ExpertDabbler

All of us have our own pet peeves about India. Its easy to crib. What if we can make a random list of TO DO items for the nation?
Assume you had the backing of the Union cabinet, State cabinet and the Kitchen cabinet, what can you do to make India better? Try to keep it economically feasible and realistic as much as possible. Its a good exercise

- Triple the number of courts, recruit more judges to finish of the backlog of cases. Justice delayed is justice denied. A case MUST be settled within five years. The lawyer and the judge will be kicked out of their jobs otherwise. The money spent is worth the cause.

- Provide free compulsory school education to all at any cost. Bring reservation for rural candidates. Remove reservation for those in urban areas. Another way to tackle reservation is to build more schools and colleges. Triple the number of agricultural, arts and science, engineering and medical colleges. Money spent on education is well spent too. We have a clear ROI on education. Ask any middle class person on the importance of education. Allow foreign universities in India so that the rich and the wealthy can go and learn there.

- Restrict the proliferation of organized religious schools and outfits of all religion.

- Let Railways complete the double track and electrification of routes where people pay for their tickets, not where the Railway Mminister comes from. Have a target for expanding the rail network across the country to all towns above 50,000 in population. It is bad to see towns like Dharapuram go without rail network even after 61 years of independence. I do not mind paying a hundred rupees extra on my tickets to achieve this.

- Make all our national highway and state highways multi-lane highways. We can pay more tolls.

- We lose more people in accidents than to major diseases. Habitual traffic rules offenders should not be allowed to vote. Their passports should be revoked.

- Allow corporates to run public transport, not necessarily buses, but definitely mini buses, vans etc. We need more efficient public transport.

- Begin inter-linking of rivers and lakes at district level and state levels. Why expect to connect Krishna and Cauvery if we cannot connect Thamiraparani and Cauvery? Maybe we should enable water to be pushed To and Fro.

- Encourage people to have an authorized ’side business’ except the government employees. The income from second job/business can be declared tax free. Hopefully this reduces the time spent before TV watching ‘Maanada mayilaada’ and ‘Arasi’.

- Make it compulsory to have master plans for all towns with a population of fifty thousand reviewable every five years. The same should be available to the locals on demand.

- Bring a ceiling to the number of people who can live in a metro. There is no perumai in having a metro with crores of people. Bar new developments within a defined area in the cities. For e.g No new building/development should be allowed within Chennai / Mumbai city limits. We take care to reign in inflation, but have no such concern to reign in people aggregating in a small place all through the year for centuries.

- Make elections more frequent - once in three years.

- Ensure inflation adjusted wages for labourers. A blue collar worker should be able to sustain a decent standard of living. The middle class Indian wants his software engineer son get a hike every year but insists on paying the same amount to his servant maid, auto guy etc.

- Bring a common coordinated network among the intelligence agencies. Acts of terror occurs in this country just because RAW was too busy to inform the local police and vice versa.

- Pay as much salary for a police man as we do for a trainee software engineer.

- Remove subsidies for petrol and gas for those in the cities. Make it available to only those who live in tier 2-3 towns and villages. People in the cities - either they can afford to pay seventy five bucks per litre or they can opt to move to smaller towns where fuel consumption will also be less. It takes lot of oil subsidy to drive from Maraimalai Nagar to Navalur in a car everyday.

- I think there are few ways to reduce corruption in government offices
a) automate, computerize the process as much as possible, which would reduce human discretion
b) increase the number and salaries of the officers and decentralize their powers.
So long as the CMDA, with a handful of officers is the only authority to grant approval to buildings in the whole of Chennai, we are bound to have corruption.

- Only about 10% of India’s work force are employed in the organized sector. While the rest 90% eke out a living on their own. How do we make their lives better? Maybe microcredit will really help these people escape the clutches of money lenders. I don’t know much on this.

- Encourage doctors to build more clinics, but discourage corporatization of hospitals. Hospitals should not be allowed to operate as a company and declare profits and dividends to share holders.

- Restrict our current active sports persons from appearing in Ads. If they do, let 50% of what they earn trough commericals go for sports development fund. Let the fund be administered by a non political, non bureaucratic body of ex athetes who have won medals for the country in Asian games and Olympics.

PS: It was kinda difficult to jot down a twenty point agenda. Its easier to crib than to write something like this. And I bet its easier to write than to implement. But I still encourage people to try this as a tag and see what they can come up with.

Sometime back, Keerthi and I had a telephone conversation about the changes in film business - notably the entry of ADAG, PVR, Pyramid Saimira and the types. Keerthi had an intriguing proposition.. “Adhellam irukattum PK, as a movie buff, I am disgusted with the kind of films dished out.. Naan enakku venungra padathai eppo epdi parkuradhu.?

To be precise, his idea of a movie project is a Kamal Haasan, Mani Ratnam combo, with music by A R Rahman, produced by Avyukta Talkies and funded by all the movie buffs of this planet… or something similar.
Well, I don’t see that happening in the immediate future. Even if it does, that movie can turn out to be very different from Keerthi’s expectations because its not entirely in his control.

This morning whilst in bathroom I had this thought.
It’s very well known that bloggers can be musicians (blogswara), what if some bloggers turned to digital film making? At least the animation movies, if not the full fledged films.

Probably Keerthi can script it, can assemble a crew of amateur 2/3d animators, artists, compositors, modelers to make a cool animation movie that he likes with the script he loves. For once, this can be made at one’s free time and at absolutely zero or very negligible cost. Only stuff required is abundance of back-breaking effort and loads of passion. Of course, Avyukta Talkies can produce this film and premiere it via You Tube to the entire world.

Even if Keerthi gets busy, I guess this is something worth checking out by bloggers in general, if not done already. Instead of saying all Kodambakkam movies are crap, why don’t we do something about it during our free time?

PS: How come I get all these original idea only when I am in the bathroom?

Is anyone using or manufacturing electric stoves in India? If yes, what’s your feedback?

I was a witness to the hardships faced by the public in getting a gas connection. My friend was made to run from pillar to post and in the end he spent about 6000 bucks for buying mixie, cooker and gas stove which he does not need, all because the gas agency insisted he buy all those if he wanted a gas connection.

Of course, this is more like a bribe, but our Indian Oil Corporation executives aka nation’s pride, in a master stroke of genius that only public sector folks can think of, have made it mandatory for one to hold a valid ration card to be eligible for gas connection.

My friend will be in Chennai this year, Bangalore the next, and his parents (permanent address) will be in Coimbatore, how is he supposed to hold a ration card wherever he goes?? It’s not half as easy as getting a credit card. Even if he had one, changing the address in the ration card is not exactly doable by clicking an ‘edit address’ hyperlink in a website, get the point? Those are lifetime projects.

The only other alternative is to get a gas connection from the private gas agencies. But many of them operate in such a small scale and do not get subsidy from the government and hence are prohibitively expensive.

Since all we can do is nominate our bureaucrats for nobel prize or whatever prize in public administration, I was wondering if anyone manufactures or uses an efficient, robust electric stove in India?? If we can have a microwave owen, an electric cooker and even energy guzzlers like air conditioners and electric water heaters, why not electric stoves?
Those who have or used this before, please let me know your feedback.

The potential advantages are too obvious to even list. So long as we have an electricity connection, we can have our idlis and dosais done fast. No more gas ’surrendering’ , ‘reconnecting’, death certificate, legal heir certificate fundas. No need for ‘gas booking’ 10 days in advance. No need for ‘asadu vazhunjufy’ your neighbor requesting him to get the gas cylinder when you and your spouse are gone for work. What’s more, spend a few thousand bucks on a UPS and hedge power cuts too. Last but not the least, we can put a full stop to ‘Cylinder vedithu ilam penn maranam’ sort of headlines in Dhina thandhi.

One condition though, we have to ensure such stoves are available even for those without valid ration cards.

Idea #5

Time and again, our governments will hear cries from the industry on the need to build better roads. Our politicans will launch project with great fan fares. New slogans will surface for e.g ‘Eversilver Parallelogram’
(idhukunne room pottu yosipangalo?? okay, vajpayee admirers forgive me, this is just for fun).

The problem will start when it comes to land acquisitions for those projects. One assertive citizen will approach the court, and one judicious judge will issue a temporary injunction. Govindaa Govinda!!

There are cases which run for 50 years. In the meanwhile, our population will continue to grow exponentially, our cities will witness 1000 new vehicle registrations a day and we, the citizens of India, will put up with all this and continue our lives.

The Indian Railways is one of the biggest of holders in the whole of India. What’s more, their land tracts connects cities and states effortlessly. For the uninformed, the railway tracks we cross during our commute are confirmed railway property, no RAC or waiting list business there.

My thinking is, instead of acquiring new land and get into a landmine of problems, why not get into an understanding (aka revenue sharing agreement in case of BOT models) with the railways and build roads in their property? Ofcourse, the railways will have plans for expansion of their railway lines. But we can always build roads in some elevated structure without hampering the expansion plans of the railways.

And anyway, if the railways are reluctuant to share land for infrastructure development, it does not make much sense to ask one individual to give away his only property for govt. guideline values.

I am thinking out loud here - probably some other person has articulated this before. But from whatever little I heard, the emphasis has been more on building hotels, developing real estate and laying optical fibre cables in railway lands but never on buidling roads.

Ofcourse this will not solve the traffic jam in Kathipara junction tomorrow. It will still take 90 minutes to come from Tambaram to Guindy duing peak hours. But yeah, we can avoid new instances of Kathipara like experiences in future.

Brickbats welcome!

Idea #4 - start a ‘Keep The Change’ foundation and fund projects of social importance.

Idea Courtesy : Babu Prakash (My manager)

I go to a Lifestyle store and buy a shirt for say Rs. 599. Practically it will mean 600 bucks for me since I consider that one rupee as a change.

What if i am given an option, to give away that one rupee to an account called ‘Keep the change’ a/c?

I should have this option when i pay all my billls - from my petrol bill in Shell to the bill in Rathna cafe.
For starters, let’s restrict the amount to under one rupee for each transaction.

We should get into a tie-up with all leading banks and credit card networks so that people can transfer to their KTC a/c as part of their transactions. That is, if i pay Rs. 399.95 for my BATA chappal through my credit card, the showroom guy can take only Rs.399.95 and the remaining 5 paisa should go to the credit of Ktc a/c. The credit card statement should reflect the same.

In quick time, there will be “hajaaaaar money” (in my manager’s parlance) to deal with. People will be donating without ever realizing they are doing some charity. What’s more, it’s an everyday affair since we eat out or buy stuff all throughout the year.

Now coming to the administering part, the KTC a/c will be administered by a trust headed by people of known integrity aka Abdul Kalam or NRN or people they trust.

The funds in the KTC a/c will be utilised for non-profit projects or projects of immense social significance like:

group insurance scheme for the old age in a chosen region,
social security schemes for the old age,
drinking water provision in a town or village,
building a school in a village etc.
any other project the trust feels important to take India to the next level.

The Trust will take the final decision on what projects to fund and who will supervise it.

Now, as a contributor, I should know how much money goes into the account every single day and every single minute.
We should have a portal which tracks the donations and disbursements by the fund on a real time. Something not very different from the ticker in Google Mail Login page which indicates the space available.

Essentially, the contributors should know how much money the trust holds and what projects the trust has taken up and what are in the pipeline. In short complete transparency is the keyword. I dont want to go into writing the bye-laws of the trust at this level, so I stop here.

Does this make sense?

Idea #3 - Display the professional driver’s name in the car, bus or truck

Official record pecks the number of fatal accidents in Velachery - Tambaram main road alone at 156 so far this year. That roughly averages to 5 fatal accidents per week. And we still have 4 more months to go. I am just quoting this particular road not because I live here, but because I could get the stats easily for this one. I think the story is the same for every arterial road in India.

Rash driving by cars and heavy vehicles is the primary cause for a majority of fatal accidents in India. This is not to say two-wheeler riders are an obedient lot. But they are at the receiving end for their mistakes on road. And thankfully their vehicles are not powerful enough to fatally knock down a cyclist or a pedestrian.

All said and done, it’s the professional car and heavy vehicle drivers who are playing their Yama role to perfection in Indian roads.

So what is the way out?

My argument is simple – if the vehicle is driven by a professional driver, display the driver’s name in a prominent place in the vehicle – be it a cab or truck or MTC bus. I don’t have any particular preference for the format, as long as it’s a standard one and readable without entering the vehicle. But it should be prominently displayed, preferably on the windshield.

Many people might be tempted to conclude that displaying the name facilitates easy arrest when the driver commits an accident. NO! Arrest is a legal enforcement after a mishap has happened. That’s not a smart way to prevent mishaps in the first place.

Professional drivers drive not because they want to, but because they are ordered to. And that reduces the pleasure factor in driving. Indian road conditions are anything but pleasure anyway. Driving vehicles which are not their own gives them a sense of anonymity and abandon, and they eventually utilize this to vent out their frustration. The consequences are there for all to see.

So why display a name?
Displaying a name is a very powerful positive reinforcement and inhibits violating the rules. It reduces the anonymity and enhances the responsibility factor. I realized this in my job. When I write a document, realizing that my name will be there as the author of the doc. in the first page for all to see increases my responsibility 10 fold towards what I write.

Why name?
Every individual – rich or poor, has a name. Everyone wants their name to stand for something positive. I am yet to find a person who would like to associate his name with anything negative or unpleasant. It also means it’s not ‘some MTC driver’ or some lorry driver but specifically Mr. Moideen or Mr. Michael or Mr. Madhavan, who will get bouquets and brickbats for their driving. Recognition is a powerful positive reinforcement for conformance.

Does this mean we will have no accidents at all?
Accidents will always happen, but I would expect less numbers. And anything less than 5 fatal accidents per week in Velachery –Tambaram road is something to cheer about.

Idea #2: Ask an amateur photographer to shoot a wedding.

No, the idea is not to entrust the job to an amateur completely. Professionals are needed to record that some X had indeed attended the wedding
But its the amateurs who come up with sometimes horrible, sometimes good but always hard to ignore snaps.
Like this….

I did some cropping but i guess the image was worth cropping in the first place.

Idea #1: How about a talk-time exchange?

Have you ever wondered how your prepaid card could lose all its balance just as your are dying to make that one critical phone call in your mobile?
And you would be far off from the potti kadai which sells prepaid cards of your mobile operator.

I think the solution should be as simple as when you ask your buddy
(”Machi oru 100 Rs. Talk time credit kai maatha anuppu da.. nalaiku thiruppi tharen”).

That’s it. All your buddy needs to do is SMS his mobile operator, and ask them to transfer 100Rs. talk time to your phone no. He immediately gets a confirmation call or SMS and he authenticates/confirms the deal. Kaam katham
Of course the operator takes a cut and if there are two operators involved, both take a cut. It’s business. after all..
We can limit the transfer to 100 Rs. maximum per transfer and test run this.

Who wins?
You win because you are able to make that critical phone call.
Your buddy wins because he need not feel his talk time will expire unused unless he starts his kadalai session with his girlfriend (adhuku dhaan office phone irukkey!!).

Next time onwards, he can boldly go for a higher talk time value card sans fear of losing it by the expiry date.

The operator does not lose anything either. He deducts the talk-time of X and credits Y for and takes a cut for every such transfer. What the heck, people need not keep staring at the phone nor give missed calls and can make calls instead, which means better end user experience etc etc. Soon enough, someone will let his talk time be auctioned in eBay if its worthwhile.

From the angles I see, its WIN WIN WIN. Any takers, arguments??

PS: content within paranthesis is tamil, if you don’t get it, forget it