Tuesday, November 12, 2013

The concept of control

Who knew that the government shutdown can actually fuel job growth! This second longest shutdown of the US government was about debt control. Specifically about how much debt should be allowed, incurred, necessary, sufficient. It was not about debt but about how much of debt control.

Congress unanimously accepted the debt and the debt control. They also attribute debt in itself as necessary but fought fiercely to define what is the right amount of debt and how much of control is necessary.

Ray Dalio has done an amazing job explaining how debt is important for the economy. He also makes a point of need of debt control very elegantly.

Moving over to an another subject where control is being the core point of contention - the second amendment - the right to bear the firearms.

Everyone seem to agree to the core need and suggestion of the 2nd amendment - the right to self defense.When it comes to the tools of self defense, the firearms, the change of time has demanded a re-evaluation of the usage and utility of firearms. The America has become more prosperous, civil and secured compared to 1791 when the 2nd amendment was enacted.

Just as debt is necessary for the economy, the guns are necessary for the self defense.

With the same context, as debt is not an absolute good or bad which requires a constant monitoring and control, guns are also not an absolute good or bad and does require constant monitoring and control.

Idea of control in either case, debt or guns, is to manage the evils of the respective tools to enable the intended utilities. I wish that as congress unanimously accepted the debt and the debt control it will also rise up to accept guns and the gun control.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

And people say Australia is land of convicts!

If you have visited Australia, you would know the amazing achievements of the country in many aspects of Democracy. In fact in many areas they are far ahead of US, UK and other older democracies in the world. And yet, they are  a constitutional monarchy! One area as an example is 'Gun Control'.

India, on the other hand, is one of the oldest civilizations in the world with rich history and spiritual past. Today's India, though, is run by convicts. These convicts are not the one's who were convicts, like Australians get tagged unfairly, in my opinion. But these are the convicts who run the country like the mafias used to run NYC, Chicago, LA, Miami and Las Vegas.

The constitution of India actually has an act on the books - Section 8 of The Representation Of The People Act, 1951. Sub section 8 (4) of this act- allows the convicted MPs and MLAs to continue representing the people of India even after they are convicted. In US, for example, it will be an automatic resignation.

Here is an interesting map presenting all current MPs and MLAs who are also convicted:
http://www.mibazaar.com/indianpolitics.html

On July 10, 2013, the Supreme Court of India, struck down section 8(4) of the Representation of Peoples Act 1951. This will mean that all the MPs and MLAs currently serving and are convicted of a crime resulting in jail time of 2 years and more will have to resign immediately.

In reaction to the Supreme Court's ruling - a Bill was presented in Rajyasabha on August 23, 2013 and passed on the same day. It is important to note that Rajyasabha is collection of appointed individuals who many times are also considered 'Intellectual'.

When the Parliament of India is not in session, the Cabinet of India is empowered to act in emergency situations. The Cabinet of India, threatened by the Supreme Court's ruling, passed an ordinance to reject the ruling of the Supreme Court of India. I could not find any digital evidence of this action.

Unfortunately, The President of India, who has already shown his agreement, is likely to sign and join the shame parade of the Parliament of India.

As I write this, the latest is that the Parliament is surrendering to the public outcry and will meet on October 3rd or 4th to consider withdrawing the Ordinance. The ever forgiving people of India will welcome the withdrawal saying "सुबह का भुला शाम को घर लौटे तो उसे भुला नहीं कहेंगे !"

Questions I ponder upon and wonder about:

- Why can not India be 100% intolerant of criminal behavior just like all the developed countries in the world, democratic or otherwise. ?
- India, a country of billion people, had many choices from people without convictions, what compels this country with rich heritage of spirituality to continually reward bad behavior ? 
- Given that many of the things India is experiencing, many other democracies in the world has also faced, but they did not have precedences and history of solutions. India can avoid repeating their mistakes.

References:

Lawmaking Procedure in India

The legislative proposals are brought before either the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha in the form of a bill. The bill is actually a draft of the legislative proposal. After being passed by both the Houses of the Parliament, the Bill is sent to the President of India for assent. After receiving the assent from the President of India, a bill becomes an Act of the Parliament.



Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Is old still gold ?

The twentieth century has been the realization century for the foundational scientific principles.

The concept of flying and flying of a kite can be traced as early as 1000 B.C.E. Historians have traced and documented numerous unsuccessful attempts of human flight until 1904. Aviation has been realized since 20th Century.

The concept of communication using external tools can be traced as early as the stone age. During 20th century the core principles of remote communication became reality so widely that it literally shrunk the world.

British and fellow Europeans stretched their imagination and decided to learn more about the world by exploring. Their adventures, abilities to trade, organization and people management skills influenced various forms of governance. British succeeded in establishing monopolized trade environments by using simple principles of mass controls - "Divide and Rule". Utilization of this core principle of mass control can also be traced as far back as the the first civilized act of humans.

20th century, in my opinion, also served as strengthening the abilities and reach of this core principle - divide and rule much more effectively and expeditiously.

The evidences are, that almost all the nations are now facing a common challenge - "the rising inequality". This is where the earth now has a common alien (enemy), metaphorically, which challenges the methods of trade, commerce and economics, which are complex implementations of the foundational principle - divide and rule.

This may sound to be an over simplification and even like a conspiracy theory but I am sure that this perspective will sure help make a case to question how we trade and commerce and why we are compelled to think and focus on  - Social Entrepreneurship.

References:

History and Timeline of Flight:
1.  http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/UEET/StudentSite/historyofflight.html
2.  http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/wb-timeline.html

Rising inequality:
1.  Report by the Brookings Institute - US Inequality
2.  Report - The rise of income inequality amongst rich countries

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Civility

It was Nov 4th 2008, the day of the historic election in the United States of America. The day which was possible because of one man's belief in freedom he pursued with clear focus, determination and tenacity, President Abraham Lincoln. It was the day when the seed of freedom, bloomed into a tree giving its first fruits.

While all the credits go to the believers of freedom and all those who supported the bill of emancipation proclamation and President Abraham Lincoln, this story is not just about those handful of individuals. This is one of many powerful stories of the People of America. This is the story of what America has achieved in last 200+ years - The Civility.

I became citizen of United States of America a couple of years before the Nov 4, 2008. This was the first presidential election I was to participate in. Incidentally I was also out of job! and thus decided to do more than just vote and volunteer as polling place inspector. I went through one class room training and two practice sessions at poling stations. On the election day, I was assigned to the A-Team.

The day at the polling station and serving in various capacities during the day revealed a definition of civility. Close your eyes and picture an election place where there are no police, no uniformed officers are allowed within 100 feet of the polling place. The election is run by common volunteer citizens. Polling place has an area designated for anyone who wants to witness the election. The neighbors of the community bring cookies, cakes, water and drinks to say thank you to the volunteers for their services.

What is unique about America is not the money or it being a Super Power, it is their collective ability to install humanity in the humans. America has achieved the civility which many nations has not been able to, for thousands of years. The reason why America does this consistently through various booms and burst cycles is to push themselves to do better everyday. One very critical element is Immigration, however controversial it may be.


One of my niece in Mumbai sent to me this article: The story You never Wanted to Hear. I was not surprised and that made me wonder why can not India(ns) thrive to excel and seek better quality of life, honest living, less corrupt society and civility ?

Civility is an ultimate result of human development. It starts with education, fueled by food, preserved with sanitation, clothing and shelter and thrives in democracy and freedom.

There can not be any other priorities, goals or measures as powerful as Civility.

Side Note:
Discrimination is an integral human trait. Learning and embracing Civility is what makes a human fair converts to diversity


Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Promoting choice mean taking away from the others ?!

Our nephew was visiting us and we were traveling to the Inspiration point in Corona Del Mar. Not sure if the richness of the neighborhood real estate values, that influenced or the unbelievable beauty of the pacific ocean protected by the magnificent cliff that promoted that thought .... but we landed up discussing the marriage, life partner and reincarnation.

The world has been male chauvinist. All the GODS are male, except in Hindu philosophy. All the laws built by the men were discriminatory and dictatorial to minorities. The process of freedom and democracy is to challenge them and make them inclusive.

In a way, the process of democracy has been to take the dictatorial, discriminatory, exclusive, singular,  male centric democratic laws and introduce a choice for the minorities. In other words take the choice of being controlling, away from the original small specific group of people.

Promoting choice, in any case, is challenging the resistance, challenging the foundational discriminatory beliefs which are legitimized by the notion that they are valid because they are being practiced in the democratic environment and executed by democratically elected officials.



Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The Temple of Democracy

Kofi Annan Foundation and One Young World conducted this third "Google hang-out" of the The Kofi Annan Dialogues. The topic was "Democracy and Elections".

Mr. Annan said the following:

"No one is born a good citizen, no one is born a good democrat, it takes participation, it takes observation and reflection and quite a bit of training to get to be a good citizen, a good democrat."

Reference: First 3 Minutes from the Video of first session
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S2WEcLFXHo

Mr. Annan asked of three things: Participation, Observation and reflection, and training.
First two, participation and observation, are integral to an individual traits. These one would achieve based on many externally influencing elements over of period of time. But the third element - Training, can actually be the most important enabler.

Training of Democracy is an essential aspect which can provide a ground for participation and provide environment to exercise observation and reflection. Unfortunately there isn't much available where one can go and train oneself or learn to participate.

September last year (2012) I took a course at Coursera titled "Securing Digital Democracy". Professor  J. Alex Halderman of University of Michigan is a delight to listen to and learn from. This course is a very fundamental to learning democracy. It touches upon the bear minimum right to vote and what it means by a fair voting system. He does this amazingly by providing a detailed historic context.

We also have Khan Academy which has an entire section for American Civics. This can serve as a good platform as well as an excellent source of required content via participation.

MOOCs and Social Media have already proven to enable increased participation, observation and in turn better learning and promotion of collective plurality and tolerance. The very core principles of Democracy.

That brings us to a thought, what if, we also have places, similar to libraries, where one can go and learn (train), participate in debates, observe the debaters and in turn train oneself to be a good citizen and better democrat (not to be confused with the American political party DNC or any such).

And may be .. just may be .. we call them "Temples of Democracy".

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Collection of elating and uplifting speeches

I love TED and all similar sources of quality, informational, educational and uplifting speeches. This is a collection I prepared as my miniscule contribution for two amazing non-profits in India (Mumbai and Ahmedabad) whose missions are to provide underprivileged an opportunity to excel.

Innovations in Education:

Hole in the wall: Concept of self teaching.
An amazing successful experiment by Prof Sugata Mitra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk60sYrU2RU

The father of MOOC (Massively Open Online Courses) - Salman Khan
Let's use video to reinvent education
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTFEUsudhfs

Are we afraid of being wrong ?
An 18 min entertaining speech  by Sir Ken Robinson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Introduction of the book: The Element: 24 min Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TAqSBMZDY8

The Tinkering School: 5 Min TED.
This has spread in six major cities in US, as of June 2013.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvHViFc0ekw

Entrepreneurship:

Arunachalam Muruganantham: The first man to wear a sanitary napkin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4_MeS6SOwk

How laws and government compliment or deter innovations:
18 min Video by Lawrence Lessig
http://www.ted.com/talks/larry_lessig_says_the_law_is_strangling_creativity.html

US and Democracy:

Lawrence Lessig: We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw2z9lV3W1g

Stay tuned .. for more ...

Friday, June 14, 2013

Airlines, Airports and Flying - The Tickets

I am an aviation enthusiast. The airplane in sky fascinates me every single time.
There are some core processes of the Industry, which I think will be helpful to anyone who flies.

Airline Ticket is the very basic step before flying.
Each ticket has three key attributes: PNR, Fare Basis and Ticket Number.

PNR is a collection of six alpha-numeric characters which identify a ticket or group of tickets.
You can see this as a method to bundle passengers flying together.

Ticket Number is a unique numeric number assigned to each passenger within a PNR.
It is a collection of 13 numerals.

Ticket Number has the following structure:

First three numbers identify the Airline. For example all tickets issued by United Airlines start with "016", for British Airways it is "125", for American Airlines it is "001".

So next time you see a ticket number - you can easily know what Airline your ticket was issued by.
This is important because this decides who will control the mileage credit for your flights.

Your ticket can be booked by Delta Airlines but you actually fly onto an Air France plane.

Curious to know which Airline has which code - Visit the link below, find your airlines and see:
It is called "IATA Accounting Code".
http://www.theairdb.com/sub/Airlines.html

Fare Codes and Fare basis are revenue distribution / maximization method / process / classification.

Fare Codes are single character code which defines rules to treat the ticket when a change is requested. Fare basis define a specific classification of the ticket within a fare code.

Here is an article which sheds light on the subject.
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/frequentlyflying/2011/05/04/airfare-pricing-buckets-airline-fare-basis-codes-revealed/

Deeply discounted tickets are not eligible for mileage earnings. Fare basis is what let's you know up-front, if your ticket will be eligible to earn miles.


Braille - Education and Entertainment

My niece is now 18 months old. Our immediate need is her Education and development.
So I thought to initiate a search to know what is out there already.

My plan is to put together a catalog of such products to:
1. To know what is out there.
2. To spread the awareness amongst friends and families to seek out such products locally, in India.
3. To make a "Wish List" for her future B'day(s) where one can choose what to Gift her! :)
4. May be install an idea in someone's mind to build a sustainable business model.
    There are 20 Million Blind people in India alone.

Please read REVIEWS, on the bottom of each product page, to learn more about them.
Please also provide your comments, suggestions, corrections, recommendations ....

Education:

Braille Slate: To Write in Braille
http://www.amazon.com/MaxiAids-Braille-Slate-Full-Page/dp/B00014VW52/

Puzzle and Alphabets:
http://www.amazon.com/Puzzle-Braille-Pieces-Talking-Alphabet/product-reviews/B004USB0YS/

Braille Math:
http://www.mathwindow.com/

Braille Game Board:
http://www.braillegame.com/learning_tool_and%20game.html

Entertainment:

Braille Playing Cards:
http://www.amazon.com/Casino-Special-Braille-Playing-Cards/dp/B000YL3ZQQ

Scrabble:
http://www.amazon.com/Deluxe-Scrabble-Game-Braille-Version/dp/B000YL1XEM

Soduku:
http://www.amazon.com/MaxiAids-Braille-Sudoku-Game/dp/B000YL60W2