70 Million Employable Indians: Strategies for Competitiveness

The below post is part of the presentation which we gave at a competition organized by AIMA (All India Management association) in the year 2007.
The subject was " 70 million employable Indians: strategies for competitiveness"
We focussed on few sectors which we thought formed as pillars of our economy and shared few ideas to bring about a change in those areas

A country so rich in resources in every term has taken a rather slow trajectory to growth. Why it is that while the world is today looking at India as a lucrative business destination it still struggles with issues like poverty, lack of education, unemployment  high Mortality Rate.

AGRICULTURE:

18 percent of total GDP in India originates from agriculture but growth rate is minimum. When overall growth rate of India is 9%,but growth rate of Agriculture is only 1.5%. Though India’s 70% population is rural and depending income from agriculture. India exports only 7% of agricultural products.

In India most of the agricultural land is fragmented, Due to this we are not able to employ new techniques, machinery and advanced methods of farming. A result of which is the low quantity and quality of output, which gives tough competition to our agricultural products in world markets.

If we develop a system where, corporate consolidate all the land held by individual farmers into one big area n carry out the farming procedure. The land will still be owned by the individual farmers who would get returns according to the amount of land holdings.

They would also be trained and employed for the farming process. This will increase the productivity of the land per hectare and also improve the quality of the output and thereby increase the demand of our agricultural products in the world market.

Since it will be corporatized, a totally new avenue will be opened up for the educated and skilled section of employable people in the form of manufacturing setups or export firms.

Another approach would be encouraging initiatives like E-Choupal by ITC or project shakti by HLL.

Another avenue for development of farming in India could be done in the form of agricultural co-operatives. The focus of such co-operatives would be on education and upliftment of the farmers with equitable sharing of profits giving them the autonomy, similar to the dairy co-operatives e.g. AMUL developed by Verghese Kurien.

This will also solve the problem of migration to the cities in search of employment, thus leading to an equitable development of the country.

TOURISM

India with its diverse cultures, landscapes, climatic conditions, sports, spirituality, religions, food, festivals, wildlife, and history provides an ideal destination for tourism.

New avenues wait in form of adventure sports or village tourism.

Medical tourism can be broadly defined as provision of 'cost effective' private medical care in collaboration with the tourism industry for patients needing surgical and other forms of specialized treatment. This process is being facilitated by the corporate sector involved in medical care as well as the tourism industry - both private and public.

It has lead to availability of cheaper medical facilities compared to other developed nations like USA or UK.

In order to drastically change things in favour of India, it needs to focus especially in providing of the high quality expertise of medical professionals, backed by the fast improving equipment and nursing facilities, and above all, the cost-effectiveness of the package

Problems in tourism development lie in lack of awareness about India in rest of the world and infrastructural facilities in our country.

We need to market ourselves efficiently in various world exhibitions and trade fairs etc.

One more major factor that is crucial for the development of tourism is development of infrastructure in terms of roads, connectivity, hotels etc.

OUTSOURCING:

India is now shifting up the value chain from BPO to KPO by focussing on knowledge based outsourcing. The trend is towards high skilled jobs ranging from legal services, chip design, engineering design, tele-medicine and financial analysis.

The wide pool of young talent available in our country should be trained through university and industry partnership

ENTREPRENEURSHIP:

India needs a change of mindset from job seeking to job creating in order for development.

The government should provide appropriate environment conducive for entrepreneurship. Government should reduce the bureaucracy and red tapeism prevalent that acts as deterrent. Provide incentives in form of tax holidays or rebates and easier regulations.

One of the major setbacks that people face in entrepreneurial ventures is financial support, which can be provided by banks and financial institutions.

Woman entrepreneurship should be encouraged.

Now we see the answer to why has India been not able to achieve the development we ideally should have by now.  They appear as bottlenecks on the form of

Bureaucracy, corruption, lack of transparency and accountability, legal framework

 The future lies in the educated and skilled youth. Economic development of a country in its true sense would only be achieved when there is an improvement in the standard of living of the last man standing. This approach may not be grand enough to be called a strategy but it is what India needs to improve on its competitiveness.

Golmaal hai bhai sab Golmaal hai

http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/PeEeoZDtYuSt0AuQnKBkQN/Fiction-made-from-dodgy-data.html

http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/LCjcIzT0AY3nDdDnIT3x5I/Rebuilding-the-map-of-economics.html

The recent articles mentioned above about the erroneous claims by noted macroeconomists took me back to my blog post regarding the credibility of the data being used for the purpose of policy making.

http://complexityisthefatherofsolution.blogspot.in/2011/07/few-answers-and-some-more-questions.html

however my questions still remain unanswered. Some of these question were raised in one of the articles.

The inflation which we are facing today is not a completely demand led inflation and which cannot alone be resolved by changing monetary policies inorder to curb demand. The entire system needs to be looked at and requires a serious overhauling.I tend to believe that it is a supply driven inflation which needs to be addressed by focusing on the supply side of the economy. There is a serious need to relook at our food distribution channels for the various loopholes. Or else, is it possible that tonnes of grains are rotting away in a country which is facing steep food inflation and quite a considerable segment of its population is below the poverty line.

Excerpt from one of the articles:

An unfortunate case of such denials and misreading of facts is the case of inflation management. Despite evidence that inflation in food prices was structural, using monetary policy to curb inflation has not helped inflation management in the last four years but has certainly affected investment and growth because of high interest rates. The problem in India today is not only a policy paralysis but also the absence of an honest assessment of what is wrong with the economy. This can only happen when facts are interpreted objectively and not based on the priors of the government of the day.

 It is a very sad but true state. Our economic policies are based on such dodgy data. The markets come crashing down based on the news regarding IIP data, RBI’s monetary policies etc.

 But how accurate are these decision and on what kind of sound research have these decisions been based upon…

I doubt if I will ever find answers to my questions but there is one thing which keeps the world going.. and that is HOPE.

Oh My God!!!!

The movie 'Oh My God' reminded me of my blog post Religion v/s God . I would give 5/5 rating for this movie as it serves the purpose it was made for. It hits the mind rather than touch the heart of the viewers.. very few movies are capable of doing that. the last movie which had that effect on me was Rang De basanti... in 2006... I very much agree with the point put across by the movie.. Believe in God.. not in the fear of god created by the so -called god men....or god's men.. the movie perfectly describes the Godly Business ( yes you can call it that)as it is happening in the current scenario. I would rather call it a potpouri with large amounts of extortion and corruption invovled with with tiny bits of faith, hope, and love for god or the creator as i would like to address.

I still fail to understand how religion or the fear of god is so deeply instilled in each one of us that it even fails common logic or quality of high education one might have had in life..
Religion was created to bring people together , however what we see today is that it has become a means to extort money ..
Seeing the things happening around me, my mind is hounded by following questions ... Is god a Mafia Don ? and if you dont give him his share of your earnings then he will get you knocked out of this world r something bad will befall on you or your loved ones ? till how long can you evade what is written in your destiny. isnt our destiny supposed to be written by god? so did he write the bad things in it , inorder to extort money from us? so that he can get richer? and what would god possibly buy from all those riches? and suppose we pay those exhorbitant amount of money to calm the long departed souls or save us from the  fury of god... would these so called god men insure your well being . will they promise you that no harm will ever befall  upon you or family and will be blessed till eternity.. and even if some harm/ illness / tragedy does come across, will they indemnify for the Act of God?? will they settle the hospital bills as well?

the movie also reminded me of the funny incident... when i ask such questions, i am asked to shut up as saying anything against God will incurr his wrath upon me.. ( this is exactly as shown in the movie... ) . and then I wonder am I speaking against God? or the religious priests? the self proclaimed demi gods? and whose wrath am I supposed to call upon? Further.. is god is soo egoistic?

So what is the image of God that we have created in our minds?
A self obseesed Egoist, a mafia don, a corrupt babu( with whom you can fasttrack the things which you want by paying a bribe) would such a being be worthy of being called GOD?

Religion helps us to  find the path of dharma.... Religion is soo misunderstood in today's world.. it is show us the path of dharma .... and not carry out adharma in the name of god...

Well..I continue to believe in the philosophy...strive to be a good human being... believe in the religion of humanity... instead of offering money to god or buying flowers and agarbattis and chadaars and candles to be offered to god.. buy a packet of biscuits or any food item and feed a hungry human being or an animal.... as all are god's children. he would be much happier rather than the gold or silver or the money that you would shower him with. If one believes that by offering money to god will help them attain nirvana or give them all materliasitic happiness in the next birth, or this birth... please get the punya for yourself directly rather than through some medium of the so called religious charitable organisations...and if you really have lot of money, then please sponsor the education for a child who cannot afford it

Well for me, my God is a creator... for whom all his children are equal...he has already set his laws which we fail to understand. His love is equal...and he is the forgiver.. the torch bearer to show you the right path.... and i als beleive that he resides in us. in our conscience... to guide us and to correct us when wrong..

It is not in words that God is called to be Omnipresent and Omniscient... He really does know everything and he truly is present everywhere.. your Heart is where God really resides.. keep it pure....:)

I am Alive!!!!!

I Am Alive!!!

A second blog post with the same title...but seems to be apt given the current scenario

This post is the excerpt from the series of thoughts that streamed through my mind on my way to work on the day after the blasts at Delhi high court.

The newspaper carried reports of how some people were lucky to have missed being killed by the blast and how someone was unlucky by being early in reaching the court on that particular day....

Suppose one does manage to escape from the terror attacks. But hwo does one surive through the innumerous factors which are out there to attack.. if you survive the terror attacks, then there are natural calamities like earthquakes, floods, tsunamis!!!

If one manages to survive even that, then there are innumerable accidents especially in a city like Mumbai.

The way people travel in the local trains during peak hours is plainly crazy. One has to be really lucky to be coming back home alive. god only knows how many people die each day in rail and road accidents everyday.

Suppose one still survives the accidents and makes it to the next day...

What next...

The Rising inflation flares its hood...
1) Hike in fuel prices: petrol, diesel, cng,lpg, piped gas
2) Food prices escalating. : but farmers still commiting suicde... no improvement or relief in their lives...
3) taxes rising...now perhaps very soon along with educational cess we might even have to shell out a cess for healthcare benefits.. ( Wonder.. healthcare for whom though...wonder how much of the educational cess that we have paid has helped in eradicating illiteracy from our country )

4) Real estate prices rising

5) adding to the woes of rising property prices is the rising interest rates making home loans dearer. So if one dreams of owning a house, it would only remain as a dream or would bleed one till death.


Ok.. so suppose one still manages to fight the above battles... tries to earn money in order to live for one more day... tries to work hard... but s/he has to fight another battle at work.

1) the boss!!! your growth/ happiness/ how much you will earn... all depends on the boss and the boss's perception about you.. no matter whether you work hard/ slog/ die... nothing matters...so you better please your boss...

2) Fight to get a better pay packet.. try to find a better job.. say things which you don't believe ...please people....so that they like you and offer you a job or perhaps give you a good hike in the salary

3) The strike at will contest.... Bus strike, auto strike, taxi strike, motormen strike, truck drivers strike, political strike.. (read enforced 'BANDH').. wonder what will happen the day the Common man decides to go on strike and whether if such a thing will ever happen

But people still survive these slow and silent killers. They still get married and make babies; oblivious to all thats happening around...Maybe thats the only thing which takes their minds off such things...

and perhaps this has lead to the growing business of all the possible babas and matas that we have around offlate. . people just want a way to escape this madness of the world around us. or the ever increasing line of 'Navas''" at lalbaug cha raja or the never seen before crowd at Mount Mary...apart from the innumerous holy places that we have...

Dont know about me.. but our Gods are definately getting richer... ( read the reports on the offerings at the various ganapati pandals in mumbai alone).



So... I guess.. I am just plain lucky to be alive at this moment and to be writing this blog post... :)

Good Morning???

Today: 7 a.m
Location: My cozy bed with 4 newspapers

and the headlines go as below:

1) CNG and piped gas rates to be hiked

2) stock market crashes on a the fears of looming greek economic crisis and US and its recession

3) property prices on the upward trajectory

4)Six die as slab crashes in bhayander

5) Thanks to RTI , now even the PM is under the scanner for 2G scam along with the Home Minister

6) a garland seller who lives on the footpaths of Mumbai with his family and spends Rs. 57 per day ( has only one meal a day ).. is not poor as per our planning commission

7) Illegal Mining in Goa


in addition to the general news of late:

1) Sikkim earthquake
2) Rise in fuel prices
3) all possible scams
4) terror Attacks
5) Rising interest rates making loans costlier
and the list continues..

Wonder if one can say GOOD Morning.. any more!!!!

Jaankari: an e-RTI initiative by Bihar government.

While Anna Hazare's Fast hogged all the possible media attention, there are some more instances of fight against corruption which has probably not received the attention that it should...

I read an article in today's paper about confiscation of property of corrupt officials and using it for public service. The Bihar government seized the mansion of a corrupt officer and converted it into a school for poor children. These schools were being run in rented rooms. The details can be read at the link provided below.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/other-states/article2436881.ece

On further research i found out about Jaankari. an e-RTI initiative by Bihar government... All of us know about RTI and its benefits to the society.. However the process is cumbersome for the common man to fully utilise the benefits fo this act.The details of the current problems and how it is addressed through Jaankari was provided in this PDF file shared on Bihar CM's website.



Excerpt from the report is provided below.Objectives of RTI The "Right to Information Act" was passed by Government of India in June,2005 with the following objectives:
(i) to provide for setting out practical regime of right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities;
(ii) to promote transparency and accountability in the working of everypublic authority;
(iii) to set up Central Information Commission and State InformationCommission and for matters connected therewith;
(iv) to contain corruption and to hold governments and theirinstrumentalities accountable to the governed;
(v) to harmonise revelation of information with public interests includingefficient operations of the governments, optimum use of limited fiscalresources and the preservation of confidentiality of sensitizeinformation.What does Right to Information mean

It includes the right to –
i) inspect works, documents, records;
ii) take notes, extracts or certified copies of documents or records;
iii) take certified samples of material;iv) obtain information in form of print outs, diskettes, floppies, tapes,video cassettes or in any other electronic mode or through print outs.

Who are Public Information Officers (PIOs) ?

PIOs are officers designated by the public authorities in all administrativeunits or offices under it to provide information to the citizens requesting forinformation under the Act. Any officer, whose assistance has been sought by the PIO for the proper discharge of his or her duties, shall render all assistance and for the purpose of contraventions of the provisions of this Act, such other officer can be treated as a PIO.

Project "JAANKARI"-A Facilitation Centre Approach

It’s common experience that masses often are oblivious and ignorant about how the Government decisions are made. This lack of transparency acts as a barrier which prevents the masses not only from actively participating in the Governmental functioning, but also from raising questions and protecting from impaired or ill-advised decisions.

Non-transparency also promotes and disguises official graft and favoritism.

It’s here that e-Governance can play an essential role in bringing the governmental policy and processes to light.Government transparency should be embedded in the decisions of all ICT systems. For example, official corruption can be reduced by re-organizing activities, such as licensing, permit, etc, and creating an online monitoring system to track each application, whereby official could be identified and held personally accountable for any action or inaction at anystage. It was felt that highly-placed public officials can expedite transparency and accountability efforts by making their offices positive examples of openness. While putting services online, citizens should begiven the ability to track the status of their applications.

Government programmes. Such technology programmes must tackle the twin issues, of e-literacy and accessibility especially for the disadvantaged groups of the rural Bihar.

Problems of the citizens:

Many people cannot fill Form A, as mentioned in the relevant Rules or draftapplication. Some of them are illiterate and due to this factor alone, RTI cannot be used by a huge section of population.• People do not know which Department to approach for different issues. And without this knowledge, it is impossible to file an RTI application easily.
• Even if one knows the Department, there are multiple Public Information Officers (PIOs) in a Department and it would be quite difficult for a personto know who is the right PIO, suited to his requirement.

Depositing application fee of Rs.10 is another nightmare. One has to eithergo in person to the concerned office to deposit cash or make a Demand Draftor a postal order. Apart from a financial implication, it also involves spending a lot of time investing Bank/post office.

If one does not the get "right" information, filling an appeal is even more complicated and tiring process.

RTI Act has major role in promoting e-literacy, especially among the poor and disadvantaged sections of the society. And to ensure e-literacy, the factor of accessibility must also be taken care of. Governments must be sensitive to the special needs of poor, physically challenged and disable persons. It must design its services with appropriate interfaces suited to the disadvantaged persons.

However, this accommodation and customization has significant cost implications.The poor, disadvantaged and challenged section of the population can substantially benefit from e-government services, as they may not be able to travel to government officers or the downtrodden people may not be able to articulate their demands.

Solution- Project "JAANKARI" - an ICT initiative

Visualizing the ramifications of the RTI Act for people’s empowerment and its effectiveness in reduction of corrupt practices in government offices, which result mostly due to holding of information and avoiding transparency, the State Government of Bihar decided to make provision of RTI Act more broad based and easily accessible to ordinary people. It was decided that ICT (Information, Communication and Technology) be innovatively and effectively employed for expanding the base of the RTI access and that a Facilitation Centre Called "JAANKARI" for RTI be set up, for the first time in India, Bihar Government's RTI Facilitation Centre “JAANKARI” for filing RTI application with the concerned State government Department works on premium rate services of BSNL.

System designed to enable a citizen wishing to file an application forseeking any information under RTI Act, without any hassles of physical movement for purchase of postal order ( for the requisite RTI application feeof Rs.10/-)going to the designated RTI Officer of the concerned department.
The primary and mandatory requirement was to charge RTI applicationfee(Rs.10/-) from the citizen without physical transaction of money. This could be fulfilled with the help of BSNL Premium Rate Services.

All the facilities were quickly put up in place and the “JAANKARI”Facilitation Centre was located in the State Government’s SoftwareTechnology Park in BISCOMAUN Tower, Patna. The State Government asked Beltron to procure the necessary hardware, software & authorised to operate it.
The operation was outsourced to a government neutral agency.The Facilitation Centre executives were not from government and hencewere unbiased. The Software was designed in consultation with officials who had been operating another e-Janshikayat software from CM Secretariat.

Necessary amendments were made by the State Government in the relevant rules to lower the fees for filing first and second appeal to Rs. 10/- each, to enable e-transactions through phone call to receive payments.
Executive Orders were issued and the Facilitation Centre “JAANKARI” was designated and authorised to receive phone calls from public at the prearranged premium rate i.e. a call costing Rs. 10/per call (rupees ten per call) to take care of the prescribed application fee and generate RTI application on behalf of the caller.The Facilitation Centre executives were trained and sensitized. They were to receive calls and convert the voice demands into "electronic format",compatible with RTI, Act. Since issues involved varied with each request and it was difficult to pinpoint the exact PIOs dealing with the issue,
One senior administrative officer was made available to Facilitation centre to help in co-ordinating with PIOs and departmental heads. The official was well versed with the governmental system and its "Rules of executiveBusiness" which assigns specific work to a department and also mentions itsdelegated powers.

This is the first and unique experiment aimed at RTI empowerment of people.

Procedures for filing “Request for Information”:

• The Government after realizing a Facilitation Centre, advertised two phone numbers to the public. One of the numbers is RTI Help-line Number (RHN)and the other number is RTI Application Number (RAN).
• RHN is an ordinary number with hunting line facility with normal Callcharges. If any citizen wants to get any help about how to use RTI, he can use this number.
• When a person calls up RAN, he is asked to give his name, address, what information does he want and from which department does he want thatinformation. This conversation is voice recorded and also typed on computersimultaneously by the Facilitation Centre executive receiving the call request.
• If the citizen does not know the department concerned, then the Facilitation Centre staff will help him identity it. But in some rare cases, even the Facilitation Centre staff would not know about the exact department. To deal with such cases, the Government has assigned a government official to oversee the operation-centre. The official knows the functioning of each department and the relevant issues connected with it. So, he can supervise the operations at the centre and can facilitate in ascertaining the correct PIO/APIOS.
• Many ordinary citizens may not even know what types of information to askfor. They would just know their problems. Facilitation Centre staff would be trained to help and deal with such cases. A good amount of handholding is required to help the not-so-literate people. A patient, effective conversation with a caller results in generation of one application.
• Once an RTI application has thus been filled the Facilitation center (FC) will confirm its contents with the caller again & than take two copies of it and send the first copy to the applicant. Each of these generated applications will have a unique reference number, which will be assigned by the computer S/W, itself .
This reference number can be quoted on the helpline to ask for the application's content (with proper mechanism to respect one's privacy and address the security issues).

• The Second copy will be sent to the concerned PIO and The PIO will have 35 days (from the date of receipt of application in CC) to provide information. During this period, the PIO should prepare information and send it to the applicant directly.

Advantages to Citizens :
1. Sitting at home-Power of information is just a phone call away. Project
application was designed after wide consultations. Citizen is the focus of the
initiative,
2. No hassles of physical movement to PIO Office for filing RTI application,
3. Money saved by way of travel time/lost as well as for making drafts/Postal
order from Bank and Post offices,
4. Government bears the cost of the Facilitation Centre, cost of transmitting the
application to the concerned PIOs as well as substantial cost on providing
the premium call service,
5. The Project keeps in mind differences in local culture when seeking to
engage citizens,

Corruption.... A speed breaker to growth?

Due to Anna Hazare's fast, the fight against corruption has met with fervor across the country. Though i do support the Fight Against corruption and believe that it is corruption indeed which is hampering the growth of our country. Or else , if you talk about resources.. be it human , material or natural.. we have all in abundance... its just the lack of opportunity or failure to channelize of our resources. The major reason for the same being improper systems which is also a cause and effect of corruption. Our food distribution systems, public welfare schemes like NREGA, various housing schemes, employment schemes, are not actually reaching the poor in the way they should be.

Anna Hazare and team's fight to bring lokpal bill will not solve the problem of corruption. It might reduce it to some extent but not curb it since it is a reactive measure and not a proactive one. It deals with punishing the guilty and not eradicating the crime in the first place.. If people feared stringent laws then there wouldn't be any crime in our country or the world for that matter... The solution to this problem lies in changing the system. By bringing transparency into the system and continuous improvement.

RTI Act was a major step towards bringing about transparency. One of the major causes of corruption is lack of information... This can be dealt with use of technology. for. e.g. Use of technology has brought about transparency and convenience in Tax Filing and refunds. ( an input shared by a friend ). The tax refunds are faster now.

Why does corruption occur in the first place.. ok.. greed .. yes.. but lets leave the top level scams etc..lets talk about you and me.. the common people.. the public.. for example.. I need to buy a property.. I have no clue about the procedures or regulations, taxes or duties to be paid.. Still I go to the government office and am lost in the sea of people around with no clue where to go or what to do.. So what do i do... Hire an agent.. who will be the shortcut for me.. What did i do??? bought a little bit of convenience for myself... ok.. i had to pay a little extra.. but what the heck.. my job is done... without having to wait in queue.. I bought preference for myself and convenience..

Now how can this situation be avoided?... If all the systems are made online. i.e. online payment of your taxes.. stamp duty, registration etc, then this would reduce the human interface and thereby automatically reduce corruption.. because all are at the same level.. there is no preference.. and it is the easy and convenient way...and one has all the information required at one click.

Take another instance... You break the traffic rules and the cop catches you...and the cop tells you to shell out the fine... and you find out that the fine has been hiked... what do you do? pay him a bribe and drive away.. easy and convenient option... in this scenario is hiking the fine a deterrent to commit such offences or an incentive/pay to pay a bribe?

Its just that a law alone will not end corruption, we need stronger systems and a complete revamp of our system which cannot happen over a single day .. It has to be a continuous process. But yes, the Jan lokpal bill is necessary since it will empower the government to deal with the corrupt.

There are other ways also to fight corruption which perhaps has missed the media attention.. followed in the next blog...

Till then..

Sau mein se Ninyaanve beimaan... Phir bhi.. Mera Bharat Mahaan..

Jai Hind :)