Common Sense is Rocket Science

Indians need "Emergency Education"

2007-05-20T23:56:00.000-07:00

Emergency education is the knowledge of dealing with an emergency situation like an accident/ a bomb blast/ earthquake/ etc. Actualy, make that only accidents and bomb blasts, because these two have become common occurances in India, for reasons attributable to the government as well as the citizens.

I could not believe my eyes when I read that the people pelted stones at the police after the Mecca blasts. Finally (since tear-gas shells and lathi charges failed to stop the miscreants) the police had to resort to firing and five people were killed.

Indians need to be educated formally (as part of the school curricula) on how to react in such a situation. I believe, this would have helped save the lives of these five people as co-operation with the police and skilled volunteers helping the injured in an orderly fashion would have minimized the damage. I believe that Emergency Education should be a compulsary part of Physical Education or Community Living courses (cound not think of any other subject to put this under)

Cricket Business Plan

2007-03-27T01:20:00.000-07:00

Now that India has lost its chance to take a shot at the 2007 World Cup, I was wondering if we can use the craze for cricket to make money. Yes, the BCCI is making tons of it already, but they still cannot insure their sponsors of losses (to the tune of Rs 150 crores; approx. USD 35 million) to Sony Entertainment Television and unaccountable losses to other sponsors due to decreased viewership of the remaining matches.

The Idea:
Have all matches rigged!!!
Easier said than done. But it can be done. And No, I am not saying that it will be done illegally. So what am I going to do?

I am planning to start a company on the lines of the WWE
The sport will be cricket. Let's call this firm Cricketmania Inc. (CMI)

CMI will have individual players (from different countries) contracted to play exclusively for the CMI. Players will preferrably be flambouyant and aggressive, so that they can be over-hyped (like the Sachins, Laras, Sehwags, Dhonis, Afridis, etc. of the world) or be tough hunks (Haydens, Freddies, Sir. Viv. Richards, Gayles, Graeme Smiths, Khans, et.al). They also can be dangerouls looking like the Donalds, Nels, Vaas and Akhtars of the world. Rarely will contracts be offered to the placid Dravids. Flemings, Chandepauls, Youhanas, DSilvas, Kumbles, Warnes et al)

Teams will be based on countries, no doubt. But there will be guidelines provided to the teams as to who'll win and who'll lose. Every player should have a guideline for # of runs to be scored, wickets to be taken, catches dropped, etc. The players can improvise within a given set of guidelines. Ofcourse, teams with the highest fan following will reach the finals and will often LOSE (WC 2003 was perfect for most advertisers as India reached the finals)

Yes, initially, the quality of cricket will not be as good (read there will be no perfect yorkers, perfect out/in swingers, fast balls, slow balls, etc.) . But let's face it, the viewers want the batsmen to score. They do not want the bowlers to take wickets. Ofcourse, these will be one-day matches (maybe even Twenty20 cricket)

How do I allow legal rigging?
By mentioning this fact on the company factsheet!!! The company will publically claim (not publicise) that the matches will be played with a set of suitable guidelines for participating teams. Since all players from all teams are under contract with the firm, they have to oblige. The players obviously do not have much of a future in the actual cricket anyways, so they better comply :-)

If WWE can be a thumping success, so can CMI!!!

Left's left its mind behind

2007-02-07T06:04:00.000-08:00

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/dravid-gets-a-left-hook-for-endorsing-suryanamaskar/top/32975-3.html

Read the news item above. Rahul Dravid innocuously went to a "Surya-Namaskar-Yagna" in Nagpur and the Left thinks it is irresponsible.

Pray tell me what is bad in urging students to do surya-namaskar in the morning? I have absolutely no doubt that the ritual is good for the body (it is after-all, a form of exercise). Surely, the left has LOST it

Saddam Husseins in India

2007-01-10T05:54:00.000-08:00

Read the following news items:
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/bihar-wants-village-named-after-saddam/top/30857-3.html
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/1-saddam-dies-but-bihar-has-many/30129-3.html

If Saddam Hussein can live on, pray why Adolf Hitler cannot? Recently, some enterprising people opened a restaurant and named it "Hitler's Cross". Why was there such a hue and cry over it and just because a certain minority wanted it down, the name was changed to something more acceptable.
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/hitlers-cross-conquered-name-changed/19614-3.html

Wonder what would happen if some support groups identifying themselves with the persecuted minorities in Iraq demand that all these children and the village be renamed or killed/destroyed.

My Take:- Individual Freedom should not be compromised. Individuals can exercise self-censorship, but there should be no moral policing. So the people have every right to name their children "Saddam Hussein" or "Hitler "or "Osama Bin Laden" or even "Donkey Bush Pig Laden" as they wish amd Hitler's cross should have remained as it was. If someone does not like the name of a restaurant, do not eat there.
If you do not like M.F. Hussein's paintings, by all means do not attend his exhibitions, condemn his paintings in any public forum, all is fine till you do it peacefully and not inflict any damage (physical) onto Hussein's work or try him from stop him from painting. Paint M.F. Hussein or his mother or his sister or any one nude and being serviced by a donkey, if you must, but do not harm the guy. Similarly, condemn the Danish cartoons by all means, but do NOT go about destroying public property or try to kill the cartoonist. Do not buy the Danish newspaper if it affects you.

Rights and duties

2007-01-09T23:41:00.000-08:00

Title may be misleading as I do not have an appropriate title yet.

A discussion I was having with my friends about animal rights was whether it is right for people to feed stray dogs with biscuits when many people are starving. In my locality in Mumbai, I find a number of animal lovers buying 1 kg biscuits dily to feed stray dogs. Ofcourse, I have a very valid and different reason to hate this practice, but I still feel they are within their rights to feed the dogs.

Actually, it is not about dogs. Let me put it this way. These people are spending their hard-earned and legally earned (i.e. after paying taxes to the Govt.) money and they have every right to spend it the way they wish without any moral obligations as long as it does not compromise on any other person's rights. (It would be wrong for them to buy a bomb and blast it in a crowded market-place) And since it is their personal income, one should not take offence to it saying that a lot of people are starving, so the resources would be better spent on them. My reason to hate the dog-feeders is because the stray dogs are encouraged to stay on in the locality and they are at best, a nuisance who bark at niht and disturb sleep, and at worst, dangerous as they bite many an unsuspecting pedestrian and represent a real danger to children. I would like the govt. to either gun these dogs down or round them all up and leave them in the jungle away form humans. But I digress.

A second point that was made here was that killing of the dogs is wrong and that they should be neutered and/or vaccinated against rabies. I have nothing against the poor dogs, but here, again, the individual is well within his/her rights to neuter the dog or vaccinate it with his/her money, but when the govt. money is used, the most efficient approach should be used (efficient and cost-effective is to kill the dog) and no one should have any objection to that, because the poor people actually deserve the state's money (The taxpayer's money should go to provide the optimal benefits for the citizens) and every penny needs to be wisely spent without personal ethics taking any precedence.

The discussion then took a small turn and we started discussing about the rights of animal-rights organisations to stage protest marches and physically stop research using animals as guinea pigs (pun!!!) for their experiments.
Read: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2047868,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/animalrights/0,,687263,00.html

My take on the same: The animal-rights organisations are well within their rights to protest against the experiments, but to disrupt and physically stop people from doing them is wrong, simply because the people doing this are not harming them. Secondly, the honest tax-payers money is being utilized for the projects, no individual has the right to disrupt it. If you really want to stop the practice, file legal proceedings.

Update: (29MAR2007) : A 6 month old baby killed by strays in Hyderabad
Read: http://www.ibnlive.com/news/india/03_2007/strays-maul-6monthold-to-death-37211.html

Arranged Marriages and Call Centres

2006-04-25T23:35:00.000-07:00

The other day, my mother asked me what I thought of girls working in call-centers. I asked her "What's there to think in that" .... "Girls work at call centers"..... period. But she persisted asking me what I thought of their morality, ethics, etc. I got the drift, but replied that they are expected to follow extremely strict confidentiality norms and these call centers are extremely high on ethics, so that the client's sensitive data, to which these call centers have access to, is safe.

That made my mother come straight to the point. One of her friend had got a marriage proposal for her son. The girl was working in a call center and my mother's friend was skeptical about accepting this girl as her daugether-in-law as she had heard that girls from call centers tend to have loose morals and character.

I have had the "character" arguement a lot of times with my parents and know their views on morality, which are different from mine. I am not passing a value judgement on their values, all I am saying is that they are different from mine. But I digress.....

Coming back to the point, she (my mother's friend) thinks that call center-girls have loose morals because they work late at night in the company of male colleagues, have easy money and easy access to pubs, discos, etc. Hence, there is a much larger chance of them "slipping" as the evils are easily accessible.

My primary arguement against this - A girl who has to "slip", in other words, sleep around, will do so even in college or in the locality, while a girl who decides top remain chaste will remain inspite of all the evils lurking around her. ---- Irrefutable, so taken.

Second arguement: Girls working in call centers are not safe....... They could be lured into something and taken advantage of ----- This thing really put me off...... I was now blunt ------ "If a girl is raped just for the fact that she is a girl, why would you refuse marrying her? Whta is the girl's fault in the case where she is raped" .... That again led to a wierd arguement, which I may write abt later.

Point is, are people being influenced to believe that call centers are bad places for girls to work at? Or people working there are devoid of morals? The media reports do seem to give this perception.

A consulting NGO - 2

2006-01-09T18:03:00.000-08:00

First of all, thanks for all your ideas..... Especially Tillu, Brodie, Donzy, Dalla and Scanp..... Strange, but all are my PG batchmates.....UG guys---wake up

Broadly, the next steps have been in this direction.

Start off by having a core-group of consultants. Get a pilot project from an organisation and deliver it with the available resources. Get a first hand feel of all the issues faced in working with the principles we have identified.

Next, identify other potential clients who would be willing to have us work with them on their businesses. Carry this model for around a year and gather all the experiences to make a formal organisation.

Thoughts are welcome.

A consulting NGO

2005-12-25T18:22:00.000-08:00

The aim of this series of posts is to explore the feasibility of forming an NGO which provides consulting services to small businesses and cash-strapped governments. Readers' thoughts, ideas and viewpoints are welcome as they would be very helpful in refining the idea and making a full-proof case.

This thought came to me two days ago, on a lazy saturday afternoon, with nothing better to do than sleep (it was snowing outside and watching some Korean channel on tele was the last thing I wanted to do). Random thoughts appeared in my mind around the central idea of a consulting NGO. Without rambling further, let me get down with the idea.

Theme:
India abounds in small, unorganised businesses which have their presence in almost every sector affecting our daily lives. Lack of resources is a major reason for these businesses to not have access to any kind of consulting services; hence these businesses have not been able to achieve significant progress (Sorry for being vague here) inspite of being around for a very long time.

One way to help these businesses perform better is to provide them with consulting services at nominal costs. Given the premium which consultants command, one way to achieve this is by forming an NGO to help small businesses (a prototype called SOMA already functions at IIM-Ahmedabad, it needs to be done on a bigger scale). This will help intellectuals (consultants in particular) contribute to the well being of the society in the most efficient manner - doing something they have the core competence for.

As a start, I have tried to list the key points for creation of such an NGO, lets say at Mumbai

Structure:
The NGO can have a core group of partners who will identify and actively seek out small businesses needing help and pitch to help them professionally. The engagement would then go to an engagement manager who will manage the project from there on with two / three volunteer-consultants as the need may be.

Every member is expected to spend atleast one weekend every month with the NGO to ensure a minimum bench strength to be staffed on assignments.

One assignment definitely cannot be completed in one weekend, unless it is done as a business case-study, which is definitely not the aim of this NGO. I guess volunteers may have to work 4 or 5 weekends at a stretch to complete a project and then have an extended break of around three months. But this kind of an arrangement may discourage volunteers as most of us will definitely be averse to working these many weekends at a stretch ------ Ideas required to get this critical aspect right.

Human Resources:
Any graduate can apply to work with the NGO as a consultant. Engagement Managers and Partners will require relevant consulting experience (more on this in later, when I get more inputs)

Junior volunteers can be recruited from college - they may work full time in their vacations or on weekends during regular college hours.

Clientele:
Government Organisations like BEST, Maharashtra State Transport (also called "ST" or "A-SH-T" by the locals, this is a really big, but cash strapped organisation and is in a real mess), BMC schools, Aarey Milk Colony, Mumbai taxi drivers' association (refer earlier post), Apna Bazaar, etc - Small operational level projects for these organisations

Small businesses like manufacturing (a lot of them dot the industrial landscape around Mumbai), restaurants, small retail chains, budding entrepreneurs, other NGOs, etc

Sponsorships:
Although there are no salaries to be paid out to the volunteers, operational expenses need to be taken care of. Until such time the NGO becomes self-sustaining (i.e. all expenses are covered by the client fees), corporate sponsors need to be roped in. --------Another aspect where brainstorming required.

Mumbai's Taxis

2005-12-18T17:12:00.000-08:00

Since the 20th century Premier Padmini (Fiat) taxis are taken away from the Mumbai roads with a view to modernize the taxis, a lot of options have been discussed. Secretaries of the taxi associations in Mumbai went on a Singapore trip to look at the structure there and commented that the same structure cannot be followed in Mumbai because the Singapore system was akin to slavery.

Wierd, because many of the taxis in Mumbai also run on the same principle. The taxi driver pays the taxi owner (car company in S'pore) about Rs. 150 per day ($90 in S'pore). All other conditions are pretty much the same (petrol/gas paid for by the driver, maintainence and insurance paid by the owner/car company).

The only people benefitting from the current arrangement are the taxi owners (different from the taxi drivers), as they make ~Rs.3K per month (post maintainence and other expenses, I doubt if any Mumbai taxi is insured) for doing nothing other than owning the vehicle (approx cost. Rs.50K).

My bet for a possible solution is to keep the taxi-license and the taxi-driver's license separate. The taxi license can be issued to any person owning a vehicle which satisfies the required norms (I hope the new norms are stricter w.r.t the quality of cars, safety aspects, etc). The taxi-driver's license can be issued to any person (again, the union will demand that their members be given the licenses first, I have no problems with that if they satisfy the basic conditions for being a taxi driver)

A look around the world will tell us how bad the Mumbai taxis are. London uses anachronistic taxis, but they are surprisingly comfortable, fuel efficient and well-maintained, Paris/Munich/Berlin/Brussels use Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen taxis, New York Ciry uses its long Fords (though I personally do not like the Ford taxis) and Camrys and recently, cars looking like the Toyota Innova, Seoul uses Hyundai Sonata and other cars. Yes, these are developed cities, but why go any further, taxis in Colombo are air-conditioned Mitsubishi Lancers and the rates are not too different from Mumbai cabbies. So what is a good option for Mumbai? Two vehicles come to my mind. The Indica diesel / CNG and the Maruti Omni LPG (Maruti van for some). Reasons : Low Price, lots of space for 4 passengers + luggage, low operating and maintainence expenses, safety (in an Indica, need to ascertain the safety aspects for the Omni).

Considering the cab economics in Mumbai, a taxi has to be profitable for the driver as well as the owning company. Assume that the owning company will still make ~Rs.3K after the new rules come in (i.e., they will rent the taxi out for Rs. 150 per day) and the driver will continue to make as much as he made before (As consumers, we don't want to have increased cab rates, do we???). For an investment of 3 lakhs (for an Indicab), it gives an ROI of 12% while for the Omni, the ROI is an attractive 18%. If the new Tata car (priced at less than 1.5 lakhs) is introduced sooner, the equation may change in favour of the taxi drivers with the daily rentals decreasing to as low as Rs.100 and in favour of the commuters with a decrease / no increase in rates. For the taxi drivers, the ecomomics is simple. 8 hrs of taxi driving @ Rs. 50 per hr yields Rs. 400. Fuel = Rs.100 (Yes, the LPG/CNG option is that cheap, even diesel is not too different, but is more polluting), rent = Rs. 150, Leaves him Rs.150 daily. A 10 to 11 hr day will fetch the driver Rs.250

An investigation needs to be done into the feasibility of each driver owning his vehicle and floating a company for the same, I am sure this option would eliminate the complaint of the perceived slavery which the taxi drivers' association has. Finance options can be made available to the drivers for purchasing the new vehicles (sans taxes, because it is a public vehicle).

What happens to the old vehicles? Well, Premier Padminis sell @ around 30K (n'th hand, n>2). These would probably be picked up for use as taxis in some smaller towns, as they are cheaper than the Bajaj autorickshaws !!!

All in all, Mumbai can get better cabs with no negative effects for the commuters and taxi drivers.