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!

Islam - Terrorism & Next Steps

Paris suffered one of the cruel casualties in its history. And, it is not due to two nations fighting against each other, or two regions facing each other for supremacy...Here we have terrorists, who are waging war, who have sole intentions to imprint fear in people's minds; and can go to any extent to terrorize the world.

I have been firm believer of not linking terrorism to any particular religion...Our current Prime Minister Modi did rightly announce the same within first day of Paris attacks...and so the several other world leaders. However, we cannot continue to live in denial, it is time for us to identify the root cause to eliminate terrorism from across nations and world.

The underlying justification from all terrorists is on the name of Islam. They bring in all the verses from the Holy book Quran; and all explanations on how Islam as a religion justifies all the wrongs that they do and are doing. It is time for us to accept that there are some underlying problems in the Islam religion itself...not necessarily in the Holy books or preachings of Islam; but the followers of Islam. Terrorism is quickly spreading as a contagious disease...it is spreading across the continent very fast; which is continuously affecting the humanity, and quality of life for all of us. So, it is time for us to act now.

All the religions have some kind of problems, at some time. The important steps were taken at right time to eradicate those problems. For e.g. Hindu as a religion is a perfect example. Pardon me when I say Hindu as a religion, although it is a way of life for people born in India. It has evolved over time. Raja Rammohan Rai was one of the reformers to identify Sati tradition as a problem, and worked towards removing it. Jyotiba fule and Baba Ambedakar were the strongest reformers who worked towards removing un-touchability from the society. Similarly, Government of India identified Polio as the biggest problems; and implemented several steps to make India as Polio free nation.

Similarly, we need to assess what is causing the young generation to follow the path of terrorism, and why do they join terrorist organizations. It is need of the hour that all the religious leaders of Islam, Islamic scholars & preachers, Islamic institutions, and Islamic governments get together, create a platform, and solve the terrorism problem.

It may require reforming Madrassa education, spread awareness across youths, reaching out to extremists, providing clarifications on Holy book Quran verses, setting up forums to address brain-washing. All of these require strong courage and conviction from all of the Islamic set-ups.

Why I say it is Islam itself need to understand and identify the problems, because anybody else doing it would be considered encroaching sovereignty of Islam as a religion; and it may have catastrophic effects. Islamic platform can reach out to several government heads, and science institutions for help. However, it is their duty to recognize the problems, work with the youth, and implement proactive steps to eradicate the terrorism disease; howsoever years it may take!

Black & White: Better to be "Grey" at times

Indian Society is going through an exemplary phase of demonstrating to the world what freedom of speech is! And what really democracy is, and how it can hold people of various faiths, various castes, and various cultures together.

Black & White represents two extremes...Let me mention I am not referring to religious extremists in any society, now there is a trend to misrepresent and misinterpret the words; so I obviously want to be careful. It was all initiated by a few writers returning awards on account of growing intolerance, and attributed all of this to Central government. It was subsequently followed by another set of writers, scientists, and more folks in various creative fields returning their awards. It was a wonderful movement, and it garnered attention from several streams...Local & international media put it as headline, and made common people like us worried on what is happening to our dear country.

Then there was other side, which took a few days to come to explain the other side of it...They were genuinely concerned on the fake movement of returning awards ...An event "March for India" was organized to demonstrate the strength of our country, and expose such individuals who were returning awards on account of growing intolerance. If one had followed the event, it was visible that this group had more support from people; not only in the creative and intellectual field; but also from common people.

I enjoyed the space that both of these groups got in the Indian media...This shows how open the Indian democracy is, and accommodates very easily the thoughts from two extremes. People of India have absolute faith in Indian democracy; and freedom of speech that one enjoys. Howsoever, the other group's "March for India" event is yet to be covered in International media...Looks like International media wants to be selective about coverage with whatever the intent.

A society functions well, when the thoughts are balanced, and a specific movement is not orchestrated. If a group of people take an extreme step, it agitates the other group to take a stand. Particularly a group which represents minority (not religion, but thought process) must be respectful to the other set of folks who represent majority. But it is also true that a movement may convert a minority into majority. Anyways, I always feel that there is a BIG space "GREY" between Black & White, and all of us can live happily, had we decide to live in that space instead of taking extreme sides.

By the way, with everyone taking a stand either on one side or the other...Let me present my thoughts. I do see a much better India in what it used to be earlier when it comes to "Tolerance". I see our countrymen becoming more tolerant, and more aware of their self-right, taking stands, exercising their right of speech. There may be one or two rare instances, however there is a clear intent from the government and people of India to identify the culprits and curtail happening it again. India is growing in terms of economy and its Brand equity, and becoming a renowned nation across the world. Definitely this is BETTER India; and much better times for an Indian!