Two Highways in Kerala

For anybody traveling out of Thiruvananathapuram by road, there are essentially two choices - the national highway (NH-47) or the Main Central (MC) Road. Both run through the length of Kerala with the NH mostly hugging the coastline and lagoons, while the MC is a roller-coaster snaking through the central hills and valleys.

Yesterday we had to make a round trip to Chertala (literally "Swamp Head"), around 180km from Tvm. For the onward journey we drove down the NH and returned in the evening using the MC. It was a journey that provided a glimpse into the patchwork of intentions that marks infra development in Kerala.

The National Highways are built and owned by the central government, with its management being outsourced to the state. In Kerala it follows the minimum national standards so we have a two-lane configuration all through. The poor quality of construction and maintenance is apparent in many places - potholes, loose gravel and traffic jams. The MC road, on the other hand, is now a strange animal - something of a cross between an autobahn and a bullock-cart track.

The stretch from Changanaserry to Pantalam is the bullock-cart patch, with the traffic crawling at snailpace through narrow, broken roads and single-lane bridges. Then, suddenly, as you approach Pandalam, you have stretches that are so perfect that it is difficult to believe that you are on the same highway! The two-lane highway now comes with clearly demarcated shoulders, lanes and crossings. The stretch is so good that you now have the time to take in the lush green hills and paddies dotting the countryside.

Strangely, there is no sign of any further effort to make the MC Road consistently better.  The complete absence of road construction equipment along the way makes you wonder what brought about this patchwork quilt where excellence and mediocrity sit side by side.


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LINKS:

World Bank Project & Operations (2009): India: Kerala State Transport Project; URL - http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?Type=Overview&theSitePK=40941&pagePK=64283627&menuPK=64282134&piPK=64290415&Projectid=P072539

Status Report: India - Kerala State Transport Project : P072539 - Implementation Status Results Report : Sequence 21; URL - http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=0000A8056_2011012510353917

Kumar, Sanjeev V (2006): Kerala State transport project second phase to be launched next month, The Hindu BusinessLine 20 Jan 2006; URL - http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2006/01/20/stories/2006012002272100.htm

Rescuing a Snake

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Q: How does one rescue a trapped, tangled snake?
A: With a lot of trepidation!



Yesterday morning, our domestic help, Ramani, was fretting about a big snake that she'd found trapped on a neighbor's fish-tank netting. She said it was just a matter of time before the crows descended on it. My curiosity aroused, I tagged along with a camera in hand, hoping to get some frames before it was too late.

Attempting a rescue was something that never crossed my mind - until I saw this magnificent creature twisting helplessly. About five feet long and yellow-brown in color, it was lying entangled on a nylon net, atop  a rusty, metal grill. Ramani expressed her sympathies from a safe distance, along with the house-owner, a middle-aged lady  who kept saying this was a "pambu" not a "sarpa" (a hooded cobra), hinting that there was no sin in ending its misery by just killing it.

Luckily my enthusiastic  nephew, Appu, turned up and volunteered to run and get the necessary things to attempt a rescue: a pair of scissors and some sticks. While waiting for him to return, the snake too seemed to sense that we meant no harm. She stopped twisting wildly  and moved her head below the metal grill, flicking her forked tongue close to the water surface. By the time the equipment arrived, the chances of getting bitten during the operation had diminished and we set to work.



The snake remained absolutely motionless as we slowly snipped at the nylon wires. The outer ones were easy to cut but the ones closer to the scales were difficult to reach. These wires had cut deep into the skin squeezing out white tissue and blood. The snake remained absolutely still while the scissor blades dug through the scales to reach the wires.As soon as the tightest wires were snipped, the snake sprang up, sending us both jumping backwards!

Finally, after slithering out of the nets, it rested for a couple of minutes outside the tank, savoring freedom, before slithering out of the gates, into the undergrowth.

The crows were, no doubt, upset about being deprived of a feast but I just cannot stop wondering: how did the snake figure that we meant no harm?

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Note:
Last week I had sighted another snake - and a dozen snake-eggs - while clearing some backyard rubble. It looked like a krait so I had called up Vava Suresh, who is apparently the preeminent volunteer-snake-catcher in Thiruvananthapuram (contact - +91-9387974441). A tall man with a restless mien, he was dressed in black shoes, formal trousers and a full-sleeve shirt, and looked  as though he had rushed out of an office meeting. One look at my specimens and he pronounced that the eggs belonged to a rat-snake. My "banded krait" was demoted to the rank of a wolf-snake - a danger only to lizards!

Between Authors

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I didn't know there was a connection between Haruki Murakami and Raymond Carver!

In her essay, "Unfaithful Reader" (The Hindu, Literary Review, 7 Aug., 2011), Anuradha Roy describes linkages between various authors. Murakami, after reading one story by Carver, swore that he would translate everything Carver had written, into Japanese. He kept his promise and then went on to publish his own first novel after Carver's death in 1988.

This is the sort of essay that sends your fingers shuffling through library book-shelves :)

Additions to my list of must-read's --

• Atomised (Michel Houellebecq)
• Remembrances of Things Past (Proust)
• The Cherry Orchard (Chekov)
• Travels with Herodotus / Out of Sheer Rage (Geoff Dyer)
• Kitchen Confidential (Anthony Bourdain)

"Privately Smart, Publicly Stupid"

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Prof. V. Ramanathan tries Game Theory to explain the propensity of Indians towards obnoxious behavior.

TED, Bangalore (March 2010)


Twelve severe aspects of "Indian-ness":

1. Low trustworthiness
2. Privately smart, publicly dumb
3. Fatalistic outlook - "what can I alone do?"...and the converse, "everybody is doing it, why shouldn't I?"
4. Too intelligent for our own good
5. Abysmal sense of public hygiene
6. Lack of self-regulation and a sense of fairness
7. Reluctance to penalize wrong conduct in others
8. Mistake talk for action
9. Deep rooted corruption and a flair for free-riding
10. Inability to implement or follow systems ("we will create systems but fail to implement it for any length of time")
11. Our sense of self-worth is massaged only if we have the authority to break rules
12. Propensity to look for loopholes

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LINKS:
V. Raghunathan's Website: http://www.vraghunathan.com/

SMEs: Mittelstand and Chuken Kigyo

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An interesting article in the Economist drew my attention back to Small & Medium Enterprises and to the combination of factors that makes them world class players in Germany and Japan, but not in India.

The article titled GERMANY'S MITTELSTAND - BEATING CHINA (Economist 5 Aug 2011) takes the example of KSB Pumps to describe the unique industrial ecosystem in in Germany where  universities work hand-in-glove with manufacturers; of suppliers clustering around big manufacturers and of owner-managers' rubbing shoulders with workers.

In Japan, such companies are called chuken kigyo (strong, medium-sized firms), and they serve more than 70% of the worldwide market in at least 30 technology sectors worth more than $1 billion apiece. Their niche areas are mostly at the high-end of electronics, engineering and materials-science.

Israel, Taiwan and South Korea have also managed to replicate similar models for SMEs.

What prevents Indian SMEs from building a similar reputation for world-class quality?
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REFERENCES / LINKS:

GERMANY'S MITTELSTAND - BEATING CHINA (Economist 5 Aug 2011) URL - http://www.economist.com/node/21524922

Venohr (2010): "The power of uncommon common sense management principles - The secret recipe of German Mittelstand companies - Lessons for large and small companies", 2nd Global Drucker Forum Vienna 2010, URL - http://www.druckersociety.at/repository/2010/day01/15%2730-17%2700/Venohr_101118_PPT_Beamerversion.pdf

God's Own Garbage

In Thiruvananthapuram, there is a new way of disposing household garbage - it is called "toss and scoot". 

Even in the most affluent areas, one can now witness something, which until recently, was rare in Kerala : the unedifying sight of citizens rolling down windows of their air-conditioned cars, to toss out plastic packets full of garbage on to public sidewalks or any blind corner deemed to be "no man's land".

A good example of this practice can be seen on the road going down from the upmarket PTP Nagar to Maruthankuzhi. Also known as Pipeline Road, this is one of the few straight roads in the city, gently sloping down the hill with a Forest Department plantation on one side and the Army cantonment property on the other. It is a lovely, green stretch.  However, a hundred meter's down this road, just beyond a board welcoming you to PTP Nagar, piles of garbage adorn both sides of the road. And just when you're wondering how so much garbage had come to occupy such a large area, a car speeds by, a window rolls down and yet another garbage projectile hits the ground, scattering its contents down the slope. Domestic servants and morning walkers toss in their packets at a more leisurely pace, much to the delight of crows and stray dogs.

The same pattern is repeated in most parts of the city - except in the areas surrounding the Raj Bhavan and Kowdiar. In the narrow lanes of Vazhutacaud, Elipode and Pettah, where you cannot hide behind the anonymity of a faceless, speedy car, the garbage packets are surreptitiously dropped in blind corners or empty plots. In Vattioorkavu  one spot has packets piled right under a Residents Welfare Association (RWA) board pleading in Malayalam - "For God's sake, please don't drop your garbage here!".

In keeping with Wilson & Kelling’s “Broken Window Theory”, a single garbage packet, lying unattended for a couple of days attract many more such packets, and soon, a pile builds up. Some get tossed into open drains and rivulets, increasing the chances of flooding during the monsoons.

Why is it that the allegedly 'most educated people', in the most literate state in the country, are so indifferent and callous to public hygiene? Is it merely a failure of the civic administration or is these pointer's to a deeper societal problem?

The civic administration does have a scheme in place, under the Kudumbasree program. Each of the eighty-six wards under the city corporation has a team of women who set about early in the morning, going from house-to-house collecting garbage. Each household is supposed to hand over segregated the garbage to the workers, who pack them into crates for further processing at their facility at Vilappilsala, 16 km East of the city.

This is, of course, the plan. In practice, the Kudumbasree workers regularly face householders who grudge them even the token monthly charge of Rs.40. Since most of the packets they receive are un-segregated, they go about using their bare hands to pull out kitchen & food waste from piles that invariably contain razor blades, rusty cans, broken bulbs and glass shards. An exasperated worker at Elipode says, "We keep requesting the people to give us segregated garbage, but nobody listens!"

The situation at Vilappilsala processing centre is often the subject of controversies. The plant was commissioned in 1999-2000 and is presently being run by a quasi-government agency - the Centre for Environment & Development. Spread across an area of 43 acres, the Vilappisala facility has the capacity to convert 200 tonnes of biodegradable garbage per day using aerobic reactors as well as mechanical composting. The choice of technology has raised a stink and, in response to vociferous protests from residents in surrounding areas, the government is restricting the inflow to just 100 tonnes per day - half its built capacity. 

According to a paper presented by Edward and Kumar (2009 CET Trivandrum), the problem of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal in Trivandrum city is typical of the problem faced by all states in India. Lack of financial resources, institutional weaknesses, improper choice of technology and public apathy towards MSW has made this service far from satisfactory. Two years ago, the city produced an average of 145 tonnes of garbage per day and now, there just not enough land available for conventional landfills and processing plants.

Given the precarious finances of the Kerala state government, it may be unrealistic to expect quick-fix, high-tech solutions. What can be addressed incrementally are the institutional weaknesses, but, ultimately, the crux of the problem rests on one single issue: public apathy. 

Perhaps the only cure to this ailment is a sustained, carefully crafted campaign involving  households, RWA's, schools as well as entrepreneurs’ involved in the waste-recycling business. In consultation with the RWA's, each area should have clearly demarcated points for garbage disposal, provided, if necessary with wire-mesh enclosures or nets that blocks free access to scavenging birds and animals.  

Chennai city produces 3500 tonnes of garbage and, after years of experimenting, seems to have come up with an effective solution that involves private enterprise, RWA’s and the municipality. This model may have some lessons to offer to the people of Thiruvananthapuram.

There is no point procrastinating here. The problem is only going to get worse as the population increases. Until careful planning is backed by concerted action, households - even in the most affluent areas - will continue to toss their garbage out of their cars, or delegate this unpleasant task to their domestic servants.

The Trivandrum Corporation, in consultation with the RWA’s, needs to get proactive on this issue. As of now the corporation website provides only a "White Paper" on the subject, with no information or guidelines on what is to be done with domestic waste, including the tricky issue of disposing non-biodegradable waste - especially the more hazardous items like hospital waste, battery-cells, electronic goods, glassware, fluorescent tube lights and bulbs.

Until this happens, the capital city of God's Own Country will continue be the abode of ironies : a city named after the richest temple in the country, home to Technoparks, high-tech hospitals, satellite & rocket scientists, but one that is incapable of coming up with a creative, effective way of managing its own household garbage.

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REFERENCES:

• Edward, Sunil and Kumar, Vijitha V (2009): Assessment of the Solid Waste Management of Trivandrum City, College of Engineering (CET) Trivandrum, 10th National Conference on Technological Trends (NCTT09) 6-7 Nov 2009
• Trivandrum Corporation Website: Solid Waste Management, URL - http://www.corporationoftrivandrum.org/solid-waste-management-0
• Special Correspondent (2011): Source-level garbage disposal drive begins tomorrow, The Hindu Wednesday, Feb 09, 2011 http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/09/stories/2011020961740300.htm
• Bhattacharya, Saptarshi (2005): Chennai as a Model for Garbage Disposal, The Hindu, 11 Jul 2005, URL - http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/11/stories/2005071108650100.htm

Heat-pads that Click

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A kitschy "Crafts Exhibition" in Thiruvananthapuram yielded something intriguing - an unusual heat-pad.

Packaged as green, viscous liquid in clear plastic pouches, each pouch has a coin-shaped piece of metal, which, at first glance, looks like something that got sealed-in by mistake. It is, in fact, the "switch". Click this with your fingers and a chemical reaction is triggered, rapidly turning the whole pack into a hot, crystalline colloid!

What is inside the packet? How does it work?

The salesmen had no idea. Their mandate was only to parrot a sales-pitch and to ensure that each packet got sold for no less than Rs.250 ("..or Rs.499 if you buy it from a drugstore").

So, once again, we have WWW to the rescue. According to one of the respondents at PistonHeads, the pouches contain Sodium Acetate Trihydrate:

Sodium acetate trihydrate crystals have a melting point of 58 °C. When they are heated to around 100 °C, and subsequently allowed to cool, the aqueous solution becomes supersaturated. This solution is capable of supercooling to room temperature without forming crystals. By clicking on a metal disc in the heating pad, a nucleation center is formed which causes the solution to crystallize into solid sodium acetate trihydrate again. The bond-forming process of crystallization is exothermic, hence heat is emitted.

The answer is presented in more detail (with a video) at HowStuffWorks. Sodium acetate is also called "hot ice" and is food additive, commonly used in "salt and vinegar" flavored chips.

The heat-pads make excellent gifts - especially for the elderly.

The Bayh-Dole Act

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In the popular "Open Page" section of the Hindu (24 Jul 2011), there was recently a piece by S. Vaidhyasubramaniam, titled, "IT IS TIME WE REWROTE INDIA'S RESEARCH STORY".

The article presented various ratios and numbers to show how poorly India compares with the rest of the world in terms of research productivity. Nothing new here...but what caught my interest was a glowing reference to a legislation in USA - the  Bayh-Dole Act of 1980.

This single Act is said to have "unlocked" lab research in US, by permitting public-funded projects in universities and non-profit organizations to own patents to their inventions. As a result, university patents jumped from 200 in the pre-1980s to the 1600s in the 1990s.

The Act was the culmination of long drawn efforts, starting from 1968, by many non-profit organizations, led by the University of Wisconsin–Madison. They successfully lobbied for agencies (Health & Human Services & NSF) to enter into Institutional Patent Agreements (IPA), which, among other things, allowed universities and non-profits with approved patent policies to retain title to their inventions. The Act was finally passed in 1980.

According to the Economist, since 1980, American universities have witnessed a tenfold increase in the patents they generate, spun off more than 2,200 firms to exploit research done in their labs, created 260,000 jobs in the process, and now contribute $40 billion annually to the American economy. Some examples: MRI body scanning, the vaccine for hepatitis B, the atomic-force microscope and even the technique behind Google's search engine!

Wonder if there have been any efforts to come up with something similar in India...

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LINKS / REFERENCES

Vaidhyasubramaniam, S (2011): IT IS TIME WE REWROTE INDIA'S RESEARCH STORY; The Hindu 24 Jul 2011 - http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/article2288196.ece

Innovation's golden goose (The Economist, 12 Dec., 2002) - http://www.economist.com/node/1476653?Story_id=1476653

Intellectual property: Baying for blood or Doling out cash? (The Economist, 20 Dec., 2005) - http://www.economist.com/node/5327661?story_id=5327661&no_na_tran=1

The Law of Unintended Consequences (Fortune, 19 Sep 2005) - http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/09/19/8272884/index.htm

Patents for Software in India

The Indian Patent Office does not allow patenting of software-related inventions. Given the size of the Indian software industry, what is the opportunity cost of such a stance?

According to the Economist, WIPO data shows that between 2003-07, USA topped the list for business-software patent applications at around 33,000, followed by Japan (!) at 26,000, South Korea (12,000), Germany (4000) and China (3000).

The Indian IT software and services industry has been pitching for patenting of software embedded with hardware arguing it would help increase commercial value of domestically developed software and augment exports. The counter argument is software processes are just mathematical algorithms  that do not qualify as inventions.

Ironically, even those who favored the counter argument would have sent each other congratulatory messages using patent-fee-paid software...


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LINKS / REFERENCES:

• Economist (2011): INNOVATION IN JAPAN: SAMURAI GO SOFT, The Economist, 14 Jul 2011 - http://www.economist.com/node/18958643
• FE (2011): Software patents under Ordinance face reversal, Financial Express, 29 March 2005- http://www.financialexpress.com/news/software-patents-under-ordinance-face-reversal/82155/0
• Ruby - A Programmer's Best Friend - http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/

A Treasure

View Larger Map
Over the past few weeks, we have been having a refresher course on why M/s Ghauri, Ghori & Co., and other assorted medieval marauders, found the temple-raiding business in India, so very lucrative.

At the temple that gives the city of Thiruvananthapuram its name, a court-enforced inspection of a few underground vaults has revealed a booty that would have made the conquistadors drool. The value of this "treasure" uncovered and tabulated so far, is being put at US$ 27 billion!

The newspapers have been busy putting this amount in perspective, even while they wait for the main vault to be opened. $27 billion or Rs. 100,000 Crores is -   half of Kerala's GDP, the whole of India's national education budget; it is  more than the state budget of Delhi, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand; 50% more than the proposed Posco investment in Orissa and  almost same as Wipro's market capitalization.

In a state that is famous for its appalling financial mismanagement, it will be interesting to see how this discovery pans out. Will there be a new public museum? ( I hope so!)  Will all the stuff remain hidden under the temple?

I just hope not too many Keralites would be knocking the back doors of Christie's, with brown bag or two in hand.

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LINKS:

• Chakravarthy, Pradeep (2011): LET THE TEMPLES KEEP THEIR SECRETS, The Hindu, 17 Jul 2011
• Padmanabhan, Chitra (2011): ACROSS THE SILENCE OF THE CENTURIES, The Hindu Sunday Magazine, 17 Jul 2011
• Sarasa, Beena (2011): TALES THAT THE FABULOUS COLLECTION IN THE VAULTS TELL, The Hindu, 17 Jul 2011
  - Marthanda Verma: ascended throne in 1729; renovated the temple which had been damaged in the fire of 1686; 1741 - Captured Dutch commandant Eustachius D'Lannoy (later became C-in-C of T army);  in the Battle of Colachel by 1749, his territory extended from Kanyakumari to Kochi-border; On 5th Mararam ME 925 (1750), he became a vassal to Padmanabha
  - Earliest recorded donation by Parantaka Pandya after he vanquished the king of Kupakas (Venad) - 10 gold lamps and the revenue from Tayanallur for its upkeep
• Staff Reporter (2011): TELPE ASSETS BEST PRESERVED IN MUSEUM, The Hindu Sunday, 10 JUl 2011
  - Royal acquisitions by way of donations, fines and war booty
  - Temple dates back to 9c as one of the 13 Vaishnava shirines sung by the Alvars - expanded during the reign of Marthanda Verma (1729-58)
  - The Union Govt is the sole authority over any potential treasure of national heritage value - Indian Treasure-Trove Act 1878, Ancient Monuments Prservation Act 1904, 1958, Antiques & Art Treasures Act 1972, 1973
• Subramanian, T.S (2011): THE PROVENANCE OF THE TEMPLE TREASURE, The Hindu, 7 July 2011
• Padiyath, Sneha (2011): GOD'S OWN TREASURE - OF INDIANA JONES MOMENTS AND COBRA CURSES, The Hindu BusinessLine, 9 July 2011
• Narayanan, MGS (2011): God's Own Kingdom, Indian Express, 9 July 2011, URL - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/gods-own-kingdom/815016/

'Soft Arrogance'

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This is a new one - 'soft arrogance'. I came across this phrase for the first time in an interview given by Subroto Bagchi, founder and VC of Mindtree, and author of the book "Go Kiss The World".

According to Bagchi, “India is respected for two things. The IT industry told the world that Indians are smart, intelligent people. Two, the day India exploded a nuclear device, people in the world changed their perception. India right now has what I call soft arrogance. Arrogance is bad, but soft arrogance is important, but it cannot be on a weak plinth.”

What is “soft arrogance”?

“Soft arrogance is when you are expertise-led, when you have self-confidence, the belief that you have value — real value — to offer… no shortcuts, no workarounds. It comes when you believe in a cause, when you know that you can stand your ground.”

This makes sense. If the phrase "soft arrogance' had come from anybody other than Bagchi, it would have been dubbed as an oxymoron!

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 LINKS:

"India has Soft Arrogance" - Interview in theHindu Business Line with Rasheeda Bhagat - http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/columns/rasheeda-bhagat/article2208098.ece

Zen Garden: Subroto Bagchi's Blog in the Forbes Magazine - http://www.mindtree.com/subrotobagchi/zen-garden/

When Innovation Meets Red-Tape

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The Hindu reports that the National Innovation Council has appointed an Israeli consulting firm, Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT), to help create an "innovation road-map" for India, and to bring about a "culture of innovation" in the country.

The first thought that crossed my mind?  "Oh no! not again!". Yet another case of a street-smart Israeli company preparing the ground to sucker a few millions from Indian bureaucrats. Last time I saw this was in the early 1990's when a company called Netafim used Japanese government grant-aid funds to sell its drip-irrigation system to the Chandrababu Naidu government in Andhra Pradesh. It had been an impressive display of naivete, short-sightedness and lack of self-confidence by government officials, at the cost of Indian firms like Jain Irrigation Systems.

This news-item quotes a SIT Director - "In India there are 80 innovation centers but they don't have a good success rate.". This was not merely a polite understatement but a clear build up towards a very effective sales pitch. Why do Indian R&D centers have such a poor record in producing internationally competitive goods? Why is Israel so different?

Perhaps a part of the answer lies in the unique socio-economic environment that seems to be typical of smaller countries that continuously struggle to survive in a tough environment. Like Israel, countries like Japan, Singapore, Finland and Switzerland, depend heavily on international trade. But unlike the others, Israel has effectively leveraged military discipline & bonding into a potent economic tool.

Much has been written in recent years about the secretive dynamos that power the Israeli innovation-machine. Stacy Perman (2010) writes about the military unit-8200 whose alumni have created numerous ground-breaking innovations in the IT business. Dan Breznitz (2007) has written about state-led, rapid-innovation based industrial development in Israel.

SIT's own team is a fine example of the kind of human resources you need in your team before you even start talking about innovation. It states:

Helping organizations and individuals to innovate is not something they teach you in university. Which is why our SIT team members' backgrounds, interests, and skills are so diverse, ranging from electrical, mechanical, and food engineering to business, psychology, cultural studies, and music. Not to mention our collective expertise in Greco-Roman wrestling, guided imagery, shiatsu, backwards speaking and other useful skills.

It is a celebration of diversity way beyond the grimy corridors inhabited by government officials in India. The innovators thrive on thinking out of the box while most of our bureaucrats are incapable of thinking without one.

How on earth will these two worlds meet? How will the bureaucrats sitting in the Planning Commission communicate the pearls of wisdom they receive from SIT to the small & medium enterprises that actually need - but cannot afford - such services? Will the presence of the venerable Mr. Sam Pitroda make a difference to the effectiveness of NIC?

Like Netafim, I can already hear SIT laughing all the way to the bank...  :(

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REFERENCES & LINKS

• Wadke, Rahul (2011): 'INDIA NEEDS TO NURTURE A CULTURE OF INNOVATION', The Hindu BusinessLine, 28 June 2011
• Kerbs, Gill (2007): Technology - The Unit, Forbes.com, 2 Aug 2007. URL - http://www.forbes.com/2007/02/07/israel-military-unit-ventures-biz-cx_gk_0208israel.html
• McElroy, Damien (2010): Israel's unit 8200: cyber warfare, The Telegraph UK. URL - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8034882/Israels-unit-8200-cyber-warfare.html
• National Innovation Council, India. URL - http://www.innovationcouncil.gov.in/aboutus/aboutnic.php
• Perman, Stacy (2010): Spies Inc.: Business Innovation from Israel's Masters of Espionage, Kindle eBook
• Breznitz, Dan (2007): Innovation and the State - Political Choices and Strategies for Growth in Israel, Taiwan and Ireland, Kindle eBook

The Theatrics of Oil Price Hikes

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Yesterday, the Indian government has hiked the price of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas, and, predictably all the opposition parties, sensing public anger over rising inflation, have rushed in to demand a roll back. In response, the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas has put out large advertisements in the newspapers pleading for "public support in this difficult situation".

The advertisement, titled, "Was the Increase in Prices of Petroleum Products Avoidable?" , presents the following line of argument:

• India has to import 84% of its crude oil requirements and the international prices have gone up from US$75 (June 2010) to $ 110 per barrel.
• Government oil companies are losing Rs.122,000 Cr (US$ 27 billion) through subsidies, of which Rs.66,000 Cr would be lost for diesel alone this year
• Inflation is inevitable - if it were not from the price-rise, it would come from increase in fiscal deficit (higher subsidies)

What is not mentioned in the adverts is the fact that more than 50% of the retail fuel prices comes,  from taxes & duties imposed by the government. In 2008 itself, the retail price of petrol included 59% taxes, duties & commissions, and just 41% reflected the actual price of the fuel. The revenue from the sale of fuel is so important that for a number of small states, it is a critical source of budgetary revenue.

Also , it is not clear how the government is calculating the alleged loss of  $27 billion to its oil companies, given the secrecy surrounding their actual revenues from sale of petroleum by-products.

It would be interesting to know if the ongoing debate goes beyond the usual price-hike theatrics, and forces the government to come up with  numbers that  reveal more than they conceal!

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LINKS / REFERENCES

• Implement Parikh Committee report, says CARE (The Hindu February 6, 2010)
  http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article102226.ece 
• Ill Informed Debate on Oil De-control Act (SA Iyer, Economic Times)
  http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/columnists/swaminathan-s-a-aiyar/ill-informed-debate-on-oil-decontrol/articleshow/6108721.cms 
• How petrol price is calculated in India (11 June 2008) http://www.managementparadise.com/forums/articles/28356-how-petrol-price-calculated-india.html 
• Why do we pay so much for petrol? (Veeresh Malik, Rediff July 10, 2006) http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/jul/10price.htmv 
• Sethi, Surya P (2010): Analyzing the Parikh Committee Report on Pricing of Petroleum   (27th March 2010)     

Country Equivalents

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Interesting data comparisons from the Economist:



* Comparing INDIAN states and territories with countries

* Comparing CHINESE provinces with countries

* Comparing  the states in USA with countries

The Cashew Paradox

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In the world of globally traded nuts (cashew nut, Brazil nut, hazel nut, walnut, almond) cashew-nuts occupy a prominent place,  accounting for nearly 20% of total trade by weight. 

Originally from South America, global production of this commodity is now dominated by Vietnam, India, Brazil and a few West African countries.

India, despite being the largest processor & exporter of cashew nuts at 4.5 million cartons (nearly double that of Vietnam at 2.3 m), is a laggard when it comes to technical innovations that would define the business in the years to come. One of the most critical elements in the processing industry has traditionally been the highly skilled, labor-intensive task of shelling and peeling cashews.

With its numerous R&D centers aimed specifically at agro-processing industry, one would have expected to see cashew shelling & peeling machines to emerge from India. Instead, what we are seeing now is that the most cost-effective machines are being imported to India, not from one of the industrially advanced countries, but from Vietnam!

What is it about Vietnam that is making it a leading innovator, as well as a formidable competitor in the agri-commodities trade?

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LINKS / REFERENCES

• Cashew Processing Machine: http://vn.countrysearch.tradekey.com/cashew-peeling-machine.htm
• Si Chuan Co - http://www.scuic.com/cashew-shelling-machine.html?gclid=CJDt67asy6kCFcwa6wodNRBCLw
• Indian demand fuels African cashew trade (Kate Thomas,28 July, 2010, This is Africa) - http://www.thisisafricaonline.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/212/Indian_demand_fuels_African_cashew_trade.html 
• Cashew trade mellows on waning demand (G K Nair, HinduBL, 28 Apr., 2011) - http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/markets/commodities/article1818948.ece
• Food Museum - Cashew - http://www.foodmuseum.com/cashew.html
• Cashew Trade Overview - http://indiancashews.in/cashews
• Cashew Export Promotion Council India - http://www.cashewindia.org/
• CRN India - Commodities Trade - http://www.crnindia.com/commodity/cashew.html
• Africa Biz Online - http://businessafrica.net/africabiz/cashew.php

Sabarimala

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Yesterday, after a span of 28 years, I re-visited Sabarimala. You could call me biased but for a person who has seen the transformation of Vaishno Devi shrine (J&K, India) and hiked to the summit of Mt. Fuji (Japan), it was appaling to see a preeminent centre of pilgrimage in Kerala, tranformed into a mega industrial complex, sitting like a cancerous scab amidst lush tropical forests.


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It is tempting to see Sabarimala as a victim of its own celebrity status. The hill shrine now attracts over 40 million visitors (not all are pilgrims) every year from all across India, and contributes over Rs.50 Crores (US$ 11 million) to the Kerala state coffers in just one 'season' (Nov-Jan). Visits by politicians, film stars and tycoons gets prominent press coverage. This, in turn, encourages some of them to use try and redeem themselves with "donations" in exchange for public recognition. A liquor baron got the sanctum gold-plated for his name to be prominently displayed on the temple walls, another one is building a glass roof over the "18 Steps" for reasons that are no doubt, just as dubious.

Yet, for all the money that flows into the coffers, what stands out is the unbelievable scale of carelessness out there -- the ugliness of manmade structures, concrete pathways and crude sheds that seem to have been built to suit the whims and fancies of assorted, aesthetically challenged civil engineers; the lack of adequate toilets and washing facilities; poor signboards and the absence of guide-maps; loud speakers blaring out devotional-pop in multiple languages; the absence of general garbage bins and its logical consequence - pigs sauntering about in the open drains and slush.

At the heart of this industrial complex sits the "Sannidhanam", a sanctum sanctorum, which is a concrete maze teeming  with gilded barricades and conveyor belts. In the gaps between the buildings are open garbage dumps strewn with broken tube lights and plastic packets.  A special police force enforces "order" here, shouting and bullying the huddling masses into the farthest lanes while escorting the VIPs - politicians, businessmen and other assorted movers & shakers - into special enclosures from where they can have a tête-à-tête with the Lord and personally handover big currency notes to a battery of priests sitting inside the sanctum (what is the need for so many to cram into such a tiny space, one wonders).

In one of the side rooms, in a room marked "Thantri", a glum looking priest sits next to an empty, decorated chair. Pilgrims are supposed to drop their dakshina (money offerings) on the empty chair, and, in exchange, the gentleman will deign to drop on your hands a leaf containing some allegedly consecrated flowers and bhasmam (ashes). Like the president of a industrial conglomerate, he rakes in the biggest bucks with the slightest effort. Lower down the value chain, are the scores of sub-priests and administrators; and hundreds of security guards, coolies, hawkers and vendors...all thriving in an economy based on public piety.

Standing in the Sabari hills, it is difficult to believe that until just two generations ago this was a site that represented the ultimate coming-of-age journey for young boys. A dangerous trek of at least 50 km through forests infested with wild animals - a journey once undertaken after months of preparations has now been reduced to a farce by seekers of instant gratification.

In any other place, a site like this would have highlighted its finest cultural traditions. It would have encouraged pilgrim-volunteers to guide and help visitors, and to keep the hills neat and tidy; architects would have showcased the beauty of the forests by setting up viewing points along the swift-flowing Pamba river, and along pathways snaking through the hills.

If I were to ignore the scabs and pick out memorable images from this visit, it would start with a dip in the cool, swift waters of the Pamba; the invigorating climb through early morning mist in deep silence interspersed with bird calls and the chirping of insects; glimpses of a full moon at its brightest, surrounded by a halo and veiled every now and then by thick grey rainclouds. And then, while standing under one of those towering bombax trees along the pathway, as I crane my neck to see the canopy, large drops of water slowly drip down from the highest branches,  glinting in the morning light before exploding over my nose & eyes like tiny bomblets...bliss!  :)


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LINKS

• Sabarimala - Official Website - http://www.sabarimala.kerala.gov.in/
• Kerala Police @ Sabarimala - http://www.sabarimala.keralapolice.gov.in/
• Nair, N.J (2011): TDB (Travancore Devaswom Board) WANTS 20 NEW POSTS, The Hindu 6 Jun 2011

India-Japan CEPA

A few months ago at ADBI Tokyo, an interesting discussion had come up on the merits of bilateral trade agreements. The question was: do trade agreements between two government really have an impact on trade ? The answer was not too flattering for governments... apparently FTA's and CEPA's have only a marginal impact business and trade decisions in the Asian region.

It is nearly four months since a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement was signed between India and Japan (16 Feb., 2011). This was the second such agreement India signed with any developed country (Singapore was the first), and the outcome of five years of negotiations. It is expected to boost bilateral trade from the current level of $10.3 billion to $25 billion by 2014.

Is the India-Japan CEPA translating into an increase in trade between the two countries?

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LINKS:

* Ranjan, Prabhash (2011). INDO-JAPAN CEPA AND SOVEREIGNTY ISSUES. Financial Express, 31 March 2011
* Sharma, Anand (2011). INDIA-JAPAN SIGNS CEPA - TO GIVE IMPETUS TO TRADE AND INVESTMENTS. DARE, 17 Feb 2011
* FE Bureau (2011). INDIA-JAPAN CEPA TO BOOKST BILATRAL TRADE TO $25 BILLION. Financial Express, 17 Feb 2011
* India's Foreign Trade (Ministry of Commerce & Industry, India): February 2011,  March 2011,
* Official Press Release (MoCI): 16 Feb 2011 - http://commerce.nic.in/pressrelease/pressrelease_detail.asp?id=2732
* World Bank: India's Trade Policy - http://go.worldbank.org/RJEB2JGTC0

Starry, Cloudy Nights...

These days we have heavy rains interspersed with bright, burning sunshine. Tall cumulus clouds opening up into brilliant blue skies. At night, the same clarity now allows us to catch a glimpse of stars and constellations that would have been impossible to see a month earlier.

The problem with clarity, though, is that it brings up new questions! What, for instance, is that bright double star sitting next to Porrima in the Virgo constellation?

Traditionally, this season of heavy rains concides with the Malayalam month of "Edavam" (15 May - 14 June), which coincides with the Taurus sun-sign & constellation. While Taurus is aligned with the rising sun in the east, in this part of the world, it is Leo that is sitting right overhead, straddling the sun's elliptic path. So we start every evening with the brightest star on Leo - Regulus - and work backwards to the characteristic triangle Denebola & Zosma) that makes Leo's rear-side. Further north lies the Great Bear (Ursa Major) aka "Sapta Rishi" (7 great sages), with a double-star (Arundhati) marking the bend in its tail. And towards south is the Crux (Trishanku) hiding below the Centaurus.

Since Porrima's neighbor is not on the charts, it is, in all likelihood, a planet. Perhaps it is Saturn...or is it?

Protecting the Corrupt

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During the past few weeks, the UPA government has been making a grand display of its incompetence. Faced with mounting public anger over the issue of corruption and black-money it seems have really lost it. Here are some excepts from the press that reflect my own frustration and angst:

* Editorial, BusinessLine (2011). DO PEOPLE MATTER? The Hindu BusinessLine, 8 June 2011

- The main takeaway for the people is that this government will go to any lengths to protect the corrupt. The mistakes have been well chronicled but it is the ingenuous arguments that now stand out. One is that groups of well meaning citizens cannot be allowed to hijack legislative agenda; the other is that the RSS is behind the anti-corruption movement.
- The first argument - that citizens should not drive the legislative agenda - is intellectually identical to what colonial and Soviet style authoritarian governments tend to use: we know what's good for you... This is sheer effrontery.

- It is the Congress party that has created the National Advisory Committee (NAC), chaired by its President. If it is fine for the (unelected members of) NAC to recommend legislation, why is it not all right for Anna Hazare and Ramdev to do likewise? As Shekesphere said, it is surely a tangled web they weave when they seek to deceive.

* Raghavan, B.S (2011). WILL, NOT MAGIC WAND, IS NEEDED. OpEd The Hindu BusinessLine, 8 June 2011

- All we are getting...from Dr. Singh is alibis and excuses: His helplessness because of coalition compulsions, the imperative need to adhere to legal niceties, the inadvisability of second-guessing ongoing investigations and court proceedings, the inability to take action on allegations pending proof to the hilt; the difficulty in dealing with foreign governments in regard to black money.
- Dr. Singh bends over backwards not to hurt perpetrators of serious crimes but is so very quick in unleashing the Delhi police...on peacefully sleeping men, women and children who had come to join the fight against corruption and black money.

* Mehta, Bhanu Pratap (2011). SECOND TIME AS FARCE. Indian Express, 8 JUne 2011

- The UPA government continues to defy all norms of rationality, morality, commonsense and good judgement. These days it is difficult to make sense of what the government is thinking, if it is thinking at all. But on every measure, the midnight raid on Baba Ramdev and his supporters was an act of wilful perversity. The government may have thought its raid was a show of authority. Instead it made the state look like a set of thuggish weaklings: conducting raids on peaceful congregations in the middle of the night.
- The Congress started with cravenness, then descended to impunity. Then it made the mistake of treating citizens like idiots.
- First, no one claims responsibility for anything (“the party had nothing to do with it”)...Second, there is the consistent threat to use state power to intimidate opponents...Third, there is constant dissimulation. Ramdev is a legitimate interlocutor one minute, he is Satan the next...Fourth, there is the old RSS canard...Fifth, the Congress simply does not get it. Its core problem is a crisis of credibility.What is it about the Congress party that repeatedly produces an intellectual culture that turns intelligent people into self-destructive political animals? It has performed the miracle of turning a moment of great hope for India into a moment of political despair.

* Editorial (2011). THE UPA's POLITICAL BANKRUPTCY. The Hindu, 6 June 2011

- India's black & dirty money...has been analyzed powerfully in Nicholas Shaxson's book, Treasure Islands: Tax Havens and the Men Who Stole the World (The Bodley Head, London, 2011)
- Beleaguered by a multitude of corruption scandals dominated by the 2G-spectrum allocation, (the UPA) has earned the reputation of being the most corrupt dispensation independent India has seen.

* Varadarajan, Siddharth (2011). A WEAKNESS BORN OF BAD INTENT. The Hindu, 6 June 2011

- Corruption was an integral part of the "license-permit raj" of Nehruvian socialism. But it has grown into frightening proportions in our liberalized free market economy.
- The case of a Delhi Minister, Raj Kumar Chauhan, who sought to interfere with tax inspectors even as they conducted a raid at the premises of a private establishment. A complaint filed by a senior IAS officer, Jala Shrivastava...and indicted by Justice Sarin. But nothing was done by the UPA government...The protection afforded to the Delhi minister...shows the extent to which the "system" is programmed to circle its wagons at the first signs of trouble.

Laboring in Kerala: Changing Times

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Is it possible to quantify the economic cost of cultural norms or attitudes?

Take, for instance, the attitude towards physical work in Kerala, India. Even a casual visitor to the state would not fail to notice a strange phenomena: large swathes of fertile agricultural land lying fallow, while able-bodied men hang about in public places, idling, sipping sweet-tea and discussing politics.

At 9.4% (2007) Kerala has one of the highest official unemployment rates in the country and simultaneously suffers a serious shortage of skilled and unskilled labor. The state is the largest producer of rubber, spices and coconuts in the country, and yet, there are not enough farm hands.

This disconnect could have been logically explained if workers were being poorly paid and exploited by the landlords or industrialists; or if agriculture was grossly un-remunerative. The situation, in fact, is quite the opposite. The average daily wage here is the highest in the country at Rs.450/day (strictly 9AM-6PM); the state has the highest literacy rates, the highest health indices and the highest per-capita income in the country. Over the years, militant workers unions have also ensured that is is "normal" to have blatantly extortionist practices like "Nokku kooli" which has effectively shut out manufacturing industries from Kerala.

So here we have a state that has the capacity but not the will to make the best use of its human & natural resources - other than, of course, "softer" options like tourism and ITES services. This bring us to the most critical - but notoriously un-quantifiable - aspect of any society: attitudes and cultural norms.

Youngsters who are loath to be seen with a shovel in own farms gladly travel across the Arabian Sea to sweat out in the desert sun as construction workers. Kerala sends out over 2.5 million people to work overseas (91% in the Gulf region), and they, in turn, prop up the state's economy through their remittances (over 20% of gross state domestic product). Is it because find more dignity, self-respect and social mobility in toiling anonymously in foreign lands rather than subject themselves to hide bound social conventions and caste hierarchies back home?

And now we have an interesting new phenomenon building up: laborers and skilled workers from other states in India, and even neighboring countries are pouring in, to work in Kerala.  Workers from Nepal, Bihar, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, and the North East have now become fairly commonplace, even in the remotest corners of the state. By some estimates there are over half a million such migrant workers in Kerala now. As of now, they engage themselves in work that the locals just don't want to do:  quarrying, road-building, carpentry, construction and rubber-tapping. And much like the early Keralan workers to the Gulf, they are being exploited by local middle-men who routinely cheat them of their wages, sometimes handing out less than half of what a local worker would earn as minimum wages (Rs.450), which is still higher than what they would earn elsewhere in the country.

Will a flood of "domestic migration" to Kerala bring about a change in local attitudes towards work?

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NOTES:

• Kerala's Net State Domestic Product (NSDP) in 2003 was Rs.83,782 Cr (~ US$ 21 billion) of which remittances accounted for 22% (~ US$ 4.6b). This was 1.74 times the revenue of the state, 7 times of the transfers to the state from the central government and 1.8 times the annual expenditure of the Kerala Government. Remittances were also sufficient to wipe out 60% of the state's debt....15 times the export earnings of cashew and 18 times those from marine products (Rajan 2007)

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REFERENCES:

• Rajan, S. Irudaya & Zachariah, K.C (2007). The Migration-Development Nexus: Remittances and its impact of the Kerala Economy and Society. ISS, The Netherlands (31 Aug 2007). URL - www.iss.nl/content/download/8303/81035/.../Panel%202_Rajan.pdf
• Krishnakumar, M.K (2011). Perumbavurile Paradeshikal (Malayalam- The Outsiders in Perumbavur). Mathrubhumi, 5 June 2011
• Rediff.com (2009). Kerala Remittances Economy Under Threat. 2 Feb., 2009.  URL - http://www.rediff.com/money/2009/feb/02keralas-remittance-economy-under-threat.htm
• Special Correspondent (2011). COMPREHENSIVE LABOR POLICY SOON. The Hindu. 29 May 2011
• Staff Reporter (2011). Campaign to end 'Nokkukooli'. The Hindu, Kollam edition, 4 June 2011
• Current Minimum Wage Rate in India - http://www.paycheck.in/main/officialminimumwages
• Official Minimum Wages in Kerala - http://www.paycheck.in/main/officialminimumwages/kerala
• Mathew, A (1986). The Coconut Economy of Kerala. JSTOR - http://www.jstor.org/pss/3517251
• Philip, Shaju (2010). Kerala's Coconut Economy Takes a Hit. Financial Express, 10 Oct., 2010.