Rural India - Healthcare Challenges

Rural India has several challenges, and one of the most prominent ones is lack of quality healthcare. I find it despairing to see the condition of healthcare in every village that I have visited, and people I have talked. Leave aside the availability of hospitals, one cannot easily find a good clinic doctor for outpatient visits. One has to travel for 150-200 kms to reach to a town and access good quality care. Being in such situations, villagers typically avoid seeing a doctor unless it becomes an emergency; and many a times it is too late and life-threatening.

To meet the basic needs, there is a crop of pseudo-doctors (read illegal doctors) have come up. Farmers, rural villagers with no choice are visiting these pseudo-doctors in dire needs. Such pseudo-doctors generally would not have any basic knowledge of medicine, and they are checking the patients, diagnosing them and prescribing unnecessary tests and medicines.

There have been several cases of overdoses of medicines, incorrect medicine prescriptions and delayed discovery of a severe disease. People are suffering, however lack of options are making it difficult for villagers to avail right timely care.

Governments, both federal and state levels need to work together and put in efforts to improve the healthcare standards in villages; which comprises of over 60% of India. Governments needs to start with some  basic provisions such as setting up rural clinics within a proximity of 50-60 kms, and ensuring to have a quality hospital within 150 km. 

To facilitate access to good quality doctors and hospitals, government needs to motivate them by monetizing them or providing special accreditation to them.

Governments may want to include a special clause for doctors to retain their certification or accreditation by ensuring that they spend certain hours of time in villages providing care.

Governments and Private players can tie hands to set-up facilities in rural set-ups and in turn governments may want to reward them through relaxed tax norms, or some other means.

Apart from governments, and private players, I would urge the charitable institutions to focus on rural healthcare; and bring more awareness to general public on this issue.

Demonetization: What Rupee could do, Bolivar could not manage it!

On October 8, 2016, India implemented unthinkable is to implement Demonetization. It effective removed the currency notes of rupees 500 & 1000 (86% of cash in circulation) from market by declaring them as an invalid legal tender.

Venezuela, taking a cue from this, tried to implement something similar by scraping Bolivar 100 notes, and replacing it with higher currency notes (up to Bolivar 20000).

While the intent on both the occasions was more or less the same to curb corruption and deter black money hoarders; it met with different fate in both the countries.

In India, the implementation still seems to be successful, and true success of demonetization can be measured only after a few months. It had to be rolled back in Venezuela within few days of rolling it out.

I see three main reasons for the successful implementation of demonetization in India:

1. A vision: Clarity of thought on the need to implement this. Underlying idea was very pertinent to the people in general.
2. Better Marketing: Howsoever short notice to implement the initiative, the concept was presented rightly to the people. Crisp and clear message noting the point #1, and coupled with  with broader nationalism angle left little opposition. 
3. Conductive Environment: Indian economy is comparatively in much better shape, and government still enjoys a majority support. Government came up with this offensive, when opposition was asking questions on its pre-election manifesto to curb corruption. It was killing two birds with one strike.

These three reasons allowed the people to embrace the idea, absorb the pain (supposedly short term) and support the initiative.

Ocean: Expanded Greatness!

O' Ocean!
I see you, and see you...and explore the infinity in you!
Eyes go wide, and shrunk...and I just see you!

O' Ocean!
Expansions and Contractions...Waves do come and go; and so be the noise!
Ah, I get filled with the peace of life!

O' Ocean!
Vastness, and the extent of hugeness...almost being scary!
Affectionate me with your lovely shores!

O' Ocean!
In daring you, I dare myself...Challenges lie ahead!
Live with aspirations! Make goals, and Conquer them!

O' Ocean!
Being the Great, Being the Big...living with humility!
You, continue to inspire, and amaze me!

Living a Promise!

Mahabharata is truly an EPIC grantha! A Holi literature. Each and every character resembles Good and Bad side of life! Amalgamation of what one can possibly get while living one's life.

I am yet to read any books on Mahabharata, however I am privileged to watch it on television. "Shri Krishna" directed by Shri Ramanand Sagar & "Mahabharata" directed by B. R. Chopra are two such wonderfully produced television serials; watching it is a sheer pleasure to intellectuals, and also those holding any religious beliefs.

There is a character, called Devrath, also called Bhisma Pitamaha. This individual stands out with his conduct, and  his immortal standards of living is an example to human beings.

Irony is, his life came into existence only because his father broke the very promise to his mother. The result was his mother vanished from existence; and he got his life. From there on, Devrath lived his life by an example. He fulfilled every promise, every word that he uttered.

It was part of what he promised his step-mother, he never married, he relinquished the kingdom. It was his promise to his mother, and his father to provide his support to the kingdom, that he has to remain on the sides of those who represented injustice.

Bhishma and his promises are one of the underlying reasons on why Mahabharata was shaped the way it eventually did. Had he not been what he was, we would have seen a completely different Mahabharata!

Happy & Happening Diwali!

Wishing all of you a very Happy and Happening Diwali!

Indeed this has been a happening Diwali! Scanned through my regular Indian, and International websites, and I found lot of things happening on the name of Diwali festival...Good, rather I feel happy and happening about it:)

Mr Trump and Mrs Clinton sharing the Diwali Wishes was just a minor thing...Prime Minister Modi spending time with Soldiers was a thing of common, and he spending his greetings on Mann Ki Baat was just coincidence!

India winning Champions Trophy was a big deal, winning it against Pakistan was awesome!  Another news talked about United Nations putting the "Happy Diwali" message along with a symbol of traditional Diya on its corporate office...

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, and Shivaay fighting it out to win the largest share of Box Office Collections...Let us see who wins the battle...it is interesting to see two different genres doing it...
How can I forget the Diwali, and its brand celebration at Bachchan's house, though I noticed only a few guests this time...It was supposed to be grand, isn't it...

Delhi again saw a deteriorating air quality during Diwali...and an advice for Delhites to stay within their homes...Wow...Bizarre! Time to come up with some new policies to curb policies during festivals....Then, I saw another interesting news, that 8 Tamilnadu villages celebrate Diwali with no noice, and no pollution.And that too for past 8 years..An ECO way!

The best part was American President Obama lighting a Diya in the white house, a new tradition for American Presidents, with a message, "that it continues with future presidents"....What a best way to celebrate Diwali...

May the light of knowledge, and righteousness fill everyone's life with wisdom, and truth! Happy Diwali.

Appraisal System for Government - Very much possible!

An employee always waits for the annual performance appraisal cycle to complete. The participation from employee & employer is well understood. During each cycle, there is an opportunity for both the parties to spend 1:1 time, discuss the performance over a year, understand the achievements and gaps in expectations; and plan out the goals for the next year. Although many in HR try to de-link the appraisal and compensation; it is an established fact that the performance appraisal has an impact on the compensation for the next year. So, it becomes more important and exciting for employees. Most of the companies now do conduct performance appraisals at a much better frequency, at least twice a year!

On similar lines, I have been thinking that there should be a similar process to set some goals and targets for ministers and members of lower and upper houses at state and federal level at the beginning of the year. And validate the performance at the end of year. Goal-setting could very well be a shared responsibility. For e.g. A minister of a particular department may have its own challenges, and opportunities. Similarly, members of a parliament may have different levels of challenges, possibilities for different constituencies that they represent. So, each employee (minister or member) may set goals for themselves for their area; and finalize it based on discussion with top leadership  bringing in uniformity and in line with the larger goal of the party or government.

It brings in a medium to track how well a minister is doing, provide timely feedback to course correct. Plus, it ensures accountability for the individuals. Future growth of every individual will be driven by talent, and performance in addition to extra-curricular skills.

Now, who should conduct these performance assessments. There could be a third party, who could be tasked to perform this process. My suggestion is for private players to come into existence and offer such services to state level and federal level governments. And can very well be extended to municipal corporations.

In fact governments can set-up a committee similar to Neeti Aayog to exclusively perform Appraisal process.

While doing so, important thing is to ensure transparency and confidentiality. So, there should be regulatory provisions put in place to ensure that the conduct of such committees or private players is always compliant.

Data Science - A Generational Shift! Think Ahead, and Be Ahead!

It was "Information Technology" around 20 years ago which brought in revolution to how we function in our day-to-day life. Computers and power of computing platforms existed much earlier as 1960s; however its true potential came to the fore in late 1990s. Countries and companies invested a lot into it; and now reaping benefits. Another such technology in current trends is "Data Science", which is going to bring in generational shift and transformation to how we operate in today's world.

Technologies and concepts such as Big Data, Data Analytic, etc have been in existence for over five years now. However, with the advent of advanced hardware, cheaper storage; it is taking prominent place. Now a comprehensive concept of Data Science is taking a center stage; combining the powers of Big Data, Data Analytics, Digital and preparing Companies and Countries to Think Ahead, and Be Ahead!

Companies and various government set-ups need to invest in setting up Data Science as a separate and dedicate departments. This departments needs to primarily have few objectives such as 

• Identifying and tracking important KPIs
• Developing trends, and forecasting future

This team needs to consists of three dedicated skill-sets - Business Analysts possessing stronger domain/ business knowledge, Statisticians who would perform hypothesis development, modelling and forecasting, Technical Architects who would facilitate data transfers across technologies.

Governments will have to play a key role in bringing in changes to the educational curriculum. Information Technology as a separate stream was brought in at least 8-10 years of its advent. There must not be more delay here in Data Science. There should be a dedicated stream to produce Data Science graduates. To me this looks to be more of engineering stream with a focus on Statistics, Data Analysis, and Technology role. The flavor of domain/ business needs to be brought in too. The primary ones are Healthcare, Banking, Insurance, etc...Numerous leading educational providers and institutes have already set-up a masters program for Data Science and Analytics.

Predictive and Prescriptive modelling, and using this as a method of research has gained momentum over the years. All of leading marketing and sales organizations would drive their strategies basedon Data Science. Healthcare organizations would derive the optimum outcomes through Clinical research done through Data Science. Data Science will also play an important role in government Security agencies. It is matter of time, when Data Science would de-facto become an important aspect of running organizations and countries.

Daylight Savings Change!

How bizarre it is! I lost a precious hour in Spring (March 13, 2016). And, I will have an hour repeat itself during fall that an hour repeats itself during spring, and how it gets lost during fall this year...
I am talking about the time change, which is more of a phenomenon in most of the western countries.

So, I wanted to understand the reasoning behind introducing such a time change...Daylight Saving Time (DST) is used to save energy and make better use of daylight. DST normally adds 1 hour to standard time with the purpose of making better use of daylight and conserving energy. This means that the sunrise and sunset are one hour later, on the clock, than the day before.

All of this sounds confusing...Things have changed a lot in last 100+ years; when it was first implemented; and the situations prevailing now. 

1.  During Spring, it is not a major change...Sunlight is available until late evening (9PM)...However, during Fall, moving 1 hour ahead brings the evening earlier; and it affects motorists, and shopping post work...and lot of activities during evening times. It means consuming more energy during fall time.
2. This is a costly affair in terms of IT, and Operations to manage this daylight savings change.
3. Most of the western countries are moving into Global mode; which requires countries to work in tandem with each other. This time change affects the communication pattern across the world.
4. This makes it confusing within a city and across states/ cities. So, why not keep it simple?

This may be the time for these countries to visit the concept of DST. And, time to make it simple!