In all the unnecessary discussions I have with my friends, we always have a good point that we agree on. What are we give back to the society? Are we doing enough?
I have always wanted to do something. And I have always wanted to do for Education, because I believe it can solve all the other problems. But was short of ideas on how and how much?. But I think I have some ideas now.
So, here on the occasion of my birthday I hope you will help on the how much part. For every wish I receice I am going to donate some money.
For every Text : 1 Euro (SMS/mail/facebook/etc)
For every Call : 2 Euros
In-Person wish : 3 Euros
and so on.. The more personal the wish, the greater would be the contribution :)
How: There is this awesome NGO called Naandi where they are spending in a lot of energy for the education of rural kids, just like me. I have arranged with them so that all the money will go to one classroom (or one school) so that we can see the direct impact of our contribution.
Also, some of my generous friends have agreed to put some money in this pot and I am trying to raise a total of around 1500 Euros. Please help me reach the goal, either by donating yourself or just wishing me.
Wish me good luck!
Raja
* You can donate directly by going here: http://www.naandi.org/donate.aspx?VerticalID=0&Source=General
Or please leave a comment/mail if you would like to donate together.
** Part of donations may go as gifts to my friends who are also donating to this wonderful cause. Gifts are in the range of 5-10 Euros for donations above 50 Euros.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Sri Lanka
India and Sri Lanka had defense bilateral talks last week and India offered 1,400 training placements for the Sri Lankan Army.
If I were the President of Sri Lanka, I would definitely not take this offer. So this got me to thinking on what I would do if Sri Lanka were a corporation and I were the CEO* of it. Here are some non-conventional things I would do, apart from doing the best for the people in health, education, infrastructure etc etc.
If I were the President of Sri Lanka, I would definitely not take this offer. So this got me to thinking on what I would do if Sri Lanka were a corporation and I were the CEO* of it. Here are some non-conventional things I would do, apart from doing the best for the people in health, education, infrastructure etc etc.
- No Government hiring: The war is over. The country do not such large military now. Stop hiring for government jobs on as many positions as possible. Reduced government spending could be used for other development work.Use the qualified candidates from the military and move them to appropriate government jobs. Rather than doing security training deals with India, do educational deals and give training to the current non-qualified candidates.
- Postpone Excellence in Education and Research: Right now the country needs more educated people who will eventually become policy makers and great teachers for next generation. Otherwise excellent students will run away to west. The country needs more it's intelligent people right now than few hundred thousand dollars in remittance money. India is a huge country, it could survive the brain-drain, but Sri Lanka's population is too little to take the risk.
Rather than investing millions in finding a new medicine or the next big thing, prefer MoUs with other developed countries. No need to reinvent the wheel. Damn, there is no need to invent anything! - Piracy and Somalia: For once, Sri Lanka is at a right place at the right moment. All the Chinese, Japanese and other Asian ships destined for Europe pass somewhere close to Sri Lanka. This is a really great business opportunity. Be the next hub for exporting countries. Invest money to buy ships which can provide security to the huge ships carrying goods. Sri Lanka is geographically closest and hence can provide the security, cheapest. In fact, don't take money in exchange for this, but knowledge and other non-mensurable resources from the powerful exporting countries.
- Have Double Standards: Seriously, every developing country must have double standards. Give preference to countries and cooperations that are more beneficial. Don't worry about others getting offended, everybody will forget once you are rich and developed. The first time I saw Indian museums charging more (almost 25x) for foreigners, I was upset, but now, 5 years later, it makes perfect sense.
- Tourism, Tourism and Tourism: There is a limit to export of agriculture when you have only 65,000 km2 of land. Other industries take a lot of resources to set up and have returns in the long term. Whereas, tourism is the easiest and fastest way to make money . With millions of working Indians just few hundred miles away always looking for a weekend get away, Sri Lanka could be the next destination. Build honeymoon resorts, have flight timings suitable for working class cheaper than what they have for neighboring islands in Andaman Nicobar!
- A big photo op! Look at the current Google maps view of Sri Lanka or Google images. They suck. Every tourist searches for these things before making any plan. They need to feel the excitement. Invite nations best photographers and may be some internationals. Nothing speaks more than a nice red sun setting in the ocean. No painting or artificial sketch can match that. This is serious business. While we are on this, invite some brands that make yearly calender with hot-shot photographers and models.
- Movies: This is a small point I realized after being in Europe. Every single Indian I know, that comes to Europe visits Switzerland (there was a famous movie in 1990s). People prefer Greece over Croatia (famous song). Thats ridiculous but it happens because of the social acceptance of these places. People like to visit places that they can brag about. Spend some money to invite the directors from Hollywood and Bollywood and give them complete freedom.
- Fact: I know at least a couple of thousand working Indians who are making decent money and go for regular vacations. Out of these few thousand, I know a few hundred have already spent more than Rs. 25, 000 (500$) on a single weekend for a party or a vacation. Not a single of them has been to Sri Lanka yet!
- Fishing: It seems ridiculous to talk about fishing in this list. But fishing contributes far less to the Sri Lankan GDP when compared to Agriculture, Industry and Services. Again, a small investment in buying huge ships and make it a government business could do wonders. Don't leave this to local fishermen. Government should enter this without effecting the fishermen by fishing in the deep ocean using huge ships. Develop/buy technology so that these fishes can be exported at the latest in the best condition.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Hey Minister, Save Trees!
Dear Union minister for Civil Aviation,
While traveling in India recently, I understood that I must have my domestic flight ticket printed on a paper to enter the airports.
Initially, I thought this was a security requirement so that bad elements cannot enter our beloved airports. However, I noticed that anybody can pass this step with a visitors ticket that can be bought only for INR 30. (0.75$ cents). Also, with my little knowledge of computers I can assure you that the required printout at the front gate of airports can be produced with-in 5 minutes. So if bad elements want to enter the airport, they will.
The only conclusion I could reach is, this is done to stop over-crowding airports and only let the passengers inside. I completely agree on this arrangement as I myself know, my entire family comes to drop me at airport every single time, and if allowed they would certainly drop me till the aircraft. (and would not leave till the aircraft is ready to go).
So, my problem with this is the "printout". The airport security were not even willing to look at my smart phone where they could actually read everything. They strictly demanded a printout. I tried to convince security at various Indian domestic airports but had no luck.
According to DGCA, we had 50 million domestic travelers in 2010, which means we cut approximately 8,500 trees to only pass the first step at the airports. (please find the calculation at the end of this letter).
I think there is a real possibility of saving trees. I believe we can fix this.
It would be unreasonable to assume that every traveler will have a smart phone to show the e-tickets at the airport. However, it is equally reasonable to assume that each traveler will have a simple phone*. Can we use the mobile revolution to save some trees? If the aviation ministry can regulate air fare prices, I am certain that, they can also dictate airlines to send a SMS for every booking. I am also attaching a possible format for the said SMS with this letter which contains all the information available in the e-tickets which I used to enter the airports.
The airlines do NOT need the print outs. For them, piece of identity and PNR is more than enough. If this information is enough to enter an aircraft and fly, then why can't this be enough to enter the airport.
Also, this 8,500 trees are the direct saving. There is another few thousand trees/CO2 saved which was spent in making paper from these trees, transportation of these paper and waste management afterwards etc etc.
This small measure will definitely make a big impact and moreover make the Ministry of Environment and the minister, your dear friend, Jairam Ramesh happy :)
I believe we have a real opportunity to lead the world by example!
Yours truly,
An average Indian citizen
* The travelers without phone can of course use print outs. There is no easy way around them.
Suggested SMS Format: (100 characters only)
(if-needed the remaining 60 characters can be used for advertisements-VOILA)
DoT: Date of travel
PNR: Unique code used by airlines for a particular travel.
ToF: Time of Flight
FNo: Flight Number
ARL: Airline code
PoB: Port of Boarding code (Example: DEL)
PoA: Port of Arrival Code (Example: MUM)
Calculation for number of trees:
50 million passengers per year.
One A4 sheet weighs 10 grams.
So thats: 50,000,000 * 10 grams = 50,000,000 * 10 / 1,000, 000 tonnes = 500 tonnes
It takes 17** trees to make one tonnes paper so thats: 500 * 17 = 8,500
8500 Trees per year.
Source:
DGCA website: http://www.dgca.gov.in/reports/pass_data.pdf
Number of Trees per tonne: (Everywhere on internet it is almost the same figure) http://www.tappi.org/paperu/all_about_paper/earth_answers/earthanswers_howmuch.pdf
Assumptions:
1. Every traveler will have a A4 sized printout. Honestly, there is no other way. Few will even take more than one copies.
2. Visitor pass prices may vary across India, but they are not a lot. Maximum around Rs. 100 (2$)
While traveling in India recently, I understood that I must have my domestic flight ticket printed on a paper to enter the airports.
Initially, I thought this was a security requirement so that bad elements cannot enter our beloved airports. However, I noticed that anybody can pass this step with a visitors ticket that can be bought only for INR 30. (0.75$ cents). Also, with my little knowledge of computers I can assure you that the required printout at the front gate of airports can be produced with-in 5 minutes. So if bad elements want to enter the airport, they will.
The only conclusion I could reach is, this is done to stop over-crowding airports and only let the passengers inside. I completely agree on this arrangement as I myself know, my entire family comes to drop me at airport every single time, and if allowed they would certainly drop me till the aircraft. (and would not leave till the aircraft is ready to go).
So, my problem with this is the "printout". The airport security were not even willing to look at my smart phone where they could actually read everything. They strictly demanded a printout. I tried to convince security at various Indian domestic airports but had no luck.
According to DGCA, we had 50 million domestic travelers in 2010, which means we cut approximately 8,500 trees to only pass the first step at the airports. (please find the calculation at the end of this letter).
I think there is a real possibility of saving trees. I believe we can fix this.
It would be unreasonable to assume that every traveler will have a smart phone to show the e-tickets at the airport. However, it is equally reasonable to assume that each traveler will have a simple phone*. Can we use the mobile revolution to save some trees? If the aviation ministry can regulate air fare prices, I am certain that, they can also dictate airlines to send a SMS for every booking. I am also attaching a possible format for the said SMS with this letter which contains all the information available in the e-tickets which I used to enter the airports.
The airlines do NOT need the print outs. For them, piece of identity and PNR is more than enough. If this information is enough to enter an aircraft and fly, then why can't this be enough to enter the airport.
Also, this 8,500 trees are the direct saving. There is another few thousand trees/CO2 saved which was spent in making paper from these trees, transportation of these paper and waste management afterwards etc etc.
This small measure will definitely make a big impact and moreover make the Ministry of Environment and the minister, your dear friend, Jairam Ramesh happy :)
I believe we have a real opportunity to lead the world by example!
Yours truly,
An average Indian citizen
* The travelers without phone can of course use print outs. There is no easy way around them.
Suggested SMS Format: (100 characters only)
Name: (40-char-name)
DoT:dd/mm/yy
PNR:123456
ToF:hh:mm
FNo:AL123
ETC:ARL:PoB:PoA
(if-needed the remaining 60 characters can be used for advertisements-VOILA)
DoT: Date of travel
PNR: Unique code used by airlines for a particular travel.
ToF: Time of Flight
FNo: Flight Number
ARL: Airline code
PoB: Port of Boarding code (Example: DEL)
PoA: Port of Arrival Code (Example: MUM)
Calculation for number of trees:
50 million passengers per year.
One A4 sheet weighs 10 grams.
So thats: 50,000,000 * 10 grams = 50,000,000 * 10 / 1,000, 000 tonnes = 500 tonnes
It takes 17** trees to make one tonnes paper so thats: 500 * 17 = 8,500
8500 Trees per year.
Source:
DGCA website: http://www.dgca.gov.in/reports/pass_data.pdf
Number of Trees per tonne: (Everywhere on internet it is almost the same figure) http://www.tappi.org/paperu/all_about_paper/earth_answers/earthanswers_howmuch.pdf
Assumptions:
1. Every traveler will have a A4 sized printout. Honestly, there is no other way. Few will even take more than one copies.
2. Visitor pass prices may vary across India, but they are not a lot. Maximum around Rs. 100 (2$)
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
The Great Indian Story
When anybody in the world thinks about India, one of the first thing that comes to their mind is cheap labor. After my month long travel in India, about one thing I am sure is, there ain't any labor available, forget about being cheap.
Skilled and non-skilled people should be available in abundance in a country with population over a billion.
Non-skilled Labor
These are the people working below the poverty line, on minimum wages. Of all the medium-scale industries I visited, every owner has the same problem. They have set up
almost automatic factories and need a very little number of hands to run the factories, but they can't even find those bare minimum hands. The problem is not money. They told me, if you pay them more, they are going to get drunk and not return to work next day. It is a big catch-22 problem with no solution in sight.
Skilled Labor
We have heard stories but multi-national companies complaining about not being able to find enough talent. This could be attributed to the lack of "quality" higher education. We do not have enough high-quality institutes to keep up with the pace of industry consumption of talent. At least this problem has a solution: Open more institutes of excellence.
And The Rest
And here lies the main problem. There is a big chunk of population that are enough educated to decline minimum wages jobs in factories but are not qualified to work in big competitive environments for multi-nationals. They are best suited for specific industries like manufacturing, distribution, textile, petro-chemical etc, where they can develop a particular skill over time and have a happy life thereafter. But the problem is supply is much higher than demand and we will always have these people who are very well capable of achieving great heights but will never get an opportunity.
I wish we find solutions to these problems soon, otherwise the story won't be so great after all.
Skilled and non-skilled people should be available in abundance in a country with population over a billion.
Non-skilled Labor
These are the people working below the poverty line, on minimum wages. Of all the medium-scale industries I visited, every owner has the same problem. They have set up
almost automatic factories and need a very little number of hands to run the factories, but they can't even find those bare minimum hands. The problem is not money. They told me, if you pay them more, they are going to get drunk and not return to work next day. It is a big catch-22 problem with no solution in sight.
Skilled Labor
We have heard stories but multi-national companies complaining about not being able to find enough talent. This could be attributed to the lack of "quality" higher education. We do not have enough high-quality institutes to keep up with the pace of industry consumption of talent. At least this problem has a solution: Open more institutes of excellence.
And The Rest
And here lies the main problem. There is a big chunk of population that are enough educated to decline minimum wages jobs in factories but are not qualified to work in big competitive environments for multi-nationals. They are best suited for specific industries like manufacturing, distribution, textile, petro-chemical etc, where they can develop a particular skill over time and have a happy life thereafter. But the problem is supply is much higher than demand and we will always have these people who are very well capable of achieving great heights but will never get an opportunity.
I wish we find solutions to these problems soon, otherwise the story won't be so great after all.
Facebook photo album view still sucks
Point:
I upgraded today to the latest Facebook profile view to see if they updated the photo album view. Sure they did. But it they could not get over the old thinking.
Finally, my personal albums are on top of the tagged photos of me. Finally. With this change, at least they agree with me that albums are higher "priority" than tagged photos. Then, why are only 6 albums shown on the landing page and an unlimited number of tagged photos.
Let the user show as many albums of him as he wants. (or worst case set an upper limit).
With the new trend of people tagging others in photos that have nothing to do with the tagged friend, but to notice it. It will be a nightmare to scroll through all the photos the user is tagged in. There must be a grouping of these photos.
And, don't even get me started on the links between pages. There are some redundant links and there are some missing links. They should really focus on this: How a user would like to jump around the pages?
Give more space to user to showcase his personal albums and less space to photos he is tagged in.
I upgraded today to the latest Facebook profile view to see if they updated the photo album view. Sure they did. But it they could not get over the old thinking.
Finally, my personal albums are on top of the tagged photos of me. Finally. With this change, at least they agree with me that albums are higher "priority" than tagged photos. Then, why are only 6 albums shown on the landing page and an unlimited number of tagged photos.
Let the user show as many albums of him as he wants. (or worst case set an upper limit).
With the new trend of people tagging others in photos that have nothing to do with the tagged friend, but to notice it. It will be a nightmare to scroll through all the photos the user is tagged in. There must be a grouping of these photos.
And, don't even get me started on the links between pages. There are some redundant links and there are some missing links. They should really focus on this: How a user would like to jump around the pages?
Sunday, December 26, 2010
New Travel Policy
It is really disappointing to travel to the most beautiful cities in the world and not being able to enjoy the most because of how we perceive time. A lot of countries (for example in Eastern Europe) set up their time zones not entirely according to the sunrise and sunset times but are influenced by other countries that bring them a lot of business.
After all my travel experience I have discovered a trick:
This works great, especially in winters. For someone like me, who hates to wake up early during vacations, I used to get only 3-4 hours of sunlight. But now I get a lot more sunlight and also escape the tourist crowd at restaurents. In summers, I just get a lot more sleep with this, which is again perfectly fine :)
Try it!
After all my travel experience I have discovered a trick:
Adjust your watch such that sunset happens at 7PM.
This works great, especially in winters. For someone like me, who hates to wake up early during vacations, I used to get only 3-4 hours of sunlight. But now I get a lot more sunlight and also escape the tourist crowd at restaurents. In summers, I just get a lot more sleep with this, which is again perfectly fine :)
Try it!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Tale of Two Brothers
An excellent piece my brother wrote a few days ago about his favorite monsoon story.
Miss you Bhai.
My story is a bit different from the usual romantic ones. I remember being in the second standard when it rained heavily in my hometown, Anjad, a small village in MP near Indore. My mother was pregnant and we came to know that she had given birth to a son. I was the second kid in the combined family of three brothers and my happiness knew no bounds. I sat behind my grandpa's Rajdoot and went with him to the
hospital in the torrential downpour. When I reached the hospital room, I was first dried with huge towels by two nurses. Finally I was allowed to hold the baby in my arms.
I can still hear the rain falling in the background and me holding my brother and looking at his tiny face. I absolutely doted on him and pampered him to a great extent. Years later, my brother shifted from a small village’s Hindi medium school to a reputed English medium school. He was facing difficulties in studies and tried to run away from it. I was away from home for my higher education and subsequently
work. I came down from Indore, discussed with parents and brother, tried convincing him and finally took him with me and put him in a good school cum IIT preparation institute in Kota.
After I had him settled in the hostel, I left. I could clearly see the pain and repentance in his face, but held myself strong for the sake of his career. While he looked out from the first floor hostel window, I kept looking at him and leaving while waving to him. Then it rained! I saw the same woebegone, ready to break into tears but conscious of being a guy expression on his face. My tears dissolved in the rains...
I am very pleased to share with you that, today after completing his B. Tech and M. Tech from IIT Mumbai; he has started his career with SAP Labs in Paris (France).
Miss you Bhai.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Aman Ki Asha
I think there are more rockets planned like the ones this morning. Full report here.
Pakistan wants India to fire back. A little mistake on India's side and they will make a big issue out of this. That is, India is not keeping quite at the border and hence they have to move their forces from Afgan border to the east to avoid any casualties caused due to India.
One thing will lead to another and the final decision would be to get more funding from the US.
An act of provocation. Really. I imagine, there must be huge pressure on Indian army right now to NOT reply back strongly to such attacks.
Pakistan wants India to fire back. A little mistake on India's side and they will make a big issue out of this. That is, India is not keeping quite at the border and hence they have to move their forces from Afgan border to the east to avoid any casualties caused due to India.
One thing will lead to another and the final decision would be to get more funding from the US.
An act of provocation. Really. I imagine, there must be huge pressure on Indian army right now to NOT reply back strongly to such attacks.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Incredible India
So the other day I was in a cafe with some french friends (watching BBC news) and this ad showed up. After about 30 seconds I said (pr)loudly INDIA, and few of them were ready to bet some serious money that it was some "world tour" ad.
Really, really a wonderful ad. The directors cut below is even more better:
Jai Hind!
Really, really a wonderful ad. The directors cut below is even more better:
Jai Hind!
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