Curious Case of Corruption

There may be a debate on whether corruption is indeed the most dangerous threat to our nation or not, but there can simply be no debate about the fact that no other threat can materialize without help of corruption. Few days back, I was chatting with a friend. When we were talking about the ongoing general election, he asked me, “What do you think? Why do we have so much corruption?” After much deliberation on various topics, we settled on some points on which we both agreed. I wish to document that conversation through this article.

The issue with rampant corruption that we face today is fueled by multiple issues and causes. The mistake we (Government and citizens in general) all are doing is; looking at corruption through same old pair of lenses. Though it is true that corruption of any kind should not be tolerated, but trying to handle all kinds of corruption in same way might not prove to be a good idea in the long run, as it won't be sustainable. To understand this better, let us categorize corruption based on its origin.
We are well aware about the first type of corruption; that is a person filling up his coffers by looting public money. Fixing government bid processes, leasing out public land to big industrial houses for meager amounts, selling public property like spectrum, coal blocks, and gas blocks all come under Greed based Corruption. The only way to check this menace is by legislating strong anti-corruption law and enforcing it swiftly. We all are more or less already aware about this type of corruption. Moving on to the next type of corruption which, I feel, has more wide reach and which affects our day-today life in a more profound way.

Let us take a simple example from our daily life, getting a travel ticket from city X to city Y. There are 20 odd trains running between these two cities, each having around 18 coaches and each coach having 72 berths for passengers. I will skip the mathematics here, but I hope by now you have calculated the number of passengers which our system can support. We do not need to apply any rocket science to understand that the main culprit is the poor infrastructure, which force us (yes, you and me) to bribe a railway official for a paltry sum of 500-1000. I believe, here we (the passenger and the Railway ticket checker) are not looting the public money or killing someone to fill our coffers by swindling government contracts, but we are just making a compromise with the poor standard of infrastructure we have even after half a century after gaining independence (oh! that reminds me, weren’t the public services much better under British Raj?). The bottom line is; if you have more demand and less supply, then this type of corruption is bound to happen, which I feel can be aptly named as Need based Corruption.

We have a shortage of supply in traveling, water, electricity, and every other public service that we can think of; still most of these commodities operate through state machinery, whose performance is hidden by none. The frustrating paradox here is the fact that, we (middle class ordinary citizen of India) earn and thrive on the well-known and well acknowledged concept of capitalism, where we want better services and are ready to pay for it. But, we are at the same time expected to be utopian and socialistic to the core when it comes to availing public services. Why on earth, would a hard working salaried person wait for a railway ticket that will never reach him through legal means, when he can get the desired service through illegal means? For reasons obvious you can't justify one person's need to travel as more urgent than other (thanks to our forefathers that we are not living in a communist state), the only solution is have more seats available to passengers at reasonable costs and services.

Like a simple railway berth, there are many things which we need to lead a healthy and happy life. We may/can check the Greed based corruption through legislation and laws. But, if we seriously wish to remove the Need based corruption, then we need to have our complete focus on growth of infrastructure and economy or simply choosing a government which features this quality. Of course, we all have to be an integral part of this journey, just assuming that one superman will emancipate us all of all our sorrows and problems will not work.

Edit: I found this very informative and enlightening blog by Mr. Alex Paul Menon, IAS


Feel free to share your experience with corruption, where you have felt that it could have been avoided if we had enough for all.

Jai Hind,
Abhinav

Disclaimer: All images are copyrights of their respective owner(s)

 

Let's take a break

Alright! Tell me what pops in your head if I ask you "What makes you happy?"
Sounds childish? Or too silly? Then it's cool, because that was the intent.
There is no dearth of topics and thoughts if we sit down to discuss about how to live life, spread positivity and happiness. Hence, for limiting my thoughts, I have zeroed in on two trends/concepts that I found really worth taking note of and which make an impact on lives of people.

1. Concept of Gross National Happiness Index (GNH)

            "Gross national happiness is more important than gross national product"
                                                         - His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuk of Bhutan

Let us first see how most of the nations calculate their development. The most commonly used scale is the GDP or Gross Domestic Product. Which roughly is the sum of all goods and services produced in an economy or say the total amount earned or spent. Some countries calculate their PCI or Per Capita Income, which is, again in simple terms, the sum of all earnings of a country divided by total population. The latest in economics terminology is HDI or Human Development Index, it is a more comprehensive scaling index calculation based upon composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and of course the regular economic stuff.

But, a country, nestled in the calmness of Himalayas calculate its development and growth not upon these monetary terms but upon how happy her people are!! Yes, it is true and you can know more about it here. The idea is not based upon some lofty ideology that all her people must be smiling and laughing all the time. Instead, it is calculated upon several factors which not necessarily absolutely quantifiable but is defined more by the intangible and emotional aspect of things like psychological well-being, time use by people, cultural diversity and resilience, community vitality, ecological resilience and general living standards.
The central idea of Bhutan's pursuance of GNH is the belief that, to be happy one does not need to be in the mad rush of getting all the physical comfort available on the planet and in the process leave behind the true human value of empathy and compassion. Though, Bhutan certainly don't have all the material luxury present on earth, but I think they surely have one; Peace of mind.


2. Concept of Slow Down Culture

Ever wondered why do we need to rush for things? Why do we need to eat fast? Drink fast? Listen to our favourite music on a go? Visit a place haphazardly? And virtually do everything as fast as we can. The answer lies in the sense of urgency created by us. Now, let me express here that in no way I am saying that we should slow down the manufacturing process of an automated car production plant or a response to medical emergency. What I am referring here is the idea of appreciating finer things in life.
Now, one may have a question in mind,"Why do we need to slow down and appreciate things?". For this I would urge one to take a step back, zoom out and see our planet from space. What do you see? It is a planet with few thousand different type of creatures roaming around. Then how do we humans stand apart? Yes, there lies the, answer; we humans don't do things just to survive. Just take a look around yourself, do you need all that just to survive? Now that we have established this fact, we should ponder as to why don't we appreciate things in all its glory? Why are we mechanizing ourselves? Robots are fine, let them do their work, but we are humans.. let's not forget that. Let's not make our little lives so much short on time.

You might be aware of Sweden and other Scandinavian countries and the quality of life there. I feel it's worth  mentioning here that the headline of this paragraph actually comes from Sweden. There is a movement going on in that part of globe, where people already are getting more and more aware about their human nature and appreciating life as it should be. Eating a meal within 20 minutes in a restaurant is considered rude to the chef, He will personally come to you, thinking that you didn't like the food! And if you think that with such mindset they will be left out in this Industrialized world, think again, because Sweden houses few of the world's best known enterprises like Electrolux and Ericsson known for their 'innovation' and quality. No wonder many of these are suppliers of NASA for its space missions.

Imagine grabbing a burger on the go and munching while talking on phone. Now, let's imagine a good lunch/dinner with family, disconnected from virtual world and enjoying the meal in every bite. Discussing about spices and how they taste. Which one seems more attractive to the human in you?
We must be thankful to our age old Indian traditions that we still can enjoy such moments in our lives. But the rate at which we are pursuing individualistic life style and modern culture, this would soon become a luxury. So next time you are on visit to an art gallery, an eatery, a hike with friends or a music concert, before rushing to get back, do remember why you were there in the first place.

I hope you read the whole article without rushing down directly to the conclusive paragraph. ;)

Cheers,
Abhinav

Disclaimer: All images are copyrights of their respective owners.

Cyber Episode: Understanding the Difference

Recent, two day summit meeting between America’s president Barack Obama and his counterpart Xi JinPing in California has bought focus to cyber security and regulation again. Time and again, we have heard about many cyber-space related issues. Here I want to explore the difference between three major verticals of cyber conflict and their significance in layman’s language: 

1.Cyber Attack, Hacking and Terrorism
Most common, in some way or other we all have experience or at least heard of someone’s
digital identity stolen or bank account phished. Un-ethical hacking of some body’s account or machine in order to use the data to harm the individual and/or organization economically/socially or politically. There are many cases related to massive hacking and jeopardizing the basic functioning of an organization/ enterprise in order to gain economically and/or politically.
Cyber hacking and terrorism can be state sponsored as in cases like this or even individual/organization based, as in cases like this.
Primary significance: Loss of money or other intangible assets.

2. State Sponsored Cyber Censorship in Homeland
Wikipedia says, “Internet censorship is the
control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the internet. It may be carried out by governments, private organizations at the behest of government, regulators, or on their own initiative”. As we see from available facts, communist countries as well as monarchies around the world are the usual practitioners of internet monitoring & regulation (of course, with exceptions). We need to understand here that, there is huge difference between regulation and monitoring.
Recently our I&B Ministry had sought data and control over Facebook which had drawn strong criticism from civic societies. Here you can see a lump-sum report on Internet censorship in India.
Primary significance: Suppression of freedom of speech and expression of displeasure with government.

3. State Sponsored Data Collection,
Monitoring and Analysis
This is the most tricky of all, on paper, government sponsored data collection and monitoring programmes are initiated and are
set with objective to counter terrorism and other cyber crimes without affecting the ordinary internet user in any way. But in reality, they may end up being used to influence popular opinions in homeland as well as establishing cyber supremacy over other states and agencies and espionage. There is no doubt that in current dynamic scenario where most of the terror and economical attacks are mounted or supported by advance cyber tools and expertise; we need a system in place to counter the growing threat and effect of bad elements. But the question that arises here is more of social and legal in nature than technical, programmes like America’s PRISM has drawn widespread criticism and questions regarding the authority of an individual state and/or agency over world’s cyberspace. It is worthy to note here that such programmes are not new and many cases like these have been uncovered in past also, including names of major economic powers such as the UK, Russia, China and France.


In my opinion, it is inevitable for an emerging economy as well as developed nations to have a monitoring and surveillance system in place. But the authority and jurisdiction of each shall be properly defined and should be governed by internationally mutually agreed laws which should be applicable uniformly to all. The cyber surveillance and monitoring issue is uncharted water, with none of us having expertise and thumb rules regarding it. It is a matter of great national and international significance and hence a common approach with universal collaboration and acceptance is need of the hour.

Jai Hind.

Natural Design: An Introduction

Last week, I got a wonderful oppurtunity to listen and interact with Prof. Dhimant Panchal, a thought leader and a known personality in field of product design and design education.

Theme of the seminar was "Designing in sync. with nature". He beautifully described how designing inspired by nature is important, easy and benificial, socially as well as economically. There were several examples presented by him, diciphering various natural acts which we fail to observe and appreciate in our daily life and how we can implement those natural phenomena in our day today work and activity. The best thing about natural designing and conceptualization is that they are always sustainable and scalable. Here is an example.

I tried to jot down few points which i feel can help you in designing naturally.

 Observe:

            Spend time

            Look at surface/textures/colors/forms/shapes

            Expression of natural form, physical and non-physical

            Seasonal metamorphosis, change/ growth

            Connect between animal and vegetable world

Be Curious:

            Discover patterns in nature

            Reason out observation

            Find rationale
            Investigate your observation in your own way; you are part of the Nature

            Apply connect the dots technique to appreciate larger picture

Categorize and Classify:

            Animal worlds / plant / insect / micro bacterial / marine

Connect the seemingly unconnected:

            Establish connection

            Nothing in nature exists in isolation

            Inter-dependency

            Discover synergetic co-relation

Touch / see / hear / taste Nature:

            Do not just use one sensory receptor

            Experience through other senses also

            Try and see what can't actually be seen

            #there are very few adjectives for smell - why?

Apply un-conventional logic:

           Feel free to be unique and think what seems to be stupid at first
           There is no specific rule to understand nature

Though the session was more to do with product design, I am sure your aspiration to design a awesome software or a complex business solution for a client can very well find sense in natural happenings and the ideas it has to offer. 
Feel free to share your thoughts / ideas or projects.
Cheers,
Abhinav

  
Desclaimer: All pictures and products used for illustration are copyright of their respective owners.

Understanding Naxalism: Uprising, Causes & Recommendations

Time and again, we have heard about rising issue of Naxalism and armed rebels. As a person who have always lived a comfortable life, is well educated and has a decent lifestyle, I honestly have no idea about what ground reality is. Still, this article is an attempt to understand its social, economic and judicial causes as well as some recommendations made in this regard.

I hope this will help urban youth, like me, to get a fair idea of the root of the issue. Of course, I do not support armed rebellion or the war waged by armed cadre of Naxalite movement in any way, under any condition.

Brief History:
In the backdrop of such organizational upheavals within the Indian Communist movement, an incident in a remote area transformed the history of left-wing extremism in India. In a remote village called Naxalbari in West Bengal, a tribal youth named Bimal Kissan, after obtaining a judicial order, went to plough his land on 2 March 1967. The local landlords attacked him with the help of their goons. Tribal people of the area retaliated and started forcefully recapturing their lands. What followed was a rebel, which left one police sub inspector and nine tribals dead. Within a short span of about two months, this incident acquired great visibility and tremendous support from cross sections of Communist revolutionaries belonging to the state units of the CPI (M) in West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

India is today proudly proclaiming an above 9 per cent growth rate and striving to achieve double digit growth. But it is a matter of common observation that the inequalities between classes, between town and country, and between the upper castes and the underprivileged communities are increasing. That this has potential for tremendous unrest is recognized by all.

Let’s have a look at the Causes of people’s discontent and support for extremists: (I hope most of these are self explanatory and though available, I am skipping the statistical data to keep it simple and short)

1.    High poverty

2.    Low education

3.    Limited employment opportunities

4.    Political marginalization on caste and creed basis

5.    Social discrimination & atrocities against the Dalits

6.    Human rights violations

7.    Land ownership related factors

8.    Displacement and forced evictions of tribes

9.    Ineffective and biased governance

10. Ineffective public distribution system

11. Biased Policing and dispute redressal

12. Uncertain future and a feeling of hopelessness 

Now let’s have a look at the Recommendation / possible solutions and some measures that government makes claim to have implemented, for an effective resolution to this serious issue: 

1.    Effective implementation of protective legislation
effective implementation of the existing constitutional provisions, protection of civil rights and SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act laws and programmes in place for this purpose.

2.    Land Related Measures
a serious effort must be made to continuously implement the land ceiling laws, so that the ceiling surplus land thereby obtained is made available for distribution amongst the most vulnerable sections of the landless poor.

3.    Rehabilitation & Resettlement
Acquisition of land has emerged as the single largest cause of involuntary displacement of tribals and turning them landless. Indiscriminate land acquisition should be stopped and land acquisition for public purpose should be confined to public welfare activities and matters of national security.

4.    Livelihood Security
need to ensure that the norms for manual work for different items are worked out to ensure that the workers, especially women are entitled to the minimum wage for seven hours of reasonable effort. NREG (National Rural Employment Guarantee) should be implemented in a “mission mode”

5.    Universalize basic social services to standards
The failure to provide infrastructure and services as per national norms is one of the many discriminatory manifestations of Governance here. These disparities therefore result in non-available/poorly provided services. Education and Literacy must be given top priority.

6.    PESA
The Provisions of Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) was enacted in 1996. Its basic function is to facilitate structural transformation in higher-level Panchayats, once the foundation has been laid at the village level.

7.    Addressing governance issues and restoring faith in constitution
Government is concentrated on curbing violence and maintaining public order to achieve normalcy. While area development is also being speeded up. A change in policy perspective and strategy to deal with the movement is essential to create a positive image of the Government in the local people, remove their sense of alienation and wean them away from its influence. The government should take cognizance of human rights violation reports and enquiries into these episodes should be constituted so as to inspire confidence in victims and faith of the public in the rule of law.

It is true that today the revolution, which once caught the fancy of our best minds, has degenerated into a Social Terrorism (Social in words, Terrorist in deeds). As rightly noted by Ashim Chatterjee, a former Maoist himself, "Without taking up the responsibility of building a class struggle, if you launch an armed struggle, it will inevitably become terrorism".

References:

·         1.Development Challenges in Extremist Affected Areas: Report to planning commission (2008)

·         2.Various Reports and assessment of Home Ministry

·         3.Asian Centre for Human Rights (http://www.achrweb.org/ncm/ncm.htm)

·         4.Naxal Movement in India: A Profile by Rajat Kujur (Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, 2008)

India : The Art of Surviving

"If not continuous water supply, at least get us a water tanker once in a day", pleads an old man while talking to government officials while they are on their visit to...wait a minute, not a remote area, but a well to do colony in a tier 1 city of urban India.

Surviving in India is not just a luxury, but an art, which everyone masters overtime.
We don’t have value based education; we are never taught to explore anything new, engineering / medicine / law or at the most business administration are only options which we are exposed to, taught and motivated for.

"If not continuous water supply, at least get us a water tanker once in a day", pleads an old man while talking to government officials while they are on their visit to...wait a minute, not a remote area, but a well to do colony in a tier 1 city of urban India.

Surviving in India is not just a luxury, but an art, which everyone masters overtime.
We don’t have value based education; we are never taught to explore anything new, engineering / medicine / law or at the most business administration are only options which we are exposed to, taught and motivated for.

Ok, so those freshly baked muffins (read children) are now out of the oven and are ready to be delivered to the retail centers (read colleges) around the country.
As we were never provoked to think about why we are learning the xyz subject, quite naturally we choose, rather made to choose the 'safe' career option under the able guidance of previous survivors (read parents/guardians). Testing untested waters is simply absent in the social fiber of our motherland. For example, we make engineers who may survive recession or a job lay-off, but have we even tried to make Techno-leaders who can provide and create jobs?
I would certainly choose not to blame the great Indian middle class for keeping this tradition up till now. After all it's not about living your dreams, it's about survival.

For instance, non-private government jobs (where 'generally' there is no need to have any competency in first place, let alone keeping it up, and virtually no one can remove you from your job) have a clear choice, either get corrupt or be dead/singled out /framed in false charges. I hope we all here agree that there are two types of corruption, viz; "Mujhe toh karna hai corruption" and "Mujhe karna pad rha hai corruption".
Most (read almost everyone) choose one of these. After all it's not about serving the people and performing your duty, it’s about surviving.
If in case, till now you have not understood the reason behind naming the topic as such, let me help you.
The basic idea which is being conveyed here is, though six long decades have passed by since we have attained 'freedom', we still are merely surviving. Look at the world at large; do we honestly see any value addition that India is making despite being 2nd in population and 7th largest economy?
We serve and get paid by courtiers like Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and France which are not bigger than Madhya Pradesh even if put together. Very simple and realistic reasons which I see and have felt are; ill will of our law and policy makers and the equally adjusting and accepting nature of us all. We always choose safe slavery over dangerous freedom, you see, it's in our culture. I still believe that, had we gotten freedom by Netaji's way rather than simply waiting for British oppressors to get bored and go back, we ‘may’ have been living our freedom and not just surviving it. (This might sound irrelevant, but just read it again, I am sure you'll find a connection here)

Enough of cribbing, let's see the positive side, despite the fact that more than 70% population still doesn't get social/economical or judicial justice, we are surviving. Non-efficient public distribution system, lack of sanitation and absence of waste management system, no social security, bomb blasts everyday !! Doesn’t matter, we can survive. If not anything else, we are at least number 1 in surviving, give any condition to us, we were surviving and we will survive.

People are welcome to add their cribs as well as thoughts for better India.