model for leaders in the 21st century. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCWTHXAzOw3-CPZ_amEXR6bEMaydFx5Gklp_3OGtb5kSh_VxSdLijsFnosvFUIyN1EjUELQSaWGOormFUUH-MoxRyjsxQ-0Th6Cx8xK-Qq5N_y2Sap9RhQas9Y7FnLi9wP1sU4/s1536/page-3-The-personalities-of-President-Mugabe-and-Mandela-irresistibly-invite-comparison-is-beyond-dispute-but-the-time-to-do-so-is-not-now.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1109" data-original-width="1536" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCWTHXAzOw3-CPZ_amEXR6bEMaydFx5Gklp_3OGtb5kSh_VxSdLijsFnosvFUIyN1EjUELQSaWGOormFUUH-MoxRyjsxQ-0Th6Cx8xK-Qq5N_y2Sap9RhQas9Y7FnLi9wP1sU4/s320/page-3-The-personalities-of-President-Mugabe-and-Mandela-irresistibly-invite-comparison-is-beyond-dispute-but-the-time-to-do-so-is-not-now.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<p>But before there was Mandela, there was Robert Mugabe, the Premier and later President of Zimbabwe who was heralded as the statesman of Africa and the model for good governance. [<a href="https://www.globalblackhistory.com/2013/07/mandela-vs-mugabe.html" target="_blank">1</a>]. As history tells us however, Mugabe and his politics failed miserably. </p>
<p>The reason why Zimbabwe became a failed state and South Africa a successful one was because of the Gandhian values, mainly '<i>Hate the Sin, Not the Sinner</i>' imbibed by Nelson Mandela, and a contrasting revengeful reign by Mugabe in Zimbabwe (especially in the 1990s). The story about how Mandela used the Rugby World cup [<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/rugby_world_cup/team_pages/south_africa/3167692.stm">2</a>] to reconcile and reach out for his erstwhile oppressors is a case in point [The subject was used in the movie <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invictus_(film)" target="_blank">Invictus</a>, which is titled on one of Mandela's favourite poems - and mine too!].</p>
<blockquote style="border-left: 5px solid gray; font: 28px Perpetua, sans-serif;"><p>Mugabe vs Mandela is a very useful template for future leaders to follow.</p></blockquote>
<p>Mugabe vs Mandela is a very useful template for future leaders to follow. History often shows us that our ancestors were wronged or were wrong-doers - but civilisation can only move forward when we discard the baggage imposed by such history and recognise the lessons from it. The baggage of holding successors of wrong-doers responsible or victimization of the present generation of the wronged will only lead to negative outcomes in the long term. Parts of our society (successors of wrong-doers) will feel marginalized and discriminated against, while other parts (successors of the wronged) will develop a false sense of entitlement, which would ultimately lead them to a false sense of propriety and prosperity - and by the time they break out of that reverie, the damage would have been done.</p><p>There is no better example of this than the state of Zimbabwe where whites fled the country over two decades of Mugabe's regime and laws made in the name of resettling landless black poor were used by corrupt ministers and officials to embezzle funds. Notably, there were times when the opposition raised these and other issues, even tried to take over power after winning elections - but were thwarted in the name of 'nationalism' by Mugabe's party ZANU–PF which increasingly equated itself with Zimbabwean patriotism. And through all these years, the Zimbabwean economy plummeted from trough to mega-trough, with runaway inflation making lives miserable for people.</p><p>These anecdotes from South Africa and Zimbabwe have important lessons for present-day India, where political considerations have led to similar trends. State governments are passing laws [<a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/up-love-jihad-law-religious-conversion-anti-conversion-law-7078370/" target="_blank">3</a>] based on victimization theories and targetted specifically towards framing one community of people as wrong-doers. Even National laws [<a href="https://www.thehinducentre.com/the-arena/current-issues/article30789891.ece" target="_blank">4</a>] for granting asylum are also discriminating specifically against people of a specific religion, without recognizing that this religion can have differences of creed [<a href="https://bpr.berkeley.edu/2020/02/06/legalized-discrimination-indias-nrc-and-caa/" target="_blank">5</a>]within itself. When asked why people of this religion are being discriminated in the act, the answer is that their ancestors chose to leave India at a time in past. </p><p>These statements, stances and positions taken by the ruling party are similar to the intolerant laws passed by Mugabe during his presidential tenure. Their rebuffs of their detractors being anti-national are also eerily similar to the pronouncements of Mugabe's ZANU-PF. What is scarier is that India's economy has taken a downward turn, aided only by its buoyant position in the pecking order of emerging economies and a larger backlash against its competitor China due to its perceived role in the Covid-19 pandemic. </p><p>The only thing that keeps me positive is my faith in Indian people - India's democratic institutions and its people are far more mature and balanced than what the pronouncements of political parties or breaking news of television channels indicate. Underlying the bombastic media is a society which has a strong secular and balanced fabric. Individual relations between people are more important than relations between their religions or creeds and in general people can reconcile from policy shocks because they know how to work around these unfair laws. In summary - India is no Africa!</p><p>Nevertheless, it would help for budding politicians and social leaders to read and understand the cases of Mandela and Mugabe. The fact that Mandela succeeded where Mugabe failed, and that Mandela was himself an ardent follower of the man whom we consider the Father of Our Nation, should be reason enough for the next generation of leaders to make the right choice in Mandela as their role model!</p><p>To end, here's a small quote from Nelson Mandela:</p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”</i></span></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px;" /></p>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-420232332694688452020-10-11T16:06:00.011+05:302020-11-20T12:19:14.129+05:30Taxation and the Principal-Agent problem<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOYWFan4T1B5Gpx02tyvEbFs1gYE0jzVFC9uKqAowRn0FsvdcXskMWkjK_98-vnrG3BFy-hjw7Ak_eo1914kljhlkivPbikld85XJrUdAAcL_XK76N0Fv0WNQuAhYKw_y7vzLP/s951/photo-1574522375873-2d85fc4d1e70.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="951" data-original-width="634" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOYWFan4T1B5Gpx02tyvEbFs1gYE0jzVFC9uKqAowRn0FsvdcXskMWkjK_98-vnrG3BFy-hjw7Ak_eo1914kljhlkivPbikld85XJrUdAAcL_XK76N0Fv0WNQuAhYKw_y7vzLP/s320/photo-1574522375873-2d85fc4d1e70.jpg" /></a></div>The principal-agent problem [PAP], in political science and economics, occurs when one person or entity (the "agent"), is able to make decisions and/or take actions on behalf of, or that impact, another person or entity: the "principal". This dilemma exists in circumstances where agents are motivated to act in their own best interests, which are contrary to those of their principals, and is an example of moral hazard.<p></p><p>One of the relatable cases of PAP is sales - the sales executive is likely to motivate you to buy those products where s/he earns more commissions, rather than those which are cheaper or beneficial for you. This problem occurs in any kind of a sale whether its a kitchen appliance or insurance product.</p><p>Maybe you've already guessed where I am going with this - the PAP with taxes. The government is an agent which levies a charge (taxes) on its people - possibly the strangest of principal-agent relationships [in all other cases, the agent is usually paid a fixed or pre-defined percentage of gains]. So clearly higher taxes are good for the government, but bad for people - at the same time, given that political parties depend on people's votes for staying in government, stakes are balanced. So there will be political parties who will make lower taxation a rallying election cry. So, only on the aspect of tax rates, the scale is generally balanced between the principal (people) wanting lower charges (taxes) and the agent wanting to deliver it to continue in business.</p><p>However, there is another aspect of taxation where PAP presents a particularly vexing imbalance - the complexity of the taxation system. Complex taxation usually manifests in form of increased compliance burden than just increasing tax rates. So while the rate of taxation may be low or meet people's expectations, the complexity of taxation remains high. India is a particular example of a state where every form of taxation is much more complex compared to its peers. </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Income tax in India not only is progressive, but there are a number of exceptions and surcharges to the tax slabs.</li><li>There are other forms of tax exemptions available only to entities such as HUFs (Hindu Undivided Family) only which treat a family as a tax unit rather than the individual.</li><li>Corporate taxes in India are currently low, but again there are several exceptions relating to CSR and other such contributions made to the society.</li><li>India's VAT implementation (christened GST) is one of the more complex systems with more slabs and ambiguity for goods and services which fall between the various categories defined by the law.</li></ul><p></p><p></p><p>Apart from the complexity in applying or calculating taxes - the key aspect here is about the burden of depositing tax and compliance filings. For direct income taxes, the burden technically falls on the individual itself and for indirect taxes (GST), it is on the body-corporate undertaking the sale. However, Indian governments have successively shifted the burden of individual income taxes also on businesses / non-payers.</p><p>The first example is TDS - Tax Deducted at Source; any business which pays a salary, compensation or fees to employees, contractors or other businesses must debit taxes prior to making the payment and deposit the same with the government in name of the recipient of the monies. Similarly, TDS is also required to be debited by the buyer of a real estate property from the amount they pay to the seller, and deposit the required amount with the government and file compliance. Notably, TDS is not unique to India - other countries also have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Withholding_tax" target="_blank">this system</a> under names like Pay as you Earn / Go or Withholding tax.</p><p>TDS not only shifts the burden of tax compliance away from the tax-payer, but it also increases the complexity of compliance for businesses because businesses now must find out what tax slab the individual or business, to whom payment is being made, falls in; but also perform sufficient due diligence to verify the accuracy of this information before deducting taxes and depositing it with the government. </p><p>More recently, the Indian government added a new animal to its tax compliance arsenal - Tax Collected At Source or <b>TCS</b>. TCS is reverse of TDS - while TDS is deducted by someone who makes the payment, TCS is 'collected' by someone who receives payment. TCS collected by a seller of goods or services from the buyer for certain kinds of purchase (ex those involving foreign remittances like booking a hotel overseas). TCS also shifts the burden of tax payment and compliance away from the actual taxpayer to another entity and the same complexities of determining tax slabs and compliance exist.</p><p></p><p>TDS and TCS are classic cases where the incentive of the agent and principal - both are divergent. While the government wants to ensure that it collects taxes from the taxpayer from all sides, but because the taxpayer itself would possibly not comply - they shift the burden to intermediaries, businesses in most cases, who have no direct relationship with the entire tax deposit/collection of the relationship.</p><p>TDS and TCS result in increased cost of operating a business in India making it less viable for smaller businesses to operate because of higher compliance costs. They also create perverse incentives on Tax authorities to harass businesses for matters which do not necessarily have a direct correlation with income and expenses of their core business. </p><p>Ideally, better tax compliance would be achieved by digitizing the economy and incentivising people to be fair in their tax assessment. Tax compliance incentives typically would mean a <i>simple taxation system </i>with fewer slabs (maybe flat slab?) and no exemptions; instead of complexity. </p><p>However, given that the tax regime in India is complex and hence prone to people evading taxes using exemptions as systemic loopholes, the government's countermeasures are in form of TCS and TDS. TDS and TCS make it difficult for people to evade taxes and may even result in collecting higher taxes, from some people, than what they actually owe. This shifts the burden away from the government to collect taxes, to citizens who now need to collect refunds. </p><p>I must underscore and acknowledge that Taxation is a complex subject - I don't claim to be an economist or know better than civil servants running the Finance Ministry. I am not claiming that TDS/TCS are wrong, even though I do believe in the general principle that simplification always is a preferred option over over-complication in solving <i>any problem. </i>But rather than comment on TDS / TCS being right or wrong, the limited point I am making in this post is that <i>by reducing 'ease of doing business', as a side effect, TDS and TCS reflect how a convoluted solution to a problem results in unexpected outcomes.</i></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image Credits: https://unsplash.com/@konkarampelas</span></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">References</span></h4><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.quora.com/Which-country-in-the-world-has-the-best-tax-system">https://www.quora.com/Which-country-in-the-world-has-the-best-tax-system</a></span></li><li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-most-efficient-tax-system-where-the-government-doesn-t-go-broke-and-the-people-aren-t-taxed-too-much-Are-there-any-countries-that-follow-this-system">https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-most-efficient-tax-system-where-the-government-doesn-t-go-broke-and-the-people-aren-t-taxed-too-much-Are-there-any-countries-that-follow-this-system</a></span></li><li><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.quora.com/Why-does-the-tax-system-seem-so-complicated-in-the-US-Do-other-countries-face-similar-problems-Which-country-has-the-most-straightforward-tax-system-and-is-it-successful">https://www.quora.com/Why-does-the-tax-system-seem-so-complicated-in-the-US-Do-other-countries-face-similar-problems-Which-country-has-the-most-straightforward-tax-system-and-is-it-successful</a></span></li></ul></div>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-10520236234683944922020-09-29T23:12:00.019+05:302020-09-30T09:15:03.898+05:30The future of Education .... post Covid-19<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_jf4NM303CfZzj9C2Scb7X3-tK5RBFJe-xJ1jlk8GLqhKfdZxG8KRZhI5UL6bKtz94RUCtywlO1TKBpyxSS_vf9AqPcE4ARFlGv0PAJG_DMOPUYdy0gvkQilMXLfT7_acfz5t/s1050/photo-1568585219057-9206080e6c74.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="701" data-original-width="1050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_jf4NM303CfZzj9C2Scb7X3-tK5RBFJe-xJ1jlk8GLqhKfdZxG8KRZhI5UL6bKtz94RUCtywlO1TKBpyxSS_vf9AqPcE4ARFlGv0PAJG_DMOPUYdy0gvkQilMXLfT7_acfz5t/s320/photo-1568585219057-9206080e6c74.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>I had <a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/2016/07/learning-is-broken.html" target="_blank">surmised four years ago</a> that the future of education was clear to me, just that the path to get to this future wasn't clear then. The future I predicted was - and I quote: </p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i style="background-color: #eeeeee;">Take a leap into future, learning could be transitioning back to the heydays of Indian Gurukul system - just that these Gurukul's will be online. What will be known is not universities, colleges or degrees; what will be known is teachers and professors of repute (the Guru's) and the subjects they teach. Thanks to the ubiquitous nature of the Internet, Guru's could be running a course on several platforms or several courses on one platform. People will take courses from Guru's of repute to learn what they want to, not because they want a degree from the platform which they represent!</i></span></p><p>I believe the <i>path </i>to get to this future of education has been found and it runs through the Pandemic zone called Covid-19. Covid-19 is a warp zone which has accelerated the transition from the brick-and-mortar University education to take-your-class-online model. However, what we are seeing in the short term is the University (and school) classrooms getting transitioned to the Online classroom - this is more of a tactical than tectonic shift. But the longer Covid-19 pandemic continues, the more the tactical shift risks moving towards tectonic shifts.</p><p>I spoke to Engineering students about these trends few months back and a recording of my session can be viewed here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfM4wpiixz4">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfM4wpiixz4</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AfM4wpiixz4" width="538" youtube-src-id="AfM4wpiixz4"></iframe></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Synopsys</h3><p>Concepts such as Lambda School, WhiteHatJr along with the earlier <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course" target="_blank">MOOC</a> platforms are going to use this 'tactical' shift to further their access to kids getting educated today. As students get used to getting educated online, they will also start realising the benefits and liberties of change of the medium. They will start exercising their choices and power will shift slowly from the Professor / Teacher into the hands of Students (and in some cases, parents). </p><p>Education will see the unbundling effect, similar to the one Steve Jobs brought to Music with the iPod. Just like we no longer buy a full Music album, but only individual tracks, education will also no longer be in the current 'Industrial' model where you have to select a full degree - students will instead choose courses. Coincidentally, I again borrow from Steve Jobs - he mentioned about his dropping in on the Caligraphy courses during his 'dropout phase' at Stanford in his <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/jobs-061505/" target="_blank">commencement speech</a>. While it happened for Jobs by chance, it's going to happen to students today by choice - students will choose subjects to study instead of degrees they want to attain. I mention some practical cases of this happening around me in the video.</p><p>There are few other tectonic shifts this phenomenon will see, and I talk about them in the video - here's an enumerated list: </p>
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<tr><td style="padding: 10px; text-align: right;" width="10%">X</td><td width="90%">Getting Selected to the right college</td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding: 10px; text-align: right;" width="10%">✓</td><td width="90%">Selecting the right subjects to study</td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding: 10px; text-align: right;" width="10%">X</td><td width="90%">Lecturer responsible for teaching</td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding: 10px; text-align: right;" width="10%">✓</td><td width="90%">Students Responsible for learning </td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding: 10px; text-align: right;" width="10%">X</td><td width="90%">Lecturer / Curriculum paced learning</td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding: 10px; text-align: right;" width="10%">✓</td><td width="90%">Student paced learning </td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding: 10px; text-align: right;" width="10%">X</td><td width="90%">Exam Scores given by known teachers from a known syllabus</td></tr>
<tr><td style="padding: 10px; text-align: right;" width="10%">✓</td><td width="90%">Knowledge is evaluated by unknown employers for subjects of their choice</td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p>The essence of my talk is that power has shifted, but so has responsibility. During the industrial age, if we got into a good university, we automatically got great teachers/professors, a good education which led to future positive outcomes of having a good career and happy lives. But with the shifts in education now, the path has many a fork along the way - getting into a good university doesn't guarantee a great life - one must keep making the right choices; choice of subjects, choice of allocating time, choice of scoring on the right topics, choice of selecting the right career opportunities; in order to have a great life.</p><p>It's much more fun than the erstwhile world - there's so much more freedom, choice and so many more possibilities - and yet, the challenge is as great or maybe greater! </p><p>.<br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image Credits: https://unsplash.com/photos/-PnSpCHYKsw</span></p><p></p>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-82967948926315615372020-09-20T20:18:00.013+05:302020-09-22T15:21:01.520+05:30Is Humanity Diverging into two civilizations?<div class="separator" style="align: center; text-align: center;">
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<p>I've <a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/CityvsSuburbseries" target="_blank">written earlier</a> about my musings on Clustered cities vs Suburban Sprawls being the two contrasting futures mankind stares at. I concluded in the <a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/search/label/CityvsSuburbseries" target="_blank">3 part series</a> that the future of humanity, at least until the developing world gets to a median level of development, will be to be present in clustered cities. The other alternative which I envisaged for the longer term was to set up a colony on Mars.</p><p>However, since then we've had many developments and Covid-19 impacting the whole world. While Covid-19 has been devastating on economies across the globe, its <a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/2020/05/the-good-things-about-covid-19-outbreak.html" target="_blank">impact on climate has been benign</a> - fall in economic frenzy has only led to a reduction in carbon emissions, a civilizational realization about the value of boosting natural human immunity and <a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/2020/05/the-good-things-about-covid-19-outbreak.html" target="_blank">end to wasteful ways of living</a>. </p><p>The other side of Covid-19 is the realization that the pandemic is also <a href="https://theconversation.com/human-activities-are-responsible-for-viruses-crossing-over-from-bats-and-causing-pandemics-like-coronavirus-134226" target="_blank">an impact of human activities</a> much like climate change itself. And as Covid-19 rages on forcing people to stay indoors, California faced the <a href="https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents" target="_blank">worst possible forest fires</a> in history burning 3.1 million acres of forests, 26 times higher than last year (2019). More than 6500 structures were damaged or destroyed - assuming even 50% of them were homes with average 4 residents, we are talking about 13000+ people impacted. </p><p>Notably, forest fires are a major threat to suburban living and not so much for metropolitan clustered cities - suburban living disperses populations far and wide, closer to the forest not only increasing the risk of forest fires but also their impact on human life. Metropolitcan clustered cities instead promote isolation of human populations in urban limits leaving nature to thrive in the hinterland without much intervention.</p><p>Amidst all this, are increasing advances being made by cleantech enthusiasts in the areas of sustainable suburban living - whether it is <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/11/elon-musk-says-tesla-will-one-day-produce-super-efficient-home-hvac-with-hepa-filtering/?guccounter=1" target="_blank">super-efficient HVAC</a> by Tesla or <a href="https://cleantechnica.com/2020/09/03/how-does-the-tesla-solar-roof-stack-up-to-a-traditional-solar-system-after-6-months/amp/" target="_blank">rave reviews</a> of their Powerwall in combination with the original Solar roof. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/20/business/electric-cars-batteries-tesla-elon-musk.html" target="_blank">Improvement in battery technologies</a> are also making a <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/cheap-at-last-batteries-are-making-a-solar-dream-come-true/" target="_blank">lifestyle disconnected from the powergrid</a> possible. Ironical or not, but it is Californians, worried about an insecure energy future, who are increasingly looking to this kind of solution - a powergrid disconnected suburban home which produces its own power using the roof, stores it in a Powerwall which can keep running the house through the year. The economics don’t yet work for every household, but the economics of scale for green-power combo of solar panels plus batteries is slowly building up. Needless to say, the math won't work out for clustered cities where per-capita solar charging space would be a premium.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">The Fork</h3><p>Summarising, it looks like humanity is diverging (or has already diverged?) into two separate civilizations at the moment. </p><p>First, the developed world population which can live off the power grid, work and earn remotely. A typical suburban family, in this part of the world, will have a large house without any need to step out if there's a pandemic out there, they can get <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2020/05/29/demand-for-these-autonomous-delivery-robots-is-skyrocketing-during-this-pandemic/#21db37627f3c" target="_blank">contactless food delivery via robots</a> and as much entertainment online on the Internet via <a href="https://www.starlink.com/" target="_blank">Starlink satellites</a>. This civilization will live and work between the developed parts of earth and Martian colonies. They'd travel back and forth between these Martian outposts and earth, plan the future of the human race on the red planet and beyond. </p><p>The other fork to humanity will live in the ever-developing world in clustered cities, live lives more industrial in nature. They will be under constant threat of being impacted by outages, climate change events (pandemics or natural disasters) and their raison-d'être would primarily be producing goods (and services) for the other civilization.</p><p>Taking a leaf out of my <a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/2020/07/the-natural-order-of-things.html" target="_blank">other post</a> on inequality, this is a future we stare at - a humanity split into two and unequal in not just the quality of life but also in their purpose and stature. This split may not be as visible as Aparthied but it will surely be as evident as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_segregation" target="_blank">Segregation</a>, it may not be as unfair as Colonialism but definitely be based on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neocolonialism" target="_blank">Neocolonialist tendencies</a>. And hence directionally, this split would be opposed to the liberal thought and libertarian ideals which many of us cherish.</p><p>If we believe that inequality is a bane for humanity, we must make all efforts to prevent this fork in the future of human civilisation.</p><p>. </p>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-7055608985997415342020-09-14T23:45:00.012+05:302020-09-14T23:55:38.625+05:30हिंदी दिवस के उपलक्ष्य में एक ट्वीटमाला<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgptWg6_QTkchjAvwBtJzxBEQA9SBvS8UZFYjr8fMfPiSVkLoCnm9NQe8Gx2wgGys2XGVAHs4A1JoJkoYlIYZoTUpV6vhctwgbyJKXoq0gMR0eKFJMoPAAQ_kgTN93ulehU8tIb/s1688/hindi.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="1688" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgptWg6_QTkchjAvwBtJzxBEQA9SBvS8UZFYjr8fMfPiSVkLoCnm9NQe8Gx2wgGys2XGVAHs4A1JoJkoYlIYZoTUpV6vhctwgbyJKXoq0gMR0eKFJMoPAAQ_kgTN93ulehU8tIb/s320/hindi.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>A thread on Hindi Diwas; for the last few months I have been influencing my daughter to learn Hindi by telling her greatness & elegance of Hindi</p><p>हिंदी दिवस के उपलक्ष्य में एक ट्वीटमाला; पिछले कुछ माह से मैं अपनी बेटी को हिंदी की महत्ता और लालित्य के बारे में समझा रहा हूँ|</p><p>She is in Grade 2 and just started learning the Hindi alphabet and grammar. </p><p>वह कक्षा २ में है और अभी हिंदी वर्णमाला और व्याकरण के पहले पाठ पढ़ रही है| </p><p>Yesterday, she asked me why I think Hindi is a great language. Context being India has so many languages and our mother tongue is Marathi. </p><p>कल उसने मुझे पूछा कि मैं हिंदी को एक महानतम भाषा क्यों मानता हूँ - जबकी भारत में इतनी सारी भाषाएँ हैं और हमारी मातृभाषा मराठी है| </p><p>My answer - No doubt Hindi is a rich language in terms of literature, vocabulary, variety and its script Devnagiri is very scientific in nature... </p><p>मेरा उत्तर था की यद्यपी हिंदी साहित्य, शब्दावली, विविधता से परिपूर्ण हैं और उसकी प्रमुख लिपी देवनागिरी वैज्ञानिक है, ... </p><p>... But then these virtues describe almost all Indian languages.</p><div>...ये सारे गुण केवल हिंदी नहीं बल्की सभी भारतीय भाषाओं में हैं| </div><div><br /></div><p>Hindi is great because above all else, its a perfect representation for the melting pot which India stands for. </p><p>हिंदी की प्रतिष्ठा इसलिए है क्योंकि वह भारत देश ही की तरह वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम की परंपरा को सजीव करती है| </p><p>Its name comes from a Persian word Hind (used for Sindhu / Indus River).</p><p>हिंदी यह शब्द फारसी लब्ज़ हिन्द (जो कि सिंधु नदी के नाम से निकला है) से है| </p><p>Its vocabulary is not just from Sanskrit but enriched by words from Prakrit, Arabic, Persian and many Indian languages; and it shares its word roots with several Eurasian languages.</p><p>हिंदी की शब्दावली प्रकृत, अरबी, फारसी और कईं अन्य भारतीय भाषाओं से बनी है और इसके शब्दमूल कईं यूरोपीय भाषाओं के शब्दों से मिलते हैं| </p><p>Hindi has at least 10 documented dialects and can be written in at least 3 scripts - Devnagiri, Urdu Script and now Romanised Hindi (used on Whatsapp mostly).</p><p>हिंदी १० से भी अधिक बोलियों में बोली जा सकती है और दीवानागिरि, उर्दू और [अमूमन व्हाट्सऐप पर] रोमन लिपियों में लिखी जाती है| </p><p>As the fourth most spoken language in the world, Hindi is possibly the best representation of the Indian ethos of Unity In Diversity. </p><p>विश्व की चौथी सबसे अधिक बोली जाने वाली भाषा, हिंदी, भारत की अनेकता में एकता का सच्चा प्रतिबिम्ब है|</p><p><br /></p><p>इस ट्विटमाला को यहाँ पढ़ें: <a href="https://twitter.com/kulkarninikhil/status/1305567715260731392">https://twitter.com/kulkarninikhil/status/1305567715260731392</a> </p>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-31549408965664562282020-07-13T00:27:00.028+05:302020-07-19T20:18:37.320+05:30The natural order of things!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_hQFacDtNTngsQRQg6GsAdPW01b10H7IZ5yKlkgG17H0KQxNwUtrYbVYyutQaRxahKji_-qEUfNVSxKhrQjtFx9C2lJ8MkfNZOnqIDnQeTg9ly3pk8DhGfOLK4FYpj028suJB/s300/mr-robot1.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_hQFacDtNTngsQRQg6GsAdPW01b10H7IZ5yKlkgG17H0KQxNwUtrYbVYyutQaRxahKji_-qEUfNVSxKhrQjtFx9C2lJ8MkfNZOnqIDnQeTg9ly3pk8DhGfOLK4FYpj028suJB/s0/mr-robot1.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I just finished watching all 4 seasons of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Robot" target="_blank">Mr. Robot</a> - the cyberpunk TV/Web Series about a fictional sequence of events where a vigilante hacker group fsociety (styled on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group)" target="_blank">Anonymous group</a>) attacks E-Corp, the world's largest conglomerate (think GE + JP Morgan) and brings them down through a Ransomware attack. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The objective of the attack is to free millions of people from massive debt which they are running - the fountainhead of debt across the US being E-Corp. With the hack, millions of loans become unserviceable because data for them is no longer available, but it also leads to E-corp being unable to dispense cash to its depositors and freezing of further lending, ultimately the entire hacking episode leads to an economic collapse!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While my initial interest in the series arose due to its cyberpunk lineage, my interest post Season 1 was retained more because of its depiction of the interplay between epochal events and the nature of human society. Eliot / Mr Robot's original intention in the ransomware attack is to bring down E-Corp and the entire 'elite society' which runs around it. But when the economic meltdown transpires, the exact opposite happens - credit freeze and restrictions on deposit withdrawals hit the poor the most, millions lose livelihoods, homes and relations go sour. The rich, on the other hand, do get impacted but only in losing the sheen of their lifestyles or social stature.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This made me think back of the various other such epochal events we have noticed in past several years - the 2008 economic collapse, some electoral changes in various countries, and most recent Covid-19. Just like the fictional Five/Nine hack in Mr Robot, most of these events haven't impacted 'natural order of human society'. The rich are still rich, the poor even poorer, the middle classes remain locked in a constant graze to crack the glass ceiling to become the rich.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This does not mean that the natural order never changes. For example, Independent India's most revolutionary land policy was the abolition of the Zamindari system (feudal landholding practices). Another such change was the '<a href="http://www.tribal.nic.in/actRules/PCRAct1955.pdf" target="_blank">The Protection Of Civil Rights Act, 1955</a>' which abolished the practice of untouchability in India. The American Civil War which abolished Slavery was another such epoch event globally, as was the Civil Rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which followed his assassination. The 1994 South African general election which led to the abolishment of Apartheid in South Africa is another such epoch event which changed the social order.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, while all these legislative events might have aimed at bringing instant changes to social order, their success has been excruciatingly slow at best. Casteism is still rampant in rural India, even though it may not take the extreme form of Untouchability. The recent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lives_Matter">Black Lives Matter</a> campaign in the United States illustrates that African Americans still face discrimination in American society. Housing and economic differences are still quite pronounced between Whites and Blacks in South Africa. For this reason, such legislative changes are often not acceptable to 'revolutionaries' like Che Guevara or hackers of the Anonymous group or the fictional Eliot Anderson. They prefer a more radical approach, which often involves eliminating the privileged. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the same time, it is interesting to note that instead of revolutionary epochal events, the real march of civilisation towards being more egalitarian and impacting social order has been littered with technological progress of the human society. Industrialisation, for example, led to the formation of cities and as people moved to cities, it led to their intermingling and weakening of casteist structures among them. Another wave of awakening against casteism was a result of Indians travelling overseas for education and trade. Gandhi himself travelled to South Africa to set up a new legal practice and Ambedkar, while he was an anti-casteism torch bearer early on, strengthened his ideology while studying in London and the US. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The American Civil war also has an interesting relationship with Industrialisation; while the key reason for Civil War was disagreement over the abolition of slavery, the reason why this became an issue was because of the economic makeup of the US circa 1860s. The Northern States were largely Industrialised while the Southern States more agrarian. Slavery was critical to the South mainly because it allowed them to remain economically competitive in spite of being agrarian, against the onslaught of industrialisation the world over. Slave labour was virtually free and hence the South could produce raw agricultural produce much cheaper than the rest of America or Europe. Europeans imported heavily from the Southern States and in turn, exported finished goods to America which were cheaper than finished goods produced by the Northern States themselves. This led the Northern States to propose the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariff_of_Abominations">Tariffs of 1828</a> against cheap European imports, and the opposition of such Tariff by Southern states came in form of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullification_Crisis" target="_blank">Nullification Crisis</a>. These two initial sparks ultimately <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_the_American_Civil_War">spiralled slowly</a> into the Civil War.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 21st century has been different however. Industrialisation in the 19th century paved way for changes to social order in the 20th century. Laws and reforms mentioned above all belong to the early/mid 20th century. However, even though the Internet brought about massive changes in the way we live towards the end of the 20th century and early decade of the 21st, we haven't had any laws, regulations or revolutions challenging the social order for almost 50 years now. The Internet has changed a lot for humanity, and while millions are now getting educated on their own through the web, they haven't been able to uproot themselves from the social order they are born into. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The continuance of caste mindset in Rural India or the police atrocities on African Americans which came to light following the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_George_Floyd">killing of George Floyd</a> only indicates the need for Social reforms across the globe, because of exactly what the fictional events in Mr Robot show, any form of a frontal attack on the social order has the exact opposite effect. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Internet was supposed to not just lift millions out of poverty but also transfer wealth from the rich to the poor. However, the Fed expanding its balance sheet following the collapse of 2008, and other such schemes have ensured that the rich are insulated from the downsides of wealth erosion at the cost of the tax-payer; these bail-outs also have robbed the poor of the welfare funds meant for social upliftment. At the same time, the gains from the massive wealth generation - whether it is the Silicon Valley growth or that from cheap Chinese labour - are well protected in coffers of the rich. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The entire world today is moving towards a 'Zamindari system' where massive wealth is locked in hands of the top 1%, who also control governments, central bankers, mainstream media and through them, even the electorate. They use this power to secure the continuance of wealth in their hands. We've tried hacking the social order by revealing how the rich do what they do [<a href="https://wikileaks.org/+-Global-Economy-+.html">WikiLeaks</a>, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089/" target="_blank">Inside Job</a>] - the manipulation of elections, media and people is virtually public information. With Social Media, social atrocities too are no longer hidden in plain sight. We've had epochal events - from 9/11 to 2008 crash to Covid-19. <b><i>None of these have managed to dent the natural order of things!</i></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What is lacking I believe is laws and regulations same as the abolition of the Zamindari system to uproot these inequalities and to give a fillip to the furtherance of equality for all of mankind. In India, the Modi govt has enacted a few laws in its first term such as the <a href="https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/ibc-delivering-results-a-reform-modi-jaitley-should-be-proud-of/story/335953.html" target="_blank">IBC</a> which prevents large corporate borrowers turning into 'wilful defaulters', and forcing govt and regulators to rely on bailouts from Depositor's / Taxpayers money to keep Banks afloat. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But there's much more to be done here - recently Modi's own party has been a part of political shenanigans where lawmakers were traded from one party to the other to topple and form new state governments. It may be unconfirmed, but public perception is that massive money exchanged hands - allegations and accusations may not have been proven, but then how does one explain a series of such events happening across states? And where does the money used for horsetrading lawmakers come from? It comes from businesses, who then surely would expect qui-pro-quo from the Chief Minister who's government was saved or formed. Such events only make the inequalities persist longer because it necessitates the nexus between politicians and the rich and prevents creation of laws or policies to counter inequality. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And India is just about a sixth of the world's population - what about Canada, the US, Europe, China, Russia, Far East, Africa and South America? The problem of inequality is global and the rich are one-force globally. Globalisation means that rich investors own corporations (or parts of corporations) which span across nations and continents. Bailouts in the US have a massive impact on Indian markets and vice-versa. Until there are reforms globally, we will not be able to reduce or even prevent inequality from rising as it has, in the past several decades.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yes, the problem of inequality is as old as human civilisation itself - and inequalities will exist until there is a human society. It isn't inequality but the unfairness of inequality which we need to fight. The phenomenon where the privileged remaining privileged for generations, while the poor suffer - the sterilisation of social structure from technological progress, is what we need to fight. As mankind progresses, we must make our social structures more malleable where it should become increasingly easier for the underprivileged to rise up and difficult for the privileged to protect their turf.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Global laws need to change for this to happen and this possibly is the biggest challenge that the post-knowledge-economy / post-globalisation generation faces. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">. </div>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-79273450518056027622020-07-05T18:31:00.010+05:302020-07-11T13:55:34.121+05:30How will travel industry transform post-Covid<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNGoXlJ9vjxrN1AeCbJ8QrSxD9rFvuLbcpwBrWBZosc4VTOfr1EjoOcscHknOdhlAgfQYc7GpkVVVMrilrJwLHdSmnH23AheKmdgT52Kaf9koz9pBwOd6p4GPnKQadNTVaxbEP/s2000/photo-1517588978316-1cebd2151f37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="2000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNGoXlJ9vjxrN1AeCbJ8QrSxD9rFvuLbcpwBrWBZosc4VTOfr1EjoOcscHknOdhlAgfQYc7GpkVVVMrilrJwLHdSmnH23AheKmdgT52Kaf9koz9pBwOd6p4GPnKQadNTVaxbEP/s320/photo-1517588978316-1cebd2151f37.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Unlike philosophers, journalists
and teenagers, the world of entrepreneurship does not permit the luxury of
gazing into a crystal ball to predict the future. An entrepreneur’s world is
instead made of MVPs (Minimum Viable Product), A/B Tests, launching products, features
or services and gauging / measuring their reception in the market to arrive at <i>verifiable
truths </i>which can drive the business forward.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Which is why I have never written
about my musings or hypothesis about travel industry – we usually either seek
customer feedback or launch an MVPised version and gather market feedback.
However, with Covid-19 travel bans across the globe, the industry is currently
stuck – while a lot of industry reports and <a href="https://skift.com/2020/06/25/see-how-the-tourism-rebound-is-all-but-stalled-skift-recovery-index/" target="_blank">journalistic conjectures</a> are out,
there’s no definitive answer to the way forward. Besides there is no way to
test your hypothesis since even the traveller does not know what they will do
when skies open.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">So, I decided to don my blogger
hat and take the luxury of crystal gazing today – below are some thoughts on how
the travel industry may see itself a few years after Covid bans end.<o:p></o:p></p>
<blockquote><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Sidenote: My general take about
everything “post Covid” is that Covid will only exacerbate trends we have seen
coming for last several years, in some cases, decades. Covid is not so much about
a change of direction as it is about speed. Covid will accelerate hitherto hidden
trends and provide velocity to existing transformations.<o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>Dip, Slowdown or uptake?<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">While opinion is abound, most research suggests that with Covid, corporates may adopt Work-From-Home as a
permanent situation even if not necessitated by environmental reasons. As work
gets done for longer duration remotely, and people’s minds and schedules adjust
to remote nature of work, several work categories will soon settle into a
permanent habit of remote efficiency. When the world finally opens, this would
mean that while many workers would surely throng to their offices to meet
colleagues – businesses’ propensity to fund business travel would surely reduce.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand – and this is
where I gaze into my crystal ball – as more people start longer-term remote
work, their need for leisure travel may go up substantially. Travel is fundamental
to human existence – if the first humans had not wandered out of the African
continent, the history of human evolution would have been very different. Just
like man is a social animal, he is also a wanderer – wandering is embedded in
mankind’s DNA and it is impossible to take that away from us.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">So, to compensate a long-drawn
shelter-at-home / work-from-home fatigue, not only would leisure travel provide
an immediate succour but the trends for leisure travel may see a permanent bump
for times to come, may be even (over)compensate the reduction in business
travel budgets.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>Travel Agencies?</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Many travel agencies have
shuttered temporarily to brace the Covid storm. Almost everyone has administered
a pay cut to employees, some have laid off staff, some have paused salary
payments on a temporary basis. As the skies open up, many of these half-shut
hibernating agencies will wake up and start again. There are many possibilities
which await them:</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></p><ol><li>Resumption of pre-Covid work schedules and load </li><li>Partial resumption with lowered transaction flow [owing to lower business travel]</li><li>Expectation of lowered costs / commissions from clients </li><li>Expectation of digital / remote experience in providing services earlier delivered in person </li></ol><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><p class="MsoNormal">If I were to take a bet, I
believe #4, followed by #3 are sure to happen; while either of #1 and #2 may
transpire for agencies depending on how well they embrace #4 and #3. In the
last few months, many people have tasted comforts of remote work / life,
especially the otherwise digitally shy [boomers or equivalent generation] and
become comfortable with using digital means. So travel agencies which relied on
footfall from their presence in prominent commercial districts, may realise
that a digital presence is as or more important to solicit customers. At the
same time, agencies which already have digital presence, but low-profile physical
presence may see a faster revival of business.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Expectations of digital
experience may transcend the need to just have a website, customers may expect
a deeper digital experience in terms of self-service/customer-service. Further,
their expectations from their regular travel agency may be referenced based on
their experience with other digital players like OTAs or Payment apps.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Another trend which Covid will intensify
is a shift from <i>fulfilment to customer service</i> – already customers access
the same travel information that agencies do. The travel agent’s value therefore
is in ‘curating’ the travel plan as per the customer’s preferences and in
providing value added customer service. Demonstratable value addition, coupled
with digital delivery, will be key to survival and flourishing of travel
agencies.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Destination Management
Companies (DMCs)<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal">Essentially the ‘suppliers’ of
all services you consume when you travel, DMCs are the equivalent of ‘ancillary
industries’ in manufacturing. Same as Small Scale ancillaries they thrive on
lean cash flows and workforce – a lot of gig economy work, whether its taxi
drivers or amateur tour guides depend on DMCs for their livelihood. DMCs have
been hardest hit by the Covid-19 bans as regular cash flow has been disrupted and
with their already lean model, they haven’t had much buffer to support their employees
/ contractors / gig workers.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">While their regular cash flow
will resume as Covid-19 bans lift across the globe, there are some fundamental
shifts which will occur in the DMC world also. Just like travel agencies will
need to digitise, DMCs will also need to feed into this digital supply chain if
they want to stay relevant. This is no different than other gig-economy
workers. Just like an Uber driver has a better chance of getting an on-demand booking,
compared to a taxi which operates in the taxistand, DMCs who are
already a part of a digital platform will recover faster than others.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Plugging in to the digital supply
chain may be much harder than one imagines. Unlike an Uber driver who just
needs to enlist his/her profile with the app and get started, a DMC will need
to do a lot more work. It starts with digitising the ‘rate-card’ of services –
many DMCs still work via email providing quotes based on ‘manual calculations’
done by staff. Having standardised services, rates cards, rate calculations [including
tax considerations], they need to either customise them to fit the digital
platform’s template or develop their own software to provide online feeds.
[Full disclosure: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/darwin-tech" target="_blank">Darwin’s</a> solution provides potential solutions to DMCs in the
in-between space also. Contact <a href="mailto:shailesh@tripdarwin.com" target="_blank">here</a> to explore more]</p><p class="MsoNormal">Once the price determination / quotation is taken care of, DMCs will also need to explore opportunities of digitising the fulfilment cycle. DMCs shall need to use digital means such as Messenger apps, mobile apps and QR codes to make it easy for the traveller to avail the services they have booked or to reach out to the DMC for help.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Online Portals<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal">This is a tricky one, because the Online Portals come in several shapes and sizes. More importantly they are simply the window to the existing fabric of travel service companies. While it is true that the offline travel agency has been hit hard over last several years with the rise of the Online Travel Portals, the offline world has also transformed itself to cohabit the ecosystem. Covid-19 has hit offline and online players equally in terms of revenue but unlike small offline agencies, who may have the luxury of laying off staff, online players may not be able to do so. Further, there are technology costs which are fixed and difficult to cut out completely.</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal">I do not have any general prediction to make for the online portals except that the industry may see consolidation in the coming years, but also that innovation will remain key to not just survival but thriving in future. Players who embrace new realities, ideate, iterate, fail fast at lower costs are sure to reap the long-term fruits that the post-Covid-19 world begets.</p><div>.</div><div><font size="1">Image Credits: <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/2-vNWRm7pmg">Raja Patel via unsplash</a> </font></div></div><p></p><b></b><p></p>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-65794153347009292262020-06-21T23:56:00.005+05:302020-06-22T00:01:56.218+05:30A mundane interpretation of ज्ञान योग [Gyan Yog] <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbLfqq43U18v62Tw_SAh1HK_koV_5EOScY3jPrNjHIWMsLQ4LgvF-mA16_2SCTrebNENwnSb2LJnQg6VBp-vQLPgA05rlOHg1LWotAM9HSK4b0ssWNlwpeiH9exzVVHKXi5Ker/s951/photo-1502230831726-fe5549140034.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="951" data-original-width="634" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbLfqq43U18v62Tw_SAh1HK_koV_5EOScY3jPrNjHIWMsLQ4LgvF-mA16_2SCTrebNENwnSb2LJnQg6VBp-vQLPgA05rlOHg1LWotAM9HSK4b0ssWNlwpeiH9exzVVHKXi5Ker/s320/photo-1502230831726-fe5549140034.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Today is International Yoga day - a day on which the whole world 'celebrates' the ancient practice of Yog / Yoga, albeit in a much-simplified form as a mere 'exercise' regimen. Unlike its popular format - the Hath Yoga - the term Yoga denotes a set of practices which can be used by a human being to take the path of salvation - Moksha [मोक्ष].</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h4 style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Background</h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">There are mainly three pathways to salvation - Karm Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Gyan Yoga. The three paths are not mutually exclusive. Karm yoga is the path of unselfish action without being attached to the fruits or consequences - the path taught by Lord Krishna in the Bhagwad Gita. Bhakti Yoga is about attaining salvation through extreme devotion towards a god - some examples are those of Meera and Varkari devotees of Bhagwaan Vitthal in Maharashtra. [You can look up more on these online - a lot of information is available on Wikipedia and blogs about these]</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Gyan Yoga means that one can achieve salvation by gaining knowledge of God. A deeper exploration of Gyan Yoga, however, would indicate that it's not the knowledge of God but rather knowledge of <i>reality </i>which is being sought by the individual under the practices of Gyan Yoga. Knowledge leads to 'awareness', which ultimately leads to 'self-awareness' - which is the ultimate attainment of Moksha. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h4 style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Conjecture </h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Apart from being the International Yoga day, today was also an Annular Solar Eclipse. As I watched the news coverage with a dual emphasis of how Astronomers and Astrologers were camped jointly under a tent on the banks of Brahm Kund to study the eclipse - I had a realisation that while spiritual awakening is a much complex ultimate objective, one could interpret Gyan Yoga in a much more mundane way. While spiritual awakening or Moksha is about 'self-realization', one can interpret 'Gyan' or knowledge as the pathway to mundane 'realisations'; and just like spiritual-awakening can liberate us spiritually, mundane realisations would liberate us from fear, uncertainties or doubts of our daily struggles.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><h4 style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Substance</h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Take the example of Solar eclipse itself - millennia/centuries ago when we humans didn't know much about the phenomenon of Eclipses, we feared them. Several superstitions were promulgated in the name of an Eclipse and other related phenomena. Rather than actively look forward to the opportunity to observe such seemingly rare celestial events, we feared its occurrence. Knowledge / Gyan however, has empowered us, liberated us from the fear and delivered us into this age of 'enlightenment' when we understand and appreciate the Eclipse - we marvel at the heavenly event unfolding right in front of us; we thank our stars for being born in a Solar System and an age when we can experience this phenomenon. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Another such example struck me when I was watching a web-series. As a child, adolescent or even until my 20s when I used to watch movies or TV series with graphic or disturbing content, it used to create havoc in my sleep sequence for days. No, I didn't get nightmares but my mind used to wander endlessly into the known / unknown possibilities, motives and outcomes that these sequences could have on the storyline. In some cases, though after a lot of mental deliberation I would realise that these events were avoidable and had little or no bearing on the plot or story.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Then, a few years back, I went through an online course about storytelling. It included a section on how movie makers and scriptwriters deliberately insert plot twists or shock events after the entire script has been written, to create a sense of jounce in their presentation. These shocks come in the form of sudden violence, sexual scenes or gory depiction of other excesses such as gluttony or greed. These shocks are created to make the viewer remember the plot, though these events could as well have been absent from the plot itself without changing the outcomes in any way. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">So this time, when I was watching this web-series, I was conscious of this adulteration in the plot. Whenever such shock events occurred I sensed them instantly - I would even skip some of them forward [thanks to streaming!! :-) wouldn't have been possible on live TV]. I did not have the fear of 'missing out' some key detail of the plot so as to impact my understanding of the storyline because I knew now that these plot twists had been inserted for a different reason. So this knowledge, this gyan liberated me to watch the movie / web series in a peaceful and qualitatively better method.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Yet another example of how knowledge liberates you is when you start seeing the political upheavals through the prism of time. This is one reason why the young are more emotionally charged with political events than the old. The old people have seen the sequence of political manipulations umpteen number of times and they know how things turn up just fine or just as earlier irrespective of how microscopic events unfold. Knowledge gained through experience of being the audience to earlier political theatre liberates them from the uncertainty or doubt [and in some cases the hope] which the young often get swayed by.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Summarising, while I am not sure how really Gyan Yoga liberates the soul, enlightens it and leads it towards a larger spiritual awakening or salvation / Moksha; I am reasonably enlightened today about the more mundane role knowledge plays in liberating us from our FUDs - Fears, Uncertainties and Doubts, which keep us away from peaceful existence in our daily lives.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image Source: </span><span style="color: #111111; font-size: x-small;">Bekir Dönmez </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">from Unplash </span></div>Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7078116.post-60632986905132175452020-05-03T01:04:00.001+05:302020-05-04T18:14:15.458+05:30The good things about Covid-19 outbreak<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWuW9SIGq1OMEeFnYbge22u6PjSN6qYp1eMMcEgwsMWdQc5PNHZvPqn9RubqrgaZWQDeIiiMWknjo5-7lLDNw11YkaLVyqjwmoMQtuQT362UfzTxGnZico-lIRyhRJm2PrDmiZ/s1600/mumbai_lockdown-770x433.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="770" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWuW9SIGq1OMEeFnYbge22u6PjSN6qYp1eMMcEgwsMWdQc5PNHZvPqn9RubqrgaZWQDeIiiMWknjo5-7lLDNw11YkaLVyqjwmoMQtuQT362UfzTxGnZico-lIRyhRJm2PrDmiZ/s320/mumbai_lockdown-770x433.webp" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus - Mumbai <br />
Unprecedented Lockdown</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Its been a month and 10 days of the lockdown here in India, an attempt to contain the outbreak of Covid-19; the deadly virus which has engulfed the whole world and caused the death of thousands - possibly the most deaths mankind has seen in a span of few months since the Second World War. [I mean this only in the global context though, locally we have had wars, calamities and similar viral outbreaks which have outnumbered Covid-19.]<br />
<br />
As the founder of a travel startup, I was initially terribly shaken at how life has been thrown completely out of gear by this deadly virus. Travel is the worst affected sector; suddenly 2020 which we had planned to be the 'explosive growth' year for us has thrown us into an existential crisis. The situation has taken such a wild turn that I've grown comfortably numb only shifting the timeline of our 'explosive' growth to the next calendar year [or potentially even further] while we try to figure out how we will survive till we hit that point.<br />
<br />
However, among all the bad news - there's a lot of positive stuff that's happening and some of that I wanted to record here today.<br />
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Consumerism has taken a backseat </h4>
<div style="text-align: left;">
India is a rapidly developing country and we Indians, and poorer Indians more than the middle class or rich ones like me were fast getting used to a wasteful westernized lifestyle. Everything from food to consumables to data to financial credit was becoming cheaper by the month, and easier to access. And we were wasting all this massively. I wrote <a href="http://www.nikhilkulkarni.in/2020/02/we-are-living-in-dystopian-world.html">a previous blog post</a> about how dystopian it was all becoming where we were all overworking ourselves to afford luxuries which we possibly could not have afforded.</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
Suddenly, all these excesses have come to a grinding halt. Even for an upper-middle-class neighbourhood like mine, grocery shops are rationing supplies so that they can service all customers for a longer period rather than exhaust their stocks in a few days. For poorer Indians, the ephemeral prosperity has suddenly halted, in a treacherous way. Gone is the pull of TikTok videos on new-fangled mobile phones - their income is gone, survival has become difficult. It's not a pretty sight, it's not something to be proud of - many of these people are nowadays either without food or rationing on a day to day basis what they have, or living off on government-provided aid.<br />
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But the positive is, they've / we've all learnt to live within our means again, we are no longer over buying, overspending, overspending, and over-wasting. The garbage bin now gets full once in two days than half a day. I am not sure yet, but some of us may also stop buying the ₹500 Netflix and ₹300 extra data pack to watch content we watched only under peer pressure.</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>Cleanliness is the buzzword </b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Yes, India is <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot,_Flat,_and_Crowded">Hot, Flat and Crowded</a> </i>- but it is also Dirty! Prime Minister Modi has been crying hoarse since the second year of his term about his Swatchh Bharat Abhiyaan - a program to clean up India. He has organized national competitions, given away grants and <a href="https://scroll.in/article/857030/centre-spent-rs-530-crores-in-3-years-on-swachh-bharat-publicity-but-has-little-to-show-for-it">spent millions</a> on advertising cleanliness to Indians. But Corona has finally taught people to keep themselves clean, wash their hands regularly, clean their apartments [on their own, without an army of house servants], clean public areas and <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/spitting-in-public-now-an-offence-under-disaster-management-act-mha/articleshow/75161291.cms">stop spitting</a>. Cleanliness which was earlier considered either a grouse of puritans or a fake tirade by Modi supporters is finally getting respected on its own.<br />
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<b>Vegetarianism is back</b><br />
India has been a largely vegetarian country due to religious reasons, but rising prosperity has social liberation has increasingly made vegetarianism fade away. But with Covid-19 having been linked to eating wild animals, people have generally let up on their non-vegetarian diet and moving towards vegetarianism. Globally too, Covid-19 may lead to reduction of the practice of eating wild animals and trade of animals, especially endangered species, may go down. Any reduction in the production of Livestock, which is a <a href="https://phys.org/news/2013-09-livestock-major-contributor-global.html">key contributor to global warming</a>, will only help make earth a greener planet. </div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>We are building public hospitals </b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Yes, this is indeed a boon of the virus for countries like India. For decades Governments have neglected their duty to build hospitals and left the healthcare sector to private enterprises. With the exception of few European countries [Britain, Spain, Germany, Italy] and Japan - most Governments of the world do not provide free healthcare to citizens.<br />
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But finally, as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHEH3TnRmrQ">this video</a> of Congresswoman Katie Porter forcing CDC in the US to make Covid-19 testing available for free, and <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/make-all-covid-19-tests-free-for-citizens-suggests-supreme-court/story-GuuvxN0ztROlijNBNZCfqK.html">this ruling</a> by India's Supreme Court says - governments are finally being forced to spend on citizens health. This has a snowball effect because when governments realise that they anyway have to pay, they start spending on creating infrastructure. Military commissioned hospitals, though makeshift, is the beginning. The long term effect of Covid-19 will be governments finally realising that building public health infrastructure is cheaper than funding squarely for epidemic control. If we had more capacity in our hospitals, it would have been cheaper to offer Covid-19 treatment to citizens.<br />
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In a developing country like India, where public health facilities are often dilapidated, this would mean more money flowing into healthcare and hence improvement in the general level of public healthcare infrastructure.<br />
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<b>Utilities and Healthcare are back to being respected - no longer a business </b><br />
Yes - the doctor who lives next door is today risking his life and going to the hospital taking care of critical patients at the risk of infecting himself. He deserves to be honoured - so do sanitation workers, security staff and all those who have been providing 'utilitarian services' to us. I see a change in people's attitude towards civil service operators - whether its doctors, policemen, sanitation workers or housekeeping staff in their apartments. People are thankful for these people to work, they are providing them with food, extra pay and most importantly the much-needed respect.<br />
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Of course, I am not sure if this change of hearts will outlive the Covid-19 crisis or end with it, will doctors get back to becoming the money-making machines that private hospitals were trying to make them [I thankfully know many doctors who haven't succumbed even pre-Covid19], will sanitation workers get back to taking bribes to perform their duties - will people stop respecting these warriors? I wish this is a change for good and we continue this respect while professionals continue to do the selfless service which they've been giving last 40 days!<br />
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<b>Focus is back on medical research and manufacturing</b><br />
Related but not really the same as public funding of healthcare 'services' is funding of medical research. We need more funding for medical research and in the last two decades, that is one that has suffered.<br />
<br />
In the last 3 decades, Venture funding has focussed microscopically on technology startups or companies which "look like technology startups" [WeWork?]. We fail to recognise that Medical "technology" is possibly the most fundamental of all. While pension funds would probably be happy putting billions into Pharmaceutical Stocks and while Pharma companies are funding research - there's much more that's needed.<br />
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Yes, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52106565">the $500 ventilator</a> is surely a money-spinner but then it's not just about cutting edge disruptive products; after all, the more you focus towards 'disruption' in healthcare, the closer you get to cases like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theranos">Theranos</a>. What is needed is hard-headed investments - venture investment, and traditional debt funding - into vanilla businesses like large scale manufacturing of medical equipment, consumables and accessories. It is an ignominy that a poor country like India, which prides itself on 'Information technology and electronics exports', imports more medical equipment than what it manufactures.<br />
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Covid-19, with its massive supply chain shocks, will finally bring the focus back into manufacturing of medical equipment locally or closer to the shore for all countries across the globe. And this is good - there is a need for manufacturing everywhere because society needs manufacturing jobs everywhere. The US needs manufacturing as much as China and India; so do Italy and Germany.<br />
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<b>Jobs will be back</b><br />
Yes, there will be a recession, jobs will be lost - business will cut costs and jobs. But for many poor, some Jobs will also come back. Everyone has realised the concentration risk of making China the manufacturing hub of the world and political pragmatism will dictate that many jobs which moved to China (and India) will move closer to the shore. One may see a rise of manufacturing growth in neglected regions of Vietnam, East Europe, and the Southern United States - places which offer labour at decent costs yet business environment far better than China.<br />
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The business world will see a new levelling; post Covid-19 will also be a post-globalisation business world. People will also travel less, having tasted the blood of remote work, companies will reduce their travel bills, people will also reduce their travel, to avoid unwanted health risks. And the psychological side-effect of less travel will be preference of executives to have their work done closer to where they live - this will especially be true of manufacturing and to an extent of services.<br />
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This is also a wake-up call to businesses which have been earning solely on wage arbitrage; providing quality, diversifying your business risks is now as important as cost control. If that means that an Indian company rather open an office in the US and Europe, or a Chinese company invests in setting up manufacturing in America - it will either be done, or they will lose business. If doing that makes you unsustainable, you were in the wrong business all this while.<br />
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<b>People / Companies are realising the value of Insurance</b></div>
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I've been an Information Risk consultant early in my career - I remember that Business Continuity plans were things that only large multinationals did, because they had the budget or, for many, because the regulation needed them to. IT companies in India had BCPs because their client's asked for one in each RFP. With Covid-19, when 80-100% of the workforce was required to suddenly operate from home, all these companies realised the value of a BCP and their own preparedness for these BCP scenarios. Many who weren't prepared paid with the loss of contracts, a slowdown of work, loss of efficiency or simply increased discretionary spend on acquiring resources - to continue their business.<br />
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With Covid-19, many laggards who did not devote enough resources to enabling a better working life for their employees were taken in for a shock. In 2020, these organizations were operating with Desktop Computers keyed in to a traditional hard wired network cable and used antiquated Information Security methods because they wanted to see their employees chained to their desks. They did not extend work-from-home facilities to their employees even though they could because they had this bizarre notion that employees work only when the boss can keep an eye on them. As I <a href="https://twitter.com/kulkarninikhil/status/1251737093312659457">tweeted here</a>, CTOs, IT Infra SVPs & even CFOs of companies in this state, are guilty of keeping their employees in a productivity hell for almost a decade because work from home was possible 15 years ago.<br />
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The running joke is very true, that for several companies its neither the CIO nor the CTO or even the CEO who could drive the "Go Digital" Agenda - but Covid-19 has managed just that. And organizations are finally waking up to the need / benefits of real BCP, than a paper filling certifications seeking exercise. </div>
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<b>We've found new respect for Humanity </b><br />
Yeah! It's not just the doctors among us who are earning respect - we've found new love for all fellow humans. Now that I know how hard it is to mop the floor, I will possibly think twice before littering around just because the <i>maid will clean it up tomorrow. </i><br />
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The second aspect is of Family time going up. Social media which had destroyed dinner table conversations is now going reverse - I am so fed up of the screen by the time I start my dinner that I'd rather listen to my daughter's chattering than stare away into the mobile. And if I still dare to look at my mobile, now that I am spending my entire day at home, my daughter knows that I was working all day and so she won't let me stare away into the last email on my phone as I munch my food. My work-life balance may be screwed (it always was!) but irrespective, I am indeed spending more time with family than what I used to.<br />
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<b>We are discovering ourselves and our community</b><br />
And Social Media - well, its finally connecting us back. We have daily video calls with parents who live far, we have family video call gatherings. We are also Zooming with school friends whom we haven't talked to in decades.<br />
<br />
And people reopening their hobbies - someone I know started an Origamy class online. Another of my mentors is writing long Facebook / LinkedIn posts sharing nuggets of wisdom from his two-decade long entrepreneurial journey. My wife is busy destressing herself by drawing and painting; as I type this, the wall next to me has a half-painted unicorn sketch which will possibly be coloured tomorrow. <i>And I am finally writing on my blog! :-) </i><br />
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<b>The Climate is Healing</b></div>
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Since the last 1 week, I wake up to the cooing of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_koel">Koyal</a> in my balcony. I don't know if its the absence of the urban whirr which is making me notice her cooing, or has she started cooing realizing that the city around her is quieter and noise pollution is low. But as twilight draws near, I notice more birds and more sounds around me for sure. May be this is just my own mind playing games with me, but there's <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/the-ozone-layer-is-healing-and-that-s-good-news-for">scientific evidence</a> that the planet is healing itself - at least Birds are back where they belong; in my balcony.<br />
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With no aeroplanes whizzing in the skies, 1% of cars on the road and a tenth of industries polluting the world for past 30+ days skies are surely cleaner. And Oil prices have crashed - hopefully Oil is going away, maybe for good, maybe low Oil prices are here to stay - and so are electric cars! Yes, cheap oil may make cleantech feel more expensive, but I believe the tide has turned over - oil is cheaper not only because demand has fallen due to Covid-19, but also because electric cars are here to stay. Markets anticipate that electric mobility may finally be making a dent and lower consumption of oil could be a new normal which is here to stay.<br />
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The healing of climate also makes me wonder, if even without Covid-19, should we make this 'stay-at-home', shut down factories, shut down planes, shut down cars - an annual exercise to keep giving climate change mini-breaks? </div>
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<b>Another piece in the Martian jigsaw puzzle has fit</b><br />
This one is a long shot - it actually would fit better in a blog post which is in draft mode since the last 6 months. The post is about how recent changes and innovations are preparing mankind for colonization and existence on a Martian station.<br />
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Covid-19 is actually the last piece of the Martian jigsaw puzzle because outer space is filled with many more deadly diseases than what we can imagine on the ozone-shielded cocooned atmosphere of the earth. Mankind is going to need large scale preparedness to deal with frequent pandemic calls if it wants to survive on a space station bereft of a conducive atmosphere. And Covid-19 is possibly the first of such pandemic shocks which mankind is going to get in the next few decades which will ultimately prepare us for setting up civilisation in worlds far far away!<br />
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Nikhil Kulkarnihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06122713213289886963noreply@blogger.com0